Sandoogans' Log

On a job. It was great working with these girls. The holidays have officially passed. Well, kind of. We still have New Years and then the holidays will have passed. This December is a bit more special than the previous ones for me. I am officially a certified makeup artist! Feels pretty damn good to be able to do something I've loved since I was kid. I graduated on the 23rd of this month. I still remember the first day of school very clearly. I feel very fortunate to have had the opportunity to go to school. It was almost like a job. Monday through Friday 9-4. Due to the schedule I took a leave from work and Mr.Andrade was the one tackling on all the bills alone. As much as he said he didn't, I know he stressed. I felt terrible seeing him try to fake a smile from time to time when I knew he had a lot on his mind. I am eternally grateful to him for helping me make my dreams a reality. I make sure to tell him thank you all the time. I think he's actually getting an

I love this time of year! I have a small tradition where I will listen to nothing but Christmas carols. I figure I only get to enjoy them for a little under a month so why not? Here is one of my favorite. It's not your stereotypical Christmas carol but still awesome. Maybe it will become one of your favorite too. Enjoy.

I am grateful for my family. I am grateful for my friends. I am grateful for my health. I am grateful for all the blessings in my life. Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving week. I am blessed to say I did.

I can't believe its going to be almost a month since I last blogged. Kind of bums me out considering I enjoy doing it so much. True, sometimes I have no idea what to talk about so I just blog gibberish but at least I'm blogging. I guess since I started going to school I find myself busier than when I was at work. I guess due to homework and what not. I also tend to hang out at my mom's quite a bit. Either way I should attempt to at least enter one entry per week. I have talked about wanting to do makeup  in the past and well, I am finally doing it! I am currently going to school to become a certified makeup artist. I almost didn't go due to financial reasons. The master course I originally wanted to take was out of my budget. I looked around and everywhere else seemed to be more expensive. I almost gave up hope but decided to give it one more look. Voila! There it was, the professional course. It was within my budget and included almost everything the master cours

  I can't believe that its been almost a month since my trip to Guadalajara. It had been 9 years since my last visit. I can't believe I let so much time go by without taking a trip out there. My visit was super short this time around. Five days to be exact. I've never gone to Mexico for anything less than a month, but being this was a last minute trip, I was more than happy with whatever days I could get. Most of my family decided pretty much last minute (as it is accustomed in my family for some reason) that they were going to go Mexico. I literally mean last minute. The reason everyone wanted to go in October is because that's when the fiestas happen in my dad's pueblo, and the city. My parents decided they were leaving Thursday to Mexico and flew out Saturday. They would have left sooner but the was the next available flight. My uncles, aunts and cousins all did the same. I was no different. Mr.Andrade had been trying to convince me to go on th

A couple of weeks ago Mr. Andrade and I  ran the Long Beach Run Forrest Run 5k. We did great! I felt a little bad for him though. I knew he’d be tired since he hadn’t trained and had been working mad hours. All of that didn’t seem to stop him at all. Shortly after we started the race he passed me. We both had mini goals set for this 5k. We had decided this would be our last one. We plan on moving up as far as our racing goes. My goal for this race was simple. Run the entire 5k. I hadn’t trained as much as I would have liked this time around. I couldn’t seem to get a set routine going. Excuses I suppose. Sometimes they were, sometimes the reason were legit. Either way my goal would not and did not change. I was to run the entire 5k. My cousin Will and friend Sylvia also ran. Sylvia did the 5k with her son and my cousin ran the half marathon solo. He truly inspires me and never ceases to stop motivating me. He keeps pushing me to move forward with my running no matter how man

I've been trying to decide what to do for my birthday well, since my last birthday. I personally love my birthday. I think of it as my own personal holiday. I think I've mentioned this before. When I was younger I was way worse when it came to my birthday. My answering machine would have birthday songs, I would leave messages reminding people my birthday was coming up and I was never shy of telling people what I wanted for my birthday. Actually I'm still not shy about that. I'm more than happy to tell you what I want when asked and sometimes even when I'm not. For my upcoming birthday (my birthday is in February) I've decided I want to go to New Orleans. I've never been and have always wanted to go. I feel there is so much history to see and I just imagine it as an awesome place to party. I'm not sure if this is going to happen but I'm hoping it will. After all it is my birthday. I just have one question, who's coming with me?

The cowboy and my mommy dearest. My mommy dearest cracks me up sometimes. I'm not sure if I've mentioned this but, she can be very dramatic at times. My sister and I often refer to her as "Albert" a character from one of my favorite movies "The Birdcage". If you haven't seen it you must! For Sam's birthday we decided to make it a family day and take her to Disneyland. My mom was totally stoked being that she hadn't been in quite sometime and she was finally getting her Disney pass. We all have one except my dad, he's not big on the whole amusement park thing. Since Sam's actual birthday landed on a Thursday our Disneyland trip turned out to be perfect! No lines, no crowds and not too hot. For some reason that day most of the characters were out. Not that we were complaining. One of our faves is Woody. We all love Toy Story so it was very exciting to see the cowboy. I think he was on his way to a show because he seemed to be in a rush.

Newborn 1 year old 2 years old Wow! You are officially 2 years old. Time sure has gone by fast. Everyone warned me about it so I kind of expected it, what they didn't warn me about were the memories seeming like a distant dream. I still try to remember my thoughts and feelings of being a new mother and I can remember bits and pieces of it. I can remember how excited I was bringing you home. I couldn't wait to see you in your crib. You looked so tiny and cute. I just loved staring at you. I remember the little things but I wish I could remember every single moment I've had with you so far. I know you're going to grow up and obviously I expect it. I just don't want to forget my thoughts and feelings of each day and episode of your life. Your little quirks, funny faces and tantrums. I want to remember it all! Obviously that will be difficult but I will do my best to keep it in the memory banks. Happy birthday Samantha. You are my world. My everything. I l

Blogster My 100th blog. I'm actually quite proud of myself. I didn't think I'd keep up with it. I had made several attempts in the past to blog and never really followed through. I think the reason for that was because I was using the blog as a diary and was trying to keep it low key. I would open up about my personal feelings and even about people in my life. I would use different names just in case they ever found my blog. After awhile it was hard to keep up with who was who. I've actually had a lot of fun with this blog. I think that's the main reason I've kept up with it. I look forward to writing (or typing) my little stories. I remember when I first started blogging I would tell everyone "follow my blog!" and I'd give them my little blogger link. I was so excited about it. I still am but am not as eager to gain followers. I think I gave up on that not too long ago. I figure if they want to follow they will. I also have a habit of chec

One of my favorite pregnancy stories ( I don't have too many of those unfortunately) was when I was in my second trimester. I think it was my second. When I was pregnant with Sam I would listen to certain songs a lot. This was probably the main one. I would play it on my tummy, I would sing it in the shower, I would bump it in my car, just play it whenever I could. I wanted her to know this song. This was my song to my baby. This was my song to Sam. As I type this my eyes are already beginning to water. This song pretty much summed up my feelings for my little gal. It was a hot summer day and as usual, I hadn't slept all night. I had trouble sleeping and was grateful whenever I managed to catch a nap here and there. I was lying in bed feeling very relaxed. I could feel myself start to doze off and voila, Sam decides she wants to wake up and kick that crap out of me. I could feel her moving around like the hyper child that she is. I was not about to have it. I started hummin

Mr. Andrade waiting for his dinner. Enjoying the edamame. The "fresh" drink. Waiting for John Legend & Sade. The long awaited Sade concert (with special guest John Legend)  finally arrived! I had been waiting for this concert since last year and it finally came!! Mr.Andrade was even looking forward to this show and boy was it worth the wait! I remember us constantly saying August! Ultimate date night! I had arranged with my mom to babysit Sam for the evening. She's usually the designated sitter when Mr.Andrade and I have our date nights. We had made dinner reservations before the show at Katsuya. Neither of us had ever been there but had heard great things about it. Turned out to be true. Dinner was delish! We had some house drinks, I don't really remember what they were called I just remember the server saying they had a fresh taste. They did. We had edamame and miso soup for starters and sushi for dinner. We managed to squeeze in de

This by far is one of my all time favorite videos. I love, love, LOVE Pulp! I would have uploaded the video "Babies" but unfortunately I don't have that one and didn't feel like going through youtube. Chances are they'd have it but wouldn't allow me to play it on my blog or something. Bleh! These guys totally take me back to my high school days. Jarvis Cocker, how I love you and your awesomeness. Rumor has it he punched Michael Jackson in the face at an award shows. I'll have to look into that and get back to you. For now enjoy "Common People" its a great little tune.

Beaches I think its fair to say that most women have one. Someone they totally confide in. Someone who they share there inner most deepest secrets with. I'm not referring to relatives or a significant other. I mean a friend. A non-relative or non boyfriend/husband/girlfriend/wife. Someone who you go to complain about your relatives or boyfriend/husband/girlfriend/wife. No matter how "perfect" your mate is we all have to vent from time to time. Sadly, or not, I don't have a bestie. I have a handful of super close friends and plenty of acquaintances. No actual bestie. I think when it comes to friends I consider myself "single" in a way. Weird, I know. I'm just going out doing my thing not closing my options and seeing what's out there. Maybe I'll find a bestie. After all its not about how long you've known someone but rather how great of a friend they've been to you. Don't get me wrong I do open up to people. I am human and do

Don't let that smile fool you. Are exactly that, TERRIBLE! Sweet Jebus is my daughter crazy. I've heard stories of these phases, some say it will get better others, say it will only get worse. Let's hope its not the latter. I remember when my daughter was a baby (sounding like a stereotypical parent in 3,2,1) she would never cry. She really didn't. She didn't cry if she was hungry, if she was sleepy or with strangers. The only time she would cry was when she'd get her shots. Even then it wasn't anything dramatic and maybe lasted a minute at most. As soon as she turned 1 (literally) that all changed. My daughter has become a major crybaby. My mom thinks it has something to do with her birthday party. She said maybe having so many strangers around her scared her. Whatever the case may be, she is no longer that nonchalant child I once knew. I just hope this phase passes soon. I had considered having more children so Sam wouldn't grow up to be an onl

I know it's been over a week since Amy Winehouse passed away and, I'm a tad late with posting my thoughts about the whole ordeal. I don't have much to say since most of it has been said already. I'm sure I'm not alone when I say Amy Winehouse some how made you want to say screw it! It's your life and you're going to do what you want to do. I know she did for me. Her music helped me cope through hard times (no, not drug addiction), gave me some of the best memories with  my fren (spelled that way purposely) AND just enhanced my screw it attitude. Amy, Amy, Amy, how I will miss you and your amazing vocals. Thanks for getting me through the hard times and the amazing memories that come to mind with your music. I love you.

There was so many things we wanted to do while we were out in Hawaii but unfortunately weren't able to do quite a few. It was a tad difficult trying to plan out our days with a toddler. Sam is a good kid for the most part but she's entering the stage of the "terrible twos" and is in the stage of discovering. Trying to tell her no don't do this or don't do that, turned out to be harder than expected. We had to give up doing a lot of big outings to make sure to keep her busy, happy and most importantly safe.  One of the things we managed to do was a tour of the Dole Plantation. We all loved it. The plantation is pretty big. I wouldn't be able to give you acres (although I'm sure I remember hearing it on the tour) or anything like that but it seemed big to me. They had a small train that gave you a tour around all the crops. Unfortunately we didn't get to see much of anything other than dirt. They had just had their harvest. It was still a ni