Hawaiian Fusion & Mellow Jazz

Last night Terry took me to din din at Roy's restaurant. They have had the location here in Austin for a quite some time, I've just never had the chance to try it out. Roy's is Hawaiian fusion cuisine. I love love seafood and ordered the prosciutto wrapped tiger shrimp and when it arrived it was hard not to notice the gigantic sunny-side up egg directly on top. It all went together very well, I was delighted with the deliciousness of it all. Is deliciousness even a word? It was one of those dinners where you literally savor every bite you eat it's that good. Like that retarded commercial where that annoying big mouthed girl eats yogurt and says "It's like not catching the bouquet... good." You get the idea, mmm good. We were stuffed by the time dessert arrived but knew if dinner was that awesome, dessert would be too. All of a sudden the room cleared and I heard the sound of harps in the background, my hair began to blow then I realized! I'd taken a bite of our chocolate souffle and was in heaven. Fab din din.

Dinner ended early and we went looking for a place to sit back and chill with a drink or two. Several years have passed since we were last at the Elephant Room and we decided to spend the rest of the evening there, relaxing and listening to great jazz music. It was a fun, foot tappin' good time.

Mew Hew! Everyone Look How Cute I Am!

If you or anyone you know is on the market for a free male kitten... I am adorable and complete with that "new kitten stand up straight fur". My name is Pumpkin. I enjoy long walks in the hall and lapping cold milk. I'm a Gemini. I look demonic in my profile picture, the furball red-eye fixer thing screwed with my pupils. Don't be afraid. I'm not a demon.

Lions Are Talented

Happy Monday to all my peeps!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAJ8aH7ukIs

Don't Fret...

Looks like we're still a 4 top at a restaurant. Musta been the weather. Whew. I mean WHEW!

-thank you to all who prayed. :)

Are You There God, It's TIME TO STOP JOKING

Ok. So. Here's the deal.

My ears are popping. Gasp! How exciting! Except my ears popped the entire time I was pregnant with Ava.

and Grace.

and they are popping today. Let's all take a moment together and pray that my ears are just now equalizing (is that what they do?) from the flight... 3 weeks ago... let's pray that my ears are popping cuz I went scuba diving this morning and - only I DIDN'T GO SCUBA DIVING THIS MORNING.

Rooty Tooty Fresh 'N Furious

Grace slept very late this morning and was in a terrific mood after we dropped Ava off at school. I wasn't yet ready to head home to sort/fold laundry, and I was craving IHOP crepes, so we went there for breakfast. Gracie was very well behaved, she played peek-a-boo with the grandma behind us and took on and off a purple heart bracelet, holding her arm up each time to show it off.

This is around the time I began my people watching. I love to listen to people and their conversations in a restaurant setting. I'm nosey and have big ears, and I think they help me pick up conversations that otherwise, normal people wouldn't catch. First off, I enjoy the IHOP experience, where else can you get pancakes with whipped cream and choco chippies on top? Plus, very interesting people eat there ~ if you know what I mean. Gotta love it. I ordered my usual, the International Passport, my waitress takes a few seconds after writing my order down then tells me, "we're outta crepes." Oh no you dih-int...you didn't just say that, that's totally why I drove all the way here! No biggie, I ordered the two by two by two... with pancakes, thinking of my daughter who would eat those with me.

As we are awaiting the arrival of our breakfast I'm hearing 3 different conversations... the first one involved someone having heartburn and they've tried like 3 different medications. Boooorrrrrring. The second was a young couple totally bad-mouthing one of their friends, how she's in a relationship they don't approve of and the guy is a total ass and she won't listen blah blah boo blah. They paused their bashing when Grace would turn around and wave excitedly their direction. The last conversation was the best. My waitress was getting rreeeammed for getting an order wrong. Some lady who just 'looked' rude, you know those people, they always have this upset look on their face... she was pointing at her plate and then pointing around the table, and it turns out she was simply devastated for ending up with -horrors!- hash browns instead of pancakes. Uh. OMG How ever will you go on with your day after an experience like that!? I'll tell you. You're at IHOP people. Nothing is over like $9.99. You are not ordering beef wellington, you are ordering eggs and pancakes and crap. Pancakes which come with an enormous ball of rock hard butter that isn't spreadable until well after you are finished with your meal. Not a fancy place, um-kay? It was like she found a decayed finger in her food, she was pee-o'd. The poor waitress was just standing there, I imagine wanting to deck this bitch, and after all of the yelling and pointing fingers the rude lady decides to just keep her hash browns and live with it. Umm-Why yell then? Why even bring it up if you won't let the waitress at least 'attempt' to make things right which is why you are bitching at her in the first place?

Grace and I finished our meal, picked up the sticky pancake bits scattered all over the floor and left. The waitress never knew that my eggs were waaayyy over cooked. I gave her a $3.50 tip for my $8 bill. I hope it made up for the tip the bratty hash brown lady neglected to leave.

Moms Gone Wild :)

I am so glad the girls invited me for the overnight this year. The trip turned out to be very memorable. Most of the memories will remain just that, and will not be shared with my reading audience for several different reasons. :) In our case, what happened in Horseshoe Bay will stay...... you get the drift. There were 12 of us, 3 of the 12 are pregnant. God love 'em for putting up with us loud mouth drinkers. There's nothing worse than being pregnant and going out with non-pregnant peeps, you just end up hating all of them for having a great time while you sulk- since pregnancy denies you of any and all alcohol related fun, and instead you find yourself stuck with serious fatigue and major irritability and gas that rivals your husbands... But our preggos had a relaxing weekend sipping cold beverages and resting comfortably. Perfect conditions for pregnancy.

There are multiple pools at the resort and on Saturday morning and afternoon we hung at the one that offered some lake front fun, too.

We enjoyed lunch then jumped in the lake to play around. And when I say jumped, I mean very carefully lowered ourselves off of a rock wall into the water only to find sharp rocks and biting fish. Gretchen and I played a game of White Porpoise and in the mist of my porpoise roll, I lost my sunglasses and emerged from the water with a totally insane neck spasm... which sent me into a complete fury of panic and I was sure I'd drown, then realized the water was like 4 feet deep and I could stand. All was well again, after Gretchen somehow found my shades and took care of my spasming neck. She was awesome!

(Katie, Brandey, Kristin, Brittany, Rachel, Marisa, *Me, Lindsay, Brenda)

*note my sweet 'horseshoe' shades, they came in handy and I just might wear them around town here. Uh - maybe not cuz that would be retarded and people would totally laugh in my face. So no, never mind.

GOOOO TEAM!

Drink in one hand, camera in the other.


We're all shook up, uuhh wuuhh huh.

After an afternoon of sun, swimming and adult beverages it was time to return to the room and chill a bit before getting ready for dinner.

Mmm, those pomegranate shots you made Brandy were soooo good...um, not so much.

Perhaps it was the jumping on the bed that rattled your ability to get the portions of alcohol vs. juice right. ;)

There was a lot of loud music, dancing, and hilarious antics before dinner time. Not to mention drinking. We did a bit of that as well.

Lindsay took a turn with the horseshoe shades and Kristin seemed to have her own opinion of them...

Dinner time arrived and we met the preggos at the table.
What beautiful baby mommas!

Dinner at Lantana

Thank God I didn't get the $34 frozen margarita, because this was the $8 one and it sucked. Lake LBJ tasted better.

Dinner ended fairly early and it just so happened, a Karaoke bar was just down the street. We walked in and it was as if all noise ceased to exist and only crickets and wind were audible. This place was HILARIOUS. We were the youngest by at least 25 years. Once we figured out they probably don't have our type of crowd often, we totally let loose and sang and danced the night away!

Kristin rocked the joint! Ooooooohhhh barra barracuda.

YeeHaw! Brenda & Gretchen two-step!

Brittany sang some Bonnie Tyler! She's good!

Brandy, you're a fine girl" (you're a fiiiiine girl)"What a good wife you would be" (such a fiiiiiine girl) LOVED IT!!!

Gretch and I were Born To Fly... we were wonderful performers - proving our singing passion to the audience with our closed eyes.

Rachel & Lindsay belted out a little Patsy Cline :)

Jim Bob over yonder on the right cracked us up!

If only Jim Bob's legs worked... he could have mosied on up to sing with Rachel.

I took a moment from the fun to challenge myself to a little game of 'Mullet Hunt.'

It wasn't long before I caught one.

And OMG he had the perfect shirt to go along with it, and the perfect W.T. wife complete with a broken arm! (I know he beats me, but he loves me, ya'll!)

We all stroked it to the north, stroked it to the south, stroked it to the east and west. By far, Rachel had the best time 'Strokin'! ;)

On the way back to the hotel from a priceless evening out, Rachel and Lindsay took a dip in the pool. The pool that had closed it's gates hours prior. Love it!!!

The weekend was so great, thank you girls for the invite and letting me be a part of your fun. Cheers!

Headache, Nausea, Bright Lights OH MY

hangover headache please go away now
just get out of my head - I don't even care how

my brain is throbbing and my stomach is sour
next time with shots, I'll have more will power

i arrived home today to two tiny tots
terry let me nap, honey I thank you a lot

i love love my new friends and don't mean to sound queer
once my headache disappears, I'll be pumped for next year

I'm Not Buying What You're Selling...

Everyone rejoice!! The FDA has declared it's OK to eat tomatoes again - but to still avoid hot peppers, jalapenos and serranos. I'm uncomfortable with the fact they still don't know the cause of the salmonella outbreak and can't locate the original contamination point... even after 1200+ peeps in 42 states have become ill, several ended up losing their lives!


If they can't figure out the cause of the salmonella, then I can't figure out why they think I'm such an idiot to run out and eat them! I am still steering clear of raw tomatoes. I did of course partake in Jardin salsa last night, but their salsa is so damn good it's worth getting sick. I hope.

Here Kids ~ Let Mommy Light That For You

I am halfway between over the moon happy... and depressed as all hell. Reason? Preschool. Ava is older than dirt in my opinion, I don't know where the time has gone the last 3 years. I remember little Ava-loo so small and compact I could lay her on her back in my lap and her legs weren't long enough to touch my stomach. Now she's so flippin' big I can barely hold her. The first day of preschool for Ava was amazing. I was the first mom to arrive. Ava walked in and sat in a little red chair and picked up a ball of green play-doh. I said goodbye and she never knew I even left the classroom. Instead of crying because my child was scared to death of being at school for the first time, I cried because she didn't care that I was gone! Now she's like a small adult, interacting with other children and making decisions on her own.


Grace will be 18 months in October. That's 3 months away! 3. months. away. OMG only 3 months until my youngest child is out of the house and attending preschool. How did she get so old all of a sudden??? I'm not ready for this. I need her here. Drinking warm milk out of a bottle and saying gaa-gaa goo-goo. Not drinking with a straw and eating PB&J sandwiches and crunchy crackers.


I'm having Terry pick up a pack of Marlboro's on his way home from work and we will teach them how to smoke tonight. It will stunt their growth and they can stay in preschool forever!
The perfect plan.

Express Yourself!

Just got back from a baseball game and figured I'd post while I didn't have 2 little leeches stuck to each leg. The Round Rock Express played some team who's mascot was a bird, I didn't go for the sport, I went for my friends and free beer! :) Terry couldn't make it, my fault... so it was just me, Toni, Scott, Jacob, and Annemarie.

That's a cow we are posing with. You would know that if JACOB WASN'T BLOCKING THE WHOLE HEAD OF THE COW. Next time mooooove over.

All in all the 5 of us had a grand slam of a good time. It was truly a ball. That pun was out of left field.....

Ok for serious. I've think I've covered all the bases. HA. No really, come back and we'll touch base.

I could go on forever. I'm such a screwball.

No, Seriously! Take It. I Didn't Want It Anyway.

What I would do to have huge muscles and no fear. What a combo. Oh, and no moral compass or conscience. That would be the only way possible I could kick this lady's ass who outright stole a parking space from me.


Now, why on Earth would I be in a parking lot heading directly for an empty space with my blinker in the ON position? Could it be that I was going to park my car there? Ya think?? Obviously this lady disregarded my blinker thinking it must be malfunctioning and I didn't in fact want that particular spot. Well, lady, you were wrong. And now I have to drive 11 more feet to find another spot. But that's not the point...

I sat in my car stunned as she whipped her Toyota Camry into MY spot. I just kind of stared at her, she got out of her car and waltzed right into the store, never looking my general direction. Uhhh excuuuuuuse meeee!


What was she thinking?! I would feel really embarrassed, not to mention really guilty about blatantly stealing a spot from someone. Stealing a spot from someone and fighting for a spot are two very different things. Stealing a spot is rude. I've never stolen a spot. I have however put up a fight for a spot. I was in my 20's (young and immature is my excuse for this part) and it was literally the only spot in the entire lot. I needed it. I had to have it.


Here's how that went down: I was in the Hula Hut parking lot with some girlfriends, 5-6 years ago, you know who you are :) I ended up in a parking space war with another car. She sped up and motioned she wanted the spot, but I wanted it too. *Happy hour was about to start and we're in a hurry lady, get the flip out of the way* So, I darted around her and might have waved a gang sign, I can't remember, but I got the space dammit. I was victorious. The girls in my car were not amused with my parking lot-war antics. But.. I think having them in the car gave me a sense of safety and I became brave. She was just one lady. We had like five of us. 5 on 1. We totally would have won in a street fight. I do not condone violence, I have been in one fight in my life. 7th grade - Deerpark Middle school. I called Amy Pitts a bitch in gym class while she was taking her turn at archery. She walked over and told me she was gonna kick my ass after school. What did I do?? I ran straight to every teacher I knew and told on her.

I didn't get my ass kicked. And Amy ended up in D-hall. Bitch.

La-Di-Da-Di We Likes To Party

Yikes. An innocent little happy hour with my girls turned into like 7 happy hours. Literally.


I met Toni, Teri and Annemarie up at the Domain for some drinks and half priced apps at McCormick & Schmick's. If we had only played our cards right, we would OWN McCormick & Schmick's right now - but Toni wasn't willing to sacrifice pain for gain. It involved lots of glass... (I won't bore you with the story)

We chilled there for a while until Teri left to go watch a show at Continental Club, and Annemarie left for a work dinner, Toniloo went home and I drove to El Chile to meet my playgroup girls.

We chowed down on some pretty good Mexican food, beer and margaritas. You get that many moms together with a 'night off' from the chitlin's and it was unanimous... we weren't ready to call it a night after dinner! 8 of us took off to Cool River to shake our bootays. And shakey shake we did! My camera worked overtime, that's fo' sho.

We only look innocent...

I ran into a friend from High School, hey Kenan!

Get your groove on!

They kissed a girl, and they liked it.

Horseshoe Bay here we come! One week and counting!

Where Have Your Hands Been, Mahogany?

Certain things bother me. Crunchy toothpaste on the tip of the tube. Stepping on a piece of a wet cold, mushy grape one of my darlings has so kindly thrown onto the tile floor. Dull eyeliner pencil. Red lights. Being late. Complete effing strangers caressing my kid's face and rubbing their filthy dirty hands all over them. Ok. When you visit a newborn you wash your hands before touchy touchy time, right? The same goes people, for touchy touchy time with ANY one's face no matter their age. The stewardess on our return flight didn't think she had to follow this unspoken rule. She was friendly and that's dandy, but you can interact with a child without rubbing your hands all over their face and fingers. I'm all for peeps who love kids and try to make them laugh, but please have discretion and realize that you work ON AN AIRPLANE. As a stewardess you touch a bazillion different things during the course of your day. All of which are TOUCHED BY A BAZILLION OTHER PEOPLE FOR GOD'S SAKE. We had the best seats on the flight, the ones in the very last row, you know the ones with the seat backs that don't recline and the two large jets that muffle every single noise you make. The ones 3 inches from the lavatory door that won't stay closed and the smell of airborne poo lingers all up in your personal space. Those seats. The stewardess was kind enough to clean out the lavatory trashcan inches from our faces while in flight and tell us "I always hold a napkin when handling the trash, some people are dirty." OK LADY: Just because you hold a napkin in your hand to assure your pretty little fingers don't touch the trashcan, doesn't mean your hands are finger lickin' clean afterwards. You just touched all the damned overhead compartments to assure they are closed, you touch the skin flake ridden blankets and pillows and sticky tray tables and filthy luggage and OMG I can go on and on.

Mahogany, you were a sweet stewardess, but please, the next time you find a pair of pudgy baby cheeks to pinch - wash your hands girlfriend!!

Ohio!

Weer'e baaaackk. We wish we were still there, however. The weather was the #1 thing we enjoyed the most, aside from seeing everyone of course. :) 80 degrees and breezy during the day, cool and still at night. Loverly. Ok, so this recap of our trip could be like 800 pages, so I've kept it short.

The scenery in Bainbridge/Chagrin Falls is so relaxing and beautiful. Everywhere you look there are enormous trees, manicured lush green grass ~ green!

We don't have much green going on here... we have mostly green with a brownish hue. The word hue is cute. Say it with me... hue.

We arrived Tuesday p.m. It was nice to finally land in Cleveland as Grace had a bit of a 'situation' in the air... I'm calling it a situation instead of a complete f-ing nightmare temper tantrum. 'Situation' sounds somewhat calm and less chaotic. It lasted exactly 30 minutes and a long, deep sleep followed. She woke up to us exiting the plane.

(I'll rip your head off if you wake this baby)

Ava had a great time, watched a movie and ate her little bag-o-pretzels.

Terry's family is large, even though mine is pretty big, on both sides, his beats ours out in the size category by a long shot. Terry has 13 nieces and nephews and if my math is correct, all of them attended but two. Age range from youngest at 14 months to 18. All of them stayed at the house and there were plenty of teenagers around to laugh at Uncle Terry's jokes and egg him on and on and on and on...and on. :)

The next few days the family trickled in and everyone had fun relaxing at the pool, playing Wii, chasing babies and lots lots of eating. Nick had a graduation party on Saturday afternoon, and we had a Talent Show ... Ava participated, holding the American flag and reciting the pledge of allegiance, her cousins sang songs, played guitar, and Terry (Country Toby) put on a comedy bit that was hilarious!

Terry's mom Rosemary

Whiffle Ball!

Jump rope!

Ava & Ella - two peas in a pod

On the way to the duck pond at Aurora Farms

Max, Ava & Tim

Cruisin in Andy's Porche

Bonfire & smores - mmmm

WHEE! Blanket rides!

Fun in the Sun!

Our love is like a roller coaster baby baby! One of the mornings Terry and I took off and hopped in the car to drive to Sandusky for a day of fun at Cedar Point. The last time I was there was with my dad (over 17 years ago!) and we had the time of our lives riding roller coasters. We played all afternoon like crazy kids and our most difficult decisions of the day came when we had to decide whether to ride in the front or the back each time. Not sure how we made it thru the day, I tell ya. ;) One quick story: The last ride we took was on Top Thrill Dragster, this thing is flippin' I-N-S-A-N-E. Not for the faint of heart that's 'fo sho. The ride takes off straight, 150 mph, then you head UP 90 degrees, straight up in the air. Barf. Then you crest at the top and head down. STRAIGHT DOWN. There are no shoulder bars on this ride, just a damned lap bar. I knew I would die. I tried to hold Terry's hand on the way up but let go and held onto the only other thing available, nothing. I didn't die, but ended up dying from embarrassment, sort of. You see, the G-forces on the ride were so powerful it pulled the tank top I was wearing completely off. Yes. I was quite surprised too. I looked down and all I saw, as well as every other rider waiting their turn, was my bra. The wind took it all the way off my shoulders and down to my waist. After the ride we ran to the picture area and found the one of us on the very front row... and OMG it was hilarious! People were looking and pointing and I knew we had to have this picture, what a fun story... except the guy who was there selling the photo packages was sternly told by his dumb ass manager they were 'not authorized to sell that particular photo.' Prudes.

Click here for all of the pics!