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!

Renaissance Faire and Scrapbooking

Saturday was busy! I drove over to Palos Verdes to meet Erika and the kids to go to a local Renaissance Faire in the area. We took the kids there and they seemed to enjoy themsleves.

There were various booths set up and we visited most of them. The kids all wanted to spend some of their money on a book at the book table.


I was enamored by the Renee Vintage Design table--she is a jewelry maker. I ended up getting two rings.

Every hour the queen walked through the courtyard and again sat down in her area.



The kids were excited about getting cotton candy (especially Rebecca):

Sebastian asked if he could say hello to the queen. This was a big deal because she was quite intimidating for the kids. As a reward for his bravery, he was given a piece of gum (his first one!). Of course, it was the cheap bubble gum for after a few minutes he said "This gum is yucky!"

Later, Rebecca decided she wanted to talk with the queen. Erika showed her how to courtsy before she went up to her.

At the end, the kids did a craft of decorating a paper frame matte with puffy foam stickers.

After the faire, we went back home, had lunch and then Erika and I did a little bit of scrapbooking!

Melting Pot Birthday Celebration

From left to right: Gretchen, Deanne, Colleen and Tania

From left to right: Tania, Angie, me, and Ruby

Friday, June 12th I met up with some friends at the new Torrance restaurant, The Melting Pot, to celebrate Tania's birthday. The Melting Pot is a fondue restaurant with 4 course meals in the fondue cooking method.

Our water's name was Andrew, but everyone started calling him Toby because in person (not so much in the pictures) he looks like Toby Macguire. He was a really good waiter/chef (since he mixed our broths and cheeses for us).

It was very dark in the restaurant: Tania had a difficult time reading the cards she received (as well as the menu).

The four courses were: salad, appetizer, entree and dessert. There were so many options for dipping in chocolate. Tania got a candle in a cheesecake and we sang "Happy Birthday" to her. We all had a fun time at this new dining experience!


Happy Birthday, Tania!

Rebecca's 5th Birthday Party

Monday evening was the celebration of my niece, Rebecca's, 5th birthday. I "had" to leave work at 5pm sharp (boohoo) in order to have time to pick up my dad in Wilmington and then pick up the Chinese food order in town before heading up to Palos Verdes by 6pm.

The kids were excited for the party because they were able to wear their dress up clothes.

Erika had also put Rebecca's hair up to make it look like Tinkerbell's since it was a Tinkerbell-themed party.
Each guest got a Tinkerbell pencil and the girls got a Tinkerbell head piece to wear (although Andy was sporting one for awhile!) Unfortunately it didn't last long on Kaylen's head:

After a delicious dinner, we all moved into the living room so that Rebecca could open her presents. I got her a Tinkerbell outfit she could wear and a Tinkerbell doll.

Birthday singing and a very delicious chocolate cake with white frosting! But beforehand, Rebecca had to practice blowing out the candles.

After cake we watched the Tinkerbell movie, which was cute. We had a fun time!

Better luck next time

Just a quick update...Marshall and I broke up on Tuesday. The timing wasn't right. Back to the drawing board...I'll continue to pray for God's will in this area of my life. :-)

Sleepover

The Friday before my birthday I invited Erika and her kids for a sleepover at my apartment. I ordered pizza and salad for dinner and we watched the movie "Robots" (yes, it's animated!).

After the movie, the kids got ready for bed while Erika blew up their Sesame Street and Disney Princess air mattresses.

Here are Rebecca and Sebastian goofing off while waiting to brush their teeth:
The next morning I fed the kids breakfast and then left them for an hour and a half to go to my (much needed) deep tissue massage and chiropractor appointment. I had a really sore upper back because my muscles were all tweaked. On the way home from my appointment, in true singles fashion, I picked up lunch for all of us at Taco Bell. :-)


After lunch we went swimming!

Lauren is a swimming champion! She was showing me all of her practice maneuvers (which I admit some of them scared me)!

Sebastian is such a sweetheart!
Rebecca is such a (cute) ham!

35th Birthday Dinner

Yes, I can't deny it: I'm no longer a girl, but a woman. At 35, I can not deny that "woman" is how I will be described until it finally changes to "weird old lady", but that shouldn't be for another 20 to 30 years.

I was happy to sleep in on my birthday. I woke up and went to Jamba Juice for my favorite blueberry and blackberry steel cut oatmeal. After breakfast I walked to Hermosa Beach and got my exercise walking on the strand and every half mile or so I did 10 lunges on each leg. I felt good, but when I was showering I realized I would be spending the rest of my birthday alone doing errands! I called my sister Erika, who is visiting California this month, so that I could hang out with her (while doing the laundry that I had to do!) and her family. It was nice because I was able open the gift from Erika's kids with them to witness it.

The kids got me a beautiful heart shaped necklace:
While I was there, I brought a gift that my friend, Elan (the one who just got married) had given me the night before her wedding. I was really amazed that she got me a gift while she was planning her wedding! I was even more amazed when I opened it up: Elan had put together an album of our November 2001 trip to Paris! She had saved the email I had sent out after our trip describing each day and pasted each day's description on the left side of an album page and the right side had ticket stubs, pictures and museum pamphlets in them relating to the day I was describing! The time it must have taken her to do this! In addition to that, Elan was the first person to text me on my birthday. She is such a sweet person and a great friend.

Reading the album really took me back in time!

I planned a dinner with friends at Cheesecake Factory at 6pm. I was very happy to have Erika be able to come, even though she spent the whole time telling embarrassing stories about me to my friends. That's why I love her, I guess! Haha.

All of my close friends came to my birthday dinner and we all had a great time!

Above from left to right: Nicole, Jenn, Robyn and me
Angie and Chris got the most "benefit" from Erika's stories! Below: Lisa and Nicole

Here is everyone except Lisa (she's behind the camera):
From left to right: Me, Marshall, Erika, Nicole, Jenn, Bryan, Angie, Chris, Tania, Deanne and Colleen.

Thanks everyone for a great birthday dinner!

Boston Trip - Dennis and Elan's Wedding

The wedding day had arrived! Elan, Phoebe (Elan's mother) and I met up with Dennis's mother at Cassandra's Spa for hair and makeup. Sparing everyone the "before" pictures, here is the finished product:

We got to the church about a half hour after we were done and changed immediately. The church was warmer than I would have expected, most likely because it was a warm day and the front doors were open. It was a beautiful day for a wedding!

Because I was the one who observed how to put on the front veil, I got the honor:

Elan was such a beautiful bride--she took Dennis's breath away as she was walking down the aisle!

Elan and Dennis with the flower girls, ring bearer and bell ringer:
The beautiful bride:

Elan and Dennis with Elan's parents:

Elan and Dennis with Dennis's parents:

After the ceremony and reception, Tracy wanted to go to Kimball's Farm, which has an ice cream stand. We ended up running into John and Tyler (groomsman and best man) and Dennis's friends and his parents!

Boston Trip - Rehearsal and Rehearsal Dinner

Friday night was the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner.

Elan is the most prepared bride I have ever known (and I've been in about 8 weddings). Here she is showing off her 12-page itinerary for the wedding festivities:

Here are Christy (left) and Tracy (right) waiting to make their entrances:

Practicing holding hands:

The rehearsal dinner was at Papa-razzi's. We had the upper room and a really nice buffet was served.

So that I can be in at least one picture, Tracy took this picture of me with John, one of the groomsmen. He is originally from California so we chatted about that most of the time.

I went back with Elan to her parent's house so that we could leave together in the morning.

Boston Trip -- Pampering

Thursday of my trip, Christy, Tracy and I went out with Elan, the bride for dinner and a few hours of pampering!

We went to Figs for dinner and had delicious salads and pizza.

Elan gave us the jewelry we were going to wear at the wedding. We presented Elan with a bridal survival kit:

After dinner, we walked a block or two down Charles Street to Tiffanies Nails for manicures and pedicures.

Christy, the matron of honor, and Elan, the bride, sit back and relax:

Here we all are drying our anils!

We had such a fun time spending time together getting pretty!

Boston Trip--Bowling Night

From New Jersey I flew to Boston to see friends and to be in Elan and Dennis's wedding.

Wednesday night I planned an event with some friends to play candle pin bowling at Sacco's Bowling Haven. Before meeting everyone, my old roommate and friend, Jamie, was able to come to Davis Square (our old stomping grounds) to hang out with me at Starbucks. After a couple of hours her husband, Kev, joined us and helped me get Anna's Taquiria for everyone at the bowling event.

Anna's Taquiria holds a near and dear place in my heart! I definitely got my fix because we had some left overs so I had it almost every day I was in Boston--Yum! For those of you who have not had Anna's, it's like Chipotle, but much better!

Candlepin bowling is quite challenging! It's like regular bowling except the pins are straigh up and down and the ball that you use is much smaller--approximately the size of a bocci ball. Jamie and Kev won a game each, but none of our scores were all that great!

Here's Melissa giving it a try:

Jamie had the highest score of 54. My highest was no where near it at 38!

"What gives?"

Here is Kev keeping score (most likely padding his numbers!!! ;-)

After bowling, Amanda and Dan Morton invited us all to their house in Arlington. Jamie and Kev had to drive back to New Hampshire, but Seona, Melissa and I were able to come. It had been a long time since we've seen our old friends so it was nice to catch up!

New Jersey Trip Day 3

My third full day in New Jersey was a nice, relaxing day. The Ng family and I went to the Liberty Science Center, which is located across the water from New York City. It is a nice view.


Ginny and I watched a 3-D movie on IMAX about dinosaurs. It was pretty scary but very interesting. While we did that, Hock and Grace looked at all of the science exhibits.

After the movie was over, Ginny and I joined them to play:
After the science center we drove to see the NY City skyline before heading to Chili's for dinner. Chili's is located next to Barnes and Noble, so we spent some time there. Here is Ginny reading to Grace:
It was a nice end to my time there. The next morning I flew to Boston. I had a great time visiting my old friends and getting to know Grace. I am now officially "Aunt Alexis" to her! :-)

New Jersey Trip Day 2

The following day I went to Millington Baptist Church with Ginny, Hock and Grace. After the service we drove to Philadelphia to see the Liberty Bell.

After the Liberty Bell, or "cracked bell" as Grace called it, we got on a Duck Tour to see the rest of Philly.
We were each given a "quacker", but Hock got Grace a special pink quacker to support Breast Cancer Research:

Here's Ginny and Grace quacking towards Hock:

Hock and Grace give it a try:

The Duck Tour went into the Delaware River. The captain went in fast so Ginny and I were soaked!

After the Duck Tour we decided to walk the streets of Philadelphia in search of Elfreth's Alley, the oldest residential neighborhood. It was close to dinnertime so we went to Johnny Rockets for dinner. I didn't realize that at some locations the wait straff entertains the customers with a dance!

Here is Elfreth's Alley:

We drove through during dinner time. We know that because the streets are so narrow that we looked to our left and witnessed a family having dinner together. They said hello as we drove by!
We drove back in pouring rain, but I liked it! It's nice to experience weather once and awhile!

New Jersey Trip Day 1

I am finally finding time to blog about my trip to New Jersey! I flew into Newark on Friday, May 22nd to spend several days with my good friends, Ginny and Hock Ng. I met both Ginny and Hock in our bible study through Park Street Cafe back in 1998/99. I connected with Ginny so easily because she is such a great listener and a sweet disposition. Later on she became one of my roommates (along with Jamie) and we lived together for the year prior to her marrying Hock and moving to New Jersey.

Ginny and Hock have a 4 year old daughter, Grace, who is a sweetheart and a big ball of energy!

The first day I was there we went to the Jersey shore. Here are Ginny and Grace getting ready just in case it was warm enough to go on the beach.

Unfortunately it was too cold, but it surprised me to realize that you have to pay to get on the beach in NJ! I don't think Californians would have any of that!

The Jersey Shore has a ton of fun rides for the kids (and adults!) to go on. Here we are on the Crazy Bus!

Grace has a fun time on the motorcycle ride!
Hock and Grace went on this ride together. Hock cheered with glee as it went up and down!

Here is the Ng family by the shore:

Here are Ginny and I at the Jersey shore:


After going on some rides and walking on the boardwalk, we drove to Orange Grove for dinner at Zogler's Apathocary Cafe. Before dinner, however, we walked around the town and Ginny and Hock pointed out the tent houses that exist there. Yes, there are houses that are covered in tents for living in during the summer!
We had a wonderful day!