Life: A little more about me

Things I love:

• I love quotes and the cheesier the better. 
• I love watching kids eat spaghetti.  
• I love old family photos.  
• I love to warm fuzzy feeling you get when you volunteer.  
• I love to run.   
• I love the smell of in the air after it rains.   
• I love sweaters and pockets. 

Things I dislike:

• I hate it when people are late. 
• I hate inconsiderate people. 
• I hate impolite people.   

I figured that the best way to get to know me is by sharing with you some of my likes and dislikes.  If you would like to know something about me please don't hesitate to ask. 

Wedding: Simply us

Since it's wedding season I figured I would share more of our wedding photos with you guys.

"Do I love you? My God, if your love were a grain of sand, mine would be a universe of beaches." -W.G.

"So it's not gonna be easy. It's going to be really hard; we're gonna have to work at this everyday, but I want to do that because I want you. I want all of you, forever, everyday. You and me... everyday." -N. S.

"Two people in love, alone, isolated from the world, that's beautiful."-M.K.

"I love you. I am who I am because of you. You are every reason, every hope, and every dream I've ever had, and no matter what happens to us in the future, everyday we are together is the greatest day of my life. I will always be yours. " -N.S.

"And he took her in his arms and kissed her under the sunlit sky, and he cared not that they stood high upon the walls in the sight of many." - J.R.R.T.

{All photos STUDIO7 PHOTOGRAPHY}

So which one is your favorite?  Do you enjoying looking at your wedding photos as much as I love looking at mine?

Food: Why microwave at all?

When we were registering for wedding gifts everyone assumed that one of the first things we were going to register for was a microwave oven but to there surprise that wasn't the case.  According to this 75% of people with lower income to 93% of people with higher income have microwaves in their households.  Wow! Those numbers are high.  So, why don't we own one? Is it the cost? Our health? Environmental reasons? No not really its simply because we don't need one.  There has been a couple of times that it seems that it would come in handy but for the most part its not a necessity for us.  When we have friends or family members come over for the first time they are usually shocked not to find one in our kitchen and are surprised when we tell them we don't plan on buying one. My mother-in-law has even offered to buy us one and we turned it down.

The reason we don't need one is because I usually do all the cooking at home so why would we need to reheat something in a microwave oven when we could use the pot/pan I cooked it in.  For leftovers we bring from restaurants it might come in handy but since I like to jazz things up a bit the food ends up tasting better being reheated on the stove.

The reason I bring this up today is because earlier tonight my hubby was looking for a snack in the pantry but since we don't really have "snack" like food in there (no chips, no cookies, pretzels, etc...) he asked me if I could make some popcorn.  The normal American would simply throw a bag of popcorn into a microwave oven, set it, and take it out when the house begins to smell like butter and the kernels stop popping.  Since I just mentioned we don't have a microwave I do it the old fashioned way my mom used to make it.  We had a microwave in my parents house when I was growing up but my mom always made it the same way.

Popcorn Recipe

• 3 tablespoons of cooking oil
• 1/3 cup of popcorn 
• Salt to taste

• Put the oil in a 3 quart or larger pan with a lid (make sure it has a lid that fits)
• Pour in the popcorn making sure its only one layer in the bottom of pan
• Cover pan and place it over medium high heat
• Gently shake the pan allowing all kernels to get coated with oil
• Keep shaking pan and slightly let some of the air get released from pan so that the kernels don't get soggy
• Once the oil gets hot enough you'll begin to hear a symphony of popping coming from the pan 
• Keep over heat and gently shaking (With all the shaking I'm sure your arm is tired)
• Once the popping begins to slow down remove from heat
• Don't open the lid until it sounds safe
• Once you're sure they stopped popping place in bowl and add salt to taste and enjoy

If you want a similar recipe but a different technique please go check out this recipe.  I haven't tried it for myself yet but next time I definitely will.  Her followers have also made suggestions on toppings that are worth a try.

Here is another site dedicated to popcorn or just google it.

The best part about homemade popcorn is not only the cost but that you can control how many calories it has depending on the toppings you add.  

Everyone tells me that once I have a child I will definitely get one but until now we haven't had a need for it so I doubt we will ever have one.  I'll keep you guys posted if we ever do.

      
My question for you today is do you have a microwave and if you do how often do you use it?  If you don't why not?  How do you make your popcorn?

Life: Falling far from the tree

My mom was in town a few weeks ago for a trip I had been planning for her that she had no clue about.  I told her that for spring break I wanted her to come visit us so we could spend some time together. She relished at the thought that she was going to come to Southern Cali to spend time with her only daughter. Throughout my life my mom had mentioned that she had always wanted to go to the San Diego Zoo but never had the opportunity to.  I had recently spoken to my hubby about my mom's desire and since his vacation didn't get approved he thought what a wonderful way for me to spend my spring break.  He insisted that I take my mom not only to the zoo but somewhere else she might enjoy.  (See I told you he's pretty wonderful.)  Once I went to pick her up at the half way point my dad and I had agreed on I told her that the following day we were going to go on a special trip but didn't mention to her where we were going.  Once we got closer to our destination she began to get teary eyed as she told me once more that she had always wanted to go there.  We had a great time on our special mother daughter getaway.  I took her around to the zoo and around San Diego and we stayed at one of our favorite hotels.  The next day we came home but before we got here we stopped at the San Juan Capistrano Mission somewhere where she had never been to but she truly loved.

In the few days that we spent together I realized that as much as I say that my mom and I are nothing alike I'm only lying to myself.  I have always seen my mom as a very charismatic, intelligent, classy, elegant, and for lack of another word a true definition of a lady.  I mean I'm not the only one that believes it since that's all I've ever been told by others.  Whenever I go visit my mom's hometown in Mexico everyone attest to her fashionista ways, her grace, and her beauty.  I on the other hand have always lacked a sense of style, I'm heavier set (than she was at my age), I hardly wear makeup, I'm blunt (depending on the situation), I speak my mind, etc. etc.  How on earth can someone like me be related to someone like my mom?  I mean how far does the apple really fall from the tree? Well at least that's what I thought until I began to look deeper.

What I lack in my mom's fashionista ways I make up in other things I've "inherited" from her.  I am giving, caring, loving, unselfish, appreciative, kind, resourceful, creativity, patient, and have a passion for helping others. These are all traits that I believe I either learned from her or "inherited" from her.

Since I'm trying to "keep it real" here I'll also tell you about things that I'm not so proud of getting from her.  Spending time with my mom has made me realize that a lot of my bad eating habits come from the way she eats.  Although she spent most of my childhood telling me to watch what I ate because it was going to affect my weight, she did not followed what she preached.  Another thing is the amount of excuses she makes for not exercising which up until recently I had done the same.  Now that I have learned that my eating happens to not have to mirror my parents I can begin to change them.  It was invigorating realizing that I might have learned these bad patterns from my mom but it was up to my to do something about it.  I may not be as fashionable as my mom would like me to be but I am truly grateful to her for all the other traits that I have learned from her and who knows maybe one day I'll exchange my chucks for some stilettos.

If you want to read a great story that made me think about my mom please read this and let me know what you think. 

Argroves Manor Coffee Cake (Cake 7)

I'm going to begin by saying that this has been my least favorite cake so far.  

Things new to me: 
Stewing fruit  

What I learned from baking this cake:
When it looks like you're mixing in too much fruit with the batter it probably is too much, I learned that the hard way. 

Like I said before I really didn't care for this cake and neither did my hubby.  I think that the taste was affected by the amount of fruit it called for.  It made the cake soggy since everything sank to the bottom.  I was hoping that this blueberry cake would be tastier but I was disappointed. I didn't share this cake with any of my family or friends since I did't like it. 

Money: On sacrificing

You might be wondering why I mean by sacrificing and you'll understand it by the time I'm finished with this post.

{Source}

As soon as I got engaged I began to plan (in my head) what I thought would be the perfect wedding. I began to dream about the cathedral veil, what cake flavors would be served and the flowers that I would see as I walked into the church.  With all the dreaming going on in my head I never gave much thought to what it was actually going to cost to accomplish all this.    My parents are of very modest means and could not help us in any way.  My in-laws are in a better situation than my parents but we couldn't see ourselves asking them to finance our wedding either.  I hated the idea of asking any of my family members for money for our wedding like most of my cousins have done in the past.  There was no way I was going to have sponsors or padrinos for our wedding no matter how much my mom told me that they would help me.  If I couldn't afford it then I felt that we didn't need it.  Okay, the truth is that I didn't realize that until much later when I became more financially savvy and put things into perspective. 

So why am I rambling on and when I'm I getting to the point? 

I'm rambling on because I want you to know that the hubby and I do not come from families that are financially well off but have worked hard for everything we have.  

The point is that if you really want to get your finances in order then you should be willing to do the work it takes to do it.  I'm just so tired of hearing people complaint that they don't have the money to do things as they are sipping their cafe mocha from a fancy coffee shop and carrying their designer purse.  Come on people get it together.

I'm not asking people to be as frugal as us but simply to either stop complaining or do something about it.  It's not about the amount of money you make but how much you are able to save.  People just need to be smarter about how they use their money and what they are willing to give up and sacrifice in order to achieve their goals.  

Looking back on the planning process one thing that I will never forget that my hubby told me as we were going back and forth about the wedding budget was, "If wedding are so important for women then why don't they start saving up for it since they begin dreaming about them."  When my hubby said this to me it floored me.  I began to think about it and I realized that as I sat there planning my perfect wedding I never took the cost into consideration something which I think we as women should start doing.   

Oh and by the way I didn't have a cathedral veil, cake or flowers in the entrance of the church but what I do have is more money in the bank and a loving husband by my side.