The Perks

There are some really good perks to living in Southern California. Yes the rent is OUTRAGEOUS and traffic is almost ALWAYS horrible.  But its sunny and warm about 340 days out of the year. The beach is a 10 minute drive from our house, Disneyland is 15 minutes away and I have to admit its beautiful here. It is completely different from Washington. I always said I would never live in Southern California because they don’t have real trees. To me palm trees aren’t real trees! you need the pine tree covered mountains and lakes everywhere. But against my better judgment I have been falling in love with the palm trees, the heat and everything to do with southern California.

We don’t go to the beach that often but when we do I am completely in awe of how beautiful and mysterious the ocean is. I don’t go completely in the water because I am too afraid of the animals I can’t see. 

Disneyland is a short drive up I-5. We go to Disneyland about every 3 months it seems. But we go to downtown Disney a lot to look around at the shops and eat at some of the amazing restaurants. I am loving living so close, we have a little mismatched store, rainforest cafe, jazz kitchen, house of blues, and some really nice shops in downtown Disney. definitely a good perk to living here!!!

the three people in front of us got SOAKED. thanks for taking the splashes for us!!!!

 

Southern California is growing on me for sure. But nothing beats the beauty of Washington.

 

 

Goals while we live here.

Go the Beach at least twice a month. More during the summer. I definitely need to soak up the sun down here while I can!

Take pictures of the beauty around southern California. The view from where I work

recap of march + Easter

March was an interesting month and I need to write this down!

The beginning of march was awesome. Nothing exciting just a lot of time spent at home and with the hubby. The good stuff started on Saturday the 20th. Deric and I ran a bunch of errands during the day and then went to the beach because it was so nice outside and we hadn’t been to the beach in a long time. After playing in the ocean for a couple hours and then playing in our pool where the water was warm, we came home to get ready to go out for the night. I was super excited to go hang out at the mall. The Irvine Spectrum mall has an awesome pet shop that I had been to a couple days earlier and saw a dog that I really want. So Deric and I decided to go hang out there for the night. Look at the dogs, eat some dinner and go to a movie! A great date night in theory! As i was getting ready about 7:00 I started getting really bad pains in my left side. I laid down on the bed for a little bit thinking they would go away. After about 10 minutes of constant SHARP pain I told Deric we were not going out and I got into my PJs and laid on the couch.  So you know the point into pain where you start thinking “if this doesn’t get better in 30 minutes I HAVE to go to the Dr”. That is how bad it was. But the whole time I was thinking, this is gonna go away, I am gonna be fine and we can go out. Well no it didn’t. I told Deric he had to call our friend Alden to come over and give me a blessing and that we needed to go to the ER because all the urgent cares and Drs offices were closed. Alden came over and Deric and him gave me a blessing. Which it was amazing because it was the first time that Deric had participated in a blessing. so we left the house around 9 to go the ER. (never go to Kaiser). we got all checked in and around 10:30 we had a room. They put me on fluids and pain meds and told me I could have  CT or I could go home with pain meds and see if it gets better in 24 hours. If not I needed to come back for the ct. we went home. it was 12:30 already and I could barely keep my eyes open. so long story short we came back sunday night around 8, got the CT and the drs told me I had a cyst on my ovaries. we left at 3 am. it was awful.

Monday morning I got an appointment with a doctor to get more tests done about my cyst. well come to find out i had a 2mm cyst which is TINY and that I had other things that Kaiser failed to tell me. I have diverticulitis and gall stones. Diverticulitis means I don’t have enough fiber in my diet and its causing pockets or pouches on the outside of intestines causing me pain. I have completely had to change my diet and can no long eat red meats and I have to limit white meats and bleached rice and wheat. so pretty much i eat veggies non stop and brown rice. It hasn’t been too bad. But I do have to make sure that everything has loads of fiber in it. the best thing I have found is the Yoplait plus blackberry pomegranate yogurt. ohh my its delish! On top of that they found out that my reverse t3 is super high. It means I am stressed and causing my to gain weight uncontrollably it all makes sense now!!!!!

On a better note! Its Easter today and it also is my niece Heidi’s 6th birthday! We had my brother and his family over for Easter dinner and we celebrated Heidi’s birthday. and I guess there were tons of earth quakes that rocked around here today but we didn’t feel a thing. I guess that is good since the girls were up here but that is like the 5th quake I have missed feeling since living here. super bummed about that!

Last weekend Deric and I drove to Sacramento to celebrate Natalie's 8th birthday, Tara’s birthday and my nephew Nathans 6th birthday. all 3 birthdays in 1 family in 1 month. how crazy! March is crazy busy for birthdays in my family. We had a lot of fun. It just happened to be opening season for little league baseball in Natomas Park so we were able to see Nathan in a parade and go to the opening ceremonies. But we didn’t get to go to his opening game because poor guy got really sick. My brother Jon and his family came as well from Washington. It was fun to see everyone together. here are all the pictures to document March and Easter!!! sorry this is so dang long I had to get it somewhere!!!

  oh yeah and we went to mid evil times in February!! totally forgot!

  Jillian got her sucker stuck in uncle Deric’s hair!!!!!

   

Heidi blew out of her candles for the first time BY HER SELF!!!! This is huge!!!

Little Miss Megan

I have heard through the grapevine that some family members of mine have been waiting patiently for pictures of this new little family member of ours! and since she is 1 month old today I guess today is a better day than any other to post about pictures of her!

Megan is my parents 22nd grandchild and my 12th niece! she is adorable!! my brother Jason now officially has his hands full with 3 adorable girls! I am so LUCKY to live so close to them and get to see his 3 girls often! I am so excited to watch little miss Megan grow up!!!

cooking up a storm!

I have decided that 2010 is my year to start really cooking in the kitchen!!! most of the time I just become lazy and make chicken and some sort of rice. Not that my husband has any problems with that, but I am getting sick of it! I scoured through all of my cook books and came up with a good list of recipes I think will become fast favorites!

Last night I made chicken enchiladas! here is the super easy recipe!

3c. finally chopped cooked chicken

1c. chopped onion

1/4c.margarine- i used olive oil instead and not even that much

2 1/2c. hot water

3 chicken bouillon cubes

8oz sour cream- i use more because I LOVE sour cream

2c. shredded cheddar cheese

1 4oz can chopped green chilies

corn or flour tortillas i used about 9

cook onion in margarine or olive oil until tender. stir in four, the water, and bouillon. cook and stir until thickened and bouillon dissolves. Remove from heat and stir in sour cream. in large bow, combine 1 cup of the cheese with the chicken and chilies mix well. pour a very thin layer of sauce on bottom of a 9x13 pan. fill tortillas with chicken mixture. roll up. it doesn’t take a lot. just a spoon full. spoon remaining sauce over rolled tortillas. sprinkle with remaining cheese. bale at 350 for 25 minutes.

super easy and makes great leftovers!!!!

 

Tonight I am attempting to make my first ever lasagna! i will let you know how it goes! the making it process was super easy! just how i like it!

tuesday, tuesday……

My poor husband is completely passed out on our bed right now. He has been since about 8:00. This is a very rare occurrence. We normally don’t go to bed till after 10. I am very used to that schedule hence why I am blogging. We just got a new queen sized bed! I LOVE it! But its weird having so much room sleeping! We are trying to pick out paint for the room so of course i have to test it on the walls before i buy!!!

I love re-decorating and re-organizing my home. I do it a lot. It probably drives Deric crazy. I am always adding new accents to the living room or buying new pillows. Doing some sort of craft to go in the house. But I have to say that my new favorite piece that I added to my living room is this beauty!

I bought it up in Spokane in June at the Farm Chicks show with my mom. I saw it at a ladies booth right when we walked in the door. I went straight up to her and asked her how much for the french doors (my mom has the other one). She said she wasn’t planning on selling them but if we could wait until the show was over on Sunday to pick them up we could have it for 50 bucks! I said yes without even asking my mom. It has been up in Spokane for some time now, but luckily Derics grandparents love us very much and moved it down here for us on their way to Arizona! Now its in its my living room adding so much to my decor!!!!

January?

Where did January run off too? I feel as if 2010 just began! but we are already into the 2nd month. that just boggles my mind!

January was packed full of fun!!! Right off the bat we went camping. Well what you can call camping for California. We were in a trailer/mobile home park where they just happen to have a little place for campers. The downfall on the Thursday before we got there, there was a big fire that broke out just up the road. we didn’t know this at the time. So alllllll night Friday night there were fire trucks driving up and down the road. we were completely confused and pretty upset because we didn’t get any sleep. But after we found out why they were up there we got okay with the situation.

I also learned some very important lessons camping. When cooking in a Dutch oven make sure and pre light the coals before you put them on top of your oven. The lighter fluid leaks through and “seasons” everything inside. A word to the wise, Peach Cobbler and Lighter Fluid are not a good combination. It has a very bad after taste.

I can’t wait to go camping again when its a little warmer outside. We had to have the campfire going most of the day. and I can’t wait till more of the campsites open up and we don’t have to camp in a trailer park.

23 years!

I turned 23 on December 30th! The day started off with a shopping trip with my mom and sister to our favorite store in Spokane! THE TRELLIS!!!!!!!

This is my favorite decorating store ever! LOVE this place! So sad we don’t have one in Southern Cali. Next we headed to wal greens to get some hair dye (that they didn’t carry). When we got back into the car, the car was dead. so we called my dad to come to the rescue!!! too bad he went to the wrong wal greens! hence this picture!

and of course he forgot his cell phone so we couldn’t tell him to turn around and come to the wal greens on Sullivan and sprague. we saw him drive by. but after about 20 minutes of waiting the car started on its own! i guess we were jus supposed to sit in the cold for a while and take funny pictures!

When we got home Deric and I went up to Stacy's house to claim Deric’s prize of the candy jar! every year the Julian family has a big jar full of candy and they have everyone guess how much is in it! well Deric was 2 off! there was 274 in the jar and Deric guessed 276! and of course i had to make a trip to see miss Addie Grace!!!

 

 

 

After a nice dinner and play time with my niece and nephew we headed to my sisters house for cake and ice cream!!!!! All my sisters were there and my mother in law! it was fun to have a nice relaxing time with family! my husband and mother in law spoiled me with an old fashioned pop corn machine!!!!! my brother in law todd was super jealous!!!! I LOVE popcorn!!!!! it is so fun to watch and makes me eat even more of it!

 

 

after presents and cake and ice cream Deric and I headed out to go bowling with friends!!! I broke 100 which is amazing for me! it was so fun to bowl with good friends! I really have missed hanging out with all my friends! so it was nice to hang out for a couple of hours!!!

All in all it was a fun birthday and I am glad i got to spend it in Spokane! But Disneyland for my 22nd year was fun as well!!!