Boobs...

they have power. It doesn't matter if your a boy or a girl, gay or straight. They are right there in your face, all the time. I personally think they are completely over-rated, which my husband disagrees with. He is the classic boob guy. But to me, they are just a pain in my ass. They are always in the way. I have a hell of a time finding new bras that fit right and are comfortable. I'm not huge, but I'm bigger than most people realize.

I grew up in a household where boobs were treated as an annoyance. My mom hates her double D's and insists on walking around bra-less whenever possible. She hates them so much that that is most likely why I feel the same way. I see all the little A and B cup bras and I want those, not my D-cups, blech. But boobs are out there all the time. On TV, in commercials, walking down the street.

Every month, I get together with my friends. Eight girls of varying shapes and sizes. At least once every time we get together the topic comes up. When one of the girls mentioned that she was going in for a consult for a boob job, it started all kinds of discussions.  At least two other girls complain about how flat theirs are after breastfeeding two kids and wish they weren't pancakes anymore and hope to get lifts sometime in the future. Two of us are fine with what God has given us and the other three don't really have much to say. But it always is a topic for conversation.

I was worried that my friend (cousin actually) would look weird after she got bigger boobs.  Would they be these two huge balloons on her chest?  I know that she had always wanted bigger ones but was surgery the way to go?  I wasn't sure but I have always been in a completely different frame of mind when it comes to this.  I don't fault her with wanting to improve herself, even if improving means something more radical.  I know that I have friends, at least two of them in the group, that seem pretty against it.  Even to the point that I wouldn't feel comfortable telling them if I was having any plastic surgery of any kind, not that I am.

In the end, she had the surgery and she looks about the same as she always did.  She just didn't have the add two sizes bra and the chicken cutlets and all the other things she used to boost herself up and out.  I was glad she looked like her and that she seems happy with her decision.

But it makes me wonder why are they so important? Is it our culture? Do they have this significance in India or Iceland? I don't know and I don't want to actually do any research on it. But I'm still curious.  Will a new body part someday be the "it" area?  Just like the idea of what is beautiful changes constantly, will boobs someday be passe?  I'm doubting it.

Our Very Happy Easter!

Our Easter was, as usual, very busy.  After the fantastic fish fry on Friday, we had brunch at my Aunt Pattie's house.  We pretty much ate and played and had a great time for six whole hours.  We had frittata and bacon and sausage, pancakes, a chocolate fountain, mounds of fruit and mimosas, plus turkey sandwiches and chicken salad and stuffed shells.  Oh my word I was stuffed.  After all of the gluttony there was an Easter Egg Hunt and egg dying. 

On Easter Sunday we woke up early so that Annbelle could find her basket.  It took her a few minutes to find it but once she did, she was very excited for all of her Bunny gifts.  We had to rush to get ready for church with Mark's parents and brother.  Then we had a Polish brunch at my in-laws house.  Not as tasty as brunch the day before but it's traditional, Polish sausage, both fresh and smoked, ham, noodle salad, and coffee cake.  We also got to meet my brother-in-laws new girlfriend for the first time.  She seemed nice, hopefully he will have finally found The One.  Dinner was at my parents house, with more food and yet another egg hunt.  Those little eggs my mom hid around the basement were full of Squinkees.  Now even more small things to get lost, grrr.  Oh well, there is nothing I can do about it.  It was a busy day but we all had a wonderful time being with the family. 

I hope that everyone had a happy and blessed Easter this year.  I know that we did.

A Butter Lamb

Our Easter Weekend Extravaganza began on Good Friday when Annabelle and I made our butter lamb. Most people buy a molded one but Mark's family has always made them every year. This would be the first time that I attempted to make one with Annabelle. It had also been quite a few years since I had made one with Mark so it took some researching- a call to my mother-in-law. So here is a quick, step-by-step demonstration on how to make your very own home-made butter lamb.

Start with a stick and a half of batter.  Cut two triangles and stick them to the bases head.

Get out one small strainer.  This is to make the wool.  I think you could also use a garlic press.  It would be less messy.

Put one tablespoon of butter in the strainer and push it through.

The butter will look like a puff ball on the other side once your done.

Scoop the butter off of the strainer and artfully arrange it on the butter base.

Once the entire base is covered with woolly butter, get three cloves.

Place them on the lambs face for eyes and a nose.

Add a little red tail flag and you have yourself one completed butter lamb.

And one happy little girl:)

I only had 3/4 pound of butter so I skimped a bit a on the height of the lamb's head/neck.  It's a little bit too short so it looks like a sheep dog to me as opposed to a lamb.  Annabelle was happy and it still looked cute so I'm OK with it.  Making a butter lamb is MESSY.  There were little buttery fingerprints all over the kitchen table and I had to change Annabelle's clothes before we left the house because there were butter spots all over them. 

After we finished cleaning up, we went to my parents house for a fish fry.  My mom and dad have a big ole' party every year on Good Friday.  They make beer battered fish and french fries, tuna and potato salad, rye bread, the whole nine yards.  About 50 people show up and we always have a great time catching up with family and friends that we only see a few times a year.  It was extra festive this year because the Sabres are in the playoff hunt.  It was so much fun watching the game, everyone cheering together for or team.  Luckily we won so it made it even better:) 

Ouch!

It's Spring Break and many people head out to warmer climes for their Easter festivities.  Normally, there are no dance classes held this week, but my dance instructor had nothing better to do so we had a class anyways.  It was completely optional but we were thisclose to being done and I wanted to go.  Except I'm starting to regret it.  My tailbone is a black and blue mess.

This is my 11th year dancing, with one year off when I was pregnant.  Each year there are bits and pieces about the dance, the song, the costume, that I've not been thoroughly in love with.  But this year, this year we are trying new things and it's great.  All kinds of cool lyrically type moves, a little less jazzy.  Jumps and turns and ground work, even a lift.  The ground work is what is making me hurt today though.  I'm supposed to be laying on the ground rolling up and down, trying to look like my body is breathing in and out, plus adding in just a little bit of sexy.  Well the bruised tailbone from all this sexy rolling, probably about 50 times, is my penance.    I'm just happy that I got out of the spinning jumping to the ground thing that some other people are doing.  My knees are at least thanking me for that.

It hurts to sit.  I need one of those bum donuts.  I made Mark look at it.  At first when I said, "Here look at my butt." he thought I was being all sexy and playful.  Then I bent over and he acted like my butt had the plague!  Seriously, it ain't pretty but to back away in horror?  Give me a break!  There are things I've had to look at on him that were less than pleasant, dislocated fingers and jock itch.  I didn't make a big deal out of it.

So I'm going to relax and take it easy today.  Maybe make a butter lamb.  My bum deserves it. :)

***I just realized that I have to go to the chiropractor on Friday.  Hopefully the bruise will be gone by then because when he stretches out my tailbone, it will hurt like a mother!***

A Week Off

1. Annabelle's off from school this week for Easter.  We have lots of fun planned, including a playdate with her very best friend this afternoon.  I guess I need to wake her up soon since she's supposed to go to Molly's in about 2 hours.
2. Tomorrow we are going to see Winnie the Pooh and the Birthday Tail at the Lancaster Opera House.  We (Annabelle) is beyond excited.
3. I'm thinking that Wednesday or Thursday we will go to the Botanical Gardens to see the Easter flowers or go to the zoo if it ever stops snowing/raining/sleeting, blowing windy yuckiness that has been happening all weekend:(
4. I need to buy a small sieve so that Annabelle and I can make our butter lamb this year.  I haven't made one in years.  Get ready for the photos from that later on this week!
5. Something seems off with me and one of my friend's again.  I don't know what I did this time but either it will blow over and be forgotten or we'll have yet another blow out.
6. I've been trying to drink more water lately.  Nine to twelve glasses a day make me have to tinkle ever 20 minutes or so.  So not conducive to going out and actually getting anything done.
7. I still have to buy my Easter candy.  Wahl's, the ONLY place to buy chocolate around here, will be mobbed.  (Wahl's is really the only place to buy chocolate, but the only place I will go.  I refuse to eat Antoinette's or Fowler's or Watson's or Niagara candy.  Wahl's or nothing)
8. The hardest thing about going to Wahl's is when my will power fails there.  The make orange chocolate that is to die for, my mouth is watering just thinking about it.
9. I'm thinking the treadmill is going to have to wait until this afternoon, not gonna happen now.
10. And lastly, Game Three of the play-offs are tonight.  Let's Go Buffalo!

Play Offs!

There is nothing more spectacularly better than play off hockey.  Wait, I mean Sabres play off hockey.  I don't care about any of those other 15 teams in the play off race.  I just want that big shiny cup being parades through Washington Square downtown.

Yesterday was game one of the Stanley Cup Quarter Finals for my Beloved team and we won!!!  Oh My Goodness, I forgot how crazy the play offs can feel.  All day long, I listened to sports radio, listening to people talk about the team.  When game time came around, I was a basket case!  My hands were fluttering around like a spazzed out bird, covering my eyes when the penalty kill still going on, Gaustad without his stick.  EEK!  Squeaking and yelling at the TV screen when Patty Kaleta, a home town boy, FINALLY scored.  Telling the players on the ice what to do- get the puck out, shoot it, knock that guy down, get away from my goalie Danny Briere or so help me! 

Yeah I was a little bit nuts.  But it feels so good to win, to dream, to hope.  Buffalo deserves some good news and a big win, a cup, anything would be awesome.  I love the way my city comes together, all rooting for those 22 guys on the team.  You see jerseys and t-shirts and car flags and silly guys with their faces painted all over town.  Now I have to wait all the way until Saturday afternoon, 5pm to be exact, until I can feel that rush again!  It has got to be better than any drug out there.

My Husband

Today I'm linking up with Kandiland to brag about my spouse!  Mark and I have been together for almost 16 years.  We met back in the spring of 1995, working at Burger King.  I was only 17 years old and was clueless that this boy would turn into the man I would marry.

This is our first Halloween together.  Gosh, we were just babies!

I fell in love with him because of his personality.  He's kind and funny, very thoughtful.  He would write me poetry and songs, buy little gifts to make me smile.  He has the best smile, so big and genuine.  He is polite and sweet.  I had never been with anyone so wonderful.  We dated for 7 years before we got engaged.  We had amazingly fun times and lows so low that they still make me cry to think of them.  There were a few times that I didn't think we'd make it but we already had so much together.  Breaking up wasn't really in the cards.

So on Sweetest Day, 2002, Mark proposed with five tiny little carved out pumpkins.  As I opened each pumpkin, they said Will You Marry Me.  The last one held my ring.  It is things like that, that get to me.  He took so much time to make it perfect.  There was major thought put into it so that I could be proud of the way he did it.  So that I would tear up telling people how we got engaged.

So one year later, on Sweetest Day, we got married.  It was perfect.  I've never had more fun and I swear no one else's wedding could have been better (I know everyone thinks that though).

With this ring...

Man and Wife

We bought a house, planned on a baby.  We were lucky, the first time we were able to try for a baby, I got pregnant.  We were so excited!  After we found out we were having a girl, Mark would whisper to my belly every single day, "Hi Sghetta, it's Daddy.  I love you."  When he came home from work, he would ask how his two favorite girls were.  We made her room perfect.  He came to the baby shower and wore silly hats and cried at people's generosity for our baby who wasn't even here yet. 

Mark earned/won a free trip to Mexico from work.  Being seven months pregnant didn't stop us from going.  We went snorkeling, saw a whale and her calf while out on a huge pontoon boat, went deep sea fishing (I was the only person on the boat who didn't get sea sick).  We went on a diner cruise and I dance the Tango with a professional up on the stage.  We entered a dance contest.

We had the best time!

Mark never acted like I was a crazy woman even though I'd cry over improperly folded socks or a ruined batch of Christmas cookies.  He didn't treat me like an invalid either, though many people did.  He told me I was beautiful every day, which did wonders for my self-esteem when I was feeling huge and fat.  He played with all of the baby toys and dreamed about the happy future we would have with out little girl.




 

And one day late, she was here!  She was screaming and pooping all over the place.  Nothing would calm her down.  Then Mark leaned over her in the warmer and said, "Hi Sghetta, it's Daddy.  I love you."  Her eyes opened wide, her head swiveled to him, she stopped crying.  She knew that her Daddy was there.  She knew his love from the moment she was born.  She is so lucky to have him.

Now we are here, married almost eight years.  I know I love him for all of these reasons.  He makes me feel special everyday.  I love when we have time together to talk about anything and everything, politics, news, friends, our day, random things that just pop out of our mouths.  We hold hands when we're in the car and anytime we get a chance to, often while we are falling asleep.  Even with his snoring and teeth grinding and elbows to the head, I love sleeping next to him.  Knowing I can just reach over and snuggle into him if I need to, is perfect.  He is the person that I tell all of the news, what we talked about at GNI or dance class.  He lets me ramble on about my family and friends when they are all over me.  He talks me off of the ledge when I'm falling apart.  He makes me a better person. 

He is my best friend.

A Big Sucker

Back in October, we went on a family vacation to the happiest place on Earth, otherwise known as Disney World.  We spent eight wonderful days there and had a blast.  We went on a gazillion rides and saw every show.  Oh, and we ate, and ate, and ate.  The dining plan is absolutely fantastic.  You get so much food for your money.  We get the mid-level dining package which includes one quick service meal, one sit-down meal and one snack per person per day.  We always pack our own breakfast stuff, granola and protein bars, dry cereal, pop-tarts, because we aren't big first thing in the morning meal eaters.  But anyways, it ends up being a lot of food to eat and on this last trip we had 21 snack credits between the 3 of us.  On our last day at the park we had 9 or 10 snack credits left so we spent them at Goofy's Candy Co.  We ended up with so much candy coming home and it lasted us a long time, sometime into January.  We had only one piece of Disney candy left and Annabelle got it.

 It was one big sucker!  A strawberry flavored Minnie Mouse sucker to be exact.  Do not look at my messy house in the background, just look at the cutie with the sucker.

 So she did some posing for me until she was tired of waiting and needed to eat that sucker!

 Her first lick was pretty good.

 She seemed to enjoy the second one too.

Then she just had to play it up a little bit.  She loves to ham it up for the camera.

After we took the pictures, the sucker only lasted another 5 minutes or so.  She decided is was, in Annabelle speak, gusgusting (disgusting).  She threw it in the garbage.  Oh well, one snack credit wasted but at least we had a good time posing with the sucker, even if eating it wasn't in the cards.

A Baby Weekend

Finally Buffalo decided it would be nice this past weekend.  It's like Mother Nature woke up and realized that it's supposed to be spring.  So we did everything we could to be outside as often as possible.  On Saturday we went to the Zoo!  I have been needing some Zoo time for about a month now.  I was waiting oh so patiently for the weather to cooperate so that we could head on over there and we finally were able to.

One of our first stops was the Gorilla Habitat.  Recently, there was a baby gorilla born and I couldn't wait to see her.  Is there anything cuter than a baby gorilla?  I don't think so!

The happy family.  Dad Koga, mom Sydney and hiding behind her mom is baby Amari.

She finally ventured out without mom and I got a quick shot before too many people got in the way.  The Gorilla house was mobbed!

There was also a baby Giraffe born recently.  They didn't have them out of their house so I didn't get any great pictures.  She was sitting down so it's hard to tell that she's a baby.

Then it was on to all of the regular zoo animals.  Annabelle was disappointed not to be able to go on the merry go round or the train ride because they weren't up and ready yet.  I'm sure she is planning on some one on one time with the rides next time we go.



 We saw Lions, tigers and bears, oh my!  We did not take any pictures of the bears because the grizzly wasn't out and the polar bears were busy making baby polar bears.  We left the scene before Annabelle could start asking any questions! :)

She found a stick and was a happy little girl after that.  That stick went everywhere with us.  Luckily she didn't go to crazy and accidentally hit anyone with it!

Can you see the zebra?  He was hiding.

The Bison were not cooperating!  Turn around!

The lemur was pretty happy to lounge in the sun and get his picture taken.

Next stop, the Rain Forest Falls.  There are tons of birds and other rain forest-y types of animals all around.  If you happen to be inside at noon and 3 pm it actually rains on you.

I am madly in love with the anteaters in the rain forest.  I have no idea why but they are so ugly that they are cute.  Does that make any sense?  Anyways, I adore them!

Annabelle's favorite part is the bats.

And the swinging bridge.

No trip to the zoo is complete without a picture with the big fake rhino.

We found a fake pig to sit on too!

Our last stop of the day was to see the sea otters, who were too fast to get a good picture of and then the sea lions.

Then after all of the babies we saw at the zoo, we got a call from my friend Nicole.  She had to go in to have her labor induced.  her blood pressure was waaaay to high.  The newest member of her family, baby Nick was born.  He was 5 weeks early and only 3 pounds 6 ounces.  When we went to visit them in the hospital the next day, everyone looked good.  I was worried that baby Nick would look sickly or super scrawny, but he looked pretty good.  He's in the NICU but we watched him through the window and he was waving his arms all around.  He looked strong.  Nicole was in a little bit of pain from her c-section but seemed good, happy.  I think when she goes home and the baby stays it will be hard on her, but on Sunday she was just thankful that her baby was pretty healthy for being so small.

So it was a weekend full of warm weather, lots of outside activities and babies coming out of our ears!  It was fantastic:)