Suitcase Much

In a few days, we're hitting the road. In preparation, I have to do one of my least favorite tasks - pack the suitcases!! I don't know why I find this such a chore, but I do. Maybe it's because I know that packing also includes the equally unenjoyable task of UNpacking. I might like this even less than the packing itself. Perhaps I find it so awful because of my own control issues and how I must painstakingly create my packing lists (yes, plural) to ensure I don't forget anything. I then must pack each item with the utmost consideration and diligence. You know, so everything is accessible when it needs to be accessed.
Uggghhh, I'm cringeing just thinking about it!!!

Can you tell I've given this process a bit of thought??

Well, tonight was supposed to be a night of many chores - all of which I unequivocally abhor!!!
I have to do something with my hair - wash it, curl it, shave it... something!
I have to wash every dish I can find in the house so there are no surprises waiting for me upon our return.
I have to do one last load of laundry for the boys just so they have enough options while we're away.

Last but certainly not least...
drumroll please....
bbbbddbdbdbdbdbdbdbdbdbdbbdbdbdbdbdbdbdb (my version of the drumroll)

Pack my suitcase and pack the boys' suitcase (they share)

It's around 11:30 Tuesday night and all of the above tasks should have been accomplished.

Let's review:
Well, there's no real need for a review since I can't check off anything on my published list. I half packed my bag, so I guess that counts for something (a little something). Also, I did pack all of our snacks for the ride into baggies. I got our bottled juices and waters ready, so that's another project I tackled successfully. I guess tonight can be categorized as a mini-fail, rather than the EPIC fail! ha

I'm off to bed now because tomorrow is "D Day" and I need my rest if I'm gonna make it through unscathed. I have A LOT to do tomorrow and I'm alone tomorrow night since Ty is in class. We'll see how the day unfolds.

Until then.... smile, Jesus loves you!
T.G.I.F. - Today, God Is First!! (say it everyday)

Status Quo

I am still sick. Feeling much better, just not well. How can that be, you ask?

I had a heart to heart with my immune system to ask him (cuz you know it's a dude) what's up. Our convo went a little something like this:

Me: Dude, I still can't breathe and I feel like I'm about to hack up a lung!!! What gives??
IS: Don't look at me!!!
Me: What do you mean, "don't look at me!!" You are supposed to protect me from all this!!
IS: What do you think I was doing when you were carrying those precious babies in that cesspool of innards you got there?? You didn't get sick once during those 2 years.
ME: Cesspool??? Really?? That's a little harsh - even for you! I can't deny it, you have been there for me in the past... but why is there so much strife in our relationship now?
IS: Sorry my dear, but you are off by one letter. What used to be striFe is now a full on striKe! You treat me poorly, so you've left me no option. I'm out til spring.
Me: Til spring????????? *tears* (When Can I See You Again by Babyface plays softly in the background)

~end scene~


I guess all is as it should be. Status quo... no more no less.

~~~~Now, it's Monday, 23Feb. Looonngggg weekend! :-D~~~~

Even sick, the weekend was full and GREAT! Ty and I attended a grown folks ONLY party hosted by none other than the party maven - Tiffany!! We had a GREAT time!!!! But since it was adults only and this is a family blog - sorry, no pics!!

Saturday, we visited MomB and Dadu. I felt like a kid again.. at least a college kid. I brought up tons of laundry (our dryer is still broken) and Mommy so graciously did as much as she could while entertaining a room full of menfolk who Daddy had gathered for a meeting of the minds.
It was cool b/c Shana rode up with us and accompanied me to the mall (I told you, I felt like a kid again) and we got to see ZYB! She is prego and she definitely has that glow!!! b-e-a-u-tiful I tell you!! Did I mention she's having another boy.... 2 boys each, how cute!!

Anyway, we're back home and have lots to do in the next few days. We're hitting the road again for a long weekend away. I'm sure my immune system will think better of his proposed strike in time for us to have a fun-filled trip... please, keep me in prayer! :-)

Feel The Love

Do I feel the love????
In a word, NO!
Why, you ask....
Simple.
I am in the throws of my third, yes THIRD, cold of this young year.
We are only in mid-February and I am already in the midst of my third sneezing, coughing, fever, chills, aches, episode of the year..... UGGGHHHH! (since I'm still feeling so awful, this is going to be brief)

It all started on Friday. We were celebrating a VERY special occasion - one where we wanted to share our love with others. :-)
Our little Babydoll Caedee turned UNO!!! I cannot believe that she is alread one year old, but alas, she is. God bless her!

How cute is the birthday girl!!!

Here she is with her royal subject (her mommy) getting ready to blow out her candles.
How do you like her bday tiara?? I was told her dad bought that for the little princess!! How appropriate! HA!

I woke up Saturday morning feeling AWFUL!! I had to make mac & cheese for my sorority meeting. Of course, I waited until the very last minute to get it done so I headed to the nearby Pathmark to get the ingredients at 6:30am. What's funny about that is the guy in front of me in line had nothing else with him but 2 (not 1, but 2) packages of Double Stuff Oreos!!! At 6:30 in the morning??? That literally made me LOL! Maybe he had a pregnant wife at home with an early morning craving... Really, at 6:30am all you need are some Oreos????? LOL

Anyway, I make the mac & cheese - but didn't taste any of it before I wrapped it up for transport. I thought to myself that I should taste it, but I wasn't feeling well, I had been up since 6:15 (I'm soooooooo not a morning person), and in typical fashion I was running late.
All I'm gonna say is that I should've taken the few extra minutes and just tasted it. It wasn't bad, it was just bland. Ah well...

Moving on...

I had promised the boys a special treat for Valentine's Day. V-Day is not a day Ty and I particularly celebrate. In all actuality, we barely even acknowledge it. Anyway, I get home and make them some muy delicioso cupcakes. YUMMY!! No mistakes here!! lol

Think I made enough?? :-)


This was Jordie's first AND last bite of the cupcake.
He doesn't have a sweet tooth like me and the other AJ. Don't worry, it didn't go to waste (I ate it)


Here's Owwie going to work!

Here he is trying to get me to take a bite, but because of the aforementioned cold, I declined. :-(

Since our February is jam packed with activities and travels, we also set this day aside for dinner and a movie. I let the boys (Jordie) choose the movie. Jordan has maaad love for Cars, so we watched that - for the umpteenth time.

Once the movie ended, it was bedtime.

I woke up today even sicker than yesterday. I spent most of the day either in bed or on the couch. Hopefully no one else in the house will get this bug. Speaking of bugs, did anyone see Grey's Anatomy on Thursday when McDreamy surgerized out those brain worms!! YUCK!! but definitely one to watch!

Ok, back to bed I go....

Love to all, but I'll try to keep my germs to myself

Diaper Much

So, it's no secret that I love being with my boys. All the blood, sweat and tears is soooo worth it. The neverending fatigue that accompanies parenthood gets completely (well, maybe not quite completely) erased by those little arms giving you a big hug. I'd love to be a SAHM, but much to my chagrin, that's just not possible right now. Maybe in my next life...

The only aspect of raising 2 babies that I could really do without is changing diapers. Like, really! If I never changed another diaper... you know the rest.

When I got pregnant the first time, we got some GREAT items at the shower - one of which was the handy dandy Diaper Champ. We had our own personal diaper disposal system at our finger tips. It did a pretty good job of masking the (un)pleasant aroma di poopi, but I found myself getting lazier and lazier and we kinda stopped using it some months ago. The reason I don't particularly use it is because toddler poop smells so different from infant poop and in an effort to not waste garbage bags (we used regular kitchen size bags) - I wouldn't empty the Champ until the bag reached capacity. Uhhhh, that thing holds a lot of diapers - which caused for a very stinky nursery.

Anyway, we stopped using it. But we kept it next to our changing station, ya know, for a little ambiance...
sans trash bag.

Fast forward to today.
I come home from work today to an awful stench enveloping the ENTIRE house. I automatically new it was a diaper, but I had no idea where it was coming from. I searched high and low, near and far. Nothing.
I let it go but for a moment.

I take Aaron to the changing room (his old bedroom) and the odor in there could knock you out!!! It didn't smell like that this morning before I left for work - but then again, I was half asleep when I left. Let me just tell you - IT STUNK!!!! It didn't smell like a diaper that had been sitting for a day waiting to be tossed. It smelled more like a diaper that had been hibernating for months waiting for the right opportunity to smack us all in the face.... Boy, did it!

I once again searched the room high and low, near and far. Again, nothing. Something told me to open the Champ. I did. Ty immediately took it outside for further inspection.

So, here's what we found inside. Not sure how long they've been in there and truthfully, I don't care to know. I am positive this is the doing of a child - but it really makes me reconsider our diaper disposal regimen. It also makes me reeeeeaaaalllly want to come back home and embrace all of my control issues and just grab hold of this situation (another post for another day)..


Step one was acknowledging we had a problem. Check! Those diapers gave us no option.
Step two is hosing that sucker down!!! Check!



Step three will be bleaching and disinfecting the Champ tomorrow. No more poop today!

At least I can take some solace in the fact that I made some delish potato soup for dinner tonight. Small victories, right..

In a Matter of Minutes

We went from this....

to this...

LITERALLY.... all it took was seconds!!

This was a few days ago, but I can't for the life of me remember what got him so upset. Oh that's right - he remembered he's 2 and that's just what 2 year olds do! I can laugh about it now, but that was a looonnnngggg night!!

All Things PINK!

I had a very full weekend (now moving into the next weekend). Friday was a hoot and Saturday did not fail to keep up!

Lil Sha Sha reached a milestone and turned the big 3-0 early in January and with all that she's gone through - we knew she could use a day/night out. Her other close friends and I devised a plan to surprise her with a day of fun and a lovely girlfriends dinner to wrap up the evening. We knew she'd love it.... she can be a bit of a ham!!! Love you SSG! LOL

We surprised her in the morning with balloons, cards, flowers and gifts. She loved it all!! She was so cute...giggling and smiling. Just thank goodness she didn't cry - PinkLady doesn't respond well to tears.

After the initial shock wore off, we went to brunch. We had a GREAT time!! We were there quite a while, but never felt rushed by the staff to leave..that was nice. And as a bonus, this guy who was planning to propose to his girlfriend that day (he showed us the ring and everything! lol) bought Shana a bday drink!! What a great start to the day!! :-)

Shana and the happy couple! LOL

After brunch, we all went to the movies. This was the only part of the day where Lil Sha Sha wasn't surprised. At least she didn't know which movie we were gonna see.... which we all now affectionately call the Morris Chestnut movie!! YUM!

Here's Alikia & Shana just before the movie

We were keeping really good time and had very little trouble keeping with our schedule. Our next appointment was at MAC...and we were juuussst gonna make it on time. We arranged for Shana to get her 'birthday glamour face' put on - including eyelashes and everything!!!


"SURPRISE!!!"
Here's Shana with her magician.. I mean her make-up artist, Chris
Doesn't she look beautiful.

We spent waaayy too much time at MAC, and alas, fell behind schedule. We got back to Shana's and somehow took a very long time to get ready for our 7:15 dinner reservation. We all finally got ready and were able to leave the house at 7:05. No big deal...
We were running late and there was a bad accident on our way there. From what I've heard, everyone made it out unscathed, but that really set us back a great deal. I think we finally got to our destination at 7:40. Not too bad, I guess.

Shana was a good sport though. We had her close her eyes about halfway there so it would all be a surprise to her. She had no idea where we were going or who would be there waiting for her! I LOVED IT!!! LOL

Here is Shana being escorted down the stairs at the restaurant. Her eyes were supposed to be closed!!

We all sit down and Shana finally realizes we are at the Melting Pot. She told me more than once she wanted to try it out, so we thought this was a good selection. We had a really nice time. Allyson, Martina and Tiffany joined us for dinner (Thanks again guys!!) and that was a nice surprise for Shana.

Alikia, Martina & Allyson fon-doing it up!!
LOL

Shana blowing out the candle on her birthday fondue!

The End.... until the next Pink celebration I guess..

Yes, please

It's Monday and I am still recovering from all the fun I had this weekend!! I think I'll only be able to cover Friday with this entry. I am still nursing a bit of a cold, but that's a whole different can of worms I don't dare open..

Last week was restaurant week in Philly, so Tif invited us out to a restaurant we all wanted to try. Tif, Will, Bernadette, Damon, Ty and I trekked out on Friday night headed for Chima. Ty had been there before, but he still seemed pretty excited to go back. I've been to a Brazilian steakhouse before so I understood the concept, but I was very excited to try this place out.

Our reservations were for 9pm (restaurant week, remember.. we all had the same idea). We arrive at 9 and are told to expect a 20 minute wait!! Ummm, okay. We wait. We wait some more. We grow aggravated. And we continue to wait. I think we finally got seated around 9:40!! *gas face*

Sidebar: If reservations aren't going to be honored (we weren't the only party with reservations who were given the "your table is ready" vibrators), then the establishment should do away with accepting reservations!!

We sit down, exchange pleasantries, then head off to the salad bar. To me it was more weird concoctions, less salad bar. Blue cheese mousse anyone?? Blech, I'll pass. I wanted to grab my camera to take a pic of it, but Tiffany who thought better of that idea, was able to talk me down! haha I did get some good shots of our food though.... and there was TONS of it!!

We ate and ate and ate some more! As long as our buttons were orange side up, those Gauchos were coming our way with more artery cloggers!! Boy was it delish!!!!

I'm not a big meat eater and I'm really not a big beef eater - and my body practically shut down after my third helping of top sirloin!!! It was sooooooooo good though!! LOL It's a shame when your body is CLEARLY telling you to stop, but you just keep on punishing it with more food! And punishment it was. After a while, it wasn't even enjoyable anymore...yet, I kept on eating. I wonder if there is a name for that type of self-inflicted torture... *clicking on wikipedia*

After I came up from my beefy fog, I somehow came to the conclusion that dessert was a good idea. Why, you ask..... still trying to figure that out.

Tif and I got a chocolate lava cake with vanilla ice cream. This is one of my favorite desserts! It looks better than it tastes. It was okaaaaay, but I think my body was ready to reject anything else that tried to make an unwelcomed entrance! HA!

Damon got cheesecake. Bernadette was quite impressed with the size... it was kinda big!

All in all, a great night! Good food, good drink, good company!

Would I go back? Absolutely!

But for right now, no more. No thank you.