September 25, 2008

Throwback Thursday: Welcome Back Edition (and then there were three)

April 11th, 2008
Oh - Mom and Dad - this pic reminds me, 1994 called and it wants it's living room back.

September 6th, 2008
Shane Patrick - May 1st, 2008
Amelia Mabel - May 20th, 2008
Rachel Elizabeth - August 27th, 2008

No matter how many times I go through this or see close friends and family have babies, I still won't be able to wrap my teeny tiny little brain around it.

Welcome back Throwbacks. Even if no one else has, I've missed you.

ps - The countdown is on people. T-minus 8 hours and counting until the OFFICE PREMIERE!!!!

September 23, 2008

I swear my picture WAS right next to this definition.

sore (sôr, sr)

adj. sor·er, sor·est
1. Painful to the touch; tender.
2. Feeling physical pain; hurting: sore all over.
3. Causing misery, sorrow, or distress; grievous: in sore need.
4. Causing embarrassment or irritation: a sore subject.
5. Full of distress; sorrowful.
6. Informal Angry; offended.
n.
1. An open skin lesion, wound, or ulcer.
2. A source of pain, distress, or irritation.
tr.v. sored, sor·ing, sores
To mutilate the legs or feet of (a horse) in order to induce a particular gait in the animal.
adv. Archaic

For other definitions with my picture, see also:
whiner, complainer, wii fit kicks your ass, poor baby and suck it up sister.

September 21, 2008

Sweet Mother (and Believe me, that's not the exact phrase I used)

I let the dogs out this morning to find this monster:

I swear the pics don't even do it justice, but I was too scared
to put anything next to it to give it perspective:
It's busily (it is so a word) working on it's pray. I think that might be a
baby goat, that's how big this mofo is.
Aaaah, what big teeth you have Mr. Spider, all the better to eat me with.
Posted by Picasa

September 15, 2008

There was even an Indoor pool, but of course we didn't bring our suits...

My awesome sister in law got us two, TWO! adjoining mini-suites for our trip to Chicago this past weekend. Thank god for all the traveling that Molly does and those wonderful points she has stored up cause honestly, had it not been for the nice rooms and space we had, surely someone may not have survived the weekend.

This past weekend, we made the annual pilgrimage to Chi-town for a Delanty family golf tournament and banquet in celebration of one of their cousins who passed away from Leukemia many years ago. It's always a great time to catch up with extended Delanty family and raise money for a great cause. We've only missed one and that was two years ago when Bridget was only 3 weeks old - and that's not even why we missed it, we would have gone then, but I had a good friend getting married that same weekend. So, we were excited to go this year and show the newest Delanty member off to the rest of the family. However, that never quite happened.

People, it rained. Like monsoon, hurricane rain. Oh sure, I know what you're thinking - well it rained a lot in St. Louis, too. It did, but did it rain over 9" in a 24 hour period? Okay, maybe so, but this is my blog and I want to whine about poor us stranded in Chicago with two teeny tiny little humans that need A LOT of attention. Actually, while I'm on this subject, I would also like to lodge a formal complaint with the tiny human department. It would be nice if on weekends like this when there is a 48-hour torrential downpour and where certain larger humans did not pack the right clothes or nearly enough supplies or toys for that downpour, if for those incidents only, tiny baby humans would all of a sudden not only understand the concept of pulling covers over the head and settling in for a Law and Order marathon, but they would welcome and encourage it. Whew, I know I feel better now that this formal complaint has been lodged.

But since a L&O marathon was not to be, we instead watched the rain fall like the events we were supposed to attend. First to succumb was of course the golf tournament. TPD was of course sad, but we did manage to find the Mizzou game on at a bar that served something called a Table Tapper, so things had started to look up a little - at least until Molly and him took a little drive to the location of the evening's banquet dinner and found this:
That's the entrance to the park UNDER THREE FEET OF WATER where the banquet was supposed to take place. Suffice it to say (after they did try unsucessfully to find another location) the dinner was called off, too.

So, we bucked up like any little camper in a monsoon would; we hung out in the hotel room and watched a lot of CNN Hurricane Ike coverage to try and make ourselves feel better about our situation. Although when the weather man chuckled, "Well, if you're in Chicago, you're not technically in a hurricane, but you might as well be" that didn't make us feel much better.

So, this was definitely a BDI for the record books. While we endured many crabby moments between all of us, we also had a lot of fun together and have a funny story to tell for years to come and we ate out a lot and that's always fun, right? To, see a photo recap of the soggy weekend, check out my picasa pics.

Here's the only pic I have of us actually outside the hotel room, it was usually raining too hard for me to even want to transport my camera along with everything else, so this was taken from tpd's cell phone:

Oh, yeah, and this is taken moments before I spilled that $9.00 margarita all over the place. Yup, that about sums it up...

September 10, 2008

After today, I could use an extreme MAKEOVER
This post sponsored by the National Euphemism Society

I don't even know where to begin. I should probably be worrying about the clients I blew off or the baptism invitations that need to be finished or the major t-shirt order I should have been printing, but instead of all these things, I am still reeling about going to the Extreme Makeover Home Edition house reveal. If you don't know what I'm talking about, take the time to educate yourself here or here. Oh, yeah and my main motivation, Ty Pennington, would be there - don't you remember him from (one of my favorite TLC shows), Trading Spaces? I actually even own a T.S. t-shirt & book (read: HUGE DORK) so how could I not go?

I met Libby and Matthew there around 10:30 am thinking I'd be back in plenty of time to prepare the final touches on the D.I.D. project launch and/or fit in a few extra bonus billing hours. Ha! That proved soooo not to be the case.

We had a good day, really we did. I think Libby would agree. It was hot and crowded, but overall it was exciting and fun and a little sweet even. There was this totally deserving family and being there to witness it was pretty cool. Even Matthew loved it and as you'll see in the photos he was totally the ladies man, thank god for Faith and Grace (no pun intended, but coincidental names? I think not).

BUT.. then there was the other side of people. You know that side that sneaks out in mass-chaos, crowded events? The seriously seriously sucky side of people comes out. It's a shame that events like this can bring out the worst in [bad] people. You have the line butters, the passive aggressive commentators, the careless kid watchers, the no regard for others, the - I'm the most important person here - others, etc. I'm too tired to even begin to go into all the details, but let's just say, PEOPLE SUCK sometimes. I don't think there is anything in life that frustrates me more than blatant unfairness and lack of respect for others around you. We're ALL PEOPLE, people!

We soon realized it apparently TAKES FOREVER TO MOVE A BUS. There are lots and lots of hours spent on "practicing" moving the bus and then they even practice with stand-in families and you scream and cheer A LOT about a limo coming down the street that doesn't even have the real family in it and your feet start to hurt from standing so long and your face gets 1/2 sunburn and there are a lot of false starts, so when the actual moment comes, your so tired of screaming it was kinda like, "yeah, bus driver, move the friggin' bus".

My favorite part of the whole day came when as the moment finally freaking came, BOTH of my camera's batteries went dead. Yes, my friends, I waited 6+ hours in the direct sun with crazy, rude rule-breaking people and NO FOOD only to miss the actual big moment on film... thanks a lot kharma, what did I do to you lately? I've of course got [more than] a few pics and videos to keep you entertained (or bore you to death with).

I guess there's no doubt, one of the perks of working for yourself, is the kind of flexibility like I had today. Doesn't mean I'm not paying for it tonight and tomorrow, but there is definitely a certain sense of freedom in the path I've created for myself. I mean, otherwise I couldn't have spent ALL DAY YELLING MOVE THAT BUS and seriously, what's better than that, right?

So, here's to me blowing off work today and lucky you - you get to reap the benefits (or endure the pain) by indulging in my photos and dorky tv show commentary, Perez Hilton style. Will post the rest of the photos later today/tonight.


Thanks for finally moving the flipping bus, Ty.

All the pics are up: check em out here.

September 7, 2008

God, football is such a great waste of a Sunday

A wise man (or at least a man) I know just uttered the above phrase and I must say, he is absolutely right. First off, we started the day with our new Direct TV NFL package. Sure, he blamed the impromptu switch to Direct TV on a pure hatred for all things Charter TV, but now I can't believe I was so stupid not to see it before - The Direct TV football package (conveniently not available through Charter) was clearly all part of his master Fantasy Football plan. After days of counting down to the start of the regular season, and after finally learning how to work the 234 channels of football, he very emphatically announced that this would all be MUCH BETTER if we were watching it on a brand new 52" flat screen tv. I must say, I'm inclined to agree.. maybe he is a wise man after all. Below is a shot of the CLEARLY no longer acceptible mere 36" HD tv complete with an 8 game broadcast.



Unfortunately there were some casualties to the first big day of football. After realizing she was rapidly becoming second best to Fantasy Football and her parent's laptops, #1 daughter found new ways of amusing herself in a desperate cry for attention...

I was impressed with her ability to multi-task all WHILE WEARING A BUMBO on her head.



After all the exhausting hours of holding a bumbo on her head, it was finally time for some lunch. This devoted fan, made sure she had her laptop close by to keep up on all her player's stats.



Lastly, newest team family member, Shane P, dolls out the advice: "Sorry dad, but I still think Grandpa got the better end of the deal. Tomlinson alone isn't going to account for even a 1/3 of all the points Burleson, T.O. and Williams are going to put on the board and you really took it on the chin today with only 13 points from L.T. Look, stick with me dad, I'll show you the ropes."

I don't know about you all, but I think this one's a little cocky already. Just look at that sly smile, don't you just hate a little 4 month old know it all...


Happy FF Kickoff day to all. Go Webmasters!


September 4, 2008

Big Week Sunday, FINAL RECAP FINALLY

All I can say is WOW! What a week. I don't know if there could have been a better, more fun, more exhausting week.

I won't lie, Big Week kicks this week's ass. Compared to last week's tidal wave of activity, this week is like a pebble skip in the lake of life. (Yeah, I just typed that, wanna make something of it?) It was exhausting (especially with a baby that still doesn't like sleeping at night and parents who like partying a little too late into the night) but it was simultaneously exhilarating and so exciting. We got to see our babygirl really enjoying her birthday for the first time, then we welcomed Baby Rachel into our play group and helped her celebrate her real BIRTHday (not to mention the industry's biggest balloon that was totally the bomb), next we got to watch the Tigers kick some serious Illini butt (I can't use ass twice in the same post..) and we even caught up with some fun girls-only bonding on the deck (we missed you A-Le), and finally it was Big D's turn to celebrate 31 years of life. Whew, tiring but awesome and, well, really, it just doesn't get much better then to recognize and appreciate all these kinds of awesome life events.


So....sigh.... farewell Big Week Sunday, I don't know if you will ever be topped. We'll miss you around here at Ivy Trace, especially all the "But, it's Big Week Sunday" comments. But we also know it's time to settle down - we recognize we're a little out of control over here, believe it or not. BUT, here's to you, future Big Week (raise your glasses everyone). I can see you looming out there like a Typhoon in the Pacific Ocean of time (uh-huh, I totally typed that, too.) and until we meet again, it's been real....

September 2, 2008

Big Week Sunday, Day 5 The Birthday Celebration

It wasn't going to be an Elmo party, but it just sorta happened that way. I sold out - Damn you Elmo and your cute little red face. Why does she have to say "emo" in a way that I just can't resist?

Unbelievably Bridget's BFF was there to share in some of the festivities. Even a newborn baby sister's first day home from the hospital couldn't stop this devoted friend !
Just like she did at his birthday party, Matthew was happy to lend Bridget a helping hand with a few of her presents. These two are just too cute. Can't wait to see what the future brings with 5 helping hands at parties! Oh, hello Mass Chaos, we've been waiting for you....
Finally, it was time to get her some cake! It was a quick few bites and then off to bed for this tired two year old and as of press time, this enthusiastic birthday girl is still requesting "happy birthday cake, bridgey's happy birthday"...

It was a great day for her and us! Thanks to all (and especially Aunt Aimee and Uncle Mike for making the party - can you believe next year our babygirls will be celebrating their b-days only one day apart?!)