Photo Review

Okay, so even though I haven't written much in the past couple weeks, I HAVE been taking photos! hehe I try to snap a photo of places I go, food I eat, or anything interesting that sticks out to me. I like to post the photos here on my blog and I also just like to take photos because I find that they help trigger memories. I can look at a picture and it will help me remember the events that occurred during that time period. Can't imagine life without photos!

So here goes-- pictures from the past two-three weeks:

February 8, 2012: The whiteboard in my classroom

2/8/12: The desk in my classroom

2/10/12: Valentine's Day Cards...Unfortunately, I didn't get them all mailed out... :( 

2/10/12: One of the tenants gave D some frozen churros that she didn't want...They're fairly good! I fry them in oil and then sprinkle some cinnamon/sugar on them...yum!

Friday 2/10/12: D checking out the electrical sockets @ Berenice and Jacob's house...It's a really old house so has ancient wires and fixtures....

Saturday 2/11/12: We got up super early and went hiking w/ Larry and Alicia.

We went to Griffith Park...I think we got there around 7am....

perty!

D found some eucalyptus leaves along the trail...

Raindrops on the leaves...pretty!

A gorgeous view!

haha I look so sweaty and tired...

Even more tired and sweaty...at one point I thought I may pass out...but I didn't! I think it was mainly the heights that freaked me out...we were on some pretty tall hills and seemed pretty close to the edge at times...and some of those hills were so STEEP

The Hollywood sign...

Really cool tree that we saw! The roots looked like hands!

We survived the hike and it only took us about 2 hours! Afterwards, we were starving and Larry took us to The Flame Broiler....a weird breakfast I know...I wanted pancakes! haha But i wasn't the one driving :P

Our first time @ the Flame Broiler! Super delicious! I've been hooked ever since!

Gorgeous church near USC campus! (We drove past it to get to the Flame Broiler)

2/11/12: Later that day....we met up w/ Berenice and Jacob @ Lowe's to help them pick out supplies for the lighting @ their house...

2/11/12: Then we went over to their house and D started working on the lighting in the bathroom...what a good brother he is!

D hard @ work

Hanging from the rafters...haha

While Jacob and Diego were working in the bathroom, the rest of us were hanging out in the living room. Since there was no furniture we sat on blankets, plastic, cardboard or whatever we could find because the floor was all dusty from all the work that had been going on in the house. ..haha Alicia's dog Dobie kept us entertained. At one point, he was chasing the laser beam from Jacob's phone. Hilarious!!! I got it on video. Maybe I'll try to post it some other time...

2/12/12: @ church...They've had those hanging lights up ever since Christmas and i LOVE them!

After church, we went to Boston Market...

My plate..yum!

Monday 2/13/12: Back to work...

I went to Michael's after work...was looking @ some of the fake flowers...these are some of my faves..

Love the ones in the middle! So pretty!

2/11/12: D's dad bought a bunch of mandarin oranges! Yum! I had never had a fresh mandarin orange before...I usually just have them from the can....They were super good!

2/13/12: Mom and Dad sent us a Valentine's Day package! Thanks Mom and Dad!!!

2/14/12: This is what I made D for breakfast. French toast in the shape of hearts w/ fresh bananas and strawberries...

2/14/12: So for our Valentine's Day date we went to a murder mystery dinner theater. It was located @ the jazz club in the Doubletree Hotel  in Culver City. I had been planning to take D here for his birthday but we were sick that weekend, so we decided to go for Valentine's Day. It was kind of a surprise and D didn't know where we were going until we got there! (He likes surprises)

The doors going into the restaurant.

D waiting very impatiently for them to let us in to the restaurant. They were running a bit late..

Our table...we were the first ones into the club.

Appetizers...

My delicious meal!

Dessert!

It was a fun night! Some of the actors were actually sitting @ our table, which made it really interesting. D and I had figured out that they were actors before they "came out"  because we had sat there and talked to them for quite a while before everyone else got to our table. The main actors were playing detectives who were trying to solve the murder case and they somehow chose D to be the "rookie" so throughout the whole night they kept calling him up in front of the crowd. "Where's Rookie?" haha It was funny! He did a good job !

My Valentine's gift from D! So cute!

I attempted to make chocolate dipped strawberries, but the chocolate just wasn't cooperating...:( They look more like poop covered strawberries hehe ;)

 I have a bunch more photos to add, but I think that's all that I'll add for tonight. It's getting kind of late and I need to head to bed soon.

Today has been a pretty uneventful day.  I taught from 9am to 12:30pm. I went grocery shopping, did a few loads of laundry, and have been cleaning the apartment. I bought a frozen blackberry pie on sale @ the store and so I had some blackberry pie w/ vanilla ice cream tonight...soooo delicious! Remember, I've been on a blackberry kick..haha ;) Other than that, I talked to Jennica for awhile. I watched the 'Castle' episode from last night and I looked over my lesson plans for tomorrow.

Well, that's it for tonight. Goodnight, everyone! :)

Oscar Sunday!

So today was the Oscars....I watched a small portion of the show, but it didn't really hold my attention so I muted it and watched some hulu instead. haha :P Jennica suggested that I go check out the red carpet last week while they were setting up and honestly I was so tempted. But I didn't make it over there. I suggested it to Diego and he laughed at me. haha He's obviously not a big fan. :P

It's been a busy weekend. On Saturday Diego went over to Berenice and Jacob's new house to help out with the flooring. I spend the afternoon picking up the apartment and trying to finish my Christmas/birthday/Valentine's gift for Diego. I headed over to D's fam's house around 4:30 to have birthday cake for Edgar. It was a different type of birthday party because he actually popped the question and asked Rachel to marry him! haha

Afterwards, we went to a restaurant in Koreatown for dinner.  It was my first time eating at a Korean BBQ and it was pretty fun! I really enjoyed it! Here are a few pictures:

Hanging out in the parking lot...waiting for a table

Mr. Larry!

Edgar and his niece Abigail

Waiting to be seated...this place was extremely busy!!

Jessie, Abigail, and Edgar's two friends

haha goofballs!

Me and Rachel

The lovebirds

Korean BBQ is when they bring you meat and you cook it on a grill that's in the middle of your table. We went to an all you can eat. For $10 per person we had a choice of five different meats. We could have paid $16 and gotten a choice of about 16 different meats.

So cool!

Me and Rachel cooking the meat

And that was our Saturday. I loved the Korean BBQ and would definitely go again! I even ate w/ chopsticks successfully! I've been eating a lot of Chinese and Korean food lately and have been practicing w/ chopsticks for the past two weeks or so....I feel really proud of myself because it's something I've wanted to learn for awhile. It's been on my to do list forever!

Today we got up early for church. Afterwards, we went to our new favorite restaurant The Flame Broiler...it's fast food Korean food. We get these bowls w/ rice, veggies (carrots, cabbage, broccoli, green onions) and meat (chicken and/or beef) w/ a like teriyaki sauce. It's super healthy and super delicious! Larry took us to one a couple weeks ago and I found one near my work in Torrance. We've been eating there a LOT this past week! hehe Anyways, we picked up our food and took it to this park in Hacienda Heights not too far from our church. It was an absolutely BEAUTIFUL day! We ate at a picnic table in the sun and it was really nice.  This particular park has a lot of cherry blossom trees. I think there's a cherry blossom festival coming up in March that sounds kind of interesting.

We hung out at the park for awhile and then headed over to D's fam's house. I dropped D off (he needed to go over to Berenice's house to help w/ some more things) and headed back to the apartment. I spent the afternoon finishing up D's gift. (yes, I finally got it finished!) D gave me his gift when he got back around 6. He went golfing w/ Larry and I gave him his gift when he got back around 10. I think he liked it so I'm happy about that. I'll try to post some pictures of our gifts tomorrow! Until then, it's a surprise! ;)

In other news, I ordered my plane tickets back to Indiana in April!!!! I will be home from April 21-28th! I'm SUPER excited!!!! :D It's the only week that I can really visit for any length of time (it's my spring break at work)....D and I will be flying out for a long weekend in May for the wedding, but won't be able to stay for a long time. So this is my birthday gift from my parents. Thanks Mom & Dad!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am BEYOND excited! :D

Well, I have some more photos to add from the past couple weeks, but I will have to do that another day. I'll try to update again tomorrow or Tuesday and catch you up on what's been going on in my life for the past couple weeks.

Goodnight, everyone!

(Btw, I heard that Meryl Streep won an Oscar! Yay! I LOVE her!)