Guess who else gets to turn 30 in march????

So i spent the early part of my birthday at the doctor's office with my mom, which was not as bad as it sounds. since i guess i brought her there 30 years prior..my mom and i haven't had time to hang in forever. so after her appointment we spent the rest of the day lounging....i love my parents house.. although i seem to gain at least 5 pounds every visit...it calls you like a hug from an old friend, so cozy and 'sleepin' in is not a sin!'

the next day i met my best girls for dinner at sarah's house...i didn't have to bring or do a thing...LOVE IT! sarah made dinner, and she, tara, nicole and i had champagne!!!

the next day i started to feel a little crappy. and dammit if i was gonna be sick for my own bday...thursday i took my mom for her surgery.. it was quicker than i thought.. so we went home and did some more hard earned lounging!

The next night tony and i were supposed to meet with jay and cathy but i was really feeling like poo and i went to bed at 7!!! is that what happens when your 30???

the answer is NO!!! the next night was my big, giant, fantastic birthday party!!!!

i woke up when i felt like it, went shopping and the got ready for the party.

My mom invited family over earlier in the day so that i could catch up with them and talk to everyone before my friends came over and the booze began to spill...i don't have any photos yet because i still have to teach my mom how to upload them!

about 7:30ish my friends began to surface...i have to say that between the decorations, the food and the drinks.. NOT TO MENTION ALL MY AMAZING GIFTS!!! i had the best birthday ever!!! and i did not go to bed until something like 4am..so HA! ( ps i stole these photos from sarah because i didn't take any)

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some time in the afternoon we all woke ( scott and tara both spent the night) and my dad made us some breakfast...i began to clean, but then realized that i was still tired and lounged some more.. although later in the night i did clean up. i had plans to go workout.. i really thought that i could, but everytime i would get near my shoes i got tired :)

Tuesday we got to spend some time with mark and nate, and later tiffany. I can not believe how fast that little man is growing..not to mention that he gets cuter and cuter each time i see him.. he was crawling all over the place and laughing like a little cherub!!!

After hanging out with mark and tiff, we met gwen and tony for big tony's birthday dinner. we had a blast and since no ordered dessert, tony had to blow a candle out in a pile of whipped cream that nate promptly needed to investigate with his little fingers...

At some point in the week, i stopped at the trail to visit tara and see nicole before i left for cali ( tony was having some guy time with mike and jeff)

so furious j and moe met me at the trail and then we went to the biergarten so i could say bye to jeff and nick...

st. patty's day came and i knew that i had a long day of driving the day after so tony and i kept it low key. tony hung out with his brother and met up just in time for dinner at antonio's for dinner with scott...we spent the rest of the night packing and getting the car ready.. although i did make one quick pit stop at the biergarten- for literally a half an hour to see jeff, sarah, and mark... after seeing one too many hammered kids, plus knowing that we had to head out early we left the bar and when home to bed...

in the morning we planned on leaving right away, but there are always so many loose ends to tie up before we go to anther place to live, so we finally got out the door about noon-ish and drove all the way to the middle of iowa...yawn...

the next day we didn't stop until we got the hell outta nebraska- no offense moe-but it is a boring state to drive through...

we stopped in cheyenne, wyoming for the night. The both of us have never been there and wanted to see it in the day time...

it was gorgeous...lots of mountains, and cows...

that night we made it to nevada...some tiny little city, but not before driving though the salt flats and salt lake city...it was so amazing...all around it looks like water, but it is just salt.. people write stupid things in the salty sand only for them to get washed away during a rainstorm..

it was literally 40 miles of nothing but salt on either side of us...

so in the morning we headed to reno...where tony and i thought about shooting a man just to watch him die, but decided instead that we wanted to drive by folsom, not spend time there.

( we are nerds)

we stayed the night there just to break the monotony of the road. and we really wanted to relax, plus we were ahead of schedule...

after doubling our money ( not a ton though) we headed to sacramento to get our licenses...

we got them in no time at all. and although we couldn't move into our place until the next day we wanted to be close, so we drove into mountain view, ca.

Our first impression was that it was a cool little town and we were going to be living right in the downtown area... only 2 blocks from the library and a million restaurants!!

So we stayed at another hotel and in the morning moved into our new place... mostly

i still have some stuff to unpack, but i needed a break, so here i am writing...

so back to unpacking. more to come as the adventure unfolds..

been a long time coming

man i can hardly believe that we havn't been in Virginia in almost a month!

So i have a lot to say and i think it may take a few blogs to say it...So much has happened so far in March...

So for starters, Tony and i finished an assignment in Virginia and had to say goodbye to some fantatic people! But i have all their emails and now that our computer is back up, i can say hello to them all!

So after a 10 hour drive back to Michigan, we got the trailer stuck in the ice and couldn't wake anyone up to help...well we could have, but everyone had to work early in the morning...

so i cried a little -what being over tired and frustrated, it just happened...

after a few tears and encouraging word from my husband we pushed it into it's rightful new home ( for the next couple of weeks anyway.)

I think i woke my mom up to say that i was home safe and then crashed out because tony and i had a flight to catch the next morning at 7am.

We got a few hours of sleep and then jumped on a plane to NYC to bring in Oriana's birthday in style..

Unfortunately, we couldn't get into our hotel until 3 ish and we got in at 11ish, so we met up with sarah for some pizza and some shopping...

Before too long we could check into our hotel and get some much deserved sleep!

After a nap that seemed to last only 5 seconds ( but really a few hours) we got dressed and gussied up to meet our friends for dinner at Tanti Baci...It was O's real birthday so we all met up for some pre-birthday party food and drinks...

it was so great to get to see so many of my friends, esp since i have been living 10 hours away and it is usually a hassle to see everyone - what i mean is that i never have enough time when i am home to get to see everyone AND my family.

So we got to catch up with sarah, mark, trent, ay, oriana...and later ben and sam!!!

We hit a bar afterwards but only for a few drinks...still overtired from our travels, tony and i wanted to be in top party shape for oriana's 30th!

we got some sleep and then tony and i walked around the New york streets for a bit of some shopping, it was such great weather!!

then i sorta' met up with the girls...i misheard some directions and luckily saw sarah waving maddly at me, so i had lunch with the chicks and then back to the hotel to get dolled up!

Then we were off...

we met up with oriana and pals at her place for some pre-party drinks and then off to Rasputin, the Russian dinner club where the festivities took place.

Our driver got a bit lost, but at least we were all in good company and it made for some laughs later on.

we got there, ate our weight in strange Russian Cuisine..( well sarah and i couldn't eat a lot of it, so we made sure to drink our dinner :)

here are some of the pix

The night was a late one...as well it should be for a bunch of best friends hanging out in NYC for the sole reason of celebrating 30 years on this planet.