Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Birthday Weekend


Tomorrow is Halloween! Can't believe October is coming to an end. I guess time comes by fast when we get very occupied. Just this weekend, happenings were all over the place. It was super packed but it was fun, as always! These are the memories that are definitely going to my blog (:

Saturday, we had dinner with our friends at J. Alexander's Steak house to celebrate my birthday and Alan's as well. We also had karaoke after at Ai-tunes. We're thankful for our friends for making it memorable for us.



Sunday morning, I had my marathon relay run together with my friends in CFC. Actually, one of our friends was supposed to run but she can't do it so she had me as her back-up. I thought it would be challenging and I was right. Love challenges and adventures! Glad I was down for it. This run was different from my past races. It was different because we ran as a team. I knew someone was waiting for me so I had to work extra hard. Sometimes pressure is good when it pushes yourself to do things you thought you couldn't do. 




Right after the run, we rushed home to prepare for Alan's big 30 party. Big thanks to my family for helping me in preparing the food, decor, table set up, photobooth, and everything. One of my aunts suggested to do a costume party as it is Halloween weekend. Dressing up is always fun! This year, I just made my own costume. I got my inspiration from the viral Youtube video, Gangnam Style. It was the outfit of the girl in the subway. Then got my wig from a grocery store for $3. Alan was wearing his wedding suit and borrowed my lolo's bow tie. He was the lead guy, Psy. 








All the kids danced with us to beat of Oppa Gangnam Style! hahaha




Thank you to all my family for your presence and all the gifts as well. We love you!

For all the people whom we've met in the past, in the present and those who have been with us forever, we're so thankful to all of you. Know how we value so much our relationship more than anything else. 

Cheers!


xoxo,
Joselle



     

Thursday, October 25, 2012

A Blessed Birthday


Yesterday, I turned a year past my silver year. As always, I am glad that I was able to celebrate this special day with my family. Not only that, I'm even more happy because of the presence of my most loving husband.

Let me walk you through how my special day turned out. Early morning upon arriving at the office, these gifts welcomed me and they were from my sweetest co-workers!   


It has been a tradition to us ever since to offer mass on our birthday so at lunch break, I attended the Holy Eucharist with my hubby. I thanked God for the gift of fullness of life and for all the wonderful blessings he gave me. 


After work, we took everyone at home to a Korean restaurant to celebrate and eat some Korean BBQ! I don't really know why but I love love love korean bbq! It might not be a healthy choice but might as well enjoy them while I'm still young. hahaha. 







My hubby got me this cute and yummy chocolate cake from a Korean bakery. The reason why I love Korean cakes is because they're not too sweet so no guilt feeling after the indulgence. It's just perfect! 




Time to make a wish and blow the candles! 



Mr. & Mrs. Fernandez
Famlove <3
It was a very blessed and momentous day for me. I was touched as I got hundreds of overwhelming birthday greetings. As I posted on my FB last night:
Thank you everyone for all your birthday wishes! Feel greatly blessed and can't ask for anything more. God has been way generous to me on showering me with amazing people/relationships and at the end of the day, that is all that truly matters. Love you all! :)

As we grow older, we become more mature and we start to realize what's more important in life. According to the priest's sermon yesterday, each one of us should understand our priorities in life. In my case, choosing to put God above all else, I gained a lot of wisdom, peace, love, joy, serenity, and many more. If we all walk through our way of life with the Lord, all else will follow. Good life, job, friends, and most especially, family, all these will turn out well because of the wise choices we make. Our choices, our thinking, our heart will always want to please God in everything. We will become more loving and compassionate toward others and we will build great relationships with our family, friends, and all God's children. We will learn how to live simply, humbly and generously. Of course our lives won't always be as colorful as rainbows and butterflies. We will pass through hardships and we will make mistakes along the way but that's okay. Allow those to serve  important lessons in life, know that God allows second chances, and keep up the faith. I know that God works wonders! Thank you Lord for standing by me in my 26-year life journey and happily looking forward for more years to come! Thank you for allowing me to age gracefully :)

xoxo,
Joselle

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Our first baby pumpkin:FURnandez!


Last Saturday, our sweet friends invited us to carve pumpkins! Pumpkin lanterns are very famous here during Halloween season. They light them and put them in front of their door steps at night and I've seen some cool ones when I went with my little cousins for a treat or trick one Halloween night. Don't ask me the history of it though. Hahaha. Maybe someone can comment down below?

Anyway, Alan and I haven't tried this before so we thought we'd give it a try and maybe we can teach our future kids how to make them. I seriously thought it'd be hard but trust me it's easy!  Whether you have God given creativity or not, you can definitely nail this. 

Here's how:

First we went to a church to buy some pumpkins. Ping suggested it's better to buy them from a church cos the money will go to a good cause/fundraising. Better than buying them from Walmart right? :P So we went ahead and bought the $10 one.




Alan and Ping
Maria and I
We saw cute little kiddos having their picture taken in the pumpkin field with the scarecrow man. Hope they weren't scared. 


Now, time to work it!


Make a hole at the top of the pumpkin. Inside, you will find tons of gooey seeds and strings. Remove all that away so it'll be nice and clean. Don't throw away the top cos you'll need to put it back once you're all done.


Then choose whatever design you want and start carving. Since we're beginners, Ping bought us tools and it came along with a carving book! We chose this cat in a hat design (master level 3) and traced it in the pumpkin. I hope that wasn't considered cheating. LOL. That's why I'm telling y'all it's so easy :P


Finish product! Say hi to a new FURnandez (:


Ping and Maria's pumpkin: Mr. Owl


Thank you Ping and Maria for a very fun DIY pumpkin lantern! We had a great time!

xoxo,
Joselle

Monday, October 8, 2012

Fall Fest!

Fall is my most favorite season of all! Not too hot, not too cold either. I can just look for hours gazing at the orange-colored leaves falling from the trees. The changing of colors is eye captivating indeed. Oh how beautiful mother nature can be! God is really amazing for creating such masterpiece.

I love to run outside especially around this time. I love it when the fresh, cool breeze rushes through my face. It's a perfect time to get back on track! After my 10K Peachtree Road Race, I kind of laid low on running. I just run around the neighborhood and last summer here was burning hot as usual so I kind of slacked off. However, I'm just so happy summer's over and I am now embracing fall at it's best.

I got so curious when my dear cousin introduced me to the 5K Firefly Run. My goal is to run all sorts of races ATL has to offer (as long as I can) so when my cousin explained to me that this time, the race will be at night and runners have to wear glow sticks and led lights on, I pictured it in my mind and I thought it's pretty cool! So last Saturday, we did our first Firefly Run and it was spectacular!

Kristine, Krissy and Me!
See how everyone looks like fireflies from a far. Their lights were shining, shimmering, splendid!

We made it! Good job girls! (:
The next day, Sunday, my family and I had gone to a day trip and headed to a cute town not too far, Helen, GA. The town is best known for Oktoberfest! The village, the houses, the town were basically German inspired. It felt like we had gone to Munich! Hallo!







We had lunch by the river alongside a great view!


It's the first time I tried PUMPERNICKEL bread with...


German Cheese for appetizer!!! Yummo!


And for the main dish, we had KNOCKWURST and BAUERNWURST sausages with red cabbage and potatoes. So exquisite!!!


Drooling to these apples covered in decadent caramel and chocolate...


Look at how the chocolate is being traditionally made by the locals. Galing!


Next stop, Cabbage Patch Kids! Baby wonderland only in Georgia!!!


My mom and my aunties obviously can't wait for grandchildren :P

Momma Joselle (:
That was a super packed and exhilarating weekend! We're looking forward for more outdoor adventure! (:


By the way, two weeks ago, we went to an apple orchard at Ellijay, GA. We had a great time! 



TGIF! Thank God Its Fall (:

xoxo,
Joselle