NOT TOO MANY PLACES LIKE IT!

Who doesn't, couldn't, shouldn't, wouldn't LOVE southern california for it's most beautiful weather. It's the last day of February and I have spent the better part of the weekend in the beach town of San Clemente. Today it was sunny as can be and in the mid 80's. I'm not usually one to like the heat, especially when it's suppose to be hovering around the mid 40's this time of year. However, today I felt overly appreciative for this beautiful climate and the fact that I could walk outside and be more then content in shorts and a T-shirt in Februaury.
Isn't it great how last weekend we headed to the mountains for a "winter get away" and then the following weekend we were off to the coast for a "spring get away." (well kind of Frank had some work to do here this weekend).
THERE ARE NOT TOO MANY PLACES LIKE IT, and even if it's just today, I am happy for the "spring like" weather, early or not! :)

Happy One Year... :)

Today is Frank's one year anniversary of being baptized a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I love him so much and am so proud of him and all the wonderful progress he has made and the growth which has taken place. It's late now, so there will be more thoughts tomorrow!

our MUCH NEEDED weekend "winter" getaway

My wonderful husband decided we needed to get out of town for a little while (with a little bit of hinting from me) and whisk me and our little doggy boy to the local mountains for a weekend winter getaway. The mountains have been blanketed with an abundance of snow in the last week and a half so we decided we'd take full advantage including snow fights, snowmen building, strolling through the "village" in downtown Big Bear, and even indulging ourselves in some fine chocolate (which is funny 'cuz I don't even like chocolate)!

Oh, and I apologize about the unorganized pictures, I pushed something and they got messed up and I don't have the patience to redo them at this moment!!

welcome to cooking 101!

Thank goodness for wonderful husbands! Let me begin this lesson by sharing a longstanding joke about me and my lack of knowledge when it comes to cooking...
So, all throughout high school and in to my early college days whenever anyone askd me to cook them something I would always respond by telling them " Oh, I would love to make you dinner, but unfortunately I don't know how to cook." For years my friends and family would tease me about it saying how pathetic it was that I was in my late teens and even early twenties and did not know how to cook.
The silliest part about it was I did indeed know how to cook, I just HATED to cook so it got me out of it every time. Then I went and decided I wanted to marry Frank, and that seemed to give me some strange desire to want to be all "wifish" and make him dinner almost every night (before we got married). The meals were starting to get better and better, and my liking to cook started turning in to my loving to cook. I was making full meals which included a variety of soups and salads as well as main dishes followed by some type of baked good. Frank grew more and more satisfied with his meals which also made me take pride in my work.
Then, two weeks ago we got married. In these two weeks of married life, I have only cooked three meals, two of which were at someone elses home. Then this past Saturday my wonderful and very loving husband slaved all day in the rain to bring in the money for us so I decided I wanted to be a fantastic wife and prepare a nice dinner for the two of us that evening. We were kind of pressed for time so I thought I'd go with something easy and basic, but filling since we'd be out most of the night. I settled on chicken, rice, potatoes and roles. How much more basic could you get.
So I began to peel the potatoes and Frank sat and watched me for a minute. I peeled one potatoe, then moved on to the rice, I payed extra attention to the directions (I NEVER follow them) then started to season the chicken. After that I went back to the potatoes and began to peel again, after a minute, Frank began to giggle, I asked what he was laughing at, and no response, I continued on with the peeling. Then he got up and walked over to me, grabbed me by the hand with the peeler in it and said, "let me show you how to peel a potatoe." I llooked at him weird and said, Umm, I know how to do that. So he let me do it. Then I headed back to the rice and got it cooking in pot, then on to the chicken. I had it in the pan on one side, and a few minutes later he walked over and said "let me show you how to cook the chicken. I frowned and said, I KNOW HOW TO COOK CHICKEN! So he walked away and I moved on to unwrapping the pre made roles, and started to use a can opener to open it and he looked at me with such a puzzled look and asked why I didn't just pull the string to open the can? I thought to myself, "oh yeah!" After that he looked at me and started cracking up and said that he really needs to start carrying a camera around when I'm the kitchen! That made for a good laugh.

Then last night we had a few close friends over to watch a movie. I was being the polite host and offered to get everyone some ice cream and make some popcorn. Simple again right? That is what I thought, then I began to scoop the ice cream out with the only large spoon we had, (which unfortunately was plastic) when Frank saw what I was doing he ran over and exclaimed "WHAT ARE YOU DOING!!!!!!" I replied, I'm serving ice cream, what does it look like i'm doing? He then told me you shouldn't use plastic spoons to scoop out ice cream. (Granted, the spoon was a sauce spoon).
Then I put the popcorn in the microwave for two minutes (not even the normal time) and after 1 minute they all were yelling at me to take it out because it smelled like it was burning. ( I have no sense of smell) So I take it out and sure enough, there was enough steem to set off the fire alarm.

I swear I am not as big of a kitchen idiot as it appears, I just had a rough time this weekend!!! :) Must have been all the pressure of being a new wife and trying to impress everyone with my skills. I guess I should take a cooking 101 class
Unfortunately for me, it backfired royally, and I ended up being the bundt of their jokes for the rest of the evening. :(

our first week of marriage, anything but ordinary.

Most couples we know start their marriage off with a few days, if not more, laying on some tropical island or cruising their way to a fantastic destination. Seeing as how we decided on the "non traditional" way to wed, why not follow suit with what should be known as a honeymoon but was anything but... here is the story of our first week:


We started off with this










Spent one day here








Spent the afternoon walking around here












ate a romantic late lunch here









headed back to the hometown to pick up these two










spent five days getting her ready for school and working hard at homework







spent the same five days chasing her around every waking minute







slept a little bit each night due to lots of this








then on the last day of being parents, we headed home to begin this










which resulted in some of this










And finally...












HOME AT LAST
A girl can dream right?!!! ...
We have moved in to a temporary home (a little over two months here)
then it is time to pack up and leave good 'ol California headed for a new adventure.
We had a busy first week, we watched two of the four kids I take care of and packed up and moved in to our first temporary first place. As far as being parents for a week goes, it was planned LONG before we went and decided to get hitched, so I guess you could say we asked for the whirlwind of a week. Ha, atleast it makes for a funny story to tell our kids, and the rest of our family when they hear about the very first few days.
Needless to say, when April comes around and we celebrate our "real wedding, " we're going to be more then excited to take a weeks vacation and spend it as lazily as humanly possible!

God has blessed this Sacred Vow... (Read this post ALL THE WAY THROUGH)!

(this is a picture of our rings in my gorgeous bouquet)


So, I figured I better make the official statement before you hear the news and start to formulate your own opinions... This next post might be a bit lengthy, but PLEASE take the time to read ALL that is listed so that you are sure to have all the proper information...

At 1:20 pm Saturday the 24th of January 2009, Frank and I became husband and wife... This took place in a very beautiful home of a friend of ours with only both sets of parents and his sisters. The dress I wore was on loan from the bridal salon my original gown was purchased from (mine has not arrived yet) (and that is the reason for the unmatching shawl)My dress isn't due until late Feb, since we thought we had plenty of time...

This all happened so quickly, we were all set for April, and then as life would have it, the plans changed in an instant. FOr personal family reasons, I am choosing not to go in to all the details, but I would like to share these thoughts with you...
After much prayer and fasting, Frank and I sought the council of our Branch President, and Stake President. Both said that either decision we made with regard to our marriage was a righteous one, and that Heavenly Father would bless us just the same either way.
You see, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has a pretty strict code for Temple marriages, and until recently what happened this past weekend would never have allowed us to still be married in the Temple in two months.
In the Church handbook of instructions it states that under four different circumstances a couple can be married civily, (outside of the Temple first) and still be married in the Temple immediately following. This is all possible because Frank has been a member less then a year still (he hits a year the end of February). We aren't going to be sealed immediately, but we will be sealed for Time and ALL ETERNITY on Saturday April 18th 2009. We are staying with that day because we already have all of our vedors booked for the reception. That is when we expect to see all of you there and celebrate our sacred union with you, our beloved family and friends! We feel so blessed to have been able to be married this way to have our parents a part of this since they won't be able to be a part of the the sealing.We are both converts to the church. We have felt so peaceful about our decision, and know in our hearts that Father in Heaven has blessed this sacred moment, and will continue to bless us when we have been married (the right way in our hearts) in the Temple. We know and deeply understand the importance of a Temple Marriage and feel nothing but blessed to be able to have the best of both worlds. From that day in April forward, we will look back on that experience and that setting as the moment our marriage was validated and consider that our wedding day. We will forever celebrate April 18th 2009 as our wedding day.

We want each of you to know that we were a bit saddened to not experience our wedding day with everyone else, but in our hearts we feel that even though we are married on paper, will be married by Heavenly Law in just two months by a man ordained to seal us for time and all eternity, and that is the occassion we would rather each of you be a part of.

We would also like each of you to know that since this happened so quickly, we have not yet experienced the "traditional" pre wedding shindigs! :) We realize that this is a little unconventional, but considering the circumstances, are hopin you will still celebrate with us as if we are leading up to our wedding day... does that make sense? I hope so.

Frank and I are so happy, and glad to finally put all the stress we have been dealing with behind us. Our love for one another seems to have multiplied an hundred fold just in the few short days we've been married. We are looking forward with great hope to not only the Temple, but an eternity to grow deeper and deeper in love. We were just talking the other night and he made the comment that "not everyone has the opportunity to be married 3 times in 2 months" (meaning our civil marriage, temple marriage, and ring ceremony). I thought about it for minute and realized that God truly has bless this sacred vow, look at how many chances he has provided us to "renew our vows"!

In the next two months, we expect to celebrate the wedding on several different occasions, including the following:
My bridal shower for LDS friends... February something (not sure of the date yet, sometime towards the end)

*Temple Endowment... MARCH 3RD 2009

*TEMPLE SEALING... APRIL 18TH 2009

*WEDDING RECEPTION... APRIL 18TH 2009

i sincerely thank each of you for taking the time to read this post and have the proper information before spreading the news of what you have just read... I posted this, not to justify myself, but more to let you all know that is something we are very excited about and wanted to share with our friends that we don't have the opportuntiy to see or talk to all the time!

Thanks again, and I hope you all will be able to celebrate with us in all the festivities to come over the coming months!!!!!!!!
Invitations to come in the next month or so!!

****Love****
Mrs. Sabrina Velasquez!

Frank's new "BUDDY"

So after watching a movie, I look over from across the room and this is what I see... Frank and his dog Buddy, snuggled up and sleeping like two little babies ,lost in dream land. Once I walked closer they must have sensed I was there because both of them woke up only enough to open their eyes move their heads my direction and then dose off back to la la land. It was really cute actually.
We love Buddy. He was suppose to be a Christmas present for my mom, but whenever Frank is at the house the dog shadows his every move. When he leaves, Buddy stands at the door and whines. It's quite depressing actually. So, needless to say, come another month or so, I think we have ourselves a dog to care for on top of nurturing a BRAND NEW MARRIAGE!! :) Not exactly what I had in mind, but he really is such a sweet dog, and much more well behaved then the two other dogs my mom already has!