our simple bed in our simple room.

it’s been a few weeks since we have our new memory foam mattress and platform bed set up. i have to say i LOVE it!! it’s definitely different from regular mattresses and my body took a few days to get use to the bed. however, since we’ve had it, i have not experience ANY back pain! that in itself is a miracle.

the thing is, with all of my pregnancies, i have back pain constantly. i’ll wake up feeling like i’m 80 years old. i still feel like that sometimes (cause of the sciatica) but no back pains. it’s made a huge difference. james have also been commenting on how much he loves it too!

it wasn’t a bad purchase afterall!

diaper stash organizer

and just because i couldn’t resist posting , we bought this storage shelf from costco for $29.97 to store baby’s diapers. it’s so much sturdier than i expected and so easy to install. no screws needed plus plenty of storage space. still have empty spaces at the bottom.

i thought i was going to get pass one pregnancy without experiencing a charlie horse! i was successful this far too. just 2 more months to go…

but alas!! just after midnight, i was asleep and started stretching. all of a sudden, i like a charlie horse coming and i tried to stop it, by arching my toes up. don’t ask me why or how, but sometimes that helps me. anyway, it didn’t work and i was caught in the grasp of my lower right leg in extreme pain. i woke james up to help message my calf but it was so sore and so painful i couldn’t help but turn and toss and whimpered. gosh, how horrible was that.

after what seemed like a long time, i thought it had finally stopped. i moved just a bit and bam! it started again and this time, i was sorta yelling because it was killing me!! yes, it was that bad. i said frantically to james, “arch my toes! arch my toes!” because i couldn’t do it. he message my foot and calf and arched my toes right away. it helped that time and my charlie horse actually stopped. tears were coming out of the corners of my eyes from being squeezed shut so hard and i had broke out in a sweat.

i don’t want to go through it again…it’s too much. i told james i would rather go through labor. *sigh* my nurse had told me at one point that charlie horse is a result of not having enough calcium. she said the prenatal vitamins does not have enough of a dosage. it’s funny too, that this past week was the week i didn’t eat any oranges or drink any o.j. no matter what, this morning, i promptly went to costco and bought a jar of calcium supplement.

ya-hoo!! it sure feels good. james and i declutter most of the day today and my back is really reminding me of all the bendings i’d done. also, i realized we’re not even close to being done. why didn’t anyone warn me? j/k.

i love the feeling though – of getting things neat and organized. hahahaha it sure makes one feel good.

let’s see, i boxed up all the books to go to the library – we have a few bags of clothes and toys to go to the thrift store and a few bags of baby clothes for my 1 year old niece. and that’s only going through jaelynn’s clothes – i still have faith, james and mine to sort through.

we also have about 2-3 bags of just things to throw away – wow!!

i boxed up all my dvd’s – a box of just classic and current chinese movies and a box of american movies and work out dvd’s. i have some random dvds and vhs that i’m going to see if my brother wants to keep otherwise they may be donated or throw away. i can’t stand to look at some of the dubbed movies – they are just horrible – luckily i don’t buy anymore. *shudders*

if i’m not too aching tomorrow after work, i told james i’ll continue cleaning up. ^^

i’ll be adding some frugal and simple living blogs and sites, so watch for them. i signed up for a trial to nicole’s savings advantage. it costs $1.95 for the 30 day trial and you get a $25 target gift card. not bad eh? just remember to cancel. thanks to little people wealth.

i.seriously.need.to.declutter.

i don’t know about you but i always hold on to things – no matter how old because i’m afraid i may need them. clothes, toys, books, itty bitty stuff, furniture, junk,  you name it.

it’s spring and i need to declutter – like really bad. to start off, i reserved a bunch of decluttering and simplying books at the library. *sigh* i feel very overwhelmed…i can’t wait to read them for tips and ideas on how to tackle all this.

i got a new toy!! it’s a canon selphy cp770 compact photo printer! this is the one that comes with a bucket for your accessories. i also love the yellow color. it’s really cute and very small!

i wanted one but was going to settle on its other model, the cp760. however, i was browsing ebay (yea yea) and saw this one for buy it now for $49.99 plus $4.99 shipping, brand new. i couldn’t resist and so here it is now. i used my $25 gift card from amazon and got the 108IN photo paper and ink for $3.51 after GC.

i was also able to find a super great deal on their 108-count photo papers & ink at radioshack, on clearance for $13.77!! it’s normally $29.99. so my prints are about $.14 a print. i got 4 packs…woohoo!! you can tell i’m really excited!

since i’ve used up all my free credits at snapfish (and i love their prints!!), i’m hunting for another reasonably priced and good quality photo printer service – either online or brick and mortar.

i know there’s shutterfly and winkflash and of course, walgreens, target, walmart, etc. i’ve tried most but not all.

a few days ago, i uploaded some of my photos to costco to see how the prints would turn out. when my order was submitted, i saw that auto-correction was “on”. i promptly called the store and told them i want the auto-correction “off”. the lady at the photo center told me that they turn off all auto-corrections unless a customer specifically called and say they want it on. i repeatedly said to her, “then you’re going to turn it off even though it’ll come across as on?” “yes, m’am” was what i got. i asked if there was any way i could turn it off myself online before i submit in my order and she said “no”.

the next day, i went and picked up my photos and looked at most of them. they were okay. i got them in the “lustre” finished. i walked out into the light and took another look at the photos and some of them look a little dark. again, they were okay but i wasn’t really impress and wouldn’t use them again. i love costco for a lot of things but it looks like photo printing will not be one of it. it could definitely just be the auto-correction but if there isn’t any way for me to turn it off, i wouldn’t print through them.

i do remember an incident about 4 years ago when i took some negatives to costco for enlargements. they were photos that my family had taken at a photo studio and they gave us the negatives. i love those studios btw. about 1/3rd of those enlargements came out much much darker compared to the prints from the studio. i’m not sure why. i didn’t think to take them back then.

walgreens was running a promotion of 20 free prints two days ago and i took advantage of that to try them out too. i picked up my prints yesterday (in a glossy finish) and were truly impressed! yea!! i think walgreens is now at the top of my list for a B&M photo service. the prints just look really good, much better than costco’s.

okay so now, tell me where you go to get yours printed?

this weekend, we took the girls to san francisco. we stayed at the marriott residence inn on oyster point blvd. it was very nice and refreshing as it wasn’t in a crowded part of the city. it was next to the highway and to a little lake. there were mostly businesses around it so it was very quiet. i actually read some bad reviews of the place but decided to give it a try anyway because they have supposedly been remodeled.

we used our free marriott nights that were expiring in march and was put in a 1 bedroom with a sofa sleeper and full kitchenette. worked out for us. plus all marriott residence inns offer free breakfast buffet in the morning. the best residence inn buffet so far was the marriott in anaheim where we stayed during our disneyland trip. there was PLENTY of food to go around and lotsa varieties. during our overnight stay in the sheraton in florida, their paid breakfast buffet couldn’t even begin to compare to the residence inn’s in anaheim. thankfully, we didn’t have to pay for the sheraton’s. that’s another long story so here are the photos:

here’s faith all ready for our aquarium of the bay trip. it was actually pouring that day.

jaelynn and faith inside the aquarium.

faith posing.

faith was waiting for her chance to touch the stingrays but they just wouldn’t swim our way. so jaelynn pointed at them and yelled “come over here” in her baby voice.

of course, then she got scared once they did swam over and thus, that expression.

faith wanted to touch everything. here james was helping her to reach the fish. otherwise, she’ll probably get to swim with them.

reaching the end of the tour, they sat down to do some activities. this one was counting the number of water drops onto the penny without spilling onto the side.

james with the girls.

jaelynn concentrating real hard. lol she just loves playing with water in general.

taking a walk outside the hotel before leaving on monday. overall, i would definitely stay here again.

we actually roamed around chinatown on saturday afternoon and then left because of the rain. i was going to take some photos but i forgot to charge my battery and so no photos.

one of the reasons i was looking foward to the trip was to eat some good chinese food. james bought some chow mein and chow fun in chinatown but they were really bland and just not good. we couldn’t finish them and toss out more than half. we stopped on saturday on our way back to the marriot at this restaurant on san bruno. i think it was called “wong hing restaurant” and they have food ready for take out.

it’s funny because i felt like i was in one of those stephen chow’s movies. love the atmosphere. i bought some bbq park, half a roast duck, and beef fried rice as a last thought. i got plenty of food for less than $20. so how was the food? let’s just say, they were so good we went back again the next day and got plenty to take home. we had them for a late lunch and again for dinner. and again today. instead of the bbq pork (since they were out) we got the beef spare ribs and they were even better. seriously. aaahh…good food and good times with family. can’t beat that.