Happy Birthday Gabriela and Mika!

Yesterday was my mommy's birthday and today is both my sisters' and my nieces'. 

This is my sister as a little girl in my grandma/aunt's house in Argentina.

My sister would have been 43 today and my niece is 13! Finally a teenager! 

Sending them both so much love so that they have a wonderful day!

Weekend Round Up + A Fractured Wrist (Not Mine!)

My time here has been seldom lately. As I’ve mentioned before I’ve been super busy and had to put the blog in the back burner until some things were completed.

One of the bigger things was a surprise party I threw for my dad. I had been planning it for several months and it finally occurred this past Saturday.

My dad turned 80! Since we share the same birthday and he has basically handed them over to me the past 30 years, I thought he should be able to have one just for him. I went ahead and invited many people he knew from work (he retired just 3 years ago) and I’m glad I had many show up. I had Stone Fire Grill cater with some pasta and I ordered a cake from the same person who made my wedding cake. It was AMAZING, both in taste and looking at it!

My sister and her family drove down from the Bay Area on Friday night – I think that’s what surprised him the most! He walked in and saw the his daughter and grandkids.

It was an overall success. I’m very thankful to my friend Dante who came over early to help me decorate. She was a life saver. I have learned that I like things to be perfect and I get upset if they aren’t perfect. This is especially true when I have a 12 year old, two 9 year olds, and a 6 year old.  Her arrival was much needed and calmed me down.

After a while the kids got bored and ended up in the swimming pool which they enjoyed very much.

After the party the kids, my dad, and I headed over to my in-law’s where my sister-in-law “threw” a party for my father-in-law’s birthday (which was the day before mine). We stayed there for a while, but I had to head back by 6pm because my mom was waiting to go shopping with my nieces. We spent a nice time at the mall and my mom got the girls some things.

The my sister, brother-in-law and the girls left fairly early on Sunday morning. Jonathan woke up with a rash all over his body.

At first we thought it was Scarlet Fever, however Jonathan lacked the fever part of it. A trip to the Urgent Care that morning declared him free of bacteria but instead with the Adenovirus. Which apparently is a pretty common virus that usually goes by unnoticed because the body fights it off pretty well. However it left Jonathan tired and ready for an early bedtime on Saturday night and with a rash all over this body on Sunday. It seems to have gotten worse since it first showed up. He was held home on Monday but was given permission to go back to school on Tuesday.

My mom, Nikki and I went to place some flowers at my sisters’ niche (something we do just about every Sunday).

And then did some grocery shopping. After which I headed home and watched TV and a movie with Thomas. It was a nice lazy afternoon.

There are some exciting things coming up for me still. Today is my niece’s 10^th birthday. On Saturday it is her party – sadly Thomas and I have dentist appointments at the same time. Friday night I’m going with Thomas to some haunted houses which I’m excited about. We didn’t make it last year and I was disappointed. This year Thomas’ cousin began working there so he got us some free tickets (saving us about $40 - $50!). It also means a funnel cake!

On Saturday night we are going to a pumpkin light show which I’m looking forward to! It looks like a lot of fun!

I wrote this at work on Monday. Then I call home to check on my nephew to find out that my dad fell on the stairs Sunday night and was in pain and his arm swollen. I left work at 3pm and took him to the ER. Fractured wrist. 

Waiting to be called back. 

Happy Birthday!!!

On this day, many, many years ago a lovely baby was born. That baby turns 80 today!

No, not me – my dad! Today, on top of it being my 30^th birthday, it is my dad’s 80^th.  I was my mom’s gift to my dad on his 50^th birthday. That’s what happens when there is a 10 year age difference in marriage (my mom was 40.5 when I was born).

I’m not sure what’s going on for my birthday today. Last night we went to dinner because it was my father-in-law’s birthday. And I think we’re going to dinner tonight at Ruth’s Chris, but I’m not sure. See… that was my favorite steak restaurant until I went to Steak in Las Vegas (Gordon Ramsey’s restaurant). Steak is amazing. Ruth Chris… well it’s almost as expensive and not at the same quality as Steak so I feel that it’s a waste to spend $150  for dinner for the two of us for food that I just don’t feel is worth that amount.

However, I think my mother-in-law told Thomas to take me there and I think he went ahead and made reservations. Which will be just fine. I guess I’ve concentrated so much time towards my dad’s party, that I’m a bit bummed that there isn’t more attention to mine. I love birthdays’, especially mine. I feel like this is a big one and I feel like I’m going to be let down. Some other stuff happened, birthday related, that really irked me, so that hasn’t helped.

I guess I wanted attention… and I don’t know how much I’ll get. I guess that’s the negative of sharing a birthday with your dad.

On the bright side: there will be a great cake and great food at my dad’s party on Saturday and I cannot wait to see how surprised he is. I’ll be scanning in pictures from when he was a baby until now and putting them up on a board for people to look at. He was a very cute kid! I’ll be sure to post pictures next week after the party!

I will also be celebrated at work. We're bringing lunch into the office today and then we're going to lunch on Friday. It'll be nice! Look out for Instagram because I know my cubicle will be decorated when I get to work! 

(I hope I didn't sound too negative or whiny!)

I also wanted to wish a happy birthday to Faith over at 'Cause You Gotta Have Faith who shares this wonderful day with me. 

It's Okay Tuesday...

It's okay that....

... I have had zero will to blog. 

... I feel overwhelmed with everything I have going on in the next 6 weeks. 

Let's write it all out, maybe that will help?

• 9/23 - Pick up my car at the dealer after dropping it off to get some things taken care of. Plus I'll be picking up some lamps that I found on craigslist tonight. The good part of this? I am getting 2 for the price of 1! I was going to buy it at IKEA, but I found them online last night and I got the guy to sell them to me for much cheaper!
• 9/27 - FunMania: our company picnic, it's an all day thing with tons of events including our offices competing against other offices in different sports. The night before I have to pick up a pop-up tent and tables from my in-laws. 
• 9/27 - in the afternoon there is a game day. We will likely do the 50 mile drive to go to that. 
• 9/28 - I have to put together 2 Shutterfly books for my wedding. I have 2 codes that expire on 9/30/14 so I need to get them done on Sunday. 
• 9/30 - My father-in-law's birthday!
• 10/1 - MY BIRTHDAY!!! I'm assuming we might go out for my birthday, I don't know. We haven't really discussed it. It's also my dad's birthday.
• 10/3 - My sister and her family drive down for the weekend. My sister and her husband are staying with us, their kids will stay with my brother.  Also I have to start decorating for Saturday.
• 10/4 - My dad's surprise birthday party! Depending on how long this lasts, I would like to take my niece to Hollywood to see BSB's star on the walk of fame. 
• 10/7 - my niece's 10th birthday! 
• 10/11 - my niece's birthday party! a dentist appointment (for both of us!)! and at 7 we're going to a Jack O Lantern event.
• 10/13 - a couple of co-workers are coming over to bake for an event at work on 10/16.
• 10/14 - Disneyland! I'll be going in the afternoon for Mickey's trick or treating night event. 
• 10/16-10/19 - We'll be going camping in Carpenteria. It'll be many members of Thomas' family, maybe 20-25 people. 
• 10/24 - my brother's birthday
• 10/31 - Halloween! 

Okay, it's a lot. I'm not sure if writing it out helped or not. Either way - all that is on my mind. On top of it, my house is still a mess and I want it to be cleaned up before my sister gets here. I'd also love to get it into Fall decorations. I did buy some small pumpkins over the weekend, but this place needs someone to come in and to organize it for me, because obviously I'm not good at it. 

And all that is not mentioning that the weekend before last I worked the Green Fest and then went on a bus to the Chumash Indian Casino with my parents ALL day. I was out of the house for 13 hours each day. Then this weekend I went to the LA County fair with Thomas and ran errands on Sunday. 

... I'm making lunch for my hubby. Hopefully it's acceptable. 

So if you don't see me around these parts, you can see why. I'll try and post, and I do have some definite posts coming out (For example What Makes me Quirky? I was tagged by Amanda and Melissa for that!) but it might not be every day. Okay, it will definitely not be everyday. 

Have a great Tuesday! 

Favorite Things Giveaway! Happy Birthday Rachel!

Today is Rachel from Can't Google Everything's Birthday!! In order to celebrate she is hosting a raffle! Along with myself and a few other awesome ladies she is giving away some of her favorite things and was awesome enough to take a picture of all the awesome prizes! 

 Ellie of Creative Geekery // Jacquelyn of justjacq // Stephanie of Life According to Steph // Rachel (aka the birthday girl) of Can't Google Everything // Reesa of Mama Lew // Katherine of Him & Me // Krystal of Krystals Kitsch

Here's what we are giving away!

A prize pack containing some of my favorite things and stores!  Cup from Vera Bradley, Essie nail polish in "cute as a button," a $25 Starbucks gift card AND a $25 Target giftcard!  That's over $75 worth of prizes!  Woo-hoo!

Enter to win via rafflecopter below and good luck!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The fine print: Giveaway open to U.S. residents only (sorry).  Giveaway runs from 7/21 - 7/28 midnight EST.  Winning entry will be verified.  Winner will be notified by email and will have 48 hours to respond to claim prize, otherwise a new winner will be chosen.