Do Nothing Day & Joe's Birthday

I have nothing on the calendar to do today! It's like a miracle. I swear we have been so busy lately I hardly ever have a "down day". Of course I should probably do some housework, that never has a day off, but I don't have to leave the house to do that.

Last Friday was my brother Joe's birthday so we went over to his house for dinner (I ate Chinese food for the first time in YEARS, didn't feel like I had missed much so that's good), cake with blue frosting so we all had blue mouths and a bit of family time. I was going to just pick one of these pictures but I like them all :)

My Dad and my other brother Louie lighting the candles

Joe fixing the Karate guy my Mom bought to go with his cake lol

and taking it all in while we sing Happy Birthday.

I'm amazed that there was no wind to blow out his candles. You could never do this out where I live, it's always a bit windy it seems like!

Jessica's Visit The Last 2 Days

Sunday was probably my favorite day when Jess was here. Just the two of us went shopping. First we went to Old Navy to get her some work pants and then we went to Ross. We had a great time trying things on like the good old days. I think that's really what I miss the most about her being here all the time. We had a great time shopping together (even though we don't always agree on what's ugly lol)

After we were done shopping we hit up Jamba Juice and then went and picked up my Mom to go to Modesto with us. We went to the mall and then out to an early dinner at Mimi's.

After dinner Jess was busy talking to her girlfriend on facetime so I went down to see my friend Traci and hang out on her dock. Traci's other neighbor and our friend Bridgette, my Mom and Traci's husband Tom were there too.

Ahhh the best way to end a night!

Monday we decided to go BOWLING! Something fun we could all do as a family. Apparently all I need to do to make my other 2 kids competitive is to add Jessica to the mix. They actually tried to knock the pins down this time instead of seeing who could get the most gutter balls.

After bowling Scott and Jess were going to do the batting cages but it wasn't working. So we took Scott home and then went over to my Mom's for a bit and ended up laying a few games of Mr. Mouth (one of my favorite games from when I was a kid, this one is almost the same, I found it at a thrift store)

and then the girls played a few games of pick up sticks.

Then we went and borrowed Traci's paddle boat. The kids kicked me off first than Trevor lol It was pretty windy so hard to get anywhere.

We hung out with Traci for a little bit and then went home and got Scott and went out to dinner at Texas Roadhouse. Trevor opted to stay home since he had had enough family togetherness for one day.

(the older I get the more I look like my Mom I think?)

Before we left the girls and I took some pictures with the timer on Jessica's phone. I'm pretty sure I need to frame some of these!

Tuesday morning we were out the door at 3:15 am to take Jess to the airport. So early. So sad. We are hoping that maybe she can come out for a visit for New Years. I might have to take a trip to see her before that though!

Jessica's Visit Party Time and S'mores

Saturday we had a party so everyone could come over and see Jess. Originally I we were going to BBQ but Scott still wasn't feeling 100% and it was like 102 outside so I decided to just get pizzas from Costco instead.

 My Aunt Cheryl and cousin Chelsea

My step mom, dad and nephew Ricky who was here visiting from Arkansas

Loving up on the twins, Vincent on the left Emma on the right

My brother Louie's family

Melissa and Vincent

My mom making her cry

I had the dogs outside in the dog pen but brought Snookie in so Adrian could play with her for a minute. Vincent was SOOOO excited about her! Snookie had fun for a couple minutes but then wanted to hide on my lap.

Next door neighbors Steve and Joyce

Tony &Trevor

My friend Traci & mom

My friend Allen and his daughter Chloe who is going to make him a Grandpa in January

Aunt Corine

And a bunch more people that I got side tracked and didn't take pictures of. 

Later we went out to light up the fire pit and make s'mores. I put on some bug spray and then carried out the marshmallows and got a mallow man tattoo totally on accident. How funny is that?

We had fun making s'mores around the fire pit

Until everyone got too tired

and the a few girls that came over slept in then tent  and I went inside and passed out from exhaustion and happiness :)

Jessica's visit, Shopping & Drinks

Scott and I both took time off while Jessica was here. Friday we all slept in a bit and then we rounded up all the recycling and stuffed it into the car so Jessica could get a little extra spending money while she was here. Then the girls and I went to Target. We took advantage of Jessica's discount and got a new fire pit along with some clothes for the girls and a new pair of shorts for me.

We had to bring the fire pit home before we could go to the grocery store since it took up the whole back of the car. When we dropped it off we picked up Trevor and then went to Costco for a fancy lunch of cheap pizza and to get new contacts for Jessica and party food.  Scott showed up partially through our shopping trip and hung out with us a bit (he had went to town to go to the doctors). 

He decided to take the food home and then the kids and I went on to shop at Winco for more party food. 

Looks like we are ready. Drinks and watermelon. That's all you need for a good time right?

Jessica's luggage was found in the morning and delivered around 7 (TG!)

That night Jessica finally got to go out to our little bar. Her friend Chelsea joined us. I think they had fun. So weird having a kid that's old enough to drink (legally). 

Jess had put up the tent and the girls slept in it for the night. But first, we all ate some nachos ;)

Jessica's Visit Day 1, When you come home but your luggage doesn't

Our computer is down at work. No internet=no phones, scanner, fax, email=nothing to work on since my desk is already clean and I don't have any filing to do. I was already going to leave early today since I have a doctor's appointment later so I just left a little earlier.

AND no one is home except the animals because my mom took my kids to the movies today!

Wohhooo it's so quiet.

Except for the dogs chasing the cat and barking.

So way back on the night of the 11th we drove to Oakland to pick up Jessica at the airport! She was finally able to come out for a visit. She has not been home since the day she left, May 20, 2014. That's a really long time. Melissa and I went out to see her last October but she had not seen any one else in the family since she left.

On the way over there Scott was driving and half way through he started complaining about his back hurting. Which of course made me all stressed out because there is nothing worse than Scott moaning and complaining AND driving all at once. I was so happy once we could sit in the "park and call" area for a few minutes.

Her plane had landed and she just needed to go to the bathroom and get her luggage so we waited a bit and then drove over to the pick up area. She wasn't out yet so I told Scott to just let me out and I'd go in and find her by the baggage claim. Melissa jumped out with me and we went inside to look for her. After a minute or two we found her and waited for her luggage to come out with her. Only it never did. Of course she was totally upset and freaked out that they lost all her clothes. We walked over to the attendant who sent her inside to the little office area. The office area woman brought her back outside and had the attendant do the report for missing luggage. Neither of those people were the least bit nice and/or friendly. I guess that service with a smile doesn't apply to Southwest in Oakland, after 10pm.

Eventually she got her report filed and I sent Scott a message to come back around and pick us up. Jess was all upset because of her luggage and then Scott was still moaning about his back so that was a fun ride until he would FINALLY pull over so I could drive.

Welcome home sweetie!!

On the way home we stopped at Jack In The Box so Jess could get a snack and they don't have Jack In The Box where she lives. Then it was home to hang out for a little bit and then we all went to bed!

Anniverary Monterey Trip

Scott was so sick all last week. We had plans to go to Monterey for Saturday night for our anniversary and I kept debating on cancelling it. All the way up to Thursday. Finally he seemed well enough to at least sit in the hotel room and watch TV so I decided we’d just go. Worst case scenario we just relaxed in the hotel room or on the beach right?

We took our time getting ready to leave and finally pulled out around 11:30 or so. Of course we had to stop for gas, then to use the potty because I should have done that at the gas station and that big drink I got didn’t help matters, then we stopped at Casa De Fruta for a late lunch. It was kind of nice though just taking our time, not being in any hurry.

We had a nice lunch at “Casa de Restuarant”, so funny how all their little buildings there are named Casa de whatever (and there are a lot of them, it’s like a mini resort) and then it was onto the last stretch to our destination.

I booked us a room at the Howard Johnson in Marina again. We've stayed there two other times and it was pretty nice. Clean and quiet and not too terribly expensive. This time it cost a bit more, probably because it’s June and all that. They had changed the flooring in the rooms to laminate flooring, which is probably a lot cleaner but weird.  The hotel was fine except for on Sunday morning when there was no hot water when I went to take a shower. That REALLY sucked. I’m not sure if I’ll go back there since after reading the reviews again the water thing seems to be an ongoing problem and the guy working the counter when I went to check out and told him about it was like “I don’t know what to tell you”. Yeah, great customer service.

So back to the trip, after we got there we just hung out in the room for a while and watched some TV and then we were talking about cheesecake. I just typed in cheesecake into Yelp and found there is a whole little store that just sells little cheesecakes right down the street. How fun is that? So we went down there and got 12 little cheesecakes for $20. Of course we didn’t eat them all but it was fun having a bite here and there of them. The plain base ones weren’t all that great but I really liked the flavored ones. I had a key lime one that was really good, and of course anything Oreo is going to be great right?

We watched a bit more TV and then we dragged ourselves away from Walk The Line (love that movie) to go watch the sunset on the beach. There was this big layer of fog hanging over the bay so we weren’t sure on how much of a sunset we were going to get but it turned out ok.  While we were sitting there watching we noticed these pelicans that kept dive bombing into the water. They’d float a bit and then fly off and then dive back down. They were fun to watch.  We got up and left before the sun was all the way down since it was a little cold.

We decided to go find something to eat for dinner (no dessert needed lol) and ended up going to Fisherman’s Wharf. We settled on Nico's Wharfside because they had a fish and chips special, and then proceeded to order something else haha. They did have a margarita for their happy hour so that was nice. We settled on having a clam chowder bread bowl and the little fried platter (it had another name but I can’t remember) and fries to share. The soup was pretty good but the rest wasn't anything special. We did a slow walk back down Fisherman’s Wharf after dinner and then went back to the hotel.

Sunday morning we got up and went over to the free breakfast in the hotel. It was PACKED. I was getting really annoyed at the people that were just standing still at the counter and hogging up the whole space. Common courtesy people, get the hell out of the way!
I ended up having a bagel and then grabbing a banana and a granola bar to take with me for later. We went back to the room and hung out until it was time to check out and then loaded up the car and went to Pacific Grove to check out the shops there. There were quite a few cute antique shops there. What’s funny is that while we were in one of them Scott saw my cousin Mike and his wife. How funny is that? They live the next town over from us but we run into them in Pacific Grove of all places.  

We walked through a bunch of shops and then ended up walking down to the coast line. There are some funky older hotels down there that I think we might try next time we go. They are right across from the beach and not much more expensive than anything else. Originally we were going to take our bikes on this trip and go bike riding on the trail and that place is perfect since you can just walk across the street and get on it.

Eventually we walked back to the car and then decided we’d go to El Torito’s for lunch on Cannery Row. Except when we got there they were still serving their Sunday Brunch. We didn't want brunch since it was like 1:30 so we walked down the street and ended up at Cooper’s Pub . It was a nice little place and wasn't crowded at all, which is nice for Cannery Row. I think I drank about a gallon of water while we were there. Usually I pack a case of water in the car when we go somewhere but I didn't this time and boy did I regret that!

We walked up and down Cannery Row after lunch although we didn't go in any of the shops. I've been there so many times and they are all the same, all the souvenir crap. We were looking for this fun antique store that we usually go to but it was now a clothing store. Scott was looking things up on his phone and noticed an antique mall one street over so we walked over there. It was a HUGE two story building just filled with antique booths. I think we spent at least an hour or more in there. I love stores like that! I’m kind of kicking myself for not buying the antique croquet set that they had there. I've been wanting one of those and it was so cute on its little organized cart.

After all that walking around we were pretty much exhausted. We stopped at McDonald’s to use the bathroom and for a drink (and a sundae!) on the way out and then I drove us home.

Short and sweet little anniversary get away!

The Girl On The Train

Last weekend I had book club at my house. Unfortunately I forgot to take any pictures! I had picked the book “The Girl on the Train”. Usually I read a bunch of books before it’s my turn so that I make sure it’s a good book for everyone (or mostly everyone, you can’t please EVERYONE) but this time I just picked one that had decent reviews.

Amazingly almost everyone read the book AND liked it!


The story is about a girl who rides the train back and forth to work every day. BUT she doesn't actually work anymore because she got let go. She's afraid to tell her room mate that she's lost her job so she acts like everything is normal and goes to work and home at the usual times every day. While she is on the train she makes up little stories about some people that she sees through the train window. She sees the same people every day. A girl and her husband, and their nice little life. Then one day she sees the wife kissing another man. Then the woman goes missing.


It's all quite the story and kept me reading until the end wondering "who did it." I love a good mystery :)