What Happens in Vegas.....

Before I start my blog, I want to thank you all for reading. These past 2 weeks you all have generated  $6 in ad revenue for myself and my wife by clicking on the ads from this page. Thank you, with that money we will go see a movie at the cheap theaters. I encourage you all to click on the ads that interest you. They are not viruses. 


Now on to the blog post.


So if you have been reading my blog then you know that Melissa and I have been planning on a trip to Vegas. We went and came back already and it was an amazing. Let me tell you about the weekend.


It was the best weekend ever. Any chance to escape the small town misery for some big city action is welcomed with open arms. 


We left Thursday after class and drove straight through to Nevada but before we arrived we stopped for dinner at In-n-out burger which was awesome. We love that place.


Friday we just relaxed. We went to Mandalay Bay to go to the Shark aquarium, it was great to get out of the 114 degree weather and chill indoors. We then went to California Pizza Kitchen. I love that place. We got the roasted vegetable salad and my favorite pizza, the Thai Chicken. We then went home to relax. To prepare for the next day.


Saturday was the best day. We went to Caesar's palace and found great parking and made our way through the casino to Mesa Grill!!! Bobby Flay's Restaurant!!


We were so excited to eat the food of an iron chef....the anticipation was getting to us.

This was my second time and Melissa's first so I did most of the ordering (Melissa HATES ordering, she always prefer that I pick her dish most of the time)


While we were waiting for our food we got some goodies.

Blue Corn Muffin

Jalepeño Cheddar Biscuits

A blue berry thing of some sorts...

All of these things were to DIE for. 

We then got our appetizer.

Smoked Salmon and Dill Quesadillas with a citrus sauce on top.

We Loved it! It was one of the best quesadillas I have ever had. I liked how unique and origional it was. 

And so did Melissa.

Our Entrees

New Mexico Style Pork Sandwich 

With southwestern style fried

Yucatan style Grouper

Sharing is caring at Mesa Grill.

We loved our entrees. The best sandwich I have ever tasted and the best fish that has ever made its way into my mouth. YUM.

Now for dessert

Deep dish banana cream pie.

Toasted coconut layered cake.

These two dishes were just as good as everything else we ate. 

After eating there we had to walk off the amount of food we overate so we went to walk the strip, we looked at the belagio and walked the strip. We then went to the Top of the Stratosphere where we road a ride. That was a trip. The building is already over 100 stories!! and to then go on a ride already up here is soooo crazy, but it was really fun.

Best weekend of our marriage.

I love my wife and would have just as much fun in Rexburg, BUT we are so happy to have been able to leave the state of Idaho for a wonderful relaxing vacation

The Weekend is Here.

So it is Friday morningish and I am sitting in my accounting class SO pumped to get this weekend started. Melissa and I will be viewing Green Lantern in 3D this evening and we will come home and watch Jericho. 


I officially made our reservations for the restaurant of my favorite food network star Bobby Flay. I am so excited but it was a little scary. We had to give a credit card number and if we don't show or cancel too late we get charged $100. Yikes. It will be worth it though. I loved his restaurant so much. 


By now you may have wondered why in the world our blog is called "Livin' For The City". It is a great Stevie Wonder song, but that is definitely not why we named our blog. Melissa and I HATE with a fiery and burning passion the town of Rexburg, the state of Idaho, and all things country. I have nothing against the people for the most part. There are great and bad people wherever you go. It is just with my Spanish background and us both being from the east that we tend to feel more at home in the city than in the boonies. I plan on attending law school out east and practicing in NYC or Chicago. I LOVE both of those cities so much...


So this blog is called "Livin' For The City" because it is about our adventures enduring life till we get where we want. I have always been ridiculed for not liking the mountains. I always say that to me they are just a pile of dirt. A pretty pile, but still a pile. I have no idea what to do when I am up there except just stare at the view. I get just as much pleasure looking a photograph. 


Now if you are talking about true beauty in the world. You need to go the beach. The clear water and the palm trees are very beautiful as are the cities. I love looking at the awesome architechture. I think that suburbs here in this country are ugly. Just cookie cutter shopping and strip malls that look the same anywhere you go. I love the cities that are recognizable like NYC, Chicago, LA, San Diego, San Francisco, and many more. 


So there was my rant. Love you guys, love Melissa more. 


Ill get to you soon!

Midweek Update.

Hey guys I am waiting for my accounting class to officially start so I will keep it short. 


Melissa and I have been cooking up a storm and we can't wait to show you guys what we made. It will be posted soon.


This week is kind of crazy, we are both really busy but of course we still make time for some P90X and some Jericho. 


We just got news that we are going to LAS VEGAS for July 4th weekend. Melissa's dear parents have a winter home in a town right outside of that wholesome place. I literall cannot wait to go and be in a big city setting after having been in this small town for so long. I like getting away every now and then. 


What are we going to do in Las Vegas?? Wouldn't you like to know...


If you have any suggestions as to what we should do you can comment your little heart out but there is one thing that is for sure. I am making reservations for Mesa Grill!!! -- Bobbly Flay's Restaurant :) I have eaten at the Manhattan version of Mesa Grill 4 years ago as my last hoorah before my mission. I am excited to go back again and go with Melissa. I am SOOO excited. It is the best restaurant I have ever eaten at. 


We are just trying to get through this week so we can relax for the weekend. We are always living for the weekend. 


My wife is the sweetest little thing I have ever seen. This week and all weekend she has been doing the dishes and making the bed ( I think I have made it like 3 times :/) She never complains. Ever. I love her so much and must try harder to help her out. She is the best. Probably better than your wife. 


Well we will post soon again. Or I guess I will?

El fin de semana.

Wow time sure flies by. This past week I had to go to the Newel K. Whitney business summit and I learned a lot about blogging. The owners and writers for our best bites, a cooking blog said that to have a successful blog it needs to be pleasing to the eye and you need constant posts. So I am going to write a lot more often. 


Melissa and I are Culinary masterclasses. It is nuts. We have been cooking some amazing food you would just die if you were in our kitchen. As of late we have made a toffee crunch cheesecake <-- Mind blowing. Thats all I can say about that. Melissa and I have made the purchase of a domain to blog about all of our recipes. You can find this at tastingandtelling.com. It is still rough around the edges but hey we just started. You should wait a little while till we have some things published on it. 


So as of late. 


Before I was married all I wanted to do was go out and have fun with Melissa. We wanted to go to parties and such but its different now. Melissa and I found complete joy in the following. 


Friday.
Come home and cuddle for a bit. Go grab a bite to eat and see a movie. We went to go see Soul Surfer this past Friday and it was good. I had to cringe a bit at some incredibly cheesy parts. I just felt like with some of the lines that they really needed to burst out into song or something afterwards. It was nice though. We went to Kiwi Loco afterwards and ugh... I used to like that place but now I am more of a Twizzle Berry person. I hate that I HAVE to wait in a line and pass all the ice cream I don't want to get to the one I do want and If i get to the end and want more I have to tick off everyone behind me. UGH. I also ALWAYS feel nasty and that I should VOMIT when I leave. Well Melissa likes it so I guess I will be going back. Its just at Twizzleberry there is no line. You walk up and grab the ice cream you want and you can get all the toppings you want when you want. I often enjoy toppings at the bottom of my ice cream but nope, not at Kiwi Loco. We then went home and any other weekend we would have watched Prison Break but we finished. You have to watch it. THE BEST SHOW I HAVE EVER SEEN!!!! Now we are watching Jericho which is good. One of the few good post apocalyptic thrillers out there. I leave every episode wanting more. Then we went to bed.


Saturday:
After a magical morning, I studied my brains out and took and got a 94.62 on my accounting exam. Heck. Yes. I love getting good grades on accounting stuff. I then made the cheesecake for my mother/father in law for the next day. Made this cool stained glass jello thing and then at 8 pm left the  house for the first time all day and got snow cones with the hottest woman on earth. Lucky me :). We then went home watched more Jericho and then Morning Glory which was funny and then even MORE Jericho!!!! Then off to bed we went...


Sunday. 


Had some together time, then shower, then church. We are doing this new thing in the ward where we are assigned Sunday school classes. It was small, just 4 couples...weird but ok. Then went home. Our home teachers came for 45 seconds. Literally. Then we went to the in-law's to celebrate fathers day with steak, potatoes, cheesecake and angelfood cake. YUM. Then we went home and watched more Jericho. Heaven help us when we finish. 


So yea that is an ideal weekend. Funny how the tables have turned huh? I love it though. I just love spending time with my wife. 


Stay tuned for more.

Since we got married.

Wow this is completely unacceptable that my last blog entry was for the honeymoon. I have been berated and verbally/cyberly assaulted and abused for the lack of posts. So people here it is. Jeez....


So I love being married. It is far better than they say it is. I am especially thankful that I am married to Melissa Berg this semester because we both are in the most busy semester yet. We are working all afternoon on HW but at night we get to sleep in the same bed. I feel that if we were still dating or engaged we would hardly have time to be with each other at all during the week.


I love that we are married. The weeks go by fast and the weekends too, but they are awesome. I love my friday night data nights and staying in bed all morning on saturday and getting ready for church with her on sunday and just relaxing. There is nothing better than that. Lately we have been marathoning prisonbreak. We have watched 68 episodes since we got back from the honeymoon and we are obsesssssed. Dont know what we will do once its over. 


I also love cooking with her. We kind of just trade off the cooking job. Whoever is the least busy that night gets the honor of preparing the meal that evening. It has been fun. We are culinary Gods. Melissa has surprised herself a lot with how well she is in the kitchen. She cooks great food. I try.


I just love being married. Coming home to my hott wife is the highlight of my day and I love waiting for her to come home to me. 


I am getting ready to head to class so I will update later. 

Feelin' Hot Hot Hot.

So Melissa and I spent our wedding night in the Destination's Inn New York themed room. No details but it was a rather enjoyable evening. The next morning (Sunday) we went to her parents home and since her  brother in law is a branch president in Georgia we had a little sacrament in her living room. It was nice to be gathered with family and reminisce about our awesome sealing. We then opened presents and it was impressive the amount of things that we got. I am sure glad that there are people out there who love us and got us thousands of dollars of things. I would list but that is not what this entry is about. The last hour of our visit there in her parent's house I was being harassed about where the honeymoon is. I had made up my mind that it was going to be a surprise and it was :) I held off telling anyone.


So Melissa and I got on the shuttle and headed out to go to the Salt Lake Airport. Our first flight was to to go to Atlanta and our second flight....the final destination was to... St Lucia!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Melissa and I went to Beautiful St. Lucia on our honeymoon and it was awesome. We got into the airport and took a LOOOOOOOOOOONG and very curvy cab ride to our resort. We went to this awesome resort in St Lucia that is a 40 acre jungle setting with a bunch of 1 story buildings spread out across the entire resort. When we arrived to the resort it was raining and we had a mini shuttle take us up to our room and we shared it with this other couple who was going up to their room as well having just checked in like us. Well this couple....this couple. Ok. So the man was a sharp looking guy, had a tattoo on his arm but otherwise looked like a normal professional and clean cut guy. On the other hand, the wife was a nightmare, she looked 10 years older and had her eyes 6 inches apart it seemed and she had a greasy blond afro, overweight, and reeked of alcohol. She sat next to me and asked us if we were "loud" since it was our honeymoon. We didn't really know how to answer the question and she proceeded to tell us not to worry because she was really loud. I was mortified and disgusted at this 40 year old woman for being so distasteful. We got dropped off at our room and came to find out that hers was a couple buildings down down. Melissa and I go in our room and lay down for a little while. We get our suits on and headed down to the hot tub. On our way we walk past the couple previously mentioned's hotel and she tried to lure us into her room and enjoy some champagne and we of course thanked her but declined because we don't drink. We made it to the hot tub and it was raining and the hot tub wasn't tooo hot. I mean like we actually had goose bumps under the water. We then dry up and head to dinner. We waited in the lobby for a person to lead us down to the restaurant for dinner. At this resort there are 8 pools and 6 restaurants. 2 options for breakfast. 3 for lunch and 4 for dinner. Since it was our first day we were told to eat at the buffet. So we did. And guess who was accompanied to the restaurant the same time as us. Yes. The obnoxious woman and her normal husband. She asked us whether we were under 18 or mormons. We laughed and assumed that it was because of denying the drinks. Well we told her we were mormons and we went our separate ways to eat our dinners. Dinner was very good and we went back to our hotel rooms to crash. The room was nice and the bed was HUGE! We could each lie on an opposite edge and reach for each other and barely graze fingertips. That night Melissa woke me up because she saw a bug and wanted me to kill it. She screamed that it was the size of a dollar when maybe it was the size of a 50 cent piece haha. Well the next morning we go to the pool and beach and it was super amazing. The weather was in the 80s and I just loved the humidity and the crystal clear waters.


This next day we started to take advantage really of the type of resort it was. All inclusive is the way to go. We had unlimited food and drinks any hour of the day. We went for lunch at this Italian restaurant and had a great appetizer. Silk pasta handkerchiefs with herb cream sauce then seafood risotto and a  pizza and some tiramisu. YUM. We drank our body weight in virgin daiquiris and Piña Coladas and it was great. We had a late dinner over the piers at this yummy Italian restaurant called La Trattoria. We ate there a couple times. For dinner we would eat at the waterside grill or Cafe Asia. We loved those restaurants so much. They both require reservations so for the last for days we ate at each twice alternating days. These restaurants were so different but so good. I loved the waterside grill because it was a nice seafood grill overlooking the beach and the caribbean sea. I also loved the cafe asia because the food was so dang good. I loved the thai cuisine and the restaurant was 5* and super intimate....that is till you find that the people sitting next to you is the woman and her husband that were obnoxious the first day. haha. They like wanted to try bites of our food. Melissa had to read them the menu. We that night decided that it was a must to give them a name instead of just calling them the Canadian couple. We decided to name her Madge. And madge she was called.


The honeymoon was the most amazing time of our lives. We were like the youngest couple there and most people there were europeans on their 2 week easter holiday. I will now share some highlights.

THE WEDDING NIGHT SUITE

MY BEAUTIFUL WIFE BY THE POOL

BEING WITH HER ALL WEEK WITH NO SCHOOL

THE FOOD AT THE WATERSIDE GRILL :)

ALL YOU CAN DRINK DRINKS!

YUMMY RISOTTO

EXOTIC DESSERTS, ICE CREAM W/OLIVE OIL AND SEA SALT

THE SWIM UP POOL BAR

VIRGIN PINA COLADAS WITH GRENADINE

FEELING LIKE MY MOTHER IN LAW SENT THE CAT AS A SPY (LOOKS JUST LIKE HER CAT)

THE BEAUTY OF THE RESORT

:)

THE PRETTY EVENINGS

SHARING AMAZING DINNERS WITH MY NEW WIFE

THE ROMANTIC SETTINGS

THE NICE DOG THAT CAME AND PEED ON HER BAG

FOOT RUBS

ORDERING 3 OF EACH COURSE :)

HAVING A HOME TO COME HOME TO

KNOWING THAT ALL OF THE ABOVE IS JUST FLUFF. THAT I AM SO HAPPY TO BE MARRIED FOR TIME AND ALL ETERNITY WITH THE WOMAN I LOVE WITH ALL OF MY HEART.

The Best Day of My Life.

So here I am sitting in my kitchen chair that we just purchased today looking across the living room (which isn't very far at all, like 3 feet actually) at my lovely wife as she is writing thank you cards for our wedding presents. Yes I said wife and wedding presents. Let me tell you guys how this has gone down. 


You heard the engagement story and you have heard some countdowns and now I want to talk about the best day of my life. The day I married Melissa. 


So it was exam week of winter semester and I was stressing with taking all my exams during which was by far the most challenging semester of my life. I was able to make it through because I had the biggest light at the end of the tunnel. My wedding. I finished all my exams by Friday morning and I rushed immediately to Idaho Falls to meet up with my mom. I picked her up and we went to run some errands such as getting the tux and picking up the awesome 32 inch high definition TV she bought us. (I love her) We then went to Melissa's house for a little lunch and my mother was able to meet her parents which was super nice! I loved seeing it. I also got to see Melissa's sisters and their families whom I love and her aunt, uncle and Grandparents who I love as well. Melissa's grandma Joyce almost didn't get to come for health reasons but we are SO happy and blessed she made it and was ok during the important things. After lunch that Friday Melissa and I went to go get dinner with my dad who had just arrived from Ecuador via Texas with his sister and mother. It was awesome. The first time my dad and Melissa met and I could tell he already loved her as if she were his own. Im glad we got that alone time before the crazy weekend started. That night I dropped Melissa off and ended our last night as single people. 


Saturday morning. I woke up with the biggest smile on my face. Threw my suit on and went to go pick up Joseph Kennedy. One of our best friends and quite the stud who was one of our witnesses. We drove together to the temple and I went in and got ready for the big day. I pulled up the same time as Melissa and was super happy to see her. This was the day I was preparing for my entire life and it had finally come. We were told to come a little earlier than we needed to which was no problem. Melissa and I got to spend 30 minutes in the celestial room waiting for the sealing to be ready. Those were some sweet and amazing moments we shared. I remember taking her hand, smiling and heading to the sealing room feeling happier than ever. As we walked in the room and saw all our families and friends and loved ones, the feeling was electrifying. There was not a person in the room that Melissa and I didn't absolutely love. I loved the words shared by the sealer and the ordinance performed. I loved being able to hug everyone on their way out. The room was filled with so much love. It was amazing. We left and got changed and I FINALLY saw her in her wedding dress. It was well worth the wait. She looked gorgeous. We walked out the temple and saw everyone! It was super sweet. We took a bunch of pictures and went to enjoy a quiet luncheon with the families. We then left for pictures and came back to the reception. The reception was great. The fanciest Mormon reception  I have ever been to. My mother in law is legit. The cake was superb and we danced to "inside your heaven" by none other than Carrie Underwood of course. It was great and then it was all a blur and next thing I know I am running out of the place with Melissa and we head to the New York room at the destinations inn and that is where my married life began....


To be continued...


Thanks EVERYONE who came. It was an amazing wedding and you all made it great. 

As of late

So I just realized that all my blog postings are about things that have happened around 5-6 months ago. So I thought you all would like to read something rather current. 


I am very much aware of the fact that the font and the background of this blog defy all the rules of visual media but I don't really care. Yet. I probably will soon and will make some changeroos. 


So like I was saying or typing. As of late. Well the best news that I have heard in a long time is the fact that WEDDING PLANS   are officially done. Generally and overall I love weddings. I love seeing 2 people make covenants to be with each other their entire lives (all eternity is preferable). So yea David loving weddings has been established. I am so excited to marry Melissa. I can't wait for my wedding day because even if everything goes wrong (weird combo of torrential rainstorm, blizzard, cake falling over, flowers wilting and the reception venue catching on fire), it will be the best day of my life. 


That being said PLANNING a wedding is not as much fun as going to one. There are a lot of things that go into it and there are definitely highs and lows. These scarce "highs" are ring shopping, CAKE SHOPPING!! and I can't think of anything else. The Lows would be the rest. Oh and this is from a guy's perspective, I am sure that Melissa loves the planning to a further point than I do but I also know that she is happy it is over. 


Well I can't mention cake shopping without telling this funny story. The first place we went to try cakes it was in a barn. Yea. We should have walked away when we saw the place. We opened the door and it seemed that a clowder of cats with their litters ran out and the place was just disgusting when we walked inside. Dirty and she clumped cake crumbs together and gave them to us as an indicator as to how her cake would taste and be like. Uh ok. We left with laughs and it was great. Well great knowing that we wouldn't have to use her. 


Well I am so excited for the wedding day. Not all our family will be able to come because it is a bad weekend for my family in Spain to travel just to go to a reception. On the other hand Melissa's grandparents are going to be able to come all the way from Virginia and we are SOOOO excited to see them. I met them once in September I think and love them already. 


Well I have so much to say and I will write again very soon. I wrote today about our present but next time...I will write about the future...which is going to be AWESOME!

Part 2 of THE story...

***SPOILER ALERT***


DO NOT READ UNLESS YOU HAVE READ THE LAST BLOG ENTRY

So...where did we leave off. Ok So Melissa and I left the store and I told her to not talk about anything wedding or marriage and that was pure torture. The topic kept getting brought up. This was like the 10th of November and at this time I was planning on proposing in the middle of December. 


Well Melissa told her parents and sisters that we had gone ring shopping and I was worried because the week of Thanksgiving we were going to all be in her parent's house outside of Las Vegas. Me Melissa her sister's families and her parents. I was worried that since everyone in the family knew, they would all be wanting to talk about it all the time and the topic would get worn down and by the time I proposed it would already be old news and there would be zero magic and zero surprise. She assured me that she would tell them not to bring it up but I was still a little wary. These people have a mind of their own and I doubt it would be humanly possible to go an entire week without someone pointing out the elephant in the room. 


So I came up with a master plan. I was going to propose BEFORE thanksgiving and then we could talk about it with her family!


So yea. That Saturday (one week before we left for thanksgiving) I went to the store to buy the ring. If had to get resized so it would fit her toothpick fingers. I made the by far most expensive purchase of my life and they told me it would be ready within the next week. Perfect. 


Well that Saturday Melissa went shopping with some roommates and they were at the mall. That mall had the same jewelry store as place we looked at in Rexburg and her roommates wanted to see the ring so they went in and she pointed it out to them. The salesman told her that the ring there in that store was too big to size down and this ring would take 6 weeks to order in so "I better hurry up and get it now." Even MORE perfect. 


So Melissa told me this and I was ecstatic! I had already boughten the ring and was planning on proposing soon and she thought the soonest it could happen was 6 weeks. I remember acting upset and basically telling her that it wasn't fair that he said that because now she knows more or less when it will happen.


So...now for the proposal. I knew these things for sure. 


1. I did NOT want to propose in either of our apartments. We both had roommates that were awkward and just no...not happening like that. 


2. I did NOT want a public proposal, or for it to be recorded. I kinda wanted it to be something that we could remember as being more magical than it was without people being like "actually it wasn't like that. I saw"


3. I wanted it to be awesome and a complete and total surprise. 


So that Thursday I picked up the ring and it was perfect!

I had it in my pocket and I felt like it was a ticking bomb! I just wanted it to go on her finger so I wouldn't lose it. 


I was enrolled in an FA100 class and I picked her up to go to this HORRIBLE play. She was in a tiny bit of a mood because I told her to have all her homework done by that night ( she stayed up till 1 am the night before...yikes) so that she will be free that thursday night and I assured her it would be worth it.  


So yea I pick her up and then we go to the play. The Marriage of Figaro. It was good....kinda. Just a bunch of 2nd rate opera singers belting out the confusing and strange story. I wasn't focusing at all on account of the rock in my pocket...which she tried leaning into and I had to move a lot so she didn't feel the ring in my jacket pocket. Well the play got over and my heart started racing. The plan was to go get some hot chocolate and go for a walk and rock her world with a nice kick butt proposal. It was cold. Melissa happens to be afflicted with cold induced urticaria, which basically means she is allergic to the cold. Her legs turn red and get hives and its just bad. Well we got some hot chocolate and went to Smith park and I told her to get out so we can go for a walk. The very confused Melissy pants gets out of the car and into the darkness we go. Every 30 feet or so there was a street light with had like a 10 feet radius of light but outside the radius it was dark. Too dark to see the ring. So I was timing it and the conversation was awkward....well not awkward but strange because I was trying to time it. Well we turn back and sit on the sign that says "Smith Park" and I told her how I knew I wanted to marry her (something she really wanted to know and I told her I would never tell her until we were engaged) and then I got down on one knee pulled out the ring and asked her to marry me. She denies it kind of but let it be known, to everyone reading that she DID cry. She said yes through tears and I put the ring on her finger and we kissed. We then went to her 2 besties' apartment and Karlie Passie and Tevi Camargo were the first to know. Naturally because they were of her friends our 2 greatest fans. They took pictures.

So yea in this picture it looks like I proposed in their apartment. I most certainly did not. 

This was the best night of my life. The play sucked and the hot chocolate wasn't the best but I got engaged to the best friend I have ever had, and I am going to get sealed for time and all eternity. Its only a matter of time. 16 days 23 hours 14 minutes and 12 seconds to be exact.