we took out my sister in law tonight for an early birthday dinner. we drove up to stockton and met at BJ’s restaurant. (i L O V E that place) it was brand new in their area and with it being a saturday night, it was hecka full! we got there to put our names on the list and there was at least a 1 hour wait! we were starving so all we could do was hope that we would get seated sooner…well, woohoo…we totally did! they sat us about 15 minutes earlier and we ordered almost immediately hahaha! BJ’s is now for their pizookie desserts….a cookie baked in a personal pizza size tin pan and served with ice cream on top..Y U M M Y! it was so good i totally forgot to take a picture of it to post on this blog! hope you enjoyed v! happy birthday!

tobey was sick for part of last week and part of this week so he’s been home with me trying to get some rest. he started with croup then it turned into bronchitis and a sinus infection. i tell ya seeing your little one sick isn’t fun..it’s even harder trying to figure out what he needs in between all the clinginess and the crying he got better by mid week and was almost himself again but still with lots of coughing! needless to say, it was no surprise that i ended up feeling yucky by week’s end!

we started off our 2008 crew outings with a dinner at thanh long restaurant in san francisco for the january birthday celebrants — mel, olga and jenny! unfortunately, jenny was not able to make it due to scheduling conflicts with robbie’s work our trek started off in an interesting manner as we hit traffic on EVERY freeway that we took to get to the city! we were about 20 minutes late for our reservation which was ironic considering i was the one that kept reminding people to be on time! hahaha. we tried the new GPS system that edwin gave us for christmas…it was pretty cool! we were even extra prepared because we had JP(S) in our car as well..that’s jess!

after we all trickled into the restaurant, our group of 10 was seated upstairs. it was a little weird for some of us to not have our kids there but we quickly became accustomed to it! fred and chester had had a couple of drinks already before we got there so they were slightly buzzed already with chester hyping up the lychee something or other drink…i can’t remember the name. we were all hecka hungry so it didn’t take us long to go through the menu and decide on what we wanted! CRAB! that’s what thanh long is known for! this time mel and i were a little smarter about ordering, we split a crab instead of ordering separate ones (we had tons of leftovers last time). it was funny because as soon as the food came, our table got really quiet…i guess we were all very hungry!

after a very fulfilling dinner, we had dessert…a cake provided and lovingly baked by cathy. it was very yummy… we must have had a chocolate tooth that night (when don’t we ever have one?) so we decided to go to ghirardelli square for more dessert!

highlights from the evening?
* fred saying “now i know why they call it roast crap” just after coming back from the rest room…hahaha
* the look on ramel and jess’s face when wena and i came out of the bathroom together
* even better…the look on their faces when we told them they should just go into the women’s restroom since no one was in there so they wouldn’t have to wait
* neil saying they were late because they were trying to find a safeway to buy a gift for the celebrants (does sf have safeways? hahaha)
* edwin freaking out when jess walked up beside him with a beanie on and edwin going “who the f— is this guy?”
* the lady with the “man face” that was undoubtedly an escort for the man she was with at ghirardelli
* even better…chester getting caught by the lady with the “man face” as he was staring at her and making comments
* the funky dude behind the ice cream counter that was too afraid to call out customer numbers
* even better….chester’s thick shake order being remade by the funky dude behind the ice cream counter…what did he do to make the shake thicker? he put in extra scoops of ice cream and more milk! HAHAHA what’s so funny you ask? uh…he didn’t use a blender the whole time!
* neil’s reply on the phone when his brother asked what he was doing…”oh you know i’m just here with some friends…we’re just laughing” hahahha
* me and cathy’s trip to the bathroom with the “looks like granite, but it’s not exactly granite” countertops….when we sat to do our thing, our knees and noses practically touched the door…they were SMALL stalls!

and the most priceless moment?

* our group of friends seated in an area where i don’t think we were allowed to sit to begin with, just talking about anything that came to mind, no matter how dumb or stupid sounding…thick shake, love trap, serial killer in san jose, etc. didn’t matter what the topic was, lots of laughter and fun…it was nice hanging out…looking forward to more nights like that!

we celebrated my hubby’s birthday this past weekend. we were thinking of having a quiet dinner but instead celebrated with venus, the kids, jenn, edison, joshie and edwin. venus called saying that the kids wanted to come and visit so they came around dinner time. we had italian..spaghetti and pizza..yum! the kids spent most of the night playing the WII. joshie, being the youngest, opted to try and walk around our living room..hahaha! he is only 10 months old so seeing that was awesome!

in lieu of a cake, i made a brownie cake for dear hubby. the kids sang happy birthday to him..it was too cute! we spent the rest of the night just chatting with everyone, catching up on life! it had been awhile sine venus and jenn saw each other so we had plenty to talk about! i’m looking forward to many more days like this with all the cousins!

…was hard…trying to get adjusted to the time. thank goodness traffic was still a little lighter than normal, probably due to people still being on vacation. it has been an ovewhelming week! the start of 2008 brings me tons of stuff to do for work, home and my personal life. i hope to tackle each of these items one by one, in hopes that i can complete them before year end of 2008!

we spent our first new year’s eve in our new home this year. it was just me, mel, tobey and edwin…a quiet evening at home. so quiet in fact that i literally woke up 5 minutes before midnight…hahaha! i was so tired from basically going to sleep late every night since december 1st that it finally caught up with me! tobey stayed up til midnight so it was a treat for him to watch that new year’s eve ball drop to the count…3…2…1…happy new year!

2007 totally felt like it came and went! we were at my parents house last year celebrating the first new year for my aunts and uncles who had arrived from the philippines earlier in the year. it was also at this time that we had closed escrow on the sale of our home and decided to rent until our new house was built! we would change our minds on the lot that we wanted which then pushed our move in date out to the middle of the year. and of course that got pushed out even further to august! tobey had started at a new school, full time…we were so worried about him adjusting but turns out he had no problems with a new school and loves his teachers and classmates! we welcomed my first nephew on my side of the family…so hard to believe he will be one year old soon! our own little one also turned 4…they grow so fast! and his dad experienced the toughest year for him physically as he had ACL/miniscus surgery and is going through therapy. workwise, i’ve been as overwhelmed as i could possibly be but still love and appreciate my job…does that sound weird? hahaha

and that brings us to now…here we are…2008! looking forward to a year full of blessings!