today was anthony's mom's birthday! after cooking breakfast in our room, our plan for the day was to rent jetskis and have a BBQ in mission bay, but the weather forced us to come up with something else! it was cold and rainy, so i dont think any of us would've had fun being on the beach all day. instead, we went shopping at the las americas premium outlets, BBQed poolside at our hotel, ate delicious sweets from extraordinary desserts, and watched angels and demons at fashion place mall. it was a fun day! yay! hope you enjoyed your birthday, mom!
so after keeping our weekend destination a secret from anthony's mom and younger siblings, we finally arrived in san diego! up until we got there, vince, venus, anthony, and i had to make something up whenever we were questioned about where we were going. we left home a little later than planned, but it worked out because the hotel gave us a complimentary room upgrade (im guessing 'cause they ran out of rooms like the one we were supposed to get). we picked the hotel based on the fact that the room had a full kitchen in it (which you can see behind vince) and allowed pets! so even jazmin was able to join the party!
sooo, i survived my first time ever sleeping in a tent! it wasn't bad at all. i slept really well. we spent the morning taking our tents down and packing everything away. with the help of george foreman, kevin grilled bacon and kielbasa for breakfast. yum! kevin actually gave me permission to use a picture that was taken on my own camera, but i am cheating by using this one from his camera instead. let's just say it's more flattering than the first one. (=
today was camping day! anthony and i didn't wake up as early as planned, so we arrived at the san mateo campgrounds a little before noon. after all the homies arrived, we headed down to the beach for a while. the weather was beautiful! when we got back to the campgrounds, gen and her parents cooked up a delicious dinner for us. gen and her family are expert campers! i felt so spoiled 'cause they were such goods hosts and took good care of us. what a cute family! we finished the night off with roasted marshmallows, hot chocolate, pictionary, and of course.. sequencia! good times! (=
my afternoon was special 'cause i got to spend it with toni! she was in town for the weekend, so i picked her up and then we made our way over to del amo mall. i bumped into so many (okay, 4) people while we were there. toni and i were hoping to have lunch at east wind, just like old times, but instead found out that they went out of business! haha. what the! after the mall, we picked up three of her central-cali buddies from their hotel and then headed over to pinkberry. the out-of-towners were impressed. before we parted ways, i took gilbert's picture with a ridiculously random view in the background. and as he placed his hand upon the trashy furniture on the side of the road, a glorious light from up above shined upon him. he claimed to be a saint.. and after walking a mile in his shoes (i.e. pushing toni around in her wheelchair for a couple hours), i'm a believer! 
christine came to hang out today, but only for a limited time. we planned to get some korean bbq tacos since both kogi trucks were in torrance, but because she got out of work late, it didnt leave us with enough time to wait in the long line. fortunately, we were able to eat some tacos anyway because venus got there early and was kind enough to order our food for us. yay! after kogi, christine and i went to blenders to get boba. yet still being on a time limit, we had to tell each other our stories as fast as possible. and before i knew it, she was gone! she left me feeling used and abused. just kidding. thanks for hanging out, chris, even though you had somewhere else to be!
today was my grandma's 93rd birthday! old! we had a little lunch party at my parents' house to celebrate. it was funny, though, 'cause my grandma tried to leave her own party! haha. before most of the guests even arrived, one of her friends came to pick her up, but we told that friend that she had to stay home. haha. it's like a little girl who is not allowed to go outside to play. so anyway, ryan's 3 nephews came over, and we got to see how wild little boys can be. nathan, the oldest of the 3, used to be a little terrorizer himself, but he has grown up to be such a nice young lad. the older, the wiser, aye? just like grandma! (=
anthony and i went to glendale tonight to have dinner at max's of manila. i've been wanting to try that place for a long time. we ordered the famous fried chicken and pork sinigang. both were yummy. it turned out to be the perfect date because lately anthony has been trying to teach me how to speak tagalog. it all started when i saw a scene from family guy where stewie was speaking tagalog. i memorized the whole scene and then recited it to anthony later on. he was so amused. haha! so anyway, dinner ended up being funny because our waiter spoke tagalog the whole time!! i just went along with it and pretended i knew what he was talking about. it was a fun night, but i didn't want to spoil it by speaking english to ask our waiter if i could take his picture, so instead i asked the valet driver, who was delighted that i wanted a photo of him. haha! how cute.
after my weekly dinner date with priscilla, i hung out at the house for a while. i was holding serena on my lap while she was napping. i stared at her for about 45 minutes straight, just hoping she would wake up. i was content, 'til outta nowhere, my grandma came onto the couch next to me and started supervising my every move. haha. everytime serena would stretch or start opening her eyes, i would say, "hi!" and grandma would yell, "do not wake her up! you put her in her crib now!" i kept thinking, "what do YOU know, grandma?!" and then i remembered, she DID have 10 kids of her own. ha!
yesterday jennifer kept telling us that she felt like she was going to have the baby soon. but since her due date was still 12 days away, none of us really believed her. so then midnight rolls around, and what do you know? she was in labor! haha, woops! after 8 hours of sitting around at the hospital, our precious little serena finally arrived!! she was born at 8:11 am, 6 pounds 9 ounces, 19 inches long. we were all so anxious to meet her, and she was definitely worth the wait. isn't she beauuuutiful? it was love at first sight. (= 
happy mother's day! we celebrated mother's day with anthony's mom last night at mangia mangia in huntington beach. dinner was fun and my shrimp scampi was excellent! then today, my sisters and i planned to surprise my mom with lunch when she and my dad got home from their road trip. but an hour before they were supposed to arrive, my mom called to tell me that they stopped in tehachapi on the way home. doh! so we had to postpone our cooking session 'til a little later. it all worked out, though, 'cause then i was able to be home when the gilbies came to see our place. i almost forgot to take lauren's picture, though. they were already driving away when i realized i didn't take it. get back here, lauren!
anthony and i had dinner at norms. we love norms mostly because of their gumbo and ice cream sundaes. we were having a nice dinner together, right up until anthony felt full and decided he didn't want dessert anymore. a full anthony equals a grumpy anthony. he was so "full" that he decided he didn't want to wait for me to ask the waiter if i could take his picture. to discourage me from asking, he started making fun of my blog, and teasing me about the way i ask people if i can take their picture. so i ended up walking out. haha. he felt bad, and then made up an excuse to go to rite aid just so i would have another opportunity to take someone's picture. but i did not. instead, i waited 'til we came home and took a picture of one of the cat frames that is hanging above our couch. i stole the pair of frames during a game of "white elephant" this past Christmas.. and anthony got mad because he didn't like them. i hung them up as a joke one day, and they've been there ever since. bahumbug, mr. grinch!
after spending another day trapped in the house working, i wanted to get out for some fresh air. anthony and i headed to del amo for jamba juice and wetzel's pretzels. then we finished the night off with a walk around target. oh, target.. how i love thee. after paying for our 10 bags of junk, i asked the cashier if i could take her picture. she said i could even though she didnt like having her picture taken. way to take one for the team, janice! but when i checked the picture, i noticed she was blinking. i thought it would be mean to ask her to retake it because she just got through telling me she didn't like pictures. so instead i am mean for posting this picture up anyway. either way, i'm mean. lean mean picture-taking machine. and i was wearing green. and i'm a queen. this is obscene.
sooo, hubby came down with the flu today! he's been sick the past few days, but today was the worst. he was completely out of it. i had plans to go places, but instead i stayed home to take care of him. i am not used to him being so inanimate. he is usually impossible to tame, but today all he wanted to do was lay on the couch. he thinks he has the swine flu. haha! puh-lease. so anyway, since he was such a bore, i got my entertainment through rianne's flow of text messages containing pictures of meli wearing a toy as a hat. snazzy.
the kogi taco truck was in torrance again, so anthony and i drove out to see how long the line was. after seeing that it was still pretty long, and taking into consideration that anthony was sick, we decided it wasn't going to be worth it. so we left.. but not before getting out to say hello to all the people we knew in line! haha. jenn, mark, joey, randy, venus, grace, rianne, ricky, andrea, and ryan were all waiting for tacos. when i asked andrea if i could take her picture, she decided that she wanted to pose as if she was kissing rianne. maybe if she would've done that to the people in the taco truck, they would've let her cut in line!