New car

We got a new car on Friday afternoon! :) It is a 2006 Ford Focus ZX4 SE sedan. It has 42000 miles on it and was only $9988. It had pretty much all the options we were looking for, but most importantly it was the right price and right time. Even without putting any money down (and adding some extra coverage and a security system) the monthly payments work out to be $10 cheaper per month than the Cavalier which we just paid off. What a blessing!

We picked up the car on Friday afternoon at our credit union. Jason, the Auto Expert, was waiting with the new car which we were able to look over and inside of to check out all the features. Then we went inside to sign all the paperwork and get the keys. It is neat and also a little overwhelming to realize that this time the car is all in my name...what a blessing that I've been able to accrue such good credit over the past 6 years that there were no problems or issues.

After leaving, we were headed to the DMV to change the title on the Cavalier to remove the lienholder as it is now paid off, and to change it to mine & Josh's names. I got lost on the way as I wasn't aware that the Moreno Valley DMV had moved, but after a bit of crying and extra driving I arrived and it really didn't take too long. $15 later it was in our names only and we had a new plan for Josh's old car, the 1993 Toyota Corolla.

As it had been a gift to us several years ago when we really needed a second car, and because we were blessed with a significant insurance settlement from the car accident, and because the new Focus didn't end up being as expensive as we had feared - we decided we wanted to use Josh's car as a blessing to someone else. A family in our church has a daughter who recently graduated and was in need of a car. Though the Toyota isn't brand new, and is a little rusty, it is still in really good condition and we were able to let them know at church yesterday that we wanted to give it to their daughter. They were blessed...and we were blessed...and we are grateful that we had the opportunity to be used by God in this way...and that He provided so perfectly for us.

Though just a week ago I was feeling frustrated and unable to see when and if things would work out, I am so full of joy to see how God has provided for us once again and in so many more ways than I even imagined. What a great God we serve! And by the way...I love my new car. It is so cute, especially with my new seat covers, steering wheel cover and soon to be administered decal stickers. And one super cool thing I love is that the stereo gets louder as you accelerate...and lowers as you slow down. So cool! Thanks God!

To buy a car, or not to buy a car...that is the question

So, a few weeks ago Josh was in a car accident. Thankfully he was not injured, and though his car was he is still able to drive it. He was not at fault, the woman in front of him decided to back up and didn't think to look in her rearview mirror first and crashed into him. The car was declared a total loss as the cost to repair it was much higher than the worth of the car. So we received a nice settlement check last week. Thank you God!

We recently finished paying off the 5 year loan on my car and were for the first time without a car payment just days after this accident. So, knowing that God is in control and has great timing, we decided to look for a new car. Instead of going to a dealership and being pressured, we decided to use a service that our credit union offers called Auto Expert. Basically, you call them and tell them exactly what you want, what price range, what bells and whistles, etc. and they do all the hard work of searching, haggling and finding you what you want. It is a free service and something my parents and sister had used successfully in the past.

I called the Auto Expert (Jason) and explained that I wanted a Pontiac G6 sedan - automatic, a/c, CD player, silver color, power locks and windows, cruise control, no older than 2005, less than 50,000 miles and around $10,000 in price. He began to look and I had nothing more to do other than answer his phone calls. He found one fairly quickly, but it was too much out of my price range. Then on a Thursday he found what seemed to be perfect...exactly what I wanted, plus a few cushy extras, only 18,800 miles, 2007 and $12,998. Within my monthly price range if we put about $2000 down (which is an option based on the insurance payment we got for Josh's accident), so I said yes. He said I could pick it up the next day...we had pictures and we were so excited.

Then Friday rolled around and Jason called me back. The dealer wanted to back out of the deal as he decided the price was too low and he wanted more money. This was unexpected and upsetting and though Jason did his best the dealer would not back down. Though disappointed I decided to focus on the fact that God is still in control and He knew this would happen. Something better must be out there and we can be patient.

All this past week I hadn't heard anything from Jason, so I decided to give him a call yesterday. He apologized for not keeping in touch, but he had continued to search for me but with unfortunately no luck so far. After talking to my dad and searching for comparable cars online I decided to call him back to add two other car options to the mix. I found that I really liked the look of the Ford Focus ZX4 sedan as well as the Kia Spectra sedan. I let him know to be on the lookout for these as well as the Pontiac G6 with the same details. Hopefully next week he'll be able to let me know some possibilities and we may just find the car for us soon.

It's a learning experience trying to buy a car and assume that financial responsibility again. But God provided...we didn't need a new car until the old one was paid off....Josh's car still runs, so we most likely will not be without two cars during this time...the insurance provided a sizable chunk which allows us to have a little more wiggle room on the new car price. What a blessing and I know God is in control and He will provide exactly what we need, exactly when we need it. Thank you God!

Dining in Vegas

We went to Las Vegas this past weekend with Kelly & David to celebrate my birthday with some yummy food, relaxation, and fun playing board games. We initially had reservations to stay at the Sahara hotel, but upon checking in we discovered our rooms to be quite shabby, fairly stained and not clean. While it may have been that we were just in the non-refurbished tower we decided to see if anything else on the Strip was available. After calling around we were able to book two rooms at the Excalibur hotel for not too much more than the Sahara was costing. The rooms at the Excalibur were much nicer, cleaner and ultimately we just felt better about the experience staying there. We decided to try using the Las Vegas monorail to get to our dinner at Margaritaville at the Flamingo Hilton hotel. $20 later and with very sore feet after walking through the MGM Grand, New York and Flamingo hotels - we arrived and checked in for dinner.







Dinner at Margaritaville is much more about the experience and atmosphere, though the food is decent but not fabulous. David had the shrimp pasta, Kelly & I had fajitas and Josh had the BBQ ribs. All were tasty but not the best we'd ever had of each meal. Josh enjoyed getting a bumper sticker at the gift shop which reads "The weather is here - wish you were beautiful".

That night after almost deciding to visit the Shark Reef experience at the Mandalay Bay hotel, we decided to instead go back to the rooms and play the game Hollywood Blockbuster before bed. The next morning we had a light breakfast and dressed up for our first fine dining meal of the weekend. This time we drove the car and headed out to the Venetian hotel for our 11:30 reservations at Emeril Lagasse's Delmonico Steakhouse. We had the first reservation of the day and were able to have the restuarant to ourselves for the first half hour or so of our meal.






We decided to share appetizers so Kelly & I split the heirloom tomato, red onion and buffalo mozzarella salad which was served with watercress and a balsamic vinegar dressing. David & Josh split the lobster bisque which was served with a toast covered in lobster mousse. Both were delicious and enjoyed immensely. For our main courses we all went with steak - Kelly & I had the ribeye, Josh had the rib steak bone in, and David had the bone in NY strip. All were served with herb butter and house-made worchestershire sauce, steak sauce and bernaise sauce. We also got one twice baked potato which included cheddar and bacon for the table. We all agreed that these were the very best steaks we had ever eaten. A birthday serving of chocolate sorbet was brought out for me while we waited for our desserts. It was delicious sorbet, but even better things were coming. David enjoyed Emeril's banana cream pie, Josh had the chocolate peanut butter torte with warm blackberry caramel, and I adored my individual pecan pie with oatmeal shortbread crust, caramel and homemade vanilla bean ice cream. Kelly decided to try something savory instead and chose the cheese assortment. It included 5 different cheeses, with accompanying items as well as some sliced baguette. First was a goat cheese served with champagne grapes, then a camembert served with cherry preserves (her favorite), cheddar served with blanched and glazed almonds, next was a brie served with honeycomb and finally a blue cheese served with green apple. She kept referring to her cheese plate as "heaven in my mouth". All in all it was a very expensive, very delicious, and very delightful experience and I would highly recommend it.

That afternoon we decided to spend more time relaxing in our rooms and trying out a new game - Bohnanza. We knew we needed at least an hour's time to get from our hotel to Caesar's Palace where we had dinner reservations at Rao's. After changing into our fancy clothes, we headed out and this time were able to valet park at the hotel.





Dinner at Rao's began well. The restaurant is dark and cozy and our waiter Shaun was very good even though he was quite busy with many other tables. We began our meal by splitting two appetizers - Bruschetta al Pomodoro e Carciofo (Bruschetta with tomatoes and artichokes) and Mozzarella in Carrozza (breaded and fried mozzarella served with sauce). Both were very delicious and in my opinion the best part of the meal. For our meals, David had the Gnocchi alla Bolognese, Kelly had Risotto ai Gamberi (risotto with shrimp), Josh had Scaloppine alla Romana (veal with artichoke, proscuitto and sage) and I had Uncle Vincent's Famous Lemon Chicken. For my taste I did not love any of them though they were all good. The lemon sauce was a little tangy for me, but Kelly and Josh both loved it and finished off the chicken I couldn't eat. Josh ended up liking Kelly's risotto better, so they switched meals midway through. David enjoyed his gnocchi but was unable to finish as they were so filling. For dessert Josh, David and I shared the profiteroles as there were three in the serving, and Kelly had the cannoli which was quite delicious. All in all it was not my favorite meal, though Italian food is also not my favorite. Kelly seemed to enjoy our dinner the most as she loved everything we ordered, but of course Italian food is her favorite. It was nice to try something new.

That evening we enjoyed finishing our game of Bohnanza and then Josh & I went back to our room and watched the movie Baby Mama which surprisingly more clean, touching and sweet than I had orgininally expected and we both enjoyed it. The next morning we got up earlier, packed and checked out of our room by 9:30am and headed back to the Venetian hotel to have brunch at Bouchon. They do not take reservations for brunch, but thankfully we only had a 20 minute wait for a table. We had two great waiters helping us and the restaurant and atmosphere were really nice. A bit fancy, but not too fancy that we ever felt uncomfortable.












The restaurant is located in the Venezia tower on the 15th floor, so you have to take an elevator near the check-in desk in the lobby to get there.






It was quite beautiful inside and they also had outdoor seating available as well.














The daily specials were listed on the chalkboard, but our server also went over them for us. He really seemed to want us to order the Crispy Pork Belly appetizer which was served with roasted beet salad, but we really did not feel like having that for breakfast...or ever. :)





They quickly brought out some yummy butter and homemade respberry preserves and eventually some delicious warm bread came out as well.






I decided to go with an all pastry breakfast so I ordered freshly made spiced beignets covered in cinnamon sugar and served with preserves and Nutella. They were delicious by themselves, but truly outstanding with the Nutella. Yum!



I also ordered the pastry assortment basket which came with a warm fresh blueberry muffin, banana muffin, pecan sticky bun and fresh croissant. I let David and Kelly split the blueberry muffin as I don't really like them, but they said it was delicious. The banana muffin had a crumb topping and was quite tasty and moist. The pecan sticky bun was absolutely yummy with a sugary glaze and cream center. The croissant was the very best one I've ever had - amazingly flaky on the outside and warm and buttery soft on the inside and was so delicious with butter and raspberry preserves. I also had a mocha to go along with my meal...but eventually all the sweetness got to me so I had to take some of it home. :)



Josh got one of the daily specials - Steak & Eggs. While he was not as impressed with the steak the meal was filling and the potatoes served with it were divine! :)





Kelly got another special - Quiche Lorraine which was served with a mixed green salad with vinaigrette dressing which she said was delicious and just right to cut the creaminess of the quiche.






David tried the Croque Madame served with pomme frites. I had wanted to try this, but was unsure about how a fried egg would taste on the top of the sandwich. It was delicious though...and the pomme frites were all deliciously crispy and yummy.



For dessert, Kelly & I decided to share the cheese plate. We chose a Camembert, cheddar, and a semi-hard sheep's milk cheese. They came served with apple, honeycomb and toasted bread. All three cheeses were delicious - the camembert was especially good on the bread with some of the raspberry preserves and the sheep's milk cheese was delicious with the apple.


All in all I would highly recommend Bouchon and would love to eat there again for brunch, and perhaps someday for dinner as well. Our weekend in Vegas was full of delicious food and many new experiences. I'm glad we all had the opportunity to go and that we had quick drives there and back...as well as fairly good weather considering it was August in the desert. I would love to go again...specifically to Delmonico and Bouchon.

Tag - ...again :)

Find pictures to fit the categories in Bold - enjoy!

Hobby: Reading, reading and more reading :)

Dream career: owning/working in a cozy little bookstore maybe with a cafe attached

Favorite flowers: roses and hydrangeas

Favorite vacation: either Walt Disney World or Hawaii

Dream vacation spot: Kerikeri, New Zealand

Favorite place to shop: I love to shop at the grocery store - it makes me so happy to find yummy things to eat. But I also enjoy shopping at many other places too.

Favorite color: Pink

Favorite restaurant: BJ's Restaurant & Brewhouse is one of my fav's

Favorite movie: too many to count, but currently Mamma Mia! :)

Guilty pleasure: reality TV especially The Hills and Denise Richards:It's Complicated

Born: Desert Hospital in Palm Springs, CA

Tag - You're it!

Directions: Once you've been tagged, you have to write a blog with 16 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 10 people to be tagged, listing their names and why you choose them. Don't forget to leave them a comment ("You're it") and to read your blog. You can't tag the person who tagged you. Since you can't tag me, let me know when you've posted your blog, so I can see your weirdness~


1. I tend to sneeze a lot, especially at my job in the library. Most often I sneeze in pairs, sometimes more. And I am a very loud sneezer so typically several people bless me, including more than once people from way across the library.

2. I dislike driving most of the time because I hate how crazy other drivers can be and the fact that they rarely follow the traffic laws, especially speed limits. Driving on the freeway scares me and so I never drive on the freeway.

3. However, I do love to drive sometimes because it gives me the opportunity to listen to my music. I like to listen to the same song over and over again...sometimes as many as 10 or more times in a row. But I will never subject others to this as I know it could be annoying. I love to sing along and even sometimes try to dance too...but it tends to look stupid and make me take my mind off driving, so I don't do it often.

4. I like to color coordinate the hangers in my closet with the clothes hanging on them. This means that I try to have a yellow shirt on a yellow hanger, blue on blue, pink on pink...etc. But if I can't match then I try to find a complementary color to hang it on.

5. Some of my favorite foods include chicken tacos, flying saucers, salmon - especially teriyaki or bbq flavors, creme brulee, lemons, roast beef, roasted vegetables, chocolate and spicy sweet Doritos.

6. I try to drink water every day and usually add lemon slices to it to make it tastier. In a 32 oz. cup this usually means anywhere from 4-6 lemon slices. In my iced tea I like even more lemons, probably 8-10 in a similar size cup.

7. As I child, I liked to pretend that Noah (yes, the biblical figure) was made miniature and lived in a water pipe outside of the credit union where my parents went. My sister and I would say hello to him each time we'd visit.

8. I love roses and they are my absolute favorite flower to receive. My favorite color rose would be light peach or pink...but I also adore yellow, cream, orange, bright pink, lavendar, red, and multi-colored ones.

9. I love to read books and try to always be in the middle of reading something. I try to read from multiple genres, but several keep my interest the most. I love books about travel and food, any books about someone's year of doing something, juvenile literature can be interesting, romantic novels, mysteries, basically much fiction and non-fiction. Check out my goodreads profile to see the many books I can at least remember reading and plan to read and am currently reading. http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/107921

10. I am so excited about going to Vegas in October with my best friend Angela to see Bette Midler in concert. We love her and have talked about going to see her for a long time. We're going to have such fun! :)

11. I love the color pink and I'm currently in the process of redecorating my bathroom to be pink and black with a kind of Parisian, Ooohh la la, dresses/heels/bags/makeup look. It's going to be so lovely...and expensive...but beautiful!

12. I love high heels and would love to own some gorgeous Louboutin heels someday. But, I hardly ever wear them since my feet/legs are not used to them and they kill me. But they are sooooo pretty!

13. I much prefer to be barefoot if I can and if I can't I'd rather wear flipflops then any other type of shoe. I own somewhere around 20 or 30 pairs of flipflops, but typically wear only 4 or 5 pairs over and over.

14. I would love to travel around the world someday and my top priorites (that I haven't already been to) would be - Bali, Australia and Kerikeri New Zealand, Hong Kong, Tokyo, France, England, Ireland, Italy, Greece, Brazil, Grand Cayman Island, Virgin Islands, Georgia, Louisiana, Maine, and Alaska.

15. I once visited Prairie Dog Town, the Corn Palace, the Tulalip Indian Reservation, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Cayucos CA and many other locations while traveling around the US with the Royal Servants 10:10 Team over the summers of 1996 and 1998.

16. I've been dying my hair since I was about 16 years old. I have been dark brown, red, blonde and black haired over the years along with highlighted a few times as well. I do this because I enjoy the change....but probably my favorite color on me is red. Most likely people who know me have no idea what my natural hair color is...and pretty much I don't even know what it is and that's ok by me. :)


I tag only those who wish to do so...but let me know if you do so I can read about you! :)

Best Friends & Nights Out

Originally planned as a last night out before surgery (but thankfully Kelly's surgery is cancelled for now), our dinner last night at the Elephant Bar with our best friends was a great success. Kelly & I wore two of the new dresses we bought a few weeks ago at Dress Barn - mine is one of the infamous travelling dresses (let me know what you think?), and Kelly's looks just super-flattering on her. We each had our best friends in attendance - each other first of all and then Kelly's best friend Amanda and my best friend Angela. We enjoyed a delicious dinner, yummy desserts and wonderful conversations. We took a ton of pictures of each other in various groupings...some are here, others are on my MySpace account and many more are on my computer at home. :) Kelly & I left saying that we needed to do this kind of evening again with this same group. Thank goodness for best friends and fun times together.

We were laughing about something...not quite sure we even knew then exactly what was so hilarious. These are our new dresses - hopefully they look as nice as we think they do. :)

Best friends since high school - Keri and Angela. We took several great pictures last night, but this is one of my favorites and is Angela's favorite. I'm so greatful for the blessing of her friendship.

Best friends since college - Amanda and Kelly. We also took several good pictures of them, but many were on Amanda's camera instead of mine. This is one of the best though.

Mamma Mia!

This movie is amazing...fabulous...just great! I had seen the stage production a few years ago with my parents and though I'd never really heard or cared for ABBA before, I loved the music, loved the story and just loved it. I bought the CD that night and listened to it so often that I actually wore out the CD and Josh lovingly bought me a replacement copy. When I heard that they were making it into a movie I was intrigued and knew that I had to see it. I could only imagine that the movie would be beautiful - with a location like Greece how could it not? but I wondered how they would incorporate the music...the whole plot and much of the dialogue stems from the ABBA songs...so would this be a musical? How would they do it? I couldn't wait for it to come out...and finally this past weekend it was here. We saw it on Saturday afternoon along with my parents, Kelly & David and a huge crowd of all ages, though mostly women. The movie began with the waters around Greece...bright gorgeous blue with light sparkling like diamonds...as Sophie walks to the mailbox singing "I Have a Dream" as she mails the invitations to Sam Carmicheal, Bill Anderson and Harry Bright. From that moment on I was hooked...happy...and dying to sing along!

Though I loved the stage version, the movie was so much better in a variety of ways for me. Many of the songs I had never really warmed up to, but watching it larger than life on the big screen I was amazed to discover how much more interesting and understandable the story became. When you realize that basically this story stems from visually expressing the lyrics of all these ABBA songs and tying them together into a story that not only makes sense but also is interesting....it just blows me away to think about it. Songs that before were just okay are now favorites since I've seen the emotion and story connected to them - SOS, The Winner Takes It All, Slipping Through My Fingers...these three specifically really touched me.

Meryl Streep is phenomenal...she has such joy, such visible emotion in this role and not too bad of a singer. When she sings Mamma Mia I loved how much she got into the emotion and feelings of the song and literally rolled around....it was great. And her song The Winner Takes It All was full of passion, emotion and just blew me away. All of the casting was great. I loved the men - Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth and Stellan Skarsgard. They were perfect and though at times it was a little silly to see them singing...I love that they took this chance with their reputations and had fun with it.

Fun is the best way to describe this movie. It is all about fun, joy, happiness, silliness, and just being all out what you feel. These actors are not professional singers and because of this they don't sound perfect. But they sound full of joy and just happiness at being able to be in this movie. The fact that they aren't perfect just makes it that much more realistic and that much more fun. I had to go out an buy the movie soundtrack as soon as we finished watching the movie - and thankfully it was already out and able to be purchased. I like what what written in the insert -

"Although none of the actors had much experience in the recording studio, they were undaunted and completely at ease singing the classic ABBA songs. The sessions were a joyous process which you can hear on this recording, that not only brings back that fantastic experience of watching the film, but also perfectly captures the heartwarming, feel-good spirit that is MAMMA MIA!"

It is soooooo true...this is a heartwarming, feel-good movie and you must see it! Enjoy the fun that it is...it is not supposed to be too deep, it is not supposed to make you think too much...it is all about joy and love and fun. Keep those thoughts in your mind and let yourself enjoy the joy that it this fabulous movie. Also, make sure you stay for the credits, they sing two more songs and their outfits alone are worth the price of admission, at least that's what my sister said. :)

And if you hate it, don't tell me...my mind it made up and I LOVE it! :)