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Change in Plans…I DO Want to See the Inauguration

I can hear Hubby groaning aloud already. And other faithful fans wondering if I’ve lost it or am so headachy/hungover after celebrating Thirsty Third Thursday last night that I’ve lost my grip on reality.

Just watch the video. Okay? It’s definitely my kind of inauguration celebration. And I am totally jealous of the guy who gets PAID to engineer it.

Back to Thirsty Third Thursday… I really wanted to take pictures, but I didn’t. When Shannon, Amy and I get together on a monthly basis, we’re just too darn busy chatting and catching up on the happenings in each others’ lives to do much other than laugh, drink and laugh some more. Between the three of us, we usually come up with some pretty good stories.

The restaurant we chose last night, a funky little Neapolitan-style pizza eatery just steps from Shannon’s cool apartment called Iggie’s, has a Web page, but it’s not very extensive. By that I mean, not a lot of pictures.

Last night, we gorged ourselves on two pizzas, a Patata and a Verdura Fresca. They’re not your typical, run-of-the-mill meat and cheese pizzas. The Patata is a thin-crust pizza topped with potato, mozzarella, pancetta (that’s MEAT), and taleggio rosemary oil. The Verdura Fresca is topped with seasonal vegetables (last night was red onions…YUM), spinach, pecorino mozzarella and a balsamic reduction.

They were both, well, delightful. Although I didn’t take pictures, one other blogger did. So you can at least see how yummy some of their pizza looks (not the exact pizza we ate, unfortunately). Iggie’s was featured at least once in the Baltimore Sun, too. Since I added a link, I hope it’s okay that I borrowed this picture to share…

So, that was Thirsty Third Thursday for January 2009. It was fun. But, seriously, I’m way too headachy/hungover to write more. And I need to get to work. So I’ll leave you with this…

Happy Friday!

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Christmas 2008

From my family to yours…

Merry Christmas!

The shopping is done (mostly). And so is the wrapping (sort of). The cookies are baked (thanks to Mike). And Christmas is finally here.

This is the first Christmas Eve in many years where all of the kids were at our house. It was a bit hectic, but quite nice, if I do say so myself.

Pictured from left to right, there’s me; our youngest child, Eric (19); our oldest child, Shannon (30); our oldest grandchild, Brianna (8); our son-in-law, TJ (27); our youngest grandson, Joey (17 1/2 months); our middle child, Amy (27), and mother of our grandchildren; Mike (aka “Hubby”); and, front-and-center, our middle grandchild, Gaige (5).

It really was a very pleasant evening. I got some nice gifts tonight, and I’m sure I’ll get more gifts tomorrow. But the biggest and best gift for me is having all of these wonderful people in my life. I love them all dearly and can’t imagine life without them.

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Empty Store Shelves

Only a couple more days ’til Christmas. Thank God. I’m still struggling to get ready. After filling out Christmas cards, finally, I needed to make a late night run to Walmart. Eric came along. As we were walking in the door he announced that he needed to “buy some shower gel and one of those poufy things.” His words.

“Oh, you use shower gel now?” I asked.

“Yeah,” he said. “And I recently discovered I’ve been using it wrong. With a washcloth.”

“And how did you discover you were using it wrong?” I asked.

“When I was at my Dad’s house, I used his poufy thing,” he explained.

“And it got all sudsy, right?” I prodded.

“Yeah. And I thought to myself, ‘wow’,” he continued. “It worked so much better. They’re supposed to be good for your skin, too.”

I laughed and joked that we should buy him a nice pink one.

We proceeded to the toiletries section of the store, where, after settling on some manly, Old Spice shower gel, we walked up and down each aisle looking for the poufs. I can never find those damned things in Walmart when I need one. They keep them in the weirdest places.

Finally, we turned the corner into the last aisle and there were four pouf boxes. All lined up nice and neatly. All empty. Save for one.

Eric stopped, groaned aloud and said, “Aw, man. You jinxed me.”

I couldn’t help but crack up laughing.

In that one box was one pouf. A bright pink one.

I have a sort of loud, obnoxious laugh. A Walmart worker, who was standing nearby looked at us to see what was up.

She looked at Eric with pity and said something like, “I know, that’s the only one left.”

I was still laughing of course.

“Oh well, just buy it. I won’t tell anyone.”

“Yeah, right,” he said, knowing I’d rush right home and tell the world via this Blog.

At least he was a good sport about it and let me take pictures to share, too.

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Wanna Guess Who Turned 30 Today?

Not me, that’s for sure. I’m WAY older than 30. I feel way older anyway.

Does this 30-year-old baby picture help?

No?

I’m not surprised. It doesn’t look like the birthday girl at all. In my opinion. But that’s just me.

Let’s try a slightly more-recent photo…

Does the next one help? It’s one of my favorites. I didn’t take it, of course. ‘Cause I was like 13 myself when it was taken.

I’m sure you’re getting warmer. Which is good, because it would take me all day to post year by year shots. So I’m going to cheat and jump to 2006. These pics are some of my favorites. (I did take these.)

Yep, it’s Shannon! She turned 30 today. Thirty! Can you believe it? The big three-oh.

She’s gorgeous, isn’t she? I can’t take any of the credit for that one. She didn’t get any of my genes, poor thing. Nevertheless, she still turned out pretty awesome. Not only is she beautiful, she’s smart. Funny, too. And she’s got a really big heart. She can cook, too.

She’s always been a good big sister.

As an aside… this picture from our 2004 trip to Yellowstone still cracks me up. Shannon and Amy are both scolding Eric for just having murdered a bug.

And we can’t forget that she’s a fabulous aunt.

She’s a wonderful daughter, too. And a great friend. She’s also my most-devoted Blog-fan!

I’m very proud to have her in my life.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SHANNON!!!

I love you!

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Fun With Images

I actually had another post planned for this evening. But after sitting around, playing with some Photoshop effects, I created this very cute image I just had to share.

Aren’t they just the cutest kids? They’re my grand kids. From left to right are Brianna (age 7 3/4), Gaige (just turned 5) and Joey (15 months).

Coincidentally, these images were taken a month ago on September’s Thirsty Third Thursday. That’s a holiday of sorts my daughters and I created. A girls night out, if you will. It happens once a month. On the third Thursday.


It just so happens that TODAY is Thirsty Third Thursday. Woo hoo!

By the way, that’s me on the left, Amy in the middle, and Shannon on the right.

We’ll just be hanging out at Amy’s place because Amy’s hubby is off learning how to be a better soldier, and we can’t leave those darling grandchildren of mine home alone.

It’s not about where we go though. It’s about who we are with. And talking girl talk. To catch up on happenings from the previous month. Things we can’t always discuss openly or even over the phone in case any of the males or children in our lives are eavesdropping.

So happy Thirsty Third Thursday!

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Living in the Moment

I had one of those moments last night. You know, the kind that usually come from out of nowhere, blindsiding you, sort of. The good kind of blindsiding where, once you’ve had the thought, you’re left feeling all warm and fuzzy inside.

It was Thirsty Third Thursday (TTT). Amy and kids are home from their summer in Virginia, so she was able to rejoin he fun.

Anyway, back to the “moment”…

I was sitting in the back seat of Amy’s big-ass SUV (which she needs to transport three kids around safely and comfortably). Amy was driving. Shannon was in the passenger seat beside her.

The two were chatting happily away about Blogs they like. Talking about these people like they know them. I made a mental note at that very moment (not THE moment, which I’ll get to eventually), to check some of them out. I only made it through Woulda Coulda Shoulda and Navel Gazing at Its Finest which led to The NieNie Dialogues which led to C Jane Run (yes, I cried), before I realized time was short, I hadn’t posted to my blog yet, AND I have work to do.

Back to last night…

We’d just had a nice little dinner and a few beers (it was TTT, remember) and were on our way back to Amy’s house. They were chatting away about mundane stuff like blogs and the bloggers that they “Internet-know” (a new term I read on one of said blogs and loved), the prices of gas in MD vs PA vs VA, the different brands of blotting paper they use and which is the best/cheapest (I never knew there was such a thing).

That’s when the “moment” hit. The big realization that my oldest kids, who really are far from being kids any more, have turned into beautiful, happy, healthy young women. And these kids who were “born” to me when they were about 15 and 12–and I was younger than Amy is now!–have grown to mean far more to me than I would have ever imagined possible back then.

I mean, those aren’t the best years in any girl’s life, are they? Adolescence, that is. Imagine us all being thrown together, and me having to act all parental to teenagers when I was barely more than a baby myself (I see that NOW, of course). The ride wasn’t always a smooth one. I knew NOTHING about parenting kids older than 3 (Eric’s age), much less GIRL children on the edge of adolescence.

Now, in what almost seems like the blink of an eye, fifteen years have passed. That’s when it hit me, how lucky I am to have such amazing daughters who have also become my very good friends. (Not to mention 2 of the 4 regular readers of this inane little blog.)

The fact that I didn’t actually birth them makes it even sweeter. They don’t have to like me, after all. I could just be their father’s wife.

That was the moment. It was a good one. I love you both and am very happy to have you in my life!