Goings on . . .

It's been almost two months since I last updated. Sorry! My life has been super busy. As you saw in my previous post--I'm working and going to school 5 days a week, and my weekends are taken up with homework (reading), chores, and the occasional night out. The good news is, I'm halfway through my semester and only two weeks away from my week-long Spring Break. I've also been sick 4 times since Christmas, which is ridiculous. I was knocked out for two days strait this week with a nasty cold, but I'm finally feeling better.

Here are some pictures/recaps from our recent goings on:

Since I last updated, a few fun evenings have elapsed. In late January, Fernando and I drove down to the OC to attend Juan and Irais' housewarming party, and then spent the night at Fernando's sister's house. The next morning, we all went to brunch at the Cheesecake Factory with the gift card Fernando's other sister, Naomi, gave to us for Christmas. That was a fun trip.

This is the only picture I have from the housewarming. Fernando and I with our 'compadres', Gus and Alma. We call ourselves, Los Vasquez.

We attended an 80's themed birthday party for our new friend, Jen's, 25th birthday. Her boyfriend, Barry, is Fernando's boss/mentor at Pacific Sales. It was a fun night and everybody really went all out on their 80s costumes (including us).

Jen and Barry, our hosts for the night

Fernando and I dressed in our 80's costumes

My 26th birthday came and went. I had class on my actual birthday, but spent the rest of the weekend celebrating with family and friends. My parents took me out to dinner that Friday at the Lazy Dog Cafe, then I had a ton of friends meet me for drinks at The Lazy Dog Cafe afterwards. Tanya was in town from NYC that weekend, so my birthday was extra special. I was so happy to have so many friends come celebrate with me. I was running around like a madwoman all night socializing with everyone. Even though I had several drinks, I don't think I ever even got a buzz because I was running around so much! The next night, just Fernando and I went out for a fancy dinner at Craft (Tom Collichio's restaurant). The food was amazing and the service was even better. We ate veal sweetbreads for the first time and I think I can say that I'm a fan. I also managed to talk Fernando into trying a bite of diver sea scallop--and if you know Fernando, you know that is a feat since he HATES seafood. He actually liked the bite he ate and said it tasted "like bacon."

My family dinner

Fernando and I at the bar

Tanya and Emily joined me

My big sis made a surprise visit!

My girlfriends from "The Group"

Alma and Yvonne bought me this monster of a drink. I made them share with me.

After The Lazy Dog closed, we headed over to TGI Fridays to meet with the SFPS Crew. Here's me and Danny (he was my coworker and Winter Formal date in 11th grade)

Mark and me (he was my Senior Prom date). We go way back.

Fernando and I after we got home from Craft. I love my hubby!

Two weekends ago, Fernando, Gabe, and I took a random trip to San Luis Obispo just for fun. We stayed in a cheap hotel room not far from downtown (only $78 a night). We got into town around dinnertime on Saturday night, so we ate at our favorite Mexican restaurant in SLO, Poncho's. Afterwards, we went back to our hotel room to get dressed for a night out. Our first stop was at The Frog & Peach for some beers and live music. A really cute rock-a-billy band called Motel Drive was playing and we really liked their music. Then we moved across the street to Downtown Brew to meet Mona and Sonya and a couple other friends who were in town. Gabe had never been to downtown SLO before, and he really enjoyed the bars we took him to. The next morning, we stopped in Pismo Beach to visit mine and Fernando's "happy place"--Mo's BBQ. We walked on the pier a little bit. That was the weekend of the earthquake in Chile and the "tsunami" had done some interesting things to the shoreline at Pismo. Finally, we stopped off in Guadalupe to visit with Mona for a couple hours before heading home. Overall, a very fun 24 hour jaunt.

Fernando and Gabe--happy at the Frog & Peach

Me, Mona, and Sonya at Downtown Brew

Hubby and me at DTB

G-Money and me at DTB

Mo's AMAZING garlic fries. Drool-worthy.

Mo's BBQ sampler. Most of this came home with us.

Pismo Pier--look how far the water had receded

Fernando and I, of course

Okay, so I think that just about catches you up. Life is busy, but humming along. Fernando ordered his cap and gown for graduation this week. Getting pumped for that. I even went out and bought dresses already for Alma and Fernando's respective graduations. We filed our taxes early this year and already got our refund. We went ahead and bought two leather armchairs for our living room and they should be delivered on April 7th. I'm excited for those to arrive. We've also settled on some bookshelves for our living room's back wall. Once we install the shelves and get the chairs, our living room won't be so bare. We'll finally have someplace to put all our books and picture frames (still in boxes since we moved in LAST December). I'll definitely post pictures once everything is moved in.

~LOVE~

Scratch

Things that I am sick of:

The economy.

Bug bites.

Back pain.

Everyday at my work is an emergency. We're "running lean." This basically means there are too few people doing the work here, not enough product on our shelves to satisfy orders, not enough money in the bank to pay our vendors, not enough customers paying us money for the product we busted our asses to send out to them . . . and the cycle continues. Oh, and our bookkeeper (the smelly one I didn't care for too much) quit, leaving behind quite a mess (literally and figuratively). Also, my cousin just got laid off from his job and that sucks.

Everytime I go out in my backyard, I get bit by bugs. EVERYTIME. It's getting old.

I pulled a muslce in my back a couple weeks ago. The doctors gave me pain killers, but they don't do anything for me. I'm trying to wait it out, but if the pain doesn't go away soon, I have to go to physical therapy.

My brother-in-law, Gilbert, passed away on Memorial Day from a sudden stroke. Fernando and I went up to the funeral on Friday to pay our respects. My sister is now a widow. It breaks my heart. We will miss Gilbert a lot. Not much else to say about that.

The only good news I have to report is that Fernando go a promotion and a raise last week. He also is not taking any classes this summer, so hopefully I'll get to see him in the evenings more often. I'll still be tutoring during the summer, but the hours will be descreasing somewhat.

I hope you are doing well.

~LOVE~

The Stars Align

So, as far as an update regarding my last post--my plum tree currently has about five tiny white blossoms on it. Nothing to report in regards to the peach tree. My lemon tree is COVERED is just-about-to-bud blossoms. I'll keep you all updated on that situation. My pomegranate tree has a few leaves on it now, too.

Last night, the stars aligned in the most amazing way. Both of my tutoring appointments were cancelled AND Fernando's class got cancelled. So after work, I stopped by Urban Home and ended up buying a kitchen table. It's counter-height, European-rustic looking, and comes with four sizable and comfortable chairs. It should be ready for pick-up next week. I am so excited to finally be getting a kitchen table. Now I get to pick out place mats! After paying for my table, I headed home. Fernando and I pulled into the driveway at the same time. We decided that in honor of our both being home early on a weekday, and the fact that it was still light outside, we were going to do a BBQ. We swung by Albertsons and bought some vittles. For dinner, we made Angus beef hamburgers with Muenster cheese, avocado, and all the fixings. We also threw some zucchini on the grille. It was a delicious dinner! We capped off the night with a new episode of The Office.

My grad school application has been into Cal State Long Beach for two weeks now. I still have at least four more weeks to wait until I discover my fate. If I do get in, my first day of classes will be August 31st. I have been charmed by the idea of going back to school. Mostly because this means I'll finally be able to quit my day job. If I get in, I think my last day will be August 1st. This will free me up to go camping with my family in August, a luxury I was going to miss if I kept working. I'll still going to be tutoring in the summer, so I think taking a whole month off will be financially do-able (not to mention a dream come true).

Two weeks from now, I'll be preparing to board a plane to Las Vegas for Yvonne's bachelorette party bonanza. I am thrilled about this mini-vacation. I'll be taking a half-day from work that Friday, and my dad has agreed to drop me off at the Burbank airport so I can catch my flight. All the girls are staying together at the Luxor. The first night will be the "official" party night with games and drinks and presents, followed by a night at the new LAX club inside the Luxor. The second night will be themed. All of us girls have been asked to wear "little black dresses." We're doing a nice sit-down dinner at the P.F. Chang's inside the Planet Hollywood and following that up with a night at the Pure nightclub inside of Caesar's Palace. This will be somewhat of a pricey weekend for me, but I've pre-paid for a lot of it (including my flight, hotel, outfits, gifts for Yvonne, etc) over the past couple of months, so I think the expenses incurred over the actual weekend won't get out of hand. As you can tell, I am very excited!

More house news--we're finally getting a washer and dryer on Monday! One of Fernando's vendors from work is having a crazy sale on scratch and dent pieces. We're only paying about $300 for a matching, front-loading washer/dryer combo! Also, we've decided to go ahead and re-do the smaller bathroom (the one attached to our bedroom). My dad already ripped out the sink and built-in cabinets. Even though we're loosing storage space, switching to a pedestal sink is going to make it seem a lot more luxurious. I'm thinking a white and soft mint/teal color combination will work well--a smooth transition from the taupe and white in our bedroom.

Did I mention that I'm less than a month away from my week-long trip to NYC? Not only do I get to see my BFF, Tanya, but I get to spend a week with Kenia. Also, my sorority sister, Daisy, will be in NYC the same week as me, so we're definitely going to spend some time together. And finally--Danny is going to fly into NYC for the first weekend that I'm going to be there. It will be a Cal Poly, SLO reunion in the middle of New York City!

~LOVE~

I Can Feel It

Spring is almost here (March 20th to be exact). The fruit trees in my backyard haven't started blooming yet and I'm beginning to worry. Shouldn't they be blooming now? I want plum tree blossoms--my favorite kind--they are white and smell like fruit.

My dad drove all the way to Long Beach today to drop off my grad school application. What a guy. Seriously though, I owe him dinner and a beer. He has proven once again his G-status. Actually, I owe a lot of people thank yous for helping with my application (Shelley, Jeannie, Dr. Clark, and Karen Herwig specifically). If I get into the program there, I'll have a fun, fun, fun, 110-mile long (round trip) car ride to look forward to a few times a week. Cross your fingers, folks!! If I don't get in, I'll probably cry, or go to bartending school. One or the other. Or both. Good thing I have Las Vegas and NYC to distract me during the next couple of weeks while I wait for word from CSULB.

Is anyone looking forward to Daylight Savings Time as much as me?

~LOVE~

Stainless

I think I already mentioned that Fernando and I went ahead and bought a new, Frigidaire stove for our kitchen in stainless steel. We got it through his job at Pacific Sales and we're getting a nice little discount on it.

Our stove

Well, we also needed a new dishwasher, so we were thinking about getting this one Bosch dishwasher that was on sale at Fernando's work, but I balked at the handle because it didn't match the handle on the stove we just bought. So Fernando worked it out for us to get the matching Frigidaire dishwasher. Still a good price through his work.

Our dishwasher--so sleek

Notice the matching handle

So, I was content. The dishwasher and stove were stainless and they matched. All was right with the world. Well--almost. Our old refrigerator was white, but I was happy with just "making it work" until we had more money saved up. Our "old" fridge is actually only as old as our marriage (just over two years), so it works great and looks fine. Then Fernando sent me a text message yesterday telling me that he could get a great deal on the matching Frigidaire refrigerator if we bought all three pieces together. For about $2000, we're getting the fridge, the stove, and the dishwasher--all matching. The price includes extended warranties and delivery. Also, through Fernando's work, we're financing them interest free for 18 months, which means if we pay just $120 a month for the next 18 months, we'll pay them off with no interest. Also, we're getting a $200 rebate from Frigidaire, and the electric company will also give us a credit since the fridge is an EnergyStar appliance. Not bad at all. I told Fernando, "How can we say no?" and the deal was done.

The coup de grace-our new fridge

Our stove was already delivered last week and we're getting the dishwasher and refrigerator delivered on Saturday! I believe we will be handing the old fridge down to Fernando's mom, who probably couldn't afford a new fridge on her own. At least we know a person who really needs it is getting it.

With those deliveries, our kitchen will pretty much be complete. We finished lining the cabinets and unpacking all our dishes last night. Since we've upgraded to a bigger kitchen, there are actually a lot of cabinets that are empty, but I suppose that's what upgrading and home ownership is all about--finding a bigger place for all the new crap you will accumulate in life. Fun.
~LOVE~

Our Kitchen

We probably did the most work in our kitchen--we demo'd pretty much every wall and hung new drywall, we bought a new, stainless steel oven/range and a new, stainless steel dishwasher, we sanded, primed, and painted the cabinets Behr's "Olivine," as well as added all new brushed nickel and chrome hardware, we laid tile, we installed a new window, and we have plans for a new light fixture. In the distant future, we'd like to redo the counters with granite, and put up a new backsplash in either mosaic glass tile or subway tile. That's in the DISTANT future though. In true Jessica fashion, I had to create a mood board for the kitchen as well (no room will go unplanned!). Check it out:

The design scheme for this room was inspired by the olive green color I chose for the cabinets and the stainless steel we chose for the hardware on the cabinets and the appliances. I call it "Contemporary European Bistro." The modern elements are the stainless steel appliances, hardware, and accessories and the idea to do pendant lights. The European infleuneces will come in with the artwork and type of activities we will use the kitchen for. I love to entertain--I love wine, dirty martinis, sitting around and sipping coffee with friends, and I love the idea of Spanish tapas or appetizers and drinks. I want to display my wine bottles and assorted glassware. I've been collecting corks from wine bottle since I got married, and I do eventually plan to craft my own wreath out of corks. Finally, I'm pretty sure I'd like to go with a smaller, counter height table in a dark wood color. Fernando and I rarely eat at the table (we generally set out the TV trays and watch Jeopardy together for dinner), so this would be more for looks and occassionally entertaining freinds. The added height from a counter height table will allow guests to see the TV in our living room while they are seated and enjoying food and drinks. Oh, and a lazy susan in the middle of the table will make it easier for sharing all those tasty tapas!

~LOVE~