Update: Frank

For those of you who hadn't heard yet, Frank will be having his surgery Thursday morning. He will be staying in Cuba so we're pretty happy about that. He wanted to stay to finish out his deployment and I didn't want him to have to be flying all over and packing when he should be laying (sitting/perched) down. I do wish I could be there to take care of him though. His roommates are being helpful though so I'm happy about that. I think I'll bake them some goodies as a thank you... hmm.

After Frank told me he was staying I was relieved to know that I wouldn't have to use our savings account money. But on the other hand I was so very grateful that it was there to be used if needed. It just made me want to work harder at paying off our debt so we can build our full emergency fund. That got Frank excited as well and he told me to have Ricky (his cousin who has Frank's car while he's gone) just sell his car to the highest offer. He was wanting to set the price a little higher at first because of the car, but now he just wants to get the loan paid off. He really wants a new motorcycle when he gets back but he knows we have to have the cash for it first.. so that's really been his incentive at selling his car ha ha.

Wow I feel like my mind wonders much more these days.. I can't even remember the last time I wrote an actual post that made sense! Guess that means it's bed time :]

Weekend recap

I've been playing and waiting for the 4th of July weekend for a few months now. I can now say it was a great weekend :) Last year at this time we were finishing up the last few days of our move and we're in Arizona. We spent the 4th in Flagstaff then a day in Goodyear visiting family. I was so ready to be done, I was in horrible pain and a bad mood. Not a good mix when you add in a DITY move. One I didn't want to do in the first place. So this year I was doing the long weekend the right way!

Since Frank is on mid-check his 4 day weekend started Thursday morning when he came home. We took a nap after he got home then I convinced him to go do all the shopping with me. He normally doesn't mind, but since he was running on 3 hours of sleep he wasn't so happy about it. This was his first time shopping at Whole Foods with me.. funny how the little things can excite a person. One of the things I love about Frank is his heart. He noticed this guy walking around the produce section for a really long time grabbing handfuls of food to eat. He had a basket with one or two things in it, but was spending more time eating food without people noticing. Frank said he wanted to see if the guy needed money, so with $6 in hand he walked in the direction of the guy. Only he didn't even know what to say, he didn't want to offend the man if he really did have money. So he never did end up giving the man anything, but I told him he's awesome for even thinking about it and trying to do something good... only he froze with words. I don't blame him I would have done the same thing.

Friday Mikey and I went on base to see Sex and The City 2 for free.. our favorite pass time these days! Loved it!! I told Frank he would have even liked it, it was pretty funny. He's seen the first one so he'd even know the story line ha. Instead he was off selling the motorcycle boots. We both know that we won't be getting another motorcycle for a while since we have a plan for paying off the last of our debt. We decided to make a little extra cash and sell our all gear. That way when we do get another bike, we can get new stuff. I've been wanting a new helmet and jacket anyways. We sold Frank jacket to our neighbors friend for $100 then the boots went for $120. Not bad! That also ended up being our spending money for the weekend. Normally it would have gone straight to savings, but since we had such a busy weekend ahead it worked out perfect.

Saturday was the fair! We were all excited about this day. We got to see Jeff Dunham! Eck :] We headed up north to Del Mar a few hours before the show so we could stuff our faces in fair food and ride at least one ride. As soon as we got there I had to eat since I was starving. We didn't even make it all the way into the fair grounds before we stopped to eat. Mikey and I got the worlds best nachos supreme (in our minds) and Frank got a corn dog. We go to a fair and get Mexican food, made by a white guy. I guess only in San Diego! Thankfully Frank was still hungry because our nachos were HUMUNGO! I think I just made up a word.
After devouring nachos we walked around to see what the fair had to offer. We ended up going on the fair wheel and Mikey and Frank went on the zipper. It's sad that $30 (or $20 I can't remember) got us that. One thing we knew we had to do while there was get a funnel cake. Apparently Frank had never had one.. not sure how that's happened. The first funnel cake I see was for a Mexican funnel cake. It had strawberries and whipped cream on top and looked so good. We got just the whipped cream and some chocolate and caramel syrup. It was a churro cake if anything ha. Amazingly good. But not a funnel cake by any means.
By now it was time to go find some seats for the show. We were up top in general admission so of course all the good seats were taken. Pooey. We still had a great time. I can't wait to see Jeff live again!

After the fair we went and met up with Franks cousin and his family who were in town for the weekend. They were the ones we stopped to visit in Arizona last year so it was nice to catch up. We've been wanting to get out there way... but Frank has been lazy about finding a time that works. They had invited us to the zoo with them the next day, but we already had plans for soak city. I'm glad we ended up not going with them because my lower back kept giving me a few twinges of pain all day Sunday and walking the zoo would have been torture.

Sunday we slept in.. well I did. It took Frank an hour to wake me up. The weather wasn't as warm as I had hoped it would be, but it was still in the high 70's so it wasn't bad. The 4th of July was military application at all Knott's parks. Frank was free and I got in at a discounted price. It was pretty slow so I was very happy about that. I'm also pretty sure it was full of Marines. Not hard to tell since almost ALL the guys we saw had some sort of Marine Corps tattoo. I kept saying we were the lone Navy.

We spent about 3- 3 1/2 hours there going on almost every slide and ride we could (FUN!!) then headed home to clean up and have a mini BBQ with Mikey. It's not a good idea to host something when you all are tired. We forgot about the corn on the grill and Frank over cooked my veggie burger making it mush just about. Thankfully the corn still turned out good. I'm wanting some more right now : ] After dinner we headed out to North Island to watch the fireworks in the bay. I wasn't sure how many others would be going out there as well and luckily it wasn't too bad. We got there about an hour before the show started and were able to get a good parking spot and a good spot along the water. We were lucky enough to see 6 firework shows. Three were in the harbor and going off simultaneously, except for the one by Seaport Village that started a little late, and three were off in the distance that we could see. It was an amazing 4th of July! I hope to continue going out to base for the show while we're here, and maybe next year our BBQ will be a bit better.

I hope you all had a great weekend! Pictures to come, I'm too lazy to edit any and post tonight. It's late and I have a busy day tomorrow. Happy July to all!

What a weekend!

Well our weekend started off on the wrong foot. Frank woke up Saturday morning to find that his motorcycle had been stolen. He called the cops and let the apartment assistant manager know as well. The manager isn't working this weekend so on Monday she'll go through the security tapes to see what she can find.

Many people have commented on how mellow we've with this. To us theirs nothing we can do. It happened, we just have to make sure everything else is taken care of and move on. Frank will get another bike at some point. We just don't know when that will be yet.

We also found out that a car was stolen from our complex that same night! Crazy stuff huh. This is very new to this area so the manager said she's asked for more security at night through here. This also doesn't mean we are going to rush out and move. This kind of stuff is unfortunately everywhere, much more so lately. Frank and I have both said we wont be moving until we can move into something with a garage or yard! Which means we'll be here in our apartment for quite some time :)

The day wasn't completely bad. We went to talk to AT&T to see what kind of plans they had since we've been looking around lately. They were the only provider that offers 550 minutes on a family plan! I was sold. We also got a good deal on unlimited text and Internet, much better than what we had with Tmobile. Frank chose the iPhone and I decided to go with a brand new phone that wasn't even out yet. The backflip. It wasn't coming out till today (Sunday) so we had to wait one more night. I was fine with that, I don't think Frank was.

That night we went and saw Valentine's Day since my mom had given us free tickets to Regal. Yay! We loved the movie, it was so sweet I highly recommend it to anyone who hasn't seen it.

We were told that we should be to the AT&T store around opening at 10 so I could get my phone cause I'm guessing they didn't have many to give out. I had the sales lady hold one for me though. We set the alarm for 9 and still didn't make it out of bed till 10. Fed the dogs quick then headed out to get our phones.

Within an hour of being home I realized I liked the iPhone much much more! For some reason I had this idea in my head that the iPhone was hard to use, had horrible smudge marks etc. How wrong was I! I had figured out the iPhone within minutes and had never figured out mine the whole 3 hours I had it. I do like the backflip I could recommend it to anyone who has AT&T and is looking for a new phone. The camera on it is AMAZING!! I've never seen a camera on a phone that good or zoom in that far. That was the one thing I wish the iPhone has. Oh well I know have an iPhone along with Frank.

Food catch up

I realize I haven't done a food post in a little while, but don't worry I've been a cookin' still. I have been bad at taking pictures of everything. We've been having big lunches before Frank goes to work then I just have leftovers for dinner or whatever I can find. Because of the change up of cooking I've been slacking on the pictures.  Anyways here are some things that have come out of the kitchen...

Marinated Flank Steak from The Pioneer Women. This was a two part post for some reason so you can go here and here to check it out. I marinated it overnight since there was no way I was getting up before the sun just to marinate meat that I wasn't even eating. Frank said it was really good and would definitely have it again, I just loved the smell of the soy sauce and ginger :)

I tried making the Macaroni and Cheese from The Pioneer Women as well, it didn't turn out that well but I think I know where it went wrong. I put in too much dry mustard, used egg white beaters since I was trying to use them up, and instead of the 2% she suggested I used low fat. Next time I think I'll get a little carton of whole milk to use and I'll make sure to use an egg. Whitney over at The glamorous life of a housewife tried this one as well with her P.W cooking challenge. Hers didn't turn out well either. What what Ree does to make hers turn out so amazing?

Since getting the second Costco cookbook from my cousin Danielle for Christmas I've only gotten around to making a handful of things out of it. Not having the computer to use for recipes for awhile gave me a reason to find all my meals out of it. The other night I made the asparagus barley risotto {here}, it was super easy to make if you don't burn the onions. It ended up making the whole thing taste off, and once it cooled off it hardened up.

Another one from the second Costco cookbook was Beer-lime grilled streak. You add whatever beer you want to the marinade, Frank liked it.. if I ate meat I'm sure I would have as well. I don't like beer but I love eating stuff that was cooked or marinated in it. Not sure why.

I can't remember if I posted about the lemon bread? If I did just skip over this one..
This would have been much better if I didn't put on the glaze, it was just too much! The rest of the bread was pretty tasty though. You can check out the recipe here.

I saved my favorite recipe from the Costco books till last, again I can't remember if I've posted about this already or not. I've been fighting a headache all day so forgive me if I've been repeating things...
Cold vegetarian sandwich! Mmm mmm good. I'm craving one now :)

I made the dogs another dressing from the cookbook my mom got me for Christmas {it's food both you and your pets can eat! All healthy of course.} This time I borrowed Mikey's food processor and made the Spinach-Avocado Dip. Now I'm sure some of you are thinking you can't give a dog avocado. I've heard that a few times before, but Molly and Ellie love them. The love this new dressing {I add it to there morning feeding} but I think it's stinking up my fridge :(

Now to change the subject... our neighbor got himself a motorcycle today, he's been talking to Frank a little about his since he's been looking. Anyways he just got it tonight. I put the cover on Frank's bike so he could park his next to the jeep. After he came back from taking his bike out with another friend Molly and Ellie got all excited... but wait why isn't daddy coming inside? They went running to the front door waited there, ran back to the backdoor standing there confused as to why daddy came home but didn't come instead. I got a good laugh out of it ha. Guess they have to get used to another motorcycle since they know the sound of Frank's.

Here's a picture I played around with last night on Picnik. My new obsession.

New name?

I've been thinking about changing the name of the blog, I just can't think of anything fun. As to why it's been our last name so far. My creativity is less than stellar so I'm calling out to anyone with some good ideas.
Please help me! :)

Hope everyone is having a good Valentines Day. I'm not a fan of the holiday {it really shouldn't be considered one}, you should give love all year round not just on one day. For those of you who are celebrating the day what will you be doing with your significant other!? Last year Frank and I went to the Melting Pot and man oh man was it amazing! I plan to go there at least once a year. My wallet can't afford more than that.

I was hoping to spend the day out at the beach with the dogs but Frank is going out on the bike for the day and I don't want to take the dogs myself.. I don't have the strength in my back yet to pull the dogs out of the many fights they would most likely start. Oh well I guess I'll spend my day cleaning, the apartment could really use it.

Beautiful!

Sunday Frank and I took the bike out for a ride up into the hills by Jumal and came out behind Alpine. It was a gorgeous 80 degree day so we knew we had to take advantage of it. Frank had found this route just by looking at roads on google maps.. ohh it was a good one. We had someone riding with us, so if it was just us I would have had him stopping every 5 feet to take pictures ha. Since the roads we were on had lots of curves I ended up not getting many good pictures.. but I was able to get these.

As I sit here writing this, I'm thinking about what I need to get done today. When I first went to the doctor for my back he told me I should do yoga to help strengthen my lower back in hopes I would have no more pain from my sciatica. I'm not exactly the yoga type person so I've been putting it off for months. Last night I finally gave in and went and bought a yoga DVD. Now once I finish with this I need to pop it into the DVD player and hope for a good outcome! I guess you'll get to hear about it later this week!?

Don't forget for all you Biggest Loser fans the new season starts tonight!!! yay :]

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.