My weekend, plus the events of the day ;)

Good Afternoon! It's hard to believe that it's Monday again!

I spent the morning working on bills and checking out our credit scores, which seem to have gone down in the past year. I think I've only had one late payment, so it must be because the banks have been tightening up and they've lowered our credit limits big time. This means that what we owe is extremely close to our card limits. Has anyone gone through the whole debt consolidation route? I'm thinking that is the way to go, but with the economy the way that it is, is it a lot more difficult to get approved for a loan? Any advice/tips would be appreciated! :)

Other than that, my day hasn't been too exciting. i woke up early-ish and got my shower. Diego had to turn off the water in the building for a bit because of a plumbing issue. The tenants were notified that the water could be off until 2, but he was finished around 12...so I got the laundry room all to myself! Yay! So I got a couple loads of laundry finished without even having to fight for the washers! :D Now that made my day! hehe... I now have TONS of laundry to fold (about 5 baskets full), a bunch of dishes to wash, I need to figure out supper, and i have some baking to do.

Anyways, here is my weekend in review:

On Friday, I made a variation of chicken pot pie for dinner...

Shortly after dinner, we got a call from Chicho inviting us to go see a movie with him and Crystal. Crystal had free movie tickets to this theater in downtown LA. So that's how we ended up going to see "Ides of March".....I had been wanting to see this movie, but had never thought that Diego would even consider going to see it! It was a pretty decent film that had a lot of big name actors, but honestly, i was a bit disappointed. I had expected a bit more.  It was entertaining and thought-provoking though and hey, we didn't have to pay for it, so I'm definitely not complaining!  I definitely loved the cast list and the acting was good, but the script/plot just seemed to be lacking a bit.

The theater was in downtown LA near USC in a newer section called LA Live.

It was a really NICE theater! I think they actually have a lot of movie premieres here...

After the movie, we walked around LA Live....

There are lots of bright lights, gigantic screens, clubs, restaurants, etc.

I think it's supposed to be the LA version of NY's Times Square--you know with all the gigantic screens w/ advertisements...

Diego posing for a picture, with Crystal and Chicho walking in the background...

The Staples Center is located int his area and also the building where the Grammys are held...

There was a radio station broadcasting live or something like that...

These plaques were located on the sidewalk leading up to the Grammy Museum...

@ a restaurant near the museum...

The museum! I didn't look to see if they had prices listed...

Some downtown buildings...

Skyline...

Bright lights!

On Saturday, we mainly hung out at D's fam's house....No one was there when we first got there, but they all eventually wandered in...

D's mom was showing me a bunch of old cooking magazines...I brought a few home to browse through...the recipes are written in spanish, but i can still get the general idea...

We eventually decided that we were hungry so we drove over to Larry's favorite pizza parlor that's located in Long Beach.

We also went to Yogurtland and then to Point Fermin Park.  While @ the park we were observing all the raccoons that live there and Diego and Jessie decided to scare me. Diego runs up and yells, "Watch out! The raccoons!" They were trying to scare me, Berenice, and Alicia....but I was the only one that really reacted. I think Berenice had caught on and Alicia was just like , "what?" I was the one that screamed, kicked my feet and was wildly looking for attacking raccoons. :P They all got a good laugh out of it...especially Jessie and Berenice. haha :P At least I'm a good sport ;)

As we were leaving the park, we stopped by a lookout with a great view of the harbor...

View of the harbor...you can see the bridge(marked with the blue lights) that goes across to Long Beach

Jessie and Diego checking out the view...

Jacob and Berenice

On Sunday:  We had planned on going to the 9:30 service @ Whittier Area Community Church so that we could get to D's house early to help sort onions. But we overslept and had to go to the 11am service. We ended up taking Jessie with us. I enjoyed the music/worship and the sermon was pretty good.

We spent the rest of the day @ D's fam's house. Diego was helping sort onions. I wish I would have taken a picture, but I forgot! You should have seen all these pallets of onions! All 5 brothers were out there sorting and also 3 guys that they had hired...I was inside helping Alicia and Irma sort through some things and organize Irma's storage room.

The menu @ Norm's where we went for dinner...it's kind of like a Denny's or IHOP except, they have this really cool retro looking sign out front.... Their pancakes weren't as good as IHOP or Denny's either....

Larry and Alicia

Berenice and Jacob...you can see our waiter's reflection in the window...haha...he was pointing out "The Trio" which included a steak, shrimp, chicken tender, soup, salad, and bread for $10.

Diego decided to go ahead and get the Trio...so did Jacob and Alicia. Larry got BBQ ribs, Berenice got a tuna sandwich, Jessie got a turkey sandwich, and I got pancakes!

Random Photos:

D's mom has a friend that works @ a bakery and they get to bring home a bunch of free bread...so we got a gigantic bag full...

Yum!

I stuck a bunch of it in the freezer for next week...

So yeah, that was my weekend. Oh, a job update: Over the past few days, I  have applied for a couple different positions that I'm really interested in...

• Applied Behavior Specialist position ( basically a teaching assistant) @ an elementary special needs school in Torrance.
• Giving presentations on good oral health to low-income elementary students in the Los Angeles county schools.
• A teaching assistant position in an ESL classroom here @ San Pedro high school.
• Administrative assistant position @ the Rolling Hills Estates company where I applied for the technical editing position.

So, keep your fingers crossed! I would be excited to get any of those positions! :) I actually just received a voicemail about an interview for the administrative assistant position! They're wanting to schedule one for tomorrow or Wednesday! So...we shall see...

Well, it's nearly 4:30 here, so I had better get busy folding laundry and doing dishes. Happy Monday, everyone! :)

It's Friday!!!

It's Friday!!!  Does anyone have any big plans for the weekend? Yes, I'm talking to you...:P If you're reading this, i would love to hear from you. I often feel like I'm talking to myself, which isn't very fun. :P  There is a comment button below each post and you don't even have to sign up to blogspot, in order to reply. So give it a shot, why don't you? hehe And thanks to those couple people who have taken the time to comment on my posts! I LOVE reading what you have to say and it makes blogging a lot more fun! :)

No big plans here....I think Jessie(D's little brother) has a football game today @ 4, but we probably won't go since D works until 5. We're trying to be thrifty, so we'll probably just stay home tonight and save our gas money so that we can go over to his fam's house tomorrow and/or Sunday. (it's a quarter tank each way to go there). It's basically kinda like driving from Rensselaer to Lafayette, maybe a tad shorter. It takes a good 20 to 30 min, depending on traffic.

So as I mentioned in my last post, I didn't get the ESL job; however, the director told me that she liked some of my ideas and asked if I would like to be on the sub list. So I guess it's a way to get my foot in the door. They also weren't interested in me for the technical editing position ( which honestly, gave me a headache just thinking about it) , but the girl said that there is an entry level administrative assistant job that is available and asked if I would be interested. So I'm going to apply for that......

Have spent my afternoon working on laundry and housework...not fun! :P I miss having a washer/dryer in my apartment! It's such a hassle to fight over those washers downstairs, not to mention that it's super expensive!!! So get this, D's boss (Margo) had mentioned that her husband might be able to get a broken washer for $20 and asked D if he would be able to repair it and set up a drain in the shop so that we could share it! D and I had been talking about this for a couple  months now, but couldnt' afford to buy one...sooo if D can figure out how to set up a drain, it looks like we may be able to get a washer that only we and his boss would use! yay!!! That would be amazing! :)

In other news, D's in the process of getting his 90 day review...it's taking forever though since they seem to have a very disorganized system. We're really hoping that he'll get a raise! We also asked if we would be able to switch to a different apartment (there's one available on the other side of the building facing the ocean and has a BALCONY!) and also to be able to have a weekend (or maybe even two) a month free of call so that he can actually have a chance to relax once in awhile.  I really think his boss is not wanting to switch us to another apartment. We're currently right by the building gossip ( at the boss' request) and I'm pretty sure she spies on us--we have no privacy at all. This lady writes daily letters to the boss telling her what's been going on in the building and complaining about different sounds/occurrences. D was in there a couple weeks ago answering a maintenance call and he said that he saw this high grade microphone or something (some sort of recording device) in her room. She also has her bed right against the wall that's next to us. I think she just sits there and listens for any sound. That sounds crazy, but it's probably true. We usually don't hear anything from her wall, but once we heard her cough. So there's that, plus we're right in front of the smoker's bench, which we hate and also there is no breeze since we're not facing the ocean. So yeah, if you think of it, could you pray that things work out? That we can get a nicer apartment and also some weekends without call? Thanks!

Haven't done a whole lot of baking this week. I did bake some swirled cream cheese pumpkin bars and mailed them to my mom and dad. I think they actually got them today! I have some leftover pumpkin, so I'm thinking about making some pumpkin bread.

Yesterday I went on a hike out near Trump.  I went on the easy trail down to the water and this time actually went all the way to the beach. I saw a ton of dogs this time around! Probably four or so. I stopped and petted a couple of them...made me miss my Snickle so very much. :(  I miss having a dog around. I hope to eventually adopt one, if we ever move to a different apartment/house. So here are a few photos from my walk:

I don't know what they  are called, but I love these flowers!!

There were tons of them along the path...

It's difficult to tell from this picture, but those little plants/flowers on the trees are this really pretty purplish/pinkish color.

Love these spiky little flowers!

Some kind of berry...

It was sooo clear out! You could look across the water and see Catalina Island ( I think that's what it is, but not positive)...gorgeous!

The water was kind of brownish( from the wind blowing sand maybe?) near the shore, but a really pretty bright blue green a little further out...

The path that i followed is right around that hill...

I thought this sailboat looked so pretty with this backdrop...wish I would have had my real camera, but all i had was my phone camera...

A large bird posing on the railing....He let me get pretty close too....

Well, that's about it for today...Oh! One last thing-- I got another surprise package in the mail this week from M&D!

Silverware!!! And it looks really similar to the silverware that was lost in my missing box...

Thanks Mom and Dad!!!! We love it!!!!! :)

Speaking of the lost silverware, the moving company offered me the entire amount that they owe me which is about $250 some. Thanks to Alex, the customer service agent, who listened to me complain and pleaded my cause. The claims department was trying to give me the run around for months. I'm happy to get the money...I have learned a LOT from this experience. We probably have thousands of dollars worth of damage that was done to our furniture...sigh. Next time, I will deal with moving in a whole different way. Unfortunately, they never did find my box....or that's what they seem. I'm still not convinced that they didn't just keep it for themselves...

Well, happy friday everyone!