Friday, October 24, 2014

Unplugged

If I seem noticeably absent from social media lately, it's not by choice (per se). It's been about 3 weeks since I made this deal with Tj. Give him my perfectly good 5S iPhone while I take his dinosaur of a flip phone. Tj's 4S recently broke so he had to get a flip phone temporarily. The deal was I could take his upgrade (the iPhone 6 plus) if I gave him my phone and took his flip phone until mine arrived. I thought to myself, sure no big deal, my friend Sheontee got her 6 plus in 3 weeks tops, which is deceiving because she pre ordered. The website says 4-6 weeks for processing, not including shipment. Now I find myself regretting this decision. It has been a real challenge dealing with this phone that we not too long ago all used and thought they were the ish might I add. 


I had to revert back to the stone age once before when my iPhone was stolen while living in Houston. I waited 3 weeks for the new iPhone to come out and being "unplugged" wasn't as awful as I remembered. But this time around seems much harder and I know it's all Noelle's fault. Yes I am blaming my 8 month old baby. 

I am big on sharing photos of Noelle to my parents and the rest of our family because we aren't home and she is growing so fast. Now, I can't keep up with the supply and demand. I use my big camera to take pictures of her but it's just not as easy as swiping your finger up to get to your camera. And this is awful timing because she is doing the MOST. Crawling, waving, clapping and two teeth coming in at the top. She's just so freaking cute and I hate not taking pictures or videos of her as often as possible.

I thought for sure that I would miss my social media but I really don't. I mean, I do miss catching up with my friends but I miss texting and sending them pictures especially. I have a group text with my friends Joanne, Erica and Zonovia. We swap pics of our babes and new Momma stories, I miss it. Our close friends De and Somaiya are expecting their first child any day now and not being able to text and reach out as often as I like is hard. I do understand that I can call and I do actually call my friends but being in a different time zone with a three hour time difference can be tricky. I apologize to those of you who have been texting me and haven't received a response at all or in a timely manner. Some texts just aren't coming through and honestly if I can't respond in three words or less, it's just not happening. Ain't nobody got time for that. I'd much rather talk although holding this flip is ridiculous, I'll do it for you. Oh and how could I forget the emoji's. I LOVE emoji's and I am probably an offender of over usage but I really love them. I'm very animated and use lots of facial expressions when I talk and emoji's help me express myself (sad face emoji here).

How did we ever go to new places without maps on our phones? I can't believe we map quested before leaving the house. And if you didn't have a printer, having to write down all the directions just seems like entirely too much work. 

And if I see this Apple commercial ONE MORE TIME that says "the new iPhones are here", I'm gonna throw this prehistoric mobile phone at the TV. LIES, where is mine? The iPhone 7 is gonna be out before I get this freaking phone. 

Whew, that was a lot of complaining. 
*Disclaimer : Please understand this post is for fun and I realize people are going through much worse than having a flip phone.  NOW, let me tell you what has been so great about these three weeks. 

Enjoying my life in the moment. I've been described as a paparazzi more than a couple of times in my day. It's so important for me to document memories. But it takes time to share them online and while I'm looking down focusing on my witty caption, I'm busy missing what's happening in front of me. I have talked to my friends way more than usual. We keep in touch through text a lot, but talking to them is so refreshing. I have FaceTimed my parents more in the past three weeks than I ever have before and they get to see Noelle live and in action. 

When you have social media on your phone, you feel the constant need to check it. I don't know if I'm alone in this but when it's there I feel like I have to be checking it multiple times throughout the day so I don't feel left out. As much as I love keeping up with you fine people, not having you in my back pocket has been really nice. I hope that I will carry this same attitude once my phone gets here. Ok let's be for real for a sec, because I will be blowing up your timelines once I get that bad boy in my hands. But after a week or so I hope I am able to regularly unplug. While we were in Carpinteria this past weekend, I was really able to enjoy it. If I had my iPhone I would have been posting to my instagram and checking my Facebook instead of being in the moment.  

I know the pro list is short but it's all I got, oooo and my new case arrived!

Monday, October 20, 2014

A Weekend In Carpinteria

This weekend Tj and I met up with our friends Rory and Noelle, who we first met in Costa Rica while on vacation for our one year anniversary. They live just south of San Fran and whenever we are in California we try our best to see them. The last time was a couple years ago while we were living in Los Angeles. This time would prove to be much different than our wine tasting days as married people with no kids. We decided to meet in the middle. The guys found the place, Carpinteria. A small beach town right outside of Santa Barbara. The apartment was AMAZING and the perfect location. We took the Amtrak and the apartment was two blocks from the train tracks. 

Thursday, October 9, 2014

A Foodie's Weekend Dream

This past weekend Tj and I had experienced lots of different foods, thought I'd share cause you know #SavageLife

I tried Better Buzz for the first time, a coffee place that I heard about through my coworkers. I got an iced "best drink ever" and it was quite tasty. I never drink iced coffee and surprisingly I liked it. 
 Tj is obsessed with Kati Thai, a restaurant in San Diego that we knew very well before moving here. I had the pineapple fried rice!!
On Saturday we went on a Bite Tour through La Jolla. It was an especially hot day for San Diego so walking to each restaurant was not ideal. The food on our first stop wasn't great.
 Now this apple pancake at Richard Walker's Pancake House was pretty amazing 
 And someone really enjoyed gnawing on the bacon


Loved the chicken caesar crepe on the left



The last stop was Olive Oil tasting which I never knew was a thing
We heard about the San Diego Night Market from a guy on our Bite Tour, so we figured what the heck

 It was Asian night

 ONE DOLLAR lashes, and I only got 3 pair. What is wrong with me?


 LUMPIA!!!!!
 All of the lines were insane, including the one for this lemonade I had never tried

 It was worth it
 Tj's Saigon fries 



What a yummy weekend :)

Monday, October 6, 2014

Elle's 8 Month Update


She's got such great posture :) Size 2 diapers, 3-6 months clothing

Sunday, October 5, 2014

Family Photo Shoot


 On our recent trip home we had the opportunity to shoot with our favorite photographer Briana Lugo and here are the amazing results. I love her so!!!








Headband by JandGhandmade on Etsy.com




Now if you've been reading my blog back before I had Noelle you may remember my baby shower when my mother surprised me with stuff that I had NO clue she kept. Included in those things was the red dress she's holding up in this picture below. This picture has been framed and in my parents house forever. She presented me with this picture, an empty frame and the dress. I was 7 months in the picture. And because God's timing is perfect we were able to go home while Noelle was 7 months and recreate this photo. 














Saturday, October 4, 2014

We Host A Johnson Family Vacation

There was so much anticipation for the Johnson's to get here!!! Tj's sister Londa and her kids were so excited for their visit. Especially the kids because they hadn't yet met Noelle. This would be their mom's fourth time seeing her and they were well over due. They live in Houston and while doing the travel nursing the first time around we got to spend 3 months in their city and were so fortunate to see them very often, at least once a week. Myles is 12 and Madison and Morgan will be 11 in December. With Tj and I being the babies of both our families Noelle has lots of awesome older cousins. 

Myles is a big gamer and has a great sense of humor. Madison and Morgan are big music lovers and the lyric QUEENS!! When I say they know ALL of the words to every song on the radio, I am not exaggerating. I love them so much and it is always so much fun being around them and their mom. 


The San Diego Zoo was #1 on their list




 Noelle was unimpressed by all the monkey business

 Twin love
 A little footsie wootsie










After the zoo 'In N Out' was a must

On Saturday Tj took Londa and the kids to LA for the day while Noelle and I hung back at home

That night Tj and I collected payment on our fee for visiting us, a night out while our guests babysat



It was a short trip but we enjoyed every moment with them