Emma & Vincent's 1st Birthday

My sister in law said she wasn't going to go "all out" for the babies first birthday but I think she did a great job of decorating. Everything was so cute!

When we first got there we hung out outside for a little while playing please pass the baby

and a bit of playing inside haha poor Melissa all the girls love her (to death)

cake time! 

hmmm what's this?

oooo smash smash smash 

needs some milk to wash that down.

Vincent's turn

hmmm what do we have here.....

Are we done yet?

The boys being difficult when I'm trying to get a picture, go figure

My kids wanted to get them these cute stuffed doggies

presents with quick with extra help

 Vincent and Uncle Scott

We hung around a little longer and watched the movie We're The Millers. Funny but they had shown most of the funny parts in the previews which ruins the story a bit. 

It's so funny watching my brother with FOUR kids. He went from 1 to 4 pretty quick there lol. 

Dentist Day & Weekend Recap

I just got home from taking Melissa to the dentist. Last Friday night we went to see Cinderella and the inlay thing in her tooth came out with her tootsie pop she was eating. That's the 2nd time that thing has fallen out. She said it didn't hurt so she made it through the weekend and then yesterday when I called they said that they would have to squeeze her in and we'd have to wait awhile OR they could get us in first thing on Tuesday morning so I opted for that.  They put it back in and said if it comes out a 3rd time we'll do something different. I didn't have to pay anything so that's good.

So we went and saw Cinderella with my Mom and nephew Tony. The movie was ok but I think that the first one is just so good you can't really make it better. I did love the costumes though. I love Cate Blanchett, I think she is so beautiful. She has such a unique look and is a great actress. I loved her in The Aviator.

After the movie was over I thought for sure my mom would want to go out to eat but she was like oh I have to go do this and this and that. The kids and I were kind of lost so we just went home and made dinner.

Saturday we got up and got ready to go to the twins birthday party. We stopped at Target on the way and got presents and then pulled up to my brother's house and I was like why are there no cars? Looked at my emailed invite and realized it was on SUNDAY. DOH. So we got back in the car and went home all messed up lol.

Sunday we got up and did the same thing minus the Target stop and then spent the day at the party. I'll do the party in a separate post because I took a ton of pictures (of course). Those babies are just so dang cute! And all my bribing with my nieces is paying off and they actually talk to me now.

Here's a little preview ;)

St. Patrick's Day '15

My Mom used to always say we were Irish (along with a bunch of other things) and I never really believed her until I was doing the Ancestry.com thing and found out that wha? We are Irish. My Mom's Dad's Mother was born in Ireland. That explains all the sunburns.

I started off St. Patrick's Day by laying in bed too long and then having to wait for my turn in the bathroom so I could take a shower. By the time I got out Scott was wearing his bike riding clothes and frantically looking for his wallet. After half an hour of looking for it he decided he wouldn't have time to ride his bike to work anymore and changed his clothes and continued looking for his wallet.

Now our house isn't that big so most of his effort was around the large overflowing baskets of laundry I need to put away. He was convinced that he must have set it on the bed the night before and it got mixed in with the clothes that were on there and then put into the laundry basket.

I went out at one point to look in his car and twisted my ankle in one of the holes in the driveway. FUDDGEEE that hurt. (neighbor on her porch heard the real word I said). After that I was kind of like fkit he can find it himself. I went in the bathroom to finish doing my hair. Melissa walks in and bends over and picks up his black wallet off the black tile on the floor. Nice lol. So YEAH the wallet was found.

I wonder what he will lose next. It's always something.

I ran out of time to get myself all ready so I decided I'd just come back home after taking the kids to the bus. On the way down to the bus stop the mentioned St. Patrick's Day on the radio and I looked at Trevor and asked him if he remembered to wear green? Nope. Mom fail! I was also wearing a blue shirt so when I went home I changed my shirt lol.

I was texting my mom through out the day and she was telling me how she was making all this corned beef and cabbage and I couldn't quite understand what she was saying. I was like so are you asking us to come over to dinner or sending home care packages? Then she asked if we wanted to come? I checked with Scott and he said ok so we went over there for dinner.

My sister in law Maegen was there (my brother was at work and had stopped by for a plate before he went), niece Adrian and Maegen's dad Charly. Mom and Dad and us made a full table.

Selfies with mom!

Melissa has glass now. She looks all grown up. Adrian is getting so big too. Dang kids need to slow down!

I've been telling Trevor that his hair is like his Grandmas, she wanted a picture together to prove it lol.

We left around 9:30 since there was work and school the next day. That was a nice way to spend the evening!

All the random

All the random things from the last week.

I got our taxes done. Hit submit and then got this.

Found out someone used my oldest daughter's social on their taxes already, which basically is identity theft. AWESOME. So now I have to mail them in with a few other things and she had to call and report it a bunch of places. (just got them done and ready to mail in tomorrow)

I applied for a new job in our office, had an interview

and didn't get the job.

Which, I was actually ok with since it was for less money than I thought it was going to be. Like $4 less an hour than I make now and they'd still have to take out for insurance. I'm pretty sure that would make eating difficult.

I got a new insurance card in the mail but it was missing all my family members. I called and some how someone changed my plan and left off my family. Nice! That took over a week to get straightened out. Of course in that time Jessica who live across the whole US from me was super sick and had to go to the Dr and pay cash for a bunch of prescriptions. 

Edited to add: A week later we went to use the card for prescriptions and they said it was expired. It took a whole day of calling numerous places to finally get it straightened out. Also to find out that my coverage on prescriptions is HORRIBLE now.

Sometimes I wonder if someone just has a little button that says "mess with Julie".

My mother in law went into the ER last Tuesday (the 10th) for stomach pains and ended up having to have surgery to repair a hernia and blockage in her intestines. They sent her home Friday and Saturday my sister in law had to take her back to the ER (I'll have to update on this later since I'm scheduling this post for later and I don't know the outcome yet). 

Update: They left the ER after waiting forever and not being seen. The hospital sent a nurse to the house to check on her (is what I heard but that sounds weird). Scott went over there the other day to mow the lawn and she was nice and feisty so she's still kicking. 

So not much going on around here haha. I've gotten a lot of games of Candy Crush played because sometimes that's just easier than dealing with things ;)

Helpers

Does anyone else have "helpers" every time they go to the bathroom?

Snookie has also started going with me to pick up Melissa from the bus. Usually I pick up Trevor from the bus on my way in after work. Then I come home, take the dogs out and then go back and pick up Melissa. Snookie has decided that she needs to go too. She's really loving it lol. She runs out to the car and then sits on my lap.

She's totally happy, you just can't tell ;)

Back to Contra Loma

Last weekend Scott and I went back to the Contra Loma Regional Park. I tried to get some people to meet up to run with but that didn't work out. We decided that Scott could just ride his bike while I run.

We attempted to do the trail that I did the last time I was there but it was so torn up from all the cattle and the recent rain that Scott's fillings were coming loose ;) So after about a mile we turned around and went back down to the "other" trail that he did the last time. Which was a lot smoother but not quite as much fun to run as the previous.


I needed to run 5 miles for my half marathon training so that's what we did.

Scott says he'd like to go out here at least once a month. We'll have to go earlier though since it's going to be hot soon and there isn't that much shade. I love how there are so many great hilly trails. I need to print out a map and mark off all the ones I've done and want to do :)

St. Patrick's Day Dinner Fun

Saturday night was the annual St. Patty's dinner. My friend Traci's dad is a St. Patrick's Day baby and she grew up coming to this dinner as her Dad's "birthday party". Her dad is gone now but she made sure they were still having the dinner to carry on the tradition and ended up working to help set up and serve the dinner. It was a lot of fun!

I was pretty much starving after my run and really looking forward to the food! I stole a bunch of these pictures from Traci. This is my friend Bev being silly.

Buddy & Carol T (she's in my book club too)

The cake booth! People donate cakes and then you put a quarter on the number and they spin a wheel and someone wins. I won a pecan pie (can you find Scott?)

DINNER! OMG so there was some horseradish. I got a little bit because a little bit is good. I took a little bite of meat with some on it and OMG. The pain! It went up into my nose and I almost panicked but then it subsided a bit. Holy shit that stuff was hot. I warned Scott before he ate any and he still burned all the hair out of his nose too lol

Joanie who is in our book club used to always bring Traci's dad one of her rum cakes for his birthday and still brings one for Traci. So lucky me I got  a piece too :)

I really only ate one piece, Scott was off trying to win a cake lol

Some decoration, I'm pretty sure that was painted by Ginny, another book club buddy (the one with the awesome painted house)

Traci and her mother in law

Who needs a selfie stick when you have super long arms?

The dinner was pretty much over at 8:30 and we helped put away the tables and chairs and then moved over to the bar (it's all in the same building) for some drinks, more dancing and lots of good conversations!

Me & Traci

Sheryl & Me

Grandma, my new friend Monica who is SUCH a hoot!, Bev and Tom, Traci's husband

We hung out until a little after 11. Came home and sliced into that pie lol 

Badger Cove Trail Run

Saturday morning I got up bright and early and went to pick up a friend to go to the Badger Cove race out at Del Valle. I got to her house and sent her a text, called her, waited awhile and she never came out. I couldn't go up to the door because they have their yard fenced off with a big security fence. I was like eh, well I guess I'll see you there. Later I got a text that she slept through all her alarms. I don't think I've EVER slept through an alarm. The cat sneezes and I wake up lol. Must be nice to be able to sleep that deep! Especially the night before a race, I can never sleep then. I wake up about a million times!

So anyhow, I went out to Del Valle, which is out in the hills in Livermore. It's so pretty there in the spring when the grass is still green and it's not 150 out. I had decided to sign up for this race knowing how hard it was but what the hell, it's more fun than running on flat ground around my neighborhood.

I was signed up for the 10k, which fits pretty good into my half marathon training I'm doing right now. Last time I did this race we went off to the right when it started but this year they had it go off to the left, which made a whole different course. We ran around a bit and then came back, crossed the road and then hit the hills.

This is at the top of the giant mountain. Not that you can tell. If you look closely you can see little tiny people on the upper right of the pic.

 (I got this pic off the Brazen website)

If you look at this little green wiggly lines, that's the elevation. Where it goes up dramatically in the middle is that huge hill I took the picture of myself on.

I did a lot of walking up the hills and then ran down them. The last part of the race was a breeze going downhill. Like we say when we ride bikes, the downhill is worth the climb ;)

Brazen Racing always has awesome finisher medals. I actually opted out of the t shirt this time, their shirts are cut weird and never fit me and it saved me $5 ;) I have a whole drawer full of race t shirts I never wear. I think I'm going to turn some into tank tops, or at least attempt to. 

Just pretend I'm turned, blogger thought I'd look better sideways.

Now do decide what race to do for April. My friend is going to sign up for the Zoo Zoom and Scott wants to do that one so I think we might do it again. I don't really like that course much so maybe I'll just sign up for the 5k.