Drowning, Nascar and Squeez-its

I normally just order water when we go out to dinner (I'm boring) but tonight I felt spontaneous and ordered a cherry limeade :oP

It reminded me of the summer of 1988 and a mini vacation my mom took my sisters and I on.

My dad had taken my brothers down to Riverside for the last Nascar race at the track. Since the boys got to do something fun, the girls did too.

We stayed the weekend at the Courtyard Marriott in Fremont. One of the days, we decided to take advantage of the pool. I was 4 at the time, Amy was almost 6 and Kari was 12. I'm sure I had floaties to assist in my "swimming" but Amy didn't. We were all having fun when all of a sudden, Amy disappeared. She had gone under (not for very long) and Kari rescued her. Amy still gets reminded today, as we pass the hotel, "that's where you almost drowned".

(This is the infamous pool)

At night, we would stay up late in our hotel room, watching tv and drinking cherry squeez-its. I haven't had one in years but the cherry limeade tonight definitely took me back to 1988.

Vroom! Vroom! Vroom! Screech!

This is the silliest blog I think I've written thus far but I just had to.

When I began driving, roughly 6 years ago, I started out on my mom's Ford Explorer. My dad wasn't thrilled about this. One reason, I'm sure, was because it was their brand new car and I was a brand new driver. Next reason was because it was an automatic. He was convinced that if I learned to drive on an automatic, I'd never learn to drive a stick.

Well to his amazement, a few months later, I bought a car from a friend and it was a stick. LaVor taught me how to drive it (which was a challenge in and of itself...I hate being taught things) and within the night, I was able to drive without any jerking.

From that point on, I drove a stick shift, including our 1966 Bronco that had "three on the tree" (where the shifter is located on the steering column). In October, we bought our new car which is an automatic. I love it but I do miss the feeling of being a race car driver.

I got to drive our Mercury Tracer home from LaVor's parents tonight and it reminded me of the many times I would peel out from a stop light and see how fast I could get the wimpy car to 4th gear. It wasn't anything impressive but it's fun to pretend.

*Note - I don't mind an automatic when I'm going up hills :o)

For real?

I had a discussion a couple weeks ago with my mother-in-law about gaining weight when you're pregnant. I expressed my fear of getting pregnant for that very reason. I've always been very self-conscious of my body. Selfish, I know.

I've come across a few blogs of women talking about how much weight they've gained while being pregnant. Like 50 lbs. Are you serious? That's half of me! Can you imagine me carrying my torso/head/arms on my belly?

Kathy assured me that as long as I didn't have the mentality of, "I'm eating for 2", that I'd be fine. But it still sends a chill up my spine.

And just in case you're wondering, we're not pregnant.

Statistics

After:

6 hours of baking
12 cups of shredded carrots
1 stab to the knee with scissors
32 eggs
2 drive-by's the location
18 ounces of milk chocolate

we get...
my first cupcake wedding cake.

I'm pleased.

Blue skies smiling at me

The second our neighbor leaves for work in the morning (which is roughly around 5 am) his dogs start barking...and don't stop.

I opened the bathroom window to tell them to shut up and saw this...
Bee-autiful! I admired it for a few seconds then continued on to my original task.

Last night, we continued on with the birthdays and celebrated with Pop & Keith. Pop is thrilled to have turned 39 (+20).
Notice little Misters in the window of the door. That was LaVor's idea. Sort of a "Where's Waldo?" move.

Birthdays galore!

The week of July 24th-31st is a busy one for our family. There's a total of 5 birthdays to celebrate.

We had dinner last night to kick off the celebrations!

1st is Amy!
Then Pop & Keith (no pictures of Pop...we'll get his on Monday).
Next are Alex & Miss Munch.
We had a yummy dinner, opened some fun presents and finished the night off with angel food cake and berries...yum!
The kiddos had a fun time playing around while their daddy tickled the ivories.
And the last thing to mention...my sisters kids have a tendency to initially be afraid of LaVor. My niece used to call him "the lion". If he was sitting in the family room, she'd stop in the doorway until someone said, "Why aren't you coming in?" "Because the lion is sitting right there." She's grown out of it but my nephew was a little sketchy last night when we first got there. So sketchy that he began crying when we walked in the door. But by the end of the night, he and LaVor were learning the colors on the dominoes of Mexican train and sharing M&M's. They're now buddies.
Happy Birthday everyone!

My loves and the old road

Perfume: My sister, Amy, brought this perfume home from Germany several years ago. I remember sneaking sprays of it (always got caught...it leaves evidence) and have finally given in to buying myself a bottle. Love it!
Hair: I enjoy having long hair because of the options but I tend to be lazy and just throw it into a ponytail. I've fallen in love with Lisa Garza's hair, from The Next Food Network Star. If I can hold off until after our trip, I'm planning to chop it off. I do have a tendency to not be very patient, though.
Bag: I had seen this bag off and on for almost a year but never got around to buying it. It had a tendency of disappearing. I finally saw it again this weekend and knew it was meant to be. So...I got it.
My dad is fun to go on trips with because he always seems to remember taking "the old road", even when he really has never driven on it.

Today, I experienced an "old road" moment. CalTrans decided to open up part of the new highway 84 to traffic. I hate it. It's completely straight, no twists or turns and no character! I've been taking highway 84 for years now (despite my mother asking me not to. Not the safest road for a young girl to take by herself at the end of the night). I've always enjoyed feeling like I'm not in the middle of the hustle and bustle of the Bay Area while driving through 84. Now, it's converted to be like every other highway in the state. Blah! $24 million down the tubes. Now I will have to carry on the tradition and say, "there's the old road" every time we pass it.