Another Laura Sighting!

I hope you all don't think I'm vain for always posting where my pictures show up. I just think it's funny that pictures taken almost 2 years ago pop up all over the place. My brother-in-law was watching a demo movie for a software and he found this picture. Maybe I should have a prize for the next person who can find my picture.

Weird Yellow Signs

Around town I've been noticing weird yellow signs with black letters. The letters never make any sense. Sometimes they are numbers and letters, or sometimes a letter or two may be upside-down. With my crazy "the worst is happening" mentality, I thought they were for some cult guiding people where to go. (Another example of this: I was vacuuming the other night and I heard this weird noise and freaked out because I was sure someone was trying to break in. I later realized it was the vacuum cord hitting the carpet.) Well, this week one of these weird little signs showed up by our house! 

Thankfully Dorothy was able to calm my fears about the whole cult thing. She got an email from the Country Club that the "CYE" sign meant that the filming of the HBO show Curb Your Enthusiasm is  being held a the Country Club. I'm so glad these weird yellow signs are guiding the extras for the shows and not a crazy cult. One problem solved. Now, what to do about that crazy scratching noise in our wall...

A New Car!!

Last night we went to test drive some cars we were interested in, and ended up driving away with one! It's a Suzuki XL-7 Luxury edition. It has all wheel drive, 6-CD changer, iPod hook-up, leather seats, front seat warmers, optional 3rd row back seat, and sun roof. It's a 2008 with 13,000 miles. Before us it was a rental car so it was very well taken care of. In fact, Ja's dad thought it was brand new. We never thought of owning a Suzuki, but with all the features you get you can't beat the price.

Going to CARMAX was a very enjoyable experience, I would definitely do it again. The salesman we had wasn't pushy at all and he was very open to showing us many cars. We learned later that they aren't paid commission from the price of the car, but a flat rate. We were grateful for this because he first showed us car that was out of our price range but had no problems showing us a cheaper car. AND CARMAX has a 5-day return policy. If you don't like the car for ANY reason you can return it no questions asked and get your full down payment back. The Manager said he's know some people drive it to Vegas and back to test it out. It doesn't matter how many miles you put on it and you don't have to return it with a full tank of gas. I would recommend CARMAX to everyone.

782 Million Miles Away

Last Tuesday we went on a date to the Griffith Park Observatory to look through the telescope they have there. Lucky for us the sky was nice and clear so we could see the planet Saturn! Saturn is 782 million miles away but we can still see it through a telescope. That amazes me. We looked through a huge telescope first, then through a smaller one, that was just as powerful if not more powerful, to see Saturn. We could see the rings around the planet too. We then looked through another telescope at the nebula in the sword of Orion. This nebula just "gave birth" to 4 baby stars that we could see too. The nebula looked like a cloud with 4 little stars next to it. 

The Hollywood sign is on the neighboring hill to the Observatory which was a neat discovery. It's the best photo opt you can get of to the sign without setting off an alarm system.

On Wednesday we used the second half of our Disneyland 2fer pass and went to California Adventure. We had a great time there, even though it was pretty hot. We took the day slow, went all on the rides we wanted, went to a show, and learned about the large renovation that California Adventure is undergoing. Of course, Toy Story Mania was our favorite ride, and learning to draw Minnie Mouse at the Animation Academy was another favorite. This is how we did.

Mine is on the top and Ja's is the bottom one. Drawing is easier when everything consists of circles and lines and someone is telling you what to do step by step. 

Well, that's what's going on in our lives. Oh, and doing our taxes. What a joy that was. 

Look What's Cooking Today

Chelsey, her sister Amber, and I have started our own recipe blog. The name of it is Look What's Cooking Today and you can access it here.

We have posted our favorite recipes and continue to post pictures and other recipes. We also have Making Healthy Choices Monday, and Tips from the Kitchen Tuesday to keep you coming back for more.

Feel free to use it as much as you like. Maybe you feel like you're in a rut or don't know what to do with that chicken tonight. We have the recipes labeled and you can access those labels with the links on the right-hand side of the page. 

If you have any cool ideas for us or would like to share your own recipes with all of us, please email us at lookwhatscookingtoday@gmail.com. We'll post your recipes, along with pictures if you have one, as soon as possible.

We hope you find the blog useful! Enjoy!

Contrary to Popular Belief...

Ja and I do not sit around all day basking in the warm California sun. We do have jobs that keep us busy during the day.

Ja is managing  his dad's medical practice to become a more lean, mean, ultrasounding machine (Ja's words if you couldn't tell). He is implementing change in the way they do the medical billing, the way they handle situations in the office, and the way they train new hires. He is running reports trying to better account for the expenses of the practice. He is also writing new reports that have been very helpful. He also helps pay bills and do payroll. He is doing a great job and the whole staff loves having him in the office. 

I am working with a couple as their personal assistant. He had a stroke a little over year ago which left him unable to see very well so he can't drive or take care of household chores very easily. I take him to appointments, the bank, and the occasional lunch. I also help with other paperwork issues for them, and anything else they need help with. Since I don't start that job until 10 a.m., I also work in Dr. DeVore's office on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. I'm helping them "go paperless" by scanning in bills and papers that can then be shredded. 

Along with this, we have my in-laws over for dinner a few nights a week, Ja plays basketball on Tuesday nights, I have mutual on Wednesday nights, I go to the NUCCA doctor every Thursday night, and Ja teaches English to Koreans on Friday nights. In between there we also visit with my family, teach lessons on Sundays, home teaching, visiting teaching, and any other event that may come up. To say the least we are very busy. Hopefully we can catch a few rays in there somewhere...

Grandma Winder's Funeral

We went to Grandma Winder's funeral this weekend in Provo and Vernal, Utah. We had a great time even though it was a funeral. As her program said, it really was a Celebration of Life. We told stories about her heard great stories about her and continued to learn from her example. It was a wonderful time and I'm so glad I was able to go. I'm very glad they put the last picture on the program because this is how I remember her best, with a huge smile on her face.

David Archuleta - Crush

Please tell me you get chills when you listen to his voice :)

American Idol

This post is for those American Idol fans out there...

This week I realized I took David Cook for granted. Sure he's a good singer, and he successfully changed most of the songs he sang on the show, but I never really liked him. Then after watching the show this week I realized that I missed hearing him sing. Chelsey I bet you never thought you'd hear me say that. He was a very good contestant and I'm glad he won. This season I hope someone will be just as good as David Cook. Watch his "Light On" Video here.

Now Chelsey, I'm going to redeem myself by saying, I MISS DAVID ARCHULETA! So far in the competition there is no one who can take his place. He is such a sweet boy with a sweet voice. Just look at his face! He was so much fun to listen to and to watch. I really hope someone can take the place of David Archuleta. Then I'll really enjoy watching American Idol Season 8. In case you miss him as much as I do, watch David's "Crush" music video above.

Grandma Winder

Grandma Winder passed away last night. The nurse said she probably wouldn't make it through the nigh and just a few minutes later Grandma took a deep breath, leaned her head back and left. 

We were so grateful to have the 4 months to live with her. I learned so much from her in that short amount of time. She had a hard life, living in poor conditions, working on a farm, and growing everything they ate. She never really had much, and on the day she died she didn't have much, but to her she had everything. She had family that is sealed in the temple,  a testimony of the gospel, and love in her heart. To her the Church wasn't something you believe in, she just knew that it was true. Whenever she spoke about the Church you knew that she knew for a fact everything was true. She was always very generous with the few things she did have.

I am so happy that Grandma was able to reunite with her family members, especially her husband who has been gone for 13 years. She talked about him a lot. She wondered if she would recognize him when she saw him again. Would he be in his younger body or his older body? Again, she just knew she would see him. 

She is out of pain and is rejoicing over all the people she is now meeting that she only knew on paper. She did a lot of genealogy work on the earth so I'm sure many people are thanking her right now. 

Even though I am happy Grandma is in a better place, it's hard to think that she is gone. Next time I go to Utah she won't be in her lazy boy waiting to see us with her huge smile. She is the first person I've really known to have passed away so I'm having a hard time grasping the idea that she is gone. I know I'll see her again, but it's going to be a long time from now. 

The thing that makes this all harder, is that I wrote her a letter earlier this week thanking her for her example and expressing our love for her. She didn't get to read it. I waited too long to write a letter that was very over due.  My tears are tears of joy and sorrow. I wish I didn't wait so long to write the letter. I thought I had more time. I pictured her lying on the bed reading the letter with that cute smile on her face.  I hope that she can somehow know what was in that letter and still have that smile on her face. 

So one thing I've learned from this is to never think I have more time. I need to do everything I want to do and say everything I want to say now. I'll never know when I'll be saying goodbye for the last time and I never want to have this feeling of regret again.

Goodbye Grandma Winder. We love you dearly and will miss you terribly.

Amgen Tour of California

We found out that Lance Armstrong was going to riding right through our neighborhood on Saturday so of course we had to watch. This race is similar to the Tour de France as it starts in Sacramento and ends is Escondido equaling 9 days in all. The 7th stage was going through Pasadena, making up 88.2 miles in total.

The race was going down Angeles Crest which is the major street by our house. There were signs on the street that said "Special Event Saturday 10 a.m. to 3 p.m." So we carry our gear uphill to the corner to watch the race at 10 a.m. This was especially hard for me since I couldn't breath through my nose and my throat felt like it was closing in on me. I finally made it to the corner and set up camp and this is what we saw. No one and nothing.

Luckily we had our handy dandy iPhones to look up the race details. We found out it didn't start until noon up in Valencia followed by a long climb uphill in the mountains. We decided to go home and try again later. I'm glad we did because we would have been sitting there for 3 1/2 hours.

On our second attempt we drove down to a neighborhood to watch the race. Here are some pictures we took. I got some good pictures of Lance Armstrong even though I didn't know it was him at the time.  He is the last one in this picture. 

Here is one with his whole team in front of the peloton.

The riders flew past us bringing lost of wind and dirt with them. My hair was blowing all over the place. Just after the riders were the cars carrying extra bikes and tires. It was pretty cool to see the cars racing down a neighborhood hill at 40 miles per hour when the speed limit is normally 25. 

After this part of the race we drove down to the end of the race at the Rose Bowl. Luckily for us they rode around the Rose Bowl 5 times so we were able to see them 3 of the 5. Apparently after a rider is done with his water bottle he throws is off to the side. The first time around Ja was struck with one which surprised him. We got another bottle the next time they came around.  Lance Armstrong is the third man in this picture.

Here are some other cool pictures I took. If you want too see all of them you can go to our Web Gallery.

It was really fun to see a professional bike race in person. It really wore me out though and I was on the couch with a fever the rest of the night trying to get comfort but to no avail. I'm still glad I went to the race, it might be a once in a lifetime experience.

Tidbits of Life

For Valentine's Day I bought Ja tickets to see the Harlem Globe Trotters. It was a pretty cheesy show but we had a fun time. 

Last Wednesday we went to Disneyland for the day. We went with the girls from Dr. DeVore's staff, but we split up once in the park. There wasn't very many people there and the longest we waited for a ride was 20 minutes for the Nemo ride. We were able to take things slow and have fun. These are the only pictures we took on the Pirates Island.

 

The other day I went with Dale (who is the 70 year old man I work for) to visit his mom . Yes his mom is still alive, and a very alive 100 year old woman. She walks without a walker or cane and she still drives. We went around lunch time and as soon as we walked in she asked if Dale wanted a sandwich. She asked if he wanted the bread toasted, what he wanted to drink, if he wanted zucchini bread, and if he had enough food. I guess no matter how old you are or how old your mom is, moms will always be moms. (I brought my own sandwich otherwise she would've made one for me too.)

Ja gave me a gift certificate to a Spa for Valentine's Day. I used it on Friday for a facial. I had already experienced a massage so I wanted to try something different. A facial is not as relaxing as a massage. She put different kinds of creams/gels/moisturizers on my face, some of which tingled and burned. She said it was removing the dead skin from my face. Although it was a fun experience to try once, I think I'll stay with the body massages. 

After my facial I started to feel sick. Luckily I took some medicine and went to bed at 9 p.m. feeling all right. But Saturday morning came and I was burning up but cold at the same time. I tried to take some medicine but nothing was helping. I took a bath and felt a little bit better, but not fully better. I didn't sleep well last night because I woke up every couple of hours due to extreme heat. My cute husband has been taking great care of me. He gets me cold wash cloths, smoothies, water, medicine, and anything else I need. He didn't even complain about me waking him up a lot last night. I hope I can start feeling better soon. 

Sometimes I think to myself, I wish I could be sick so I can stay home and sleep all day. Then I do get sick and I'm so mad at myself for even thinking of such a thing. Thank goodness for husbands and people around us to take care of us. 

Trapped in the Drive Thru

Make sure you have 11 minutes to watch this funny video.

Yay for Kenny!

More news on my little brother; he was accepted into BYU with a half scholarship! We're so proud and excited to have another BYU student in our family.

My New Goal

For the first time in my life I am setting a goal. Today I actually found something that is worth setting a goal for. As I was driving around, I saw a man drive past in an old fashioned convertible car and I loved it. So that is my new goal, one day I am going to own, and drive around, an old convertible car. I don't know much about cars to describe what year or model, but it's going to be old and a convertible. By the time I can afford one the 80's will probably be old so I should say I want one from the 60's or earlier. How cool with I be?!