5 year experience

The last 5 years I have been a nanny for a family with one little boy. I started watching him when he was 5 months old. Over a month ago I made the decision that my work situation was no longer working out for me. I was and still am extremely sad to leave the child. I love him dearly and hope to still continue our relationship. I have now been out of work for 2 weeks. What do people do when they aren't working and have no kids? I find myself being so bored. I have been trying to wake up around 6:30 am every morning so I don't sleep in (I am WAY more productive early in the morning). Hopefully I will find a great family soon to be a part of because the series Breaking Bad on Netflix is almost all watched. :) Haha.
I am ready for new adventures and different experiences!

Thanks Dave Ramsey

        Like I had mentioned on a previous post, Rillz and I signed up for a financial class. It is called Financial Peace University created by Dave Ramsey. The class was a 13 week course and $100 for the materials (workbook, another book, cd's of all the lessons and a cash keeper book).  Rillz and I agree that signing up for that class was the BEST decision we have made together, besides getting married of course! We feel so blessed to have learned how to get on the right track to financial "freedom" so early in our relationship. Both Rillz and I are striving to achieve the same financial goals which means no money argumenents or disagreements! Feels SO good! We started the class in February and that is when it felt like money was coming from thin air to pay our financial debts. In 4 months we had paid off thousands of dollars in credit card, collections, and vehicle debts. Not to mention have saved up an emergency fund and already put money aside for airline tickets to visit family later this year. Our only significant debt now (besides mortgages) is my car. I have decided, sadly, to sell my car. I feel it is more important for us to get out of debt completely than to have my DREAM car!
       I am writing this on my blog not to brag but
1. I want to remember down the road that it is possible to live debt free and how much work we put in to get this way
2. Let people know that this class is worth every penny and time if you live by it! And that getting out of debt and living without loans and credit cards is achieveable and worth it!

Rillz and I are not perfect in our money spending at all. But, we feel much better when we do spend money and don't have to stress about alot of things now.
We have also learned more about retirement savings and types of insurance. We now have the right amount of insurance for our needs and feel really secure about knowing we will be ok if something unexpected happens. Definitely peace of mind.

Our next goal is trying to save for retirement and educate ourselves in more depth of all the options. It feels like I am reading in a foreign language still when it comes to that stuff!

I never thought doing finances and learning about money would be so fun! But I truly enjoy it now. I love when a new month is coming up and I get to do the Monthly Cash Flow Plan sheet and see how we did on the last Monthly Cash Flow Plan. Haha. Sounds super lame of me!

I highly suggest taking the class or renting his books from the library. It was worth our time and still is worth our time to listen to our cd's and continue reading books on it.

Last couple days in Hawaii

After our wedding, Rillz and I were able to have a little fun, stress free! We spent a day with Kristi, Jeff, and the boys site seeing. Our first stop was visiting a cemetery where Rillz's close relatives have been buried. Rillz wanted to show his respect and place our wedding flower arrangements at the headstone.

A spiritual stop was the Oahu Mormon temple. Rillz and I are not currently active in any religion but are always open to knowing more about all religions. Kristi and Jeff are very active in the LDS religion and wanted to visit the temple. We tagged along. The Oahu Temple has an amazing visitors center. And, like all temples I have seen, the Oahu temple has beautiful grounds and building structure.

Once leaving the temple we headed off to eat. Our stomachs were making more noise then the two boys in the middle seats. :) We stopped at Giovanni's shrimp shack. I make it a point to visit that place at least once when I go to Oahu. Kristi and Jeff loved it as much as we always do! Yum. Dessert anyone? That is when Matsumoto comes into play. Ahhh... who doesn't love an amazing flavor of Hawaiian shaved ice with ice cream at the bottom.

Mahalo for virtually following us on our special Hawaii trip! One we will NEVER forget.

Wedding day part 2

I have attempted to finish posting on our wedding but get so frustrated by the old way of uploading photos. It took FOREVER to upload a photo, assuming it even uploaded. So I got so fed up I just stopped trying. But I just discovered that blogger has changed their upload system and is now way easier. So here goes attempt #...too many!

Photos taken between ceremony and reception:

Rivera side

Hollingsworth side

Malaythong's

We love them! Two days before our wedding Rillz was feeling very sick and didn't look to good. These guys took good care of him and made some SUPER yummy soup to make him better and Davy had us stay over to get away from stress at the house :)

Friends

I love my flowers! So bright and colorful

Looks like I am smelling my armpit!

These boys are so funny

Davy had these random sunglasses laying around his house. They just happened to be our wedding colors and so they just had to wear them!

In some of these pictures we were waiting forever to get the "perfect" splash on the rocks behind us.

Isn't he handsome!

Downtown Honolulu. People loved staring. And there was a parade going on at this moment

This was our card box. I layered the bottom with moss

This was our "guest book" Quilt squares that I am making a quilt with

Table decoration. The driftwood from the ceremony and then flower arrangements

Our Cake. Our florist SAVED the cake! The hotel did not do what I wanted with it so the florist put all the flowers on it. I ended up loving it! The hotel forgot to set out the cake cutting knife too so we just used our dinner utensils.

Table centerpieces. Simple but I liked them

Our wedding favors. Soy sauce bottles with our names and wedding date on them! Rillz came up with this idea and it was awesome. (Not so awesome filling 250 bottles though!)

I like this picture! Just looks happy

The dessert plates were decorated so cute!

These two were so cute! Gunnar and Mali just danced like no one was watching

Who doesn't get teary eyed when dancing with their dad!

Can you believe the hotels tablecloth. So ugly and out dated. Haha!

The garter tradition thing has always been such a weird concept for me. Rillz wanted to do it though. So, there he goes. :)

Mom is a crier! I love my in-laws

Filipinos have a different style of money dance. The guests place money on the bride and then the groom has to get it with his mouth. And vice versa with me getting it. My dad placed it on my butt. (see it rolled up where my train is buttoned up)

Rillz getting some booty action! Haha.

We took a picture on the beach. Haha (we ran out of time to go to the actual beach and take pictures and there was just too many tourists on the beach by the hotel)

I loved my hair! Marlou did an amazing job.

I like the colors in this one. This is the hotel lobby.

More pictures...

Can you believe Kristi with straight hair?!?

Finally, I was able to download some photos! Here is Rillz and my special day together. The beginning to a new Rivera family. I am so happy and excited to spend my life with this loving, caring, funny, hard working man!

I love you Rillz! Thanks for choosing me to be your wife!

We wouldn't have been able to have a stress free wedding without the HUGE help of Rillz's family and friends. A big thank you to Beang, Mike, Davy, Marlou and Arlene for all your help on our wedding day!

Homemade Nutella and Reese's cheesecake

Yesterday I got a call to make dessert for a family dinner today. I guess I felt creative! I wanted to make a cheesecake. I have NEVER made a cheesecake and it looks tuff. I mean, you have to use a special form with a little release clasp. That makes it tuff to make right!?! It was so easy to do. I took a basic cheesecake recipe and folded in reese's cups and then decided to get real fancy and melt reese's chips with heavy cream and spread it on top! Looks delicious. Hopefully it doesn't poison my family. Haha!

 

Cheesecake recipe:

Master Recipe for Rich and Creamy Cheesecake (from allrecipe.com)

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon softened butter
• 3 tablespoons crumbs from Famous Chocolate Wafers, graham crackers or ginger snaps, OR
• 1 (3 ounce) package soft ladyfingers (24 total) left whole, but trimmed to fit pan (optional)
• 3 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, at room temperature
• 1 cup sugar
• 3 large eggs, at room temperature
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• 1/4 cup sour cream
• Heavy-duty foil for pan

Directions

1. Adjust oven rack to middle position, and heat oven to 325 degrees. Brush interior of a 9-inch springform pan with butter. Add crumbs of choice and tilt pan in all directions to evenly coat, or line pan sides with ladyfingers. Tear off two long strips of heavy-duty foil, overlap in a cross pattern, and set the pan in the middle. Bring up sides, crimping around exterior top of the pan and forming a tight seal. Set it in a roasting pan large enough to hold it.
2. Beat cream cheese with an electric mixer until smooth. Gradually add sugar and beat on medium speed until fully incorporated. Scrape down bowl sides and beat again until smooth. Add eggs, one at a time, scraping down bowl after each addition to ensure a creamy batter. Slowly beat in vanilla, then cream and sour cream. (Meanwhile, bring tea kettle of water to a boil, then turn off heat.)    In this step I added 9 Reese's peanut butter cups. Cut them up in 8 pieces and fold in.
3. Pour batter into prepared pan. Set the roasting pan on oven rack and pour in enough boiling water to come halfway up the side of the springform pan. Bake until cake perimeter is set but center still jiggles, about 40 minutes (some flavor variations will take longer). Turn off heat and leave oven door ajar; let cheesecake sit in oven so the residual heat continues to cook it, about 30 minutes.
4. Remove pan from water; set on a wire rack. Let cool to room temperature. During cooling I made the glaze for the top. I melted 10 oz. of Reese's chips (in the chocolate chip area) in double broiler and mixed 1/2 cup heavy cream. While cheesecake was still cooling on cooling rack I spread over the top. Cover and refrigerate until well-chilled, about 3 hours (can be refrigerated up to 4 days). Run a sharp knife around the edge of the pan, loosen the spring siding and serve.

I am excited to eat it tonight! Yummy.

I didn't stop there with my creative cooking though. I decided to make homemade Nutella! Yum. I love Nutella. (It is healthy right!?!) Ok that is a joke. Have you heard of the recent Nutella lawsuit. Someone is sueing Nutella for false advertising that Nutella is healthy. HAHA! Read labels people. Anyways, I made it. I couldn't believe that it was so simple and tastes just as good!

Roast 7 oz. hazelnuts for about 10 min on medium. Then cool completely

Stick hazelnuts in food prodecessor until smooth like peanut butter. Takes a while. (I was making the cheesecake at the same time!

 Over double broiler, melt 9 oz. dark chocolate

mix in 1 can sweetened condensed milk

 .

Then mix in the hazelnuts.

 It will be thick. So add milk until it is the consistency you want. I mixed about 1/4 cup of milk.

 Stick in jars/containers and enjoy. Unlike Nutella, you do have to refridgerate after making.

 Yummy!