Smartphones

Smart phones are everywhere these days.  Most of the people I know either have one or are planning on getting one in the very near future.  I, on the other hand, despise them!  I know that I'm low man on the totem pole for this but I really hate them. 

I hate that people don't think that it's rude to constantly have their phones right there with them at all times.  When I'm hanging out with friends, and they keep checking their texts or answering their phones in the middle of our conversations, I see RED!  It's like what I'm saying isn't important enough for them to actually pay attention to.  Or because they have instant access to the web/FB they feel the need to be on it.  Especially if they are on vacation.  I've seen status updates  from people on their honeymoons.  Really, is your new husband or wife not interesting enough to leave the "real" world for that week?  Do you think that maybe you could be doing something else?  I know what I did on my honeymoon, but maybe it's just me.  When I'm on vacation, I don't think about any of you!  Not even a little bit.  I don't think about friends or family or FB or blogging.  None of it.  I'm soaking up being on vacation!

OK enough of my rant.  I get it that cell phones are not going away.  I don't want them to.  I think of the emergency situations that I was thankful to have mine.  My cell phone by the way doesn't text, doesn't surf the web.  It's about 10 years old.  It does it's job but if you try to call me on it.  You won't get me 90% of the time.  the ringer is too quiet, even on it's loudest setting for me to hear it in my purse.

But don't you think that people are getting a little bit TOO connected here lately.  I used to be somewhat addicted to FB.  I would check people's statuses 10-20 times a day.  Now I check in the morning and maybe once or twice in the afternoon.  I've been going whole weekends without checking even once.  It feels good to not have my every move tracked by people, even if they are my friends.

So while they are necessity, to most people, they aren't to me.  I hope I don't ever become one of those people.

Celebrating Almost 5 Years Old.

This past weekend we celebrated Annabelle's 5th birthday with our family.  She will be having 2 more parties, one with her friends from school and one with our "friend -family",  both next weekend.  All of these birthday parties are confusing her a bit but she is enjoying her moment(s) of glory.

Monday was hot and humid, hovering near 90 degrees but we won't complain after a record breaking spring for rain.  The kids ran around like monsters and played so nicely while the adults hung out in the garage and sipped a cold beverage of their choosing.  Having both my family and Mark's family all together always causes me extreme discomfort.  They are so different from each other, and while they both deny it, the Grandma's both are competing for attention.  It doesn't matter from whom, me, Annabelle, whatever.  But they both want to win.  Luckily everyone played nice (though they always do), and we had a great time.

One sweet pose with the cousins, Austin and Anya.

Did we really need more Polly Pockets?  Yes we do!

Thanks for the new horn for my bike Uncle Keith.  (Mommy doesn't thank you though, lol!)

Oh the face!  Can you even stand it!  She was opening her new scooter that she'd been asking and asking for.

My sweet girl is all ready to go fishing with Daddy.

Again, the face!  I'm in love with it!  She's all set to swim in her new pool that mommy, daddy, Oliver grandma and papa got her.

The first try on the scooter.  She thought she would get it immediately and was disappointed that it was harder than she thought it would be.  We have to practice.



Then it was cake time!  If you look closely you can see that the tower is propped up with shishkabob skewers.

Here's a close up of the Rapunzel Tower cake I made for her.  It was so cute!  And then it fell over and was kinda ruined.  At least I got one good pic before hand.

Birthday girl gets the tippy, top tower.

It was a happy and messy birthday party!

We had a fabulous Memorial Weekend.  We spent lots of time with friends and family and simply enjoyed ourselves.  I think that there is no better way to honor then men and women who fought for our country than this.  I hope your weekend celebrations were just as wonderful as ours!

My First Love...

was Joey McIntyre from New Kids on the Block, I was 11 years old.  I remember I was in 6th grade and writing I love Joey forever on my book covers, all of them!  I can remember how excited I was when I got my Walkman and their first two cassette tapes for my first trip to Florida to visit my Grandpa and see Disney World.  I can remember taping everything that I could find on TV to watch over and over, buying every magazine with their pictures in them and taping them to every square inch of wall space in my bedroom, even the ceiling.  I had the comforter and sheet set and made sure I slept with my face next to Joey's every night.

And then I grew up, New Kids faded but I always had a sweet spot for them, even though people would pick on me to hear of my love for them.  Then in 1999, Joey released a solo album and the song did well here in Buffalo, not great but everyone would know it.  That year both he and Jordan Knight came to Kiss the Summer Hello.  It's a concert that is held every year by a local radio station and they get 8-12 bands to come and perform.  I was so there.  I slowly scooched my way as close to the stage as I could when Joey was up there.  As he sang a slow song, Mark lovingly tried to put his arms around me.  I pushed him away from me, what if Joey thought I was with him!  Gah!

Then fast forward to 2008.  NKOTB made a new album, their first in almost 20 years.  They were touring!  Swoon!  My friend Steph and I were in like Flynn baby.  We went out and made a date to buy the CD together the day it came out, we went to our first of 5, yes that's 5, concerts together in a 9 month period.  After the first concert, in Toronto, we were hooked.  We had such a good time that we convinced our husbands and 3 others friends to go to Cleveland to see them 12 days later.  This time we made shirts and brought our cameras.

Krissy, Angela, me, Stephanie, and Joleene

Seriously, we are freaking awesome!  We got so many great comments on our shirts.  Strangers stopping us in the restaurant we ate dinner at before the show and asking to take our picture.  We were a hit and we loved it!

When the show started, we took hundreds of pictures between the five of us.  Here are a few.

Then in March 2009 we decided to go to another concert, this one was in Pennsylvaia somewhere.  We made new shirts, the old ones said 2008 and it's now 2009.  These shirts were racier and got an even bigger response from people who saw them.  I sorta can't believe we did it but oh, we had so much fun!

This time we had handprints on our lady parts that said Joey was here.  Risque, no. :)

Stephanie and I then tried to win tickets on a radio contest and holy moly!  We actaully did!  Oh the screaming that ensued, the shaky hands!  We were headed to L.A.  We opted to stay one extra day since they had only planned on flying us there one day and home the next.  We saw the Hollywood sign, walked the Hollywood walk of fame, watched them shoot the movie Zombieland, plus the concert.  We did so much in those 3 days.  That was concert number four, all in different states or in the case of Toronto, a whole nother country.  But finally they decided to come to Darien Lake, one of our local amusement parks.  We tailgated ate many, many, many Jell-o shots and complimented our cool shirts with some headgear (I wasn't thrilled with it, but I went along with it so that I wouldn't hurt my friend's feelings).

Our signage we made for tailgating.

A shadow photo of our headgear.

All of this is leading up to the fact that I'm going to another New Kids concert in about 2 and a half weeks in Pittsburgh.  They are touring with Backstreet Boys.  I was supposed to help make new shirts yesterday but my migraine side-lined me all day.  I'm not quite as excited as I was during our first crazy run.  Some of the magic has left me but I'm sure once I'm in the middle of it, I'll feel as giddy as my 11 year old self again.  Screaming my head off for the Five Beantown Boys that I will always love, no matter how long I live.  You never forget your first love. :)

New Orleans In Pictures

Mark and I, when we got married, said we would do something special for our anniversary every five years.  Meaning a trip, not anything huge, but something to reconnect us because marriage can be hard sometimes.  Well five years came and we thought, hey lets go to New Orleans!  It's one of the places we really wanted to go, but then I (or more specifically, my friend Stephanie) found a great deal for Disney World and we ended up doing that instead.  We were a little nervous about leaving Annabelle for so many days.  Disney was a nice compromise even though we went 5 months after our actual anniversary.  Then we ended up at Disney again a year and a half later and this time we ended up with Southwest credits, $210.  Those credits had to be used before May 13 of this year or we'd lose them.  Now Annabelle's school had thrown a big stink when we took her out for the 6 days back in October, so we weren't going to take her out again and face the wrath, so it was just a mommy and daddy trip. 

We (or really I) was nervous again about leaving our bug.  Plus we left on Mother's Day and believe me, I was a mess because of it!  Especially after Mark gave me my Mother's Day card and I talked to Annabelle on the phone on our lay over.  We called her every night before bed to say good night and hear about her day.  Her first night without us was hard for her.  My wonderful mother-in-law was up most of the night with her while she sobbed for her mama, but after that she was fine.  I will always be hugely thankful that I have such wonderful and loving in-laws.  The 5 days we were gone were hard on them, I know.  But they always say they realize how important it is for Mark and I to have alone time together.  Many of my girlfriends have poor relationships with their in-laws and while mine can annoy me at times, I know they truly love me and I them.

OK off the tangent.  Here are the pictures.  :)

St. Louis Cathedral in Jackson Square
Artists and bands and palm readers, would set up all around the pedestrian mall around here.

Anne Rice pictured this building as the Louis and Lestat's home in Interview with a Vampire.

We took a tour of St. Louis Cemetery #1.  This Marie Laveau's tomb.

Just some of the tombs.  The history of the cemeteries is really very interesting.

Anne Rice lived in this house, in the Garden District, and used this house as the model for the home in The Witching Hour trilogy.

The oak trees in New Orleans look nothing like the ones back home in Buffalo!  They have some weird looking roots!

We took a plantation tour of two different plantations.  This is Laura Plantation, a typical Creole style building.  It still runs as a sugar plantation, but I was expecting something grander.

Then we toured Oak Alley.  This was more along the lines of what I wanted to see.  Pure opulance, plus the 28 oaks running up to the house were just gorgeous!

These are the trees in the back yard.

This is the only photo of Mark and I together from the whole trip!  I kept reading about how people will rip you off so easily in New Orleans that I didn't want to let anyone else use our camera for some together pictures.

Then after touring the two plantations we went on a swamp tour.  It was a very long day but so much fun!

Honey Island Swamp, the Pearl River.

A real live alligator!!!! The captain of the boat was feeding her hot dogs and marshmellows off of a stick.  She was full of eggs because it is breeding season and about 7-8 feet long!

Here she is jumping out of the water while a different boat was feeding her.

This is everyone's favorite little alligator, Froggy.  He has no tail!

You can not go to New Orleans without going to Cafe Du Monde for some beignets.  They are like a donut and fried dough all wrapped up in a heaping mound of powdered sugar:)

Right after I took this picture, Mark ate the sample and his eyes bugged out of his head because it was so hot.  He looked like a cartoon, I wish I had gotten a picture of his face!

We went to the Mardi Gras museum inside the Cabildo.  We were having  a great time fooling around in there.

The costumes were awesome!  Huge and glittery.

The bathrooms in the museum were porta potty doors.  We thought it was funny, so Mark did a quick pose for me before heading inside:)

Do you come here often?

So I found me a meat man. :)

Bourbon Street at night

We obviously had to go to see a jazz band.  We went to Preservation Hall and the band was amazing!  I'm not a huge jazz fan but I was in love with them!  You are there to listen to jazz, not socialize.  They don't sell drinks or food.  There are some bunches set up to sit on or you stand.  We were lucky enough to get a front row seat, on the ground sitting on pillows.

Mark played the trombone in high school and was in the jazz band.  I took many pictures on him for Mark.

The band leader and trumpetist.

On our last day in NOLA I had my palm and tarot cards read.  I had never done that before.  She told me that I'm be making some big money in the next 7-12 months and be getting something physical that I've wanted in the next 4 months.  She also said that I'm passionate and stubborn.  She had to have said I was stubborn at least 10 times.  Stubborn about everything basically.  Then she said that I  will be having at least 1 maybe 2 more kids!  I don't think so!!!


Over all our trip was great.  We missed Annabelle like crazy but it was nice to have 5 whole days just the two of us, even though we did end up at Ugrent Care one day.  It turns out Mark had bronchitis which was oh so pleasant.  Overall the city is much more kid friendly than I thought it would be (except for Bourbon St, Mark got hit on by a prostitute).  The city though has a smell that I will always associate with New Orleans from now on.  One part rotten garbage, one part vomitous alcohol, with a touch of weed.  Yeah, it wasn't pleasant to say the least, but it is memorable!

I think that if you have the chance to go, do it.