4th of July Weekend

This is the first 4th of July weekend since I've worked for HCP where I've gotten the whole weekend off! I did have to stay later than most on Thursday to review several schedules so I could rest easy for the weekend, but beggars can't be choosers!

After I finished up with work I drove to my friend, Nicole's. We went and got Daphne's Greek Cafe food (one of my favorites) and rented "Faith Like Potatoes" which I had heard was a good movie. We ate while watching the movie. Although the movie was good and had a good message, it felt like a very LOOOOONG movie. :-) It was just nice to hang out with a friend.

Friday I slept in a bit before doing my new exercise routine. Then I got ready for the day, did laundry and organized a bit before heading out to PV for dinner. My brother-in-law's brother, Andy, was house-sitting for family friends so he had a few people over for a BBQ. I passed the turn I was supposed to take so I drove all the way up to Crest Road. It was a blessing in disguise because I stopped at a cute lemonade stand to ask for directions and patronize their business. It made the girls so happy! I was glad I could contribute to their entrepreneurial spirit!

The BBQ was a lot of fun. I was able to finally meet Aton, Andy's good friend who I had heard so much about. He was born in Israel and then emmigrated to the U.S. when he was 7. His perspective was interesting to hear about. Some of the conversation was a little heated, but I don't mind that.

The group of us (about 8) played "Would You Rather" which is a fun get to know you game.

The 4th of July was busy! I woke up early to meet Nicole and Lisa at Nicole's parents so that I could know how to get there from the kayak place. Well, I took PCH North instead of south and ended up in Wilmington! So I had to take the freeway again back to where I started! Suffice it to say, I did not make it to Nicole's parent's house prior to kayaking. I ended up just going straight there.

The street where the kayak place was closed off so I had to turn down another which was fine because parking was hard to find. I found a metered parking lot which was a bit of a walk from where I had to be, but I don't mind walking!

We were all supposed to meet at 11am, but we had to send people out at different times because a lot of people were running late. I didn't get in the water until about 12:15! I shared a double kayak with my friend, Stephanie. We were a good team! I've kayaked before and have had a hard time of it, but we were like pros! We kayaked to Naples (canal area of Long Beach harbor reminiscent of Venice) and were pummelled with water from long-range water guns!

After kayaking most of us ventured to the Detjen's for lunch. The Detjen's live in Bay Harbour which is a nice set of houses where a majority of them have slips for boats. The Detjen's own a yacht, so they needed a place to put it, so they got the house!

We had Subway sandwiches for lunch with pink lemonade and potato chips. Kayaking really takes a lot out of you, so it was nice to sit in the shade on their back patio and look at the boats. After lunch a water fight ensued between Lisa, Julia and Nicole and passing boats. Lisa got soaked!

A group of people left after lunch and the "second shift" as Nancy Detjen said, came over. Nancy Detjen and Bryan Johnson played Sequence against myself and Ron Detjen. Ron and I beat them both games. :-) Angie, Gretchen and Lisa Harden came over and brought tons of h'ors deuvres that we all had to fill us up before going out on the boat.

We all piled into the boat to travel to where the Queen Mary fireworks go off.
At first we went into the cabin, but decided it would be more fun to go out on the bow of the ship for the trip there.


Here's Angie, Gretchen and Lisa Harden in the cabin:
Este and Eden want to be the "King of the World!"


From left to right: Stephanie, Nicole, me, Lisa and Julia:

The fireworks how was good. Angie, Lisa, Bryan, Gretchen, Kaitlyn, Amy and Nancy joined us when we reached our destination and we all watched the fireworks show together. Angie started a "claim it" game when seeing which fireworks she liked, so as the fireworks went off you'd hear people say "I like that-claim it!" It was funny.

To end my weekend I am went to lunch at C & O Cucina with my friends Colleen and Liz. We were going to go to C & O Trattoria but the traffic was ridiculous! C & O has these delicious garlic knots that are addictive!

Happy Birthday America!

Smashbox Master Class

Friday night I went over to Nicole's to hang out with her and our friend, Jenn. Jenn and Nicole made a wonderful dinner. We ate it while watching "Gran Turino". I was skeptical about this movie, but although it has a lot of derogatory language the message was a good one--stay connected to people and sacrifice for friends/violence isn't the answer, but protecting yourself and those around you is important.

Saturday morning Nicole had organized an outing to Nordstrom, to a Smashbox Master Class. For those that might have never heard of it (I sure hadn't), Smashbox is a make-up brand started up by Max Factor's grandsons. This brand is used in 80% of the magazine photos. There were 7 of us, so we dominated the class. They taught us how to put their product on and gave us several tricks of the trade. I have never really used brushes when putting on makeup so that is really what I learned.

Jenn was used as the guinea pig, I mean model. ;-)
Chris and Angie after their foundation application.

Here is Dyanelle and I. Dyanelle only needed a tinted moisterizer and her skin looked flawless! She was able to do a lot more fun stuff on her eyes. I admit, I was jealous! This is before our eye make-up, lipstick, etc. was put on.

Here is Jenn in the final product with the makeup artist/instructor.

After putting everything on, I was kind of disappointed. I looked worse than when I do my own make-up with out brushes or expensive make-up. Besides the way the make-up artist did my eyes was almost exactly what I do. Well, I tried to take consolation in the fact that I guess I've been doing it correctly all these years, but I was still looking at myself and was not satisfied. I have to admit that I am apprehensive about using bronzers and blush because I tend to blush on my own, but one of the make-up artists convinced me to let her put it on me, and it made all the difference!

Unfortunately for my wallet that meant I bought out the entire counter. The brushes are what makes it expensive but they said those last 10 years, so I keep reminding myself of that! It was a fun class, though. We all had a lot of fun!

Here is Nicole and Lisa. Nicole fell in love with the "Rolls Royce" brush that is used to apply the cream to powder foundation. She was making love to that thing it was so soft! You can't tell because this picture is mid-application, but all these ladies looked gorgeous when we were done!

Dad's Birthday Lunch and Goodbye Dinner

Wednesday night I was feeling feverish and decided that if I was too tired the next day I would call in sick. Well, it took me 10 minutes to even wake up from my alarm, so I called in to one of my bosses, Reid. According to my staff the next day, Reid was claiming that I was on death's door!

I slept in 3 hours and was unfortunately awoken by opera singing! Apparently the guy who squirts off our walkways sings it--who would've known! I woke up and make several calls to work to straighten out an issue I was supposed to address that day. Then I got a call from my brother-in-law and it reminded me that they (his family) were going to take my dad out to lunch for his birthday. I decided that I was awake enough to go, although I was dragging myself, I can tell you!

All of the kids were dressed in their matching outfits, courtesy of Aunt Betsie (Brian's aunt). They were adorable! We had lunch at Szechwan, a chinese restaurant close by. Lunch was delicious and my dad seemed to enjoy the food. :-) I offered to drive my dad home so Erika and Brian could put the kids down for their nap. I drove my dad home and then drove straight back to my place--I fell into bed I was so tired! I don't remember even thinking as my head hit the pillow.

I slept for another 2 hours. I tried to log into my work email but my connection was cranky so I just rested before heading out again to Palos Verdes for the last dinner with my sister and her family before they headed back to Colorado Springs. We had a good time!


Lauren and Rebecca got a kick out of trying on and walking in my shoes:

Sebastian also got into wearing adult shoes by trying on his daddy's tennis shoes. I took a video but it wouldn't post.


Rebecca was in a silly mood too:



I'm going to miss them all!

Father's Day Lunch

This afternoon I took my dad to lunch for Father's Day. Originally my sister, Erika was going to come, but she came down with whatever I've had this last week (cold/cough/flu/massive headache combination--not fun). My dad and I went to Denny's. My dad had a T-bone steak and he ate every little bit of it. No one can accuse him of being a vegetarian! I had chopped steak with mushrooms and onions. The side salad was yummy!

It was nice to spend time with my dad. He wanted me to stay to watch "Starship Troopers" but I had to ask for a raincheck because my laundry was beckoning me. In fact, I'm waiting for it to finish being washed so I can put it in the dryers.

Steip Kids Sleepover

This past Friday, my 2 nieces and one nephew, came over for a sleepover without mommy or daddy. They were all very excited about it! Here they are sitting down at a "carpet picnic".

We had pizza and watched a horse movie starring Russell Crowe (who would have thought) and then watched the animated "Robots" movie. Lauren loves horses, but this movie kind of dragged on, so she agreed to watch the Robots movie as long as we finished the other movie the next morning.

While I was at the store getting stuff for the sleepover, I was so excited to see that they still sold Jiffy Pop! When I was a kid, when we stayed over my sister Andrea's for a weekend, she would make Jiffy Pop and we thought it was the coolest thing!

Of course, with the dawn of microwave popcorn, the kids were less than excited, saying "Oh...we always have microwave popcorn." Well, I thought it was cool anyway! They were much more excited when I brought out the Orea cookies for dessert. :-)
After the movie, the kids wanted to dig through my toy bin and pick a stuffed animal to sleep with. Also in the bin are dress up things. Here is Rebecca wearing a blue sparkly scarf while she brushed her teeth.

The next morning we woke up and watched the rest of the horse movie and the rest of Robots after eating a sugary breakfast of Cookie Crisp. Yes, I spoiled them with sugary treats. I had them pack the rest of it in their backpacks so I wouldn't eat the rest!

All in all, we had a fun time!

Knott's Berry Farm

Sunday morning, Erika and the kids picked me up to go to Knott's Berry Farm! The drive didn't take too long and the long wasn't long at all. I love Knott's!

Rebecca on the Red Baron ride.

Erika with the kids.

Here I am with the girls on the Ferris Wheel. This is when I realized how much I do not like Ferris Wheels! I can take the super-fast rollercoasters, but hanging in a basket waiting up 30 feet in the air while they load and reload. Yikes! As Rebecca said "I'm gonna freak out!"

Here we are eating dinner at the Ghostown Grill in Knott's. The kids got Snoopy ice cream for dessert!
We had a great day, but we were exhausted!

B.A.S.I.C. Game Night

After hanging out with Erika and the kids, I drove to King's Harbor for Saturday night service. The book of John is pretty powerful and Chris's message really spoke to me.

After the service, we had our first official B.A.S.I.C. (Brothers and Sisters in Christ) game night. It was held at Nicole and Lisa's.

Lisa's planning her winning move:
Everyone had a great time playing Apples to Apples (from left to right: Lisa, Gretchen, Nicole and Rebecca):
Gretchen and Gretchen Detjen:

Stephanie draws a banana clip for the I Love the 80s game:


Bryan, Roger and I rocked on that game!