Monday, May 31, 2010

Happy Memorial Day!!

Happy Memorial Day Everyone!!

It is BOILING hot today here!! My dogs and I watched the parade in our town this morning and now tonight I am having some of these babies:

With this fabulous lady [aka my best friend and future sister in law!]
Can't wait!! :) Enjoy the holiday!


Thursday, May 27, 2010

9 Times I took a chance

I saw this on one of my favorite blogs, Makeup and Beauty Blog and decided I'd do it. Go check her list out! It's awesome! [and totally inspired me to make my own!]

9 Times I Took a Chance!


1. Getting Dogs!
Jose is the one that wanted a dog and I wasn't too sure - especially because we all ready had a cat and I didn't want him to feel unloved or anything. We got our first dog, Riddle, and he was the love of my life. Than we got a SECOND dog! As expensive as they are with food, medicine, toys [haha].... I love my dogs and am so happy we got them :)


2. Ending my Best-Friend Friendship
My best friend, Michele, and I were friends since our sophomore year of high school but over the last 2 years, I realized she had alot of issues within herself. When I moved in with Jose she was not at ALL happy for me and didnt visit my apartment until I was living there for 7 months! I was deeply upset by this and things only got worse from there. Eventually, when I held Jose's suprise party and she came in for 10 minutes than dissapeared for 2 hrs to only come back to say BYE! and leave - I decided I'd had enough. And I'm glad. She was a very unstable person, very emotional and dramatic. Anytime I talked to her, even through just text, I became so stressed. Now I feel so much better and I know I made the right decision.

3. Wearing a Dress
I NEVER wore a dress until 2008 - and now I'm obsessed with them! If it wasn't for this little 12.00 number I'm wearing below, I'd never realize how awesome dresses are!
4. Dying my hair RED
When Ashlee Simpson dyed her hair crazy red, I decided I wanted that to. And I LOVED it. Never got so many compliments in my LIFE from my hair. And Jose loved it! If it wasn't so high maintenance and totally fried my hair, I'd STILL be a red head! But not a natural one obviously :)



5. Gambling in Vegas

I don't like to gamble, at all really. And this Vegas trip I took with my girlfriends, I had just quit my job and had NO money to be taking a vacation. But I did. And I won $1, 511 from a PENNY SLOT MACHINE!
6. Taking Color Risks
I tend to gravitate towards things that are really bright colors - yellow sunglasses! blue nails! pink eyeliners! purple dresses! I am all about bright colors! But I wasn't always like this. Can't remember exactly when it happened but I am very rarely in neutral colors - I just like the POP! But all my friends are always wearing all black and I'm glad I try to pop :)
7. Flying on a Plane
Back in 2003, my cousins were getting married in Arizona. [I live in Jersey] My mom really wanted to go to their wedding but my sister and I swore we'd NEVER fly. Than I decided to suck it up and not let my mom go alone. It was the best decision I ever made! Now I LOVE flying! It's my favorite thing about vacations... I'm so glad I didnt let my fears hold me back. My sister on the other hand... not so much. She has flown since and hates it! lol
8. Moving in with Jose
We were dating for only a couple months [after we got back together] when he was talking about us moving in. I was scared... I didnt think my job was paying me enough at ALL to be living together. But when I quit my job and he got me a job that paid me almost TRIPLE what I made before, I took a leap of faith and moved in with him. And am so glad I did! We loved the FIRST apartment we saw and haven't looked back since! And that's a big leap considering the apartment USED to look like this...
9. Petting A Snake
I am DEATHLY afraid of snakes. It's a phobia really. I don't know why, I live in Jersey. It's not like snakes are chillin in my backyard. But not even a picture of a snake can I look at without crying and shaking. Than one day 4 years ago while I was ringing at CVS ... a customer walked in with a snake around his neck. I froze. I was going to have to ring this guy up with a snake right THERE. I told someone else to ring him up but when he stood there, I was frozen just staring at the snake. He told me "she doesn't bite. Wanna pet her?" And I knew it was my only chance to try and conquer this fear. It felt like slow motion... but I reached my hand out and touched the snake. I TOUCHED A SNAKE! It was weeiiirrrdd and terrifying, I couldn't stroke it lol just touch it! And when it was over I cried - cos Iwas so proud of myself! :) I still am afraid of snakes... but honestly, not as much as I used to be :)

And thats it! :)

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

My mom is the cutest!

My mom recently was in her first piano recital EVER!

It was so funny! She was the oldest person there, no one was over 16 except her but she did great! She has been taking piano lessons for a little over a year from her friend from work and is always so nervous playing in front of just me! So i was sooo proud of her playing in front of a whole room of people!
My sister and I could not stop laughing [thats how our family is, we all have great senses of humor and make fun of each other non stop] but I was also really happy for my mom! We got her flowers and took her out to her favorite restaurant so she loved it :)


And here she is with her "piano teacher" lol holding her certificate!
Way to go mama! Love Ya! :)


OOh and tomorrow if my mom's 50TH birthday so HAPPY BIRTHDAY MAMA!!




Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Top 2 Tuesday... Dates! Sushi, Cosmos and SATC - OH MY!

My Top 2 DATES Jose and I have been on are my favorite!! The first was sometime last year - we went to eat Sushi, had some great food, great conversation and took some great pictures!



The funniest is when we randomly decided to see who can jump the highest... Jose clearly won...
As I apparenly can not lift myself off the ground... and yes, here I am OFF the ground! lol



The second is my 22nd birthday... Jose totally planned my day out and we took the Sex and the City tour in NYC!! It was AMAZING!! We saw everything and I knew it ALL! lol We had Magnolia Bakery cupcakes for free [than went back and bought some for my birthday dinner that night], we went to Scouts [Steve & Aidens Bar] and had cosmos for free! Here we are sitting on Carries stoop...

Here I am having my cosmo... it was delicious!

And Jose got in on the fun and totally drank his. And Jose is a beer man! lol

Those are my 2 fabulous dates I had! :)

Monday, May 24, 2010

Feeling Lost :(

LOST is over... it's over....


I remember watching the pilot and being like what is this?? and now it's OVER! It was an amazing show, kept me captivated the entire time and the finale was seriously beautiful! I criiiieeeedd.... and cried.... it was a great ending to a great show!!

Any losties out there?? What you think?? Wasn't Jack at the bottom of the cave crying just one of the best moments? I don't think Jack EVER was that happy. Ugh amazing!!

Thursday, May 20, 2010

D.I.Y. Backyard Area!

During our staycation, Jose had ENOUGH with our crappy looking area that is ours [on our side of our duplex] in our backyard. Before it was always looking liks this:

Barely any grass... just a mess... so he decided to change it up! With the help of his mom he decided to put down a brick "barrier" [since our neighbors park in the back in the winter] and kind of show that this is our side :)

Than instead of looking at nasty looking grass, he decided to cover it with big and small pieces of gravel. For $3 a bag for big ones, $2 a bag for small ones - this cost us about $15!


Than we moved the grill down from our tiny little porch area we have, still in 2 $3 tiki torches from Home Depot and voila! Our tiny little backyard area is born


It took alll day to do... he started at 8 and we finished at around 6 o'clock at night. And Hitchcock pretty much sums up how we were the rest of the night

But at least we feel like we got something done in our staycation :) and we have been grilling non stop since! I'm so proud of him!

Monday, May 17, 2010

Tina goes Shopping :)

Sunday Jose, his brother and I went to the mall and I did some serious shopping :) Besides getting a TON of other stuff from Yankee Candle [I lose it there!] I am most happy with my Sun & Sand candle -- currently burning as I type :)


And I looooove this dress I bought from New York & Company... this picture doesn't do it justice. Its just gorgeous, cant wait to wear it!

I also got this exact shawl to wear with it incase I get chilly :)

OOh and I bought some sunglasses from one of those cheap stands in the mall but whatever! I'm happy with them!

Sunday, May 16, 2010

Getting to know you Sunday!

Got this goodie from For the Love of Stillettos :) not sure if she got it from somewhere else but I'm doing it too!

1. The most expensive thing hanging in your closet is.....?
My coach bags :)

2. Have you ever played a team sport?
Nope, not really a sports girl

3. If you were a bug, what kind would you be?
I'd be a butterfly! No one wants to kill butterflies :)

4. Where on your body is the worst place to be sunburned?
My butt... from tanning beds lol guilty as charged.

5. Are you happy?
Yes :) actually no.. I have to go to work tomorrow after being off for a week :(

6. People are always abbreviating... are there any abbreviations that make your skin crawl when people use them?
WTF? I HATE that... just say it... what the fuck?

7. Do you love where you live... or could you live anywhere?
I cant live anywhere, gotta be someplace warm. Since I live someplace where it snows, i don't love it here lol

8. What, if any, extreme measures do you go to to keep yourself from overeating when you're full?
I just stop myself lol cos im FULL

9. What is one thing you truly do just for you?
Hmm... I watch my guilty pleasure tv shows cos it makes me happy I dont care how horrible my fiance says they are!

10. Are you where you want to be in your life?
I could use a better job...

11. If you could be on an reality TV show, which would it be?
Hmm... maybe the Real world. No competing, you just live lol

12. What dream are you working on right now?
Planning my wedding :)

13. Ooh best book you have read lately?
I'm reading the Carrie Diaries - pretty good!

14. Most annoying habit of your mate? C'mon share... I'm sure they aren't looking.
Our dogs like to eat ice cubes and I cant STAND when he has ice cubes in his drink that puts it in his mouth and spits it out to the floor for the dogs to eat. so gross.

15. What is your favorite thing to do on your birthday?
Not work :) I take the day off... that is something I truly do for me!

16. What is the best idea for a Wedding gift?
Robes :) couples can always use nice soft comfy big robes to make a romantic night out more romantic when they get home :) and its on my registry!

17. What is one thing you look back on in your life and think "I can't believe I survived that."
My mom trying to kill herself because she was depressed and my dad was sick with altzheimers. we were losing one and almost lost our other parent. it was scary.

Thursday, May 13, 2010

The San Francisco Seagull

In 2006, my mom sister and I visited San Francisco. I am DYING to go back, I loved it.

But one thing I loved about San Francisco is this little seagull. I loved him. Here is with the bay behind him, we weren't in San Francisco here... we were actually in Sausalito - maybe the cutest town EVER!
And here we are in San Francisco [its foggy but Alcatraz is in the distance]
I knew it was him cos of some spots on his back wings. I couldn't believe it... it was kind of freaky lol


Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Staycation Day 1!

Jose & I decided we needed a vacation.. just from work. So we took a STAYCATION this week! We aren't going anywhere, just staying home relaxing... doing things we've been wanting to do. Really enjoying NOT working :)

Our staycation started on Mothers Day so we spent the whole day out with our dogs visiting our moms :) My mom has been learning to play piano so I got her a Beatles piano book and she LOVED it and jumped right on the piano to play it!


I love my mom, I honestly can't explain how much I love her. And she is helping us out soooo much for our wedding so we are both so thankful for her :) Here is me and my mommy
I dont look anything like her, I look like my dad lol but we are the same person! We also visited Jose's mom and here is a terrible picture they took together that day lol

At my moms, my sister had fun taking pictures with Lando. He is so lazy and loves nothing more than sprawling himself out on the floor so she joined him!

My aunt came over to my moms as well, with my two cousins. We were playing in the backyard. Here is Henry who had the time of his life playing with the dogs!


Julius on the other hand is more focused on learning baseball. And Jose LOVES baseball so he was more than happy to help in his teaching!


And we took pictures of us through our journey to our moms [they live about 40 minutes away from eachother so we were out ALLL Day]


All in all, it was a busy but nice first day of our staycation :)

Monday, May 10, 2010

Crumbs Bake Shop!

Yesterday during our visits to all the moms we know [more on that later] ... I had this for dessert:
Red Velvet Cupcake [also known as the flavor that will be in our wedding cake]

Sooooo good... HUUUGEEE .... Oh my god it was like 5 cupcakes in one. My future sister in law bought them from Crumbs Bake Shop and for all I know they did have smaller sizes but these were giganto cupcakes. And I ate the whole thing. Shame, shame.

Get your hands on one of these babies!

Thursday, May 6, 2010

Mayo Clinic Diet

Tomorrow Jose and I will be starting the Mayo Clinic Diet!


We came across this book at Barnes and Nobles and it sounds pretty interesting enough and we decided we'd do it - since we both have gained SO much weight since Christmas! The 1st two weeks of this diet is pretty much the worst of it all ...
1. No going to restaurants
2. Drinking nothing BUT water
3. No snacks but fruit and vegetables
4. MUST eat breakfast everyday
5. And MOVE!
I eat breakfast every day so this is easy for me :) But now I just am making sure its either yogurt or a grapefruit I'm eating. And I actually dont drink anything but water [i HATE soda - the only one I drink is sprite and i only drink that when we go out to eat but hey! we're not going out to eat so whoo!] The hardest thing is the eating nothing but fruit and vegetables as snacks - since our meals will be some kind of protein or whole grains. My snacks are always a kellogs bar or nutri grain - something not entirely bad for me but this is tricky. But I bought pineapple, grapes and watermelon which are great fruits to snack on. Jose says I'm gonna crack, I gotta prove him wrong!

And lastly, MOVE! We HAVE to work out. We HAVE to have at least 30 minutes of exercise. We both walk the dogs which is about 15 minutes for each dog but I wanna make sure I do working out for my huge thighs, jiggly arms and pooch of a stomach.

I GOT THIS!! :)

and next week Jose and I are taking a staycation from work... hopefully itll be easy to diet on our staycation!

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Happy Birthday Cinco De Mayo Baby!!

My baby turned 1 today!! Which baby??

My fur baby, Riddle!!

Yes, I did a last minute birthday hat for him. And yes the cat seriously walked into the room and looked at him like "What the hell is on your head??"

But no sooner did Riddle get his little birthday bag of presents did he totally forget he was tortured for pictures!


Finally he ripped the tissue paper off and found his gift [so did his baby brother]

And than he ripped open his other present too!
I was very happy to celebrate Riddle's 1st birthday :) Another birthday has come and gone... and now my baby is 1 years old. Or 7...

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

The Wedding chore I am putting off...

is dress shopping...
Why?? Well... honestly, cos my arms are gross. They used to be decent but over Christmas Jose and I ate like pigs and I got lazy and stopped working out every day and now I'm just not happy with them. And when I put on ANY wedding dress, I'd like to look at some decent arms.

However my mom is BAGGERING me to go dress shopping soon so I have been making it a point to lift my weights everyday for at LEAST 15 minutes!! Ay... anyone else dread wedding dress shopping like I am??

Sunday, May 2, 2010

Hiking with the Dogs!

Sunday was spent hiking on a reservation with our fabulous "couple" friends and their dogs.

This is quite picture heavy but I love the pictures :)

Our surroundings
Everybody walking

Lando enjoying the water break :)

Mini Falls


Riddle cooling down

Lando doing some swimming

Going downhill
I looked up and thought Ooh Pretty

Riddle taking a rest

Zoe!

Simba!
Lando! Such a happy boy
The rest of the day was all panting and sleepy eyes

And for the rest of the night they both passed out... much like Lando is here...
With it 90 degrees out it was the perfect day for a hike! Got a free tan and a relaxing night without my dogs running around crazy in my apartment so yaaay :) definately will go hiking again!