Face Lift

I decided to change the layout to my blog. I felt it needed a change. I like change, I think change is good. Call me crazy but I don't think I would be happy if everything was the same every day. I also added a couple new links to my blog as well.

Better Late, Than Never

Wow, it has been a really long time since my last post. I could list a entire laundry list why I haven't posted, but who wants to read excuses. So here is a crash course of what I have been up to the last month and a half.

September Re-cap:
Raymond and I made it to Seattle safe and sound. We got all moved in a settled into our new apartment. It is really cute, not too much bigger than our last apartment in Seattle but definitely better. We are only a couple of blocks from Pike Place Market and one block away from Elliott Bay. We have a fantastic view from our balcony. I will post pictures soon, I promise. I really love living in Belltown. There are so many great restaurants and bars that I never knew about.

October Re-cap:
I started my new job and I absolutely love it!!! I could not have asked for a better job. I started on October 1st and it has been non stop since then. I also started my first MBA class in Seattle that week as well. I have only had about one day off a week.

In the middle of the month I traveled to Minneapolis on a work related trip. I have never been there, it was a really quick trip. We got there on Sunday afternoon and were back in Seattle at 11pm on Monday night. There were around 15 of us that went to Minneapolis. We toured the AVEDA Headquarters in Blaine, Minnesota. It was a really great experience, it was a great way to start off my first month at my new job.

In October, we also carved pumpkins with Bret and Alyssa, which was so much fun. I can't wait to do it again next year. If you want to see pictures of our pumpkins check out Alyssa's blog.

November:
We are going to be joining my family on Stockton, CA for Thanksgiving this year. My aunt lives there so we are all meeting up there. We are going into San Francisco for the weekend and I can't wait.

I promise I will write more often. There is no excuse for all my slacking. Oh, and I will post pics of our new apartment.

Driving

Raymond and I started our journey to Seattle this morning around 10am. When we moved to California in June we brought both of our cars. R drove his and I drove mine. We wanted to try and just bring my car up to Seattle and then get his car during the holidays. That did not work out too well. There was no way that we were able to fit even half of our stuff in one car. We did not bring any furniture or anything from Seattle, we only brought clothes, golf clubs and bikes.

We left this morning and drove six hours until we got to Stockton, where my Aunt lives. She made us a wonderful dinner and my cousin is making us strawberry shortcakes (Yummy)! We are going to leave Stockton tomorrow morning at 4am because it takes 12 hours to get to Seattle from here. We have a long day of driving ahead of us.

I really dislike driving long distances by myself. Good thing I have Sirius and an iPod with me, or else I would be really bored.

Seattle, here I come!

As some of you may know, I was in Seattle last week for a job interview. I got into Seattle on Wednesday night, and had my interview on Thursday. I had an interview with Gary Manuel Salon for their Human Resource Manager. I stayed with my college roommate Alyssa on the east side. I left Redmond at 9:00 am so I would not get stuck in traffic on 520. My interview was scheduled for 11:00am, and I made it there with plenty of time to spare. It is better to be early than running late and frazzled.

I met with the salon manager and we had talked for two hours. She gave me a tour of the salon, advanced training salon and corporate center, she also gave me directions to their school so that I could take a look at it on the way out of Seattle.

The interview went really well that she asked me to come back the next day to interview with the owner of the company. I had my interview with him at 10:00am on Friday. He is an awesome person, and our interview lasted two hours as well. He then invited me to lunch and formally offered me the job. I accepted, of course and I start on October 2.

What happened to my other job in California, you might ask??????? Well, I wasn't supposed to start there until 9/10/07 and I never formally signed an offer letter, so I called them and let them know that I was not going to be able to accept the position. My new job in Seattle is going to pay me over double and I don't have to sit in traffic for 2 hours to get there and back.

I am so excited, this is my dream job. I get to travel all over the world and do something that I love. It is going to be a challenge, but if you know me, you know that I live for challenges. I am planning to live in Belltown, that is where my job is located as well.

Seattle here I come, and I am here to stay!

Thank you

Thank you to every one who has been praying for my grandfather. My grandpa or Ta-Ta as my cousins and I call him, passed away this afternoon around 3:00pm. He is with the Lord now, and is in a better place. Thanks again for all the calls, emails and condolences that have been sent to us. We are truly Blessed to have had such a wonderful Dad, Ta-Ta, brother, and friend.

Please Pray

My grandfather is in ICU in a coma with a blood hemorrhage in his brain. It has been a very difficult couple of days for my family and I. I would appreciate it, if every one could say a prayer that he gets wells soon and comes out of the coma. Thank you and God Bless.

Job Hunting (Update)

Around a month ago I posted a blog stating that I was trying to find a job. Here is an update........I found a job. Actually I found three jobs. I started applying for jobs in late June and I was fortunate to land three interviews. Two weeks ago, I was extended an offer on all three of the jobs that I applied for. The crazy thing was that they all contacted me on the same day. I did not expect for all three to extend me an offer. I was quite flattered.

It took me an entire weekend to decide which job to take. It actually was between four jobs. I could have stayed at the current job that I am at as well. It was one of the most nerve racking and emotional weekends that I have been through. I had so many mixed emotions. It forced me to sit down and actually think what is it that I want in my life. Where do I want to be in the next three, five and ten years? I did a lot of soul searching and really set out some clear cut goals for myself.

All three of these jobs are fabulous and offer great benefits and are all equal in pay, so you can see where my dilemma was when trying to select just one. I had managed to narrow it down to two jobs but still had a hard time trying to pick just one. I called on the help of one of my good friends from Seattle to help me. She helped me realize what would be best for me. Thanks Shelia! You are the best.

So I start my new job on September 4, 2007. I am going to be working at California State University Fullerton. I am excited for my new career venture, and am looking forward to achieving the goals that I have set for myself.

One Down, Eight More to Go!

I completed my first class last Thursday. I started my new class on Tuesday. That means once this class is completed on September 11, 2007, I will have eight more classes to go! I am really glad that next year at this time I will be done with my MBA!

Team Seattle!

Team Seattle, what is that? Raymond and I moved back to California in June as most of you know, but we did not know how much we were going to miss living in the beautiful city of Seattle. Raymond and I are desperate to get back up to the Pacific Northwest. We have set some goals and give ourselves no more than three years in California.

We are both born and raised in California so you would think that we like it here. Well, the truth of the matter is that we do not like it here. I never realized how gross and dirty California is. One of the only reasons that we like California is because all of our families live here.

Since we've moved back all we talk about is Seattle, and frankly my brother is getting annoyed with me. He says "Move back them!". So that is what we plan to do! We have given ourselves three years because by that time, I will have my MBA and Raymond will have his BS. That will allow us to be more competitive in the job market.

Go Team Seattle!!!!!!

Baby News!

My cousin and his beautiful wife had a baby boy June 20th! I want to congratulate them and welcome Manuel David Diaz to our family. They are already blessed with three beautiful girls, Kayla, Karizma and Sierra, now their family is complete. Congrats again Joe and Cecelia!

Blog Rating and Bithday Wishes!

I stole this from Laura, it is a site that rates your blog based on certain words and phrases. Here is the rating for my blog:

Shows how boring and conservative I am. I am really going to have to try and spice things up a bit in blog land.

Birthday news:
I want to wish a very special Happy Birthday to my wonderful friend Alyssa! I hope you had a wonderful day and I will see you soon!

Grad School

Tomorrow I start my first day of grad school. I am really excited about starting my MBA. I will be done with school in September 2008! I have already looked at my syllabus and I am not going to have much free time. The MBA program is really intense. Wish me luck as I start my new journey to completing my MBA!

Job Hunting!

I have been in California a little over a month now, and I am still looking for a job. I have been to three job fairs, and they were not what I thought they would be. The first one that I went to was a totally unorganized. I found the job fair on Monster. It stated that it was a job fair for college graduates. The ad also stated that the companies that were going to be there were looking for applicants in business management. That is what I have my degree in, therefore I decided to register for the job fair, so I submitted my resume.

When I got to the job fair, it was not what they said it was. It was a job fair for entry-level positions in such industries as rental cars, corrections, fast food and hotel service. It was a total waste of my time. I was really disappointed.

I signed up for two other job fairs and they were not any better. They were for sales jobs, with a commission only salary. So, needless to say I don't think I am going to be attending any more job fairs.

I really loved my job in Seattle. I especially loved the people that I worked with. I have applied everywhere, so hopefully I land a job soon. Wish me luck and if anyone has any suggestions I have an open ear :)

California - We made it!

We made it safe to California on Monday evening. We left Seattle on Friday at 9:30am and arrived to my Aunt's house in Stockton, CA at 10:45pm. It was a long day of driving. Raymond and I drove separately because we had to had to drive both of our cars down to California.

We hung out in Stockton for the weekend visiting with my family. We had a great weekend with them. We went to San Francisco and did a lot of shopping on Saturday and on Sunday we went to the movies to see Pirates of the Caribbean. On Sunday night my friend Marissa, came to my Aunts house and we got to visit with her as well.

We left Stockton at 10:00am on Monday and arrived in my parents driveway at 4:00pm. I am so glad that I don't have to drive that far again for a while. I already miss Seattle and can't wait to visit there soon!

Going back to Cali, Cali, Cali!

That's right, you read the title correctly. We are moving back to California. It all came so suddenly. Raymond went for an interview on Thursday at 8am and by 10:30am they called him back and offered him the job.

He starts his new job on June 4th so that means that by next Friday we are going to be on the road back to California. I have mixed feelings about leaving. I really love it in Seattle and I love my job, however there are a lot of perks to living in California as well. Our family is there and Raymond will be at a job that he really enjoys.

I am going to miss all of my new friends that I have made in Seattle. We will be back to visit often and who knows maybe we will buy a condo in Seattle one day so that we can come for vacations! I will definitely keep everyone posted on our move and our new adventures in California!

Blog Issues

I have been having blog issues. I had to switch to the "new blogger" and I was unable to post to my mind blog. It is all fixed, and will be posting soon!

Mom and Dad come to Seattle

My parents came to Seattle to visit Raymond and I over President's Day weekend in Fedbruary. It was so nice to have them come and visit, we had a wonderful time. They got here on Thursday afternoon and stayed until Sunday night. We went to Snoqualmie Falls on Saturday afternoon.
We also did a lot of walking around the city. On Friday it was a pretty wet day in Seattle. What a shocker, it was the middle of February. We told my parents even though it is raining we are still going to go out and walk around.
Here is a picture of my mom and dad in front of the fish at Pike Place Market. They have never been there. When I went to college in Seattle, we never did much sightseeing, they were too busy buying me stuff at Target and Ikea for school. Thanks for coming mom and dad, and you have to come back soon to see our new house! 

WInter Wonderland

I know I haven't blogged in a while and I am sorry for being such a slacker. I will write more latet, but until then here are some pictures of another snow storm. Alright, maybe not a storm, but snow. About 3 weeks ago is snowed all day off and on, however it wasent really sticking. Then around 6pm the snow began to fall more rapidly and this is what we were left with. This is the view we have from our new house. I promise I will post pictures of our house later!!!!!

 

With the Rims and Tires!

This is what the car looked like before......... 

Damn Crooks!

Raymond went out to our Lexus to go to work on Tuesday morning and the rims and rooters were gone on the car. He came back to our apartment and informed me that he couldent go to work. I was pizzled and asked why? He told me that we got our rims and tires stolen.

We called the police and filed a report. Needless to say we are moving out of our apartment in Dowmtown Seattle and moving into a brand new home in Bothell. I work in Bothell and Raymond works in Bellevue, so we will both be a lot closer to work.

Too bad it had to happen like this. I got to get going, we need to pack up our apartment.


 

Viva Las Vegas

We are going to Las Vegas for the weekend. Yay, I love Vegas. When we lived in Cali we used to go quite a bit, it was only a 3 hour drive from where we lived, but we haven't been since July. I am really excited because my parents and my brother are meeting us there too. We are celebrating my 27th birthday, and my brothers band Murderland is going to be playing there. I better get off the computer, because I still need to pack! Yikes! I will be sure to write about our trip when we get home.

Snow, Snow and More Snow!

This is the second major snow storm in less than a week. The snow likes to make it's debut in the heart of the commute. Last week when the snow started to fall on Wednesday afternoon around 4:00pm, it took me 2 hours to get to believe, which is normally about a 20 minute drive from work.

Last night all the news programs were predicting snow, and by golly they were correct. I woke up this morning to the sight of freshly fallen snow, and it is still falling. I really do like the snow, but now I am getting a little irritated by it. For some reason, people do not know how to drive in the snow here in Western Washington. Well, I got to get ready for work, we are on a late start but I am still going to leave early because there are a lot of delays. Where's all the rain??????

Christmas, New Years and a New Job!

I have been really terrible about blogging. Raymond and I had a great time in California over Christmas here is a re-cap of our trip!

I got to California on Tuesday, December 19, 2006 at 9:00 pm. I was supposed to be there at 5:30 pm, however my flight was delayed. Here is how it started. I checked in online like I always do and right before Raymond came to pick me up to take me to the airport I checked my flight to make sure that it was "on time". According to alaskaair.com it was, so we proceeded to the airport. Right as I pass through security the status of my flight changed to "delayed" and hour. Okay, I can deal with an hour, but then at 3:00 my new boarding time, the flight kept being pushed back and back. We finally ended up leaving at 6:30. Needless to say, I was very frustrated.

When I arrived in California my parents were there to greet me and we went out to have a drink at the Historic Mission Inn Hotel in Riverside. My brother is a bartender there so we went to go bug him. The Mission Inn is also where Raymond and I got married. If you have never been there you should check it out or at least the website www.missioninn.com . We sat at the bar for about two hours had some wine and decided to call it a night.

On Wednesday, I ran some errands and did some last minute Christmas shopping. I thought I was done, but there is always that last minute gift to buy.

On Thursday, my parents and I went out to breakfast and then went to our office to "load the sleigh"! Our annual Christmas party for my parents business was on Thursday so we had to load all of the gifts into my parents car so that we could take them to the country club that the party was going to be held at. The party started at 5:30 in the evening, however we got there at 3:30 to un-load all of the gifts. The Christmas party was a lot of fun, we had a magician, comedian and a DJ for our staff and kids. The boys even did some skits that were excellent and really showed the true meaning of Christmas. After the party, when everyone left my parents, my cousins and I were sitting around and my cousin Joe and his wife Cecelia told us that they were expecting another baby. I was so happy for them. They are great parents and have three beautiful girls that I absolutely adore. They are truly blessed to have another baby on the way.

Friday was a LONG day for me, I woke up early and had breakfast with my friend Tori, and then went home to wait for my cousin Ashlee and Darren to arrive from Stockton. Ashlee and I were planning to do to Disneyland when they got here. Stockton is about 8 hours north of Riverside. Once Ashlee and Darren arrived they had to make a pit stop at Bakers and my grandparents house before she headed over to my parents house so we could go to Disneyland. We finally left at 2:00 in the afternoon and were at Disneyland until 9:00 pm. We had a lot of fun. Raymond also flew in that day from the airport, my parents picked him up since I was at Disneyland.

Saturday was also busy. My mom, Ashlee and I got up early to get pedicures and my dad and Raymond went golfing. Once we were done getting our feet done, we went home to cook or should I say bake. I baked around 400 chocolate chip cookies. I am not trying to brag, but I have been told that I make great chocolate chip cookies. The nice thing about making then at my mom's house it that she has a Viking Stove, which is a industrial size stove, so I was able to bake 5 batches at a time. This helped to make the process go a lot faster.

Once I was done with all the cookies, I had to rush to get ready because Raymond and I went to San Diego to visit his friend from the Navy, Javier and his wife Karla and their cute daughter Clarisa. We went to the San Diego Wild Animal Park. It was really neat, I haven't been there since I was a kid, but at night during Christmas they keep the Wild Animal Park open late and have light displays and arts and crafts for the kids to do. It was so much fun, and it was great to see Javier, Karla and Clarisa!

Sunday was Christmas Eve, and we went to Raymond's aunts house in the late afternoon and then went to my grandparents house at night. We always have Christmas Eve at my grandparents house. My grandma made tamales and they were so yummy! We then opened all the gifts. I love Christmas, it makes me feel like such a kid.

Then we went home to my parents house. We always open our Christmas presents when we get home from my grandparents house, we never wait until Christmas morning. Well, I guess it is technically Christmas morning. So when we got home we put on our pajamas and gathered around the tree and opened our gifts. I have to say that Santa was good to me again this year!

We woke up early on Christmas Day and went to Raymond's parents house where we exchanged gifts and watched out nieces open gifts. We then went back to my parents house and spent the whole day there. My parents always have Christmas Day at their house, and believe me there is always a full house, usually no less than 25 people. The last guests stayed until around midnight and then we went to sleep. We were exhausted!

We left California the next day and spent New Years in Seattle. We went to Jazz Alley and it was a lot of fun. Then we decided to head to Pioneer Square, which was totally crowded with crazy people. So we decided to leave, however we could not find a cab, so we ended up walking up hill home.

It is now 2007 and I have been looking for a job actively for about 2 weeks and I have finally got a job. I start on Monday. I am going to be the assistant of student affairs at a local community college. I am really excited to be working. I have actually been really bored not working, there is only so many things that I can buy at the mall :)

It looks like 2007 is going to be a great year, I hope that everyone had a wonderful holiday season and has a great New Year!