Happy Birthday to Me!!

Happy Birthday!



Today is my birthday and I had a great day celebrating both Sunday and today with my family!  Sunday after our mini family reunion my sister Kathy and her family Mike my brother in law, Cole my nephew, Mari my niece and Mike's parents from North Carolina Joe and Anne and my brother Ryan, sister in law Shannon and niece Caroline (in utero) came over to have a family birthday party.  It was great, we barbecued carne asada and enjoyed the fabulous weather with dinner outside on the patio!

I would of thought by the time I turned 32, I would no longer be sitting at the kid's table!

Part of the Family!

Please don't call Child Protective Services, I took his keys away before drank this! J/K, it was my drink.



Cole and I sneaking a taste of the cake!





Today, I was lucky enough to get the day off from work and spend it with my Mom!  My Mom and I have an annual birthday tradition of lunch at the Cheesecake Factory and shopping!  We started the day off by dropping my car off for an oil change, 30,000 mile service and for all of you who remember about the pesky orange light and my refusal to put air in the tires on my car, I had the tire fixed!! Turns out I ran over a nail and that was what was causing the weekly need to fill the tire.  I know, an exciting way to spend your birthday!  Once the car had been dropped off we hit the road and drove to the Container Store, I LOVE that place!  I am in the process of giving my closet a mini makeover to accommodate all of my scrap booking stuff and now my new sewing machine.  My Mom and I spent a couple hours looking at all of their neat gadgets and figuring out the best solution for a small space.  After the Container Store, we ventured on to the Cheesecake Factory (YUM!) and enjoyed a delish lunch and a mimosa (I could of had two or three more!)  After lunch we headed to Balboa Island to look for a dress for Mari (we are having family photo's taken by Jodi, from The Bee Hive in November).  We did not have any luck finding a dress but had a nice time looking at all of the cute little girl clothes!   And, to end a great day I had my favorite steak dinner, I swear all we did was eat all weekend, I guess that is not a bad way to spend your birthday when you love to eat like I do!



A little sip of heaven!

A little bite of heaven!

Not the best picture, but it tasted sooo good!  Thanks Mom!

Besides all of the birthday wishes, family time together, good food, many cocktails, shopping and presents, I am happy to report that after leaving Gracie in my parents backyard all day unsupervised, she did not dig up the backyard, attack the poolman or rip the screen door!  Thank goodness! I think she is growing up (please, everyone knock on wood!).

Dog Beach!!

It was a HOT HOT HOT day in Aliso Viejo at one point in the day the temp outside was a brisk 110 outside and I had the day off, so I loaded up Gracie and headed north to the beach!  Huntington Beach has an awesome dog beach and now that school is back in session and it being a work day today for most people it was the perfect day to go to the beach!  Gracie LOVES LOVES LOVES the beach and practically leaps down the path to get the ocean as quickly as she can!  We spent a couple hours enjoying the sunshine, fresh air and chasing tennis balls (Gracie)! 

A Weekend of Family Fun!!

Saturday:

Wow, what a weekend the Mudry/Ferguson Family had!!  The weekend started out with Cole's soccer game, Go Green Dragon's!  I met up with the family in South Pasadena for a very warm afternoon (99 degree's out) of cheering and excitement as Cole and his little buddies battled through the heat and all the distractions that occur when you are 5 and having to stay focused on the game!  I cannot wait till next weekends game, they are just so darn cute and so much fun to watch!  Who knew that as the Aunt you would get roped into the AYSO spirit of
All Your Saturdays Occupied.

Sunday:

On Sunday the Family met for a small family reunion of sorts down in Dana Point Harbor for a really nice afternoon at the beach! We were happy to add Joe and Anne to the gathering and sad that Ryan, Shannon, Sarah and Nathan could not make it due to prior commitments, however the four of them will be adding two new members to the party next year, can't wait to meet their babies!!  The weather was perfect, a little on the windy side, but we all had a GREAT time.  My uncle brought two of his kayaks with him for all of us to use and the kiddo's had a lot of fun playing in the sand and water. 

 

My dad (left) and his brother Dwight (right)



Cole enjoying his new boogie board that Pops found in the parking lot!



Kathy, Mari, Anne, My Mom and Joe!  It was a little breezy at the beach!



Mari heading out for a cruise around the harbor!



Mari being Mari, so cute!



See you next Summer!!

Stunt Driver Needed!

Only the folks in Hollywood could park a car in this garage!

Actual house in Mt. Washington!

Picture Perfect!

Love her!

Will trade dog for new phone!

Dear Verizon,

I have been a loyal customer for over 10 years, today my phone had an unfortunate encounter with my four-legged furball for the second time in the past year.  She, who shall remain nameless Gracie has some incredibly stealth moves and was able to snatch my phone away from me without me noticing while I was watching t.v.  She had me fooled, I thought she was being a good dog, laying on her bed chewing on her bone, oh, how I was wrong!! Therefore, I am begging and pleading, please help a girl out with a new phone and not charge me an arm and a leg.  

Sincerely,

Mad as heck!!!



The damage!

  

Gracie's hiding spot when she is in trouble.



The "I am in soooooo much trouble look"!



Oh, what a night!!

What do a Fire Captain, Disaster Preparedness Instructor, Sheriff's Explorer Group and a Rabbi all have in common?  Hmmm?  Well, they were all at the Community Center last night around 7pm.  Why is this important you are asking yourselves?  I will tell you why!  Yesterday I arrived to work at 10:00am instead of my normal time of 10:30am (ya, ya , ya, not a big deal it is only 30 mins.) so I could go to a CPRS brochure exchange in Lake Forest with a bunch of other cities and their Parks and Rec/ Community Services Staff.  It was really cool to meet people from other cities, brainstorm on free ways to get the word out about our programs and services and talk about how our Summer's went. 

Anyway, back to the Fire Captain, Disaster Preparedness Instructor, Sheriff's Explorer Group and the Rabbi.  Since I came to work early I was going to leave a little early, plus I was not feeling well (strep throat had started to take up resident in my body earlier on in the day), which meant that I would be leaving our loan Rec. Staff (Brandon H.) alone for two hours to man the building by himself, this is where the Fire Captain, Disaster Preparedness Instructor, Sheriff's Explorer's Group and the Rabbi come into play. I had full confidence in Brandon, he is awesome and one of the nicest guys I have ever met!  Every night when I leave, I tell the Rec. Staff to call me if they need anything and I will come back to help, but like I said last night I was not feeling well so I told Brandon..... "if someone is injured or has died, get the Fire Captain who is in the 1/6 ballroom teaching CPR class to help you, if there is a natural disaster get the Disaster Preparedness Instructor who is in the 2/3 ballroom and his class to help you rescue people, if someone is trying to rob you get the Sheriff Explorers in the large conference room and if you need spiritual guidance while I am gone go see the Rabbi in the quiet lounge, otherwise have a good night"!  I am happy to report that Brandon did not call me last night so I am assuming that everything went just fine, no one died, the building is still standing, all robbers stayed away and that Brandon did not need spiritual assistance during the two hours I left him alone!!

Why not just say "closed"?

Little Orange Light GO AWAY!

Once a week for the last 3 weeks this pesky little orange light (lower right hand corner) comes on in my car...

Well, that is my cars nice way of telling me that my tires need air.  So, for the past 3 weeks I have been to 3 different tire stores and played the role of the dumb blonde who isn't quite sure how to put air in her tires.  Actually, I am not always a dumb blonde and I really know how to put air in my tires but I refuse to.  There are just some things I just won't do and putting air in my tires is one of them.  So, therefore I have been to 3 different tire stores (I don't want them to remember me and try and sell me a new tire) and one of these days I will go and have my tire fixed.  Apparently (normally, I pretend I do not know which tire is the problem and the guy checks them all) the right back tire has a slow leak and it is the cause of the problem. 

The cause of the problem!

My pals!

Meet Flip and Flop....

My two best friends this summer, I couldn't of survived this hot weather without you!