This and That....

So I've been meaning to write a blog entry for the past few days, but here I am, it's been a week since my last entry and now I have a lot to include.....

Something to Think About: 
Before I start talking abou the events of my past week,  I want to share a little something that I saw on Facebook today.

It reminded me of a verse that's been on my heart the past couple days:

James 1: 19+20
Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath: For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.

I'm striving to become a better person. Over the past few years, I feel like I've lost focus and that I've become more self-centered, less giving, and have developed a more negative outlook on life. I want to get back to my core value of loving others and showing compassion and kindness. I feel like I've been sidetracked by life the past few years and it's time to turn my focus back to others. I've never claimed to be perfect, but lately I've been somewhat unhappy with the person that I have become.  I am on a quest of self-improvement to better myself, to make the world a better place, and to show love to others.

I feel that I can often be nice to strangers, acquaintances, and people that I kind of know...but it's more difficult to be loving to your immediate loved ones...the ones who see the "real" you. I've been finding that I am quick to jump to a conclusion or make an assumption, that i sometimes get upset and say things that I shouldn't/don't really want to/don't really mean, and I've been losing my temper easily. My guiding words for the next few weeks are:

1. quick to hear
2. slow to speak
3. slow to anger

I'm In a Rut
I've been in such a rut w/ my weight loss/healthy eating/fitness plan....bleh. So I am determined to get back to my clean eating and eat some occasional junk food on the weekends. I did pretty well today, well except for these mexican cookies that Diego picked up for me. I tried them a couple weeks ago and loved them so much that I've been wanting to buy some ever since. ;) He took one of the elderly tenants to the store the other day and picked some up for me while he was shopping:

yum!

Today I went on a forty minute walk in a neighborhood down near the water. I didn't really feel like going walk on the trails near Trump or the gym, so decided to explore a bit and try to find a different spot for walking.  Here are a few pictures from my walk around the neighborhood:

This is just 5 or 10 min. down the road. I've driven past it, but never stopped before...

It was really hazy down near the water, but you could see the sun shining through in this one spot...

There was actually a sailboat in the haze and I was trying to capture it on film, but I don't think it showed up in this picture....

To the right is the road down to the beach....

Beach...I never knew that there was beach access here....Learn something new every day! hehe

REally cool sun reflection on the water...

Pretty!

This is the road that runs in front of the park. It's actually closed because the road was collapsing near the cliffs. We had some rain a week or two ago and i guess all the water was draining down the hill and caused a little mudslide.

Nature Preserve across from the park...never knew this was here!

Map!

There were all these little shell things stuck in all the plants/all over everything...

Strange but cool looking plant/tree that I saw on my walk...

It's only 6:30 and it's already getting dark. Bleh! I hate that! And it will be even worse when we change times...ugh! How depressing!  Anyways, here's a quick review of the past week:

On Tuesday, I had an interview for an administrative assistant position @ an international consulting company in Rolling Hills Estates. I met with two different people and at first I thought it was going pretty well, but then it was over really quickly. I figured that they either really liked me, or really didn't like me. Since I haven't heard back from them, I'm assuming that I didn't get the job. They were supposed to decide by Friday, I believe. I was going to snap a couple pictures of the office building because it was pretty nice, but I didn't get a chance before I left.

There is a guava tree that grows in D's parents front yard. D loves guavas and so we brought a bunch of them home...i personally think the outside tastes/smells like mr. clean, but the inside is ok-ish.

Messy looking cd cheesecake bars getting ready to go into the oven. I was distracted and didn't read the recipe well enough. I should have spread the cookie dough out more evenly, so that it would look better. I'll know for next time. they tasted pretty good i think. I would definitely make them again. I mailed some to Jennica because she loves cookie dough!

Here is the recipe for Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cheesecake Bars from mybakingaddiction. She has tons of amazing recipes! you should go check out her blog!

Diego got two coupons for free Kellogs products. So I used one of them to buy this huge box of corn flakes. What a blast from the past! I hadn't eaten these in forever. I'd forgotten how much I love corn flakes!! yum!!

On Tuesday( or wednesday, i can't remember which) Diego had to go to court w/ his boss who is trying to evict a tenant. She took him along in case they had a maintenance concern that would come up in court. It's so rare to see D all dressed up! I had to snap a picture. haha

Chicken tacos that I made last week...yummy!

On Friday I went for a hike near Trump. There were tons of dogs out on the dog beach. You can see them running and playing near the water. Too cute!

I was sitting on the rocks near the water and really started paying attention to all these tiny stones. The water has made them so smooth! I've been picking up a tiny stone every time I go there. The tiny ones are the cutest...they would be cute for some sort of art project.....

Last week i saw one surfer, well this week there were two! I sat there and watched them for awhile. Pretty cool.

I thought this was pretty....

Since I had some pumpkin and buttermilk that needed to be used,  I decided to try a recipe for buttermilk pumpkin cake.  Unfortunately, I realized that I couldn't find my bundt pan...I have no clue where it went. I'm wondering if I left it back in Indiana? If not, then it must have been in the missing box....So I had to bake the cake in an angel food cake pan. Didn't like how it turned out...Definitely not as pretty as a bundt pan....

It tasted pretty good though!

Here's the recipe for Buttermilk pumpkin Cake from whippedtheblog.com. I highly recommend this blog, she has a bunch of great recipes!


On Saturday, D and I decided to take Bigshow for a walk. We're always talking about taking him, but never do because it would mean that we would have to drive D's truck over to the house. His truck needs some work and makes this high pitched sqeeking noise whenever we drive it, so we rarely take it anywhere.

Tying Bigshow in the back of the truck. Poor Bigshow needs a collar, name tag, leash, and some flea meds. :(  Right now he's quite the ghetto dog.

He's excited to be going for a ride!!!

Enjoying the breeze!

We went to Lincoln Park...we climbed this gigantic hill and I swear it was like gravity was just trying to physically push me down that hill. haha It was quite the workout. Going down the hill was SO much easier! haha

We decided to chillax in the grass for a bit because we were all a little worn out.

You can see downtown LA in the distance...

See the tall buildings hidden in the haze?

Bigshow wanted to catch a squirrel!

D and me....

After eyeing the squirrels for a bit, Bigshow collapsed in the grass for a nice break...he literally threw himself down..haha.

Bigshow w/ d! haha too cute

Chillaxin....

I really like this one...

haha! Who doesn't like a nice roll in the grass?

We actually saw a couple girls climb the hill and then roll down...ugh. I got motion sickness just watching. haha

A nice string of drool...haha

The pond which was located a little further in the park...

Bigshow decided to chase a couple squirrels up a tree...

He was going crazy!

He was literally trying to climb the tree! haha

A little duck island in the middle of the pond...

Posing for the camera

Some pretty cool murals in the park

I really like the middle one....

Pretty flowers!

Bigshow was trying to catch a mole...haha I think he was pretty close to catching it. He was literally digging a hole...there was dirt flying everywhere...

We really liked this tree!

Moi!

There was a huge abandoned looking pool in the park also...

I thought it looked kind of interesting...so I snapped a couple pictures..it made me think of this ya lit series that Jennica got me hooked on...hordes of zombies and abandoned cities..haha. :P

And what would a city park be without some graffiti? 

Berenice w/ her nina Molly. Isn't that the most adorable doggy coat?

We rode to Staples( where Berenic works) w/ Berenice. she had to drop something off and we waited in the car w/ Molly.

She just kept staring @ the front door waiting for Berenice to get bakc...it was cute!

We went to dinner @ Marie Collander's which is kind of like Bob Evans or that one pie place in Merrillville...i can't remember what it's called....Baker's Square! That's it!

I got a pot roast! I've been hungry for this for the past week...It wasn't as good as homemade pot roast..I didn't really like the gravy...but it was fairly good...

D eating his chocolate pie

Larry looking pretty happy. I think he had just ordered a razzleberry pie..hehe

I finally got Alicia and Crystal to pose for a picture...

Crystal even agreed to pose for a second one! hehe ;)

So yeah, we were talking about going to a pumpkin patch on Saturday, but found out that a bunch of D's siblings were planning to go to Universal Studios to the Fright Night, or whatever it's called. It's basically a haunted Studio w/ tons of haunted mazes, etc. Even the commercials freaked me out so I was definitely not interested. Plus, I think it costs like $50 so that was out of the question. So yeah, we just hung out and went to dinner. We'll probably try to do the corn maze next weekend when everyone can go.

At the restaurant there was the "soup incident" haha. Diego ordered some chili and it was topped with tortilla chips and cheese and looked so tasty. So I asked him if I could have a bite. He said no, which I thought was rude. I guess I could have just taken a bite without asking like he does, but that's really not the way that I work.  So i was sitting there feelign kind of annoyed. A coupel minutes later, Larry asked Diego what he was eating. Diego responds, "Here...try a bite!" and hands larry a spoonful of chili..I'm like what?!!! I just asked you for some chili and you said no and here you're offering Larry some?! Bleh.  He went on to push the chili over my way, but all the toppings were gone. :P I'm sure he would have shared the chili and was just being annoying, but still. Looking back I can appreciate the slight humor of the moment, but at the time I was really annoyed. :P Diego doesn't even think sometime. He's a mess...

Well, I think that's about it for now. I"ll write more tomorrow and finish up talking about the weekend. Nighty night all!