I'm almost OLD!

Tonight I had my first birthday dessert. Most every Tuesday night I have dinner wtih my "Stand-In Parents" Tom and Judi. Since my family all moved away, on Tuesday nights I'm their daughter and we go to dinner together. They are very sweet! :) So we went to Vince's and had a super yummy time! Since we've been going there for years and years and years (as long as I've been alive), they know us there. Our waitress, Julie, came over and chatted with us for a bit. As we were all discussing what I should do on my birthday, Saturday, to celebrate the big 3-0, Julie and another waitress, Gina, brought over my birthday dessert and sang Happy Birthday to me. How sweet are they! :) So I had some yummy vanilla ice cream and we had fun taking some pictures. I was very entertained watching Tom and Judi try to figure out how to send my mom a picture of me with my ice cream and candle with their cell phones...pure comedy! So I'm one day closer to old age...one day less in my twenties :( Today is my last Tuesday in my twenties...yea, I've been doing that with everything. I'm looking forward to a new chapter in life, but a little depressed that I keep getting older and I still haven't gotten to the most exciting chapter...a family. Hopefully that will come with the big birthday! :) Wish me luck...better yet,
PRAY I FIND A MAN IN MY THIRTIES!! :)
(um, it wouldn't hurt to mention early thirties in your prayers...heehee)
My grandparents are very faithful pray-ers...they pray I'll find a husband everyday! They even mentioned it in my birthday card this year....they're awesome! Thanks G&G Vasquez for my 30 big ones!! :)

I'll be his Desperate Housewife! haha :)

Wow, so this was a great weekend! Let me start from the beginning...

NIGHT OUT WITH "HOOP-DOG"
Friday night I went out with my old buddy from college, Mark (sometimes I like to call him "Hoop-Dog" because his last name is Hooper). I haven't seen him in many months, so it was great to finally reconnect and catch up. We drove out to Victoria Gardens and had a nice dinner at CPK (California Pizza Kitchen). After we each ate ALL our food (yummy pizzas) we walked around the outdoor mall and caught a live act out in one of the courtyards. There was this band playing, and they weren't all that great. So we stayed for a short time, just enough to have our picture taken, and then headed out. We went back to my house and sat around for a little while chatting, and then he headed home. Mark is such a great guy...I've known him for about 12 years now, and I hope that he will always be in my life. It was so nice to hang out with him again...Love you Mark! :)

TINA TANG
So Saturday was so awesome! Earlier in the day, Carissa and I went to a jewelry party out in Santa Monica where this artist, Tina Tang, displayed her jewelry in this super cute backhouse and you could walk through and shop. Unfortunately it was all a little pricey, so I didn't buy anything...but I did get a free necklace for going! So that was cool.

BAND FROM TV
"Lost" meets "Heroes," crossed with "Desperate Housewives," a little reality TV and a fiddle -- what's not to love?
After the jewelry party, we drove out to Griffith Park in LA to a park next to the Autry National Center where Netflix was putting on a free show to see this band called "Band From TV". Greg Grunberg had a brilliant idea and got a bunch of actors together and started this charity cover band. They played lots of familiar songs, and looked like they had a TON of fun doing it! Anyway, I got to meet some famous people, it was GREAT! :) The show was really good, but I think I was most excited about meeting the actors! Yea, I'm weird like that!
Me with James Denton the Plumber from Desperate Housewives...LOVE HIM! :)

James played the guitar and sang...and was smokin hot out there!!!

Bob Guiney, from "The Bachelor" and "Date My House"...and Greg Grunberg, from "Alias" and "Heroes" were the MC's.


Jorge Garcia from "Lost" made an appearance on vocals a few times

and Hugh Laurie from "House" jammed on the keyboards

Teri Hatcher from "Desperate Housewives" sang three songs and did great!...

and Hayden Panettiere from "Heroes" got the crowd pumped when the show started, and also sang a little in the first song

Jesse Spencer from "House" played the electric violin

and Adrien Pasdar from "Heroes" was on guitar

Zack Levi "Chuck" sang a few songs with "The Bachelor" Bob Guiney
I had a great time at the show with Carissa...I hope she did too, although I left her a few times to go take pics of the band :) She's not as into meeting famous people as I am. I was SOOO EXCITED!

OLYMPICS
Sunday I actually got up on time and made it to church! :) After church I had lunch at my favorite mexican place "Tony's" in Chino and then headed home. I caught up on a couple of my Netflix movies and then spent the rest of the day watching the Olympics. Aren't these athletes just so talented!! I love watching swimming, diving, and gymnastics, although I was a bit disappointed in the USA girl's gymnastics last night...they didn't do all that great. But at least they got good enough scores to make it into the finals!

Beach Beauty

"My Goal, to be a Beach Beauty like My Aunt in Huntington Beach"
(I wish I still lived in HB!)
So I was in Huntington Beach when I found out my sister was in labor with my new little niece (I finally have a niece after 5 nephews!!). So I ran down to the local tourist shop and bought her a cute little shirt. Isn't she just so cute!! :) I can't wait to meet her, hopefully I can fly out to Mississippi soon and see her in person! Little Hailey Jo
She is just so precious! I love you!!

PS...Thanks Jenny for posting a new blog! :) Miss you sis!

A few more encounters...

This one is for my nephews....

So I have had a few more encounters with that terribly ugly possum! A couple nights ago it was in my backyard again. The neighbor's dogs behind my house were going crazy barking, and you could hear all sorts of scuffling in the bushes. So I got out the BB gun and peered through the window...and what do you know, the possum came running out of the bushes onto my lawn. So I got the flashlight, and turned the safety off the gun, and went out the door. I walked up to the possum (well, not too close) and flashed the light on it and shot three times. In the meantime, my neighbor turned off his lights, so I'm assuming he did that so he could watch what I was doing. Great, so now I have an audience! I'm sure I looked real great out there in my wife-beater and boxers! Oh well. Anyway, I swear I hit the possum with the BB's but all it did was stare me down! I realized that the BB gun just won't cut it for the death of this thing, and so I headed back in the house. It didn't even scare it this time! :( Anyway, it keeps lurking around my backyard every night and then last night decided to come up on my front porch and look through the screen door at us! How dare that little sucker! It has no fear now, that's not good at all! I think I need a real gun to kill that thing, cuz the BB gun just isn't cut'n it. Is there a manly man out there who would like to come and kill the big rat for me? You'll be my hero!!! :)

To my redneck nephews (haha, jk) - Jake, Zack, Ben & Sam:
I'll be sure to take a picture of the possum for you....once its dead! :)
I love you boys so much and miss you bunches! I want to see some pictures of you guys playing on your acres of land out there in Mississippi!
Come visit Auntie Jo soon, ok? :)
BIG HUGS & KISSES!!!
I love you!!!how cute are my little nephews!!! :)

Chuck E Cheese, Junk'n, Movies and More...

I had a great weekend spending time with my friends! It all started out on Saturday morning...

I slept in, which is unusal for me, and got a little bit of a late start. Late morning I met up with my friend Sarah and her two little girls at Chuck E Cheese in Costa Mesa. We played games for a few hours there and had so much fun! Little Joey and Abbey are so adorable! They were having a great time playing, but Abbey had the most fun just putting all her tokens in the machines! She was so cute...she didn't care about playing the game, she just loved the tokens! Sarah and I also had fun playing too...ski ball was our favorite, although we did enjoy the sketch booth where we took quite a few pictures and they came out as sketches. Fun times! So we hung out at Chuck's and had some lunch and played a little bit more. Then it was time to head on out to the fabulous thrift stores!I'm not sure why we are raising our hands here...we were just being silly
Sarah and I LOVE to go junk'n! We have our favorite thrift stores that we have to hit while she's in town (SaveMore is the best). We found so much stuff, it was great! The girls were having fun shopping too...they got lots of new clothes and some new toys! It was fun! Shopping lasted quite awhile, as we are serious shoppers and get our hands dirty digging! :) It was great! I'm in heaven when I'm thrifting! Anyway, after a few hours at the one store, we checked out and headed over to Sarah's mom's house where she's staying while out here on her visit. We put the girls to bed, chatted with her mom for a bit, and then headed back out. We got our favorite chili cheese fries at "Anita's", before heading out for more fun.After Anita's, we went across the street to the Goodwill and got a little crazy there! We had fun trying on sparkly dresses...heehee :)We finished off the night with a movie, "Swing Vote". It was good, but a little long. Well, it could be that we thought it was long after our LONG and TIRING day of shopping. But we had fun taking some more pictures :)On Sunday my plan was to get up and go to church...but again, I slept in. I'm not sure what's going on with me, I never sleep in. I had turned off my alarm clock in my sleep and woke up kinda late. So again, I wasn't out of the house until the afternoon. I met up with a couple girlfriends, Carissa and Kristy, at Victoria Gardens where we had lunch at Johnny Rockets, hung out at the library (they had to study and I read a magazine), and then we went to the movies and saw "Mamma Mia". Such a cute movie!! I've been wanting to see it for awhile, so I'm glad I was finally able to go :) I love musicals, and Meryl Streep is one of my favorite actresses! Anyway, my friend Kristy also gave me my birthday present...my birthday month has begun! :) She is so sweet, she got me a Paris journal, a London travel book and some little travel accessories that I will need on my 30th Birthday Trip to Europe (London and Paris)! I'm so excited for the trip, I can't wait! Thanks Kristy for my very thoughtful and sweet gift! I love you!! :)So it was a great weekend, but I'm tired now. Too bad the weekends aren't a little longer so I have some time to rest after all my fun outings! :)

Hang'n With Harper

Last night was so much fun! My good friend "Harper" (Sarah) is in town from Oregon for a few weeks and we finally got to spend some time together! We met up early in the evening, around 6ish, at The Goat Hill. There were some very friendly men there who showered us with attention...and we loved every minute of it! We hung out there for a few hours eating hot dogs, peanuts, and beef jerky. And we had a TON of fun taking some crazy pictures!

harper is so fun and crazy!We left that place after awhile and then decided we wanted to go play at Chuck E Cheese, however when we got there we realized we had lost track of time and they were closed. So we headed over to Main St. in Huntington Beach and went upstairs to Hurricanes - Sarah danced and I watched :) We were over that place pretty quick, so we went over to Sharkeez (I was on a man hunt). We were getting more attention...it was great! heehee! After our fun-filled evening out and about, we decided to call it a night. It was so much fun! I always have a great time with Harper...she's so awesome! I love you girly! Can't wait to spend some more time with you!!!and then it was time to sleep!!

I Want To Suck Your Blood....

Today I had to go get some blood drawn for some tests my doctor wanted to do. Getting blood drawn is torture for me. Its like my doctor is the vampire and I'm the innocent girl who is in pain having her blood sucked dry!

Anyway, so I take an early lunch, thinking that I will beat the crowd. Unfortunately, everyone else and their mother had the same idea! The place was PACKED! I signed in and took a seat. About 45 minutes later they finally called my name....to check in! I still had to wait another 20 minutes to be seen by the technician to have my blood taken. FINALLY they call me again and I take my seat in the dreadful chair. I put out both arms and kinda chuckle...the tech wants to know what's so funny. Oh, I just know how hard it is for you guys to find my veins, so I put out both arms and then accidentally let a chuckle out, outloud...not sure exactly why, maybe so I won't freak myself out waiting for the pain. She looked a little worried after that and so she checked out both my arms. Yep, she couldn't find any veins. She started pushing and slapping, moving my arm in all sorts of directions trying to see if the vein will pop out. Finally she thinks she found one. I asked for the butterfly needle just in case...its a smaller needle that allows them more flexibility to move the needle around once they break skin (since I know the first poke won't work). So she agrees and goes to find one. She comes back in and gets it ready and taps and pushes around some more to find the vein again. Ok, so she finds it again. She sticks the needle in, and what do you think happens? - the vein is no where to be found! She says I have veins that like to swim...you can feel them until you stick the needle in and then they swim away! My poor arm! She moves the needle around under the skin, poking around trying to find the vein inside my arm - AHHHH, it hurts! She gives up on that arm and decides to try the other one. Same thing on the other arm. She finds the vein, sticks me with the needle, and the vein swims away. She moves the needle around under the skin again trying to find the vein...as she's almost ready to give up she pokes in one more direction and vwalah! - she found it! She was able to fill one vile...which is good enough for me! Since they are only allowed to stick you twice in one visit (like a vampire's fangs!), that would have to do...she wouldn't be able to poke around anymore (thank God!). So now I'm slowly starting to bruise on both arms AND found out that I'm allergic to the surgical tape (I have a minor rash). What a terrible experience this was...at least I only have to do it twice a year!my poor arms match!in this picture the bruising hasn't really started yet (it will take a few days to fully bruise), but you can see my rash from the tape

Duck & Cover

"California is one of the world's most seismically active regions. More than 300 faults crisscross the state, which sits atop two of Earth's major tectonic plates, the Pacific and North American plates. About 10,000 quakes each year rattle Southern California alone, although most of them are too small to be felt."

Today we had a 5.4 earthquake and it was centered in Chino Hills, not far from where I work. We felt it BIG TIME at our office and it freaked me out! I did the whole duck & cover act creating the "Triangle of Life" next to my cubicle. I lived! :) Well, we all did...it wasn't life threatening. But hey, the lights hanging from the ceiling were swaying like a kid on a swing! I'm glad they didn't fall on me! Anyway, we had 27 aftershocks within one hour of the big quake! Come on...do we really need that many? Goodness! I just hope that this quake won't set off the other fault line (the San Andreas Fault - that my house backs up to) and cause the SUPER BIG one that we're due for!
So if having a 5.4 earthquake isn't bad enough, check out what happened to our postman today in our unfinished parking lot out in front of our office:he got stuck in a ditch! Poor guy! He had to switch vehicles to finish out his deliveries and then will have to have it towed later this evening. What a bummer for him! But why was he driving through there anyways? - that wasn't very smart of him at all!

Hopefully this day will get better, but most things come in 3's - so that's two...what's next? Oh dear, I shouldn't have asked!...