It's mah b-day!!!

And the presents have started rollin in. Um, I get really excited about gifts.

Beth gave me my first birthday present, some yummy chapstick and some adorable boyshorts and sports bra for our next pillow fight sesh. Er, that I can wear to the gym? Or have some fuller coverage when I parade around the house with the blinds open? The neighbors thank you Beth!

My mom took me out to lunch and brought me this amazing little find:


My sister Melinda bought me not one but TWO Bare Escentuals Sephora goodies:



Jerad has a fun filled weekend planned for us (more to come on that later) but in the mean time, he got me something shiny:



My current camera has been slowly biting the dust. You can tell by the recent picture quality. The awesome thing about this is, since it is the same as my old camera, it has the cable that I have been missing and I can get all the pics that have been stuck on its internal memory off.

I'll just leave you with these little "awe" moments taken the weekend we first got Buddy and Bailey last year:



How. freakin. cute. are. they???????

Tomorrow I am waking up early (hopefully to breakfast in bed) and being whisked off to Monterey and then up to Sacramento. Birthdays are a big BIG thing to me. I start looking forward to my birthday MONTHS in advance:) Yes, I am that self absorbed.

Speaking of "must have"

These are pretty cute right? Would it suprise you to hear they are part of the YOU by crocs™ collection? Yes, CROCS. Annnnnd you can win a pair here!

Here is a bit about them found on the YOU by crocs™ technology page:

The YOU by crocs™ insole has Crocs' proprietary Croslite™ material to add extreme comfort to the entire foot bed with extra padding in pressure point areas such as the heel and ball-of-the-foot. Croslite™ technology combined with other natural, high-end materials creates YOU by crocs™ Soleful™ technology. It’s hard to imagine having a comfortable, good looking three inch heel, but dream no more.

Because of the Croslite™ material the insole warms and softens with body heat, molding to the unique contours of your feet. In addition, the high quality genuine materials on both the outside and the inside of our shoes add to the entire experience—comfort goes beyond what you stand on, it’s also about what’s next to your skin. YOU by crocs™ shoes are lightweight, which increases the comfort and allows you to wear them for extended periods of time.

YOU by crocs™ shoes have received the Ergonomic Certification for Comfort* by United States Ergonomics • specific models tested, receiving certification, are the Neat and Straight Up from YOU by crocs™ FW07 footwear line.

And.... I love my backyard

I was too exhausted to upload all the pics last night, but here is a little glimpse of what we were up to this weekend. Noah, Lucinda, and Aiden came over (ya, still can't believe they volunteered for that one!) Saturday AND Sunday and helped out with Yard-Overhaul '08. So that we can be ready for a party they won't be in town for. All in turn for a few lunches. Wow.

Anyways, Saturday we had 6 yards of dirt delivered and picked up 800 sq ft of sod. Noah and Jerad shoveled all the dirt and moved it to the back yard

and packed it down. Oh yes, Aiden helped too



Lucinda and I pressure washed the deck, and the pavers, then stained the deck, and 2 fences and assembled a TON of my new patio furniture.

The guys also built a 6 ft by 8ft gate for the side yard and installed all new fancy pants sprinklers.

I'll have more pics tonight. Anyways, I'm loving it and thank you sooo sooo much Noah and Lucinda!!!!!

Picture Updates

Okay, pictures as promised:

My sister and brother in law Larry had a baby!!! Well, sort of:


His name is Benz (since Larry is a Mercedes mechanic). Mel and I drove to Kettleman City to pick him up, then jetted back to the beach house my parents were renting in Cayucos for a little family bbq:

Dad, Addy (and her new bike), and Benz:

Jerad and the Chicken:


Puppy looooooove:

Alcoholism runs in my familt starting at a young age. Jk, she grabbed my beer:


Jerad and Larry had a "moment." Also, where did Addy's boobs come from? She is my little little sister? Ahhhh


Fire down on the beach:

Oh yes, you can also see Hailey sho I managed not to take any other pics of. Sorry Hailey:)

Ken came over to help Jerad and Tom frame the new fence:

Million dollar retaining wall. AKA this is what I get instead of an engagement ring heh



Then the next Friday Jerad and I drove to Fresno and picked up this little guy:

He is a 5 month old Rat Terrier/Chihuahua mix named Jack and is sooo sweet. We are fostering him until he finds a forever home, which I think he has already; someone that Jerad works with and his wife. They are picking him up Friday to see how it works out on a trial basis.


Our dogs playing with Benz and Jack:



More Fence progress:


And then all our grass blew away! Jk, Jerad and 2 guys he works with ripped out all the old grass in order to get ready for new sod this weekend:

Our back lawn (besides being ruined by a year and a half of dogs and their doggie friends), had been planted about 4 inches too low by the previous owner. We talked about all different ways of fixing it and decided just taking the whole thing out, adding a ton more dirt, then new sod would be the fastest, easiest, most gratifying way to go. Plus the previous owner did something screwy with the sprinklers and if the whole lawn was pulled up Jerad could flush all the lines and figure it out and hopefully we could stop replacing sprinkler heads every few months.

The side yard also got leveled out in a way that it will drain where it should, and we bought 4 cu. yards of river rocks to put there.

Here is some of the progress:

Annnnnd about 1/2 of the rocks still need to be shoveled:


Isn't that what prisoners used to have to do?

Today after work I have a few more fence boards to stain and Jerad is going to set the posts for the gate that will be for the side yard. Friday night Jerad is building the gate for the side yard, then they are hoping to finish the fence Friday/Saturday. Saturday the sprinklers will get fixed and I'm having 6 yards of topsoil delivered that will be wheeled back there and packed down. Sod goes in Sunday (all 4000 POUNDS of it) and sometime during the weekend I will sand and stain the back deck and light colored fence to match the new fence. Maybe my new patio furniture can get set up too? That would be AMAZING.

Our friend Noah amazingly offered... with no coaxing or bribing or anything... to come over and help? WTF Noah?!? Jerad told me that Noah said to let him know if he needed any help and Jerad told him it was going to be shoveling dirt and rocks (aka not fun or easy work) and Noah was all for it. Wow. If he comes, I might cry. If anyone else wants to help out... um, its not really going to be fun, but I'll buy lunch and drinks? For some reason dirt and rocks are freakin expensive so that is about all I can afford haha.

The good news is, if everything gets done, we are going to have a kick ass party for my b-day and I think there is going to be a band. And beer. And bbq. Just sayin. So, if you're looking for a not exactly fun time, but to make me SUPER happy and secure yourselves an invite to my b-day bash of fun, hit me up yo!

Sorry I've been oh so MIA lately!

Sooo much has been going on! I have tried to upload pics, but blogger keeps having errors and I get impatient. Okay, quick recap:

We have a foster puppy. I think we already have a home for him though, they are picking him up Friday for a trial run.

We have no grass in our back yard, and are re-sodding it this Thursday.

Our fence is well underway.

Our side yard is almost done.

I've had my blood drawn twice. In two days. Bitches.

My patio furniture gets set up this weekend.

I have 2 amazing b-day parties planned.

I joined Kennedy Club Fitness and have become obsessed.

Jerad is amazing.

My camera is slowly biting the dust.

I'm just writing random crap at this point.

I miss Beth (be my workout buddy again?)

Work has been insane... and not in a good way.

I miss my black hair haha.

Our bathroom is 92.76% finished... not counting the shower.

Our friend Taylor bought a house!!! (well its in escrow)

I'll try again w/ the pics tonight.

I wonder...

Remember last week when I was talking about how little elves were putting random messages on my phone? And one of them was "u food colored the cat?" I got a few comments and emails that can be summed up as "that's creepy." THEN, I end up with a box of birth goo covered kittens.

Coincidence? I think not.

Hopefully, some lottery numbers show up this week.

Ugh!

We take a break from our regularly scheduled programing to discuss how I am a kitten murderer. Seriously. Saturday night as Jerad and I were eating dinner, he got a text message from his friend and Supervisor Ken who had just returned home from a few days out of town with his family only to find that a stray cat had had kittens all over the place and abandoned them. 4 of them. Without cleaning them off or anything. They had all sorts of dried goo, toes dried together, one was even stuck to the ground.

He had gathered up three of them but couldn't get the 4th one unstuck. They were teeny tiny little things! After finding out that no vets would take them (because Animal Services won't take kittens from vets and they don't want to deal with them) I agreed to take care of them over the weekend until we could give them to Animal Services on Monday morning. I have done the bottle feeding kittens thing a LOT of times, so no big deal right?

So, it was warm towels, hot water bottles, and bottle feeding kitten milk replacement every 3-4 hours. Not to mention cleaning them. See how tiny? Two little spotted ones, and two black ones.
Well, 2 were dead when we went to do the 3 AM feeding the first night (the spotted one that had been stuck, and the biggest black one that I thought for sure would make it). I had warned Jerad before we went to bed that they probably wouldn't all make it, they had been neglected for probably 2 days of the most crucial time when they needed to be kept warm and eat blah blah blah but I still thought he was going to cry. Softie.

The next day the little black one that was left got more and more lethargic and also passed away around 11pm. Great. The little black and white one was still super feisty, loud, eating, I seriously thought it would be fine. I had been filling up a big nalgene bottle with boiling water and wrapping it in a towel because it would stay warm for about 8 hours. I'd put that in the box (on top of another towel) and then throw in other regular water bottles filled with hot water around the kitten, a warm towel from the dryer, and then a big towel over the whole thing. So, even though there wasn't a momma and the rest of the kittens to keep it warm, it is not like the poor thing froze to death, it was nice and toasty.

I have no idea what happened, but some time between 11 and 3AM that one died also. I was really hoping at least one would make it... I guess it was kind of far fetched since they spent so much time alone.

I told my mom as the numbers started to dwindle Jerad was wanting to keep one (since 3 cats and 2 dogs aren't enough) and her solution: have some babies. Er, ya mom, cause thats the same thing. She also told us the same thing when we went to visit them on Friday at the beach house they were renting "you guys need to have kids while you can still get free babysitting out of Addy." Okay, subtle. Like when my dad tells Jerad he feels left out cause all his friends have grandkids. I always point out that since Addy goes to public school she will probably get knocked up soon... they don't like that (she's 12). Hey, whatever it takes to shush em up right?!?

Anyways, sad kitten weekend. I got no sleep, and all weekend long kittens were dying. Not fun.

Weird right?

Little hobbits have taken over my phone... if you know me in real life, you know that I rarely lock my door. Hmm, and if you don't know me, please don't come rob my house now mmmk?

Anywho, I usually leave my phone charging on the little table by the front door. In the past three months it has been getting mysterious messages on it as the banner.

1. "pablo es un pero" okay, good to know...

2. "addy is the best sister ever" yeah I think I know who left that one

and then this morning:
3. "u food colored the cat?" what????? it was NOT there when I went to bed at 11pm. Jerad did NOT do it, and it was there at 7:30 this morning. Weird right????

It was bound to happen...

Catching Up: Saturday, Country Rodeo Finals and Sawyer Brown

How appropriate for my 200th post to be of something I love soo much eh? Rodeo!!!











There are really no words to describe Sawyer Brown's mad mad dancing skills.
He is one performer.

Here is a little 30 sec. clip I found on You Tube that really doesn't do justice, but you can get an idea

Oh, and I almost got pregnant during the concert. So yeah, THANKS Jerad for wandering off... I almost had a love child. Anyways, here are some concert pics:




After Sawyer Brown Tina and I went over to The Watering Hole for some drinking and dancing... I think I had more spilled on me than I drank. We were dancing to that "Cotton-Eyed Joe" song when this 40-50 year old man came up to us, looked at me said something like "right on!" Then gave me this huge kiss on my cheek, slapped his knee a few times and walked off. It was the weirdest thing. I am a magnet for horny drunks apparently...