Another Friday, another VERY busy morning...

I've been working very hard again this morning, doing very important things like perpetually obsessing over the black kitty, following a developing story in my front yard concerning the reincarnation of one famous hibisucus plant and it's new role as a brothel for beatles, and lastly, reading up on Donnie Wahlberg's twitter account while searching for NKOTB tickets. Which, can I just say, THANK GOD for my parents (and me) that there was no such thing as social media back in 1990 (but I did have AOL) or I don't think I would have ever surfaced from my room/phone/Donnie Wahlberg trance.

So, I need some help internet friends, in playing around blowing off working very hard this morning, I completely on purpose accidentally stumbled across this teen mag. In fact, I'm pretty sure I owned this one at some point, oh who am I kidding, I owned EVERY SINGLE ONE EVER MADE. But, upon close examination and after an extended Google search, I could not figure out who the hell that Tommy dude is? What am I missing? I mean, obviously this guy was a major catch, what with being the marrying kind and all. I'll bet some lucky gal out there is thanking her Tommy stars right now that she landed this prize. Help me out internet! Who IS TOMMY??


*Sidenote* Check out by Jordan's face - they have a web address!! How funny is that?
hanging-tough.org. First thought, a hypen? Really?! Second thought, .org? REALLY? This coudn't have been before .com's right? And, last time I checked, the hanging-tough non for profit organization was still in development, so this address is a bit of a mystery. I did try to go to this site, but sadly it is no longer live. Even the way back machine couldn't help solve this internet mystery...

Well, guess I better do a little real work, this internet washed-up-teen-idol searching is exhausting. Happy weekend to you all - we're off to KC for our annual (last annual?!) Cards/Royals game. Since Big D/Aunt Meme/my sister in law is moving back to the good ole' lou in a few weeks, this could possibly be our last pilgrimage to the KC for this fun event, so looks like this better be a good one, albeit a hot one. Let's go REDBIRDS!

*The shirtless guy in the background downing a beer is not with us, but he totally could be.

Part II - The part where I get two days behind cause I can't stay on task

Belize - Our friends are back in action


The "private" beach on Belize - tpd's back is not in good shape this day, especially after the crazy, local speed racer bumpy boat ride to get to this private Belizian island.

We made fun of him a LOT at this point... mmmm... Belikin.

Pretty Scenery - you can see some boats in the background.

Pretty water, I couldn't stop taking pictures of it.

tpd assures he is in the BACK of the boat for the ride back to the mainland. it was actually really cool being in the back and we even saw a big manatee.
the water color here is simply unbeliezable.

Kicking back after a day on the private island with some Belize brews and food.

Friends rebounded, a couple of knock off Coach purses and good local brews.
An all-around good day, you gotta Belize me!

The first installment sponsored by Mr. Honduras *UPDATED*

TFASNA is kicking off a 6-part series this week entitled, this time last week. In this week long series we'll take a look at what yours truly was doing, well...uh.. this time last week. This first installment is being published a little bit past press time due to airline issues and bedtimes, but without further ado, I present this time last week (last Monday)

Our First Day in Paradise - Roatán, Honduras:

Conversations in Paradise go something like this:
"there's a sailboat."
"yup."

Recipe for true Paradise:

• One part beautiful beach setting with loads of palm trees and ocean breezes
• Two parts local island beer (you gotta go local, it should be international law)
• Three parts - and the secret ingredient to paradise- bacon cheese fries (in HONDURAS can you believe it?)!!!!
• Mix the above ingredients together or enjoy them separately, it doesn't matter you're in Paradise now, mon.
  

Photos of Paradise courtesy of idiot photographers.

This photo illustrates a major problem with asking another tourist to take your photo on a gorgeous roadside stop overlooking lush landscape and panoramic views. BECAUSE I REALLY JUST WANT TO SEE US AND SOME POWER LINES LADY. (PS - I will also blame my traveling companions for this bad photo since they could not accompany us off the boat this day due to some health/boat virus issues.)

Down from the hills overlooking the gorgeous views, aforementioned tourist offers to take our photo again. I gently give her a few instructions this time and, well, you can see this one turned out a little better. ps - giant boat in background is where we are headed back to in the photo and where our traveling friends are camped out while Aimee is fighting a nasty 24 hour bug. In fact, I'm sure Deadlines & Naptimes this time last week memory wouldn't be quite as enjoyable as ours, but she rebounded like the trooper she is and we missed them much this day!

Aaaahhh, beachy beach.

And finally, I bring you "Mr. Honduras"that's what someone called him and it stuck, but he is not in any way shape or form representative of the awesome, gracious locals that actually live in Honduras. See that mom and her two girls? She would not let them turn around at all - can you tell by the look on their faces? Anyway, good ole' Mr. H...yes, he was popular with the locals and tourists alike. ps - you gotta enlarge this photo for full effect

Stay tuned for Part II coming soon....

Come aboard, we're expecting you...

Sorry for the neglect, apparently it IS hard to get ready to leave and pack everything either one of your two babies might possibly even remotely need, I mean like even if there's one one millionth of a chance they might need it, well THAN I HAVE TO PACK IT cause oh my god what if they needed it and didn't have it aaaahhhh then what would they do?! Guilt, much? And, it's not a walk in the park making sure every client/t-shirt needing person has everything they need from me either - well, of course, I guess they can always call, oh yeah, NO ONE if they need something. So, I'm triple protecting every possible thing that might possibly go wrong from every possible angle because it's not easy to fix websites and email campaigns and launched marketing strategies when you are ON A CRUISE WITH LITTLE TO NO COMMUNICATION... gasp....deep breaths, right A-LE?

Anyway, I'm starting to hyperventilate just giving up the time it took write this entry, so until my babies are snug in their beds and/or wreaking havoc playing nicely at Grandma and Grandpa's and I'm hanging out on a balcony somewhere with a Pina Colada in one hand and some kind of communication device in the other, I am out. Love ya!

I MIGHT even ride Fire in the Hole

Here's my quick photo post for the weekend since we're leaving our kids in the very capable hands of Grandma and Grandpa J while we take off to Sin City err.. well... I mean... Branson is kinda like Las Vegas right? I plan to log lots of hours in the spa, indoor pool and outlet malls. And, can I let you in on a little secret? I am SOOO going to go to Silver Dollar City..by myself. AND I'm excited about it. 'Nuff said.

Anyway, three full nights of uninterrupted sleep are enough to make me giddy with excitement (sorry Mom). I haven't had a full night of uninterrupted sleep in like 14 years (see the sleep deprivation is affecting my ability to tell time).. .or since May 1st at least.

So, while I'm catching up on rest and relaxation this weekend over here, you all can catch up on the last three months of my pictures over here. They include such exciting events as Shane & Amelia's Baptism, Halloween, Shane's first "real" food feeding, random photo shoots (of course) and my Castlewood photo shoot. It should keep you busy for at least 8 hours.

Happy Weekend to all!
ps - (tpd - that's what she said)

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...

Three nights to Tampa!

Things have been so busy and crazy, I've barely had time to think about the fact that I'll be dipping my toes in cool Caribbean waters in just a matter of days. Just tonight, I began looking up pictures of Belize, Costa Maya, Grand Caymen and more and it finally felt awesome. I can't wait. Sure, we haven't packed anything, haven't thought about what to bring exactly and haven't even started to begin to pack up babygirl, but that will all work it's way out. Hey, we have passports and for us that's a victory in and of itself (remember the great birth certificate incident of 2001 - oh, to be that young and stupid again).

Well, back to work - clients don't always understand that a week on a cruise ship in the middle of the Caribbean ocean doesn't make for good website service.

Just to make you a little jealous (yes, I am that mean...) here is one of our stops - Belize.

Yup, I totally stole this from you, Courtney

Not that my summer vacation wasn't awesome and fun (vomit and all), but man, pictures of gorgeous beaches, beautiful streets and cliffs over looking the water in FRANCE sure look good to me too, people.

Here's my favorite pic stolen from Court's blog. I would blow this puppy up, add a slight glow and subtle blur to the edges, get rid of that big power line and hang this in my living room I love it so much. In fact, I just might...

Enjoying our last day, but missing our homies

Building sand castles on the beach

I think I'm getting the hang of this "beach" thing mom always talks about

Sparky wishing he could have more time because he
always enjoys the eye candy on the beach beautiful ocean view.

Pouring one out for our homies, Sparky even pays tribute by not wearing socks.

Whose Birthday is it?

It's the nation's birthday....


Man, Matthew is McDreamy in those cool shades.

I'm tired of these "4th of July" photo shoots, how about you?

Happy Birthday, America from sunny Ft. Walton Beach

Minus the night in the ER, we're having a great time!

Plenty of details to come later, but here's a sneak peak of how we're all doing now!