A Sunny Saturday in So Cal

I love living in Southern California, there is so much to do, so much sunshine, and after dealing with the mold in my kitchen all morning, I needed to get out of the house.

Brady and I went to an Angels game. We only lasted about an hour and a half because it was blazing hot. I could barely even sit down in the bleacher seat because the plastic was searing the back of my thighs.



I like going to baseball games, but the food at the ballpark always kills me. There is absolutely nothing that is even remotely Weight Watchers friendly. The food is not good and over-priced which makes me hate wasting points on it even more.

Today, we managed the food situation much better at the ballpark. We stopped at Subway and grabbed sandwiches. Angel Stadium lets you bring in outside food and drink, so this was inexpensive, points friendly, and didn't leave me with massive hot dog guilt. Although the Stadium lets you bring in outside drinks, you cannot bring in alcohol. I'm still working on a way to smuggle in wine. I'm thinking of strapping a bag of wine from the boxed wine at Target to my leg and covering it with my pants. I'll let you know how that goes



Baseball games with my husband are always informational too. His knowledge of sports astounds me. I wish I was that knowledgable about anything. He always tries to teach me the plays and the rules. Today I learned about the saying "can of corn" which is used to indicate that a pop fly is easy to catch. I'm not sure how I functioned in the world without knowing this saying.



Later in the day we headed to Dockweiler State Beach to celebrate our friends' engagement with a bonfire.



Brady tried to catch me a "critter" from the ocean. I was not to thrilled about finding a critter, but thought it was cute that he was sifting through the sand like a little kid. Sometimes, I am so envious of people who really appreciate nature and the outdoors, because I really don't and feel that I should. I feel like I am finally warming up to the idea that being outdoors is fun (I mean other than an outdoors mall which is always fun). I think I am even ready to try hiking and possibly progress to camping. If I do make it to camping, I will need an actual bathroom though, I'm not turning into a hippie or anything.



Today started off poorly with the news that Sebastian is going to cost us a ton of money and headache. But the day ended beautifully, I got to spend time with good friends and my hubby, just what I needed.

Wedding in Wine Country

Yesterday was Jader's wedding in Temecula, California. It was held at Leonesse Cellars, a beautiful winery with great views, great wine, but not so great customer service.



I have not spent much time in Temecula, I wine-tasted once but did not care for the wineries that we went to, but this trip really had me falling for Temecula. I loved the view from Leonesse and the rows upon rows of vineyards.

The grapes looked so good, I just wanted to pick 'em and eat 'em. But I don't think you are supposed to do that, so I didn't.

The night before the wedding, Jader and I stayed at South Coast Winery, which has amazing rooms with the most comfortable beds ever. I think Jader is the only bride I know of that got a great night's sleep before her wedding. I did not sleep a wink the night before my wedding, not because I was nervous, but because I was sharing a bed with a snoring bulldog and a sister that likes to try to burrow in the bed during the night.

When you stay at South Coast Winery, you get a complimentary bottle of wine in your room, 2 free wine tastings, and there is vineyard just outside your room. I love wine country so much, I might just have to move there.

While everyone was getting their hair and make-up done, Jader and I snuck away to the tasting room to take advantage of our free tastings. We had our friend's 14 month old daughter with us (her mom had run out to get much needed cookies and brownies). As I was wine-tasting I had the baby on my hip and thought: this is easy, I can totally do this, I can wine taste and still hold a baby, I'm so ready for motherhood! Brady did not seem to agree with my logic.

The wedding was beautiful, the bride looked amazing, and her colors worked so well with the surrounding vineyards. The flowers complimented the setting perfectly.

The best part of wine country is that there is so much wine, everywhere. Even at the nail salon.

I'm pretty sure that just because your wine is covered up with a coozy meant for a beer bottle, you can't just carry around an open container of alcohol. I think there is still one of these bottles rolling around my car which I need to remember to get rid of. But who doesn't love a water bottle full of chardonnay while getting their wedding nails done? I know I do!

Of course, Brady and I took the obligatory photo complete with our standard pose. Ooooh, but this one is vertical instead of horizontal. We must have been getting a little crazy. And, I'm sorry, but how cute does Brady look in those khakis and that blue shirt. I love this look! Although I'm slightly annoyed that this shirt was purchased about six months ago and this was the first time he wore it because it has been stuffed in the back of his very unorganized closet.

All in all, it was a fantastic wedding. And I only caught my bridesmaid bouquet on fire once.

How many is it going to take?

As of today, we have had three different plumbers come to our house to assess our leak situation.

Plumber #1, Tom, punched a hole in my wall and left me in tears when he told me I have a slab leak.

Plumber #2, Joe, was my angel who told me that I did not have a slab leak but my dishwasher was leaking.

Plumber #3 (and #4 cause this guy came with a buddy) affirmed that my dishwasher was in fact leaking and also told me that the water pressure in my house was ridiculously high and I needed a new pressure regulator immediately or my house was going to explode, or something like that.

How many plumbers is it going to take to get this thing straightened out!?! Oh wait, I forgot a plumber, plumber #2 1/2 came over today to fix the toilets upstairs which were running. We also had an appliance technician out today to look at the dishwasher and somebody to repair our garage door opener.

If you need me, I'll be the one running down the street with all my boxes looking for an apartment with a landlord that I can call when crap like this happens.

Product Placement

For years I have relied on Bonne Bell's Lip Smackers as my chapstick of choice.



I love the way Lip Smackers smell and taste, it just brings me back to a simpler time. But it is a little sugary sweet and it does not look to professional to whip out your Lip Smacker from your Cole Haan purse. As I got older, I felt the need to become a tad more sophisticated, to take it up a notch in the lip gloss department.

So I moved on to Burt's Bees, their basic chapstick has peppermint in it which is nice and tingly, and smells good. Plus, it really conditions your lips.



Even with the upgrade to Burt's Bees, I was still feeling unfulfilled in the area of lip gloss. As I got even older, I really needed some spf in my chapstick because my lips would actually burn and be incredibly painful.

Then today I found this little gem at the Fresh store in South Coast Plaza.



Slightly tinted with a hint of color, spf 15, and super conditioning. I reapplied this chapstick (if you can even call it chapstick it is so great) all day. It has everything I need, it really completes me, in a chapsticky kind of way.

And to think I almost didn't buy it because the salesgirl was such a ditz. I had to give my full name, address, phone number, and email address for her to ring up a sale. Normally, I would not give out this information but I was in a hurry so I didn't want to argue. And I really wanted this chapstick. I ended up repeating my name four times and my last name at least three times for her to get it right. My last name is BRADY people, seriously, how hard is that to spell! When I got married, my husband told me that I would now get to enjoy having to spell out Brady to everyone. I said no way, everyone knows how to spell Brady. Um, turns out pretty much no one can spell it. I am constantly called Grady, Bailey, Bobby, Bradley. Come on! It's Brady! Like the Bunch!

Anyways, I love my new chapstick.

Sisters in Sweaters

When Stephie was 16 years old, I was 21 and a senior at U.C. Santa Barbara. There was a dance at Stephie's high school that she did not get asked to, to console her my parents brought her to Santa Barbara to visit me.

They dropped Stephie off at my sorority house, said "have fun," and went to their hotel. Seeing as it was a Saturday night in Santa Barbara, I thought it was a great idea to take my baby sister with me to the house parties my friends and I had planned to go to.

Going to house parties in Isla Vista is an experience, all the best parties are on Del Playa street which is on the ocean. Del Playa is home to old, crumbling, dilapidated houses, where at least 10 college kids live. Add a keg, a little music, and you have yourself a house party.

Because she was so young, I made her wear a big, chunky sweater. I wore one too so she wouldn't feel left out. We were the only girls in all of Isla Vista wearing sweaters.



We had a great time going out with my friends and experiencing Isla Vista. I held Stephie's hand the entire time and if any guy tried to talk to her, I yelled "back off, she's only 16!"

The next morning, my parents picked us up to go to breakfast. Um, needless to say we were not exactly bright eyed and bushy tailed. In fact, my baby sister and I were hungover messes. But we tried to pull ourselves together and have a meal with my parents.

At the restaurant, we could barely keep our heads off the table, we sipped on water with our bloodshot eyes, and nibbled on our food. My mom asked what we did the night before. I told her that we went to house parties, and in my hungover daze said "yea and Steph took shots better than all my friends."

My father is a man of few words and rarely, rarely, gets angry or upset. He glared at me, glared at Stephie, stood up, took out his wallet, threw down a credit card, said "I'll be in the car," and left.

I looked at my mom, "what's his deal, you guys are the ones that brought her up here." My mom looked at me with disapprovement in her eyes and said, "we thought you'd take her to a movie and get pizza, not go to parties." Oh right, maybe it is a bad idea to take your baby sister to house parties in a college town when she is only 16. All I could say was, "but we wore sweaters!"

One Point

Kettle korn, the ying and yang of popcorn. A little sweet, a little salty, and totally amazing. I don't even want to think of the calories in the kettle korn at the fair.

But, I found these 100 calorie bags of kettle korn, look how much popcorn you get for 100 calories! And it tastes good! This is way better than those lame 100 calorie packs that they try to pass off as the real thing. I'm sorry but little flakes of kinda chocolaty cookies are not freaking oreos.



Anyways, this popcorn is good, you get a lot, and one bag is 1 weight watcher point. Note: these bags are smaller than a normal size bag so do not use the popcorn button on the microwave! I did today at work and my office smelt like burnt popcorn all day long.