Still Remembering...

Carry out a random act of kindness, with no expectation of reward, safe in the knowledge that one day someone might do the same for you. Princess Diana

It has been 11 years today since Princess Diana died. So sad. So tragic. I still miss her! I followed her fascinating life as a little girl and throughout my life. I had glossy books. I made scrapbooks with any piece of published information I could find. I loved her! She felt like a friend. That fateful night 11 years ago I was living in Atlanta and had returned home late from a Labor Day party when I received a voice mail from my mom telling me that she had been in a serious car accident. I turned on the TV and received blatant confirmation of my mom's message in the form of crash site pictures and the constant rerunning of the footage of her leaving the Ritz Paris. I had been watching mere minutes when they announced her death. I was in complete shock. Numb. Mr. Pink and I went to Jamaica that Monday morning and I watched TV coverage there. I remember aching watching her grieving sons. I think she would be proud of them today. Where were you when you heard this news?

Five on Friday!

Random things to end the week.


1- Today is Michael Jackson's 50th birthday! Madonna turned 50 on the 16th! Can this be? In my mind I still see the one-gloved boy wonder moon walking in sequined outfits in MTV videos (remember when MTV actually broadcast videos?). I see the Material Girl in big tulle hair bows, torn tights and lots of gaudy pearlish/beaded jewelry. I think life was a whole lot simpler for both of them back in the 80's! Don't you agree?


2- The Caylee Anthony missing Florida girl case. I saw on Yahoo that now investigators are confirming that tests show there was evidence of a decomposing body in the trunk of her mother Casey's car. Meanwhile, Casey is out of jail. This case infuriates me. She is so guilty and has already been caught lying about her employment, the baby sitter's name, etc. Then she manages to go out partying on a regular basis while her child is "missing". Was this girl EVER truly a mother?

3- My football team was SHUT OUT last night on ESPN! How embarrassing! And two linebackers sent our first string quarterback to the hospital. I think it's going to be a very long season for the Wolfpack!

4- Mini#2 may be a future hoarder. Is it just my kid or does your kid smuggle items into his/her bed? Case in point, yesterday mini#1 went to wake up mini#2 from his nap (with my permission of course!) and he told me to "Quick, come look!" Upon my arrival Mini#2's bed looked mysteriously lumpy. I pulled back his quilt/comforter and there was his mini 4-piece drum set! He did at least unhook the cymbal and it was somewhat flatter than usual. But that's not all. He also had a book, an Atlanta Braves' batter's helmet and a baseball in his twin bed. My jaw was on the ground, but mini#2 just sleepily smiled at me and said "What?" like nothing was wrong with this!

5- We're going to two Labor Day parties Saturday in the neighborhood and then to the NC Zoo in Asheboro on Sunday where we'll meet my parents and brother. I have not been to this zoo in about sixteen years when I went with an old boyfriend. A lot has changed since then - at the zoo and in my life!

What are your plans?

Blog Friends help my budget!

I finally ordered the skirt I have been salivating over at J. Crew. It's a denim pencil skirt with a little stretch in the material. Love it! If you've been reading for a while you know I love J. Crew for the minis, but try to restrain myself from making purchases pour moi. Remember, you're a SAHM, I remind myself daily. No workie, no extra checkie. However, when I won the gracious J. Crew gift card from Jillian, Inc. as one of her fabulous blogiversary giveaways, I told her I would spend it on ME. Another blog friend, Momx2 turned me onto this great "new" blog, J.Crew Aficionada that I read from time to time and where I found a discount code for items in their fall catalog. It's F5X73L (15% off full priced items; expires 8.30.08) if you want it. So with gift card and code in hand I set out to make my purchase on the internet because the skirt was not yet in our J. Crew store. However, I'm glad I went into the store because I tried on a similar skirt and found I had to go down a size! Got to love that! I digress. The J. Crew site was acting very peculiar this morning and I was having trouble all the while it was slowly crawling along through screens. Being _____ (add any of the following: impatient, agitated, pissed) I called the 800 customer service number and a lovely lady (I should have gotten her name to give her proper credit on this post) went ahead and placed my order AND gave me free shipping for my trouble! I had internalized my frustration, too. I only sweetly commented that the site was moving at a snail's pace. SO thanks to Jillian, Inc, Momx2, and sweet customer service lady, this $100 skirt cost me only $38.92. And Mr. Pink wonders what I do all day! I save us big bucks! Thanks ladies for your great blogs!

Running around, dancing and a transforming bus!

So far today I've:


1- Gone to the bank to notarize a preschool form.

2- Gone by the pediatrician to drop off a medical form, sign a release and request immunization records. I'm a little late doing this. It may or may not have slipped my mind. Is the mind the first to go? I'm well on my way.

3- Dropped other paperwork off at the preschool. No one was there. The director wasn't even in her office so I attached an argyle post-it note (thanks Belle in Bloom!) to the paperwork and left it on her desk. Then mini#2 and I located his "duck" class and the playground for a sneak preview. I really played it up, but not necessary. He's already extremely excited to start.

4- Went in search of new tennis shoes for mini#2. First and only stop was Kohl's. Found a pair of slip-on Nike's on sale for $19.99. SOLD! He wore them around the store so he could test out jumping and running. It was precious. He's relishing in all of this preschool attention he's getting. Then I found a Carter's navy jacket with an embroidered-like football on it on sale for $9.80. SOLD! I probably have 15 jackets from mini#1 days, but fear they are probably worn out. Anyway, I love to shop and feel sorry for little man not having his own clothes. I'm nice that way.



We're home, lunch is over and he's napping (or yelling down "Mom, I love you!" every few minutes!). I checked my emails prior to posting. Of course, I get a daily email from PEOPLE magazine. Did you hear the new Dancing With the Stars lineup? I didn't really watch last season, but I'm a little intrigued by this new lineup. I may have to give it a viewing or two. Love Rocco DiSpirito, the chef. He's desperately trying to revive his career, I believe, after some failed business attempts. Anyone watch him on The Restaurant reality show a few years back? And Susan Lucci? Anyway, here's the list:



• Toni Braxton, singer, 40, and season one DWTS champ Alec Mazo

• Lance Bass, singer, 29, and Lacey Schwimmer

• Ted McGinley, actor, 50, and Inna Brayer

• Cloris Leachman, actress, 82, and Corky Ballas

• Warren Sapp, former NFL star, 35, and Kym Johnson

• Rocco DiSpirito, chef, 41, and Karina Smirnoff

• Kim Kardashian, TV personality, 27, and reigning DWTS champ Mark Ballas

• Maurice Green, Olympic gold medalist track and field star, 34, and two-time DWTS champ Cheryl Burke

• Misty May-Treanor, Olympic gold medalist beach volleyball player, 31, and Maksim Chmerkovskiy

• Susan Lucci, Emmy-award winning soap opera actress, 61, and Tony Dovolani

• Jeffrey Ross, 42, comedian, and Edyta Sliwinska

• Cody Linley, 18, actor, and two-time DWTS champ Julianne Hough

• Brooke Burke, 36, TV personality, and Derek Hough



Lastly, I was sad to see the Olympics end. We watched the closing ceremony last night. The Chinese can really put on a show! The British need a little work. I did enjoy seeing the transformer double decker bus! It transformed into a stage and up popped Leona Lewis and Jimmy Page to perform. Of course, David Beckham was aboard and had to kick a soccer ball out to the crowd. A little predictable, but the bus was "awesome" as both minis say! But why did Michael Phelps have to go to London as part of the "closing" or handover to London? I really think he should have remained in China and had more of the spotlight in the ceremony there. Just my opinion. Loved Team USA Ralph Lauren (HUGE emblems!) uniforms. They all looked super preppy. It was comical to see some of the heavily tattooed athletes wearing Ralph Lauren though. Ok, anyone left reading this? This is a "marathon" post! Sorry! Enjoy the rest of your day!

Diamonds are a girl's best friend

Thanks Preppy Mama and Belle in Bloom for the diamonds! You can never have enough sparkly diamonds.

Rules:

1. When you receive a diamond, make a post about it on your blog

2. Name the blogger from whom you got it

3. Award the diamonds to seven other bloggers

4. Link them and tell them that they got one.

Now it's my turn to share the bling bling with seven others. I award more diamonds to:

One Fabulous Mom

Pink Cashmere Cardigan

Preppy Engineer

Mom x 2

It's Toile Ya'll

Belle in Bloom (Happy early birthday. I'm giving you more!)

Magnolia Belle's Musings

I hope everyone has a nice weekend. Mine started last night. I went to dinner with six friends. It was a lot of fun, but we had to compete to be heard because of the eight men at the table across from us. They were so loud. Apparently they go to this restaurant EVERY Thursday night after playing golf! I think we need a weekly outing! Tomorrow we're going back to the lake for the day.

Conversation with a soon-to-be preschooler

Me: Are you excited to be in the duck class in preschool? (Each class has an animal theme)

Mini#2: A-huh. Mom?

Me: Yes?

Mini#2: Will you be sad about me?

Me: (confused) About going to preschool?

Mini#2: Yes, 'cause you'll be alone!

Me: (slightly lying) Yes, I'll miss you.

Mini#2: Can I get a new lunchbox?

Me: (ever so slightly disappointed) No, baby. You'll be home in time for lunch with me.

Mini#2: (crushed) Oh....

Me: Do you think you'll like your teachers? (Miss Ruthie is already Miss Roofie to him!)

Mini#2: Yes. I not scared of them either.

Me: (laughing) Of course you're not scared of them. You're brave!

The thing is they should be very scared of him...I'm scared to give him to them for 9 hours each week actually. Will he say "fart"? Will he hit some unassuming pre-schooler in the back like he does when his older brother frustrates him? Will he share embarrassing family details? It's funny how when the second child starts school your concerns are completely different than when the first child started school! And I may or may not be singing and dancing to my Girls' Weekend CD approximately 15 mins after I drop him off that first day, September 2.

**I have to add this. Today while I was doing the lovely laundry, mini#2 took it upon himself to go into hiding beside the den sofa. Why you ask? Because he found the jar of peanut butter I had not yet returned to the pantry. When I found him he was sitting with a spoon spooning peanut butter into his already full mouth! He said he was hungry! Oh help us!

Tag! You're it!

That's mini#2's favorite thing to do these days. Smack you on the back and yell "Tag, you're it." You better run right after him and return the tag or there's hell to pay! Anyway, I've been tagged by Belle in Bloom to list 5 words I find unpleasant, gross, yucky (as minis say) or distasteful when spoken. This was hard! Here goes.


1- "bowels". Enough said really, but especially when MIL was living with us I had far too many conversations including or revolving around the word "bowels". Ewww. Yuck. Gross.


2- "fixin to". Not a word I know. This is a phrase highly used in the south, but most definitely with Georgians. I learned it when we moved there. It grates on my nerves. For you northerners scratching your heads, "fixin to" means "getting ready to" or "about to".


3- "Ya'll." Another southern word, but I will not use it. I refuse to. "You all" takes a little extra effort, but it's appreciated!


4- "fart". Hate this word. Little boys love this word. We still try to use "toot", which sounds stupid, but it's better than "fart".


5- "vomit". The word sounds like the action to me. I have been lucky that my minis don't do this too often, but it's gross. I hate it and I almost do it when they do it!

So if anyone wants to play along and hasn't go ahead.

Weekend Highlights

I hope everyone had a great weekend. We sure did. Friday we went out to dinner here for my birthday and I thoroughly enjoyed a couple of prosecco bellinis with our delicious dinner. Mr. Pink and I shared tiramisu for dessert and I think it was the best I've ever had. Afterwards, Mr. Pink graciously agreed to go see a French film I wanted to see at the nearby theater I usually go to with my college roomie. If you're reading roomie, take your husband. If Mr. Pink enjoyed this suspenseful thriller at 9:30 on a Friday night after 52,000 hours at work, you two will enjoy it, too.




Saturday, Mr. Pink headed off to his fraternity house for a work day before students moved back into it for the school year. I took the minis to the pool for a couple of hours and then....yes, I did this on my own....I took the minis to "Meet the Pack" day at our college football stadium. Being Junior Wolfpack Club members (since maybe mere minutes after they entered into this world!) we got to go in early, have ice cream and get into lines for player autographs before the general public. Thankfully I ran into a friend of ours and he told me which line to get into first. The quarterbacks/kickers/punters. Duh! The minis were even given an autograph book upon entry. Mini#2 was in heaven gawking at the players. However, he was a little nervous to stand by one of 3 possible QB's for a picture. It was funny. HE IS SOOOO NOT SHY on any other day!
I could only take going through two lines (offense I believe was the other) before we called it quits. It was slightly WARM in the sun! We did get a photo of #2 standing in front of the table where Coach O'Brien was. The line was just too long to wait to see him. You're bored I'm sure, but I must tell you that #2 sleeps with footballs, helmets and his favorite reading material is the monthly "Wolfpacker" magazine we receive. He scrutinizes every picture and is highly upset when he sees a Tarheel player in any of the photos! Let's just say this magazine provides ME precious minutes of peace.






Sunday, Mr. Pink went to play golf with 3 neighbors (all of whom watched their kids while their wives were at the beach with me last weekend) and then went to the golf tournament in Greensboro. Once again I had entertainment duty with the minis. The highlight was going to our neighborhood's nature trail and visiting the pond to feed the turtles and geese. I'll spare the horrendous walk there when mini#2 was having a meltdown and wanted to stop walking altogether. It's amazing how many turtles there are in that lake/pond. We saw bluish lizards and a couple of frogs along the way and two deer on the way home. A very educational journey I'd say! Then we had neighbors over for pizza since their daddy was with Mr. Pink at the tournament. All in all a very good weekend!












Look for the turtles amongst the geese.

Happy Birthday to me!

It's my birthday! I'm 29 plus a few more. Ok, I'm 38. It's just a number they say. I feel younger than I have in a while. I share this day with a couple of stars. I'm sandwiched in between Ben Affleck (36) and Debra Messing (40).

Mr. Pink and I are going on a date tonight at a yummy restaurant my friend introduced me to a couple of months ago. This is horrible to say, but it's the first date Mr. Pink and I have been on in a very long time. Everything with the mother-in-law and schedules just pushed dating to the far bottom of our priority list. So I'm looking forward to dressing up, good food and uninterrupted conversation with my husband. Here's the cute dress I found to wear.

It's from GAP! Cheers. Have a nice weekend!

Preppy Paper Swap

To those still wondering, my sandals on the last post were the GOLD ones. I wanted to be a little different! Everyone else wore blackish flats and mine had heels but, surprisingly, were very comfortable. The loop silver/black sandals belong to my weekend roomie. Loved those, too!

Ok, I have to thank Belle in Bloom for all of the great things she sent me! I received this huge box on my front porch (yes, I'm in the south!) and thought she may have packed one of her sons as well! Just take a look at the goodies I received!

Everything was in a black/white/pink hat box. So cute! Belle didn't know that I already have two rectangular boxes in similar patterns on top of my bedroom armoir. I store photos in one and wrapping, ribbon, notes in another. This box makes a perfect addition and looks so cute next to the others.

I received plaid napkins and plates that I will use for book club tomorrow night. Love the pink and brown paisley plates and napkins! Of course there were some preppy pink and green items in the form of note cards and sticky notes. The fleur-de-lis symbol symbol is my fav so she included fleur-de-lis thank you notes and lastly, some preppy plaid notes. She covered all of the preppy styles! Thank you so much. I love it all! This was so much fun.

Off to do some last minute cleaning before my parents and brother arrive for their short visit. Stay sane and don't hurt your kids! Ciao! (Oops! Au revoir...)

I survived "Mommies Gone Wild" weekend!

To keep my friends anonymous, this is about the only picture I can share. Anonymous on the internet and not from their behavior! Ha! See our pretty pedicures. Come on and guess. Which foot or feet belong to me?

We all arrived home (to the same neighborhood) VERY sleep deprived. We closed the club two nights in a row! Oh my! Said feet are still sore from dancing. We absolutely had a fantastic time. For 10 girls to get together, you would think there is bound to be conflict at some point. I can honestly say we all relaxed, were ourselves, laughed and thoroughly enjoyed each other's company without any mama drama. I got to know some even better and it was just fabulous. We all needed to shed our mommy duties for a few days and remember the wonderful women we are aside from being wives and moms. It's important to have good friends and form bonds with those that have similar interests. And, yes, I was the supplier of jewelry, clothes and even a pair of sandals to these girls. What did I tell you? What would they have done without me?

Today I've been doing laundry, cleaning bathrooms and preparing a grocery list. All this is in preparation of my parents and brother (Home from Frankfurt assignment!) stopping by Wednesday for a quick overnight visit. Then Thursday I'm hosting book club. Thanks again for your recipes! It's a busy, busy week for Mrs. Pink!

See ya later...

I think all 10 of us will be doing cartwheels once we arrive at the beach. We leave in a few hours. I've got to finish packing. I hope everyone has a nice weekend. See you next week!

Entertainers: Need Your Help!

Next Thursday I'm hosting our book club meeting. I need my bloggy friends' help! I'm looking for good (simple) appetizers to serve. I'm tired of my old standbys. Can you help a blog girl out?
If so, send your crowd-pleaser recipes to me at: pinkinaseaofblue@yahoo.com or leave me a comment if it's a short recipe. Thanks!

The book I selected was The Beach House by Jane Green. It was so good. A nice, easy summer read. We've read some heavy ones so I'm glad I've started hearing from the girls that they "can't put it down". They all said they wanted a girly, chick book. This is that, but more. I have loved all of the Jane Green books I've read. I highly recommend her books.

Ok, off to the bank to get funds to spend at the beach!

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

Two days and four hours until I leave this house, these kids and Mr. Pink to have some fun with 9 other equally stressed, underpaid mommies. To kick off the festivities, one mommy arranged for us to have a mani/pedi party at our local salon last night. Let me just say, we were all looking tired and ready to leave last night! But we quickly got into the spirit of the event and started talking about the clothing we were bringing, laughing at the thought of the husbands staying with the kids all weekend and what time we were getting the heck out of here on Thursday. Oh, and can I just say that it was unanimously agreed upon that yours truly would be the one bringing the most clothes/shoes. All I could do was smile graciously and agree right along with them. I'm just like my mom. These women know me well. And, when one of them comes up to me Friday night when their "one" selection fails to please and asks to borrow something of mine, I just may let them. I'm nice that way.


Here's a photo. Poor girl on the end really wanted to leave last night. Actually, she didn't know it was photo time. I'm in the middle. 4th chair from either side. Oh, and last night we got this year's Beach Party Music CD to kick off the weekend. Sexy Back, When I Grow Up, Gimme More, Low, Buttons, Bootylicious, In da Club, Glamorous are just a few of the selections we will, no doubt, hear over and over again.

Lucky Me!!

After having a couple blah days last week, I more than made up for it over the weekend. Two very nice things happened. Life is all about the highs and lows isn't it?

First on Saturday, after we got home from the lake, I checked Jillian, Inc.'s (formerly Who Could Ask for Anything More) blog because she was celebrating her 2 year blogiversary last week and was having some awesome giveaways (Starbucks, Target, Border's, J. Crew, Vera Bradley). She announced the big winners, and I mean big, yesterday. I won a $50 giftcard to J. Crew! I was so surprised! I promised her that I will use it for ME and not the minis. Yey me and thank you so much Jill. You are so generous! Congrats on 2 years!

Second, note the above pictures. This man is now 58, but in my heart he makes me feel 12 again! When I was 12, my first concert was to see Rick Springfield. I loved me some Dr. Noah Drake on General Hospital. Don't tell my mom. I wasn't allowed to watch soap operas, but secretly watched GH daily! It was REAL love! I wished I was Jessie's Girl. Fast forward to 2000. I saw him in concert again with my BF in Atlanta and 3 other colleagues from work at classy Chastain Park in Atlanta. I had to act a little more civilized, but I remember at one point calling Mr. Pink on my cell and screaming "Can you hear him???". So much for being civilized.

So eight years and 2 kids later, BF bid on backstage tickets and seats to his concert Saturday night in the Atlanta area and won. She wanted me to go, but I couldn't since I'm going out of town (alone) next weekend. That's asking a bit much of Mr. Pink. However, I demanded a play by play of the concert and the backstage visit. The picture on left is one she sent me from the concert! She said she doesn't care how old he is, he still has a six-pack (he had to change shirts in front of everyone apparently) and that this concert was better than the one in 2000. Thanks a lot for rubbing it in! Anyway, she, as well as yours truly, now have autographed pictures from Mr. Rick Springfield. Thanks BF! I'll have to find a nice silver Pottery Barn frame so I can prominently display it amongst all my family photos for friends and guests to enjoy.

Pre-concert I told BF she better tell him I'm his number one fan when she met him backstage, but I don't think she did that. She probably tried to claim that fact as her own! I'm just saying (as clemsongirl says).

All American Weekend

I hope everyone has had a great weekend. We have. Especially on Saturday. We spent the day at the lake. We're fortunate to have a large lake about 25 mins away from us. We can load up the car, pack a lunch, pick up the boat and spend most of the day having good family fun. All that and still be back home late in the afternoon. That's the best part because, honestly, I get bored easily at the lake. I can do a day at a time, but not much more than that. I can't help it. I'm a beach girl! Also, I'm just not good at driving a boat when Mr. Pink wants to impress us with his skiing abilities. Something about not having a brake scares me!

As if we hadn't had enough family fun yesterday, we came home from the lake, showered, and headed off to Durham. We went to the home of the Durham Bulls once again to see a baseball game. However, last night we saw TEAM USA play TEAM Canada days before they fly off to Beijing to compete in the Olympics. How cool! The boys loved it and I did, too. When Mr. Pink made this suggestion I may or may not have had thoughts of "it's going to be hot", "I'm too tired", "baseball again?" Anyway, #2 loved "reading" the program, the 7th inning stretch song and all the snacks while #1 loved dancing to the music and going to the bathroom with his mommy. Not! He's 7 and was horrified when I pulled him into the women's restrooms. Another boy about his age was standing in the doorway, and seeing #1's protest, said "I know exactly how you feel man!" It was so funny. I just wasn't going to let my "baby" go alone in the men's bathroom! We got home at 10:00 and both minis were asleep in the backseat. Amazingly we all made it to church this morning. Today I'm cleaning my closet and Mr. Pink is washing cars. A lack luster day after yesterday, but I'm content to be home. How was your weekend?

Friday!

Happy Friday! Thanks for the nice comments. I'm feeling better today. We're off to get mini#2's hair cut. He needs it. He's back to normal (if that is possible with this 3 yr old). No fever since lunchtime yesterday. After the haircut mini#2 will be dropped at home with Mr. Pink (works at home office Fridays) and I will be taking advantage of our tax-free weekend. Retail therapy without minis is the best medicine for anything that ails you!