Life Lately - Week 4

Happy Tuesday!

Here's what last week looked like:

 I started the new week eating dinner with my parents and my sisters. It's rare for the five of us to spend time together....so these little moments are so precious to me!

This was Jenna's FIRST burrito experience. She never ate a burrito in her whole life before this historical day. I had to document it!

I love cheesecake factory for the huge portions and huge jugs (literally) of water. My last meal with Alexis before her move to SD.... so sad! These avocado eggrolls were amazing!

It was really rainy last week so my sister in law and I decided to eat some ice cream. It was perfection!

Look at these crazy kids.

This past weekend we drove down to SD for our college group retreat. It was 

Eugene has been so busy these past few weeks but never fails to miss a date night. I'm seriously so thankful for my sweet husband! We were so excited to eat that I completely forgot to take a picture of the food before... but it was tasty :) P.S. please take note of my hot sauce smothered plate..

I love skies and trees.

I've caught a pretty nasty case of the flu early this week and it's been destroying me for the past few days. They say the best medicine for the flu is rest and hydration--- so hopefully I can knock this sucker out soon!

Let's have a joyful, thankful and victorious week anyway!

Cheers,

Sharon

Give thanks: our new furniture arrived(!!!), my sweet and sacrificial in-laws who have exemplified for us what it means to love with whole-hearted service,  time to rest and recover, strength to survive of shift at work even as a sicky nurse, Advil, warm blankets, hot tea, morning prayers.

Life Lately - Weeks 1, 2, 3 & Happy Anniversary to my blog!

Hello!

So I decided to try and keep up my "everyday life" type posts going for 2013. Hopefully this will give me an incentive to take more pictures and to document the many blessings we have in every day life. I'm a little behind, but better late than never! So here's what the last few weeks looked like:

I found this AWESOME little pot full of baby herbs at trader Joe's last week. It's actually one of my dreams to have a vegetable garden and I guess this isn't a bad way to start. I've researched how to best care of these little herbs (i.e. how much to water, direct/indirect sunlight, etc.)  Hopefully I can help these grow and use them in my recipes in the near future! Aren't they cute?

I also bought a pot of not-yet-sprouted tulips. I'm thinking of weather to plant the bulbs or just to pot the flowers once they grow. I guess we'll see. Pink tulips are my favorite :)

Another blessing of being in this new house is having a backyard again. I love just spending time alone outside in the middle of the day-- reading, praying, thinking and just enjoying the sunshine. 

A collection of fruits and vegetables that have accumulated on our kitchen counter.. thanks to my grandparents :) 

Eugene and I are trying to set a time every week to spend time together and to try different food places around this area. Last week, we went to SinBala which is one of Eugene's old time faves. Of course we had to try their boba too. It was pretty good! I love spending time with my husband :)

Our gas was shut off last week so we haven't been able to use our stove/oven yet. Most days when I'm home alone, I'll go out and try places for myself too. Most of the time, those places are pho places. So thankful for $5 pho in our neighborhood!

One night after work, I met up with my "E.A.T.S" small group from college. It's been 3 years since we've been together but we're as close as ever. I'm so thankful for the friendships God has helped us to maintain over the years and the many ways He's grown us in our respective lives. I'm also thankful that they love to eat. I introduced them to the awesomeness of Chaya in Costa Mesa.

I stayed in Irvine last week and was able to spend some time with my sister at Corner Bakery. It's always really sweet whenever we spend time together catching up! I miss being in Irvine and being able to spend time with her.

Eugene and I had a second date night last weekend because of our opposite schedules this upcoming week. With my work schedule and his school/work/clinicals schedule, we couldn't find even ONE chunk of time to eat a meal together. We made up for it by going to The Counter at 9:00pm after my bible study. I was really happy about my perfectly cooked fried egg. :)

It was my mother in law's birthday last weekend, so Heidi and I went shopping together. Of course we had to stop by for some boba and yogurt before we headed home. Heidi is seriously the sweetest, most servant hearted person ever. So thankful that she became my sister!

Had a great time at the wedding with my family! The wedding was beautiful and the food was amazing! I love 8-course chinese wedding food. So many different types of drinks.

Lobster was the last course of the meal. I don't know if you can tell, but Eugene and I enjoyed it quite a bit. teehee

Yesterday was actually the one year anniversary of this blog!

A lot of exciting things happened this past year! This blog has helped me document the different milestones I reached during my first year of marriage:

I learned the art of meal planning. 

I learned the value of the slow cooker. 

I learned the convenience of freezing things to avoid rushing around in the mornings. 

I became more familiar with my kitchen and tools for success!

I finally transitioned out of my night shift life and got a day shift position at work.

Eugene started pharmacy school and successfully survived his first semester!

We celebrated and praised God for our first year of marriage and I got my very own sewing machine.

It's been a sweet year, oh dear blog of mine.

Cheers to many more years of praising God's faithfulness and goodness through this blog!

Give Thanks - days off to rest at home, God's providence in our every day needs, venti iced coffees, desiringGod ministry and the millions of sermons they provide via their FREE iPhone app, a year of testifying of God's faithfulness and grace in our lives through this little ol' blog.

Greetings from Temple City!

We've been here for about a week now, and it's been great so far!

It's been pretty dang cold these days. Eugene and I wear thick socks all the time and we even wear gloves in the morning when we go outside to our cars. I don't know if we're just not good at accommodating to cold weather or if we're just super weak sauce. :)

 
 We ordered furniture a few days ago, and it's due to be here in a few weeks. Our unpacking has been put on hold for now, so we're just living out of boxes and duffel bags! Can't wait til we're all unpacked and settled in..
 


This area is definitely different from our safe haven home in Irvine. The roads are narrow and unfamiliar. No Korean grocery store or Costco nearby (or not one I've found yet!). It's really cold and icy in the mornings (We were spoiled in Irvine cause our parking lot was underground). It's gonna take some time to get used to everything-- but we're loving the change and experiencing a lot of new things! I do miss my 8 minute commute to work and my 5 minute commute to church, but there are so many things to be thankful for:

1) Eugene can drive home after class to eat lunch or take a nap or spend time with me! (He used to have to wait until 8:00pm or so to avoid the crazy LA traffic.)
2) We live in between both of our parents, so we're able to see them and spend time with them more often!
3) There are so many good Asian food places here! We ate a HUGE bowl of pho last week (it was a "supersize" bowl, which is the equiv of two large bowls) and it was only $7.95. That's the same price as a regular pho in Irvine.Woot woot!

4) We're living with Eugene's aunt who we usually don't get to spend a lot of time with, so we get to see her whenever she's home and it's really sweet!
5) We have a backyard, so my dream to plant a vegetable garden can come to fruition. Yay!
6) We live less than 5 minutes away from Starbucks (which is in the same shopping center that has a really good Pho restaurant. Is it obvious that my favorite food is Pho?)
7) Every time I drive to work, I have enough time to listen to TWO full-length sermons. It's really awesome and it's such an encouraging way to start and end my work days.
8) We live 5 minutes from trader Joes....which of course means, we're all gonna be okay. :)


Eugene and I are planning to go out for lunch once he gets back from class. We're hoping to go on a date every week so we can be intentional about spending time together, talking about how we're doing and praying for each other. Hopefully we can keep this up!

I got so hungry waiting for him that I just had a snack. Woops!

Have a happy Wednesday, everybody!

Give Thanks: God's grace in carrying us through every season, iPhone apps that make my commute ALOT easier, trader Joes, sunshine, our bedroom heater, sleeping in, quiet mornings

life lately, and happy (belated) new years!

sorry for the silence!

eugene's been on winter break for the past three weeks and it's been amazing! I took a hiatus from a few things (this blog included) in order to really spend alot of good quality time with my husband during his three weeks of freedom. more than anything we've spent alot of time at home, just lounging around, catching up on netflix, etc. it's been so wonderful!

school starts again for him on monday, so we've been busy trying to brace ourselves for that transition. winter break has provided time for eugene to recover and recharge after a pretty gruesome first semester, and has provided us both with a lot of time to discuss how we could be better prepared for the semesters to come.

i actually didn't talk alot of pictures during the past few weeks, so my last few weeks were documented via my iPhone, and more specifically through my instagram. (haha!) so here's what our lives looked like for the past few weeks.

here's eugene, just a few hours before his last final. hardcore status!

  one of the first ways we celebrated the beginning of winter break 

 our first time at earls and we were completely won over by this holiday sandwich. yowza!

 my first time trying spagetti squash! it was fun and really cool, but i didn't really like the taste of it. eugene ate ALL of it.

 

 we went to a Christmas party and of course we had to go in a costume!

  

i discovered another trader joe's treasure: trader joe's fresh pizza dough.

 i really like the garlic & herb kind. less than $3. perfect for a quick lunch!

i decided to make a caprese pizza with pepperonis.

 

 it was beyond perfection. :) and sooooooo easy.

 

home-made christmas waffles with extra fruit. yum!

 

 took a trip to SD and couldn't leave without these in our bellies!

 i made dduk gook (traditional korean rice cake soup) on new years eve after work. gotta keep the tradition going!

  

 went to portola coffee lab for the first time with janice. super hipster and fancy mochas. 

  

 ate some home-made fish tacos at home. honestly, costco has the best avocados ever!

btw- we watched this on our futon while we watched netflix. it was amazing!

 

 spent some time at my parent's house. watched movies. took naps. ate my mom's cooking.

still melts my heart thinking about it. i love my parents :)

  

 for the past two weeks, we've been cleaning up our fridge and pantry. no better way than to make pizza! spinach, olives, onions, mushrooms, chilies, jalapenos, pepperonis, etc. 

 

 went on a quadruple date last weekend. ate all you can eat sushi and watched les mis. here are the fellas (with a touch of bromance.)

  

 btw, we moved!

after much debate and discussion and lots of prayer-- we finally decided to move out of the OC to live closer to eugene's school. we actually moved all of our stuff in yesterday morning, and will start living there/sleeping there on sunday night. it's been a bittersweet week for the both of us. i'm definitely going to miss my 5 minute commute to church and 10 minute commute to work-- but i'm excited to see how this move will help eugene as he perseveres through his next 3.5 years of pharmacy school.  :) exciting adventures ahead, i'm sure!

hopefully we don't have to move too many times because packing/moving/unpacking is definitely not my favorite.

here's my entire kitchen packed in the corner of our apartment. i think i have more kitchen stuff than clothes/books/all my other possessions. haha!

 

 and here's a sneak peak of our new home. :) still under construction, obviously.

 

since the new years completely passed us by this year (eugene and I both worked through the holiday), this post is a little late. but i've made some resolutions for myself and i'm gonna use this blog to keep myself accountable! i've decided to keep it simple this year.

here are my resolutions for 2013:

• to run at least one 5K (this is reasonable, right?)
• learn how to use my juicer, and juice as much as possible
• learn at least five praise songs on the piano  

and a few monthly goals:

• post at least one recipe a month
• finish 12 craft-related projects (1 for each month)
• set one goal for every month and accomplish it! i think i might have to skip January..

cheers to the new year!

love,
the tsengs.

 

give thanks: another year to grow, another year to testify of the great God that You are and the amazing grace you've shown us in the gospel, a new year to persevere in this life, a new year to labor and toil to bring souls to Christ, time to spend with eugene, excitement for all that You have in store for us in 2013.