Gotta Love My Goofy Family

Yes, there are times when I hate taking pictures BUT for some reason, when I'm around family, I get obsessed with camera. Strange, huh? Obviously, it's not just me - we ALL do! Goals for us cousins and sisters is to pretty sidebust ever freakin' camera shot. Here are some pictures from New Years at my Tito Boy's house. We are such a happy bunch. Good times...

Las Vegas Weekend with the Fab Five

A birthday celebration weekend trip to Las Vegas turned more into a family bonding time with ALL my sisters. There are 6 of us all together. 3 of my half sisters live in Las Vegas. We all stayed there. It was fun. Abby - Typical teenager anxious to take her driving test Melissa - Believes that God gifted her with her with a cute face Cathy - Curious about cutting herself and wants to know what a drive by is. (WTF) So I find out that not only do they have an ugly creepy pet hamster named Bella, they also have a cat named.....I'm so embarrassed - Kitty Puffin. AND it's a boy. Per Melissa claims it's not their cat anymore because my step mom kicked him out. Umm, seriously, who kicks out their pet? Only in my family, I guess. Poor cat was waiting up for us one night standing by the front door meowing wanting to be fed. That by the way was how we figured out who the real owners of Kitty Puffin were. Irene later finds out from our step mom that the reason why she kicked him out was because he kept her awake at night. Ummm....ok. AND that Kitty Puffin would want to sleep in their bathtub. So, I guess the next best thing is to let him sleep ummmm NOT in their house at all? LOL! Whatever's clever. I hate cats so it's more funny than sad. Sorry cat lovers!! BTW - Melissa does feed Kitty Puffin everyday. He just doesn't sleep indoors anymore. Like that makes the situation better, right? Oh well. To change the subject, here are some random pics - LOL!

Check out the new Dyson Hand Dryer!! Awesome!

My nasty niece, Bella. Yuck! Me, Jason, MJ, Nate & Rolsuno waiting to get into Tao Saturday Night Abby, MA, Me, Cathy, Melissa w/step mom (Irene is missing) I'm ready for you Pac Man!! Sike!

share-bare's BIG Dirty Thirty Celebration

Written by: Ryree

Produced by: Renee, MJ and Ryree

Wednesday, November 19, 2008  

Emergency Meeting Renee, MJ, and Ryree meet in Sunnyvale to discuss share-bare’s birthday. The three noticed that she has been down in the dumps. From individual conversations with share-bare, they came to the conclusion that she is depressed. Not only is she turning the big 3-0, but most of her friends and family would not be able to make the trip to Las Vegas.  Renee claims that she went home early from work because she was upset that a few people backed out.  

The Decision The three thoughtful ladies decided to cancel the Las Vegas trip all together. They concluded that share-bare most cared about having her loved ones around her to help her celebrate this great milestone in her life. share-bare also feels as though no one cares enough to plan for her, so they decided to craft a new birthday plan, one that would surely impress the birthday girl.  

The New Plan With the help of a few other people, the following would be the new plan: Friday, December 5, 2008 Dinner would be held at California Grill in the San Mateo Marriott. GJ would be able to be the chef for the night, serving 30 of share-bare’s closest friends and family. After dinner, they would go to Milk in San Francisco. Roland was already hosting a party that night, so Mary Anne would work on reserving a table/bottle service. More of share-bare’s friends were invited for the evening event. Saturday, December 6, 2008 To continue on with the celebration, they planned to do a day outing with the kids. Bowling. One of share-bare’s favorite pastimes. In the afternoon/evening, a girl’s spa day was planned at Watercourse Way in Palo Alto. This would include her sisters, cousins, and childhood friends. Rho* offered to pay for a suite that night as well. November 20- December 1, 2008 Evites, emails, and conversations galore! They had to inform the family and friends of the new plan. Appointments were booked, hotels were canceled, and new reservations were made. One thing in the back of everyone’s mind was, “Would share-bare be disappointed?” There was no use worrying about that because everything was set. To make sure she didn’t get too disappointed, they all agreed not to initiate conversations about Las Vegas, just to lessen the blow. Amazingly enough, the secret surprise remained a secret! Family members and friends were going along with the story. December 2, 2008 This was the big day. share-bare’s official birthday! This was also the day of complete chaos. share-bare conversed with her good friend Joh on G-Chat. Poor Joh, who lives in Las Vegas, had to endure the torture of share-bare talking about specific plans during her visit. share-bare  also conversed with both of her sisters on G-Chat expressing her utter most excitement about the ‘upcoming trip.’ As it turns out, share-bare has been doing her own planning on the side, inviting random friends from New Jersey and the Bay Area to meet up with her while she is there. share-bare: do u know where we're having dinner? for sat? Joh said we'll be going to tao on saturday and the new spot lavo on sunday share-bare: omg - hella ppl are going to vegas. u better look cute for the boys me: like who? share-bare: jersey guys....Twink's cousin in-law is bringing some friends and Timotei!  LOL and then there's Joh's friends that are YOUR age and other ppl from the bay. ur gonna have so much fun. joh and i always have a good time w/random ppl! In a panic, Renee, MJ, and Ryree spoke via conference call to discuss the new revelations. They came to the conclusion that they jumped into the new plan too quickly, that share-bare was just being emo one day. So what must they do about the current plans? Everyone was already invited. Reservations and appointments were made. The Las Vegas hotel was cancelled. No one, except for Ryree and share-bare, had the following Monday off.

The New, New Plan They would continue on with the dinner. Most of her friends and family already RSVP’d and share-bare would, without doubt, be surprised. As for Milk in the evening, the bottle service had to be canceled but they would still be attending because her other friends already RSVP’d and would be there. As for the spa day, that had to be canceled altogether. It was decided; they had to find someway to make this trip to Las Vegas happen. Unfortunately, they would not be able to bring Eli, Janelle, and Tates. After searching online for most of the morning, MJ and Ryree found flights to Las Vegas for $49 each way. It was too late in the game to for anyone else to go, so it would just have to be share-bare, Renee, MJ, Nate, and Ryree. They were all to fly out Saturday. Because MJ and Renee did not have Monday off from work, they would fly back on Sunday, which gave them one night in Las Vegas to celebrate share-bare’s Birthday. Ryree and share-bare would fly out Monday morning. Because the hotel was canceled, it was impossible to find something for a reasonable price. They arranged to stay at their stepmother’s apartment on Saturday night and then at Joh’s place Sunday night.  

Conclusion All in all, one lesson has been learned from this experience. Do not try to surprise share-bare. She is so unpredictable; there is no telling what she is going to conjure up next. *Note to share-bare: Hope you enjoy your BIG Dirty Thirty celebration. To make things less complicated, we DID NOT tell the rest of the family that we are going to Vegas again. They would just not understand the story. PLEASE act as if we are not going, especially in front of Tito Steve. He was a bit disappointed that it was canceled. (Pictures from the Surprise Birthday Dinner...)

SURPRISE!!!! One of Eli's imitation of me turning the big 3 - 0.

Me with the three rascals A Very Rare Moment on a Special Day.... Thanks Girls! Love you!

share-bare says: Big THANKS goes out to Renee, Ryree & MJ for doing this all for me. You're the best. If I was affectionate, I'd give you big hugs but a high five hand slap will do. LOL! Thanks for putting up with my difficult ass. I appreciate it! Good Times it was!!

Thanksgiving 2008

Thanksgiving Day was awesome - as usual. What can be more better than eating, kicking it with the family and eating! The day was also a birthday celebration for my uncle who is pretty much my second father - Happy Birthday Tito Boy! Good Times! The aunts and grandmas were laughing and capping on my laugh randomly. Thanks for the love, I think. Is it really that bad?! =/ The day at Tito Boy's house would not be complete without the whipping tail of Kaela. She got me good this time. Kaela totally flicked my finger out of no where quick-style. Ouch! We cousins were also bonding... via Blackberry Messenger. Retarded right? Thanks to Joey aka Notorious Lothario, we learned how to group chat! Can I say, it's the best thing EVER! Soon to be added to the Blackberry family are MJ and Nate. I'm pretty jealous that they are getting the Storm BTW. I'll stick with AT&T thank you very much. During the whole family gathering, all I heard was Edward this, Jacob that, Bella this. Total Twilight Craze. It was obnoxious! MJ was talking about her recent psycho conversation incident at Target with a complete STRANGER. Poor chick must be traumatized. MJ is starting to scare me. I'm worried and I think she needs help. LOL! Anyway, the hype about Twilight book and 3 other books following that were never going to die. I was outnumbered and the obsessed girl cousins decided to go watch Twilight AGAIN! Jenny, Julz and I tagged along because there was really not much to do back at the house other than play Rated M video games with the dudes. No thanks!

The "Infamous Ménage à Four"...

...the "Happy Two-Timers"

and then the "Curious Virgins"

Dinner @ Shareej: 11.14.08

Welcome to Shareej!!

Staff is setting up the table for their 1st customer

Main Course: Meatloaf Muffin with Broccoli and Steam Rice

Co-Owner, EJ cooking it up in the Kitchen.

Dessert: Burping Cow (Grape Soda, Low-Fat Vanilla Ice Cream, Marshmallows)

Child Labor

After waking up from little sleep (due to the Get Em High party), my mom and sister decided to plan a field trip out to Ikea in Palo Alto. I tried to avoid going since I was pooped. They both said it was important that I come with them. One - I knew the measurements for the shelving unit we needed for the living room. Two - I'm the picky one. They did not want to chance me not liking the purchase. So... obviously me staying home was not an option no longer. Even worse, they volunteered me to drive. That is one of the disadvantages of owning a SUV - more space! Similar to going Target, going to Ikea is a death wish. You plan to buy one thing and end up buying more than expected. So, I ended up purchasing EJ a desk and chair for his room. On top of that another hamper and randomly a lint brush per EJ's request. I hope he's not turning into a pretty boy...Anyway, we left Ikea withOUT a shelving unit for our living room. UGH! Long story short, my mom and sister disagreed with my choice. Apparently, it was too high and too expensive. Afterwards, we headed back home. I was quite disappointed and irked. Once we got home, I was determined to find a freakin' shelving unit. I hopped online and browsed once again in the Ikea website. Thankfully, I found something. I told my sister about it and she was like - WTF?! We were just there! But she agreed to go with me on a Part II field trip to Ikea. We were in and out like a quick-style. We got home and my sister hurried me to get the shelf assembled quick so she can finally get back the laundry hamper. Yeah, we ghetto like that. When we moved in a couple months ago, we had to improvise. Originally, we had a nice entertainment center BUT this stupid thing called the fireplace was in the way. So, we pretty much had no choice but to eliminate and trash the nice entertainment center and use the hamper as a stand for our DVD player. Hilarious, right? OK. I'm finally getting to the real juicy stuff. EJ plans on building his desk and chair on his own. (BTW - he gets that building trait from his mommy) I was shocked when he finished assembling it. Being the lazy person that I am, I asked him (yes asked!) if he was interested in building the shelf also. He answered with a quick "Sure!". As I was supervising my son with the help of my lovely nieces, I was also watch Sunday Night Football - Eagles vs. Giants. I'm very grateful to have such a wonderful son. He's always there for me in time of need and laziness. It's such a great feeling to be able to sit back and watch your boy slowly transform into a miniature "beefy man boy" and take matters in his own hands with no parental guidance. I absolutely love when an unexpected situation leads to a joyful moment full of appreciation for parenthood. Maybe one day, you'll have a bomb diggity son like mine. Job well done, EJ! Muah!

Lake Tahoe Getaway Weekend

Good Times...Good Times!! It was not much of an action packed weekend. It was just chill - the way I like it. Last Friday, we drove up to South Lake Tahoe. The scenic drive was beautiful.

My niece, Caitlin was anxious to see the beach during our 3 hour drive. My other niece, Janelle got car sick. Highway 50 can do that to you! My son, EJ and my sister, Mary Anne played the rock contest 1 hour prior to arrival.

"Big Rock Mine!"

We were the first to arrive at the magnificent cabin. Thank you Bernadette!

Janelle got sick but we got hungry. Before picking up some grub, I decided to take EJ and Caitlin to the Pope beach to get a preview of what we were to expect the day after.

Saw a cute Ice Cream parlor right on the highway which created major traffic due to the pedestrians crossing the this 2 lane highway. It was a short visit cause we were all hungry. I decided to browse Lake Tahoe Blvd. Found a hole in a wall burger joint called, Snowflake Drive-In (cute name, I know!) to the left. Busted a U-turn and tried this place out. Ordered 2 Tahoe Burgers (locals favorite supposedly) with curly fries and 3 Corn Dog meals for the kids. Yummy! Friday was pretty kick it. Just waiting for the rest of the family to arrive. By 6pm most of us were all in. Next - PLAY Wii! YAY!

For Saturday morning, we had french toast, bacon, sausage, and sininag (sp?). Here's a pic of Jen making her infamous french toast. Total Yummy!

We then headed off to Camp Richardson. I got kind of tanned but it wasn't good enough. I don't think Lake Tahoe sun loves me as much as Waikiki Beach sun. I guess I got to wait until late October[sigh]. After a few hours of sun bathing and taking a quick dip in the cold lake water, we headed back to the cabin. Everyone pretty much showered up, chilled, munched on snacks, and napped it until it was tine for dinner. Nate grilled up some Korean BBQ. Yummy 2x!

Afterwards, we played a little more of Wii and then decided to change it up. Let's play Killer everyone! It was so fun. I always take this game seriously. I'm oh so competitive. Watch out now! I'm also a really really REALLY bad liar. It was fun! Cousin, Reynier made Game 3 or 4 hilarious! He got so nervous when he drew out the Killer card that he literally had to take a deuce! THEN Janelle had a bloody nose and the girls thought Irene (Janelle's mom) panicked because she saw a creepy crawler. All the girls screamed and jumped onto one couch piling up on one another. Talk about messed up. Poor 4 year old Janelle thought she turned into a monster which was why the girls steered clear away from her. When Irene brought her into the master bedroom to clean her up, she got so concerned and cried out, "Mommy, everyone thinks I'm a monster!!" Too cute and too sad at the same time. The girls felt so guilty. They decided to all line up in front of Janelle to apologize and give her a hug. OH d-d-dear.

The next morning, us cousins woke up to the smell of good grub cooked by the adults (can I still say that if I'm 29?). Adults - referring to Tito Boy, Tita Ester, and my mom. LOL! It was literally a buffet of food: longanisa, sausage, spam, eggs (scrambled & over easy), chopped tomatoes, ribs, pandesal, corned beef, left over sinigang, sininag(sp?), and of course, steam rice. Yummy 3x!

Finally, it was time to shower up, pack, take our traditional family pic outside the cabin and head back home. Boo! I think we all had a good time. We ended up hitting up Folsom Outlets on the way back home. Hehe!