Hotel Del Coronado

Well today was my mom's last day here. We started our day late so we only got two things in.. we took her to see what Frank is doing at his new command and we checked out Hotel Del Coronado. We've wanted to walk threw the hotel since we first saw it but always have the dogs with us so we've been waiting for the right chance. It was really cool going there during the holidays, they have up all there decorations. And the best part...

The ice skating rink on the beach! ha You can see the layer of water on top, I have no idea how people weren't falling over more. What was even better is that behind me there were people in there bathing suits by the pool. Now if it were in the 80's.. or even the 70's I could understand being by the pool. But it was in the 60's!! I was layering up ha.

The Blind Side

What a nasty day today ended up being! I was a little upset when I woke up this morning to find out it would be raining on and off all day. I new it would be cold, but the rain was a suprise. I told my mom she got to experience a little bit of Christmas with us, and our first "storm" while living here ha. I was hoping to use our last full day to see a few extra places... but we ended up being lazy for most the day. Not something I like to do while on vacation, or while someone is visiting us on vacation.

I did know that I wanted Mexican food for dinner, which ment we'd go to the place by Grossmont. I figured we could try seeing 'The Blind Side' since it hadn't worked out on Thanksgiving. We ended up being done with dinner about an hour before the showing, so we headed over to Target to wonder around.
I found these really cute Christmas pillows I wanted to get for the couch, but they were $20 a piece! Oh well maybe a different year...

I loved this movie! I'm a sucker for true stories, and this one had me good. It was just an awesome all around movie done well. I've heard that the book is really good as well, so i'm thinking since this true story doesn't have an ending that will leaving me bawling my eyes out {Marley & Me!} I might try to find the book. I'm thinking it might be on shelves more since the movie is doing so well. WHICH BY THE WAY! You would never know since Twilight opened around the same time. ARR. Sorry Twilighters but this movie desereves the top spot for it's story.. don't hate :] ha

Day 3=THE ZOO!

{THIS WAS WRITTEN YESTERDAY BUT MY LAPTOP GOT A HUGE VIRUS OUT OF NOWHERE WHILE I WAS ABOUT TO POST THIS.}

If any of you dared to shop on Black Friday {or sadly had to work}.. i'm sorry! We spent an awesome day at the San Diego Zoo :] We've been wanting to go, and once my mom said she was coming down for a visit we knew the zoo was a must. We thought that Frank could only use his free pass for being Military once a year, but we're happy to find out he can go whenever he wants. I was told that I would get in free once as well.. but that did not happen. I did get a 10% discount for being a dependent though, so not so bad.

We got there around 10:15 and left around 3:15. We could have easily stayed until it closed an hour later, but I had a headache and we were starting to get cold so we decided to call it a day. The zoo is never boring I absolutly love going there! I hope to go again in the next few months.. a Sea World visit is due first.

I'm going to try hard to not post all my pictures.. it will be hard. While I was trying hard to take great pictures with my average camera people would come up next to me with there awesome cool nice cameras snapping away... I got a little sad about that. They didn't want to trade with me. I'm not sure why!? ha

Happy Thanksgiving♥

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving with friends and family. We went to Mission Trails this morning for a walk, it was such a nice day for it. We walked up to the old damn and let the dogs cool off then headed back.

After we went home rested and showered we went looking for a place to eat. We ended up going to La Strada for our Thanksgiving dinner. It was really good! Expensive, but my mom paid so I didn't mind ha. We tried to go see 'The Blind Side' at a few different theaters but all the showings were at least an hour later and we didn't want to wait at an empty mall that long. So instead we decided to rent a movie from Blockbuster and have a lazy night. All in all i'd say it was a good Thanksgiving :]

Day 1!

I wasn't sure if I was going to do one huge post after my mom left, or try to post everynight. I will have HAVE to post everynight ha. Today we got up early {okay Mikey and I had to get up a little early, my mom is normally up early. Frank was at work} and headed out to Cowles Mountain. We had origonally planned to go back to the area of Mission Trails we went to on Sunday, but decided to try Cowles. I felt so bad because I had told Mikey it would be an easy walk.. SOOO WRONG HA Cowles was all up hill with a few spots to rest. Oh yes it was also all rock!! We had a great time, the dogs all got dirty and we ended up with great pictures! I can't wait to hike the whole thing one day. Enjoy the emense amount of pictures...

Break Time

I don't know what i'd do without my morning walks, it seriously gets me going. We haven't gone the long route in a while since we haven't been able to walk much lately. Today we {okay I ha} decided I wanted to go the long way to get a little more of a workout. We actually did it pretty fast too! Frank came looking for Mikey and I on the bike once he got home... weird thing was, we were talking about him ha. I was complaining about the fact that he didn't take leave soon enough and now he's going to be working just about the whole time my mom is here. ARRR i'm super pissy still about that.

On a side now.. I was looking out at Ellie sleeping on there bed outside just now, and I was wondering where Molly was. She wasn't laying in the window and I didn't see her out back. I knew she wasn't in the spare since I have it blocked off so they don't get the futon all dirty before I set it up for my mom. So i'm looking out there wondering where she might be. She was laying right next to Ellie!! HA She completly blended into the fence, I felt stupid ha. We tend to lose them at the beach sometimes when they are far away because they blend into the sand.

I really should get back to cleaning, I don't have anything to blog about but I just needed a break. I wasn't feel to well... I think I need a nap. Thankfully I don't have much else to do before we have to go get my mom. I am very excited for dinner though! We already plan on going out since I don't want to cook late, so i'm going to suggest Olive Garden :] We haven't had it since we first moved out here.. irronicaly my mom was here since she helped us move. I've been craving it for months, but we never have enough money. Thankfully my mom knows that we have no money and any trip down here means she has to pay for quite a bit. One day we will be able to take other people out for a fun night.. one day...

Well I guess I should get back to cleaning.....

Exhausted

I am so ready to just lay on the couch and pass out! How nice that sounds.. maybe in a few more hours. I guess I should be happy we slept in this morning instead of getting up at 7:30 like planned {Frank has to be able to nap in the afternoon since he works mid-check (graveyard)}.

Early in the afternoon we went out to Mission Trails for a hike. This was our first time going there, which is a suprise cause it's the closest place to hike near us. We really enjoyed the hike and scenery, and the fact that there were a million little trails you can walk on. We did about 2.5 miles but man it seemed like alot more! We decided that we need to get actual hiking boots rather than wearing our tennis shoes.. ahh one day ha.

Don't worry you don't have a smudge on your computer, our camera is broken and gives us that lovely "U" shaped object in the top left corner of the pictures. I dream of the day that I am able to get a really nice fancy camera :]

Dinner time! For dinner tonight I knew I was going to be making... ((this was from last night, my computer decided to stop loading anything and I was gone half the day at the park)) ....CHICKEN, MUSHROOM & PARMESAN WITH ORZO  from For The Love of Cooking. I decided I want to try making mashed potatoes for the first time in YEARS! I'm not that good at cooking two or more things at once.. and this wasn't a good time to try. I started with the potatoes and once they were on the stove I started the orzo. The whole time I was cooking the orzo dish I was freaking out that it was going to be horrible because.. well that's how it looked. This was a dish I was able to have big chunks of chicken for Frank, he loved that!
While I was cooking the orzo dish I had Frank mash the potatoes, but to my dismay they were not done cooking :[ So I had him nuke them in the microwave.. for like 10 minutes all together! We started eating the orzo dish once it was done while we waited for the potatoes. I was very happy to find out everything turned out rather good, both dishes.

I went searching for a mashed potato recipe that was really tasty and did fine one. I ended up making it my own way since I didn't want the potatoes to be as thick as the recipe called for. I'm sure the way I made them is nothing new to some, but it was for me so I was pleased.

Wash potatoes then slice and chop up {I leave the skin on} place in large pan and fill with cold water to just about the potatoes. Let boil till fork tender. Make sure they are done!! HA Heat butter in a skillet over medium heat. Add minced garlic and cook till browned. Add milk and let simmer to your liking. add it in to the mashed potatoes, add just a tad bit of pepper and mash up! YUM YUM. ((I just put what looked like a good amount of everything into the dish, there was no measuring))


I don't have pictures for either because the camera was charging from our day out.

Now for TODAY {Monday}! I took the dogs out to Balboa to go for a walk and hit up the dog park. I have no idea how much I walked because I just followed the signs and had no idea where I was going, so I decided to turn around and go back the way I had come. It was a long walk that's for sure! We ended the walk at the dog park where of course Molly and Ellie were the mean dogs. Something we are STILL trying to get them to stop. They had fun, they met lots of other doggie friends while getting dirty. Molly had to play in the mudd puddle {I so wish I had my camera for that! It was just her face though} and dirt pile there. She was in heaven ha. As i've mentioned before we have Frank's cousins jeep till next summer while he's in Afganistan. Today I decided I was going to take the jeep out to the park. It was fun driving it, i'd drive it everyday if we could afford the gas ha. We normally only drive it twice a week to keep it working. Frank asked if I felt big in it.. it's a lifted Jeep Wrangle {manual even better!}.. I told him I felt slow ha.

Well this was long enough :]

To sell or not to sell!?

I've been meaning to put up pictures from our dinner and dessert the other night. I made ZUCCHINI FUSILLI from cookinglight.com and paired it with a simple side salad. It was super easy to make and turned out so good! I wasn't too sure what Frank was going to think of it so I made him some chicken to take to work. He ended up putting the chicken in the pasta and really enjoyed it that way. If you don't like zucchini then you really should just skip over it..

For dessert I made BANANA, BLUEBERRY AND RASPBERRY MUFFINS from For The Love of Cooking. If you remember i've made these before, but was missing the blueberries. Oh how good they turned out :] I could have easily devoured them all within 24 hours, but was smart and sent them to work with Frank after eating 2.. or 3. I guess they were a hit because someone yet again told Frank they would pay for my cooking. We've been talking about it {selling food to people he works with} but i'm not so sure about it. We don't have the money to buy the ingredients.. and enough of them! And I wouldn't know how much to sell stuff for. Humm.. right now i'm enjoying just cooking new things and being able to put a smile on someones face if they like it. Good enough for me. Anyways here's a few pictures of the amazingly awesome muffins..

Now for some more goodies... I had 2 bananas that needed to be used soon and I had 3 apples I was wanting to use with the bananas. So I went searching for a banana-apple bread. I found one that looked pretty tasty at COOKS.COM. The recipe calls for walnuts that I did not add in {Frank and I both hate baked foods with nuts, but love eating walnuts by the hand full:]} and it calls for a whole stick of butter! I just eyed it and added a few spoon fulls of butter, which seemed to work just fine. I thought i'd try adding to the recipe a bit.. it's not something i'm good at yet, but I remember the other banana bread I made from For The Love of Cooking and the spices she used went perfect. So I put a dash of ginger, some ground clovis, and some cinnamon and nutmeg to the mix. It turned out amazing! I was so proud of how I was able to turn something good, into something amazing.

I was smart this time and made two small loafs rather than one large one, and shockingly they both turned out done this time! ha I'm going to bag one of them up for Frank to take to work tomorrow night, and am thinking about giving a few slices to our upstairs neighbor Holly. All I know is that if I keep it in the house too long... it will all be in my tummy!

Frank suggested that I take pictures of all the ingredients before I cook so that people can see what i'm cooking with and what's going in the dish. I said I had thought about doing that but I have just been linking everything I make to the blog or website I got it from, that way they get the credit they deserve. So I might start doing both... we'll see if I can remember to even take a before picture.

Onto something completly different. Today we gave in and finally got Ellie a new collar. She's been in need of a new one for quite some time now, but we haven't had the money to get her on. After spending too much time looking at all the pretty collars at Pet People we decided on a green collar with flowers on it. I'll try to get a picture tomorrow. I wasn't going to get one for Molly since hers is just fine, however the more I look at the both of them the more I want a new pretty one for Molly ha. So next month I think i'm going to buy her one so she can match Ellie :]

First Ride

Today we took our first motorcycle ride since moving to California! Boy it's been a long time since i've gone for more than a short ride, my buns and hamstrings aren't happy with me at the moment. It is pretty exciting finally having the bike registered cause there is lots of places we can go for rides too.. yippe :]
Tonight we out to Ramona and I guess Frank was planning on connecting to the 79 then to the 8 to bring us home, but we were too cold and didn't even make it to the 79. It was really weird cause we would go through warm areas then it would get chilly then warm then chilly.. haha then our of nowhere we hit this freezing cold section that made me scream out of shock ha. Once we got back towards Lakeside and Santee it started warming up... and staying that way. We were still shivering though.. for those of you up north don't hate were complaining about 65 degrees haha.

On our way back I told Frank to stop at Panara Bread so I could get a bowl of Clam Chowder... yummm. They only serve it on Friday's which I never seem to get there for, and since I was already planning on making soup and was cold it was perfect timing. I didn't realize how much I wanted the soup until I had finished off the soup and the sourdough bread bowl it came it. Woops.

I was going to take pictures on the ride today {and man they would have been good!} but I was busy enjoying the new scenery. So instead I thought i'd post a picture of Nicole getting ready for her first motorcycle ride...

Can you tell she was a little nervous!? They hadn't even moved yet and she was hanging onto him for dear life. I think Frank was nice and didn't take her too fast... I think ha. This was back in March/April when Nicole came to Virginia to visit us. Frank had just traded in his old bike for a bigger one and was always eager to take anyone out on it {for those of you who want to know it's a Honda CBR 1000} I don't think there are many of you who read this that care to know that though.

Solid Gold

A couple weeks ago we bought the 'Seameal Powder with Flaxseed Meal' from Solid Gold. I love this stuff!! It has done wonders for Molly and Ellie's fur and Molly used to have a little bit of redness in her eyes {something she's always had} and since using this it has taken it away. The only reason it took me so long to buy it was because I thought it was too expensive at Care-A-Lot in Virginia. I was very wrong ha it cheap there. I did find it at Pet People for a decent price but I think i'll shop around online to see if I can find a better deal.

The reason I knew about the Seameal was because I used to give the dogs Solid Golds 'Flaxseed oil', and that was doing great things for there fur as well. I'm thinking about adding it back into there daily feedings.. but of course it all comes down to money ha.

I should really endorse there stuff for them :]

SOLD

I'm happy to say that yesterday we sold the truck! We ended up selling it for less than we wanted, but we weren't suprised. It was still registered in Virginia and needed work done on it to pass a smog test here in California. One guy that looked at it said we could easily get $1,500 for it if everything was up to date, but since it wasn't we'd probably get less than we wanted.

 For those that don't know it was a 1992 GMC Seirra with 100 something thousand miles... it was nothing special ha Frank had mostly used it as a work truck. We ended up selling it for $1,100 cash and said that was good enough for us ha.

Of course after the truck was gone Frank wanted to get the bike registered so he can start riding it. We had cancled the insurance on the truck the other day and started insurance on the bike. Okay we've had this bike since spring time {don't remember when he got it exactly} and this is the FIRST time we have finally put insurance on it! I didn't want him to get this bike because there was nothing wrong with the one he had, he just wanted something bigger. Well the payments were a little more and we were getting ready to move and just had no money to insure it... months later haha

We decided to put a couple hundred on each of our credit cards since the intrust is killing us, and I told Frank I wanted to "waste" money on one thing. A kitchen table! I serisouly don't get it, when I have the money I can't find anything that will work in our tiny apartment. And when I find something I like, we have no money! It's really starting to drive me crazy.

I thought i'd share a few pictures of the dogs....

Molly asleep at her post

Neither of them wanted there picture taken, they have no choice! ha

AAHHHH that's molly talking to me

My turn :) and yet again they didn't want a picture

Happy Cleaning

After a week of no cleaning [darn cold!] I am finally giving our apartment the deep cleaning it needs.

If you know me then you know this is something I find fun :)

Happy Cleanings to you all! haha

Holy Carrot!

We've always givin Molly and Ellie steamed carrots with there dinner, so I knew they liked them. Tonight I had a small ziploc bag of carrots I was munching on, and every time I took a bite Molly would come running! It was crazy she could be anywhere in the apartment or outside {our apartment and patio are small} and she would hear that bit.

They were just going absolutly nuts over the carrots tonight!

I would throw a carrot for them to chase and whoever got to it first would grab it and run like it was the last thing they were ever going to eat!
Ashley told me that her dogs go crazy over the meat from Natural Balance. I'm hoping to get some tomorrow and am curious to see how Molly and Ellie react over it ha.

We got ourselves some crazy crazy dogs :]

This is why you're fat!

Ever wonder why so many American's are obese? Check out this site This is why you're fat. I was eating an apple while I was looking at all this stuff and some how the apple was even making me sick!

Looking through that site made me glad I don't eat meat. uhhh I just can't believe the things people will eat. I will admit though, I would try the first one. The cupcake kebabs :) i'm pretty sure I would only be able to stomach one or two bites at the most though.

I heard of this site this morning on the Today Show. They had a few things for Kathie Lee and Hoda to try, I opted not to watch ha. I was listening to them and some of the things they were pretty grossed out by.

Seriously who would spend there time coming up with these... death foods!?

umm umm good

I've never been a fan of winter, so moving to southern California was something I was excited about. So far i'm liking fall/winter for like... the first time ever! Even though it's not that cold I still like to do fall things, like making soup. Curling up with a nice bowl of soup {we still have no table :( } is comforting in a way. Maybe it's just me!?

I saw these potatoes on For the love of cooking a little while ago and have been dieing to try them! I love potatoes but hardley ever make them, so these were something I was looking forward to. What I love is that these are full of flavor.. good flavor not just covered in johnny's.

With the potatoes I decided to make the bean and bacon soup from For the love of cooking, but of course I didn't add in bacon. I try to add meat in for Frank if possible, but i'm really glad I didn't with this soup. The flavor alone in it was amazing. I did however, add in a little oregano and basil for a little extra something.

I'm not too sure if Frank even liked the soup because he only tasted it last night {he had to help our friend.. read below} and apparently didn't eat anything last night at work. Normally he tells me if he doesn't like something.. so i'm curious ha You can go here for the Hasselback Potatoes, and here for the bean and bacon soup.

Last week our friend Mikey was out and about when the battery in her husbands truck died. It wouldn't be much of a problem but her husband has been underway latley and she only has 2 people to call.. me being one of them. Thankfully for us Frank is home sleeping during the days, so we headed her way to help out if possible. Frank had asked a few questions about what happened so he knew what to bring {he brought his whole towl box ha}. She told him that there lights turn off automatically when you turn the truck off, so he decided to take the battery out of the truck. So to make a long story short, yesterday mikey and her husband went to get a new battery at autozone and the.. not so smart... employee tried to tell them it wasn't dead. I don't know much, or anything about cars but I knew there battery was dead! So last night in the dark frank changed out a few car battery's.. that's his kinda fun!
I just realized that whole story was probably pointless and boring ha.



OHHH I almost forgot to do a Nick update!
Monday's are his weigh in days, and yesterday he lost another 2.2 pounds.

He has 36.8 pounds to go till he gets to his goal weight...

And has lost 143 pounds since April 13!!

WAY TO GO NICK!! KEEP UP THE HARD WORK : )

Back and Healthy

It feels like ages since I last blogged! Last week I was fighting off a cold that thankfully, was not too horrible. It did however leave me with no energy to do much.. my house got the worst of it :( One thing I did make sure to do was make dinner, I needed a good meal at the end of the day.

I guess i'll just jump into everything you've missed out on....

Pumpkin Butter! I heard about this on a different blog and thought I could manage it. The recipe is from all recipes, and what I love about it is that you can change the quantity. I should have done that cause I can't go threw it all.. it's about to make it's way to my garbage! It was so yummy with toast and butter. I'd like to try apple butter but so far the only one i've found has to be done in a crock pot which I don't have. One day.

YUMM!!!

I had already planned on making Chicken noodle soup, it just seemed to work out perfect that I was feeling under the weather. My friend Mikey has the flu pretty bad right now, so I took her some since her husband has been underway the last few weeks. The soup turned out good, I was just disapointed that I over cooked it and the potatoes turned into there own soup and made it really thick. I also thought I shredded the chicken big enough so I could pick it out of my bowl.. not so much, I had a hard time making sure I wasn't eating any meat. This of course came from one of my fave blogs for the love of cooking!

Friday was my friend Ashley's 23rd birthday, so at her request I made her the double decker pumpkin pie. Since we have no money to get her a card I tried writing "Happy Birthday" on the pie ha

I'd say she likes it :]

After we dropped off Ashley's birthday pie we headed up to Huntington Beach to meet up with our friend Haysel. They're friends of ours from Virginia, they are stationed in Texas right now but Haysel and the kids our back home in Cali for a few months. Haysel is staying with her mom who lives in Palmdale so we decided to meet half way. It was so good to see them [[well minus Erik he had to go back to Texas before we could see him]]!!

While we were waiting for Haysel and the kids we got some Del Taco and got some grilled chicken for the dogs. I love this picture of Ellie ha!

I guess now that Leiian is in school Julyssa has been really needy, I didn't mind :]

Frank is like a big kid when he's with them ha

Walking Ellie. The dogs did so good, we were so suprised and happy.

Last week I found these fall recipes at for the love of cooking, and thought they seemed worthy of trying. The first one we tried was maple and brown sugar acorn squash. It wasn't too bad! It was one of those things that I don't know if i'll make again, but we eat alot of it because it was okay.

The second one I made was baked butternut squash. Mine looks burnt, but it's because I accidently put on WAY too much cinnamon. I was pretty excited about this one because it smelled so good cooking, but for some reason it wasn't fully cooked when it was done. I could have kept cooking it but with the way it already looked because of the cinnamon I was afraid of actually buring it. I would like to try this one again.

Last night for dinner I made campanelle with roasted vegetables and marinara. OHHH it was so good! I thought I had asparagus so I can't wait to make this again but with all the ingredients!

I don't know why but last night before cooking dinner I decided I wanted to make banana bread since i'm always looking for a good recipe. This one was pretty tasty, but since I only have one loaf pan and it was being used for the apple pumpkin bread {keep reading!} I thought it would be okay to cook it in a small pan. It did work okay, but the middle didn't get cooked fully. So I just cut around the gooey parts and sent the rest to work with Frank.

Along with the banana bread I made Apple Pumpkin Bread since I had some pumkin mix to use up. Again I should have used two loaf pans but instead made one HUGE loaf. And again the middle didn't cook. This one got me upset because I checked to see if it was done and the knife came out clean. Well when I turned it to put it on the cooling rack this huge glob of dough fell out and the middle started to invert. This is one I really want to try again cause the few pieces I was able to salvage were so good! I loved the chunks of apple in it.

Halloween night after I posted the double decker pumpkin pie I went and made Apple Butter Pumpkin Pie, since it wasn't leaving a few hours after I made it like it normally does... I ended up eating just about half of it :( At least it was good ha.

Have you ever had the Baked Ziti from Olive Garden? I love it but can only ever eat such a small portion that it's pointless to order it. I thought i'd give it a try on my own the other day. I found this one at cooks.com. It wasn't bad, but it was still too heavy for me to stomach so i'm not too sure if i'll make it again. But it was worth trying!

PUMPKIN COOKIES!! oh these were so moist and yummy... hummm I got these at Seasonal Recipes and would love to make some more right now!

So good....

Blah

There really has been nothing going on this last week for us... it's kinda sad. Every day I think of things to blog about, but nada!

I have started getting ready for my mom's visit since she is on Weight Watchers. She can eat anything in moderation if she wants, however she hasn't eaten sugar [[unless it comes from a fruit]] in a few years. I really just want to make sure she has lots to eat that she likes! ha I've been thinking of all the places we can take her, and that she wants to go.. she hasn't been to San Diego in like 30 years ha.

That ours excitment♥

Pumpkin Pie

WARNING! If you are on a diet skip over this... it will KILL your healthy eating :]

The other day I made this AMAZING pumkpin pie. It's a Double Decker Pumpkin Pie I found at Seasonal Recipes. I can't even begin to explain how good this was... you MUST try it for yourself. Like always I had Frank take it to work after we shared a piece. The next morning when he came home he said that 2 people asked if they could buy it and another person asked for there own!! I couldn't believe it, it made me feel so special ha. I so badly want to make another one but i'm saving the ingredients to make it for Ashley's birthday next week.

We don't have a pie spatula so my piece looks like it was butchered ha, which it pretty much was while trying to take it out of the pie plate.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE!!!

Hope you all have a safe fun night doing whatever it is you plan on doing tonight. Frank has watch so I am spending my Halloween at home with the dogs and the TV. I'm thinking about baking something to pass the time... and eat :] hehe Tomorrow is the start of the holiday season.. to some, so have fun shopping and getting ready for the holiday's to come! I'm very excited for my mom to come visit and all the places we're going to take her!