Same ol', Same ol'

Just another boring day. Doctor's appointment, kickboxing, quick nap. Not much going on today. It IS my grandmaman's birthday today, though! Happy birthday, Grandmaman!!!

I feel like there's something else, though. Something kind of big. Hmmm. OH WAIT! I have another nephew! Finally the day you've all been waiting for! That's right, guys. Without further ado, I present to you: Alec David Christopher!

He is 7lb 15oz, and 21" long. Isn't he dreamy?! (My mom took the opportunity to remind me that, out of her five kids, I was her WORST BIRTH BY FAR! Rude! I was like 9 pounds and like face-up and her longest labor and just generally horrible to deal with...some things never change, amiright? Love you, Mom!) Okay, so MAAAAYBE he looks a lot like other babies, but might I draw your attention to his perfectly shaped noggin' and his cutie pie little nose, and those widdle widdle fingers and toesies?! Now, I've seen babies that look like monkeys when they're born. Or they're all hairy or bald or wrinkly or cone-headed or whatevs. But not Alec. He was perfect. (It's okay, you guys. You can just admit that he's pretty much one of the cutest babies ever.)

Need more proof? Okay, fine.

Yeah, so, he's adorable. I got to the hospital literally TWENTY minutes after he was born and I got pretty emotional when I held him for the first time. He was so handsome and quiet and thoughtful. I fell in love immediately. Also, I could be mistaken, but I'm pretty sure he tried to give me a high five. Such a playa...

Prinna and Chris are doing awesomely. And despite all the commotion around them (there were a total of NINE OTHER people in the hospital room with them), they were cool as cucumbers. I haven't felt that kind of life and energy in one room since we hosted a party for the season finale of Lost at our house. It was so rejuvenating.

Being the baller that I am, I still managed to make it to kickboxing tonight. But after all that lovey dovey happy sappy time, I just didn't have the drive to punch a bag tonight. I wanted to cradle it and make googly eyes at it. German Tony was less than thrilled with my performance tonight. Whatevs. After I explained that I met my new baby nephew for the first time today, he let up on me and asked me to bring him in as soon as he could fit into a boxing glove.

Indulge me, people and sit through one more picture. It's me with Alec and his proud big sisters (I'm sure there will be many, many more pictures to come, don't worry). But this is one of my favorite pics in the bunch:

I couldn't be happier for my sister and brother-in-law. I'm so grateful that I was able to be part of it. Yay for me and my family!

Was There Some Sort of Sporting Event On Tonight?

So, the Super Bowl is over. I'm drained from eating my face off and cheering for a losing team I have nothing invested in. In lieu of a traditional blog, I'm posting pics from our Super Bowl party. Note: My camera is jacked. I don't know what I did to it, but I messed up the settings so the pics are questionable. Oh well, enjoy this little peek-a-boo into my life. Also, it's like proof that I have friends. Yay!

Fooooooood!

Well, yes, as a matter of fact I DID make these wontons myself!

Based on my availability of black and yellow socks (go Hawkeyes!), I decided to be a Steelers fan for the night. That didn't work very well.

So then a few peeps decided to shotgun a beer outside. Here they are, pulling the triggers.

The knife they used to open the beer cans was carefully placed in the porch.

Here are a few of my loverly friends who came by: Allyson, me, Liz, and Kim.

Here's the group.

This is Geo's friend KG's dog, Grey, snoozin'.

Just when we were almost ready to fall into a food coma, these guys came on the TV and spiced up my life. I'd like one of these outfits for when I go walking at night.

Through it all, though, I represented my Vikings.

Then the food was gone...

The beer cans were empty and stashed all over the house...

And night was a huge success. I don't care who won, actually. I just don't. But I'm going to miss football every Sunday. How long until preseason starts???

Welcome back to the week, everyone. Let's do it.

Sweet Tooth

If I ever see sugar again, it will be too soon. Like, way way way too soon. I spent over 7 hours baking cookies today with Prinna and my mom. We always start all gung-ho crazy, and about halfway through, we really start hurtin'. Quality suffered. We slowed down. But eventually we finished, and we're pretty proud of the results. Without further ado, here's a photo journal of what we accomplished today.









Then I got a little crazy. I spent an obscene amount of time making "couples" with the gingerbread men. Prinna was about to toss me and my "couples" out the window, because while I dawdled away placing each little piece of sprinkle hair on one-by-one, there were literally hundreds more to decorate. But, behold! The adorable results!

Geo and Me


Prinna and Chris


My mom and dad - look! He has a little stethoscope on, and my mom has reading glasses on her head!

So, I think we did a pretty kick-butt job. We divvied out all the cookies and we each took home a thief's ransom in sugar. I almost dumped mine off our balcony though. I couldn't look at them anymore. Plus, I don't need anymore sugar - I'm sweet enough as it is. ZING! But, I kept them and I'm sure my roommates will have no trouble eating them. Meanwhile, this is the carnage that remained after all the cookies were packaged up.

Braaaaains

Another weekend, another set of lessons learned. First off, fake blood is, well, not removable. But before I get to that very useful tidbit of information, I just want to say one thing. Saturday was the 3rd Angel Birthday for my niece Sophia who passed away from SIDS. I spent the day with my family at Pine Haven pumpkin patch. It was really wonderful to spend time together, enjoying the weather, and thinking of Sophia. And in addition to all this tragedy and grief, my brother-in-law is being sued and harassed by his former employer, Federated Insurance. And while I spent Saturday night with 8,000 people dressed up as zombies (again, more on that later), this disgusting excuse for a company is the real soul-less, blood-thirsty monster. I urge you, when you have the time, to check out my sisters blog at www.fedupwithfederated.com. Their actions are nothing short of merciless and evil. So, yeah, please check that out if you haven’t already.

Okay, so apparently every year for 6 years, people get dressed up as zombies and stagger around the West Bank moaning and yelling “Braaaaains!” I have never been on this Zombie Pub Crawl before, but this year, Ally and I went and bought the make up and got all zombified. Ally was a Zombie Geisha, and I was a Zombie Mental Patient. And we. Looked. Good.







Another lesson I learned was that when they advertise “drink specials for zombies” what they really mean is “No drink specials, and in fact, Pharon, beer is way more expensive than you thought.” So, my wallet is significantly lighter…and bloodier. Yeah, there was a lot of fake blood around. And it got all over me. I had some that I applied myself, but I came home with a lot more of it. It’s still on me. It like STAINED my skin. My hands, legs and stomach all looked like I was slapped repeatedly. So yeah, I don’t know how to get it off. Note to future zombies: Don’t put fake blood on anything you can’t cover up for work on Monday.

But it was a pretty fun night. Seeing 8,000 people dressed up as everything from Zombie Santas to Zombie Marilyn Monroes staggering around the city, moaning and begging for braaaains was quite a sight. And being part of it was great. One bonus of dressing as a zombie for a Saturday night was that I was really comfortable. I wore scrubs and a white t-shirt with flip flops. It was like wearing pajamas. And there was cheering going on, which I love at any event. “What do we want?” “BRAAAINNS!” “When do we want ‘em?” “BRAAAINNS!”

But, now all I want is bed. And when do I want it? Now.

The Totally Outrageous Party-Filled Weekend…or not

I’m not entirely stoked to go back to work tomorrow. It’s been a great weekend, with fantastic weather, and hours upon hours of free time and I‘m pretty sad to see it go. My big project this weekend, though, was planning my niece Annabelle’s 5th Birthday party. It was sort of a surprise party, because Prinna gave me the theme and Annabelle knew there was a party. But, for a 5 year old, walking into a house fully decorated and full of people is as surprised as you want to get. I thought there was a 50% chance she’d freak out when we all yelled “SURPRISE!” and start crying. Luckily that didn’t happen.

I love planning parties. I love decorating, buying supplies, adding little touches that no one notices but really pull everything together. Give me a budget, or better yet no budget at all, and I can plan the crap out of a party. For Annabelle’s, the theme was Fancy Nancy. It’s a children’s picture book about a little girl who likes everything to be sparkly, feathery, and well, Fancy. So, natch my mom and I bombarded Prinna’s house with feathers, glitter, balloons, and bright colors. My other niece Rachel and I made 2 gigantic banners that said “OOH LA LA” and “HAPPY BIRTHDAY FANCY ANNABELLE”! We dressed Annabelle up in a sparkly tutu, glitter make up, a tiara, and beads. She looked hilarious. I mean, adorable.







Now I’m just totally wiped out though. All that sugar, all that activity, and all those people just wore me out. I feel like I’m 100 years old and just got back from performing at a circus. Plus, kids parties are not good ideas for someone watching her girlish figure. Oh well, it was totally worth it.

Between the party planning with my mom, I spent my weekend doing nothing. I accomplished painting my nails, but then took a nap while they were still a bit wet and now have sheet marks on them. Accomplishment Fail. I slept on the couch one night because the house was empty and I was scared to be upstairs in a desolate house. Grown-Up Fail. I picked up my dirty purse from the dry cleaners. Pilgrim Cleaners Fail. And I had big plans of throwing a September-themed party at my house on Sunday night, but instead watched Star Wars while Geo slept on the couch next to me. Social Life Fail. Adding these all up would lead some people to think that this weekend was a failure. But sleeping late, enjoying my coffee on the porch during the beautiful mornings, catching up on DVR’d TV, and planning an adorably fun party are major successes in my book.

Labor Day: thanks for memories, pal. You were a welcome break that I shall remember fondly until Thanksgiving. My determination to spend this weekend not laboring was a beautiful success, and if I weren’t so exhausted from eating cupcakes, I’d pat myself on the back. And now, back to our regularly scheduled work week…

Dear Diary

Dear Diary,

OMG, today was soooooo fun! I spent the day with Geo, the cutest boy at school. He’s really good at sports, and so we went kayaking (no parents!) and even shared a kayak. We went to three different lakes, and saw homeless people living near the bridges! Sad :(. But we also saw a boy who tipped his kayak and ended up in the grody lake. LOL! It was super funny, Diary. And Geo was sooooo nice! He held my keys in the kayak and didn’t even make fun of me when I got out of the boat and my butt was all wet. I was SO embarrassed, but he said you couldn't even tell, so that’s good.



Then we went shopping in Uptown. OMG, we BOTH got sunglasses! I couldn’t decide which ones I liked at first, and Geo helpfully reminded me how hard it must be for me to find sunglasses ‘cause I have such a tiny head. But I got a super cool pair anyway.


When we got home, Geo made me a romantic lunch of burgers and homemade fries and we ate while we watched ESPN. The food was sooooooooooo good. The ESPN was so NOT good.

Anyway, I took a nap and now I’m all ready to go see my brother and his friend play at a real live BAR! They are REALLY good at singing and playing guitar. They could totally be famous. Boys in bands are soooooo cool, aren’t they? Maybe Justin Bieber will show up. I would DIE! OMG, seriously!


Okay, Diary, I gotta go put on some frosted lip gloss and leggings, and then find something for Justin Bieber to autograph if I see him.

Xoxo,
Pharon