A True SoCal Girl!

Proof that I am a true SoCal Girl, please see exhibits A, B & C.....

(A) I have several types of sunscreen, two different types of chapstick, my spare key (a must when near water since it is waterproof) and some extra quarters if needed for parking which are all located conveniently in the center console. A beach towel on the seat, two pairs of flip flops (just in case I could not decide what pair to wear) and lot of sand on the floor of my car!

(B) I spend my weekends at the beach in February, some claim February is a "Winter" month, I think it is a farce!

(C) And my feet are already showing a sandal tan!

February 23, a GREAT day in my book!

February 23rd such an ordinary day of the year, it is not a holiday, it is not a birthday of any friends or family, but a day when so many good things happen for me!  It is almost as if every year when the month of February roles around I get this warm and fuzzy feeling, I don't know why, I just cannot explain it, I guess it is due to so many great memories. 

This year February 23, marks eight years since I started my first full-time job, wow eight years, I cannot believe it.  Eight years ago I had just graduated college, I had reached my 999 hours with the City of Cupertino, so I was out of a job there, I moved back to Southern California, I was dating a guy I really liked (a pilot, I know, I should of learned my lesson then) and I was offered the best first time job anyone could ask for with the City of Laguna Hills. 

Now rewind three years; I was offered another great/my current job with the City of Rancho Santa Margarita.  It was a job I applied for on a whim, I was out with my Mom, we were going over to Timeless Treasures ( a guilty pleasure of ours) and since were in the neighborhood I decided to drop off my application and resume off at City Hall, had we not been out shopping, I am not sure I would of dropped the application off since it was the last day to apply for the job.  I look back on that day often, I even remember what I was wearing and I sometimes think what was I thinking by waiting till the very last minute and only applying for the job because I was in the neighborhood, can you say LAZY or IRRESPONSIBLE? I guess it just proves that everything happens for a reason. 

I was scheduled to start on February 23, but I had been lucky enough to have hip surgery a couple days before and was able to push my start date back to March 2.  Again another reason why I view February with a warm fuzzy feeling!  I had waited two months to get an appointment with this amazing surgeon and she was able to squeeze me in to fix my hip 9 days before my health insurance was going run out with Laguna Hills and before I started my new job, had that not happened I would of had to wait months before I had enough sick/vacation time and would of had to pay a lot more $$$ to have it all taken care of.

Today marks two years since I started blogging, holy cow, I cannot believe it has been two years.  I have to say this blog is pretty much everything I hoped and dreamed it would be (I know, kind of a silly thing to say), I feel like for the first time in my life I have been able to keep a journal of my life with all of the ups and downs, the funny things I see in the world around me, my three favorite kiddo's and a way to share many of my interests and hobbies.

I know these are only a couple things that have happened in my life, but I feel that these things have really made a huge impact in my life and I will always be forever grateful for them.  So here is to many great February's and February 23's and to many more that will come! 

CHEERS!

Taking a Bite out of Crime!

Let's just say for all of the grief and trouble lil Miss Gracie causes me on a daily basis she makes up for it with her guard dog qualities.   This mutt will not let anyone who she feels is on the tad bit crazy side near me, she will go on the attack if said crazy person is hiding in the bushes (she no likey), she protects our house like the secret service protects the White House all sly and then bam out of nowhere comes charging out ready to take down an intruder and last night was no different.  Apparently someone lady was going around my neighborhood knocking on doors asking for money, she claimed that she had run out of gas and needed a couple bucks to get home, ya riiiiiiiight!  Oh, and this was at 10:00pm, who does that?  I heard about this from my neighbor friend Kris via text message, we are so the neighborhood watch and we know what is going on in the hood pretty much at all times.  Well, crazy lady never made it to my front door, cause lil miss guard dog went into a barking rage and I am convinced that she scared crazy lady away.

Nicely done Gracie!   

Gracie on the watch!

Don't mess with the "G"

Gracie in real life!

Misc. Monday!

Today was the end of my four day weekend and in the words of the wise ole dog walker Curtis as he kindly told me to.... "enjoy the memories of our former president's" as soon as he found out he was off the hook for taking care of the sweet lil Gracie!  Oh, I will Curtis!

My Mom and I met for lunch at the Cheesecake Factory for lunch, it was a bust, our cob salad was not so great.  We always split the cob salad and this time it looked like every old piece of lettuce was used, there were probably three little chicken strips in it, hardly any dressing and the rest of it was less than desirable.  We ate a little bit of it, I we normally finish it off, but this time not so much.  We very nicely told them it was the worst salad ever and they kindly took it off our bill.

After lunch and maybe a half slice of cheesecake we ventured around Fashion Island and poked our heads in a couple of our favorite stores.

Love this store!

My Mom and I said our goodbye's and went off in different directions, I went home and finally tackled something I have been dreading for a long time.....I checked my credit report and credit score.  It sounds so silly dreading this and I am not sure exactly why I am afraid to do it.  The only reason I can come up with is I am afraid I will see that someone has stolen my personal information and then I will have to deal with fixing it.  A lot of times I live in a world of denial and I won't do things in fear of having to fix them and I would rather close my eyes and pretend that they are not there. Am I the only one who does this?  Anywho, good news everything on the credit report checked out good and the only thing I need to dispute is on TransUnion, they say I never paid my student loan, holy moly, yes I did!  It sounds like this should be an easy fix.  My credit score (the main reason why I was dreading this) was awesome!  I got a loan modification last year and I was scared that I did a lot of credit score damage, especially since I had not made my house payment for 9 months.  Lucky for me, World Savings/Wachovia/Wells Fargo whoever had my loan at that time was nice enough and took it off my credit report so it did not mess up my credit score! WOO HOO!

Can't you hear the little jingle playing in your head?

I printed out my credit report and for some reason it started off coming out green and slowly turned to gray and never made it to black, I hope I do not need a new ink cartridge, especially since it seems like every time I use my printer I need a new one, so I am cool with the green for now. 

It's not easy being green!

I went to PetSmart and bought Gracie a new bed, dang, those things are expensive!  I found one that I thought might work, bought it, brought it home and Gracie does not like it.  I think it is too poofy/poofie (sp?) and she was trying to chew a hole in it right away, so it is going back to the store.  I also got her some new shampoo, she is out of our favorite buddy wash, so we settled for some pethead the human version is bedhead, I really only bought it because I thought the bottle was cute and I knew Gracie would like it cause it said on the bottle she would be getting the royal treatment, lucky dog! 

After the pet store I hit Trader Joe's and ran into my current swim student Brayden and his family.  Funny, I have only taught swim lessons to two kids since I retired/hung up the red suit and they both have been named Brayden and they both pretty much hate swimming lessons, I wonder if it is a Brayden thing?  Anyway, current swimmer boy Brayden lives in Ladera Ranch, so why they were at my T.J.'s is beyond me, but it was fun seeing them. 

And to finish my day off, I have done more laundry than any single gal should ever do in one day or have so many loads in one week!

Happy President's Day and 300th post!
Hot dog, I have 300 blog posts!

Feeling guilty, well just a little!

I took my car to the car wash today, it was in desperate need of a wash due to the rains and some birds who think my car is great target practice.  When I pulled into the car wash I decided to get gas while I was there, since it is .10 cheaper a gallon if you get a wash at the same time, plus they pump your gas for you!  Anyways, they fill-up my car with gas and I pull forward to have my car vacuumed out, the guy asks me what kind of wash I want, I tell him the basic wash and he asks if I want armor all on the tires, I say no, he hands me my bill/receipt that you pay inside, I look at it, it says $13.99, I pause for a moment, think to myself, he only charged me for the car wash not the gas too, I pause again and start to turn back to tell him I did not get charged for the gas, I look at him, he is talking on his cell phone like he was the whole time he was helping me, I pause again and think woohoo, I just scored $30 bucks of FREE gas, I pause again and think I should do the right thing and tell him that I did not get charged for the gas, then I think no way, I am on a budget, I am taking the FREE gas, it was his mistake and for a split second I think, man I wish I needed a full tank of gas instead of a half a tank and then I ran inside and paid.  The whole time I was waiting for my car, I was just waiting for him to come and say something to me and I would of had to go and pay for my gas.  Let's just say as soon as my car was done I floored it out of the parking lot!  Kind of like that IKEA commercial when the lady comes running out of IKEA with her bags and she is yelling at her husband "START THE CAR!" "START THE CAR!" and they burn rubber out of the parking lot.

Not a bad way to start my four day weekend!!!

Singles Awareness Day!

I love pretty much anything to do with Singles Awareness Day aka Valentine's Day!  All of the red, pink and heart stuff that is out there, I just cannot get enough!  Here are a few of the things that made my day bright and cheery! 

It all started with my one true....

Than I made me a little something to wear to work!

Came to work and found these little delights on my desk...

With this cute card attached.....

Cole's Valentine's to his friends...

ARRR'nt they cute?





And the best gift of all, Cody brought these to work today to make up for his screw up on Sunday that brought us all in to work at 5:30pm Sunday night to a large party that was locked out of the building because he forgot he was scheduled to work.  Not good to have 200 people watching you with an evil eye as you walk across the parking lot to let them in an hour and half late.

I hope everyone had a great day!

Birthday Girl!

We celebrated little Caroline's birthday today with the family, she was so cute, she loved opening her gifts (with a little help from Mari) and eating cake with the family!

A look back at Caroline on her "Birth"day!

Yep, I'm 1!

Cupcake toppers designed by me and put together by my Mom!

  Happy Birthday Sweet Girl!

Oh My!

This is what happens when you get old....

949.7666.4897

You call your local community center inquiring about free computer classes and leave a message with your home number that contains one too many numbers and instructions on how to leave a message, reminding the person to start talking after the beep!  Oh my!  One would think you just take an extra 6 out, we tried, the number is still wrong, time to put her in a home!

Happy 1st Birthday!

Our sweet little Caroline is a year old today!

One Word!

Starbucks sums it up in one word....

A new hobby!

My neighbor friend Kris mentioned to me the other day that she was signing up for the Dana Point Outrigger club/group/team that was starting this weekend, I thought it sounded like fun and told her I would go with her if she wanted someone to go with.  So we went today, I drug my friend Melisa out with us also and we hit the water with about 50 other people.  I have to say my entire body hurts like crazy but it was well worth it.  The way it works is they have practice every weekend (Saturday & Sunday) from 10am to 12pm until the season starts in April and once the season starts you have to decide if you are going to join the team or not.  As I am typing this I am so tired I can barely get any thoughts out and I have no idea if this makes any sense, so I am going to stop now. :)

Kris, Me & Melisa!

Busy Busy!

Busy week = no blogging!  It has been a crazy busy week, after my rant on Monday, I spent about an hour trying to figure out my prescription coverage and finally got it all straightened out and got my $50 back today!  Tuesday I got an intern, I feel like such an adult and all responsible and such.  I have known for a few weeks that my intern would be starting this week, but it was kind of funny cause last Saturday night I went to dinner with my old boss Colleen from my days working as a camp leader and intern for the City of Cupertino, it has been almost 8 years since we have seen each other and I was laughing as I said "who knows I might be having dinner with my intern 8 years from now!".  The rest of the week was a blur, it just buzzed by with a lot of work and not much time for anything else!  Today, was a day of playing catch up, I did probably 7 loads of laundry, got a much needed facial from Katie Raber (click here) and mani/pedi, cleaned my house and gave little Miss. Stink aka Gracie a much need bath. 

I took this video of Gracie, cause people do not believe me when I tell them how Gracie will run and jump in the tub when I ask her if she wants to take a bath.  I forgot to put the soap up and she ate the whole bar in one gulp, she may have a new name "bubbles". 

This weekend is going to be a fun one, be sure to check back often.