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!

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!

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.

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

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 :)

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!

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!

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...

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??

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!