Shadow's Birthday Blog

Five years ago today, I was a brand new homeowner who went to the local SPCA "just to look". The pound breaks my heart in general and I want to take all of the pups home. There was already someone looking at Shadow, and when I got there, I knew I wanted him. I walked away to ask the SPCA volunteers if I could take him out to one of the rooms to play and apparently he put on a show of acrobatics for my mom and the guy who was also thinking about getting him. Read: Jumped really, really high. Apparently, that scared the other guy off, but my little pup has some hops! It's still one of his most marketable skills, besides being able to produce large quantities of poop and eat a lot of biscuits. Here's his picture that was on the SPCA website way back when he was two:

Shadow At 2 Years Old

Here is my little stinkbug today waiting to get his present. How can you not love that little face? It makes me a little sad to see how white his little beard is getting. 

Can I Please Have My Present?

This year, in addition to food that is going to make him fart, we got him this cute little giraffe that you stick an empty water bottle in. Very little stuffing, noise without having squeakers. Genius.

Action Shot.

Well, those of you who know my dog know just how long that lasted... little giraffe was soon stuffing and footless and in three pieces:

The Demise Of The Giraffe

Oh well, at least he had fun. Now he's all cuddled up with the pieces. I guess that's how he shows his love.

Happy birthday to my little booger!

Running and Presents

So against much medical advice, I ran with Kati today. I figured it was in my schnoz, not my chest, and I'm on antibiotics, so how much harm could 6 little miles do? So far, so good. You know what is better than a good Saturday morning run? The Saturday afternoon nap!

In other news, my birthday presents are all finally in my possession! Mike bought me these great leg warmer type things (similar to the sleeves I bought for my arms) for when we ride our bikes. What a great invention for us hot sweaty people! Layers that easily come off!

My parents gave me this great jewelry box for my birthday to replace the one that was stolen last year. It's super pretty and I love how it looks on my dresser! I had to swap it out at pottery Barn today because the one that they actually gave me had a crack in the glass. The folks at PB were super easy to work with and had one waiting for me!

Jewelry Box On My Dresser

Happy Birthday To Me

Another New Years, another birthday. Yup, today I turned 31 years old.

We did my birthday dinner last night since Mike had to teach class tonight. My parents, Kati & Nate, Nicki & Tim and Ray & Nancy joined us at The Union in Volcano. It's this cool little inn and restaurant that has been around since 1880. We've been there a couple times... they're known for their burgers (they're huge!) and their fried chicken and macaroni & cheese. Needless to say, I went with the pasta dish - like I always do because I just can't turn down a good mac and cheese. They use a smoked cheddar cheese and top it with buttered bread crumbs. Yum!

I took today off from work - I don't normally do this on my birthday because I feel like it's a wasted day. I typically try to group my vacation days together so that I can take a week or more off. However, this year we had Friday off, so I basically made a four day weekend. The day started with Mike making me bacon, eggs and tater tots. We then chilled on the sofa for a bit before kicking around a few ideas for the rest of the day. We landed on working in the yard. Mike worked on finishing the retaining wall by the waterfall and I was able to prune some of my trees and oleanders. I know it probably sounds boring to most of you, but for me, this was the perfect day off. I absolutely love playing in the yard and lately have not had or made the time for it. The weather was absolutely beautiful today - overcast but warm - making it wonderful for being outside. I got a lot done, including pulling up my veggie garden and preparing the soil for some winter veggies.

Tonight I've spent the evening mellowing on the sofa... again, not something I do very often. It's been the perfect day! The one downer is that I seem to have caught some sort of cold... apparently my immune system just doesn't want to do it's job right now! Fortunately, I just have a runny nose and sneeze a bit, which I can handle. I'm hoping a few days of going to bed early helps out!

Thanks again to everyone who called, texted, emailed or Facebooked me... I feel really loved today! It was great to hear from some people that I haven't talked to in a while! I'm a lucky girl!

A New Decade!

I've moved on to an entirely new decade. I can't believe how fast my 20's flew by! Here's a quick recap of a few the cool things that happened:

20: I was a student director of a choir (which later led to a paying job directing)!
21: I turned 21 (duh) and went to New York with the family to celebrate!
22: I graduated from college with a double major... no small feat!
23: I recorded an album with two of my closest friends!
24: I got my job at Intel!
25: I auditioned for (and got into) the Sacramento Choral Society!
26: I bought my own house!
27: I went to Europe with my sister AND I met Mike! (not in Europe...)
28: I ran my first half marathon!
29: I got engaged!

As fun as my 20's were, I'm really looking forward to my 30's. After all, in the year that I'm turning 30, I'm getting married!

Today started with Mike making a Starbucks run for me (my espresso machine is broken and is en route back to the maker to get replaced). After that, I went to lunch at Sudwerk Riverside in Folsom with Mom, Dad, Kati, Nate and Mike. We had a nice indoor table overlooking the river (which is really flowing right now!) and pretty much had the place to ourselves. I had the chicken and penne pasta (with sun dried tomatoes) and it was delicious! After lunch, Mom and Dad lit my cake on fire (Mom found the most chocolaty cake she could!).

My Flaming 30th Birthday Cake

We then went over to the movies to see "Little Fockers" (review to follow at some point). Now we're back at home, getting ready to have some spaghetti (my favorite!) and then watch a few episodes of "Dexter" (we're seriously hooked... started the second season on Netflix last night!). What a fantastic day!

Happy Birthday Mom and Dad!

I know it's a bit odd, but yes, my parents were born on the same day! Crazy, right? Well, happy birthday Mom and Dad... I hope you both have a wonderfully fantastic day!

BEST BIRTHDAY EVER!

Today was such an awesome birthday!

First of all, I got the wonderful news that the house is a done deal! The previous owner chose my bid over the other people who made offers on it. I'm SO excited! I get the keys on the 26th and can't wait! Now it's time to start pulling everything together - inspections, loans and packing!

As if that wasn't enough, I got to go to a wonderful dinner and the Kings game. We ate at Chris Webber's restaurant, Center Court. (for those of you who don't know, C-Webb is a former Kings player). My family, Brigitte's family and Amber/Kris were all there (it's Brigitte's sister, Delinna's birthday too). We had the honor of sitting at the Bibby table:Here are the girls and I at dinner:
After a fun dinner, complete with singing and ice cream we (Amber, Kris, Brig and Alyse) headed over to Arco for the game. Little did I know, that we had really bad seats. As in, the last row at the very top. In fact, we had our own special row:
We cheered our little hearts out and after half time decided to head down to the empty seats to get a closer view. Brigitte's family was down there, so we had a much better view of Mike Bibby for the rest of the game. Brigitte's quote of the night: "That one guy is really tall". Of course, he was 6'11", but it just sounded funny to all of us since she was referencing a basketball player. I wore my new jersey from Adam and Eva, which, by the way, is LUCKY!
The Kings won the game (woot woot!) and we had a blast. Here's the back of Bibby:All in all, it was a wonderful day... a ton of people from work, school and life called, texted and emailed me. I felt very loved today! Thanks everyone!

Happy Birthday Mom and Dad!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM AND DAD!
Yes, my parents were born on the same day. Kinda neat, huh? Makes present buying super easy for Kati and I! :)

Today we went to the Bay Area to celebrate their birthdays as well as my Grandma's 80th (it was on June 17th but she was traveling...). We had such a blast. First we went to Grandma's house and hung out for a while. It was so good to see her again and just sit and talk. She told us stories of how she and Grandpa met and about when they got married (they snuck off to Reno!). Here's a pic of Kati and I with her:
After that we picked Oma up and headed over to Adam and Eva's for our traditional family feast. Basically, any time we all get together we eat enough to feed a small army. Today it was South Carolina pulled pork sandwiches with Eva's "bean salad for people who don't like bean salad". It's that good. We had a blast. Eva just got certified as a Jazzercize instructor, so we made her lead the family in a mini class. She's AMAZING!


And finally, here's the family after getting our grub on...
Now I'm sad because Kati is packing all of her stuff up to leave tomorrow morning. It was so nice to have her back home and even to share a bathroom with her again! I'll definitely miss her when she leaves!

Tomorrow I have the day off (Tuesday as well... I love my work!) and I think we're taking the boat out. Woo hoo for more skiing on Folsom! :)

Oh, and by the way, I have blisters ON THE BALLS OF MY FEET from ballroom dancing. It's not so glamorous the next day!

I'm out.

Oops!

Ok, so life has been so busy and I greatly apologize for not blogging in a while.

First things first...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY EVA!!!

I know, it's 2 days late, but it's here. :) I'm glad to hear that your birthday week has been going well... I've been checking those away messages!

As I said, life has been crazy for me. But do you know what's been the worst part? The new freaking postage stamps. So I have my cell phone bill all ready to go when I look down at the stamp and remember that it's 39 cents now, not 37 cents. Fine, no big deal, I'll just stop at the post office on the way home. It's at said post office that I'm nicely told that they're out of 2 cent stamps. Ok, so I will try another post office. Today I drive to another post office (keep in mind this one is in a completely different city than the other one) and am told they don't have 2 cent, 1 cent OR 39 cent stamps. How the heck am I supposed to mail my bill when NO ONE has stamps?! So I put two 37 centers on there and am crossing my fingers. Talk about frustrating!

The rest of today was spent cleaning and running errands... something I've needed to do forever but just haven't had the time. Tomorrow is RELAX DAY! I'm not doing a thing except going to the gym and to church. I was supposed to have rehearsal, but just found out it was cancelled because our room was double booked. A nice little gift from the music gods as the next week is going to be crazy and I really just need a day to myself. Look out new books, here I come!

Happy Birthday To Me!

Hi everyone! Well, it wasn't wild and it wasn't out of control. But it was a great birthday!

Here's the great setup my parents made:


This is me listening to Kati sing "Happy Birthday" to me over the phone:


Me and Mama:

Me and Daddy:

Daddy took me to the movies during the day (to see Harry Potter, because no one else on the planet will go with me). I got a watch and the iPod transporter thing - it players your iPod through your car stereo. Ha - see if any felons can get cds out of my car now! I just have to remember to take my iPod out... :)

One of the girls at work came in on Monday (which we had off) to decorate my cube - she put streamers and balloons all over the place. And thank you all for your phone calls, emails and presents!

Hope you're all having a wonderful 2006! Brig and I went to the gym tonight - part of our resolution to get healthy again! Yeah!!!