Woo Hoo for the Weekend

The weekend is FINALLY among us. I get off work early today and my VERY busy weekend starts. I will be jumping from place to place all weekend and hopefully will have some time on Monday to relax (not looking like it though).

Hope you all have a wonderful and safe holiday weekend!!

Pic from Google Images

Let's Go To The Movies

Sooooo excited!!! Me and the girls just bought our tickets for Sex and The City 2 on Friday night!! We are going to get dressed up and enjoy some cocktails and then head to the theatre with the other millions of ladies in San Francisco to see the movie. Hope it is good!!!

Are you going to see the movie?

Pic from Google Images

Starvin' Marvin's BBQ Team

Since this is my blog, I have decided I am going to brag a little bit today.


If you have been reading my blog for a while, you will recall that Mr. Pickle likes to cook. I consider him very good at cooking and am happy to let him cook since he enjoys it and me, not so much.


I have also previously mentioned that my sister's boyfriend and Mr. Pickle get along great and both love cooking together. The two of them along with a mutual friend have recently been entering into cooking competitions. Their first one was a little over a month ago in Turlock where their ribs placed seventh among several other competitors (many being professionals). Not bad for first timers!!


This past weekend, the boys headed to Sacramento where the had to cook ribs, chicken and tri-tip (that's a lot of cooking). My sister and I anxiously awaited the results on Saturday afternoon while we were exploring the desert. We finally got a call from them saying they placed 1st place in tri-tip and 3rd place in chicken. We were so happy for them.


All three of them have put so much effort into perfecting their technique for these competitions and I think they were pretty stoked with the outcome. Not to mention they catered their first event last weekend and got rave reviews.


Way to go Starvin' Marvin's BBQ Team!!!


(Last pic taken from my sister's boyfriend's Facebook - Thanks Scooter)

Weekend Review

We are back from Arizona and had a great time. While my mom was in her conference, my sis and I spent most of our time wandering the desert, laying out by the pool, walking around Tempe, shopping, eating/drinking and relaxing. The weather was beautiful, it was in the mid-nineties most days and got up to 100* one of the days. I LOVE the heat!

Here are a few pics from the trip...

Our first drink of the trip

The Botanical Gardens

Wandering the desert

I miss the hot weather and lack of work, but I was happy to be home on Sunday and sleep in my own bed.

Hope you all a wonderful weekend!

Arizona Bound

I am all packed and ready to go to Arizona with my mom and sis for some R&R and SUNSHINE!!!!

I will leave you with a picture of my muddy doggie. He had fun today while his mommy and daddy were at work.

See you all on Monday when I return. Hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Wishful Wednesday

'I wish' .... I could come home to this
________ bedroom every night!!

My Dream Bedroom

I couldn't find any pictures of my dream bedroom, so I will show you pictures of what my dream bedroom consists of...

Spacious Floorplan

Sitting Area or Window Seat

Fireplace

Ocean Views

His & Her Walk-In Closets

Master Bath with Dual Sinks, Vanity, Whirlpool Tub and Steam Shower

Of course all decorated to my liking!!

Ahhhhh, some day...

Join in on the Wishful Wednesday fun by going to Kelsey's blog

Pics from Google Images

Weekend Review

I had another great weekend. I was busy, but also had some down time to relax. The weather was beautiful and it was an all around celebratory weekend!!

Friday after work I went shopping and found some great deals at NY and Co. After shopping, Mr. Pickle wanted to celebrate a rough couple of weeks at his job being over (the auditors were in his office for two weeks and he is in charge of his companies financials). We decided to get dressed up and go to a nice dinner at a wonderful restaurant in a near-by town. We got to sit out on the patio and enjoy the beautiful evening and people watch while enjoying a good bottle of wine and yummy food. We came home only relaxed a bit before heading to bed.

Saturday I slept in until 8:00!!! That hardly ever happens. I woke up to Mr. Pickle and the other boys getting ready to cook for the afternoon party that they were catering (our friend's graduation/birthday party). I got up and headed to my grandpa's for the afternoon. Then I headed over to the graduation/birthday party. One of my friend's graduated law school and the other just turned 30. So much to celebrate!!

Graduation Girl and Birthday Girl

The boys cooked all day and the food was delicious!! Everyone was raving about how tasty everything was.

The boys of Starvin' Marvin's BBQ

Even little Sammy couldn't get enough of the food!

Sammy and his rib bone

Yeah, I am kinda spoiled being married to an excellent cook, which may explain me gaining weight since we got married :)

The girlies of the day (minus one).

Saturday night a few of us headed to a local bar for some adult beverages, horrible music on the juke box and fun bar games. We headed home early though because the music really was that horrible.

Sunday Mr. Pickle and I were supposed to go to my mom's to celebrate Mother's Day (she was in Hawaii over Mother's Day), but she rescheduled for the following day so we had the day to ourselves. We went to breakfast, ran a BUNCH of errands and enjoyed staying close to home. Of course we had Sunday chores to do that we were able to get done earlier than usual. Mr. Pickle made dinner and we watched It's Complicated, very cute movie. We headed to bed fairly early to get ready for yet another work week. At least I only have to work three days this week before heading off to the Arizona sunshine and heat!!

Over The Rain

Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend!! I will do a recap tomorrow with pictures.

On another note, why is Mother Nature toying with my emotions? I live for sunshine and nice weather. Spring and Summer are my favorite seasons, so WHY oh WHY must Mother Nature intend for us to have Winter weather instead of Spring? I am so over the rain. So please Mother Nature, please bring on the sunshine so I can be happy :) Love ME!

How's the weather where everyone else resides? If you say sunshinny (did I just make up a word) I may just cry....or hop on a plane to come visit.

Flashback Friday

So most of you don't know how Mr. Pickle and I met. Since I recently uploaded a few pics to my computer, I thought I would do a Flashback Friday and tell you our little story.

While in my Junior year of high school I had officially stepped out of my rebellious stage and moved into a more "mainstream" teenage lifestyle. I have always been interested and involved in dance but didn't really get too involved until my Junior year. I tried out for a few dance teams and after not making the one I wanted to make because I knew a lot of the people who made it, I was devestated. I thought, "how could this be happening" (side note - I don't do well with rejection). My mom was there to comfort me and of course threw out the "everything happens for a reason." Turns out the next dance team tryout I went to I was put on the team with a bunch of girls I knew nothing about.

The dance team was a competitive dance team which lead to HOURS of practice four days a week and usually a performance or competition on Saturday and/or Sunday. Needless to say, these girls I knew nothing about quickly became my friends. Although we became close, we didn't really see each other outside of the dance studio (we all lived in different areas and went to different schools) until I had a party at my house while my mom was out of town and invited all the girls. To my surprise they all ended up coming and we had a lot of fun hanging out. After that party I became extremely close to two of the girls...one being Mr. Pickle's sister!!

Mr. Pickle's Sister, Mr. Pickle and Me

(Don't mind the dog hair that was on my scanner!)

The girls and I would hang out ALL the time and we would randomly hang out with Mr. Pickle and his friends when we were hanging out with his sister, but I always thought of him as my friend's brother. Plus the other girl had a huge crush on him. I always liked the fact that he was generous, fun and had a great sense of humor, but that was about as far as it went.

It wasn't until Mr. Pickle decided to go to college (he was probably 19 at the time and I was 18) by where I was living when we really got to know each other. We would invite each other to parties and hang out when his sister was in town, but still only as friends.

Then randomly, one night at a party at his friends house he kissed me and explained that he had always liked me and really wanted to let me know. I was SHOCKED!!! I think for the next week all I could think of was the fact that I kissed my best friend's brother!! We hung out a few more times before we made it official. Telling his sister was hard for both of us, but she was happy for us.

One of our first pictures as a couple. Gosh we look so young!

As they say, the rest is history (well there are of course a few other break-up and make-up stories in between, otherwise yes, the rest is history).

Let's Go Shopping

So the wonderful and adorable Ashley over at Kiwis and Cocktails had a giveaway and I WON!!!

What did I win you ask?!?! I won a $20 gift certificate to Amazon.com so now I get to go shopping...Thanks Ashley!!

Here are a few things I may spend my money on...

Mr. Pickle got a Kindle for Christmas and I may just steal it and upload a few girly books on it so I can use it when he isn't.

I only like to drink water when it is really cold. Unfortunately, water doesn't stay cold that long, which means I don't like to drink it. The answer to my problems....this Insulated CamelBak water bottle. I already have one of these and I LOVE it. It would be nice to add another to my collection so I had a back-up.

I signed up to take a yoga class at the local community center (starts tonight) and I had to go buy a new yoga mat since I threw my old one away. The one I bought is cute, hello pink with white polka dots, but didn't come with any kind of strap to keep it from unrolling when I carry it. I may just have to get a cute little pink bag to carry it in.

I have heard wonderful things about the 30 day shred. I am interested but don't know how good I would be at doing a workout video at home, especially right next to the couch.

I am sick of my purses/clutches and when I saw this I thought it was A-dorable. I wonder if it would hold all my junk (camera, iPhone, credit cards/money/id, lip gloss, keys and gum)??

Or I could the $20 towards a Wii Fit. Mr. Pickle got me a Wii for Christmas a few years ago and we really don't play it that much. Again, I don't know if I would be disciplined enough to workout instead of sitting on the couch watching my shows on DVR, but who knows, I may really like it. Anyone have a Wii Fit? Like? Dislike?

Anything I am missing?

All pics from Amazon.com

Wishful Wednesday

'I wish' .... I hadn't thrown ______ away!!

This one is actually kinda tough to answer. I HATE clutter so I often get in a purging mood where I throw a lot of stuff away (actually I usually donate it because most of it is reusable).

I am going to say probably clothing. There was one day I was trying to come up with a costume and I remembered having a bunch of items in my closet that I could use. When I went to retrieve the items from the back of my closet, they were gone. I quickly remembered that just a month prior I was cleaning out my closet and got rid of a bunch of stuff. I ended up having to go out and buy stuff similar to what I had previously given away. Grrrrr, I hate when that happens. I even went to the same Good Will I donated the clothes to to see if I could buy my stuff back. Haha.

I am weird though because I will keep little keepsakes forever. My grandpa keeps EVERYTHING and I remember being young and going through all the old stuff he had and hearing the stories that went along with it. Every time I contemplate throwing away little keepsake items I think to myself that maybe one day my kids and/or grandkids would enjoy looking at it so I keep it.

Join in on the Wishful Wednesday fun by going to Kelsey's blog

Thank you for being a friend....

I don't really have anything interesting to say today so I thought I would just thank you all for reading and being my little support system. I truly do appreciate all your comments and am glad that I have had a chance to get to know some of you!! I rely on my friends A LOT in my life and now you are all a part of that...lucky you!!!


Pics taken from weheartit

Weekend Review - Sans Pictures

Another weekend flew by and Monday has arrived too soon A-G-A-I-N! I must say that although it is Monday, I am not as sleepy as I usually am on Mondays. Why you ask? I fell asleep at 7:30 last night!!!! I can't believe I got that much sleep, I must have been exhausted from the weekend festivities. But, if you think that is bad...Mr. Pickle fell asleep at 6:30. Yes, it is true, we definitely cannot hang like we used to.

Being that I was sleeping all evening, I didn't get a chance to upload my pics from the weekend. Good thing I kinda slacked off on taking pictures because there really would have only been one or two to include any ways. On to the picture less weekend recap.

Friday after work I went to my mom's house to have dinner with her and my sister. She left for Maui bright and early on Saturday morning so we thought making her dinner would be a nice way to send her off (since she was going to be without us in Maui on Mother's Day - yeah, I really don't think she cared, she is in Maui after all). After dinner my sis and I hung out at my house looking at some wedding ideas for her wedding. (Side note, although she isn't officially engaged yet, her and her bf have set a date. Her bf is continuing to save up for the ring since he wants my sister to have the perfect engagement ring!)

Saturday my sis and I woke up bright and early to go for a walk before we helped our friend move to a new apartment. We were literally moving ALL. Day. Long. Finally we got so hungry we decided to call it a day and go to dinner. Then we decided we needed to celebrate the move (my friend just got out of a long term relationship where she lived with her boyfriend, so this move was a little rough on my friend), so we headed out to the bars. I guess we don't get out too often because the bars in the area that used to be kick back bars are now charging cover and trying to be dance clubs. WTF? If I wanted to go dancing I would go to the swanky 'clubs' in a nearby town or go to San Francisco. We resorted to one of our typical bars where there is a juke box, photo hunt, pool tables and not packed with club goers. My sis and I had to be up early the next day so we swore we were only going to go out with our friend for an hour or two, yeah we ended up staying until closing time and didn't get to bed until 3. Oooops.

Sunday morning my sis had a maternity photo shoot for some of our friends. I went along to assist and did a pretty good job if I do say so myself (toot toot). When we got home we took a little snoozer while Mr. Pickle and my sis' bf were BBQing. Later we went to pick up my grandpa and brought him to my house for a Mother's Day BBQ for Mr. Pickle's mom. We had a wonderful time and ate some delicious food, but after everyone had gone home and the mess was cleaned up, Mr. Pickle and I headed to bed! I watched a little TV, but as I mentioned earlier didn't last much longer than Mr. Pickle before I was OUT.

Woke up this morning feeling pretty rested :)

How did you all spend your weekend?

PS. What is up with the rain in Nor Cal???? It is May. In California. I no longer wish to see the rain until November. Kthanksbye!

Eight Squared

A newer bloggy friend of mine, Molly at Stilettos and Diapers, tagged me in a fun little picture game. If you don't already know the oh so fabulous Molly, drop by and check her out!!

Le Rules
1]. Go to your photos files and select the 8th photo folder.
2]. Select the 8th photo in that folder.
3]. Post that photo along with the story behind it.
4]. Then challenge 8 blogging friends to do the same.

This is a fun picture!! This was 4th of July two years ago. We started the day at the Giants vs Dodgers game in San Francisco. Half of us (the Nor Cal born and raised crew) were rooting for the Giants while the other half (the So Cal born and raised crew) were rooting for the Dodgers. The festivities continued with a BBQ at my sister's apartment down the street and attempting to watch fireworks on the Embarcadero later that night.

I challenge...

Marcie at 365 Days of Marcie

Annie at Chapters of our life

Ashley at KiwisandCocktails

Sierra at OceanDreams

Katie at The Adventures of Katie and Josh

Jenn at West Sac Honey

Tara at thats why her hair is so big

Kelly at Adventures by Me (whatever they may be)

Aaaaand GO!

Music for Pinky

Happy Thursday all!!

As I have mentioned, I am working out in attempt to drop some weight. I usually go jogging/running with my iPod and am getting VERY bored of the same old music. I thought I would share with you some of my workout tunes and in turn you could share with me some of yours!!!

Pinky (my pink iPod) is fully equipped with ALL sorts of tunes, however for working out, I enjoy face paced music to keep me going. Some of my favs are....

- Several Songs by Christina Aguilera, Justin (will be my husband one day) Timberlake, Rage Against the Machine, Britney Spears, Huey Lewis, Black Eyed Peas, Fergie and Usher

- Baby Got Back by Sir Mix-A-Lot

- Back That Ass Up by Juvenille

- Bad Boy For Life by P Diddy

- The Beautiful People by Marilyn Manson

- Bombs over Baghdad by Outkast

- Chin Check by NWA

- Connection by Elastica

- Crazy Bitch by Buckcherry

- Da Joint by EPMD

- Dance, Dance by Fall Out Boy

- Doorbell by White Stripes

- Feedback by Janet Jackson

- Fergalicious by Fergie

- Fever for the Flava by Hot Action Cop

- Gasoline Dreams by Outkast

- Get Right by J. Lo

- Get Your Freak On by Missy Elliott

- How Many Licks by Lil' Kim

- I Like the Way by Bodyrockers

- Maneater by Nelly Furtado

- Money Ain't A Thang by Jermaine Dupri

- The Perfect Drug by NIN

- Poison by Bell Biv DeVoe

- Rock Star by N.E.R.D.

- Stinkfist by Tool

- Supermassive Black Hole by Muse

- Them Jeans by Master P

- This Ain't a Scene, It's an Arms Race by Fall Out Boy

- Tik Tok by Kesha

- Touch It by Monifa

- Walk it Out by Unk

- We Can Freak It by Kurupt

- Woman by Wolfmother

- Work It by Missy Elliott

What songs really get you to push through your workout?

Pic from Google Images

Wishful Wednesday

'I wish' .... I was fluent in another language in addition to English, and it would be ________!

I would LOVE to learn how to speak Italian. This in one of the items on my Bucket List and I always look at the classes that are being held through the Community Center, but never have the time to devote to the classes...one day. When I do learn how to speak Italian, I of course want to travel to Italy!!

Join in on the Wishful Wednesday fun by going to Kelsey's blog

Love is in the air

I mentioned here that I assisted my sister with an Engagement Session in Napa a few weekends ago. I love photography and wish I had more time to dabble in my interest, so whenever my sister asks if I want to assist her I am more than happy to accept!!

Here are a few of the pictures I took for the photo session. My sister edited so I must give her props for that!! I think they turned out great. Plus, it is no big surprise that my sis got some fabulous shots too.

What do you think??

Weekend Review

Another successful weekend, another Monday come too soon!! I seriously think three day weekends should be made mandatory for our well being. Between, running errands, visiting with family and friends, working side jobs, doing chores, and having a life over the weekend, I find myself longing for just "one more day" to be able to rest and relax before facing another week.

I got off work a little early on Friday which is always nice. I exercised for a bit and then headed to the mall to look around while I waited for Mr. Pickle to get off of work. Once we met up, we met up some friends at Benihana for dinner.

It is fun to watch them make the food right there in front of you. Our guy made a heart out of our yummy fried rice!


Saturday morning I woke up too early (why can't I sleep in on the weekends anymore?) and took one of my dogs for a walk/jog to get some exercise while enjoying the wonderful weather. When I got back home I got ready and headed to my grandpa's for the afternoon. We went out to lunch and went to visit the cemetery where my grandma and dad are buried. Isn't the view beautiful? If you look close enough you can see the Golden Gate Bridge in the background! It is so peaceful and pretty there. My grandpa goes to visit my grandma (and my dad since they are right next to each other) every week.

After spending the afternoon with my grandpa me and some ladies headed to Sonoma for a party at one of the wineries we are members at. We hit major traffic leaving San Francisco, but I got a better picture of the Golden Gate Bridge!


It was perfect weather and clear enough to see the whole bay so we decided to stop and get a picture with San Francisco in the back ground.

Once we got to Ledson, we were ready to do some major wine drinking!!

And of course we had to do the traditional bath tub shot. (Story has it that the house was built for the family to live in, but ALWAYS got visitors because it was mistaken as a winery so they made it into a winery....hence the bathtub at a winery.) We take a bath tub shot every time we are there!!

Group shot behind one of the bars set up for the evening!

The party ended sooner than we were expecting so we decided to head back to San Francisco and hit up one of our favorite white trash bars, Butter.


Typically we would have dressed appropriately for the occasion (ie. white trash attire-as seen here for Mr. Pickle's birthday) but we didn't have a change of clothes with us :(


We still drank 40's out of paper bag, tall cans of Bud Light and Jello shots and of course broke out in the robot at some point.

I actually slept in on Sunday (I guess that's what happens when you don't get to bed until 3:30 am). Mr. Pickle and I went to breakfast and then ran some errands and then I met up with my sister to help her with a family photo shoot...ummm hello adorable family with three boys (twins and an older brother). I will have to post one of the pics my sister took because they were adorable! Once we were done we went to my house where the boys were finishing up dinner. They entered another BBQ contest and are working on perfecting their ribs and chicken. It was delicious, as always! Spent the rest of the night finishing laundry and going to bed early.

How was your weekend?