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!