Late Night Out

David and I haven't stayed out late on a weekend night in ages! I think both of us, enjoy our sleep way too much to stay up late. On Friday night though, we couldn't figure out what we wanted to do. It was nice for once to not really have any plans. For awhile, we tossed around the idea of going to Disneyland. We threw that one out quickly, as it has been colder than normal the last couple of days. We eventually decided to mix it up a bit and go out for dinner and head down to LA.

We got dinner at Salsa Mar, which is a great little Mexican restaurant, in Dos Lagos. We used one of the gift certificates, that David has bought from Restaurant.com. We ate a ton and even had leftovers for lunch the next day. I still can't get over how great the deals are at Restaurant.com and how come more people don't use them. Anyways, we had a great dinner along with some yummy chips and guacamole.

After dinner, we then headed down to LA to watch The Daylights, play at the Troubadour. We had never seen them play live and they put on a great show. My brother in law Noah (it's still weird to say brother in law, hehe), joined them on two songs and played the pedal steel. We don't get to see Noah as often as we would like, so it was good getting to see him, even if it was a short visit.

We left LA at about 1am and by the time we got home and got to bed it was after 2! I can't recall the last time I was up that late! Since we got to bed so late, we then slept till 11:30 the next day. All day Saturday though, I kept thinking it was Sunday and that I had to go to work the next day. We don't normally go out on a Friday night, so the weekend felt a lot longer than usual. The weekends always feel to short and never long enough so this was a nice change! David and I both agreed, we need to do this more often!

Pizza, Pizza!

I am not really a big pizza fan. Well maybe its more like, I don't really like it. We don't have it very often in our house. I can count on one hand, how many times we have had it at our place actually. David could eat it everyday and not get tired. Sometimes, when I say I don't like pizza, he will jokingly say, "That's it, the weddings off!". Well it's already a little late for that! :)

The other day though, I was happily surprised when I tried Papa John's, Spinach Alfredo Chicken Tomato pizza. I figured it was just going to so so, but it was actually really good! I even went back for another slice!

I told David we could order pizza anyday, if I can have this one!

Oh, Too Short of a Weekend

This last weekend turned out pretty good! We started with a party to celebrate the launch of our friend's new website, OutdoorPros.com.

Tim- I have already added OutdoorPros.com to my blogroll, as I know you would eventually ask me everyday, till I succumbed to your request.

Anyways, if you want cheap camping equipment or anything outdoor related head on over to OutdoorPros.com. David thoroughly enjoyed himself at the party. He got to be part of a small informational movie, in which he, described what bear boxes are and how they are used. Put him in front of camera and he always has a blast. When they post it, I will definitely need to remember to post the link on here!

Saturday, we met with a financial planner. We went over everything from wills, life insurance to planning retirement. It's nice having a plan and acting on it. He gave us a list of things to do for homework! I'm not in school anymore and I am getting homework! :) This is good homework though.

The highlight of the weekend for me was when we FINALLY went to Portillo's Hot Dogs, in Moreno Valley! The place was jam packed, which I am hoping is only temporary, as they just opened. I got myself, the Chicago style hot dog I wanted. It was very good! Scott and Rachel joined us and they liked it as well. David and I walked out the door spending $10.00 on lunch, which is awesome. It is definitely going on my list of places to regularly visit. If Moreno Valley is too far for you, they also opened one in Buena Park.

The rest of the weekend was spent relaxing. I took a nap both Saturday and Sunday afternoon which was great! We went to bed early Saturday night, so we missed the hail. I would have loved to have seen that, as it doesn't happen very often out here. We did go to sleep listening to the rain though.

Overall, it is was a great weekend, but like always never long enough!

"Chicago, Chicago that toddling town. Chicago, Chicago I’ll show you around - I love it. Bet your bottom dollar you’ll lose the blues in Chicago." Frank Sinatra

100 Posts

First things first, this is my 100th post. Wohoo!! It took me much longer to get to this point, than I ever thought it would. But I made it and now onto the next 100 posts!

You will now be returned to the regularly scheduled programming.

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Boy, am I glad today it is Friday. This time change has really affected me. All week, I have been extremely tired in the evenings from getting up that hour earlier. Hopefully, this weekend I can recharge and get my internal clock reset to the new time. I am most definitely looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow morning. Eventually, I will be liking the time change, but until then waking up and driving to work before the sun has come up is miserable. There should be a law banning this.

This week, also brought about the most absolute ridiculous diesel prices ever. FYI, I drive an older Mercedes which uses diesel. I drove past the gas station this morning and it is now $4.09 a gallon! I don't even want to hear about anyone complaining that regular prices are high. They aren't even close to the diesel prices.

Gosh, this post is all about me complaining. On a nicer note, I heard about a new restaurant while listening to the radio the other day, called Portillo's. What caught my ear was that the restaurant is from the Chicago area and they have Chicago style hot dogs!
I was so excited, because I haven't had one since the summer of 2002, when David and I went back to Indiana. We haven't been yet, which is driving me crazy. We unfortunately started our new budget for ourselves this week. Why, this week darn it! Oh well, if I haven't had one in 6 years, I can wait another week.

I hope everyone has a great weekend. I am even looking forward to the rain and TGIF!

Dangerous Thing Called Chocolate

I love the store, Cost Plus World Market. I have blogged about it before, but I didn't go into how I really like their store. They carry so many great and different items. I love their throw pillows and blankets, along with their furniture. They also have lots of little goodies and food from all over the world.

I was hanging out with a friend last night, when we stopped by to take a look. I saw some cute place mats, but couldn't justify spending money on them considering, as I already have some that were similar. :(

Rest assured though, I didn't come home empty handed. I bought some chocolate covered Marizipan, that was made in Germany. Since my mom is British, I grew up with having Marzipan quite often. Every year for Christmas, she would make a fruit cake that was covered in Marzipan and icing. I never really liked the fruit cake, but I would always sneak pieces of the Marzipan off!

Anyways, I have already eaten the entire bar. I have no will power, when it comes to chocolate.! I also got some Aero bars. They are one of my favorite British candy bar's, along with Flake's. The Aero bars come in many different flavors, but I like the milk chocolate and mint the best! The best way to describe them is that they have holes of air in the car bar. They melt in your mouth and taste oh so good!

Overall, it was a good visit. I had a wonderful time browsing and getting ideas for the apartment, along with having some girl time. We don't get to go very often and I wish it was closer. In reality, it's not too far away, but with traffic it can take you 30 minutes to get there! I guess it makes it much more special, when I do get to go!

Blue Eyes

Our kitty Ella, is extremely hard to photograph. She has the prettiest, blue eyes ever. Even when using the red eye on the camera, she still has the red eyes. Take off the flash and she is too quick and moves. To get a good photo of her, you need her in almost a direct light. This almost never happens at our place, because we don't have many windows, the joy of apartment living. Second, we have a lot of trees out front, so we don't get a lot of natural light.

The other day though, I was extremely lucky to catch a picture of her, while she was sitting in the window.

Spring Is In The Air

Ahhh, I love Spring! I just wish, we had more of a Spring here in Southern California. Its seems like we have either Hot, Hot, Hot Summer or Winter. Even then most of the time, our winters are pretty mild. I feel like we jump straight from Winter to Spring. Maybe it's because I spend the majority of my life in a little office or sleeping and not outside!

I thoroughly enjoyed the weather we had this weekend though. David was out of town on a guy's trip, so I did a lot of relaxing. It was very nice not having anything specific to do. On Saturday, I got a pedicure, which I have sorely missed. I hadn't been in several months, as I just couldn't justify spending that money, when my cute toes wouldn't see sunlight because of the weather. I go to LV nails here in Riverside and they always do a great job.

Afterwards, I headed over to Trader Joe's to do a little grocery shopping, that I didn't need! I admit, my reasoning for going was to pick up some fresh flowers and some wine. I love their flowers and I really wanted to bring the Spring into the house. I put the flowers on the kitchen table and they look so pretty.

I am sad to report though, that none of the seeds that I planted in the backyard grew. I am thinking either the seeds were too old or they didn't get enough sun. Not sure which or if both were the cause. I might have to change my plans for the backyard and incorporate more shade plants. One nice thing about our backyard, is we have a flowering tree which is currently blooming and it is so pretty.

Yes, Spring is definitely here!

Beautiful Blog

I was reading Seeking Faithfulness, when Holly urged her readers to check out, Confessions of a CF Husband. This is an amazing blog, about a Nathan and his wife Tricia, who has Cystic Fibrosis and their journey towards Tricia receiving a double lung transplant. They were preparing for her transplant, when they found out Tricia was pregnant. Her doctors urged them to have an abortion as both Tricia and the baby's life was at risk. They prayed and decided to continue on with the pregnancy and put Tricia's transplant on hold. Gwyneth Rose was born at 25 weeks gestation and has been in the NICU for the past 2 months! Tricia has recently been placed on the active list for a transplant and is now waiting. Their family has many more trials ahead of them.

Go check out and read their story of love, strength and faith in God. I know you will love it as much as I do!

Confessions of a CF Husband

I'm strong to the finish, 'cause I eats me Spinach

Spinach always makes me think of Popeye and how he used to eat it and become really strong. I loved the cartoon growing up and have always thought of it being very nutritional for you, especially high in iron. Since, I have been on a huge spinach kick lately and eating a lot of it (I have had it 4 times in one week), I feel like I deserve a pat on the back for eating more healthy.

Today though, in effort to keep myself entertained on my lunch, I looked up the nutritional facts for spinach. I was actually quite surprised when I read up on it. It is rich in Vitamin A, C, E, and K. When it came to the Iron though, because spinach is also high in Oxalates, it makes it hard for our body to absorb the Iron. I will let Wikipedia explain it for you.


According to Wikipedia:

"The larger portion of dietary iron (nonheme) is absorbed slowly in its many food sources, including spinach. This absorption may vary widely depending on the presence of binders such as fiber or enhancers, such as vitamin C. Therefore, the body's absorption of non-heme iron can be improved by consuming foods that are rich in vitamin C. However, spinach contains high levels of oxalate. Oxalates bind to iron to form ferrous oxalate and remove iron from the body. Therefore, a diet high in oxalate (or phosphate or phytate) leads to a decrease in iron absorption.

Hmmmm, to me that sounds like they cancel each other out. Well, I'm not going to stop eating it, as:

• One it tastes really good
• It has other nutritional value
• I want to be strong like Popeye. I can dream can't I? :)

"I'm strong to the finish, 'cause I eats me Spinach, I'm Popeye the sailor man!" - Popeye

How We Met

David and I met November 2001, when I was a sophomore in college. I had invited some friends over one Saturday evening to hang out. I remember opening the door to let everyone in and my friend James gave me a hug when he entered. James was always a huggy person, so this wasn't unusual for him. Then in walked this random guy, whom I had never met before, and he immediately hugged me as well. I was a little shocked, as I am definitely not a hugger by nature. I was thinking to myself, what is the guy doing!?!

He introduces himself as David and we eventually get to talking. He asks me all these questions and found out that I liked Weezer and was a Christian. He was immediately hooked. I was soon hooked as well, as he was good looking and funny. After exchanging info and saying goodbye, I was on cloud nine and I was thinking to myself, Thank You God for introducing me to this amazing guy! Meanwhile, David had told his friends parents, that he had met the girl he was going to marry. Awwww! :D

He was supposed to call the next day, but never did. I waited and waited, but nothing. I was pretty bummed out, as I really thought we had hit it off. Now, I could have called him as I had his number, but here I was thinking that I got stood up. I wasn't about to call him and look silly.

Later, that evening, I was checking my email and noticed that he had emailed me. I thought to myself, hmm I wonder kind of excuse he is going to have. Basically the email said, that he had a great time the previous evening and he tried calling, but no one answered. As I was reading this. I was thinking, "Oh no! Did I give him the wrong number?!". I then read the last line and he asked if xxx-xxx-xxxx was the right number. Turns outs, I has accidentally switched the last two digits around! I was mortified and I felt so bad! Here he was thinking this entire time, that I had blown him off!

I nervously called him and I probably apologized, over and over again a thousand times. Luckily, he thought that the entire situation was kinda funny. I remember that we talked for quite awhile, on the phone that night. We made plans to see each other the next night, which was the start of our next three dates in three days!

Looking back, the entire situation makes me smile as we were so young and silly. Little did we know, that 5 and half years later we would get married!

Here are some photos of us through our journey of getting to know each other (please excuse the horrible picture quality of some of these as they were taken before we had digital cameras):

This one was taken about a month after we met. We are sooo young here! Robyn: 19, David: 21

We took a trip back to Indiana to see my parents and we visited Chicago as well. David was very excited to go to a Cubs game!

Lake Michigan

Our 1 year anniversary: We went to Santa Barbara, CA

Catalina, CA

Lake Arrowhead, CA

Near Prineville, OR

Tagged!

I have been tagged by Sher! Thanks!

1. Link to the person’s blog who tagged you.
Sher's Corner

2. Post these rules on your blog. Check!

3. List seven random and/or weird facts about yourself.

A. As I have mentioned in previous posts, I grew up in Indiana, but most people don't know that I was actually born in Johannesburg, South Africa. And no my parents weren't missionaries and I wasn't born in a hut! Long story short, my mom's family was British and sent my grandfather all through out Africa for work. My mom spent most of her life growing up in Zimbabwe, which was for a long time the British colony Rhodesia. My dad was born and raised in Chicago, but decided he wanted to go to the University of Cape Town for college, where he majored in African Studies. After, graduating he was traveling and walked into where my mom was working and the rest is history.

B. I moved to Indiana, where my grandma was living, when I was 3 years old. I don't remember anything of Africa. My first memory was us arriving at my grandma's house. Why couldn't I have just remembered a little bit earlier? The first time I ever saw snow, I didn't realize it was cold and I ran outside with no coat or shoes on!

C. When I was younger, I used to take horse riding lessons. I loved it so much. I was always looking forward to my next lesson. I would love to have some horses but I know they are expensive and a lot of work. Maybe one day.

D. In middle school, I was a huge dork. I had big glasses and my parents didn't have a lot of money, so the clothes I had didn't help either. I was also in band and played the flute. Once, middle school was over I got contacts and saved my birthday and Christmas money to buy my own clothes. I joined the soccer team and soon the dorky days were gone!

E. I love Chicago! The city is full of amazing sites and museums. I especially love the Art Institute of Chicago. You would need a good couple of days to through and see everything! I also can't forget the Chicago Cubs and Chicago Style hot dogs. Wrigley field is right in the middle of the city and it is such an experience going to a game there. I love the Angels, but nothing compares to going to a Cubs game!

F. I grew up Lutheran and didn't become a Christian till my freshman year of college. I had always hated going to church when I was younger, because it was always so boring. My parents didn't help either, as they would basically just drop us off and didn't go themselves. I moved out here to California, to go to school at Concordia University, Irvine, which is a small Lutheran school. I was placed with 3 roommates that were actually not Lutheran, but they were Christians. They enjoyed going to church and I couldn't understand why they wanted to go. They invited me to go with them one day and I did. Boy am I glad that I took them up on their invitation! My eyes were opened and I realized what a sinful life I was living. It has been about 7 and half years since that day.

G. I met David in 2001, when I was a sophomore. I had some friends over one Saturday evening to hang out. My friend James came over with some of his guy friends, that I had not met. I remember opening the door and James gave me a hug when he entered. In walked David, whom I had never met before and he immediately hugged me as well. I was thinking to myself, what is the guy doing? Knowing him now, this was not an unusual thing for him, but at the time I thought it was weird. We started talking and as soon as he found out that I liked Weezer and was a Christian, he was hooked. I was soon hooked as well as he was good looking and funny. We made plans to hang out again. Little did I know, I gave him the wrong number!

I am going to leave everyone in suspense as to how it ends! If you want to know the rest then you will just have to come back tomorrow! :)

4. Tag seven random people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs.

Now, who am I going to tag? Here are 5.

Courtney at Mama's Haven
Melissa at Life Among Other Things
Amy at Musings of High School Teacher
Angelina at The Shoebox
Nanette at Say It, Don't Spray It

5. Let each person know that they have been tagged by posting on comment on their blog.

Good Coffee and Good Music

What more can you ask for? The other night, the hubby and I went to the Coffee Depot here in Riverside, to watch his brother play. His band plays country, rockish music and has been playing together for several years. They have opened for some big name people like Tim Mcgraw, Dirks Bentley, and Brad Paisley, along with many others. I really enjoy listening to the them play in the past, so I was excited to hear they were playing in Riverside.

When we got there I ordered a White Chocolate Raspberry Espresso. I love white chocolate's, but I have never had one with raspberry in it. It was very light and creamy and oh so good! The Coffee Depot, used to be the old train station here in Riverside. I believe it was built in the early 1900's. I want to say 1904, but I may be wrong. So the place has great old feeling to it and they have lots of comfy couches to sit on and relax. They have a separate room off to the side where they have live music every night.

So I enjoyed my coffee and watched them play. I haven't heard them play in awhile so they had a couple of new songs that I had never heard. Best of all they played my favorite, Western Winds which I love. I had forgotten how much I enjoy listening to live music. It was a great evening.