Carl’s Birthday’s

The Birthday Boy!

 

I’ve been waiting since Christmas to be able to celebrate his birthday because last year we weren’t together for his birthday. I was out of town at my grandparents, and then he went out of town so this was my big shot. I had been looking up a lot of things we could do and although it didn’t go quite as planned I will tell you what we did get to do.

For our 3 day celebration I got to have him all to myself for the first day, which was his actual birthday--- July 21st. The day didn’t go as planned because I was hooked up to an eeg test for seizures (blah blah blah) this isn’t about that… So we got a very very very late start. So we went to our dinner reservations at The Harbor Inn. I had heard about it being this “amazing” place and we should try it.

This is a picture of The Harbor Inn. I thought it seemed really beautiful. Every Wednesday they have dinner and “a cruise” there. Dinner is around 6 and the cruise is around 8 and until around 10.

We got there earlier then our reservations so we went ahead and sat down to look at the menu. We each decided on a salad to start off.                                                                                                                                             

Carl decided on the traditional caesar salad. Very different looking compared to your normal “salad in a bowl.” lol

 

My salad was a Gorgonzola salad, I had never had one before so I figured why not. It was actually really good. :) Have to also include a picture of the dinner rolls because they were very good.

Now onto the main course. It took a while to decide but, we both decide to try things we either haven’t had before or don’t have very often. Carl decided to try Wild Boar Tenderloin which included wild mushrooms, red pepper, roasted garlic aioli and 18yr balsamic, it also included green beans and potatoes on the side. I decided to have Sea Scallops: char-grilled, pear-bacon-cabbage hash, champagne mustard sauce and brown butter spatzel.

So now it is my job to tell you about the “wonderful meals” that we both had. I wasn’t lying when I said the bread and the salad was good, and when I tell you that this food was the worst meal I have ever tasted it is no exaggeration. Carl and I both kept eating to make the other feel better, which didn’t work. I wish I could zoom in on Carl’s meal because he ordered the meat to be cooked medium well and it in parts came out RAW! He said he could barely even tasted what the boar was supposed to tasted like because they piled on top of it so many mushrooms and other things.

My meal expectancies were not very high once I took a look at the food, but I tried it anyways. So in the item description it said char grilled not BURNT! The “brown butter spatzel” was nothing but pure butter, and the hash was just awkward, and to top it all off they had HONEY MUSTARD covering all of it, they can call it a “champagne mustard sauce” all they want but it was gross. Honey mustard on scallops?

We also had reservations to go on a romantic boat ride afterward but I was to disgusted to pay that company anymore money and Carl agreed. The amazing boyfriend that he is, could tell I felt HORRIBLE, and he thought he would take it upon himself to make me feel better on his birthday! So because of the fact that neither of us even came close to finishing our “meals,” he took me somewhere I should have taken him in the first place LONGHORN STEAK HOUSE. Simple, but so good. The reason he knew it would make me feel so much better—They have amazing house chips and dip!

We we supposed to go to the movies, but it had to be postponed because we both ended up sick. We blame the wild boar!

DAY 2: My Family

Pizza. Cake. Presents and the goofy bunch!

Mom bought Carl some new more colorful tshirts to wear!

                                 Pause-------Smile--------Ok next……

The front of Corey’s card he bought for Carl had two bees both saying “boo.” Can you guess why it was so funny? (if not….you can always do what Ryan did and say “what are boo bees?"

                                     Look at the pretty wrapping paper!

                                     Carl got the Twilight Scene It Game!

                                                       Ryan’s cute card!

 

 

Yummy Oreo Blizzard cake from DQ!! Carl’s favorite blizzard.

 

 

 

Can you imagine everyone singing the happy birthday song? Its so off key!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So I missed Carl blowing out the candles and I asked him to do it over again which is why he was laughing in the second picture. The third picture if you pay attention has no flames in the candles, no smoke from just being blown out, and he is staring at me probably thinking “did you take it yet?”

It was fun and thanks to everyone in my family for making him feel like he is part of our awesome family!

 

DAY 3: His Family!

Burgers and hot dogs on the grill, with popchips, unsweet tea to drink and Ice cream cake to top it all off! Although I didn’t take a picture of the food it was very good. I miss being at a place with an outside grill!

 

Doesn’t it look like the cake that never ends?! :)

 

 

 

So pretty though!

 

 

 

Now this game looks vintage. ;)

 

 

 

I thought I would bring out the side of my family to their family. Lets play games!!! Carl and I had a lot of fun!

 

 

 

Carl’s sister Andrea. I told her I would buy her starbucks if she smiled for the camera. :) See how well that works!

 

I love this picture of his mom. She isn’t looking at the camera but I think its cute because she’s laughing at Carl.

 

 

Over all I think his birthday went pretty good. Some plans went bad, but more then most of them went good. I can’t wait to celebrate many more birthdays with him! :) Thankyou everyone who helped!

My Family

Well, I guess I will start with my mom. Who of course will kill me for "putting a picture of her on the internet", and yell at me to "take it down because its such a bad picture of her." (notice the quotations, because she will say exactly that, but I'm sure with a little more swear words. haha) Anyways, about my mom... she is my hero, I wish I could have just a fraction of her strength. She can make it through anything, and come out even stronger. I would do absolutely anything for her, and she is the reason I believe I can do anything. She loves each of her children equally, not one more then the other, and never ever picks favorites, even though we joke about which one she loves most. She has such an amazing heart, and can forgive for any of my mistakes. If I don't hear from her for a couple of days, (like 2 days) I will feel weird and wonder what's going on. Every holiday is the best because she makes it that way, Christmas Eve in her house is like absolutely no other out there, trust me I will not be anywhere else! I could talk about her endlessly but if I did that I wouldn't be able to move on to anyone else... which would be very bad.

   The oldest of us "children," is Quentin, aka "Q" haha. When I think of him words that come to mind: Independent, stubborn, smart and chivalrous are a few. I remember when I broke my leg, and got home for the first time I was supposed to walk with crutches,  so foreign to me, I was in the 5th grade, and I literally stood in the entry room for over an hour trying to use them, (I was sooo scared I would fall and hurt my leg worse) and Quentin eventually came in there and carried me into the living room. I think in part because he felt bad for me and in another way he was tired of hearing me scream "I can't do this." lol Quentin is one of the hardest working people, besides my mom of course. Quentin is married to my awesome sister in law Melissa. Who has been a part of my family since I was a baby.  She makes the best salads, and I don’t think I’ve ever tasted anything she has made I don’t like. We love us some “purple cabbage.”

Next would be my big sister Tabitha. (Got to love how I made the picture in black and white so she wouldn’t be more tan then me… haha) For  the longest time I was absolutely jealous of every single thing about Tabitha, her hair, her smile, her athleticism, her “size,” and how everyone seemed to like her “the best.” I think in great ways I owe her a lot of who I am, because she gave me something to aspire to be. Granted we have a lot of differences, I think I’ve become more comfortable with myself because she always made it feel like I should be. This may sound bad in the way I am about to write it, but I  don’t mean it in a bad way at all: She has one of the most unique  minds I’ve ever come across. Now let me explain, I have never known anyone who can go into an antique store and spend so much time looking for ways of using each little item, or in some cases much larger items. She is the best “crafter” on the planet, I don’t care what anyone else says!

Now, Tabitha is all the way on the other side of the United States, in Spokane, Washington with her boyfriend Joe. Now, although I don’t know him as well as I really wish I did, I know he takes good care of her, for one reason, because he loves her, and the second is because my mom would kill him if he didn’t. ;)  <just kidding> I miss Tabitha so much, and it sucks I never seem to have time to get to know Joe, but I think knowing she is happy helps me not cry every time I talk to her. Sometimes its harder then others, but I will soon be going out to visit her, even if I have to walk all of the way to get there!!

Where do I start with our next “character” of our family, well Ryan is definitely that, he is different, but always in a good way. Its kind of funny I’m starting to write about Ryan right now because Darius Rucker just came on my Itunes, and the last time I really talked to Ryan he was telling me how much he loves his voice. Talking about Ryan makes me sad, we used to be closer and so many things have happened, so many mistakes and I guess we’ve never been able to fully regain that. He is one of the most intelligent conversations anyone would be lucky enough to ever have. He has a love for politics and history that baffles me every time he talks about it. I’ve never been lucky enough to know enough about either subject, so when I have a political question he is my first person I ask. :) Recently, well sort of recently Ryan got a puppy named Willow, who is literally his little daughter. She was much smaller in this picture but, she still has that sad look on her face! The reason I picked that picture of Ryan was because although he wasn’t looking at the camera, he looks happy. Capturing that in a picture doesn’t happen a lot.                        

                       

There would be me next, but obviously I won’t talk about myself, after me is the “baby” of our family Corey. He is the best friend to every girl out there, and not for the reasons most people would think. No he doesn’t want to just date them, he wants to know them. Its a very nice quality for any guy to have. If there is ever any music or basically any entertainment question its Corey to ask, because he is all about knowing what everyone else is doing in the “Hollywood” industry. He is my singing buddy,  he is one of my best friends and he can always make me laugh. When I look at him and the goofy faces he makes, it reminds me of my dad in a way I never thought possible.

                                                                                                                                                                                                             Then last but not least is my newest member of our family, Carl. He is so important to me and I love him more then anything, it means a lot that my family love him and he loves them too. ;)  I think I look weird in this picture but I think its one of the cutest ones I have of him.

 

I love that we have such a big family and that no matter how far away one of us live we never drift apart. I can’t wait to have more pictures to put up and show you how we have all changed since these were even taken. Until then, thanks for reading! :)

Progress Thus Far

Well since, June 23rd (that was the first time I measured myself) I have lost an inch on each of my thighs, a half an inch in my stomach, and a quarter of an inch in my arms. I can honestly say I am very proud of myself. Its motivation in itself to keep me going. I push myself harder and harder each time I go to the gym and I think being able to talk about how far I went, or how sore I am, or just anything with Carl helps a lot. As gross as this might sound, I love the feeling of being drenched in sweat, after working out, it just makes me feel like I have done that much more. :) Sorry no pictures to post in this one, I just thought you would like to hear my good news!