I'm Back!

Well it has been about two years and a few months since I last made a post to this blog. The last post I made was in regards to my trip to Vegas with my Melissa during the summer of 2011. That was a VERY long time ago and we have done so much since then. This blog post is going to serve as a little catch up on the last two years and what has happened.

I'll pick up where I left off.

Rest of Summer 2011
Melissa and I after Vegas for July 4th weekend went to NC to have our open house, it was fun. We then went to Georgia to visit Melissa's sister and her family in Cedartown before heading back.

Fall 2011.
It was a normal semester without anything too noteworthy. We were both in school and I was a part of the integrated business core class where I had to run a campus business so it was a busier semester. I also lost 40 pounds. So yea...

Christmas 2011
Melissa and I spent a great Christmas in North Carolina with my Mom, Sister, and Baby Levi. He was so cute and on Christmas morning he was dressed as Santa so that was nice.

Winter 2012
Melissa and I spent this time in Georgia doing my internship for my awesome brother in law Spencer. He is a great businessman and I learned a lot from him in this time. I did not know at the time but the time I spent in Georgia and the things I learned about myself there would eventually change the course of my life. We also grew super close to Spencer and Nancy's family. They became so much more than just extended family to us.

With Macie

My Sweet Nieces

1 Year Anniversary Trip to Charleston, SC

With Macie on the Trampoline

Spring 2012
Melissa and I made the DEPRESSING move back to Idaho and commiserated for the rest of the season.

Summer 2012
Melissa and I went to Alexandria Virginia to visit her sister's family (they moved from Georgia to Virginia over memorial day weekend). We went to their beach house for a week in NC and then spent the rest of the time in VA. We loved this trip. During my internship in Georgia I went to Virginia often and fell in love with the city. Melissa and I decided to move there so I could go to law school in DC, which was only 10 minutes away. So this trip was a time where we looked at apartments and scoped out the area.
The entire rest of the summer was spent spending 70 hours a week in the library studying for the Law School Admission Test.

Fall 2012
This was the favorite semester of school for both Melissa and I. Melissa was doing her student teaching and she loved it. She was teaching 7th grade english at the local middle school. I was finishing up my last semester and was working hard. I was balancing school work with studying for the LSAT, taking the LSAT, filling out the law school applications and writing/editing my personal statement. It was very busy but it lead to......

GRADUATION 2012!!!
Melissa and I graduated from college December 15th 2012. Melissa's parents were there, her cousin Laura and her husband Sam drove in from Utah, her grand parents flew in, Nancy and Spencer flew in, and my mom flew in. It was very nice to have people there to support us on a big day for the both of us. Melissa had a Bachelor of Science degree in English Secondary Education and I had a Bachelor of Science Degree in Business Management with an emphasis in Finance. The graduation weekend was also a high point because I got admitted to my first two law schools the morning of. I was admitted to Hofstra University Maurice A. Dean School of Law in New York and American University Washington College of Law in Washington DC.
Right after graduation we had a celebration and then Melissa and I bounced and drove to Virginia with her cousin Dan to get the heck out of Idaho and move on to the next step in our lives.

Graduation with my mom

Christmas Eve with Erika and Levi

Christmas 2012
Melissa and I had just settled in our Apartment. We moved to Alexandria VA and were loving it. We got a nice apartment in a high-rise on the 10th floor with views of the potomac about 10 minutes away from Spencer and Nancy. This was a great christmas. Melissa's other sister, (Susan) her husband, and 5 kids came out to stay in Spencer and Nancy's house along with my in laws. It was a full house and though we love them all so dearly. It was nice to have our own place to be able to relax in at the end of the day. This Christmas we were also able to see my sister and her baby who we miss so much and don't get to see often because of the distance, along with my Dad who we had not seen since the wedding!

Winter 2013
Christmas ended and we all moved on with our day to day lives. We missed our family that left but got started with work immediately. While I waited for law school to start that fall I took a job at my brother in law's company Alexandria Yellow Cab working as a Financial Manager, and while Melissa waited for the school year to start in the fall she took a job as a substitute teacher for the school district. The winter was spent working more or less but we did get to enjoy the city. I love where we live. Besides where I have lived in Spain, Alexandria is the best place I have ever lived. It has everything we love or could ever ask for. In Alexandria there are more places for us to enjoy than in Idaho. We love the food and the shopping. Every weekend we try to make it out to a new restaurant and still are no where near running out of places.

Spring 2013
We did some fun things in the Spring. We went to New York City (only a 3 hour train ride!!) and visited some of our best friends Jason and Danielle and had the best meal of our lives at Butter, Alex Guarnaschelli's restaurant. We LOVED this place. The rest of spring was spent with each other and our family.

Central Park

Alex Guarnaschelli's Lamb

Alex Guarnaschelli's Duck with Strawberry Rhubbarb

Alex Guarnaschelli's Chocolate Semmifreddo sandwich w/homemade marshmallows

With Jason and Danielle :)

With My Mom at Butter

Alex Guarnaschelli's Rhubbarb cake with Ice Cream 

Summer 2013
This summer was amazing. Melissa and I both went through some tough decisions and definitely came out strong. Our love for each other grew immensely and and we have never been closer. This summer brought HUGE life changes but we are very happy with what lies ahead and I will get into that next time.

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.