Friday Night Adventure

Late Friday night we decided to go do some shopping. On our way to the store while we were stopped at a red light, we saw two men break through the glass of a ‘tires and rims store’ and start running. They had broken the glass and just robbed the store. Well we called 911 and decided to flip a U-turn to see if we could get a better description of the guys. Sure enough, they were on the other side of the street watching to see if the alarm would go off in the store. I gave the dispatcher a very detailed report (down to what color their belts were) and we decided to follow the guys from a distance giving the dispatcher details about their every move. We had to keep making u-turns because it was on a busy street, but sure enough after about 10 minutes the dispatcher finally said, “Ok thank you mam. We have the men in custody!” Sure enough we drove by and the cops had both men in custody! IT WAS AWESOME to be able to witness the break-in and then see the cops in action!

Christmas Soup

I asked my mom what she did during the holidays to make our house smell so yummy (it's got to be hard with 5 boys in the house!).

Her secret is Christmas Soup. But don't eat it! Here is the recipe:


Get a small pan and put some water in it. Add cinnamon or cinnamon sticks, some yummy smelling spices like cloves, ginger, allspice, nutmeg and place on simmer. Add some peels of clementines or oranges as you eat them and keep simmering until January…yep, you read correctly…all season long! You will have to keep adding water, and spices when needed. But your nose will know, and your family and friends will think you are baking all season long!

I've tried it, and it works. Enjoy!

Our "$500" Christmas Tree

Getting our Christmas tree Wednesday night was a terrible experience! I felt like I was watching a terrible movie where everything just got worse and worse and then the movie ended before anything got better. Anyway, we decided to go get a Christmas tree and didn't know where to look. So we spend an hour driving around to places we've heard of that have them (home depot, walmart, savemart, etc). Nothing!

Finally we see a place off the freeway. We stop and finally find a tree narrow and cute enough to go in our little apartment. The guy ties it on for us and we pay and get in the car. So we're driving home and all of a sudden we hear a "whoosh" and see the tree slide off our car watch as the car behind us swerves. We couldn't believe it! So we turned around to go get another tree.

Well the kid who tied it on is freaking out because his boss is a real piece of work and the kid's nervous he's going to get fired. Well the boss comes up and to us asks in a gruff tone "ok guys--what happened?" Then he starts going off about how this cuts into his bottom line and that it's probably our fault cuz we were going 80 mph (it fell off in the slow lane right after we entered the freeway!). Then he starts questioning us about how and who tied it on the car (luckily the kid claimed it all). The whole time I'm thinking "Oh I'm so reporting you to the Better Business Bureau!" (that's where I work)

Mind you that behind him is a huge sign that reads "GUARANTEE: WE WILL REPLACE ANY TREE FOR ANY REASON, AS LONG AS YOU WATER IT." So Jimmy brings attention to the guy the sign behind him and says "Ya know we didn't have time to water it but we'd like a new tree for free." The guy is like, "Well it's probably going to fall off your car again." (the place is only 15 min from our house). Well finally he's like "OK I'll give you a new tree but you have to buy a tree bag." Jimmy's like "What? I don't want a tree bag." long story short, after an hour we find another tree, put it in the bag, and put it IN OUR CAR (without paying for the bag of course).

HERE'S WHERE THE STORY GETS GOOD

We drive home and Jimmy is backing into the spot and RAMS INTO THE POLE! So our bumper got messed up, the light is broken, its 9pm, we're exhausted from looking for trees for 2 hours and still haven't eaten. I couldn't be mad cuz it wasn't his fault but it was like "c'mon!" So then I go into the house to clear a spot for the tree and I'm moving our entertainment center (without taking the TV and DVD player off, and "crack." The table breaks! Oh my gosh I wanted to punch a wall. So Jimmy comes in, we throw the tree on the floor, make a Dominican dinner to try and cheer us up and try to laugh but we're so angry inside cuz it's going to cost $500 to fix the car.

I'm smiling while writing this just cuz I can't believe it happened. Finally Jimmy gets his tools out and fixes the table, he gets the tree up, we taped our bumper and light back together for the time being, and seriously just went to bed like "What the heck happened tonight." MERRY CHRISTMAS! (Here's a picture of Jimmy decorating it last night.)

Attempted Break-in

So last Saturday at 11pm, Jimmy and I were cuddled up on the couch watching a scary movie (with the lights on of course). All of a sudden we hear a noise by our front door and watch as the door handle turns. Then we hear this “thud” as if someone pushed their shoulder into the door. The door was dead-bolted (I thank the angels) and the person wasn’t able to get in. Jimmy jumped up and peeked out the peep hole and didn’t see anyone. So, gulp, he went outside to see who it was. The perp was long gone, but I was left freaked out! We called the cops and they said they’d come patrol the area. We turned off the movie and tried to go to bed. All night long I kept imagining what would have happened if the door wasn’t locked and made myself sick. Literally, I was sick about it. I threw up for about 5 hours and couldn’t sleep from nightmares. At 6am Jimmy went to get me some sprite and I was too scared to stay there alone so I went with him, vomiting all the way.
Overall, it was a good wake-up call for us. We purchased dowels for our windows and sliding glass doors and another deadbolt. (Daniel advised us to purchase a gun before it’s outlawed…). I hate scary movies-especially when they come to life.