2008 - A Year in Review

Wow...we're at the end of another year! I can't believe how fast the time goes by. My mom tells me that the older you get the faster it goes - if that's the case I'm going to start missing whole months because they fly by so quickly!

So, I thought I'd do a post recounting the events of this year...I'm not sure how many noteworthy events I have to recount, but I'm pulling out my calendar to take a look and see what I have to talk about!

I started my New Year in 2008 with a Zumba class through the City of Henderson Parks and Rec. It was so funny!! I took the class with a group from work, and our instructor was a crack up! He was a belly dancer at heart, but really just liked to watch himself in the mirror! What a hoot! We had fun participating though.

In February Jimmy and I participated in the library Read and Run for your Health 5K run. We didn't actually run the whole thing, but we finished it! That felt really good! Here we are with cousins, DJ & Stacey.




Also, at the end of February and into March Elizabeth and I went to Winnemucca, NV for the Summer Reading library conference. Winnemucca is a very small town. We had fun though. We took a plane from Vegas to Reno, then a cab from the airport to the train station, and a train from Reno to Winnemucca, then called a cab again to get to our motel. The train station in Winnemucca was really just a bench - kind of like a bus stop. When we arrived in Winnemucca it was night and the cab driver said he had to drop a kid off at his grandma's house, so we had to wait a little bit. It was pretty cold out and we saw a horse tied up at a bar across the way - how funny! Here's Elizabeth at the train station on the way out of Winnemucca - you can't really tell, but we were freezing!! She's looking very cosmopolitan in this shot.


While we were there we found a little Mexican restaurant called Chihuahuas - it had THE BEST Mexican food. In the two days we were there we ate there twice! Here's me and my Chihuahua posing out front. Elizabeth's mom, Caryl, has Chihuahua radar and picked this one up for me so I wouldn't miss my real one while I was on my trip!

April is a month of birthdays for Jimmy and me! Jimmy turned 30 this year - wow, what an old man! I took off from work early on his birthday and didn't tell him - instead I surprised him with a pineapple upsidedown cake! He had given me a bad time about it for ages - I had baked one for a coworker's birthday when we lived in San Diego and he didn't get to eat any since I had to take it to work. I hadn't heard the end of that one until I finally baked him his own! He got a Juno for his birthday which was the next step in his music hobby - it's a synthesizer/keyboard/thing. A couple weeks later I turned 29. We went out to dinner at China Grill in the Mandalay Bay and I got a beautiful ring for my birthday. I also took the last week in April off work and indulged in a day at the spa! Bliss!

May began my long-standing programming run at the library with Valentino Crespo, Master Butler Extraordinaire! He's great. He comes to the library monthly now to do presentations on various subjects (etiquette, shoe shining, packing, etc.) and ends each class by teaching the steps to a dance. He's great fun and I really enjoy working with him and his crew!

In June AJ graduated from Foothill High School and a group of us went to see Video Games Live! I've been dating Jimmy since AJ was about eight years old, so I've really seen him grow up! I can't believe he's a college student now - how crazy!

We spent the July 4th weekend in Brianhead, UT with my family. We stayed with Uncle Rance and Aunt Kathy in their cabin, but my parents, Ashley & Kelly, and Corey, Jarvus & the Girls all went up too! It was a lot of fun to just get away for a couple of days and still spend the time with family. You can see an earlier post to get more info on that trip! Also in July I had a teen program at the library where I did Henna tattoos on the attendees. It was so much fun and I'm hooked. Here's a sample of my work. I have since purchased my own stuff and love doing henna tattoos.





August was somewhat quiet - we finished up summer reading program at work and Elizabeth and I went to our second annual Daughtry concert.

In September Jimmy and I took our big trip to Korea! His mom and dad went too. I had a fabulous time and hope to be able to go again someday. It was so neat to meet the rest of Jimmy's family and spend that time with them. I have a previous post with more photos and stories from the trip - check it out!

In October Jimmy and I celebrated our five year wedding anniversary. Our trip to Korea in September was our gift to each other. Also in October were the pumpkin carving contest, pink wig picnic, and the 6th Annual Halloween Extravaganza at work!

November proved to be a busy month at work! I got a promotion and am now the Head of the Youth Services Department at the Gibson Branch. I also manned the department with help from only Seth (19 hours a week) and Rita (8 hours a week) for two weeks! Whew! I was glad when November was over! We also threw a Baby Shower for Ashley (and attended her other one in Utah). And, of course, had a lovely Thanksgiving!

December brought a massage to work out November's kinks and gear up for the holiday madness! We attended my holiday party at work, Christmas dinner at Grandma's (the week before) and Christmas Eve celebrations at Corey & Jarvus's house, as well as at Crystal and Troy's house! We had a lovely Christmas day - and spent time with both of our families. We also had a Christmas Adventure...it was a dark and stormy night - really! I looked outside because it had been lightening and thundering and raining and what did I see - but our fence had blown to pieces. So, Jimmy and I bundle up and go outside to fix it, well in the process of going out the back door, we bumped the pole and it came down on our slider door and we were locked out! Yikes! In a hurricane! So, Crystal and Troy showed up and I said we could just go to my mom's house and get our spare key, but Jimmy was able to jiggle the door and the pole fell out of place and we made it back in! How exciting!

I hope everyone had a fabulous 2008 and here's looking forward to an even more spectacular 2009!! Happy New Year!!

Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow!

So, who would've thunk it, but we're snowed in! Here in the Las Vegas area we experience a little snow every once in a while, but it is really coming down today! Here's a shot of me at the library (it was wear a hat to work day at the Gibson Library - and it ended up being functional!) when the snow started sticking. At this point the snow had been coming down in flurries for a couple of hours...as the day progressed it snowed harder and harder. By about 3:00pm or so, someone from the city courthouse across the street came in and told us they were closing down the courthouse and sending everyone home because it was getting unsafe for people to be out on the roads. So, we contacted our main branch and our director said we'd probably remain open. A few minutes later he called back and asked how the access was to our front door - at this point in time Kevin and Maggie have gone to get more salt and a better shovel and have been shoveling and salting to try to avoid anyone slipping and getting hurt. A few minutes later Tom calls back and says to close down when we can get everyone out, or by 5pm, whichever comes first. Needless to say, we were able to clear the building out pretty quickly!

So we start heading out after pushing inches and inches of snow off our windshields, mirrors, and windows. It takes me about 20 minutes to get two and half miles or so when I get a phone call from AJ (Jimmy's little brother) saying he's stuck. He left the library the same time as I did and he drives a little Mazda Miata. He got stuck and couldn't get up a little hill, his car kept slipping and slipping. So, I turned around and headed back to him, swooped him up and headed for home. The progress was slow going. I talked to Jimmy off and on on the way home and I swear he wasn't taking me seriously about how much snow was on the roads and how scary it was to drive.

I drive an Infiniti FX35, which apparently is equipped with a snow feature. I turned it on and it seemed to help. Jimmy drives a little Hyundai Tiburon, so I was nervous he would get stuck, but he made it home! When he pulled in he was so excited to play in the snow that he jumped out and starting playing in his suit - he's a goofball! When Hannah heard him, she ran out to meet him, but she sunk all the way up to the tippy top of her legs! Poor thing - she hates the cold! I coaxed Jimmy in to put on appropriate attire and he and AJ went back out to play. I was trying to make a contraption out of a plastic bag to put over my camera to photograph them without getting it all wet - but they came in before I was done! I did see Jimmy try to do a slip and slide type maneuver in the snow - to which my mom said - he's too old for that! No kidding!! Here's a picture of what the snow looked like after Jimmy had been home for about two hours - check out the accumulation of snow on his car (the red one) in just that amount of time.

I saw on the Channel 3 News website tonight that the Clark County School District schools will be closed tomorrow for a snow day - in Vegas! Crazy!! I hope I get a snow day tomorrow too! We're supposed to get more snow throughout the night, so I guess we'll see what's out there in the morning!

Our friends from San Diego, Amber and Lorenzo, are supposed to come out to Vegas tomorrow. Amber's little sister is turning 21 so it's a Vegas Vacation - but the freeway is closed between Baker and Primm right now...I hope they can make it out!

In other news, we finally got our Christmas tree up - so no grinches here! We put it up on Sunday after many temper tantrums thrown by myself (sorry Jimmy!). Here's a photo of the tree. When we moved into our house we went from getting a real tree each year to our artificial tree (it was also the same year I got a new car and I couldn't see leaving pine needles in my car or in my house!). Every year since we have had the artificial tree we've decorated it in some sort of theme. The tree is pre-lit with white lights and we theme our colors. We've done a red and gold tree and a blue and silver tree. This year for something new, but still economical, I thought we'd do a silver and gold tree using ornaments from both of the previous themes. Well, as I'm going through my ornaments I find that all I have that are silver and gold are bows. No ornaments. So, I debate with myself for a while on if I should just put bows on the tree and call it good, but decide I can't do that! So, instead we reverted to our hodge-podge tree and I love it! I am feeling quite sentimental because growing up we didn't have themed trees - we had favorite ornaments, ornaments we laughed at and ornaments that had to absolutely be hung on the tree by ourselves. So, decorating the tree this year really brought back childhood memories of Christmas. AJ and Autumn were on hand to help us decorate, but I didn't take any photos while decorating...and had to have them pose afterwards instead. But, I love the finished product - this picture is one of my favorites! Luckily they were around - so Autumn got a really cute picture of us too...check it out. So, with only a week left until Christmas Day I still have most of my shopping to complete, some crafting to do and I would love to bake some cookies. If only we could have a snow day tomorrow, I might at least get some crafting and baking done!!

I've Been a Bad Blogger

I don't know what else to say, but I've been a bad blogger lately! I've done some fun things...complete with pictures and all, but I haven't blogged about any of them! So, I'll back-track to fill you in on what I've been doing and I'll make a December Resolution to be a better blogger!

Pumpkin Carving - In late October we participated in my family's annual pumpkin carving contest. I'm still not sure why we call it a contest, since no one wins or loses, but that's what we've always called and it, and that's what we'll keep calling it. Here are some photos:

This one is Corey and Jarvus's. It's the grim reaper.






Here's Ashley and Kelly's. They did Frankenstein after much deliberation this year. They always come prepared, but they were the last ones to start this year because they just couldn't decide what to do!



This one is Mom and Dad's. Dad kind of took over though and drew and carved all by himself - with an electric knife no less! It's a fire man!





This one is mine and Jimmy's. It's Jack Skellington from Nightmare Before Christmas!






But wait, there's more. It wouldn't be Halloween with the White's if we didn't have some of these photos to show for it!


Ashley "eating" pumpkin guts. We weren't positive if we'd get this photo this year since she's pregnant - it would have been a good excuse if she didn't want to do it!




Corey and Jarvus being goofy...that's a natural state of being for Corey, but it's fun to get Jarvus that way too. Sometimes we get pictures of him with pumpkin tops on his head, but we settled for fake eating pumpkin guts this year!





Pink Wig Picnic
On Halloween day a group of friends met at Cinnamon Ridge Park for our Pink Wig Picnic. We had lunch and played wiffle ball, we blew bubbles and sat and talked...but most importantly, we showed our love and support for Kenna. Kenna was diagnosed with cancer in July and has been undergoing chemotherapy since probably July or August. As a result, she has lost her hair. Kenna has some beautiful wigs - she puts them on and you can't even tell that it's not her real hair, but she wanted to have some fun with wigs too. So we all got pink wigs - being Halloween time, they were easy to find. We donned these wigs and enjoyed each other's company for our Pink Wig Picnic!


This one is Elizabeth, me, Jen & Kenna.




Here's Kenna and me. Kenna is such a wonderful person and I have really struggled with the battle she's been fighting. Everything came on so quickly and I feel like there hasn't been time to process it all. I just want to scream out that it isn't fair and she is such a patient and wonderful individual who is looking this fight in the eye and taking it on so gracefully. It's impossible to put yourself in her situation, but I think I would hide under my covers and be miserable, but Kenna has been out and doing the things she wants to do.

Kenna was the Youth Services Department Head at my library (so not only is she a fantastic friend, but she was also my inspirational boss), but due to her illness she is not able to return to work full-time. She was coming in for a couple of hours a day in October, but she's been having a bad go again and hasn't been in lately. Because she can't be there at work, she was not able to keep the department head position. When the position was posted, Kenna encouraged me to apply for it, but it was a difficult choice. I was selected to fill the position and while part of me struggles with it because she was such a breath of fresh air in our department and made so many wonderful changes that make me think of the department as hers - I hope to continue to move the department forward and make her proud.

Ashley's Baby Shower
My baby sister Ashley is pregnant and due with her first child in February. She and her husband, Kelly, are expecting a perfect little baby girl, Layla Mei. My mom, Corey and I hosted a Baby Shower for her in Henderson in mid-November. Mostly I just took pictures of her opening gifts, but here's a cute one with the cake:

From this picture you can't even tell she's pregnant! She does have quite the little belly growing though - I love to sit with my hand on it and feel Layla move around in there! The weekend after we had her shower here, her friends in St. George (where she lives) hosted a shower for her there. We attended that one too. She got some great gifts and I think is still in the process of getting her nursery ready! Congrats Ashley & Kelly - I can't wait to meet Layla!


Thanksgiving
I can't believe I didn't take any pictures on Thanksgiving! Yikes! We had a wonderful one though - we ate way too much and spent the time with our families - what could be better? We started at my parent's house around 1pm. It was a little weird because Corey and her family celebrated with Jarvus's family in Salt Lake this year - so there were no little girls running around under foot! Mom made a delicious meal, as usual. And we ate and ate and ate. We headed over to Jimmy's parent's house afterwards (around 4pm or so) to do it all over again. Sun also did not disappoint with her Thanksgiving meal. All the food was delicious. I love the fact that we have both our families right here so that we can spend the holidays, and just any old time, with them!

Mom's Birthday
Again - no pictures! Yesterday was Mom's birthday so we went out to dinner with Mom and Dad on Tuesday night. We ate at Remedy's which is a new little restaurant/bar just up the street from our house. We had good food and good fun! Happy Birthday Mom!


I think that encompasses most things that have been going on. I am going to try to promise to be better at my blogging now...so hopefully there will posts soon with all the upcoming holiday parties and get togethers!

It's Been A While...

So, in the two months since my last post (Yikes!) a lot has happened! Most noteworthy, our trip to South Korea!
Jimmy and I spent the first two weeks in September in Korea...it was an amazing trip! Here we are by some rice fields with the sunset in the background. We had such adventures on our trip...I'll recount some of them here, but please check out my pictures on flickr. I've labeled most everything so you can see where we went and what we did. I've tried to include some stories there too, because it's easier to recount what happened on the trip with pictures! :) But here are some basics...

We left Las Vegas on September 1st. We flew from Vegas to San Francisco where we had about a five hour layover. We were travelling with Jimmy's Mom and Dad - they went out with us, but stayed in Korea for a month. Anyhow, while in the San Francisco airport, I am talking to Sun (Jimmy's Mom) and notice that her diamond is missing from its setting in her ring...panic ensued! Jimmy and Al (his Dad) head back to the security checkpoint because Sun is certain she had it before security and I tell her to check through her bags. You see, when we came through the security checkpoint they stopped Sun and asked to see some things in her bags - she had packed all kinds of foods because Al doesn't eat much Korean food, so she travels with foods he will eat. One of these things being a sausage - like a summer sausage - you know the kind you get from Hickory Farms? It was like that - packed in her carryon. So, she had to pull out the sausage at the checkpoint and then repack things - anyway - I thought her diamond could have come loose during that and fallen into her bag. Sure enough she saw something sparkling down in there and found the diamond - the trip was not ruined and the sausage was pronounced a lucky sausage!

Finally we board the flight to Seoul - this flight was twelve and a half hours. Whew! It actually went by fairly quickly and without any major events. We flew Korean Air and the flight attendants are the cutest things ever! They wore suits and had the cutest accessories. Here's what they look like. They were really nice. We ate beebimbop on the plane, which is rice mixed with meat and veggies. It was yummy! We also watched movies, listened to music and tried to get a little sleep. I wathced the Sex and the City movie and was disappointed in it!

Anyway, once we landed in Seoul, Samchun (Jimmy's uncle) was there to get us! We were supposed to stay at the Dragon Hill Hotel, but when we discovered it was actually on the military base (Al is retired airforce) we had trouble getting the car onto base and ended up driving into Osan instead.

We stayed in Osan for a couple of days. One of the highlights for me there was the shopping. This is what the streets look like. You could go into these shops all along the streets and buy fun stuff. My favorite purchase here was a knock-off Ed Hardy belt (Jimmy keeps telling me not to tell everyone it's a knock-off because no one would ever know). Anyway - you're supposed to barter at these shops and everyone was so disappointed in me because I paid $18 for my belt (a real one would run about $90) rather than the $16 everyone thought I could have gotten it for.

After a few days we headed further south to Busan - this is where all the family is. We had the best time. I loved meeting the family I hadn't ever met before and reuniting with the family that I had met before. We did so much while we were there. We stayed mostly with Unni (Jina) and Opa (Cheulwoong) and their family. They are Jimmy's cousins. Here's a photo of them.
They were such great hosts and showed us so many beautiful sights in Korea. They really opened their home to us and made our trip so incredibly memorable! While we did too much to recount it all here, I want to include a couple of photos and snippets of what we did. I'll start with the never-ending day...we left the house at about 8am and didn't return until 3am the following morning!

Gyeongju National Museum

The museum was awesome. It held a lot of information and artifacts about Korean history.





Shilla Millenium Park

The park was like an amusement park, but had cool cultural and historical information about Korea. Koreans are big on their culture - it is really neat to see that!



Gyeongju World Culture Expo Park
This place had lots of interesting things to do and see, but Sunmudo was my favorite - that's the photo here. We all took a Sunmudo class - that's our instructor in the middle. It was so much fun. It's a Kprean martial art...but it is mostly relaxing (like tai chi) with some kicks and fighting moves. It was great!

Cosmos

Cosmos are a native Korean wild flower, and Jina's favorite! We stopped to take pictures in them!








Gyeongju Imhaejoen Site
This was such a beautiful place - the photos really don't do it justice. It is a historical site, built for the Silla Royal Family. We walked around the park and took in all the sites...then we stayed for a while to listen to a rock concert that was happening at the park. Afterwards it was time for dinner and...


Karaoke
Karaoke is big in Korea, but they don't do it in bars like we do in the states...they have Nodi Bongs (singing rooms). So, you karaoke privately with your party. It was fun! There was about one page worth of English songs so that Jimmy and I could sing too! This ended our wonderful day of sightseeing.

We did so much while we were there, I can't describe it all...but here are a few more highlights.

Haeundae Beach
Jimmy, Minsuk & Me at Haeundae Beach...check out the city in the background!






Yongdusan Park
Al, Sun, Jimmy & Me. Busan Tower is located at this park - we went up in it and saw the city lights below us. It was pretty cool!





The Countryside
This is grandma and grandpa's grave. We visited and paid our respects. It was really beautiful out there.





Haeinsa Temple
Haeinsa Temple was built in 802. It was very peaceful to be there. There were multiple buildings with Buddhas like these in them. You can go in and pray in any of them.




A Day at the Beach
Minju, Jimmy, Minsuk, Me, and Yealin.







Our trip home was long - we flew from Busan to Seoul in about 45 minutes...then waited in Seoul for about eight hours! Once on board the flight back to San Francisco (which was shorter this time - only 10.5 hours) all I wanted to do was sleep, but could not! When we finally got to San Francisco, we circled for about 20 minutes before we could land. We headed through customs, rechecked our bags and hopped on our flight to Vegas...we got there as planned but our luggage did not!! We were a little freaked out, but the airline found the luggage on the next flight and brought it out to our house by about 9pm that evening. I had a hard time getting back into a schedule - I couldn't sleep at night - I was up until 3am or 4am, and then getting up at 5am or 6am - yikes! After about a week I settled back in though.

We had so much fun and built so many beautiful memories together on this trip. It was amazing to visit another country and see firsthand their culture and history. I would love to go back again some day because I am certain I only saw just a glimpse of the beauty of the country. Don't forget to check out my photos on flickr for more of my stories. Anyounge Gehshipsheyo (Go in Peace)!

Smorgasbord (Now isn't that a fun word!)

So, it has been forever since I've posted and I've had posts I wanted to post, but I never got around to posting them, so welcome to Marcie's Smorgasbord today! :) I think I'll work from oldest to newest information...

Daughtry Concert

This was the second year that Elizabeth and I saw Daughtry. We both love him and his music, so it seems it's becoming an annual event for us! He performs outdoors at the Red Rock in their Backyard (which is actually their pool). It's really fun, you can sit with your feet in the pool while you wait for the concert...here's our feet.


I actually did the Henna tattoo on Elizabeth's foot - pretty good huh? That's another thing to post about another time - I love Henna!! I have been doing tattoos on myself, friends and coworkers every since I did a teen program at the library with it the end of July. It's so cool.

Well, since you've seen our feet, here's our faces - see how happy we are to be seeing Chris again!?

That's my new hair too! I got it done the day of the concert - really dark with blond streaks! I love it!! This concert was also Elizabeth's introduction to the FatBurger Turkey Burger - she's hooked (as I have been for a while)! We had a really great time and I hope he's back next year!


Next item of business - Jimmy and I have been getting ready for our big trip to South Korea and we're just about there! We leave one week from today - I can't wait. I'll blog all about it when I get back. In preparation we've bought luggage, gifts for family, and essential items (including new jeans & pjs for Jimmy). We've been planning this trip for so long I can't believe it's finally here!


So, today is the first day of school - the library was really busy with the middle school kids (around 2:30pm), but we didn't get the rush after the elementary school let out, which could have been because of our crazy rain storm! It rained so hard. We have a huge leak in our library, which has leaked the last two times it's rained as well, but it still hasn't been fixed. We collected most of the water in a huge Tupperware bin - you know the ones. It stands about knee-high to me and is probably two and half feet long or so. Well, within about 20 minutes or so it had about 10 inches of water in it - crazy - that's not a leak, it's a hole in the roof!! Our director and assistant director will be here in the morning for a meeting, so I am leaving everything overnight - hopefully they'll get the severity of the problem when they see it tomorrow!

Well, that's about all I have. I probably won't post again until I return from my trip so check back in a couple of weeks!

I Thought Dead Fish Float to the Top

A few days ago during a craving for ice cream, Jimmy stopped at the convenience store up the street and bought a pint of Ben & Jerry's Phish Food ice cream. I love Phish Food - it's chocolate ice cream with marshmallow creme, caramel and fudge fish - in other words, it's heaven. Well this particular pint that he brings home is a little weird - it's kind of more icey than creamy. Does that make sense? I don't know how else to explain it, but that what it was, also there were no fudge fish. At one point I decided that the ice cream had probably thawed out and been refrozen, accounting for the weird texture and that would mean the fish probably all sank to the bottom and refroze there. I got to the bottom this morning, the fish were all there. Too many to eat! They are good when you get one in a bite, but when you get three or four in a bite, it's a little too much to handle! Now I'm wondering just how unfrozen this ice cream got and if it's okay that I ate it! What's your favorite Ben & Jerry's flavor?

Memories

The White Girls

So, I'm a little behind the game - it's been quite some time since my last post and I've been reading my sisters' blogs and came across a little thing on each of theirs...basically, they posted about memories and asked their friends and family to post comments that include a favorite memory with them. After posting a comment on their blog, you should put the message on your own blog so others can leave memories for you. Does that make sense? Well, it was really cute, but I was late on the draw and couldn't think of just one memory of each of them to include in their blogs, so since they're the ones who read my blog I thought I'd post some memories for them here!

Playing Restaurant - Now you have to imagine this - we were a little old (well, my mom, Corey and I were) to be playing pretend, but my mom is a wonderful individual and I believe her involvement in our lives let us be children when we were children and thrive and grow and create (I love you Mom!), so when I was in middle school we were playing restaurant during lunch over summer break. I'm not sure if I've got this all right, but Mom was the cook (my favorite lunches were Top Ramen or Chicken Chow Mein - in the can) and Ashley was the superstar - I think she would pretend to talk to Patrick Swayze on her cell phone! I can't remember Corey and I's jobs, but I know there was a food critic and we were always calling security! We sat around the table and took on our roles. It was fun, it was carefree and it let us use our imagination.

Rummy - In the Middle of the Night - Play to 10,000 (or so!) - My dad took fishing trips with my Uncle Ray one summer. They would go overnight and do their thing, so Mom, Corey, Ashley and I would do our thing. We took up playing Rummy. We would play into the wee hours of the night and rack up scores like no one's business. Sometimes we would play normally, but usually we ended up playing in teams - Mom and Ashley vs. Corey and me. But, we'd deal out 14 cards per team so we had hands like crazy - it was so much fun! Sometimes we'd play where you had to pick up all the cards on top of the card you needed from the discard pile and sometimes we'd play where you had to pick up the whole pile if you wanted to use something from it. Sometimes we'd make a number wild, sometimes a whole suit was wild. Get the White Girls together, staying up late into the night, and you have some pretty punch drunk girls on your hands!

Making the Video - For some reason all these memories seem to be from the same summer, but I can't really remember if they were. We spent one summer anticipating a visit from our cousin Stacey from Texas. We just didn't know what to do with ourselves, so we made a video for her - taping segments each day expressing our excitement and providing our brand of entertainment - it was great! If you haven't seen the video, just ask, Mom has it and will show it! It's much more funny to us since we spent so much time and effort (again, thanks Mom for encouraging our creativity) on this project, but anyone who sees it gets a good laugh out of it!

As we all grew up I watched my sisters turn into wonderful women! I am so thankful for the childhood that we spent together and for the influence they and my Mom have had in my life! Here's to memories!

Diego at MGM Grand

When I first starting talking to Jimmy about setting up a blog we thought it would be fun to include restaurant reviews...so here's the first of many to come (I hope!). On Saturday evening we dined at Diego, a Mexican restaurant at MGM Grand. I had picked Diego for my birthday dinner two years ago, however, Jimmy ended up needing to cover a deposition in Los Angeles on my birthday, so we ended up taking a trip to southern California for my birthday that year instead. We never ended up making up the dinner, so finally Jimmy booked reservations (to celebrate our 10 year dating anniversary!) and we went!

I'm not sure if Jimmy is going to write his own review, so I'll include my opinion of both of our meals. Also, I apologize in advance for the photos - I need to get a smaller camera because my small digital camera is not that small, so I didn't want to take it with me. Instead I opted for the camera on my phone, which actually takes really good pictures - just not in bad lighting! I promise to get better pictures next time. Here's a good one of Jimmy and I before we left though (thank goodness for self-timers!).

So, we get dressed and head out to MGM for our dinner. We arrived a little early for our reservation so we scouted out the lion habitat and lost $40 on video poker, then headed into the restaurant. The hostess was nice and the decor was neat. The colors are vibrant shades, but muted by low lighting. Overall, a cool effect! So, first someone brings out water, chips, three types of salsa and three flavored salts. The chips and the salsas were delicious (Jimmy didn't care much for the green salsa, I think it was made from tomatillos). We weren't quite sure what to do with the salts, so I finally dipped a chip in one, and the salt stuck the chip - interesting. I think it was more fun to look at the salts in the little dishes than it was to actually eat them! Here's the chips and salsa and salts. Sorry about the quality, I know it's really bad! So, when our waiter arrived we ordered tableside guacamole. The guacamole man brings a cart to your table, asks if you'd like your guac mild, medium or hot. Then, he mashes up avocado and adds lime juice, sun-dried tomatoes, garlic, onions, fresh jalapenos, and cilantro. Yummy! Jimmy decided right away on the carne asada (here's the description from their menu: Carne Asada a la Oaxaca - Beef Rib Eye Steak Marinated in Red Chile Adobo, Grilled over a Mesquite Fire, Mole Coloradito, Frijoles Maneados and Tequila Laced Roasted Cactus and Onion Salsa.). I on the other hand struggled to decide...I couldn't make up my mind, so I decided to go with a classic Mexican dish - enchiladas (here's the description from the menu: Enchiladas Oaxaqueñas - Fresh Corn Tortillas Cooked with Tangy Red Chile Sauce Rolled with Chicken, Poblano and Onion Finished with Oaxacan and Chihuahua Cheese, Diced Onion, and Cilantro.).

The food came out very quickly! Which was surprising because the restaurant was quite full. Here's my enchiladas. They were very tasty. I am not usually much of an enchilada eater so I'm not entirely sure why I ordered them, but I did! The only not-so-good thing I have to say about them is that they were not saucy enough for me. To me, enchiladas should be cooked in sauce and really saucy and cheesy. They were cheesy, but a little on the dry side. What sauce there was on them was good - just enough spiciness to make it fun! The chicken was good and the cheese delicious! It came with a side of Spanish rice which was good as well. I would give the dish a 7.5 out of 10.

Jimmy's dish, however, was out of this world! Here's a picture. Okay - so first of all Jimmy orders his steaks medium rare - which usually totally grosses me out when I think about it and look at it too much, but I think is really delicious when I actually make it past that and eat it! When I think of carne asada, I generally think of smaller pieces of meat - usually sliced or cut up in some way. This was a big ole steak though! Reading the description from the menu just doesn't do it justice! It had the perfect flavor to it - I don't know if it was the marinade, the way it was grilled, the sauce, or a combination of all those things - but it was fabulous! The smokey flavor in it was delectable! Jimmy's dish came with a side of beans (which I ate with my rice!) that were also yummy. I would give his dish a 10! It was that good!

A meal out is not complete without dessert - even if you're stuffed! We settled on the Chocolate tres leches cake (from the menu: Chocolate tres leches cake with crunchy meringues and Mexican chocolate Ice cream) - translation - chocolate three milks cake (not sure I want to know what kinds of milks - some of their desserts did have goats milk caramel...hmmm). Here's another crummy picture. The dessert was delicious! I especially loved the meringues topping the cake. They were crispy on the outside but soft and marshmallowy on the inside...yum...if I could I would have ordered a box of them to go! So good! The ice cream was sprinkled with nuts that were coated in cinnamon - delicious!

Overall it was a great dinner and a good experience. Would I go back? Not sure - it was good food and fun but I don't necessarily know if it worth a repeat visit. Would I recommend it others? Sure - but definitely order the carne asada! Hasta la vista!