08/17/25
We picked Claire up from visiting my parent's house and we all watched the new Superman movie before heading home! Mom and Dad picked up popcorn and snacks, which was really cute.
08/15/25
Been doing a Metalocalypse rewatch with J, since it's been years since we've seen the first couple of episodes. It's fun to point out the musical easter eggs that go over his head, like Nathan's nightmare of working at "Dimmu Burger" (a pun of the black metal band Dimmu Borgir). His favourite character is Skwisgaar, mine is Toki.
08/14/25
This was mine and J's "big day out". He drove us to Dallas so we could visit my favourite mall, NorthPark Center. I have been anxious to own a Hill House nap dress, as I absolutely adore the aesthetic. I knew from online that a good amount of their dresses have elasticized smocking, so I wanted to see if they ran true to size, or larger, before spending over $150 on a single dress. Thank goodness for having a local store, I was able to size down to a large in the Ellie style. As J put it, we doubt my bone structure will let me size further down from a large, so I'll be able to get a lot of wear out of the two beautiful dresses that we purchased.
NorthPark has a lot of modern art installations and... apparently turtles living in their fountains?! I had to make J stop immediately to admire the good babies.
From NorthPark, we went to Carrollton's K-Town to shop and snack. This is one of my absolute favourite places to visit in DFW, but we don't go often because it's quite the drive. We went to Teso Life, Daiso, Kinokuniya, got bingsu (빙수) at Wicked Snow, and visited H-Mart for some pantry staples. I also got an affogato with our shared bingsu and totally couldn't finish it, despite the deliciousness, haha. The shaved ice was massive! J for scale in the picture below.
I was so excited to try affogato; it's a scoop of ice cream or gelato with a shot of espresso poured over it. When I worked at Starbucks, ours was made with whipped cream, which is totally not it. The bingsu, which is a Korean shaved ice dessert made with sweetened condensed milk, was definitely for chocolate lovers.
08/13/25
Dad had the week off because he had a medical procedure that ended up getting rescheduled. Me and J went over to say hi to Mom and Dad and we tried the new Korean BBQ and hot pot restaurant that Mom really likes. Sorry Mom, nothing comes close to the hot pot place J and I dined at as newlyweds before we caught our plane back home. It was decent, though!
08/11/25
J and I ended up bailing on CL's birthday trip to Destin for multiple, personal reasons. I was slightly upset, so I cleaned the apartment top to bottom and placed an order for some band t-shirts.
08/07/25
Yearly physical for me and J. Doctor is happy with my weight loss progress, I was down 30lbs since my last appointment. I started my weight loss journey classified as stage two obese, with a 40 BMI. At this point, I am down to stage one obese (32 BMI) and am roughly 20 lbs away from the classification of overweight (28 BMI).
I was diagnosed with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease due to my obseity two years ago and now my enzyme counts read as normal!
08/06/25
J requested his medicine to get shipped to our apartment but instead, they ended up at his late mother's house. Neither of us understand exactly how that happened. At least SB and SA live there, instead of us having to ask a stranger about the medicine. We got to say hello to SB and her cute menagerie of pets.
08/02/25
Went out to Southlake with JL, CL, RB, Mom, and J. Me and JL got matching light pink Shep Shirts from Vineyard Vines at an incredible discount.
08/01/25
Had a DPS appointment to update my license with our new address and my married name. That's two major pieces of identification done, now for the fun part of updating all my cards, the bank, etc. Also, getting a damn passport!
07/31/25
Claire had her first vet appointment in her new home town. Poor baby was terrified on trip there and expelled her bladder all over her undercarriage, her carrier, my legs, and the car seat I was sitting in. My poor girl! :( We'll be lining her carrier with pee pads and bringing a towel in the future. I should have known better that after the scary fire alarm situation that she might react differently to being in her carrier; the lack of preparation is on me, not her for behaving like an animal.
The appointment was a new patient exam; we wanted to suss out the vet to make sure that the staff would be people we can entrust with Claire's well being. Everyone we interacted with were kind and the exam was thorough; they didn't charge us for her nail trim either. She's a very healthy four-year-old! Her teeth are in good condition, no heart murmurs, and her lungs are strong. She's 11lbs, which the vet was happy with. A good weight for her body composistion. Our tech even was the recipient of some slow blinks and was able to pet on her little head as well. Claire's a sweet girl.
They have an orange boy cat on staff named "Cheese", who was precious. He rubbed on my legs whilst J checked out and I got to give him a scritch on his little noggin.
07/29/25
Mom gave me her old Ninja blender over the weekend and I was so excited! I cleaned it up and had it ready to go for my first smoothie... and then, the red blinking light of death appeared. Woe. I ended up making the world's worst smoothie bowl with a hand mixer because I was not about to waste frozen fruit in this economy!
I ordered a replacement and had a laugh over the experience. Poor Mom was mortified but I told her that I appreciated the thought and that it's okay, stuff happens.
07/28/25
Got the first tub of Monster High dolls unpacked, back on their stands, and balancing on risers that I've built for them. Their temporary home is our dresser, but we plan on getting some bookshelves ASAP. I'll fix their hair better as I line them up in their more permanent home, but I'm happy that they're baaaaack.
We've got another tub of assorted loose dolls in a tub back at Mom's, along with a tub of dolls that are still in their boxes. I plan on unboxing the Creepover Party dolls, but keeping the special edition Howlidays ones in their packages. I'm not really a "pristine" collector--I like my stuff where I can see it!
07/27/25
Went out to eat with JL, CL, Mom, and J to our favourite Mongolian grill. They had built a Daiso + Threeppy combination store next door, apparently the first of its kind in Texas. I already loved Daiso, but Threeppy is even better! It focuses on home goods, which is kind of perfect for the couple who just moved to their own apartment, hehe.
I liked the message on the rug, even if it is a knock-off Diptyque design. We also got some cute scalloped white baskets for bathroom storage and a cermaic plate shaped like toast! Cute!~
07/24/25
We had our first fire alarm evacuation at effing 3:30am. Luckily, the complex is fine and no one was injured. We're not sure if it was a test of the system or if someone burned some food because it only affected building 1, the building we live in. We descended the stairs to the street with Claire in her carrier and the poor dear was terrified of the loudness of the fire trucks. She ended up bashing her body against the top of the carrier and popped open a velcro strap; we were able to quickly shove her little head back down and tightened the strap so she couldn't escape but that made my heart race. Luckily, she was fine after the whole ordeal blew over and didn't hide when we let her out of her carrier. She got a Sheba immediately.
JL and CL stopped by the apartment this evening to drop off a "Big Into Energy" Labubu for me and to say hi to Claire. They bought 5 of the little critters, all marked up from retail. I think she's lacutecute, but they're lacrazycrazy.
07/20/25
I love the little life J and I are building. I like to think that Claire does too!
07/18/25
Spent the day in Dallas, more specifically at the Galleria Mall. We found this super cute tapestry at Earthbound. The only other things we have hanging on the wall are a Hello Kitty kitchen conversion chart and a dry erase calendar, so we desperately need some more fun additions to break up all the white.
I also bought a pair of size 16 Lululemon cropped tights for the gym after trying them and a pair of 18s on. The last time I bought something from Lulu, it was in a size 20!
07/18/25
Popped into a super aesthetic boba shop after dinner, since it was close to the Target we were going to go shop at. They had a claw machine with lots of stuffed toys, including several Lafufu.
I would go back; they sell bingsu! (Korean shaved ice)
07/18/25
J replaced the stock shower head in the apartment for an adjustable one--such an upgrade! I no longer feel like the hard water is destroying my hair.
07/13/25
This is the first Lego piece I put together completely by myself! (I did not have Lego sets as a child.)
07/12/25
Managed to purchase a pair of Aerie bike shorts for $0.50 shipped, thanks to coupons and point vouchers. They're in a size XL, aka a size I haven't seen since I was in college. (2014!)
07/11/25
Hit the 220s today! Getting closer to weighing under 200lbs again, which I'm grateful for.
07/10/25
A polite young girl, no older than 10, got my attention at Tom Thumb to let me know that she liked my Labubu. This interaction was ridiciously adorable.
07/08/25
Got to see my childhood best friend DF for dinner! It was the first time we met her husband, FF, and their 4 beautiful children. J, Mom, JL, CL, their daughter DB, my younger brother RB all came too, so it was like a big family reunion. I've known DF since we were six; she'll always be a sister to me, even through the distance and time.
07/06/25
Watched K-Pop Demon Hunters with J. We're both more than a little obsessed with the soundtrack and Derpy Kitty.
"I broke into a million pieces, and I can't go back
But now I'm seeing all the beauty in the broken glass
The scars are part of me, darkness and harmony
My voice without the lies, this is what it sounds like"
07/04/25
Decided to celebrate family today, as the country we live in is deplorable. Mom made burgers, Dad made his special baked beans. He always eyeballs the ingredients, but I need to get him to write down his recipe so I can preserve it for the future.
My 2005 Vibe hit 100,000 miles; what's wild is that 50k of those are pretty much from the last 5 years.
J and I walked around the mall and he won me a new stuffie from Round 1.
06/30/25
We brought Claire home to the apartment today. J and I made the difficult decision to leave Samara with my parents, as she's 15 and does very poorly with change. As much as I love being with my Mara-Mara, her health and happiness is what matters the most. Mom takes great care of her and we get to see her every weekend, so that helps soften things.
As for Claire: she's only 4 and is adaptable; she's happy to have all the attention on her.
06/26/25
Whoops, I joined the cult of Labubu.
06/24/25
I bought jeans at a physical, non plus sized retailer for the first time since 2019. It felt surreal to go into a fitting room and actually have something fit on my body. I still have a habit of holding my breath, terrified that the largest size at a store is going to be too small on me.
06/15/25
Happy birthday to Mom AND Happy Father's Day! J and I got up early and went to Shipley's to pick up donuts and kolaches for breakfast. We had went to Lowes on Friday to get Dad's gift and Barnes and Noble on Saturday for Mom's gift. They were both very happy, which in turn made me happy. Yay!
I always like coming home because I get to lavish attention on the animals.
06/07/25
Spent the day in Meridian, TX, aka "the country". I'm a city girl through and through, but CL's late father owned property out there and loved his life in Hill Country. Me and J helped CL and JL sort through EL's belongings and made decent progress. CL is looking to sell the house and land, as it's too far removed from the lives they've built in North Texas.
I thought it was sweet that EL posted baskets on the corners of his porch to help reenforce nests for the local bird population. There were 3 babies in this nest!
06/06/25
Working our way through boxes of our belongings and building flat pack furniture. The cute vintage Avon salt and pepper shakers are dated 1992; Mom found them in a thrift store in Alaska and bought them for my future abode. (BTW, being born in 1988, I cringed a bit typing that sentence.) J and I went to Target for some essentials and stumbled upon the Razer Kuromi collection. I am not the biggest fan of Razer products, they're solidly mid, but I love Kuromi... heh.
06/04/25
J's Mom's 1st birthday since her passing. We met up with his older sister, SB, and her fiance SA for dinner at Red Lobster because their Mom loved it so much. It was nice getting to catch up. SB is super excited about our positive life changes and they've done a lot of renovation on their Mom's house.
06/02/25
My very first breakfast in our first apartment; Mom's homemade banana bread. She also gifted me the Stanley as a housewarming gift.
05/08-11/25
J and I went on vacation with JL and CL. It was JL's 45th birthday on the 8th, so she wanted to go to one of her happy places, Galveston! CL rented a cute little condo room that was across the street from a part of the Seawall. (Seawall Boulevard is 10 miles long; it's the big tourist trap area where all the vacationers stay.) It rained a good part of that weekend, but it made the weather much more tolerable because Texan summers are brutally hot. We ate brunch at Miller's Seawall Grill, had yummy dinners at Salsas and Mario's, drove to Houston to check out the Galleria Mall (I got a lobster charm from Pandora to commemorate the trip!), and got to enjoy some time at the beach with a snocone that an enterprising man with a cart sold to J.
04/21/25
Went to the soft opening of a claw arcade after J got home from work. He won me a Kuromi and My Melody plushie! We plan to return for the official opening celebration; I want to use their photo booth! We had to stop into Target to access the pharmacy, so we picked up a couple of fun things, like 30% off Easter candy. We also finally found a small air purifer for the office. I was lucky enough to not get dupes of the Monster High Potions "Best Boos Forever" blind box vinyl dolls. I'm only missing the Spectra / Twyla duo from that set now, so I'll probably look on eBay for a reseller vs. trying my luck to get them.
04/20/25
Easter was low-key this year; it was fun watching The Tournament of Champions on Food Network as we ate dinner with The Fam
04/19/25
Went out to brunch with J and JL at a local spot. I had a lox bagel and one of the best cappuccinos of my life. The Fam is planning on BBQing for Easter tomorrow, so J and I tagged along to Costco with the group because we wanted to find an air purifer. The ones in stock were much too large for our space, but I found a cute polo-style Nautica sundress with tiered ruffles. I've been on a dress kick as of late, they're kind of the perfect summer outfit!
