Santa Ana and Garden Grove

Santa Ana $320,000

Garden Grove $350,000

Garden Grove $360,000

Garden Grove $350,000

Close enough?

Map to guide you...

Closer to the beach is better and more central-south is preferable in my opinion.

Garden Grove $310,000

The exterior looks promising, but no interior pictures to boast.

Lake Forest $280,000 is a tad far but close to Irvine (important for mom), good price, clean, and apparently quite large at 1,500 sq. ft.

Anaheim $330,000 is not a preferable location (I'd rather choose Lake Forest), but look at this style!

It's late, but I have quite a few more to show! Good night!

Plan #1 and a Costa Mesa house

Plan: Put the Asheville house up for sale when I graduate in May. I'd be happy to take $150,000 on it and cut my losses. :/ We bought it for $180,000 I think.
If it sells, rent till end of the year or for as long as I am in Asheville.
If it doesn't, pray, rent it out, and move till it does.

Because I'll come back and help mom out with a place for awhile with a house. I need a job though, a good paying one if I can't get a teaching job.

Study for grad school in the fall to get either my MA in teaching or even better, my architectural history degree. I'd enjoy that more, but in terms of what I need to do for life, I need the MA in teaching first. Later, I'll go back for my architectural history degree. :)

I think this works out better. Though I'm iffy about the Asheville house selling. I'll throw in what's in the house as is, sell my car, and buy a new one. If it doesn't sell, I'll still move back. It'll be okay right?

Costa Mesa $309,900

I love the exterior! Though I'm not sure what that door is to if the right side is the entryway...

Hardwood floors ready to go


One of the most acceptable kitchens!


These rooms need paint and new carpeting or flooring!


You know I can't stand this bathroom!


I'm okay with this one though.

Best Cities for Teachers to Live & Work

Furthermore, Raleigh has a long list of accolades. No suitable houses for cheap in Orange County.

I think I'm considering like every city! Click on my map with the purple hearts.

Live, eat, be pretty

Austin, Texas, you have some good prices on amazing homes! Check this one out.

I added This Young House to my dailies because wow, is it great! I love the adorable couple who transformed their home and also show pictures from their wedding. Let's just say I want to be like them one day. :)

Amazing living room

Great bedspread

I fell asleep again and I'm definitely hungry. My aunt bought fried noodles, but I don't want anything fried. I went to Trader Joe's for a spa salad for lunch, spicy spinach pizza, and lobster ravioli. Yummy meal tonight! Oh, I also can't wait to get home to start baking! Pumpkin baked goods are my specialty so I'm up for healthy pumpkin muffins. I said no candy this month, but I need some baked goods!

Other things to dos: go to the bank, deposit $, and ask for a check register; buy Bare Escentuals that Van swears by. I need a makeup regime right? Or am I too lazy? The natural look has been okay so far, but I think a boost of confidence is nice.

K, straighten hair, Bare Escentuals, eyeliner, eyeshadow, and mascara. I think that's enough. I just need to buy that Getting Started kit.

Tomorrow I'll visit Van for dinner if all plays out well with everyone else. For now, I'm relaxing and recovering with TV (new "Suite Life of Zach and Cody" and some HGTV maybe) and food.

Buzzed hair, questionable race, diamond stud in one ear - that's what I like

Okay, somehow I decided to wake up at 6:30am? No idea, but sometimes I wake up at this time with things on my mind: I have to cancel my T-Mobile account and pay for last month's bill or I have to find my poster! :( My dad pays for my cell, but since he's out of the country, my uncle pays on his behalf. However, it always seems like a bitch for him to do it so I have to yet I'm not the keeper of my dad's funds. :(

Tons of things on my mind I guess and it didn't get easier because it became 2009. It just makes it harder because I need to think about whether or not I can really teach. I've got the connection, but I'm not a terribly amazing teacher when I'm working with large groups. I love it so I have to work on it. Oh yes, pay for my water bill and credit card! :( Once I get my T-Mobile stuff sorted out, my credit card bill will have a balance of $0. :)

I also have to think about where I want to live. Never thought endless choices would make choosing so tough. Help! I'll discuss this with Peter today after he gets off work and I go over there to watch movies. Woo! Then tomorrow, I think I'm going to Van's for dinner.

2009 started off rather sunny here in the LA/OC vicinity.

Oh, I promised a recap of New Year's Eve. I haven't taken pictures at all since I've come here. Oh well. Okay, so I drove to LA, went to Van's shiny new apartment, and we got ready. We went to her friend's apt, which conveniently is next door to the party. Grey Goose, Ciroc, beer and Bacardi later, I met lots of new people. As I told Albert, Korean people are my favorite Asians. :) Though according to Albert, they don't like anyone else as much. :(

Anyways, it was pretty great hanging out with Asian people for a night especially since this group consisted of hot guys and not so attractive girls. I passed out next to some girl on a bean bag and definitely said random stuff to people. Honest stuff, but since I didn't know them, it was fine. :) For example, I told this guy who I spotted when I walked in that he was the hottest guy there. I then turned to the girl laying next to me and asked, "Right? Don't you think so?!" I don't remember what she said, but I think he just smiled and said, "Thanks." Hah. Cute. He was like part Asian or something and had a diamond stud in one ear. Sadly, his was the only name I didn't get. :(

No more drinking for awhile though. I'm pretty grossed out by liquor right now. Even the mention of it now is grossing me out.

Yesterday, I was definitely hungover. I felt so sick with this massive consuming headache and I couldn't eat anything. I drove home and thankfully, no cars! Amazing for LA. Van came back too so we actually went to dinner... at Albert's. Mung bean pancake things and meat with rice was our first real meal of 2009 besides the croissant with turkey I tried to eat. :) I love his cute family and little 4 1/2 year old nephew. Aw, that's the only reason we visit Albert. Okay, not really.

I'm super hungry right now, but it's about 8am and no one else is awake. Why am I awake?

Maybe, maybe not

I didn't pick an easy major. That's not fair to say because it wasn't easy for me. I picked something I enjoy and not something that my parents wanted. :/ I also know what I'm doing with my life: teach. Everyone else if off to grad school; I can't do another two years no matter how much I enjoyed college. I'm done with it for now even if I'm not sure what else to do.

I don't really party and I should come to realize it's not for me - that's not who I am. I'm more domesticated and all the drinking is a bit much (especially after yesterday). A lot of it is fear, I think. There's a want to enjoy partying, but I'm still not completely happy with what I look like on the outside. I wish I had more confidence and was able to just let go a little. I have rather high standards and I don't care, I'm sticking to them. I don't want to feel shame. I guess that makes it difficult sometimes to let go.

Anyways, after getting that out, I'd chat about New Year's Eve but I'm too tired. I drank a little too much and got more wasted than I've ever been. Besides passing out and my extreme hangover, it was fun to go to a party with Van. I miss Van so much! I'm going to strive to be more like her in some ways. She's rather outgoing I realized and I'm pretty happy to have her and all my friends in my life. :) It gave me some more considerations about moving closer though at the same time, the experiences here also provided me with reasons not to move back here.

Another one of my resolutions needs to be, stop talking about people. I'm pretty terrible at it and I must admit my faults. I'm just intrigued by people way too much. I wish I had such experiences (not all of them of course) that I could share with everyone. I try.

I guess for 2009, I'm going to keep working on me and try to gain some confidence in myself. After that, I'd love to do some parties and such, but I need to keep in mind how comfortable/uncomfortable I am at parties. I want to be social, but I don't necessarily need to party. I like the party people though because that's where I see hot guys. :)