My Little Corner of the World: Catch Up

So once again, I'm behind in my blog writing :P haha but that's nothing new! Have been staying busy. Have sent in a bunch of resumes, but haven't heard back from anyone. Once again, I'm reminded of how tough the job market is out here. What if I can't find a job? It's kind of a scary thought...But I'll try to remain optimistic. There has to be a job out there for me somewhere...I just have to find it.

Anyways, so here's what's been gong on in my life the past few days:

Thursday:
Talked to the moving company, they are wanting to give us $61 to cover all the damages to our furniture AND the missing box. That's a laughable amount! It's ridiculous! Even @ the ridiculous amount of 60 cents per pound we should be getting like $300 just for the furniture. And then there's the missing box. For the past month, they've been telling me that it will take a long time to look for it because the warehouse is so big and they can't start looking for it until we file an official claim. blah blah blah. So now, suddenly they're just goign to give us the money because they can't find it. How convenient. They probably found it and are just going to keep it. I hate this company. They have made my life hell. The damaged all our furniture and lost this box and then they offer us $61? They have tons and tons of horrible reviews online. It sounds like they're a bunch of thieves and thugs.

If you're reading this and thinking about using Allstate Relocation in Gardena, CA-- DON'T!!! It will be the worst mistake of your life!!! lol So yeah, I've been talking to this kid names Alex--he's been the one taking care of my claim. I asked him to email me a detailed report of how they came up with the $61. He said, sure, that it would take up to 24 hours. Well, it's been like 5 days and I haven't received anything. I tried to call yesterday and I get getting their voicemail. They probably blocked my number or something. Grrrrr....it's making me so angry!

Ok, it's about 15 min. later. After writing that previous paragraph, i decided to call the company. I talked to Alex, he was very agitated. I said that I hadn't received the details that I had requested. He said that he could discuss it over the phone and started explaining the details, but then i started asking questions and he was getting frustrated that I was challenging everything. He said that the dept had assessed the damages and since it's only partial damage blah blah blah. For example, I had listed the dining room table @ 50 pds. Well, they're wanting to give us money for 20 pds. I said, well the whole table is damaged, whey are you only giving us money for 20 pds. worth? That's when he said he'd look over the papers and call me back. Then I asked about my box (which he didn't really want to answer). I said that previously he's said that it could take a long time to search through the warehouse and contact people. etc. But now they're suddenly offering me money. I said I want the box, not the money. More than likely, they don't want to spend the money to have people look for it. I have a large painting canvas that we got by mistake. I told them we have it, and they acted like they knew all about it. But they haven't attempted to get it. I figure it's because it would cost more money to pay people to come get it and take it wherever it needs to go than it would just to pay the person per pound. lol. Sooooo frustrating!

Thursday
Anyways, enough about that. So on Thursday Diego's friend Earnest came over to hang out with D and I went grocery shopping. haha fun fun.So here are some pics from Thursday.

Groceries!

I broke a bottle of cherries... :( what a mess!

This really handy tool that I saw @ the store...I want to get one!

The line @ In-n-out near the grocery store...


It's a chain of fast food hamburger joints and they're ALWAYS packed--all the locations, not just this one! I don't get it...The quality of the food is ok, nothing special. But the prices are fairly decent, so maybe that's it...

Friday: On Friday, I was in a baking mood, so I decided to try a new recipe for Cherry Chocolate kiss cookies. they turned out ok.The cookie part tasted kind of like shortbread. At first, I wasn't sure that I liked them,but they grew on me! the mix of the cherry/shortbread/chocolate was quite delicious!

Mixing the dough...

Adding the cherries and juice

Ready to go in the oven...


The finished product! yum!

If you're interested in making these cookies, here is the link to the recipe! Enjoy!

So Jessie had his second football came of the season on Friday @ Freemont HS in Compton. We tried to make the game, but it started @ 4 pm and Diego didn't get out of work until 5. By the time we were over in the area it was already 5:30 or so. We would have showed up late but they had tickets priced at $7, which we thought was a bit pricey for only a few minutes worth of a game. Chicho and his gf Crystal had gone to the game. They said that it was like a prison. That there were layers and layers of fences. The JV team lost, but the varsity team won. Jessie said that as they were driving out on the bus, they were escorted by cops until they got out of the area and they were instructed to duck down out of the windows because they were afraid there might be a drive by. The shocking realities of living in the ghetto.

Since we hadn't gone to the game we decided to swing by D's parents house. We just hung out for a bit. Gave Bigshow a bath! He's such a sweet dog! Being around him makes me miss my snickle. :(

I was helping too btw! hehe

Saturday: We were supposed to go for a hike with Larry and Alicia in the AM, but it was storming. Actual thunder and rain! The first that I've seen since I've been out here!

We hung out @ the apartment and eventually headed over to D's house. We decided to go to this Chinese festival that was taking place over in China town! It was my first time going over there and it was a lot of fun! I definitely want to go back and try some of the restaurants and browse the shops again! Here are a few pics from the night:

Walking to the festival...edgar, rachel, diego, berenice, and jessie

They were having a cultural presentation in the square so it was really crowded

We girls headed over to the nearby bakery...It was super crowded!

Choosing our desserts...

Berenice chose the cream filled pastry, I got the chinese donut, and rachel got the tiramasu! They were all delicious, but my fave was the donut! It was soooo good!

Sharing our desserts with the guys...

One of the shops had a bunch of old cameras

A variety of foreign currency for sale....they had money from all over the world!

moi

Diego trying to get Jessie to pose for a picture..haha

Berenice and Rachel

The guys headed over to check out all the chinese weopons haha

Some really cool artwork by Human Tree Robot!

Restaurant where a Jackie Chan movie was filmed...


Live music!

We ate @ Yoshinoya: fast food Japanese. D and I shared this shredded beef over rice. It was pretty decent for the price we paid...

Sunday: We went back to Calvary Chapel Southbay, which is where we went last week. However, neither D or I liked it this time. Well actually, I loved the church, the music, the service times, the feeling during songs, the people....but I couldn't stand the pastor. He was making everything political, I didn't like how he brought politics into church. I really didn't like his general attitude and approach at all. He kept talking about 9/11 and we need to bring God back into our country etc.

[Disclaimer: I'm getting ready to get on my soapbox now, so if you aren't interested in this particular topic, feel free to scroll down to the next paragraph] I don't think it's good to bring politics into church. I get tired of everyone saying that our country is going down the drain because we've taken God out. The boundaries of "the church" go beyond just our country. The US is not the center of the universe after all. Our focus in church/ministering should be on God and individuals. I think when we're focusing on people's individual needs then we don't have to worry about this mantra of "God has been kicked out of our country. Let God back in the schools etc." God is still a part of our country, people! He is everywhere and can't be kicked out..lol. :P Even if we don't have the word 'God' plastered all over our money, buildings, and license plates, we can still believe it in our hearts. Honestly, I think it's more important to focus on sharing God's love with people than lecturing people that the country is going down the toilet. Please don't waste my time giving me your political agenda! I came here for some encouraging words based on God, not your personal opinion on the political world. ;) (Btw, this is my personal opinion, you don't have to agree with me!) I have more to say about this particular topic, but I'll be quiet now. ;)

D and I were pretty much on the same page about the guy, so at least we agreed; but I was really disappointed because I liked most everything else about this place. But the pastor is a pretty large part of choosing a church. I definitely would not like to listen to this guy all the time. So our search continues.....

So after church, we drove over to D's fam's house. No one was home and we didn't have a key, so D had to climb the back fence and go in the back door. haha.

D climbing the fence...

D warming up the beans for our tostadas....( and trying to pretend that he wasn't helping out in the kitchen)

Bigshow chillaxin near the table...

Our yummy tostadas ( the crunchy corn tortilla shell) with beans, lettuce, cojita cheese, and tomato

I decided to bake some strawberry muffins/cake. D's dad had bought us some strawberries and his mom asked me if I would bake a cake with them. Both D's parents and one of his sisters is diabetic and they are wanting me to bake some sugar free desserts, since they are hard to find around here.	D and I went to the store to pick up a couple ingredients that we were missing.
The weird little shopping cart @ the grocery store we went to

The amazing Mexican cheese that i am ADDICTED to! I love it on top of refried bean! yuuuum!

We had a lot of strawberries,so I decided to try a couple different recipes. The first recipe that I tried was strawberry/banana cupcakes with Greek yogurt frosting and I got it from the wonderful site called cupcakeproject.com. Here is the link to the recipe.

I had some leftover batter, so I made a little cake.

I also made a sugar free version of this recipe, using splenda. I read online that when using splenda for baking that it's best to add 1/2 cup nonfat dry milk powder and 1 tsp baking soda for every 1 cup of Splenda. The cupcakes seemed to turn out pretty well. They were moist and everyone seemed to like them. I simply substituted splenda for sugar and added the dry milk powder and extra baking soda.

For the sugar free cupcakes, I made a whipped strawberry topping and simply substituted the sugar for splenda. It was pretty good! Recipe

The other recipe that I used is from bread & honey blog: strawberry wacky cake. I think this is my very favorite recipe! It was sooo yummy! :) Here is the link to the recipe.

This was the last thing that I baked and I was out of strawberries, so I simply sprinkled some powdered sugar on top. OMG! Sooo good! It's actually more like a bread recipe. It could be used either way probably, but next time I make it I think I may make it in a bread pan or in muffin tins. I will definitely be making this again!!!! :)