Big Day

April 30th is a big day in history.

 In 1803 the US bought the Louisiana Purchase.

In 1812 the territory of the Orleans became the 18th state, under the name Louisiana.

(ok maybe it was only a big day for the people of Louisiana)

In 1927 Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford became the first celebs to leave their footprints in the concrete at Grauman's Chinese Theater.

In 1947 Boulder Dam is renamed Hoover Dam a second time.

1975, the fall of Saigon, the Vietnam war ends.

1983 the ever wonderful, bestest sister, Lindsey Marie was born:

[if I could hug you right now sister....it might look like this]

and finally

1985, world famous designer Rachel of Alethea and Ruth was born.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY Lindsey and Rachel!!!!!

Paradise

Our cruise was the da bomb! We had tons of fun, chillian out maxin and relaxin all cool. We didn't shoot some bball - but we did eat, mini golf, watch shows, adventure in Mexico, read, watch movies, play trivia, watch game shows, enjoy a hair chest contest, groove to the music, drink lots of coffee, explore the ship, in true Mangela fashion get a little misguided - going the wrong direction every now and then, and climb more stairs than I have every climbed in my life.

Paradise was the name of our ship. And the slide show program did not have spell check, so I am sure you will all notice tons of spelling errors in the captions....just try your best to decipher what I was trying to say - think like Mandy. We also have a few funny videos, but blogger didn't want to load them properly......so they be up in coming days.

Good Eats!

We're back, and sleepy. Cruisin is hard work. I am working on a slide show with lots of photos, but in the mean time I give you this little teaser. That gives you a pretty good idea of what we did while at sea.

Bon Voyage!

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a hip, a hop, a hip-pity hop

The Easter bunny, made and early visit.

Since we are all going to be out of town next weekend, we decided to have exchange our baskets this weekend, so we had plenty of time to enjoy all their goodness. I think it is safe to say that we give THE BEST baskets .... filled to the brim with all kinds of goodness.

Angela found her basket in record time, Rachel took a little longer, but man it took me forever. They had to resort to hot and cold...and even then it took me a while - but it was worth it. I then ate so much candy I felt ill for the rest of the evening.

*For anyone who is counting down [probably only Angela and myself] 3 days till we cruise!!!

balloons

Last week I had a nice surprise at work. Hannah had told me she was going to stop by and see me, because she was in the area running errands. I was looking forward to her visit, a nice break in my day. But boy was I surprised when Jake walked in my office with a camera, followed by Hannah and some great orange balloons.

I was so caught off guard, as was the rest of my office. They all wanted to know what was going on. Attached to the balloons was a small box, whose contents asked me to be a bridesmaid. YAY! Definitely the highlight of my day....maybe even week. I feel quite honored to be included in your big day Hannah and Jake!

And on a silly note, I have never had so many people wish me a Happy Birthday. Nearly every client that came in that day, wished me a Happy Birthday, or asked if it was my birthday. Some of my coworkers were concerned that they had thought they missed my birthday.

TIMBER!!!

This morning after unlocking the building and walking into my office I was greeted with something similar to this.

Had a large windstorm occurred inside out office last night? I did not see any extreme weather warnings online.

One of our potted trees had fallen over, spilled dirt all over and was completely blocking the hallway. I didn't take the picture until after I swept up the mess, and turned the tree to the wall. We didn't want any clients getting confused and thinking they had somehow managed to walk into a tropical forest as opposed to a CPA office.

The funniest part is that two different people, upon seeing the tree, came and asked me if I did that. Uh yes, yes as the matter of fact I did, I decided it would be more fun to have a tree uprooted in the lobby instead of standing up. NO.

new things

As of late Angela and I have been wanting to try new things....ok maybe that is too broad. We have been talking a lot about trying new places to eat. Exploring our surroundings more. So last weekend, in the midst of our horrendous coughing bouts, runny noses and goobered up pink eye we headed out to infect the city of Fullerton/try the new pizza place the just opened around the corner from our house, Pie-Ology.

It was so great! Although I will be the first to admit that in the world of pizza I am not hard to please. It is set up like Chipotle, were you go down the line and pick everything you want, and they put it together in front of you (and it is all the same price) the workers probably didn't like us because at first we didn't add anything to our pizza's thinking they would charge you for each addition. Then later we went back and kept adding more and more, sorry workers.

Now since they just opened, they are trying you know to make a good impression and all, and I have to say they did, and we enjoyed every moment of that. We met the owners......and they gave us LOTS of free food/drinks, and we learned some interesting facts. Like, did you know that you only have to list your calorie count on your menu if you have over 10 restaurants in your franchise?

Yes this photos is of the HIGHEST quality and clarity. This is where we sat, [duh!] but if you look close you will see why these seats are awesome. The windows in front of the bar seats, are a garage door, so they open right up and it is pretty much like patio seating, Angela's favorite.

This was also the same night Angela referenced here when we were watching a movie and nearly died. The movie was really funny, but every time we laughed it quickly turned into an uncontrollable coughing fit. Which at least for me made me laugh all the harder.....it is such a vicious cycle. Laughing to coughing to laughing to coughing it just would not end.

cars cars cars

If only I was referring to the Pixar movie. One of the many things that made my life feel so crazy was some not fun car issues, which naturally occurred at my lowest point during tax season when I was exhausted, getting sick, and all around a big fat mess. Lets just say I was at my worst. I was however also thankful it happened when it did because Pops [and mom] were in town. Because really whenever anything happens to my car the first call I make is to him - it is only that much nicer when he is ten minutes away.

*Funny story - my car died, Jake was kind enough to let me borrow his, before I could get it however the battery died while at church - while parallel parked on the side of a busy street. Thank goodness for doubling up on jumper cables. Hannah and I took our part of the job very seriously [not letting the cables touch].

I could not have survived that week without your help Pops, and your car Jake. Thank you guys SO SO SO much. And also thanks to Elizabeth for driving me to the dealership on emergency short notice, and thanks to Angela for dealing with my weeping and mess of a self all week. You guys are all the BEST!!!!

Behind the Times

Life has been a little crazy as of late. There was a good two weeks there where it didn't really feel like my normal life - thus I am oh so far behind in blogging. Be prepared for mass amounts of posts in the days to come.

This being the first....about Mock Rock, which was WEEKS ago I know. But still worthy of a post since it was my 8th year in attendance (i think, maybe only 7th). I didn't take any great photos, I walked away with only this one of Jake, looking like a mighty sweaty Woody.

Their group did AWESOME third place, and was really really fun to watch. Here is a low quality copy of the video on youtube. I have to say I was sad that Gavin had to miss out as it seemed that this year was made for him. There were two groups that had Toy Story and TONS of Justin Bieber music. Seriously if I had to sum up Mock Rock in two words they would be Bieber Fever!! For a while I tried to count how many groups included a song by him - part way through I forgot, but really I think it is safe to say that at least 6 of the 8 groups had a Bieber song in their mix.