AMAZING Friday!!

Have you ever woken up, in a GREAT mood, thinking that everything was completely right in the world, everything has fallen completely BACK into place, basically full of "HAPPY"? That was me today... woke up early, got ready for work, left for work earlier than usual, and then I got a phone call from my sister.... where was I? Fwy was closed... oh crap! All I could about was AWESOME! I leave super early and now I'm gonna be late to work... and I was... oh well it is what it is... right? At least I was hoping soooo... ;) I ended up taking the side streets along with thousands of others... BUT I did get to enjoy the most BEAUTIFUL sunrise sky... :) the colors were amazing... as I "crawled" on the road I started to thank God for ALL of the blessings he has given me, YES! Even the hard ones that I've questioned and that I have yet to understand... ;) somewhere in my "thank-you" thoughts I remembered to snap a few shots... we were going REALLY slow.... I was seriously AMAZED!! GREAT morning, and the BEAUTIFUL morning painting I got this morning was a GREAT way to give thanks, I am definitely blessed.... :) enjoy the pictures.... I certainly did.... :)










HAPPY FRIDAY EVERYONE!!!! :)

You Challenge!!

Four Books:

(I have just read or want to read...)

1. A Stolen Life, Jaycee Dugard...  Seriously one of the better books I have read in a long while..  EVERYONE should read it...  then again I LOVE "true stories" so if you don't it may not be a "must read"  ;)
2. Heaven is for Real....  I think this one will be the next one I read...   I actually just bought it, and I can't wait!
3. The Help....  I've heard is wonderful...  :)
4. Single....  A book I picked up at the book store to see if I was "broken"...  ;)  it was a VERY good read...  and thankfully it told me I am perfectly "normal"!!  ;)

Thankful Monday! ;)

We should ALL be THANKFUL, for those people who rekindle the INNER spirit!!!

Albert Schweitzer

This week I am TRULY THANKFUL for the people in my life....  I ran across this quote and it "fit" exactly how I felt this past week.... 

There is ALWAYS something to be thankful for, at least in my eyes....  :)

This week I feel like I have finally gone back to that "normalcy," that I'm used too...

I feel like everything has finally calmed down and gone back to normal!!  PHEW!!  It was a LONG road...  But it was one that needed to be "traveled," one that taught me a whole lot about myself, and a whole lot more about the people I surround myself with!!  ;)  My spirit has been "rekindled"  :)

It was a week full of old "favorites,"  dinner with friends at the pond...  Oh how I had missed the "family" feel of these dinners!  ;)

...and quality time with the kids,

...and quality time with friends,

...and there was some blogging, and a little crafting, and some picture taking, and A LOT of baking...  YEP!  Everything's is back to normal here!!!  ;)

I have to mention how much I enjoyed my evening with the kids this week too...  nothing like having/or trying to have an adult conversation with a 3 year old at 11:30PM!!!  haha!! 

...and I "shopped" around for a new lens, I can't wait for it to arrive...  Thanks Jessica for letting "test" yours....  and Lukey for being a very cooperative picture subject...  haha!

....and wine

...and dancing,

...old friends

....and hotel rooms to crash into!  ;)

...girls night's

....anything "pumpkin" have I mentioned this yet?  ;) 

.....blue skies,

.....a 90210, gilmore girl's, and one tree hill marathon day!!

There you have it...  another week's worth of "things to be thankful for"....    What were you thankful for this week??  anything fun and exciting??  ;)

Here's to hoping that everyone has a WONDERFUL week!!  :)

Happy Birthday Carlie!

For Carlie's Birthday we went to Rosa's for dinner and a little celebration!!  ;)
The Birthday girl!! 

me and Carlie!!!  :)

I went ahead and whipped us up some goodies...  ;)
mmmm....  Peanut Butter Cookie Dough Brownies

They were delicious, really sweet and rich...  You definitely should have a glass of milk close by!!  ;)

You can find the recipe here

I have been following recipegirl for a while now...  and she has a lot of yummy recipes on her blog...  there are others of hers that I have tried...  they're still on draft mode though!  ;)  They have all been REALLY good, and super easy to follow and make...   Go check her out...  I promise you won't be dissappointed!!  ;)

Happy Birthday again Carlie!  I hope your birthday dinner was fun!!  :)

Happy Birthday Sister Friend!!

Rosie, one of my oldest, bestest friends had a birthday, every year she plans this trip to fullerton uncorked, at the Arboretum at Cal State Fullerton, AND every year I hadn't been able to go...  I finally got to go this year and I was sad that I've missed out on this event for so long!!  :0  Let's just say that it was the best money I have EVER spent on a ticket, for 3 1/2 hours of wine and food!!  :)  I can't wait until next year!!!  :)

Here's to the beginning of our evening...  I'm white wine and she's red...  VERY fitting for both!!  ;)

It had always been a girls only event until now...  Sam got to join us too!!  ;)  sooooo it was a first for both of us...  and I think we were both pleased!  :)

"sister friends"!!  :)

We had our tickets...  and we were ready!!  ;)

....and cousin Lisa decided to come join us....  finally!!  ;)

We saw this on our way in....  "it's only 5:15 and we were already a case in"!  ;)  NOT really, but it sounded good!!  ;)

The fullerton arboretum has some of the coolest looking waterfalls, and plants ever...  Sam was siupposed to get the waterfall in the background...  Oh well, at least he got a good pic!!  ;)

CHEERS!!!

So the event consisted of A LOT of FOOD and EVEN MORE WINE!!!  these ribs were seriously AMAZING!!!  and that's saying a lot...  I'm not usually a fan!!!  BUT I went back for seconds of these!!  ;)

Naturally Sam found the cigar table...  judging by the smile on his face, I would say he was rather pleased!!  ;)

mmmmmmmmmmmm.....  RIBS!!!  Now this is a girl after my own heart...  We seriously ate everything our little hearts desired, and a lot of it...    This was just a small sampler!  ;)

....and a little more samplers!!! 

the boys and their cigars...  yuck!

....and this is where the Phone picture, food/wine tour begins!!!  ;) 

This was seriously the BEST tomato Bisque I had EVER had...  :)

clam chowder wasn't bad either!!  ;)

haha!!

Cupake chard, was NOT a favorite...  I think I dumped half of it...  :(

A little beer for the boys!

.....and it looks like we're still eating...  and wine-ing!!  ;)

Yep.... still there!!  ;)

Sampler anyone?

Then we got to stomp some grapes...  YAY!!  this is something I've ALWAYS wanted to do...  

It was just as gooey as I thought it would be...  One more thing to cross off that bucket list!  ;)

red wine anyone????  ;)

a solo??  might as well....  ;)

a little sampler of a lot of my favorites!  :)

I saw this at the store the other day...  and it DIDN'T look appealing AT ALL...  But I am here to tell you, that it was AMAZING!!!  :)

....and this one here was taken BEFORE our dancing adventure!!  haha!!  ;)

....and we found the gelato booth...  :D

.....and the mini cupcakes!

Gelato, wine, and red velvet cupcake...  PERFECT!

~SMILE~

Here's to a fun-filled night....  :)  after this was over we ended up taking a taxi to downtown Fullerton, and hung out there for a while...  Man I had forgotten how much fun downtown is....  :)

I can't wait until next year!!  Happy Birthday Rosie.... 
We ended up staying the night out there, at a hotel on-campus...  (good thing), how convenient!!  ;)  I woke up early sunday morning, got ready, and went home, BUT first a quick stop at the ol' Starbucks off campus for a pumpkin spice latte, (I know this is no surprise)  and a pumpkin scone!!  can't really say I was at all impressed with the scone, and I've still yet to figure out why people loose their marbles for it??  :/