Wish I had Lively balls

I LOVE Blake Lively's style.

Simple.

Clean.

A little BOHO.

Sexy.

Feminine.

You just can not go wrong with a structured jacket and jeans!!!

If I had 'Lively' balls, I would totally wear this!!!!

I wonder if this is her own fashion sense or if she has a stylist??

Heart and Sewl Giveaway!!!!

Check out Paula's totally awesome craft blog.

http://paula-heartandsewl.blogspot.com/2012/01/zipper-bracelet-giveaway.html

She's having a give-a-way this week so hurry!!!

There will be 2 lucky winners of these rockin' personalized zipper bracelets.

Good luck!

Nawleans bayou-bound.....Brad, are you there?

I just booked my seat on a morning flight in March to 

New Orleans!!!!

Hookin' up for Mint Juleps with these lovies.

Plans are still in the works, but we already have reservations to stay in the hubub of the French Quarter.

I know that Brad Pitt has a home in New Orleans and is a big contributor of helping rebuild.

I will be looking around the area for him too.

Maybe he could use a night out from all those kids!

We could eat jambalaya, listen to Jazz, and drink Tabasco inspired cocktails til the sun comes up!!

I think a true

Jolie-Pitt picture

will be on the menu too!

A group nooner

A group date was planned for Sunday afternoon.

Meeting place:

The famous Johanna's Kitchen!!!

Greasy, home fried food at it's finest!!!

In attendance:

Paula  and Jay D.

Lynsie and Jay

Adrianne and Dom (and bambino in the oven)

The Rand and his ol' lady

Girls on one side of the table, and menz on the other.

The dudes had business, back pains, and other stupid stuff to talk about.

The gals had birthing stories, and all around 'woman' gossip to jibber about.

After downing many cups o' joe and euphorically eating our honey-butter scones, we headed in the direction of the theater.

The gals had read many of Janet Evanovich's books about an inexperienced, clumsy bounty hunter.

We couldn't wait to see how it all played out on the big screen!

Our dudes were probably hoping to see some boobies so they came along.

Review:

uh, no.

just don't.

very dull.

predictable.

lame.

cheesy.

bad casting.

no boobies.

We should have watched this at Brewvies!!!  

At least we could have been drowning our yawns in beer!

because it lasts for an entire month....DUH!

I can't even believe that it's been a year since my 

'30 days of love'

 birthday celebration that you all sooooo

SPOILED ME TO EXTREMES!!!!

I still have a hard time wrapping my head around the fact that there is this abundance of love that surrounds me.

There are not enough thank you's that could ever show my gratitude for the gifts, thoughts, and sentimental words you all shared with me.

Thank you again.....

sincerely!!!!

And so here I am, another year older.....

a few aches... 

and pains.... 

and house moves.... 

and good times...

 and belly fat under my belt.

I opened the door to a FedEx package awaiting my excitement of the reveal.

If anyone knows that I selfishly celebrate my birthday for an entire month or more, it's Auntie E.

And if anyone knows my Auntie E, you know that she is the queen of early prep and gift giving!

I anxiously cut the postal tape and said outloud,

"AWWWWWWE!!!!"

with an uncontained smile.

Inside was this beautiful metal bird cage with candles.

It quickly found it's perfect 'nesting' place on my kitchen counter.

The lime green candles are beautiful accents against the yellow lemons  and oranges of my fruit plates.

In the big yellow "OMG!" bag topped with yellow tissue paper,

[yellow being my fav color!]

was an array of wonderful surprises that had "Jolie" written all over them.

Earrings, bracelet, comedic tissues,

[Auntie E knows that I'm a sap and cry at the drop of 

anything sentimental.....

or funny... 

or happy.....

or just because I'm a crier of all things.

Tissues are a MUST have in my pocket book!]

a plaque to hang above my shoe rack,

a scarfie,

a beautiful turquoise box to put special hidden treasures in,

THE cutest card,

and two hair pretties.

I love this peacock hair clip that was hand made by a lady that she knows.

It's so classy and vintage looking.

The super soft animal print scarf,  'made in Italy' has already received much use.

I tend to wear a lot of browns and blacks, so this is a perfect addition to my wardrobe!

[Because I am a year older, you will be seeing more 'lip pucker' pics since it helps in elongating the face and smooths out the wrinkles!  HELL!!!  I might just walk around like this at all times!

What's an older girl to do but look like she is constantly posing for a facebook 'self shot'????

I'm telling ya!!! 

I'm going for drastic measures these days!]

Thanks Auntie E for always finding the most amazing gifts.

You make 'having' to get older........

fun!

loves, loves loves!!!!!

Escargot and birdies

Broccoli and a salad dressing lid = snail art

It's amazing what kids think up when you let them play with their food.

I can't show you display that River made out of his asparagus since he got in trouble for his choice in the design.

It was a hand with a very large asparagus stem being used as a straight up 'birdie' finger.

After giving him a look of disappointment,

 I couldn't help but laugh til we all were laughing because it was realistic and damn funny!  

Of course while I am laughing, 

I am trying to discipline by saying,

"don't do this again!  

and definitely don't do this at school!" 

I think he took my words seriously :)

ummm hummm....yeah right!

The dance that made the club quiet

ok......where do I start???

Well,  I guess we will just dive into the facts.

***This story is from my point of view....

there were a few things that we all saw a little differently, 

but it is still all the same basic story

Titled:

'the inappropriate aunt dance'

or also known as,

'the double header'.

It all happened last Saturday night at the piano bar.

As most of you know, you request songs attached with too much money, and the singers will play your suggestion........

 or sometimes they just throw your request to the side 

but only after 

they take your money off the clip and put it in the money jar.

We are all cracked out  lab rats to the piano players.  

They can throw away our request and take our money and we will still cheer for them and let them know how much they rock our world!

They are pretty good about honoring the birthday requests, 

and usually ask the birthday person to get on stage to be voluntarily embarrassed.

A dude, his girlfriend and his aunt walk into a bar......

[no this is not a joke]

they are called on stage where two chairs are waiting.

The dude and his girl sit in the chairs while the music starts playing.

I don't know exactly what song was being sung because I went deaf, and wished I was blind 

once 'the aunt' started doing 

gyrating hip pumps 

to her nephew AND the girlfriend.

It looked a little something like this:

exhibit #1

and this:

exhibit #2

Although, the difference between my exhibit #2  flat pancake ass,

 and the real deal, was that  Auntie had a nice badonkadonk and it really did look pretty good

 if it wasn't being meat grind-ed into her nephew's face!

You could tell that she had done this kind of dance a time or twenty for men who paid her in her g-string.

She had a way of swinging her hips to and fro that made me wonder if she was born with well oiled hinges instead of joints.

exhibit #3

Apparently the girlfriend was feeling left out of the family action and started grabbing to get her own piece of Auntie pie.

Auntie proceeded to give girlfriend some unhinged motion while straddling her similar to exhibit #3.

Just as the song ended, girlfriend and Auntie leaned into each other and totally full on macked!

It was excruciating having to watch Nephew's embarrassment.   

He was so paralyzed.

I'm assuming he was repeating prayers in his head,

"please let this be a dream, please! please! please!"

As an audience, we were watching this train wreck with complete awe and silence.

Even the piano players were traumatized and finished the singsong by saying,

"wow!  we sure didn't expect that!"

The moral of the story??

always expect the unexpected....

and 

have your aunt define what she means by

"let's go have some family fun".

boot extenders anyone?

Last night was Jax's first psych intake with a doctor.

Yes, I said last NIGHT, 

as in, 

we were in counseling when most people are getting ready for bed!

Very weird hours for therapy, 

but hey!  

I asked begged for this and I will not complain.

But I will just throw in this little tidbit of info as to the length of time we spent at the doctor's office.

The appointment was at 6 pm.  

We were not done until 9 pm!

3 hours of going over Jax's entire life history.

tick.......tock!

The clock was painful.

BUT, This doctor is very thorough and intrigued by Jax's story. 

I think he is a smart one and will hopefully give us a good direction of where to go from here.

There was a point where he had Jax in his office to talk alone.

[I've never really liked letting my kids be alone in a room with an adult...even if they have a P.H.D. after their name.  Makes me uncomfortable because I trust very few to care for my kids.  There are plenty of horror stories out there to make a person untrusting!  I also don't ever want my kids to feel like I abandon them in a room to have to fend for themselves.  If only there were an impenetrable bubble to stick these kids in!]

I took this quiet time to read and get the worries out of my head. 

The awesome selections in the waiting room rack consisted of dozens of outdated magazines.

While flipping through the  October  2011 issue of Woman's Day, I noticed an article/ad for boot extenders for people who have a hard time finding boots to zip over their calves.

 (I know Paula and Emily have talked about this being a problem before)

Check this out!!!

The website is  widewidths.com

I love this look of adding an animal print to a plain black boot.

I would buy these just for the fashion of it!

So, in conclusion, I hope that my hours upon hours of sitting in a waiting room can benefit someone  

through hot looking boots that are comfy on your legs.

:)

Our monthly cycle

January was my month to host our "girls brunch/luncheon".

Hosting is one of those positions that is so fahreekin exciting and fun to get it all pulled together....

yet can be stressful because you want everyone to enjoy the food you serve, and you want your best gals to leave feeling pampered and relaxed.

AND then you remember why we are doing this in the first place!

It's not about the food.

It's not about the decor.

And it definitely not about what we look like.

It's everything about supporting each other as women and friends.

Combine  a great bottle of 4-bears wine with a table of  ladies that you genuinely love, trust, admire, and  laugh til you pee wtih,

and you have a recipe for the most filling substance you have ever taken in.

I chose to do a salad bar with a lot of things that needed 'chop chop'.

[Chopping vegetables is one of my favorite things to do!

A good cutting board with a sharp knife makes me giddy!]

I like to mix fruits, vegetables, cheeses, nuts, and all kinds of wacky things into a salad.

They crazier, the BETTER yum party in my mouth!

I also saute'd chicken breasts in an 

olive oil/fresh lemon/garlic/pepper concoction for our protein topper.

It goes without saying, that the most delish part of our luncheon was the company.....

I love you gals!

Thanks for just being you.....

"Drinking good wine with good food in good company is one of life's most civilized pleasures."

--- Michael Broadbent

btw:  we all had a conference regarding the "aunt lap dance".

I think I have all of the details to be able post the requested story.

I plan on taking an antacid in the morning so that I can be in full 

'non-regurgitating'  form to write the story tomorrow afternoon!!!

NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

Seal and Heidi are calling it quits???

Awe man!

I love them both.

I was always intrigued by the stories of their fun marriage, 

their crazy-assed sexcapades, 

the renewal of their vows yearly, 

and the fact that they are so beautifully "black and white" on the outside and the inside.

Have you seen how gorgeous their kids are?!?!?

This is so sad.

I hate hearing of break ups!

Even if it's with my movie star friends, 

that I've never met.

Ah push it, push it real good!

Saturday night was reason to celebrate!!!!

It was our good buddy Jay's birthday...

and when you get as old as he is,

you celebrate the fact that he can walk without a cane or need an oxygen pack strapped to his back!

We only had to catch his drool a few times, but I think that was more from the alcohol than his age.

Just kidding Jay.

You are just so fun to tease.

You know we love ya man!!!

We started the evening by having wine and dinner at The Market Street Grill.

Ahhhh...so good!

We had THE best waitress who was fun, had a trucker mouth, told of her klepto addiction to stealing pepper grinders from competitor seafood restaurants, and gave all of us a good teaching of how to get crab meat out of it's shell without using those crab crackers that apparently smoosh the meat.

I wouldn't know because I am not a sea food lover....

but Jay gave me a shmidge of his 'bronzed talapia' and I really, really, really liked it!!!

I see fish in my future of dinner delights!

From dinner, we met up with Paula and Jay D at the piano bar.

One of the first things that I noticed when arriving to the piano bar was this glove laying around which nobody claimed.

I knew for a fact that it was the long lost glove of O.J. Simpson!

Unfortunately, it DID fit me and I was not acquitted.

I was sent straight to the bar without passing GO!

Paula and Jay D

Derek and Lisa

Lynsie and Jay

Blind man and greaseface girl

I could just feel that ya all were missing the "Randy shut eye" pictures.

No worries.....we will always have some fresh one's coming atcha!

A round of birthday cake shots were ordered.

Everyone gagged them down, 

their bodies shivered, 

AND then we got the partay started!!!!!

A Garth Brooks song was requested.

This picture shows my attitude toward,

 "friends in low places" being belted out!

MY HELL!!!!

Can we all be done with this song already!!!!

Correct me if I'm wrong friends, but didn't some dumbjunk pay like $40 to have them play this old piece of shit melody?????

Country music makes me feel inbred.

The gals were showin' love, AND lookin' hot might I add!

Jay spontaneously would give the singers a good F-YOU......

and minutes later join in the jamboree 

with knowing EVERY word to hits like:

Push it real good by Salt N Pepa

I'm on a boat MOFO by Andy Samberg and TPain

ALL Journey and ACDC lyrics....

and many other wonderful singalongsongs.

Derek is all about the motto: 

 'go BIG or go HOME'!!! 

And celebrating Jay's birthday as a true Irishman, would not be complete without an Irish Carbomb!!!!

Nasty as all shit, but apparently a fun novelty!

As always,

t'was the loveliest of times with you all, 

and thank you Jay for getting old 

it gives us reason to go out and be with each other....

AND to rub our youth in
 yo face :)

BAM!

Love you all!!!!

Muah!!!

[Insider:

p.s......why am I craving cookies????

MUST have cookies!!!

Shit....i knew this would happen to me!

Marilyn!!!!  Bring me cookieeeeeeeees!!!]