New York City

I just returned from a quick trip to New York City with my girlfriends. We had a fun, filling and soggy time, it was rainy and cold until the day we left (of course)! A little tidbit about my family; if I leave Tarrant County someone invariably vomits. Seriously, it happened again! Well, at least they are consistent. My poor Kellis was sick almost the whole time I was gone. Everyone tried to protect from this fact because I only knew about it after I got an email from the baseball coach wishing Kellis a speedy recovery. Ahhhh.
We saw 2 plays, The "Addams Family" and "Promises, Promises". It is always so exciting to go to a show on Broadway, especially when you get to see Sean Hayes, Nathan Lane and Bebe Neuwirth...but they weren't my favorite shows I have ever seen.
"Promises, Promises" was a 2 hour and 45 minute show making a joke of middle-aged, married men cheating on their wives. Funny, how I don't think it's that funny, given I have a middle-aged man in my possession! A highlight of the night was that I sat by Dax Shepard, an actor on the series "Parenthood," which is one of the only television shows I actually watch. He was so kind to all of the people who came up to him to say hello.
The "Addams Family" was fun even though it got terrible reviews. However, let's face it, it wasn't based on an immensely deep television series, so I think you have to cut them a little slack. Nathan Lane is a comic genius, love him.
Then, there was the eating, and eating, and eating. We really only ate 3 big meals but it seemed like a lot. We were always the last people in the restaurant, I am not sure how we managed that! We ate at Marea, Aureole, and the Modern Museum. The Modern was by far my favorite, I had a drink called The Hinny, hmmm...it was so weird but awesome. It had some sort of infused vodka with ginger beer and jalapenos, strange but yummy! It was also a far cry from the boring old drinks that I order 99% of the time. I think they should change the name to The Hiney, just for fun. I literally thought I was going to be sick by the end of the meal because they just kept bringing more and more food, food, food!
Then, we woke up early the next morning and headed back to the Fort. I am starting to wonder if it was all a dream.

Mother's Day

Well, I have obviously been slacking from posting! With baseball, school activities and life I haven't had much time to keep up, and it is hard to recap everything at once. Let this be a lesson to me! We just had Mother's Day and it was a wonderful, relaxing day. I got breakfast in bed...I should have taken a picture, but my camera is in the shop (along with the toilet, the pool sweeper and the dishwashers). Pat made eggs benedict, or really close to eggs benedict, it was yummy. At school, Kellis's class had a Mother's day tea...they made us hats, place mats, shoes, lunch, and wrote us poems. By the time Mother's Day really rolled around, Kellis was over it! He said it isn't really your day.

He was right, it wasn't really my day. I was laying next to Rainey one morning before Mother's Day and I felt her little heart beating. It got me thinking about all the events that had to happen and choices that had to be made for me to be her mother. I spent all week being so appreciative and honored that I get to be their mother.

Tonight we are hosting an engagement/wedding party for Brenda and David at the Bailey's...should be fun!

Rain, Rain, Rain!

Today it has been raining, raining, raining....and I had a surprise quiet day all to myself or at least a few hours. That doesn't happen very often. It rained so much that they even cancelled baseball tomorrow. Kellis was invited for a play date after baseball and Rainey was with my in-laws. I had so much to get done, let's see, I did...mmmm nothing. I watched a movie, ate Fuzzy's breakfast tacos and read In-Style magazine. I was utterly worthless, how irresponsible of me! Oh well, I think occasionally we should all take a day off even when we have things to do.
Pat has his friend, Swanny, in town just visiting since he had the weekend off. So we took him to dinner at Grace and it was yummy. Also, we had reservations for a party of 3 and ended up having 10! It turned into an impromptu party which usually is the most fun anyway. Today, Pat and Swanny played golf...in the pouring rain, and Swanny got a hole-in-one. They were very jazzed about that, apparently, it is some kind of a big deal!
Rainey named her baby Lucifer today....Houston, we have a problem! She said it is Baby Lucifer's birthday and wanted us to sing Happy Birthday, you can take it from there. Hopefully, she will forget that name soon.
Tomorrow we have to judge the Taste of Fort Worth for the Big Brothers/Big Sisters, I think that I won't eat all day so that it won't be too damaging!

Gladney Luncheon

Yesterday, Pat was the emcee for the Gladney Luncheon and fashion show. He did a great job...I wish I had a picture to post here. It was such a heart warming event. I feel like I often don't take the time to appreciate so many of the aspects of life that an event like this reminds you of. I often take for granted that I was able to have both of our children with no problems or issues, unlike so many people. Then you look at all of the wonderful Gladney families and imagine how different their lives would be without the children that complete their families and how different those kids lives would be without such loving awesome parents. It is like my friend said after the luncheon that it s so obvious that God created us to love and be loved!

I was so exhausted by all of the emotions that an event like that evokes. I also had a jewelry booth so I was BUSY! I always get to nervous that people won't like my designs and then people are so generous with their compliments. Then I get so mad at myself for wasting my energy worrying about it!

Here is a photo of one of the designs that everyone loved...It is lapis, lots of lapis! I love this blue and it looks awesome with jeans and any color top. It also looks so crisp and fresh with white.

The joys of spring

Well, here is what our beautiful shade trees over our pool look like...

And this is what covers everything in a our yard a couple of weeks twice a year...Yuck!

So we cracked Cinderelli and her friend Prince Charming out to clean this mess up...and let me tell you, they were a lot of help.

Last Week

This past week has been a whirlwind! I took Kellis out of school Friday and we went to Austin to see Pat's show at the Nutty Brown. We had a great time and hung out at the pool for the first time this year...I love the pool. It might be the only time that I allow myself to just sit around and relax without fretting about what else I should be doing.
Then we headed to Dilley, Texas, where my sister lives for my niece's first birthday. She was so adorable and we had a great time but it was a long trip for a short visit. I won't go into details but we can count construction, interstate closures and flat tires in our list of accomplishments on this trip though!

She was so happy once she figured out what to do with the cake!

Kellis was the lucky guy who busted the pinata and sported this stylish hat the rest of the night.

Summer, Summer, Summer...

If you don't have little guys or really medium-sized guys, all of my High School Musical (2) references will be way over your head. Also, you have something to be thankful for...Seriously. Anyway, this Summer song is whispering to me, telling me put down that queso and that hand of M&M's and show some RESTRAINT WOMAN, it's coming! Maybe that isn't a whisper.
I once bought a domain name called www.madfatmama.com and I was going to chronicle an average mother's quest to lose that stinking 5, 10, 15 pounds that keeps hanging around. That domain has remained untouched for years, kind of like the 5, 10, 15 extra pounds that continue to, pardon my French, piss me off.
SO this Easter, I will try to refrain from raiding the kid's Easter baskets every time I get a chocolate craving. I'm still not sure how I'm going to kick the queso to the curb...