Not Long Enough

Dadu & his girls (me & lil sha sha)

We just recently returned from a long weekend away in North Carolina. We were visiting family and friends and we had a GREAT time!!! We arrived on Thursday and left on Tuesday.... that's a good amount of time to still consider it a long weekend. Even still, our time away was not long enough. I didn't want to leave. I didn't want to stay past our welcome (and with 2 toddlers that can come fast) - but I just wasn't ready to leave. Have I mentioned that we had a GREAT time??? Like, really!

Anyway, here are a few highlights from our most glorious trip. To you, they may not be oh so special, but they definitely serve as reminders of a fabulous trip that was far too short.

I think what makes it tough is that I have no idea when we'll be able to get back down there. In the past 2 years, we've been at least 4 times. We just love it! Ha!

Okay, okay... I know you just want to see my gorgeous family...



State Troopers (in Delaware I think) who we had to follow for like 20 minutes going like 10 mph... no joke, no exageration!!


we stopped at Hardees somewhere in VA for lunch. anytime is a good time for a photo op! :)

here I am a few minutes after we left Hardees....super carsick! coincidence, maybe?

Finally we arrive.....
We say our hellos, get settled... then the girls head out for a night on the town!


here I am trying soooo hard to pose... maybe little too hard! haha

going out on Friday night... such a fun time


me & Owwie eeeeaaarrrrlly the next morning



the obligatory bathtub pic

Me and Ash... Strike a Pose! lol

MomB, Dadu & the grandboys

Ty & Ash - they are so photogenic! :)

Me & Shana.. I'm so glad she was able to come

All the Ladies @ The Gathering



me & ty trying to hang with the youngins

the Ladies! too pretty I tell ya!

me, shana & aunt raye (hostess with the mostess)

the grandboys with the grandparents at Dadu's bday dinner (i won't dare tell his age.. besides you'd never believe me - doesn't he look YOUNG!! :-D)

My ABSOLUTE FAVE pic of the trip!!! They are just TOOOOO cute!!

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! :-)

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.

Off the deep end...

Sooooo, I am exhausted! What else is new?? I need to look into some vitamins or something because I have been dragging all month! Today is the 24th, so that's over 3 weeks where I spend more time yawning than blinking! *YYYYYAAAAAAWWWWWWNNNNNNN*

So, guess what I did yesterday?? Here's a hint - I jumped in the deep end at my swim class!! Yeah, I know that was way more than a hint but I couldn't help myself!!! :-D This was only our 3rd class, but I did it. I know I didn't cure cancer or anything, but I have a SERIOUS water phobia!! Like, it's not funny! Our instructor, Bill, took my hand and jumped in with me. He is soooo patient - jumping in water with a grown woman!!! LOL Check that visual!!! LMBO I really have to laugh at myself. Anyway, after the first jump, I took off the training wheels and jumped in by myself!! WOOO HOOOO!!! I know - I'm awesome! :-P

I'm still trying to get comfortable floating on my back, but I'm confident I'll get there. I've spent 28+ years scared of water - that won't change overnight, but I'm proud of the little progress that I've made. We'll see what happens next week.

In other GREAT news - SHANA GETS TO GO HOME TOMORROW!!! YAHOOOOOOO!! She had 2 drains in her abdomenal region for the excess fluids and such... well, she had those taken out today. I KNOW that had to hurt - but she's so strong...I'm sure she only cried a little bit! Ok, well she told me she cried a lot, but I didn't want that on her permanent record.. lol It appears all is going well and I'm just happy that she's getting out of there. I've always been told people recuperate better in their own surroundings. Shana and I were roommates for over 5 years in college and before I got married and I am going to be staying with her for a while to help her get back on my feet. Hmmmm, won't this be interesting! I think it'll be fun (kinda) - but I don't think she has cable! UGHHH! She was supposed to get it before the surgery, but I don't think she did. Glad we both have Netflix!

So, Shana got her drains taken out and she gets to go home tomorrow after having major surgery. I jumped in some deep water completely surrounded by lifeguards and was never really in any imminent danger. I'll say it again - a little perspective.. Even still, 3 baby cheers for me working on my fears (which is really a blog all in and of itself..)

Traditions, toe kisses & a little perspective

WHEW!!! It's been a LONG week and an even lonnnnnnnger weekend! I can't complain though! Well, I could but where would that get me?

So, when I found out I was pregnant for the second time I knew that I wanted to start all sorts of traditions for my family - Easter eggs, going to the pumpkin patch before Halloween, Christmas morning breakfast, family fun nights, etc. The boys and I went to the pumpkin patch last October and we plan to go again in a couple of weeks for this year's trip. I'm excited! We're still working on Christmas. We've gotta work out the kinks but we're getting there. So far, we have the boys in their Christmas pajamas and we have a big breakfast on Christmas morning. I think I'm gonna also let them open one gift on Christmas Eve - that won't be a big deal until they are older though.

ANYWAY, since we reached the milestone of everyone in the house eating the same meals - I decided to start my dinner and a movie tradition. We had to wait until Aaron could eat what we eat before we could start. I'm glad we waited! :-) We'll do it one Friday a month and I'm proud to report we started this past Friday. We had a 'picnic' on the living room floor eating pizza and drinking chocolate milk and tasty apples for dessert. Our movie of the evening was Finding Nemo. It was a HUGE success!! I can't wait for next month's festivities. Maybe we'll watch The Great Pumpkin since we'll be nearing Halloween. In the meantime, check out my boys....

Eat up boys!

The 2 AJ's (and Jordie's sneaker!) :-D

My boys eating their apples

Apples give Jordie superpowers! lol

As I said, this has been an extraordinarily long week. I tried to fit so much in to my schedule that it became obscene. I'm paying for it now b/c my body is wearing down and I am so fatigued. I just have to make sure I don't get worse! *looking for my ecinacea*

So, I had family coming into town yesterday to attend my sorority's annual scholarship luncheon and fashion show. I was doing all I could to prepare for them. I was cooking, cleaning, shopping, etc in preparation. I probably went a bit overboard, but I wanted everything to be nice for them. So, while the boys were watching Nemo I headed back to the kitchen to make food for Saturday. I made a muy delicioso chicken pot pie and some apple bars - very cakey and super YUMMY! neither dish was very complicated to prepare, but both happened to be quite labor intensive. Once I finished with that and got the boys to bed - I had to finish cleaning my house! AHHHHH! I thought I had made more progress during the week, but I guess not. I didn't get to bed until 3am!!! Once I got up there, I looked at my cell phone (error #1) and saw a text from my boss. He is in Hong Kong so I knew he would be awake - so, I replied (error #2). He wrote back. It was funny b/c he asked why I was still up and if I had just gotten home! I literally LOL'ed. I told him I WISH my life was that glamorous!!! LMBO!!! Anyway, as it turns out, he needed help editing an org chart!!?!???!?!??!?!?!?!!!????!!!?! I went BACK DOWNSTAIRS, turned my computer on, made the necessary changes and hit the send button as fast as I could!!!!! (error #3). On my flight back up the stairs, I had to ask myself why I answered the text!!! Too funny.... Or rather, too sad! LOL

Ok, wow - I really do ramble on don't I.


So, the fashion show on Saturday was a huge success. We had a great turnout, great activity with our raffles and our silent auction. We had some great vendors. And the best part - just about everyone from my table won a door prize!! HOLLA!!! There were a few intense moments (gotta love the seniors), but all in all, a great day! So, the show was supposed to end at 3pm, but we didn't get out until close to 4. My mom and Aunt Vic came back to the house to see the boys. Of course THEY BOTH WERE SLEEPING!!! LOL YAY, they decided to wake up. Tif came over too so mommy could see Jace. He is too cute! It was great having them all over, but can I please tell you how tired I was!!!! I couldn't keep my eyes open for anything. Mommy and Vicki had quite a drive ahead of them, so they didn't stay long.
MomB and her boys (I heart those matching tops...)

They left by about 7pm and Tif was gone by about 8pm. I left Aaron downstairs with Ty and I took Jordie upstairs so we could chill out in the big bed before night night time. I turned on Backyardigans for him and that actually allowed me to close my eyes for a few minutes. I was quickly awakened by a little toddler playing footsies with me. I asked Jordie what he was doing and he said 'touching toes.' It was soooo sweet. Maybe it was just my fatigue talking, but in that moment, nothing could have made me happier. I just changed the name to toe kisses...and he was so generous with them and was more than happy to toe kiss me goodnight! What a special boy i have! MUAHHHHHH to you too Jordie - from my big toe to yours! LOL

WHEEEWWWW.... this is the reason I need to blog more often.


So, I wake up today and I'm still exhausted! I can't seem to get it together. We all made it to Sunday School this morning, so that made me EXTRA happy. We so often try, but we're all a little too slow in the morning. I hope we can go more often - especially since I want to pick my French class back up. The boys were in rare form today and nothing was working to get them to calm down. Needless to say, we left church early. I was just way too tired to wrestle with them in there. My patience was on "E"! We left and the boys were both asleep before we even turned off the block. We all took about a 2 hour nap that afternoon. I woke up, not really refreshed, but ready to finish my day. I was in a bit of a funk, and I knew I had to go see Shana - but I didn't want to go with that attitude. It was too late for lunch but not quite time for dinner, so I just made a quick fruit salad so they wouldn't be starving. It looked quite yummy (apples, grapes, blueberries & strawberries), but I wanted realllllllll food! ;-)

Yummy fruit!! I love those little hands!

Anyway, before I knew it, it was 6pm! I had to get to the

hospital! I left the boys (all 3 of them) and made my way to see Lil Sha Sha.

Seeing her was GREAT! She had her surgery on Thursday and today is just Sunday - she looked FABULOUS!!!!!! She's not moving much, but that will come soon enough. The surgery went well and the surgeons ended up only taking her spleen and part of her pancreas! Isn't God good????!!!! He is able!!! WOO HOO!!! I am so excited for her! I mean, this is not the ideal situation for her, but things are still wayyyy better than they could have been. She has a long road ahead of her, but we're all here to support her. I'm just so proud of her!

Going to see her tonight served a few different purposes.
1. I got to see my dear friend and let her know I'm here for her.
2. I got a quick break from the boys (I love them, but still..lol) and
3. It wasn't intended but it offered me some new perspective on life (& all its ups and downs).

You never know what is in store for your life and you can't always sweat the small stuff. Shana went through something major and just to see her afterward makes me so appreciative of what I've got going for me. My days don't always go according to plan, my house can sometimes be a big mess, my attitude oftentimes needs adjusting - but I have my health, I have my sanity, I have a wonderful family!!! I am BLESSED BEYOND MEASURE! So, thank you Shana..... This is probably just the tip of the iceberg in terms of the lessons we'll all learn from this surgery. I know it's all for God's glory and I can see that manifesting itself already.

So, three cheers for Lil Sha Sha!!!

And with that, I bid you adieu....