Tag Archives: birthday

Family Day (or How A Broken Hip Allowed Me To Celebrate My Mom’s Birthday With Her)

Posted on April 8, 2013 | Comments Off on Family Day (or How A Broken Hip Allowed Me To Celebrate My Mom’s Birthday With Her)

As I mentioned before, my grandma fell and broke her hip. As soon as I heard about that, I wanted to go down to San Diego to see her.

But my mom advised me to wait until we knew that she would want visitors.

My parents were down in San Diego taking care of my grandma, and my mom said that I could go down on Thursday, which was my mom’s birthday.

So on Thursday, I made the 2 hour drive down to San Diego. The original plan was for me to see my grandma at the hospital, but she was doing so well, that the day I came down she got moved to the skilled nursing care in the building she lives in.

So when I arrived, I waited for my parents to meet me at my grandparents’ building. It was a gorgeous day out.

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Once my parents got there, we grabbed a quick lunch while we waited for my grandma to be brought over. And pretty much as soon as she was settled into her new room, we all went down to visit her.

Considering that she had just had a major fall and surgery, she looked amazing! She was a little tired from everything, so the visit was pretty short. But I’ll see her again for Mother’s Day, so that isn’t too far away.

After the visit, I went over with my parents to the hotel that they were staying in for a few days. Our dog Dante made himself at home pretty quickly.

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And then we all dressed for dinner. Since it was my mom’s birthday, we went out for fancy steaks at Donovan’s Steakhouse. I was excited for a yummy meal, but even more excited as this was the first time I got to celebrate my mom’s birthday with her since I was in high school!

Dinner was delicious. I had the twin filet medallions off the Prix Fixe menu.

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And a split of Prosecco since we were celebrating my mom.

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And then my mom got a birthday creme brûlée.

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I had ordered cheesecake as my dessert course.

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It was so much food, so I got a little to-go box for half of my steak and some of my mashed potatoes.

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It made a very delicious breakfast the next day.

After dinner, it was time for me to make the 2 hour drive back home. I’m so glad that I got to see my mom on her birthday. I wasn’t expecting that at all (I mailed her birthday card to the house and she won’t get it until they get back). I wish that the reason we were all together wasn’t because my grandma got hurt, but I’m trying to focus on the positives of that visit.

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Posted in Celebrations, Family, Food, Fun Stuff, Tough Stuff

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Happy Birthday Mommy! (or I Promise Not To Reveal Your Age)

Posted on April 4, 2013 | 1 comment

Today is my mom’s birthday! My mom and dad are in San Diego with my grandma, and I’m heading down there today as well. So this will be the first time I get to celebrate my mom’s birthday with her in a long time (possibly since I was in high school).

Since I want to get on the road to see my family, this is going to be a short, but photo filled post.

Going through all my photos on my computer, I’ve got some pretty cool ones with my mom.

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My mom has a fear of elevators (I’m not a fan of them either). But when my mom and I were in Paris celebrating my college graduation, she conquered her fear and rode the elevator up the Eiffel Tower. Also, a highlight of that trip was when we were in Italy. My mom found a coat she liked, and was trying to talk with the store employee about it. My mom doesn’t speak Italian and the employee didn’t speak English, but they both spoke broken French. Watching them try to communicate was pretty funny (my mom ended up passing on the coat).

My mom loves Disneyland almost as much as me.

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The second picture is from our trip a few years back to Disney World.

Also, my mom now will indulge me in taking silly pictures (which I love).

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This is from the WB Tour we went on right after I had hip surgery.

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This is on the “Exorcist” steps in Washington DC (we were there for my brother’s med school graduation).

Also, my mom is still willing to try new things, like working out with Richard Simmons.

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And even though my dog has pretty much replaced me (and maybe also my brother) in the family, I know she still loves and supports me. She even reads this blog!

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Happy Birthday Mommy! I’ll see you in a couple of hours in San Diego so we can celebrate together!

And finally, this is my favorite picture of me with my mom (and my grandma too).

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Posted in Celebrations, Family, Fun Stuff

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Chocolate Heaven (or Happy Birthday Nestle Crunch!)

Posted on March 29, 2013 | Comments Off on Chocolate Heaven (or Happy Birthday Nestle Crunch!)

Warning, this is a picture heavy post because of all the delicious treats! Do not read on an empty stomach!

I was invited to the kick off party for the Nestle Crunch 75th Birthday Showdown (that’s a mouthful isn’t it?).

I wasn’t too sure what to expect, but I did know that I would be tasting some desert items that were made with Nestle Crunch bars.

I got to the party when it started at 1pm.

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As soon as I walked in, I saw Lynn from The Actor’s Diet and Jennie from Garlic My Soul. I was nice to see familiar faces especially since the bakery the event was being held at (Sweet E’s) was extremely crowded and at first it seemed a bit disorganized.

We got to check out the samples of all the different treats that we available to try.

A Crunch Peanut Butter Brownie from Sweet E’s.

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A Crunch Chocolate Royalty Cupcake from Casey’s Cupcakes.

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A Candied Bacon Ice Cream Cookie from CoolHaus.

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And a Crumbs Crunch Cupcake from Crumbs Bake Shop.

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While we were checking out the awesome desserts, we had no idea if we were allowed to try them yet. So Lynn decided to be the brave one and took one off a plate.

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After we were there for about an hour, there was a little presentation with all the bakers, and they each explained their desserts.

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Then, finally, we got to try some!

I tried a little bit of each one, but those cupcakes were huge! My favorite was the ice cream. The candied bacon in it was delicious!

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As we were leaving, we all got a gift bag.

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Inside were samples of all the desserts we tried (except the ice cream which I got a gift card for). All the cupcakes are now in my freezer for when I have a sugar craving (although I promised to save some for my mom too).

If you want to check out all the desserts in the showdown, you can go here. There is voting for your favorite dessert until April 21st. The top three bakeries will compete in a final baking competition to declare the winner! If you want to try some of the desserts, all the bakeries competing in the contest are giving away samples of their entries (I highly encourage trying some of them).

I’m so excited that I got to attend this event, but I’m still on a bit of a sugar high from all the delicious treats!

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Posted in Food, Fun Stuff

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Maybe I Should Be A Wine Drinker (or How We Spent My Grandma’s Birthday Dinner)

Posted on November 27, 2012 | Comments Off on Maybe I Should Be A Wine Drinker (or How We Spent My Grandma’s Birthday Dinner)

One of my family’s traditions at Thanksgiving is to go out for a really nice dinner for my grandma’s birthday. Her birthday falls around Thanksgiving, and we either go out the night before or the night after Thanksgiving.

This year for my grandma’s birthday, we went to Plumed Horse in downtown Saratoga. This is totally a place that I could not afford on my own (the menus didn’t have prices on it, so you know it was very expensive).

The food was unbelievably good. We could order up to 4 courses, but most of us seemed to get 3 (appetizer, entrée, dessert). But since there were 2 appetizer courses, if you hadn’t ordered something to go for that course, they brought out a treat. My first appetizer was a green salad (my choice), my second appetizer was a parmesan black pepper soufflé (their choice), my entrée was a steak, and for dessert I had the Meyer lemon soufflé. The portions were on the smaller side, so even though I felt stuffed after the meal, it wasn’t too bad.

One of the highlights of the restaurant was their wine cellar. The head waiter for our private room gave us a tour of it. There are hundreds of bottles and the floor is clear so you can see everything in the basement.

 

For the meal, we had some red and white wines for the table. I really don’t like red, so I had a little of the white. But I really wish I could have ordered one of the yummy sparkling wine bottles I had seen in the cellar.

 

It was a great evening. Almost the entire family made it (one of my cousins wasn’t able to fly in until Thanksgiving day). And I’m glad I had a super cute little black dress to wear too (I got several compliments on it).

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Enjoying The Now (or Not Trying To Skip Ahead To The Good Parts)

Posted on October 11, 2012 | Comments Off on Enjoying The Now (or Not Trying To Skip Ahead To The Good Parts)

As much as I want to think ahead to what might be in the future, I’m trying to focus on right now in my life.

The future is so uncertain in so many ways. As much as I want to think about how much weight I’ll have lost by my brother’s wedding, I have no idea what will happen so I need to focus on enjoying the weight I’ve lost so far.

I’m focusing on what’s coming up in the immediate future. My brother’s birthday and my friend’s wedding are both next week.

I love that Halloween is coming up this month. It’s really one of my favorite holidays. I used to work at Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios (I’ll write about that some other time and include some pictures) and that just made my love for the holiday stronger. I only wish that stores would have Halloween stuff up.

I went to Bed Bath & Beyond recently to get my new scale, and this is the display that was at the front

 

Stores: stop skipping ahead holidays! I want to see what you have for Halloween and Thanksgiving before Hanukkah (although I appreciate that they did include it and not just have Christmas).

So even though the retail world (and probably some people) are focused 2 months ahead, I’m making a serious effort to focus on the now. I’m making a real effort to celebrate all the moments coming up. I’m making sure I take time to make some nice Halloween decorations and enjoy what October has for me.

And as far as the weight loss goes, it’s really tough for me to focus on what I’ve done now because my head likes to go crazy with what could be in the future. But I’m trying to look at the little things. Like how my clothes fit and stuff like that. Because it’s not a hard and fast thing like the numbers on the scale, I feel like it helps me not think 100 pounds ahead.

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Posted in Fun Stuff, Weight Loss

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Continuing the Birthday Celebration (or Eating at Benihana for Free!)

Posted on August 16, 2012 | Comments Off on Continuing the Birthday Celebration (or Eating at Benihana for Free!)

Last night, I enjoyed another birthday perk. If you sign up for the email list at Benihana, you get a $30 gift certificate to use for yourself in your birthday month! I don’t frequent Benihana, but this is a deal that is tough to pass up.

The $30 can only be used on your food, so I got the filet mignon and a strawberry lemonade. I ended up going only like $1 over my $30. And then my friend who joined me got to splurge and get scallops because she and I just split the bill.

It was a fun festival dinner, and you can never go wrong with having a free meal. The only obnoxious thing was it seemed like everyone was celebrating a birthday in the entire restaurant. And at Benihana, they don’t just sing “Happy Birthday”, they shout it in very shrill voices.

After hearing the singing over a half-dozen times, I made sure to ask the waitress if they could skip singing to me. She looked at me a little confused, but when I explained that I had a headache, she completely understood. That made the meal a little better.

Oh, and an added bonus about going to Benihana? On MyFitnessPal there is already a category for the calories in all the sides that come with a hibachi meal (soup, salad, shrimp, vegetables, tea)!

I managed to have a free meal and stay under my calories yesterday! Double win!

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Birthday Hangover (or I Feel So Loved)

Posted on August 10, 2012 | 1 comment

I had a fabulous birthday yesterday! Even though I had to work an 8 hour shift, I still had time to enjoy it.

Thank you to everyone who posted on my Facebook wall, who tweeted at me, and who texted me!

Thank you to my family for getting me such awesome cards. Thank you to my parents for my awesome flowers. And thank you to my brother and future sister-in-law for my AppleTV.

Also, thank you to my boss who got a yummy ice cream cake for everyone at my work to enjoy (birthday calories don’t count, right?).

;

I still have a few more birthday adventures coming up such as going to the Hollywood Bowl to see Liza Minnelli, dinner at Benihana (you get $30 there for your birthday), and eventually another trip to Medieval Times.

But for now, I’m getting back on track with food and finances!

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Happy Birthday To Me (or Why Social Networking Makes Me Feel Fabulous)

Posted on August 9, 2012 | Comments Off on Happy Birthday To Me (or Why Social Networking Makes Me Feel Fabulous)

It’s my birthday today! Yay! I’m a big fan of birthdays (I mean, I’ve already written a few posts about my birthday, can’t you tell?).

Growing up, I spent several birthdays at summer camp. That was pretty fun because the entire camp knew that it was your birthday and everyone sang to you. Then you got thrown into the lagoon, but that’s a whole other thing.

One of the greatest things about my birthday now is all of the wonderful birthday messages that I get. I have Facebook to thank for that.

Before Facebook, how many people’s birthdays did you know? I know that I only knew a handful, just some super close friends and family. But now, I wake up on my birthday to dozens of Happy Birthday messages on my wall. That’s just awesome.

Even though I know that some people only post because Facebook alerts them to, but I still feel really special.

So now I’m off to have a fun birthday morning before having to work a 12:30-9 shift at my day job.

Some birthdays throughout the years:

My 1st Birthday

Sweet 16 in Catalina

In acting class with Chris Kattan

Playing penny machines in Vegas

Dodgers game

Last year at Medieval Times

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Birthday Card (or I Wonder If My Mom Bought This After I Started This Blog)

Posted on August 8, 2012 | Comments Off on Birthday Card (or I Wonder If My Mom Bought This After I Started This Blog)

So tomorrow is my birthday! Yay!

I normally don’t open my birthday cards early, but I knew that the one from my parents also had my car insurance card in it, so I opened it yesterday.

Some cards are pretty cheesy, and you have to wonder what the writer was on when they wrote it. But the card from my parents fits exactly what I’m trying to do with this blog.

Here’s what it says:

For you, Daughter on your birthday.

Promise you’ll never settle for anything less than extraordinary…because that’s what you deserve.

Promise you’ll always believe in yourself and the possibilities of each dream…because you can do anything.

Promise you’ll never forget how far you’ve come…because it’ll help you remember how far you can go…

…and that you’ll always see yourself the way others see you…because you’re beautiful inside and out.

Seriously, isn’t that the best birthday card ever! Thanks Mom and Dad (and Dante the dog too).

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Gift Shopping (or For Me, It’s That Time of the Year)

Posted on July 31, 2012 | Comments Off on Gift Shopping (or For Me, It’s That Time of the Year)

I love buying gifts for people. I love getting big gifts like birthday or engagement ones, and I love buying little things like a bottle of wine for a friend who invited me over for dinner.

Maybe I’m selfish, but I love seeing how happy I can make people with a gift I give them.

This time of the year, there are a lot of family events. In a 3 day period, there is my parents’ anniversary, my cousin’s birthday, my cousin’s girlfriend’s birthday, and my birthday. And that’s not counting my birthday twins birthday or my acting coach’s birthday which happen then too. That’s a lot of gifts.

I’ve also got a dear friend of mine getting married this fall (her bridal shower was this past weekend), and my brother proposed to his girlfriend recently too. Again, that’s a lot of gifts.

So what is someone supposed to do when they are trying to save money to pay off debit but still wants to make everyone happy with gifts? I got creative.

For my friend getting married and my brother’s fiancee, I wanted to get them something cute but something that is more personal. I found these really nice personalized blue garters. They weren’t too expensive, personalization was free, and both of the recipients of the gift loved them (it helped them with their something blue too).

I can’t say what I’m getting my parents for their anniversary because my mom reads this blog. But I can say that my brother and I are teaming up for the gift so we can get them something really nice, but it won’t cost too much for each of us.

One of the most important things I’ve learned about giving gifts is sometimes it really is the smallest gesture that counts. That’s why, for every family and friend celebration, I seek out the perfect card. For my cousin and his girlfriend’s birthdays coming up, I don’t get them gifts (we don’t really do that in my family), but I do spend a lot of time picking out the perfect card for each of them. It’s nice to get something in the mail other than a bill.

So this week before I go to work, I’m off looking for the perfect cards for everyone (and carrying stamps in my purse so I can mail them all off in time).

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