Baxter's big top adventure

Here is a pic of Baxter at the airport. He flew with me to Seattle.
Did great on the flight and was a hit with everyone. If any single
guys want to borrow him it is a way easy way to pick up chicks. I am
married so I don't get to reap the benefits of Baxter's lore

Lovely Lupus

So today my Grandma took me out to lunch with one of her friends who has Lupus as well to tell me what it's been like for her to live the last 10 years with the disease....and it really made me think this afternoon how grateful I am for all of the support and love I have received the last nine months of treatment.  First to Russ--who puts up with all of my complaining and side-effects and loves me no matter if I gain weight.  And to my mom--who comes to all of my doctors appointments with me, is always sending me emails and updates about things she hears.  And to Cathy (my other mom), who calls all of the time to see how the latest doctors appointment went, and how I'm doing. And to my grandma, who is always worried about me being in the sun for too long.  And to all of my family and friends who have shown genuine concern and love for me.  I have kinda been in denial during the whole thing--and have brushed it off and tried not to let it become too much of my life, but it's been amazing to have the love and support from those around me.  I just want to say THANK YOU to all of you!!!!  I love you!!!!

30 cupcakes for a lucky 30 year old

Okay, So 30 cupcakes for one lucky 30 year old.... who is my cousin Jared. To help him celebrate his 30th birthday in style, Betsy and Lisa organized a cupcake tasting competition... and it was honestly the coolest thing I have ever seen done for someone's birthday. Betsy, Lisa, and I hit all of the cupcake stores in Orange County, including Sprinkles, Wonderland, Sweet Loraines, Bristol Farms, Black Forest Bakery, and French's Bakery. We got the same flavors from each of the places and then a couple of the "special flavors" as well. Jared then took his time sampling and rating each of the 30 cupcakes.... and the final verdict... guess who has the best cupcakes? Scroll down to the bottom of this post for the answer.

The 30th cupcake---yummy!

All 30 cupcakes together... don't they look amazing?

The scoring sheet.... this is where the true numbers came out.

Jeff & Lisa who hosted an amazing dinner for us first followed by the testing.

Don't you want a taste?

Sarah Bell in love with the frosting... I think she ended up eating three of these!

The red velvet line up.

Jared with his birthday signs! The house was decorated with streamers to celebrate the special occasion.

Another line up.... don't they just look scrumptious?
Jared when the cupcakes first came out... look how surprised he is!  Did I mention that the planning was top secret?  He thought he was just coming over for dinner..... lucky guy.
The aftermath... after Jared tried each one, we would try each one... and look at the mess we left... we could barely eat half of each cupcake...they were all so good!
Jared's not so sure about this lemon one.... I don't think it got a very high vote.
Debbie & Russ... it was like being an adult in a candy store with all of these cupcakes.... we were SO SO SO EXCITED at first and then by the end... we were  SO SO SO sick! !   
Russ fell asleep in a sugar daze... while we all chatted away.

And for the final answer.... it was BRISTOL FARMS that had the best cupcakes. They won the oreo cookie, german chocolate, raspberry, and white chocolate flavors, easily putting them over Sweet Lorraines and Sprinkles.... The best red velvet cupcake--that would be Sprinkles. And Sweet Lorraines won the best over all cupcake--their candy apple flavor--which one for the cake texture and flavor, icing texture and flavor, design, and originality--it definitely took the cake.

Five Year Anniversary

Can you believe it? Russ and I have officially been married for FIVE YEARS!!!!!!!!!! It seems like we've been married for such a short time, but again it seems like we've never been apart! Russ surprised me with reservations at the Ritz Carlton in Laguna Beach/Dana Point. We started off with crab cake appetizers, and I had the salmon while Russ had a steak. We finished with creme brule for dessert. We then went and walked around the grounds and ended up sitting in these comfy chairs looking at the ocean in the dark for a few hours as we reminisced on the past five years. It was a fantastic night worthy of a five year celebration. Thanks again honey!

Five year anniversay.

Orange County Fair

A couple of weeks ago (sorry, it's taken me forever to find the time to update the blog! And the fair has since closed) we went to the Orange County Fair with Lisa & Jeff (cousins) and their three children Gavin, Rachel, and Sarah, and with Jared (cousin) and Betsy (friend). Russ had met the person who runs the fair in his shop and the guy gave us free ride tickets (and Russ and I got in for free). We had a fun night playing games, shopping in the booths, watching the crazy show where hte people balance on nothing, ate the worlds largest hot dog--it seriously was like 5 pounds, yummy kettle corn and Jared & Betsy ate one of the famous Krispy Creme Chicken Sandwiches. Yes, you heard me right...it's a Jelly filled Krispy Creme, cut in half with a chicken patty in the middle... gross? I would thinks so, but Jared and Betsy loved it! We had a great time! CHeck out the pictures!

Jeff & Rachel catching a fish--which won a stuffed dolphin!

Gavin won a spiderman...and boy was he excited! All he had to do was throw a dart and pop a balloon...and he did it! Lisa's a proud parent!

Debbie & Russ in front of the ferris wheel

The lighting ride--poor russ had bruises afterward from being crushed to the side. I couldn't stop laughing...I thought I was going to pee my pants.

This ride was a little tight for Russ...hopefully it didn't cause too much damage.

Lisa & Sarah

Russ with his funnel cake

Debbie & Betsy with kettle corn

Jared & Betsy eating the infamous Krispy Creme Chicken Sandwich

In front of the small ferris wheel

The rest of Abby's baptism pictures...

So I was going to post these, but for some reason blogger.com wasn't letting me do it. Here are some more pictures of the baptism that I originally posted on August 12.

Debinchi

So I go and get debbie this really nice painting set with brushes,
paints, pencils, and pastels. It has a whole easel so you can place
the painting and paint. And this is what she came up with. I think it
is beautiful but there may be some critics that would say she has a
long road ahead of her or at least a few painting classes at the
community college. ........ Actually the canvas was from a garage sale
and she wanted to test it out. I will keep you updated on what she
paints for real.

Say hello to my little friend

Say hello to my little friend

This is probably the first reason on debbies list why I can't get a
gun. So we went to shooting range today and had open access to any gun
we wanted since one of my customers owns the shooting range. We fired
a bunch but the .50 cal was my favorite
You better think twice before messing with me. I am going to get one
of these for my store and see if anyone is going to ask for discounts
anymore. Russ

Abigail's Baby Baptism

On Saturday, we had the pleasure to go and see little Abigail Braun baptized. It was our first catholic baptism so we learned a lot. I was surprised that Russ knew exactly what to say and when to say it. :) He says he's has a lot of catholic friends :). Anyway, it was a beautiful ceremony...and the luncheon afterwards was amazing. Russ was a little sad that there wasn't any kabobs (last time we went to a Grove-Braun party, they had kabobs and everyone at the party remembered Russ because he ate so many...ah, I can't take him anywhere!), but the sandwiches, salads, and shrimp cocktail were to die for! Here are a couple of pictures...

Tip for Angels game Friday night fireworks

Oh... quick tip for any of you Angels fans. If you go to one of their home Friday night games, they always have this cool firework show afterwards. We found the secret to the firework show! :) If you go to section 257, there is this exit ramp behind the stadium (right behind the Ruby's)... head towards it and go back behind a bit--don't worry, you won't have to exit... just stand there and wait for the show to start. It's absolutely amazing... you get to see the fireworks shoot off from right there and you get to see a whole bunch of lower fireworks that the people in the stadium don't get to see because their too low... after they're done, you can just head back the way you came in and then exit wherever you want. Anyway, tip of the day for you! :)

Angels vs. Yankees

This Friday we went to the Angels vs. Yankees game with Casey and Robbie. Casey got us awesome seats on the second floor in the back. We even had a home-run ball fall right next to us--which was way exciting! If it was just a little closer--maybe one of us would have caught it! The Angels won 10-5...and Robbie was bummed, but hey...the Angels have wings...what can I say? Here are some pics I snapped with my iPhone.

More pictures! :)

Russ' New Baby

So this weekend Russ finally got his DREAM CAR! A Lancer Evolution with a whole bunch of turbo things that make it extremely fast. (He will definitely have to write a post later to let you know what is on it--because I'm not really good at all of the car lingo stuff.) I wanted to get some pictures up. The first few are of him signing the papers and on Sunday we went for a drive and decided to trespass on the abandoned El Toro Marine base to get some sweet shots before the Irvine Police had to come and ask us to leave.

Jared and Jared

So Jared came over and hung out with this weekend... Thursday the fair, Friday test driving with Russ, dinner, and Mario Party, Saturday garage sales. We had a great time. We took this awesome pic of Jared with "Subway Jared." Doesn't it totally look real?

Book Count Down!

So I got the notice yesterday from Amazon.com and today from Borders.com for The Tales of Beedle the Bard and I am excited! I can't wait for the new JK Rowling book to come out... and Valerie and I planned our Hawaii vacation around the new Breaking Dawn book by Stephanie Meyers...

Are any of you as excited as I am? I love books!

The Tales of Beedle the Bard by J.K. Rowling

My review

I CAN'T WAIT! I HEART JK ROWLING!


View all my reviews.

Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer

My review

I can't wait! Valerie-you better NOT READ THIS before our trip!


View all my reviews.