Visitors!

Mom, Dad, Grandpa, and Grandma came for a visit last week over Mom's spring break. It was Grandma and Grandpa's first time out here, and we had so much fun showing them around the area and letting them see where we live.
We enjoyed a delicious breakfast at Ruby's on the end of the pier at Seal Beach on Saturday morning. We had fantastic weather nearly every day, despite the predictions for clouds and rain. Following breakfast, we drove to Orange to see the Crystal Cathedral.
Following church on Sunday, we headed out for a drive and saw the Cathedral, Disney Hall, Hollywood, the many theaters in Hollywood, Rodeo Drive, UCLA, and more. It was quite the tour led by Noel!
Mom, Dad, Grandma, and Grandpa headed to the Santa Barbara area on Monday and Tuesday, where they ate on the pier, visited the courthouse and mission, stayed in Solvang (a Danish town), and had their first LA driving experience.
Noel and I have HATED the flooring in our kitchen from the day we moved into our apartment 2 and 1/2 years ago. Fuller is not the best at replacing things, so we decided to do a few home improvements ourselves. The old flooring was incredibly scratched and stained and no matter how much or how hard we scrubbed, it always looked dirty. New floors will make cleaning more worthwhile!
Wednesday was the last day the family was here, and Dad and Grandpa decided to help us out with our new floor. We are SO thankful for their help! It turned out to be a bigger project than we anticipated (which, we have learned, is the case with ANY home improvement project).
Above is a picture of Dad and Grandpa prepping the floor while Noel was at a church meeting. Mom and Grandma played games, and I worked.

Noel, Grandpa and Dad, laying the first strip of tiles (after a slight cutting mistake).

Noel putting in the final piece. Yippee!

After enjoying a nice dinner of pizza and beer at Manny's, and dessert at 21 Choices, we headed home and showed the fam all about the Wii. We have wanted to get my dad playing the handbells on Wii Music for a long time (since he plays in church). He was a great coach for Grandpa. Grandma was a natural, and mom caught on quite quickly, too!

As you can see, we had LOTS of big laughs over this.
Grandpa was a natural at tennis.

We're so thankful that they took the time to visit us. It's so fun for us to show people where and how we live. Thanks for coming, family!

I am an idiot

I had quite the day yesterday. I needed to pick up a few things from Home Depot and decided to do so while Noel was at a church meeting. After getting what I needed, I noticed that there was a Target just down the street. I also needed a few things from there, and decided it would be easier to run to this Target rather than the one in Pasadena (Home Depot is in a neighboring city about 20 minutes away). After successfully finding my way there, shopping for about 15 minutes (they didn't have what I was looking for), I headed back out to the parking lot. I walked to the area I had parked (right underneath a tree) and started to panic. My car wasn't there! I walked up and down the aisles of the lot, panicking more by the minute, but couldn't find the car. I hit the panic button on the remote, hoping to set off the horn, but no luck. I called Noel and told him that I thought our car was stolen. I was nearly in tears and headed back in the store. So many thoughts were running through my head. I couldn't believe someone would steal my new car. I only had it for a few months due to totaling the old car. I was thinking that I should never drive again. I told the first sales associate I saw that I thought my car was stolen. She led me to the security office and I gave them all the info. I took them to the spot in the parking lot where my car was and we then called the police. Upon giving the cops all the info, they said they were on their way. The security officer from Target said he would go back inside and see what he could find anything on their security cameras. Minutes later, he radioed another security member asking if I knew the license plate number of my car. Luckily I did (though I couldn't even give the cops my cell number...I was so shaken up I couldn't remember it!)! The officer relayed the number to the guy inside and he said, "I've got her car!". I was thinking, "Oh good, they can see who stole it and which way they headed". Instead, he came outside and led me to the actual spot my car was parked. I was just looking in the wrong area of the parking lot and was too far away to utilize the panic button. Needless to say, I was quite embarrassed and felt like a total idiot. In my defense, the Target was situated on a corner, with 2 sides to the parking lot that looked identical....trees and all.
Anyway, it made for a much more eventful trip to Home Depot than I anticipated. I'm very thankful to still have our car and I hope I gave all the people at Target something to laugh about.

Carlsbad

We love the fact that Lindsay's family has a family vacation home in Carlsbad. It's so fun to be able to drive just a couple of hours to visit friends! We had the opportunity to see Luke, Lindsay, and meet Isla just over a week ago. It was such a fun getaway for us and refreshing to spend time with "old" friends.

Isla got quite a kick out of Noel playing the piano. He had her laughing pretty hard. She's so adorable and we're so glad we got to meet her!
Although it was a bit windy and even a bit "chilly", we walked along the beach for awhile one morning.
Thanks for inviting us to Carlsbad, Rumohrs! We really enjoyed seeing you, spending time with you, and meeting Isla. See you in June!

Is this legal?

It's difficult to stay inside all day working when the weather is so beautiful. We had some really beautiful days last week and I got jealous of Noel reading outside on the porch. He said, "Why don't we move our office outside for the afternoon?". So, he brought out the coffee table (which extends upward), his desk chair, and my computer. I can't complain about working from home now! My neighbors may think I'm a bit crazy, but that doesn't bother me one bit. :)

"Garden"

We don't really have any room for a "real" garden at our apartment but we've always wanted to grow some of our own food. Thanks to the creative mind of our neighbor, Ryan, and the book The Urban Homestead we decided to try our hand at our own community "garden". We started a compost in a covered trash pail and collected lots of free pots to plan tomatoes, peppers, strawberries, beans, mint, and more in. Ryan is so great at watering the plants every day and tending to them. We can wait to see what works!

No salad for you!

Noel and I have been intrigued by a restaurant, Conrad's Family Restaurant/Cocktails (whatever that means), since we moved here. It's almost always busy, but looks like kind of a dive...not a "hole in the wall" place that you'd actually try and discover it has amazing food, but a family restaurant/lounge/bar/who knows what, dive. A few of our neighbors have also been wanting to see what Conrad's is all about, so we decided to have our "end of the quarter celebration" there on Friday night. Let's just say we won't be going back anytime soon...or ever.
I was pretty excited when we walked in because the interior totally reminded me of Russ'! I love Russ'! The customers were all about 70 years old and so we felt a bit out of place, but still had an open mind. We were seated immediately and started to read through the abnormally large menu that had everything from breakfast, "Italian Fare", "Mexican Fare", Seafood, burgers, sandwiches, soup, fried chicken, etc., etc. Basically it's your one stop shop for any kind of food you want.
After spending a long time looking over the menu, Noel decided on the Fettuccine Alfredo and I decided on the Garden Burger with Sauteed mushrooms. My entree came with a choice of fries, coleslaw, or fruit on the side. However, I really wanted a green salad. So, I ordered my burger and then had the following conversation:
Server: "Would you like fries, coleslaw, or fruit with that?"
Me : "Could I substitute a side green salad?"
Server: "No."
Me: "Not even for an additional charge?"
Server: "No."
Me: "So, I can't even order a side green salad?"
Server: "No."
Me: "Ummmm, okay, I guess I'll have the fruit."

I was so confused by the whole situation. I have never been told that I can't substitute a salad! I know that at some places it's an additional charge, but apparently that wasn't even an option here. Anyway, Noel's pasta came and looked pretty sick. It was just cooked fettuccine with a thick white mystery sauce ladled over top (probably from some over sized can or jar that's been sitting on a shelf for months). He took only 2 bites and said it was so disgusting he couldn't even eat it. Luckily, he was give a side green salad with his meal and ate that (though we're pretty sure it had about a half a bottle of dressing on it). On top of it all, this place was not cheap! We could've eaten at MANY other restaurants in Pasadena for much less and gotten much better food. Oh well, it was a funny experience. We'll never know why it's always busy there, but we'll also never wonder what it's all about when we walk past anymore. The night was redeemed with a trip to 21 Choices, which was a much needed cleansing for our pallets.

Two big thumbs down for Conrad's!

Pot-pie Extravaganza

I have been wanting to serve dinner at Union Station, a homeless shelter/rehabilitation center in Pasadena, for a long time. I recently found out that our church is responsible for preparing and serving dinner the 2nd Sunday of every month. This includes making dinner for about 50 people, delivering it to the center, and serving it to the residents. It's quite structured in terms of what you can and can not bring, and my "go to" lasagna was on the "no" list. I decided on chicken pot-pie, salad, and garlic bread for the meal, and bars and ice cream for dessert. Luckily, my neighbor, Rebecca, volunteered to help me on Saturday as this was quite a large undertaking for me. She made all the crusts, rolled them out, and put them on top of each pie. I had made all the fillings earlier as well as dessert. Thank you, Rebecca!!!!!


Here are all the fillings without the crusts as well as 1 pan of bars. We were so thankful to have the help of our friends, Joey and Katie, to serve the meal on Sunday. It was a great experience and I will definitely do it again. I might make something a bit simpler though so it doesn't take a whole day. Also, I will prepare less food as we had 3 of the 6 pot-pies left (for some reason only about 25 people showed up that evening) Luckily, they gladly accept leftovers so we weren't stuck with anything. I think Union Station has a great program and does a great service to our community. I am happy to help support them in this way.
I do have to say, I can't see myself eating pot-pie for a VERY long time. I pretty much never want to see it again.