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! :)

So i had a job interview....

Just checking in! Skyping with Jennica...have been listening to a helicopter that has been circling the block for the past 45 min. or so.  I had heard sirens right before that so I'm assuming they're looking for a fugitive? or just having fun wasting tax payer money.


5 hours later: 

That darn helicopter kept circling for about 2.5 hours. Never did find out what was going on...maybe it will be on the news.  It's now 10:21 pm. I just finished eating my tostadas w/ refried bean and avocados. Yum! I have towels in the dryer and some pumpkin bars cooling. Sitting here watching the latest episode of "Castle"...gotta love that show! :)

So I had an interview today @ the language college in Torrance.  As I was driving over, I realized that the gas light was on, but I was already on the freeway so I decided to just gas up when I got there. I got there about 30 min early so I drove around trying to find a gas station, but there weren't any in sight and my GPS wasn't working, so I was a little grouchy by the time I got back to the college for the interview.  So the interview SEEMED to go really, really well. If i were to get the job, I would be teaching three different classes: Conversation Skills, Reading, and Grammer/writing. The school has 5 different language levels and I think i would be teaching Level 2, 4, and 5.

I think I got along pretty well with the director. We sat there and chatted for a bit, I wasn't nervous at all, and I think I was pretty confident. The atmosphere seemed pretty laid back and relaxed. The school is actually located in an office building so it doesn't really look like a school. And it seems really small. The class sizes would be probably a min. of four and a max of 12. So it's sounds like a really, really great opportunity! She was interviewing one other person and said that she would let me know right away. She said perhaps even by the end of the day, but never heard from her. I think she will let me know either way, so I guess I'll find out tomorrow. Classes start on Wednesday morning, so if I DO get this job, then it will be a stressful couple days.

Sooooo...I've spent  the afternoon/evening waiting anxiously to hear something.....I hate waiting!!!!
Wow, I just had a moment of dejavu. I was thinking about the warehouse/business area that I was in for the interview today and it seemed familiar for a moment...like out of a dream that I had a few years ago. Weird!

Anyways, in other news. Here's what I did this past weekend:

Saturday:  

I skyped with Mom, Dad, and Jennica in the morning! :) 
Leonard came over to hang out for a bit...he rode over to the library with us in Rolling Hills Estates. (We had to take some library books back.)
We checked out the gift shop that they have there. They had some cute owl stuff!

I love these earrings!!!

When leaving the library, Diego headed the wrong way and we ran across this amazing view!

The pictures really don't do it justice! There was this really heavy mist and the mountains across the water looked like they were rising above the clouds...it was really beautiful!

It's difficult to see in this pictures, but there were a bunch of ships floating out in the watery mist.

Leonard showing off his purchase from the gift shop!

Me & Diego

We finally found our way back to San Pedro, just in time to meet up w/ D's family @ the Port O'calls Village @ an outdoor seafood restaurant. D's dad bought 7 pounds of shrimp!!! Now that's a lot of seafood! hehe

Just getting to the pier...they had already ordered the food!

Round 1!

The restaurant is right on the water! Super nice...

Next, are the drinks! A couple large pitchers of pop!

And here come the four huge boxes of shrimp w/ garlic bread!

Getting ready to chow down!

We sighted this adorable sea lion on one of the docks!

The mariachi band was going around from table to table...

At this point, everyone had their bellies full of seafood...well, except for me. I'm not a fan of shrimp, so I ate some garlic bread instead...

D's mom picking out the remaining shrimp...I think they had one large box left to take home...

Larry bought me a choc. covered strawberry!

A couple gigantic cruise ships drove past as we were sitting there...

There are quite a few cruise companies that are located in San Pedro so these are a common sight.

Although, I'd never seen one this close up before...

Me clutching my strawberry and gazing @ the monstrosity! haha As it was going past, all I could think of was the Titantic and how it sank. haha. I'm not a fan of cruise ships. D's Mom was saying that there is a cruise that goes from San pedro to Colima, Mexico ( her hometown). If I were to go on a vacation, I think I'd rather spend my time @ an actual location instead of being trapped on a huge boat. But that's just me....

D's parents were in a hurry to get back home, so they didn't stop by our apartment. But D's siblings came over for a bit.

It's not a big space, but we all fit in...

But then, not everyone was there...we were missing about 7 people..haha.

I was almost embarrassed to offer them the cupcakes I'd made because they looked so messy. I used the cream cheese frosting that I had leftover from the mango cake I'd made earlier in the week.  I tried to pipe it onto the cupcakes, but it was waaaay too runny, so ended up just spooning it on and adding some sprinkles. They didn't look the prettiest, but I always enjoy that chocolate cake recipe! They seemed to like them, so that's good. :)

Later on, we decided to go see a movie. We ended up going to see "Moneyball" , which I really enjoyed. It was a bit slow and boring in parts, but hey it's BASEBALL..a sport that, in my opinion, can be very long and tedious at times. :P But I think everyone enjoyed it. I was glad that we went. The story line was mainly about baseball, but also included some other topics...I think it was a great mix. I would give it a 7.5 out of 10. Here are a couple pics:

Waiting in line @ the theater...

People that went:  me, Diego, Larry, Alicia, Chicho, and Crystal

Well, I think that's all I'm going to share for tonight. I'll write some more tomorrow! I'll end with a couple more pictures...

All the yummy cupcakes before they were frosted...

I tried to add mango, but it didn't mix well with the cream cheese....

Oh, and this is a photo from today:

I got a surprise package in the mail today from Mom and Dad! And this is what was in it!!! Yay!!! I finally have some cooking utensils! And they are soooooo nice! I love, love, LOVE them! Mom bought pink for the fight against breast cancer! It's a pale pretty pink--gorgeous! And it's such high quality! I have never, ever had such a nice can opener! Yes, I am actually excited about a can opener! It's just that I have this thing--I always get crappy can openers. I started out buying the cheap ones and then moved on to the ones that were a little more expensive (i.e. $7) but they always end up being crappy. They don't work and it takes me forever to open those stupid cans and I usually end up with some sort of cut or scratch by the time I'm finished.  I could never bring myself to spend the money on a NICE one, but here it is! I used it tonight and it worked like a charm! It's amazing!!! ;) I LOVE it! Thanks Mom & Dad!!!!!!!

Well, that's it for now. I'm gonna hit the hay. Nighty night all!!!!