new STUFF!!

This has been quite an eventful (and stressful for Shane's wallet) weekend!

Friday was my birthday. I'm 23. What a wierd age, I feel like I'm in limbo until I get to an age that matters! Anyway, we went out to China Bistro for dinner (used to be Oriental Gardens) now the former place was kind of a dump and had a rotten reputation. Shane and I were SO impressed with what the new owner has done with it. He actually won an award for being one of the top 100 chinese food restaurants in America! We had pan fried dumplings for an appetizer...very fresh and scrumptious. Then we split a main dish called 5 Stars Around the Moon. In the center of the plate was beef, chicken, pork, shrimp, and scallops mixed with steamed vegetables in a brown sauce. This was topped with a fried egg (the moon) and surrounded by 5 crab rangoon (the stars!) It was a cool concept and SO YUMMY!! Everything tasted so fresh and wasn't drowned out by the sauce. We also got some rice noodles that are called chao fen. They were very heavily spiced with curry, so they actually reminded me of Indian food. They ended up being better the next day for leftovers, but that could be because we were so full we couldn't appreciate them that night! To finish off the meal we had fried ice cream which wasn't what I expected, but it was a nice, light finish to the meal.

During dinner Shane gave me my birthday present...a new ipod touch! It is awesome! That night when we got home I was able to check my mail, blog, facebook, the news...all from my ipod! So it is basically the iphone without the phone function. The best part is all of the applications that you can add. The first one I added was the scriptures, so I always have them at my finger tips now! I also added the Facebook app, Tap Tap Revenge, which is like guitar hero, a lightsaber-just for the fun of it, and ShakeSpell which is like boggle. It is so much fun to play around with-and I haven't even added any music! It was an awesome present, one that I never would have guessed, because I didn't know I wanted it until I had it! Now Shane is regretting his decision because he can't pry me away from it! I love it Shane (oh, and you;) ) Thanks a million!

After we left the restaurant we went to Funspot and played pool (Shane won) Air Hockey (Shane won) and Pinball (I got more bonus balls:D) It was a fun end to the evening. I always forget how fun Funspot can be until I go!

Yesterday we went down to Cupples Cars in Belmont and finally FINALLY traded in that yellow scourge of a car, the sunfire. Now many people assume that was Shane's "bachelor car" from before our married days. But alas, it was actually my car that he bought for me after my beloved Subarau died. It was fine and dandy B.C. (before children) but now a 2-door is just an inconcieveable car for a soon to be family of four. The owner, Ross Cupples, treated us very well and tried really hard to make the car work for our price range, and for that I am grateful. We ended up getting a 2007 Kia Rondo. It is so roomy!! I love it. It seats 5 and has a HUGE trunk (some models come with a third row, this doesn't, so it has a bigger trunk) I love it and can't wait to start using it on a regular basis. Shane likes it because it is a crossover vehicle, meaning it doesn't look like a mini-van and it gets better mileage than an SUV.

And finally, Oliver got some new rainboots from Grandma this week and we tried them out yesterday. He looks like a little cowboy in them because they are 2 sizes too big (we want them to last for a while!) but he is so stinkin' cute in them, and he can actually splash in puddles now! Here is a video of him winding down his puddle splashing excursion: