Friday night dinner with good friends

Jaime and I invited our good friends Nicole and her boyfriend Fernando, Kat and John to come over Friday night for dinner. We haven't seen them since last year (Nikky & Fernando), we've all been soo busy it was soo nice to see them again.



Here are some pictures I attempted to take of the food we prepared:

I made some fresh salad greens with red bell peppers, grape tomatoes, shredded carrots, cranberries, Persian cucumbers, crutons, bleu cheese and balsamic vinaigrette...sooo yummy!


The other side dish I made is my twice baked potato...I was soo hungry that I didnt take a pic of what it would look w/the garnishes on it ie sour cream, bacon bits, chives...haha



Jaime the bbq chef that he is made some steaks and grilled them in the bbq...it was soo nice and tender the steaks literally melts in your mouth! (good job babe!) Btw the steaks are pretty huge, I would say a good 7-8 oz size. Its Friday, ok to eat unhealthy and I made the salad to pretty much balance it off...hehe jk...



Kat & John brought some beer and wine, forgot to take pictures and Nicole & Fernando brought more beer and dessert. A lovely and yummy strawberry pie from Marie Calendars.

Here are some pics we took after dinner, we were soo full...

Hopefully we get to have another get together soon...Jaime and I love making dinner and having people come over...

Our first wedding present in the mail...

I came home after a long weekend at Jaimes last Wednesday and guess what I found on top of our dining table ...

Our first wedding gift! We got a free 5" Santoku knife for registering for $500 Calphalon products. I dont even remember if we registered Calphalon stuff at Bed Bath & Beyond or Macys, one of them hehe. If we complete our registry we are eligible to receive more gifts like the Calpahlon Stir fry gift complete with a nonstick stir fry pan and nylon stir fry turner. Sounds awesome huh?

I came back home today and Mom told me we got another present! I dont know what it is but its from Macys...I wanted to open it but mom told me to wait for Jaime hehe...I guess I can wait...I'll just stare at the box and figure out what it is...its pretty light!

Tasting

I took this past Monday off so we can go to our dinner tasting for our reception. Jaime and I finally met with the Food & Beverage Director at the hotel where we will be having our reception dinner. Annice was nice and she directed us to the restaurant where we will be doing the tasting. Jaime and I got too excited that we forgot to take pictures of the food we tried that day hehe.

For our first course we had to pick between the Romaine salad with tulle parmesan cheese and traditional Caesar dressing or the Spinach Salad with gorgonzola cheese, walnuts, roasted rell pepers, with honey mustard vinaigrette. Jaime wasn't a fan of the honey mustard vinaigrette so we decided to pick the classic Romaine salad with the traditional Caesar dressing and the cute tulle parmesan cheese.

Second course we tried on three different entree choices: Braised boneless short rib of beef with garlic thyme demi, Grilled salmon with ginger and carrot butter sauce and Stuffed chicken breast with arugula, sun-dried tomatoes and feta cheese. We loved the stuffed chicken breast so she's our winner.

After eating, we went to another table to check out swatches for linens, we still havent decided which one to go for, I have to double check with Kathy Jo our wedding planner which best one to pick. Our venue also includes a table number, name cards for the guests and menu cards which is awesome I dont have to do it myself. Annice told us that they will be switching to a different vendor for that so I have to come back to pick one that would be close to our invitation design.

So yea that was fun in one day, I had to run errands after while Jaime went to work at 1:30 in the afternoon.

Next wedding planning activity would be our engagement shoot in June. I cant wait, Jaime and I decided to shoot at the Santa Monica Pier. We informed our photographers and they loved the idea yay!

Ring Shopping

This past Sunday, Jaime and I went to look for our wedding bands. My sister Kat and her bf John came along as well. We went back to the same jeweler where Jaime purchased my engagement ring. We found a lot of nice settings, I saw this cute eternity band with diamonds around it (loves it!), while Jaime found this black and grey checkered band where he can wear to work it is made of tungsten and also this other white gold band. When we go back and finally purchase it I will take pictures of it. One of the sons was there but Christine nor her mom weren't there so we'll just go back when one of them comes back from vacation so we can get a great deal :o).

After looking for rings we went to the grocery store to buy stuff for our bbq dinner. We got pork ribs, bratwurst, margarita mix, charcoal, bbq baked beans, coleslaw, mac & cheese and soda. I also marintated some pork chops the night before and Jaime decided to grill them as well. The weather was perfect for a bbq so we took a couple pictures in Jaime's lil patio. We were sooo full that night and we had a lot of food left over so Kat and John took some food to go and Jaime and I ate the rest the next day :o).

Home Sweet Home :o)

Nice to be back home after a 4 day stay in San Jose, CA. We had our annual CWA (California WIC Association) conference and this year we stayed at the Fairmont Hotel in San Jose (love this hotel). I didn't get a chance to take pictures :o( but I still had fun hanging out with my girlfriends from work.

On Sunday, Jaime dropped me off the Ontario airport and I met up with my roomie Sheila. She was my roommate last year too when we had our conference in San Diego. Our 1 hour plane ride to San Jose was nauseating, maybe because its been a while since I last flew. Last time I flew was 2 years ago when I went to Sacramento during my internship. Man time flies hehe. When we got there we checked in and met up with my other friend Ilanna. We decided to grab something to eat and we went to Johnny Rockets. I ordered a strawberry shake & a tuna melt it was yummy and Ilanna and I shared a chili cheese fries :o). Yes sharing is caring! hehe. After dinner we went back to our room to finish unpacking our stuff and worked on some of our crochet projects, Sheila gave me a new pattern to work on while she was trying to finish up the blanket she was making and same as Ilanna. I haven't been crocheting for a long time so its nice to start again :o).

Monday our first day of the conference, a little bit tired from the trip so we tried to drink lots of coffee and listen to all the planery sessions about the changes that is about to happen with WIC. Yes by October we will be adding more food to our packets like vouchers for fruits and veggies, whole grain breads, tortillas, and baby foods! We attended the next session about breastfeeding then head to lunch from 12:30-2pm, we went to Tandoori Oven which was right across from our hotel. I ordered from the ala carte menu the chicken tikka masala which came w/the naan it was soo good, had to thank my friend Ilanna for suggesting us to eat there. I was soo full that it made me sleepy when we went to attend the next session hehe. For dinner my girlfriends from work and I went to PF Changs, we ordered a bunch of entree items and just shared it.

Tuesday our second day, more sessions that we attended and my friends Autumn & Ilanna suggested for us to go and check out this deli place called Potbelly. It is a sandwich place so we walked to look for it and to their dismay the place is no longer there :o(. I could tell they were both disappointed, the other girls and I were so hungry we didn't care anymore what to have for lunch so we stayed in the new deli place that took over Potbelly and ate there. For dinner, they had a reception dinner for the annual Nutrition Corps awards. I remembered getting an award last year for a scholarship that we applied for while we were interns...Oh memories hehe! After that we decided to go grab a drink at the grill bar in the hotel for some cocktails & wine. We all hung out there for a few hours then around 9:30 we went to Mc Cormick & Schmicks for some happy hour appetizers and some drinks hehe. It was fun hanging out with my friends from work catching up and talking about husbands & fiances hehe.

Wednesday our last day, we're all looking forward to go back home. As much as we had fun in San Jose we missed our significant others and families. I got to talk to Jaime everyday before he went to work and I dont get to see him til tomorrow when I take my lunch break at work. Looking forward to seeing him again, I did miss him hehe.

So tomorrow back to work, end of the month and staff meeting, ugh hopefully we will be slow so I can finish up with my audits before this month ends.

Updates

Our wedding is 6 months away and here are the things my fiancé and I have accomplished:

- bought my wedding dress, just waiting for it to come in for my first fitting...
- found the bridesmaid's dresses, although i still have to make appointments for their fittings...
- found our ceremony & reception site, paid the deposit and had it booked
- found our photographer
- found our wedding planner
- created our wedding webpage (here's a link): http://mariajaime.weddingannouncer.com/
- talked to our wedding planner about our budget and we both know we might go over our budget and we are...(scary!!!)
- made appointments for our cake tasting in 2 weeks, how exciting...when i do have the time, i will blog it...
- blocked rooms for some of our guests who are staying at the hotel
- registered for presents, sooo much fun...we registered at 3 places, with my OCD i kind of categorized the registries...pottery barn for our dining ware (love their great white dining ware), some bath items & office stuff; macys for baking ware & bedroom sheets (love the martha stewart line); lastly, bed bath and beyond for their kitchen electronics and other stuff...

things we still have to do:
- bug the food & beverage director to having an early tasting since we're thinking about having 2 different entree choices
- meet with the florist, which our wedding planner will take care of :o)
- make an appointment to meet with this person who makes programs
- pick out tuxes for the guys
- buy presents for our wedding party
- order invitations & make them look fabulous
- interview dj's

That's what I remember right now, I know I still have a lot of things to do...

Happy 2009!!!

Christmas and New Years went by really fast, I cannot believe it came and went.

I've been soo busy at work and with the wedding plans that I haven't been blogging or reading blogs hehe...

I shall be posting pictures from the holidays soon as soon as I upload the pictures and keep everyone posted about the wedding plans...

hope everyone will have a great 2009!