Hello Finals Week

Sarah, Stephanie, Mika, and I out Black Friday shopping.

Somehow, finals week is already here. In this past month, school has been crazy with all the final papers and end of the semester finals. It was great to be able to go home for Thanksgiving break and spend it with my family. And yes, I even went out to go Black Friday shopping at 11 PM Thanksgiving night with my friends from church. However, it was definitely our last year as it was freezing and we are well, getting old. (I normally try to be in bed between 11 and 12 pm!)

Morgan and Kate visiting Heidi and I
at Celebrate Christmas!

Somehow, I ended up celebrating my 21st birthday. I felt as if my birthday had just snuck up on me. I legitimately did not realize that it was my birthday until my friend reminded me a couple days beforehand. Normally I'm all about celebrating my birthday. I ended up being stuck in the car driving back from Northern California back to Los Angeles for 8 1/2 hours. Normally it takes me about 6 hours, but of course with the holiday traffic, it took much longer.

All last week, it was crazy with Celebrate Christmas rehearsals, but overall, the performances this past weekend were great! We had 3 concerts and although it was tiring, it's hard to believe that it was the last Celebrate Christmas concerts I would ever be a part of.  Celebrate Christmas is probably my favorite choir concerts of the year.  My family comes from out of town to hear us all perform and the production is something that you would not believe!

Before I close out this post, I just have to share 2 things! This weekend when my family was all in town we headed out to Little Tokyo in Los Angeles to go to the Japanese American National Museum where a couple of my relatives work. It was really cool going through the exhibits and hearing my own relatives talk about their experiences.  While we were in Little Tokyo, we were able to go walk through the little shops and we came across a Macaroon shop! Look how beautiful these are!

Via Instagram

Oh, and can we talk about how awesome this birthday cake my family got me?!

Via Instagram

Valentine's Day

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!!

Alright, I will admit that Valentine's Day can get pretty cheesy. However, I love that there are so many cute decorations, you can give valentine's to your friends, and there are lots of chocolates and flowers around.

I'm sure many of you have some of the same memories of Valentine's Day that I have.  One thing that I can remember, is my mom taking me to go get my Valentine's Day Cards for all of my classmates. And of course, the rule was you had to write one for everyone in your class. Then, on the day of Valentine's Day in class, we would decorate our little "Valentine's Mail Boxes" and have a party with heart shaped cookies and go around to deliver our cards.  

I know that I wrote about it last year, in another post called "Valentine's Day", so why not write about it again, just a year later, right?

The biggest thing in my mind about Valentine's Day, is the fact that this year marks the 20 years that I have been adopted!  20 years ago, although I don't remember it, my parents and I met for the very first time in an orphanage in Nanning, Guangxi, China.  Alongside them, was another couple from our "sister church" adopting my best friend Annie, and another lady adopting a girl named Molly. 

I honestly can't remember what my life would be like had I not been adopted.  So instead of calling Valentine's Day, Valentine's Day, my family calls it "Gotcha' Day".  Every year when I was growing up, on "Gotcha' Day", we would celebrate by going to dinner. It was honestly kind of strange for me during my first year of college on Valentine's Day, because I wasn't with my parents.  But I am so thankful for the family that God has placed me in and with where He has me now!

Just a few photos I found in my dad's office this past summer.

Keeping Busy

It's safe to say that I can tell that I've been very busy based on the way my desk, closet, and bed look. Normally, my bed looks fairly put together and I usually dont' have my laundry piling over and a pile of clothes on the floor of my closet.  I usually also have a spot for everything on my desk and I never have it overflowing where I find it hard to find things.  However, it has been quite a busy start to the semester.

For about the past month, I've been going down to Irvine every weekend to be with my family. Unfortunately my aunt is very sick, although she is getting better and stronger each and every single day! PRAISE GOD!

I can easily say that I've come to know the city of Irvine very well and I can easily find my way around there.  Yet, somehow I can't manage to get around San Jose, the city I grew up and lived my whole life until I left for college.

So, tomorrow after my Bel Canto concert, will be my focus/homework/cleaning/organizing afternoon! Hopefully there aren't too many people over at my apartment distracting me... But for reals. I really thought I was organized and I'm realizing that once I get busier, I forget how to be organized. I definitely need to work on that...

Also... is it lame that I've been in bed since before 11:30PM on a Saturday night?? I'm just exhausted and ready to get some sleep before getting up early in the morning...

Just Had to Share...

Okay, can I just please take a second to share a couple photos with you? How beautiful is my cousin? This was taken last Friday at a park in Tustin, California before she went off on to her school's Winter Formal dance.  It was so fun to just be there in the excitement taking photos for her.

Look how beautiful she is with her BCBG Runway Dress?!
The color looks great on her!

Of course I had to get a photo with her!

Finals Weekend

Alright, I know that I haven't written in a VERY long time, so I thought I'd take a break from studying and write a little.  It always seems as if the second you get back to school after Thanksgiving break, you go on auto-pilot.  Believe me, I loved being home for 4 nights, but at the same time, I was ready to get back to school so I could finish the semester and put it behind me.

My parents and I at my 20th Birthday Party!

Here's a little rundown of why my life has been crazy the past two weeks.
When I get back to school late on Sunday night after a wonderful few days at home, I had to hurry and finish my bibliography for a huge paper and submit it that night, before 11:59pm.  Luckily I had finished the paper a few days before it was due.  Even if that meant I worked on it for a few hours while at home.

That Monday began the craziness of "Celebrate Christmas".  My school's School of Music puts on this huge production with many of the ensembles and it runs for a whole weekend.  Well, we had crazy rehearsals starting Monday, and Wednesday and Thursday were the long ones, where we would be at the church where we were performing for 5-6 hours, both days.  Friday was the night of the first concert. We had a total of 3.
That concert my whole family was there.  They took up the first two rows in one of the front sections.  It made me so happy that my family had come out for it. Some had traveled about an hour (okay, maybe two with this LA traffic. And the rain.) and some had traveled six plus hours!  It was great to just spend that weekend with my family going to Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles. And if you haven't been there, you NEED to go.

My roommates & friends celebrating my birthday with me!
So blessed by them all!

The following day was my 20th BIRTHDAY! Weird, I know. I'm very young for my grade. Aside from wandering Downtown Pasadena while the Apple store worked on my computer, it was one of the best birthdays ever.  My parents treated my whole family, my roommates, and a few other friends to the Universal Hilton Buffet. I don't think I've eaten that much in such a long time. In fact, right now I wish I had that food in front of me.  It was a wonderful evening, having my friends and family surrounding me.





Of course, Sunday was a very long day, since we had two concerts and we were at the church from 12:30pm-8:30pm.  However, although it was a long time just sitting and performing, I did get the opportunity to talk with people I haven't talked to in a long time.

My awesome D-Group and I at
Celebrate Christmas rehearsal.

Well, after that crazy weekend, it began the final week of classes. And let me tell you, I am exhausted already.  Yesterday, I studied for 13 hours. With maybe a few occasional food breaks. I honestly am very ready for the semester to end and start a new semester.  I'm excited for new classes, and new schedule, and of course, new school supplies!  I love that it's like the beginning of the school year, without having to move into a new apartment or adjust to anything.  It's a new fresh start, and of course, by the end of the semester, we'll determine if it was a good semester or not.

Alright, enough procrastinating from me. Good luck to everyone else out there who is busy studying for finals! Let me know if you have any tips to surviving the week of finals... I need it!

Week Before Thanksgiving

The week before Thanksgiving always seem to be so crazy. It seems as if all the professors cram all our work into the last week and a half before Thanksgiving break.  Everyone I know barely gets any sleep, and they're living class to class, just trying to get everything done right on time.

As crazy as this last week and a half will be, I know that I will be so grateful when I get on my plane to fly home for Thanksgiving break.  I honestly will probably not be thinking about school at all while I'm home, even though I know that I really should because once we get back to school, it'll be non-stop go-go-go!

I do love the holiday season though. I love that the leaves are changing (barely!) and that it is much colder. I also love all the family time I get to have and of course, all of the good food. I'm pretty sure I will be in food coma for the rest of the semester starting with Thanksgiving dinner.

I think one thing I love about the holidays is giving gifts. I love making cute little things or finding that perfect thing (that I can afford) for my friends and family.  Although, it does take me a really long time to figure out what to give to people. I honestly spend a lot of my free time on Pinterest, and I just love finding cute gift ideas. Well, everything on Pinterest is really cute... It's probably the most addicting website I've ever found.  Facebook and Pinterest are the two websites that I am on the most.

So, I really need help here. I need good gift ideas. So if you have any ideas, PLEASE let me know!

Like Mother, Like Daughter

Something that I've come to realize the past year or so is that I am a lot like my mom.  I never thought that this could be true because growing up, I would always hate cleaning my room and planning things out.  I always thought that it was a little crazy to be 5-10+ minutes early for something.

However, being away at college, and more so now that I've been living in an apartment for over a year, I've come to realize that I am a lot like my mom.  I love the feeling after the apartment is nice and clean and clutter isn't all over the place.  I love when my space in the apartment (desk and bed) are clean and organized.  I love knowing that everything has a place.

If people know me, they know that I'm obsessed with having cute school supplies. I've always loved going to the office supply section of Target. I love bright colored pens and having cute notebooks and folders, and planners.  I've noticed that I am definitely more of a planner, more so than I already was.  I have now moved to having about 3 different calendars! I have my wall calendar, which has major events. I have my planner, as well as my calendar on my phone. I don't use the one on my phone as much though. Call me old fashioned, but I like things written out and printed out.  I found out about these planners called May Books and I just absolutely LOVE mine. They are customizable planners and they are also just super cute.

This is what my May Book looks like!

If you choose to get your own May Book, use this promo code "MONOFAB" and get your free monogram on it!

As Spring Break Comes to an End...

Easter Morning with my cousin.
I will admit that I am wearing heels.

Happy Easter everyone! I realize that it has been such a long time since I've updated my blog, but I figured that since this was my last night home for Spring Break, I would do a little update.  Scattered throughout this post are a couple pictures from today!

Aside from the fact that I had a wonderful weekend hanging out with my cousin, and having a wonderful Easter dinner with my family, this past Spring Break/Easter Break has just been crazy!  Well, more specifically the past month. I could barely believe that February flew by, let alone March. How is it that it is April already?! I am going to be done with my second year of college in less than a month. That is just unreal to me.  

Easter Dinner!

Anyway, here is a short little update of what I've been up to the past few weeks.  I have seen The Hunger Games Movie, not once, not twice, but THREE times. Yes, I know. Many people think I'm obsessed, but I promise I'm not.  I just so happened to see it with different groups of people. This Spring Break I was also able to have the chance to finish up The Hunger Games Trilogy and although many may say that they didn't enjoy the rest of the books, I thought they were all very good.  Some parts were more confusing than others, but it is a book that keeps one reading, which I really liked.

This past week I also went to go see the movie October Baby. Later on I will do an official post about this movie, but since it may not be out in theaters for much longer, I just want to say that if you haven't heard of the movie or haven't seen it, look it up and go see it. It has a great message and I personally related because it was a movie about adoption.  Below is the movie trailer, so check it out!

Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day.  You either love it, or you hate it.  Usually when you hate it, it's because you don't have anyone special to share the day with.  When you love it, well, that's self explanatory.  You have someone to love and share it with.

Although those are the two most common reactions towards Valentine's Day, I for one have learned to have a different view towards this day.  On Valentine's Day, I always realize how blessed I am to have the life that I have today.  19 years ago today, my parents were in China to adopt me.  Had it not been for them, I do not know what my life would be like today.  Throughout the past 19 years, I have been blessed with so many opportunities and I was raised in a wonderful loving Christian home.  I have the most wonderful family ever and I have also created some wonderful friendships too.  

For me, Valentine's Day isn't a day to realize how lonely you are if you don't have a 'Valentine' or a day to be mushy and show that you love someone more on one day than I do on another day.  For me, today is a day that I look back and I say "Thank You" to God and to my parents for how they have blessed me so much and given me all that they can to make sure that I have the best opportunities in my life.  

So for those of you who may be single on this Valentine's Day, I challenge and encourage you to take a look at your life and realize how blessed you are to have a wonderful loving family and wonderful friends.  Just because you aren't 'In a Relationship' doesn't mean that you can't show that you love you friends and family.