Pretty, Pretty, Double Rainbow...... :)

   Thursdays, have I mentioned how much I enjoy my days off??  Usually they're spent with friends, other times they're spent doing errands, paying bills, playing with my nephew puppy....  whom I'm not so happy with right now!  grrrr....  all I have to say is that he is LUCKY that my contract is up, and therefore I'm due for a new phone!  ;)  I enjoy making treats and sometimes dinner on these days too...  :)  they're a good "relaxing" day for me!!  :)  and today was SOOOOO much different than usual, only because last night was the first full night I've slept in a few days....  refer to a few posts back to see why...  ;)  I woke up feeling so much more refreshed today....  I was so excited too be ready for the day....  My voice is still on vacation, but other than that everything was good in my world.....  I went ahead and made some treats, did some laundry....  played on facebook, read a little of my new book in the backyard for a little while, the weather was gloomy but perfect for hanging out outside, had some coffee, went to see my puppy nephew, watched my phone get tragically killed in battle, came home to clean up the mess i made in the kitchen, and I happened to look out the backyard window to see this......  AMAZING picture that mother nature had painted for me....  A Double Rainbow....  ok maybe it wasn't just for me....  ;) 

the rainbow on the bottom was so BRIGHT the whole across the sky....  and I couldn't get enough of the colors of the sky....  I LOVED the gray to blue color that went all the way across.....

                         BRIGHT all the way across....  :)

  I think this is my favorite picture....  I think it's because it looks like the rainbows are coming out of the palm tree.

Mother Nature's "surprises" never seem to amaze me!  :)

Happy Birthday Carlie!!

So Carlie had a birthday in September and to celebrate we planned a girl's night!!!  :)  We started off with the traditional "birthday" pedi, and then we were off to dinner.... She picked the Yard house for dinner.....  so off we went!!!  :) 
This was her birthday dessert!!  YUMMMM....

me and the birthday girl

our side of the table.....  and the pretty flowers that Rachelle brought Carlie....  :)

Me, Carlie and Jessica! 

The girls and Mr. Wade.....  who came to celebrate with us!!  :)

Happy Birthday Carlie, we hope you had a wonderful birthday....  It's always great to celebrate with friends...  oh and with great food too....  This is the night that we discovered that they have the BEST tomato bisque and grilled sandwich meal here....  everyone that had it was in heaven!!!  :D

I NEED sleep.......

Boy is this the understatement of the year!!!!  Have any of you ever been so exhausted, that all you wanted was to go to sleep??  this is the state I've been in for the last few days....  I can honestly say that I have maybe had 10 hours of sleep since thursday night....  AND that's me "padding" the time a bit....  grrrr....  I'm sooooo tired, but as soon as I attempt to go to bed I'm WIDE awake.....  weird...  right??  well maybe not....  :(

I'm pretty sure "the green" supplement I had on thursday night jacked me up, and that's an understatment....  I drank it, came home went to bed at 1030, and was wide awake at 2am....  fell back asleep for maybe half an hour and then I went to work, came home got ready went to the angel game, watched fireworks, got home at 1230am, was WIDE awake again at 4am.....  argh....  so I got ready and went to work, then I drove up the mountain to meet my family....  anyone that knows me knows that I probably would of needed a nap somewhere in there????   I'm like the friggin energizer bunny or something, then I remembered that DeBran mentioned that "the greens" had an ingredient in it that was supposed to give people a burst of energy....  I'm pretty sure THAT'S my problem....  friday, saturday and most of yesterday, I was fine...  full of energy WITHOUT a nap, or sufficient sleep...  I almost feel like I'm on speed or something...  at least that's what I think it would feel like....  in the middle of all of this I started getting sick, GREAT, now I'm tired, from NOT being able to sleep, cranky from not eating....  food's making me nauseous, oh and my throat is scratchy and it hurts, so swallowing is a no go, oh and I sound like a man, did I mention that already??.....  I sort of feel like a combination of when I took vicadin for the first time, and was super woman for a few days....  and the time I got the flu shot....  I talked to my friend and he said that the "energy" booster in "natural" products or any product for that matter is something that is mostly foreign to our bodies....  and we all know how "special" my body is....  he seems to think that it may be trying to "fight" off whatever this "foreign" body I gave it is.....  CRAP!!!  that's exactly what got me in trouble last time...  if only I had paid more attention when the girl was explaining this thing....  I'm usually very careful, which is why I'm annoyed with myself...  that and I'm tired...  and I'm starting to feel like Goldilocks, last night I tried out every couch, recliner and bed available...  and I think I slept some, not a lot, but some...  It's almost like I'm broken....  I can't sleep or nap...  grrrr....

Let's hope that I can get some sleep tonight....  because if I don't I'm not sure anyone's gonna wanna hang out with me....  someone suggested I drink coffee, before bed, to counteract, the "energy booster" haha!!  I've drank enough cranberry juice to flush out my system a few times...  but obviously it hasn't work...  research I did a few years ago, said that it takes a week for drugs/medicine to leave our bodies completely, here's to hoping my body gets rid of this stuff soon.....  because I don't think I can last any more days without sleep.....  :)  oh yeah!!  sorry for the rambling, it's an effect of no sleep....  ;)  I've tried everything, I even read a spanish magazine front to back hoping that it would bore to sleep....  NOPE, no such luck....   maybe writing about it will help though!!!  ;)  goodnight..... 

Farewell to cake class......

.... and just like that 3 full months of "cake class" with my sister came to an end..... I must say that I was ready, I think I reached a "burn-out" point.... AND to top it all off, the last class consisted of making ribbon roses.... now in case you haven't noticed from the previous posts, roses are NOT my thing... haha!! BUT it was a lot of fun, it gave my sister and I something to look forward to everyweek! BUT most of the cake class creations ended up in the trash, as it was too much cake, cupcakes, and cookies for us..... BUT we did learn a lot, and I am definitly ready to decorate cakes and cookies, I am definitly excited to make "theme" cakes and cookies, for occasions so they don't just sit there....

my "best" ribbon rose....  and one of 3 I made...  I was in a "giver upper" kind of mood that day... :/

Gaby's beautiful roses....  Now if ever you want a rose...  she's your girl....  haha

My first rose looked like a mountain....  ;)

Gaby was very proud of this one....  :) and I was jealous of it...  haha!!  If only they turned out like that for me....  :(

Gaby made enough roses to decorate a cake...  it turned out beautiful too...  If only my roses would of looked like this....  ;)

This is as far as I got....  I decided to get busy practicing for Melissa's shower cake instead!!  ;)

Farewell cake class....  you were fun while  you lasted....  Thank  you for teaching me how to decorate...  I can't wait to put everything I've learned to use!!  :)

A weekend in the "tree house".....

..... literally  :)

Mike's grandparents have a cabin up in Twin Peaks....  We always talk about going up for a weekend but it never seems to happen....  So on a "whim" and on a weekend when no one else was going, they decided to go...  they all went up friday night....  and I met them on saturday after work....  the drive up was seriously amazing....  I usually HATE the drive up there by myself....  It sorta scares me a little bit...  but on this saturday, I can truly say that I enjoyed myself on that drive....  :)  and finally I got to the "treehouse"  It was A LOT hotter up there than I expected, but it was even hotter at home....
Red Lightning had to spend the night at the bottom....  see her hiding behind that tree??  ;)

They had been waiting for me to get there so they could go walk around Big Bear.....  we had a little photo shoot when we finally got to the lake!!  :)

The weather was perfect, the lake was calm, and the ducks were super hungry!!  haha!

Naturally I found a photo spot....  ;)

ok....  this picture is out of order, but I feel like I have to explain it....  this was the weekend I couldn't sleep....  It was saturday afternoon, and I had probably slept a total of 6 hours since thursday night, sooooo I happened to lay my head on this here comfy cabin couch and slept for a whole 15 minutes....  YEEEESSSSS!!!!  I was so excited!!!  In the meantime I had left my camera unattended, and my dad thought it would be funny to snap a few pictures.....  and I decided to posst it!!  ;)  thanks dad!  haha!

There was this amaing swing on the deck....  we sat on it for a long time and just swung....  :)  My mom and her girls!!  :D

Then it was dad's turn!!  :)

Mike made a yummy steak dinner....  yummmmm....

my half-eaten spread....  ;)

and on sunday I woke up to this.....  a maple bacon donut from a donut shop in town....  let me tell you that it was amazingly delicious...  just yesterday morning I was thinking one of these sounded terrific!!! 

..... and we went back into town for breakfast and to check out the ducks again!  :)

at the restaurant I found a prop.....  haha!  he even smiled for my picture....

mmmmmm....  breakfast and a mimosa....  :)

a self portrait!

This tree at the cabin was super tall

The stairs leading from the bottom, where my car was parked, to the top of the cabin....  Yikes there was at least a hundred of them!

haha!!!  My parent were "people" watching....  look at how excited my dad looked....  e

.... and before we left, we HAD to try out the tire swings

hahaha!!!  this was before I graciously attempted to get off the swing...  ;)

swinging, swinging, swinging...... 

We had the best time...  I just wish it had been longer....  Thanks Michael!!!  :)

A Wonderful Weekend........

"I LOVE everything that is old, old friends, old times, old books, old wine..."

I literaly had the most amazing weekend, and it was full of "old" things.....  I couldn't of asked for anything better.....  It started off with a out-of-the-blue meeting with an old friend.  We had the funnest time "catching" up, laughing, eating, enjoying the Angel game, taking pictures, and the firework show after.....  All his idea, and all my favorite things.... (there may be more on this later)  ;)  It seriously felt like I was enjoying an evening with an old friend, there was no awkardness, or weirdness, which is what I seem to encounter with other people around me.... 

It's funny how the older I get the more awkward I feel when meeting new people, I'm not sure why?  maybe it's because most people seem to think that there is something "wrong" with me, a girl in her early 30's soon to be mid-30's, (I have a birthday coming up....  ahhhhh!!!  ;))  with no kids, to speak of.... I mean at my age I should have 1, 2 maybe 3???  Funny how I get at least one of these comments a week....  yes, STILL!!!   I used to be much more confident in my 20's, ahhhhhh....  and boy do I MISS that confidence everyday..... the good ol' college days, shoot I was a whole heck of a lot more confident BEFORE I turned 30....  30 made way to a WHOLE new stereotype, one I definitly don't fit into, and one that makes feel like it, the further into I get.... 
So back to this weekend.....  :)  haha!!  It's always great hang out with people who know who we really are, people who don't act like I'm broken, people who really do care about how I feel,  and about what I'm doing....  The txt messages to "check on me" are always a "treat"!!!  thanks girls....  :) 
Then it was off to twin peaks to meet up with my family....  we spent the weekend  up there, well they did, I went up after work on saturday....  :)  It was so peaceful, up there....  the cabin was a perfect place to be with my thoughts....  haha!!  sounds cheeese, but that's what I did this morning when I woke up BEFORE everyone else.....  some things never change!!  ;)  the leaves and the trees were beautiful....

 Thank you God for helping to put everything into perspective today....  :)  for bringing old friends back into my life....  for making me understand that everything is going to work out....  and that....

"Life really and truly is a Journey, and NOT a Deastination"
I think this is the part where I will tell myself to start enjoying the journey into the 30's.... again....  haha! I have a feeling good things are on the way to me...  but in order so see them, I need to re-gain some of that confidence I had so much of in my 20's.....  here's to hoping I can stop caring what "some" people say, and start listening to what the "important" people have to say!!!  :)

Baseball and Fireworks, makes for a fun-filled evening....

So the other day I got a "mystery" txt message from this guy....  it  had seriously been FOREVER since we'd really talked aside from the random, yet sometimes yearly happy birthday/ merry chistmas, happy new year emails.....  and then there he was...  haha, back in California, from a long period of being "somewhere" else..... wanting to catch-up, with dinner and a baseball game..... hmmmmm....  ;)  Don and I met in college over 10 years ago, WOW!!  did I really just admit that?? haha ;)  and it was seriously amazing how we literally just picked  up where we had left off, especially since it's probably been a good 5 or 6 years, since we've really sat down and talked...  I LOVE the feeling of being comfortable with old friends.....  We went to dinner, the Angel game, and then watched the fireworks after....  anyone who knows me knows that this was seriously the "perfect" evening, filled with 4 of my most favorite things, food, baseball, fireworks, and good friends who can offer interesting conversation!!  :)

 a group shot!!  :)

Fireworks....  :)

 I had to post this one, because I was seriously impressed at the quality of this picture...  especially since it was from my phone!!  :)

The only thing I was really sad about was that this was one of the last Angel game's before the season ended....  so I guess we'll have to wait until next year to go again!

Welcome Fall!!!! :)

I'm soooo ready for fall this year it's not even funny....  as I write this, I'm sitting here in sweatpants, and a sweatshirt, drinking coffee, pretending that it's a lot chillier outside than it really is...  although I must admit that it helps that it's not a normal hot september evening.....  Today's weather has been perfect to welcome fall!  I can't wait for "rainy" inside days, hot chocolate, movies, and the perfect time for Ugg boots.....  Most importantly I'm looking forward to Pumpkins, pumpkin pie, pumpkin cake, that new pumpkin crumb thing Jaime made the other day....  and the holidays, the holidays are my absolute favorite time of the year, I love how all the stores go all out to decorate, and it just means it's almost time to bring out my "men".....  my snowmen who have been waiting all year to come out and play!!!  :)  I can't wait to bring another one home and to get all the other guys out too!!!  Every year around this time my store has a contest, and for some reason I was really excited to get the decorations going.... Maybe it's because it seems like summer really never came, so I feel like we should say farewell to it, and welcome the new season??  here's what I came up with to welcome fall!!!  after shopping for decorations for the display I want to go out and buy decorations for me!!!  I have so many ideas for fun "fall" projects I could do.....  YAY, for fall.....  I think today I felt how all my other friends feel about fall!!!  :)  I'm going to LOVE it!!!

Blessings.....

Often times I get busy "worrying" and complaining about the "MEAN" people that God has so nicely placed in my life....  haha!!  I say nicely, because I know that there's a reason he's placed them in my everyday life..... :)  I haven't really figured out what the reason is, but I'm thinking that it's to make me "stronger"!  ;)  maybe???  But at the same time he has surrounded me with wonderful people in my everyday life too...  I know what their purpose is....  to make me feel "fullfilled" and to make me remember that the world, MY world is not full of mean, negative people..... instead MY world is filled of people who care, respect and care for one another, with no strings attached....  :)  so with that in mind...  I will count my blessings today....  ALL of them....  :)

• there's nothing like an afternoon spent with good friends, friends who I can totally be myself with....  there's no better treasure in this world than a good friend....  Thanks girls!!  :)
• and what can I say about hugs and I love you's from the little people???  I can't even begin to express how much I enjoy quality time with them!!  :) 
• and then there was a while of snuggling from Mr. Owen today....  I LOVE when babies fall asleep on a person's shoulder...  and today I was in luck!  :)
• then there was my welcoming "lick" from Sisco when I came over tonight.....  He LOVES me, just as much as I love him....  ;)
• and wings and things...  I must be thankful for them today!!!  Gaby and I had that for dinner tonight....  and it was delicious!!  :)  alright not a "blessing"....  but I was thankful for them...  :)
• and sisters....  I have been blessed with a great sister too!!  I LOVE her
• and parent's, especially when they pack one's lunch for work!!  ;) 

So there it is....  my list for "count my blessings" tuesday!!!  :)

Cupcakes, cupcakes, everywhere........

So here we are almost done with cake class....  I must say that I think I'm suffering from too much class, and I'm about ready for it to end....  one more class and then I'll be ready to move on to the next thing!!!  ;)  I do have to say that the last 3 months have been great fun.....  and I feel like I have learned a ton!!!  :)  this last monday we made cupcakes, learned how to "fill" them....  and how to decorate them....  I made this lovely flower thing, that looked nothing like the one in the book, but it was pretty....  I know I may be a little biased!!  ;)

of course Gaby's turned out just like the one in the book, and nothing like mine!!  haha!!  figures!

and here are both of them together, same flower, yet nothing alike!!  :)

Then we moved on to decorating the tops, you can pretty much put ANYTHING on a cupcake and they look scrumpcious!!  ;)  Janet decided she would make Charlie a baseball one, since she missed his first day of baseball!!  :(  and the other one, was a pom pom flower, her's was awesome, mine on the other hand sort of looked like cousin "it".....  haha!!! 

Gaby's work station, and her pom, pom, flower in the back

My finished cupcakes, with lots of cousin "it's"..... 

I LOVED gaby's heart cupcake.... 

and I decided to put my beautiful flower on top of mine!!!  :)

I made carrot cake cupcakes and filled them with cream cheese icing.....  which I am now eating out of the container with a spoon.....  guess I made too much, and I wouldn't want it to go to waste!  ;)  filling the cupcakes made them fun to eat.....  it was a cupcake "surprise"  :)  Mabe that's why I feel like I have cake class "burnout", because I've eaten too much frosting, and filling, my body is saying it has toooooooo much sugar in it!!!  haha!!!