HAPPY BIRTHDAY HAWS!

Today my dear husband turned the big 32! In honor of his birthday I am posting one of his favorite things, which I hate, his 70's pervert mustache. Yikes! I don't know if he really loves it or if he loves that I hate it. Either way here it is in all it's glory. 

Happy birthday my beloved husband! Even with the mustache... I know I am a lucky girl!

Labor Day Recipe

This Labor Day we were staying at my parents to house sit and of course... that meant we had to throw a pool party!!! I was busy having too much fun, that the only pictures I took were of the food! I tried a new recipe for mayo-free potato salad and it was a hit!!! The mix of sweet potatoes and red potatoes made this a sweet dish! Plus... I love vinegar, so the combo was right up my alley. Luckily everyone else agreed. I got the recipe from my favorite website again, Karina's Kitchen, Two Potato Salad. Give this one a try!

bodyworlds

Over the holiday weekend... Haws and I went with our friends Rebecca and Paul to go catch the tale end of the Body Worlds Exhibit @ the California Science Center in LA.

We started the night with dinner at The Original Pantry near the Staples Center, Not exactly what I would call "health food"... but it was good, home cooking.

The Exhibit was awesome! If you are going to do it, you have to go to the IMAX movie about the human body first. It was really interesting. It is amazing how our bodies function and gives you a real appreciation for what we have been given.

Unfortunately... you could not take pictures in the exhibit, but the bodies were real cadavers. Kind of gross when you think about it, but cool to see none the less.After the exhibit was over, we were not quite ready to go so we hopped in the hurricane simulator. Paul and Rebecca went first.

Rebecca got a little scared...

Our turn.Haws got a little scared too...

And I was freezing!!Paul tested his strength by pulling up this truck.
Rebecca looked cute trying to do it as well :)

3rd times the charm???

Today I had the honor of becoming an Aunt to my 3rd Nephew (on my side of the family. We also have 3 nephews from Haws' side) This was of course from a different brother... my younger brother became a daddy today! Koko and Brad welcomed the birth of their first child, Tanner Robert
Little Tanner was born at 3:20 am after all long day of labor for Koko. He was 8lbs 4oz (ouch!) and 21 inches long. The family is doing well.
I lucked out when I went to visit this afternoon because Tanner was awake and alert the whole time! He is such a beautiful baby and I am not just saying that because I am blood. The pictures don't do him justice... but check out the video :)
We are so blessed to have him join the clan and are so happy everything went well with both Kori and Tanner.

The little kid is pretty stoked he has such good looking parents... he was destined to be adorable. He really came into this life under great circumstances...

He's got a hot bod...a nice tongue...

An Aunt who strains when she holds newborns... jk (what is up with my neck!?!)Good looking Grandparents...

good hands...

A sweet beanie...

and a dad he can have a deep conversation with.

I think the kid is a pretty lucky.

A peak at him in waking hours. I think he looks like Brad did as a baby, but you never really can tell when they are so young.

Funky Toenails

For the past few weeks... I decided to get adventurous with my pedicure. I usually go for the straight up polish with no upgrades or designs. Being a yoga and pilates instructor, I see a lot of toes. A girl I work with had the cutest polka dot design and it inspired me to try it the next time I went in to do my toes. (I think back now and it was more of a black with gold polka dots) Unfortunately, I combined the new all white look with polka dots and it turned out looking more like funfetti cupcakes!!! The only upside was that Haws wanted to suck my toes! I am totally kidding. Every time I looked at my toes I would laugh and think about how much extra it costs to get them... ridiculous!

I tolerated the toe nails for 2 weeks and then tried a new nail place called Surf City Nails.

I loved it!!! My nail lady was Kathryn and she did a great job. Wonderful massage with even some reflexology... no extra charge!!! She recommended trying a plaid design and I had seen it on a friend before and liked it... so I figured why not? Nothing can be worse than sprinkle frosted toe nails.

This was the result. She even put in some polka dots for fun. I am thinking I will let her try something else fun next time. There are only a few weeks of summer left, so might as well get "crazy" with my toes until then.

Rescue Me!!!

I have to say that I am not a HUGE dog person. I would choose them over a cat... but would much rather own a horse :) I like to take them for walks and enjoy the ones with fun personalities... but I am not what you would call a dog lover. When I go to someones house and the have dogs in the house, I usually shy away from having them jump all over me. There is something about having dog slobber on my leg that just does not appeal to me. Yes... there are some exceptions like my dog Kiya and a few others owned by my friends... but you get the idea. So today I had a random opportunity to "rescue a dog". I had just finished with an appointment in Costa Mesa and was on my way to visit Mandy who just had her little girl (sorry I missed you today... I will get there soon). As I was on the phone with Haws (on the u-connect of course!) I was stopped by a small Rat Terrier just standing in the middle of the street. Cars were going around him, but for some reason he stopped in front of me and just stared. I didn't see any sign of his owner and I figured he some how got out of his home and was just roaming around.  He started coming towards the drivers side door and he looked friendly and had tags, so I opened the door and he jumped right in! He got right on my lap and laid his head down. I felt an instant bond.  I checked the tags and called the number... no answer. So I called the CARE tags and tried them. She said she would try to call the owner again. Long story short... I hung out with the little guy for about 15min and then the owners fiance came to get him. He said that I "saved his butt" because his fiance would have ended it if something happened to her dog. I felt like I did my good deed for the week... but somewhere in the middle of it all I was thinking how I could take this little guy home if the owner never called back. Maybe there is a dog lover in me after all. How could I resist this face???

Trying out the Ice Cream Machine

Haws and I got a ice cream maker for our wedding... we never used it and then I got another ice cream/ frozen yogurt for my birthday. This one had a soft serve handle to dispense the ice cream... so that feature won us over and we kept it.

After almost a year of sitting in the box... I decided it was time to bust it out. So one night while Haws had late night hockey I started to make some frozen yogurt. I had to put it on hold when I got some visitors. Cinnamon and Monica came over with Monica's new little boy, Achim. He is adorable and looks like a little male Monica!

After my guests left, it was getting late and I wanted to get my yogurt done. I hurried and poured the mix into the maker not noticing that the spout was still open and this is what happened...

This was not the worst of it. It had spilled off the counter into the drawers and all over my pants. I was able to save about a cup of the mix and it was good!

The next two days I spent trying to redeem myself for my late night spill. All of the recipes were a success!!! I even tricked Haws by making the mint cookie ice cream reduced fat. He never would have known if I didn't tell him.

This is a horrible picture of me trying to be sexy. I know... it's not working, but this is the only picture I have of my new hair color. Yes... it's brownish. You may not even notice, but I do!!! I feel like it is a little dark, but it has already lightened up a bit and this is much closer to my natural color.

2nd try: Mint cookie Ice Cream. Haws gave this one a big stamp of approval.

Now this one is for me: Vegan Banana Ice Cream

It is made with Coconut Milk and is surprisingly creamy and delicious!

Needless to say, I put this machine to good use over the weekend. I really want to experiment with using greek yogurt as suggested by my friend Janna. I think I might try that once we eat our way through what I already made. This could be a bad hobby to get in to :)