Quarter Century Fun

Whew! I need take a deep breath after all the excitement of the weekend! Friday night the festivities began. Amanda, Matt and Stephanie arrived after Jose and I got off work. My mother in law Silvia made a yummy Mexican lent meal of chili rellenos, rice, beans, nopales (cactus) and shrimp cakes. Yum! What was even better was she brought the feast to our house and served my friends and parents!

Saturday Becca arrived and all of us girls went shopping in Pismo. When we got home, I was surprised to see Matt decorating for the party! Jose was shopping buying all the food and supplies. I was so surprised and touched to see the effort Jose made to make the night special.

In typical Biola fashion, all us girls made use of our large bathroom to help each other get ready. I LOVE all our Biola memories of doing each others hair and make-up and preparing for a night out. It was even more fun in our new house!

David and Emily even drove up from Glendale to celebrate with us! Isaiah dropped in during his work break, and Jesse showed up wearing his alligator skin shoes.







As promised, the Marlenetini (Lenetini or Marlini if you prefer)was unveiled and was a huge hit! Jose bought me the prettiest martini glasses to showcase the drink of the night.

Of course a party is not complete to me unless there is some competitive games played. Balderdash was my game of choice as it was our fave Biola game (fliffus will always be a soft pillow, and the movie The Couch is about West L.A gangs and Tia Lupitas couch).

Thinking my b-day festivities were over, I was so shocked the following day to walk into a surprise party with all our family members! We had planned on going to Red Lobster for my birthday lunch, and were stopping by the house before we went. For the record, I have always been able to suspect Jose's surprises, but this time he got me good. I didn't have a clue that he had been planning with our mom's to have a party at our house! I walked in through the garage, saw tons of food laid out on the counter, and before I could process what was going on, family came from everywhere yelling surprise!






To finish my birthday off, Jose and I decided to go to San Luis and spend my gift cards. We got held up a bit, and sadly by the time we got there the stores were closed! Oh well, it turned out to be fun anyway when we split a Fatte's monster sandwich and had a romantic dinner in Jose's truck!

For dessert we stopped by Red Lobster during Jesse's real shift (another way to distract me from the surprise was that he was supposed to be working when I thought we were going earlier!). Jesse of course had all his co-workers sing to me and we had dessert on the house (or maybe on Jesse?).

Ahhhh.... birthdays are fun. Thanks friends for driving to Santa Maria to be with me! Thanks family for surprising me and for the great gifts! And Jose, you are amazing. Thank you for inviting, organizing, decorating, and surprising me!

Marlene Madness/Mania is Here!

I'm so excited, the anticipated weekend is here! All the besties are coming to town to hang out with ME! Pictures to follow....


PS Will this work day ever end?

Life is busy, but fun!

This past weekend Jose and my dad completed our sod project! When we moved in, our grass was patchy and dead and there was no hope of bringing it back to life. We got a quote from a couple of gardners and even with the "deal" we were going to get it would have cost us $500. My dad has done it before and convinced us that he and Jose could do it themselves. One day we were driving home from work and pulled up to our house to see my dad with a sod cutter ripping out our front yard. Final costs for this DIY project : $200. Now that is a deal!

Before:


After:


Later that night we attended Carolyn Whitakers 65th birthday party! It was "humorous" costume themed, and so much fun!
The Birthday Girl looked so cute!

Evel Knievel and his 80's sidekick (I had to reuse a college costume because I couldn't pull anything else together)

The Ingalls

The Brokaws in 40 years

Our Franzia provider Jessica

Tim and Faith


After a busy Saturday (and me getting sick)the next day we taught Sunday School and we (by we I mean Jose) helped my parents paint their house. After my mom saw how much color changed the way our house looked, she wanted to do the same in hers. Hopefully I'll get some before and after pictures from there also!

Update

Wow, February is almost over!! We've had a very busy month settling in to our home.
Our house is starting to seem more cozy as we've been able to purchase more furniture. It is amazing what a cozy rug, nice coffee and end table, and Uppercase Living ;-) can do to make a house feel like "home."




February 12th was my "little" brother's 13th birthday! I can't believe he is a teenager. I seriously spent a lot of time reminiscing about him as a baby, and remembering all my excitement and love for him when he was born. Every year Jesse and I ask each other if we remember the day he was born- we even remember the movie we watched while my mom was in labor. Longest day of my life waiting to meet him.


Well my baby brother isn't a baby anymore and he wanted a cool skate party. On Valentines Day we braved the freezing cold weather and it turned out great.




This was Jose and my third V-day. The last two he has surprised me with massages, and last year he even had secretly asked my boss for the day off for me so we could stay at the Cliffs. This year it was my turn to plan! I was so excited and planned on going to Arroyo Grande Village to watch a movie in the park, but the weather didn't cooperate and it was cancelled. Plan B was a progressive dinner (one of my all time fave things to do), and I had picked different places to go for each course that at restuarants that mean something to us. Silly me, I forgot how crowded EVERY FREAKING RESTAURANT is on V-day (actually we really didn't know, because neither of us have gone out to dinner on V-day before). Instead of waiting 2 hours at every place, we settled for Olive Garden. We decided to end the night with Starbucks, but got distracted by a super cheap ($22 an hour!) Chinese Massage. We ended up still having a blast even though our A and B plans didn't work out. I promised Jose I would make it up to him soon, but we haven't had time!

February 15th, we had a "few" (43!) of our close friends and family come over. We were so blessed and humbled by everyone's generosity! We have had so much fun welcoming people into our home!



This past weekend was just as busy! Friday night we had our work friends over. I was amazed how many drove out from Lompoc! We ended up playing American Idol with our die-hard friends until 1 am! It was a blast!

Waking up early the next morning to do our out of county visits was a little difficult though! We drove down south and later stayed near LAX at an Embassy Suites. We met a guy named Jeff who claims to be the CFO for Landry Restaurants, and claims to make 14 million a year, and lives on the same street in Louisiana as Brangelina, next door to Harry Connick Sr, and the Manning family. We don't know if we believe him, but we googled everything and he knows what he is talking about. Weird...

The following day we were able to visit Jose's dad. It was my first time meeting him, and overall was a good experience. Now that he is in California, we'll hopefully be able to see him more.

Every weekend we have had something(or multiple things!) to do every day. I can't complain because we are loving it, but it doesn't seem like our life will slow down anytime soon! This coming weekend we are planning on laying down new sod in our front yard, attending a costume party (can't wait!), and teaching Sunday school. The weekend after that is "Marlene Madness" a celebration of my 25th birthday (complete with a formal dinner!). I love having things to blog about!

Where to begin?

We have so much to blog about! I am waaaaay behind with birthday posts, our "open house" with 43 guests, and an update on Uppercase living! But since I don't have much time right now, I'll just do the Facebook 25 things about me (which I secretly have really wanted to do, but didn't want to jump on the band wagon.) So here it goes...

1.I have a lizard phobia. Seriously I am deathly afraid. I even tried EMDR to get over it, but now I'm trusting that God is going to heal me from it.
2.I started "planning" my wedding when I was in junior high. It might be accurate to say I'm obsessed with weddings.
3.I constantly ask Jose his opinion on names for our future kids.
4.I almost always have my camera in my purse,and I've been teased for always taking pictures. But whose laughing when everyone wants copies (actually nobody laughs).
5.I used to think I get over things quickly. One time I told my dad that and he laughed. I've since realized he is right.
6.I did not have my first alcoholic drink until 3 months after my 21st birthday.
7.I LOVED my college experience at Biola! Every penny of the thousands (and thousands) of dollars debt was worth it.
8.I wanted to be an Obstetrician for years. I was probably one of the few 12 year olds who knew about braxton hicks, pitocin, and bloody show.
9.I cried when I heard my dad was buying me a brand new grey car, because I had wanted a used silver civic. I got over it quickly.
10.I never in a million years would have imagined I'd be a child abuse investigator, and can't believe I actually love my job.
11.I used to be so comfortable and confident with public speaking, but now the thought of it makes me really nervous.
12.I get a little jealous of how much my 13 year old brother gets to do that I wasn't allowed to.
13.I have a really good memory, and get annoyed and sad when others don't remember things happening.
14.As special as our engagement was, I hate looking at the pictures and my ugly hiking outfit.
15.I will take any opportunity to buy/wear a formal dress.
16.I love to bake and cook, but get really nervous if I'm cooking for anyone besides Jose.
17.I have a non-cancerous tumor in my back. Yuck.
18.My favorite flower is a cherry blossom- yes they count. I would love a bouquet of blooming cherry tree branches.
19.I tried playing piano, softball, and ballet before I realized how uncoordinated I am. My family still breaks out in laughter when they remember my attempts at each of these.
20.I love holidays and making traditions.
21.I tried selling Avon when I was in 7th grade. I sold chapsticks and 99 cent lotions to my friends (and lots to myself).
22.I like having lists, and love crossing things off of my list.
23.I am kind of a germ freak. You won't ever catch me sharing a drink with someone (except Jose). I get grossed out whenever I see Jose share a drink or food, and think about it the next time I kiss him.
24. I got glasses in Kindergarten, and contacts before 4th grade. You would think I would be used to wearing either, but I prefer to blind then take time to put contacts in.
25.When I grow up I want to be a Children's pastor or Crisis Pregnancy Center Director.

So that is a little bit about me. That actually took much longer than I thought! Maybe I can convince Jose to do his 25 things next.

Uppercase Living

Awhile back I discovered Uppercase Living. Uppercase is a catalog that sells vinyl decals for the wall. The decals look as if you stenciled and painted the wall, but come off when you are tired of them. Jose and I had a cute phrase over our bed in the last house.

I convinced a co-worker to join "under me", but she got tired of waiting for me to sign-up, so she did it first. Now that we have moved and life is settling down, I signed up under her.

So here's the honest truth. I am NOT a salesperson. Jose and I went back and forth for months deciding if I should sign up, because I'm not a hustler, and may not make any money doing this. But I LOVE this product for my house, and think that other's just by seeing it will want to order. I honestly don't think I'll ever book a party (though I think I would enjoy it), but if you are interested in looking at the catalog let me know. There is so much you can do with this!

So if you are interested in taking a look, check out "my" website
http://marlenevelazquez.uppercaseliving.net/OnlineCatalog.m

If you don't like any of the pre-made decals, you can always create your own letters.

Here is a picture I stole from a blog's that used uppercase



And here are some examples my co-worker (the one I convinced to sell uppercase) has done with clients.










Hope you like it as much as I do!

We love "hosting"

Before we moved we had our hearts set on having a Superbowl party. It was tempting to cancel it when our team didn't make it. But last minute we agreed to try to pull it off (I can't believe only a week earlier we didn't have furniture or painted walls!).

It was so fun having a full house with some friends and family. I got a little worried right before that there might not be enough food. HA! There was sooo much! My favorite food ever is appetizers, and I was glad to get some good reviews on a few snacks I made. We were so full from the appetizers that we almost forgot to bbq the burgers and salmon!

While I was taking something out of the oven, my dad said "wow, you really like this huh?" I didn't know what he was talking about, so he said, "You know, having people over and being a 'host'." YES! I do! We've only been in our home a little more than a week, and we've had almost more people over already than we did in the two years in our old house!

We are so happy that God has blessed us with a home! In our long house hunting process, Jose and I always prayed that whichever house we get, we would use it to welcome others. Whether that means renting a room to someone in need (our brothers excluded ;-), hosting Bible studies, or just showing people God's love through a get together, we are committed to doing it!

And by committed, I mean we have 4 more events already calendared in the next month!

Playing Ladder Ball before the game



Watching that game with one of our favorite girls! (I found some baby pictures of Jose, and Danica looks SO much like him! All the aunts, moms, and grandparents were shocked! Which is good news for me, because I think she is adorable, and a good chance our kids could resemble her.)



Watching the 3-D commercials