Push it...Push it Real Good

I can’t believe my baby graduated from college…my baby sister that is.  For some reason, my sister graduating from college makes me feel older than the fact that I am married and have a child.  I guess she was my link to the young life.  I could link her with ideas, fun, and trends.  “Oh yea, isn't that cool? My sister in college told me about that.”  We had such a great weekend celebrating her hard work and determination.  It really is a fete to graduate in four years, cum laude, and still have a serious pair of party pants. 

After the ceremony, our family drove the 30 minutes it takes to get to the beach from her school and celebrated with a little lunch and some sangria at the beach condo my mom rented for the weekend.  It is guaranteed to be nothing but fun (and a little drama) when our family gets together.  As the stories, drinks, and laughs grew, we all knew it was going to be a memorable night.   It is tradition in her school for every graduate and family member to go to Seacrets that night.  Seacrets is a huge beach bar on the bay that is complete with several bars, bands, a little indoor club action, and always a great spot for people watching.  We got there around 5:00pm and enjoyed some time together before her entire graduating class and their entourages showed up.  After a few hours, we made our way from the table and started standing around one of the beach bars, dancing to the tunes of a great beach/cover band.  They were playing a good deal of Eagles, Steve Miller Band, and other classics that were great for singing along to.

After one song concluded, the main singer gave a shout out to the crowd…”Any requests?”  Without hesitation, my middle sister shouts out…”Salt-n-Pepper Push it.”  We all start laughing, never thinking these t-shirt and flip-flop wearing, shaggy haired guys would know it.  After about 10 seconds, the first few notes to the song were strummed on the guitar and he pointed to my sister and told her to come on up.  The three of us ran up there and jumped on stage.   She grabbed the mic and began…”Oh baby baby, Ohh baby baby.”  As the band played, my middle sister must have had a flash back to the tight jeans and baggy Calvin Klein t-shirt wearing days of middle school and early high school.  Every single word of that song came streaming out of her mouth as she gripped the microphone and pumped up the crowd.  My youngest sister and I became the back-up singers shouting “Salt and Pepa’s here!”  My mom was glowing with pride.  Her three educated, smart, grown daughters were rocking out on a stage while old men whistled and young girls danced.

With work, babies, boys, and life, the three of us don’t get a ton of time to be silly and fun together like we did for the first 20 some years of our lives.  Well…at that beach bar in front of the Salisbury University graduating class of 2011, we pushed it…we pushed it REAL good.

Name Brand Snob

If we’re being honest (and I always am…sometimes a bad trait) I like me a name brand.  I can’t help it.  There are certain things that I just want a brand name in and it doesn’t matter how much you try to sell me something different, I won’t like it.  It could look the same, feel the same, smell the same, whatever…I’m not purchasing.  This is not the case for everything.  I will definitely buy some “off brand” clothes.  I love Forever 21 and H&M for fun, trendy clothes.  I’ll purchase costume jewelry from anywhere.  I’m not specific about my brand of makeup (except I LOVE bare minerals).  BUT…when it comes to handbags, sunglasses, certain style clothes, work out gear, etc…give me a brand.  I hate to admit it, but I’ve been like this for most of my life.  I didn’t grow up with brand name everything but I craved it.  When it was time for me to make my own money, I wouldn’t be caught dead wearing a “no name polo” or shorts that didn’t have a Nike swoosh on them.  I would rather own 2 polo's with a pony on the breast then 16 polo's with an Old Navy symbol.  I'm sorry people.  Judge at will...I'm just being honest.

It's not like I am made of money and can afford to diss products and purses that don't have a brand connected but I can't help it.  If I had unlimited resources coming in, this snobbish style would be worse.  The problem is I’ve created a monster…my husband.

The man I love has always had an eye for nice things (let’s get serious, he picked me!) but our relationship has brought the name brand out in him.  A man that always dressed nice is now obsessed.  We should probably buy stock in UnderArmour because he now does not golf, work out, or walk out the front door without a head to toe UnderArmour outfit.  Don’t get me wrong, the man looks hot.   But seriously??  The money can’t go to both of our brands.  He has also decided that my workout clothes aren’t up to his standards so all my old soccer t-shirts and shorts have gone to the bottom of the pile and have been replaced by matching “hot” workout outfits that the husband has purchased for me.  I can’t complain when he comes home with cute running shorts or shirts but seriously, now he’s obsessed. 

The problem is this obsession has already rubbed down on my 7 month old son.  What baby doesn’t look cute in polo, Nike socks, and underarmour hats?  I can’t name one.  I can justify buying my son anything.  Mother guilt sometimes sets in on me when I want to purchase for myself these days.  "Do I need this?  Could I find this somewhere else?  I'll wait."  But for my baby..."Money ain't a thang."  I took our brand obsession one step further when I put my son in a Burberry onesie.  Seriously??  Babies puke all over onsies.  Well, my son is going to puke and spit up and shit in style.  I don’t care if I work solely to support this ridiculous obsession.  If you’re going to spit up, at least it’s on a beautiful plaid Burberry print.  It just happens to be the same onesie Mason (you know, Kourtney Kardashian’s son) sported when he was Brody’s age. 

I mean seriously…how can he NOT wear Burberry??

http://misamephoto.com/?p=2019

Brody is even snobby towards diapers.  We tried Luvs thinking we’d be thrifty and save money.  This kid wet the bed every night for a week.  The husband went out and bought a case of Pampers…the crib has been dry as a dessert.  Money DOES buy happiness in this case.

As long as these "Monsters" continue to buy me Hunter rainboots, Nike shorts, and super hot outfits for themselves, I won't complain.  Am I crazy?  Yes.  Do I look good through the crazy?  Absolutely.

My Perfect Mothers Day

How could I not have had an amazing day with that precious face.  My boys (one being my grown husband and one being my 7 month old angel) made my day very special.  Not only did I get kisses and hugs, but I also got a delicous and healthy home made breakfast in bed.

Just being able to hug my perfect son and realize that being his mom is by far the most rewarding thing I have done in my life, made my first Mother's Day a Day I will never forget.

The LC Golden Girls

Sorry for my brief hiatus...I have been a pathetic sick woman who has done nothing but go to work, come home and play mom and then go to bed at 8pm for the last week.  Not to worry, I am back to feeling fabulous (almost). 

As most of you remember, I explained my crazy year of weddings.  The first wedding "event" of the season was last weekend, the bachelorette party for one of my absolute best friends (you know, the one who I went to the porn shop for?!)  The weekend was spent with 14 girls, lots of wine, serious dance parties, pole dancing lessons, and the realization that this party mom is out of drinking shape.

The weekend was a great time but the best part was probably the union of my favorite four.  I am very forunate to have a lot of amazing ladies in my life.  My sisters and cousins have grown from family to friends and I have made and kept a lot of important friendships throughout my 27 years thus far.  Although all of these friendships are special and important, a college friendship is something different.  I have a relationship with these girls that is more than friends...we are family.  Not only did I spend the best years (body and booze wise) with these girls, but I lived, slept, ate, drank, shared, cried, and breathed with them day in and out.  Take it even one step further for me, we played soccer together.  Because of this, we traveled, sweat, showered (get your mind out of the gutters), and shared everything.  This postion led to friendships that I never imagined possible.  I am still extremely close with about 10 of the girls from my team.  I keep in touch with many more and have a extra special bond with three ladies. 

The four of us did everything together and have built relationships that truly should be seen by the likes of all on E!  Three of us still love close and the fourth lives about 4 hours away (not too bad) but when we all get together, it's like we're back in college and nothing has changed.  It doesn't matter that now we're all either engaged or married, I'm a mother, one's a doctor, or one's a lawyer.  The bachelorette weekend brought us back together to celebrate one of our own and let me tell you...we celebrated. 

The minute we get together, our typical banter begins.  Within minutes of being around the four of us, one of the bride to be's friends from grad-school laughed saying we reminded her of the Golden Girls.  Hmmm...this got me thinking.  What a great comparison.  Here are four girls who all have completey different personalities that compliment each other while feeding off each other.  We have the relationships where it's ok to say "Don't eat that piece of pizza, you'll hate yourself in an hour," "Go fuck yourself," "How often do you and your husband have sex?" or "Change that shirt, it makes you look broad."  These are honest, true, statements sometimes joking and sometimes serious and I absolutley love that they can be said in my circle without offense taken.  I actually said "I never feel bad talking about any of you if you're not around because I've already said it to your face."  And everyone agreed.  We can talk about each other flaws, personalities, and accomplishments without judgement (ok maybe a little) or pause.  This my friends, is friendship and I am truly blessed to have these lifelong friends.  Who knows, in 40+ years we might be living the Golden Girl lifestyle...with a little more wine.

My posse...the tall beauty in the middle is a soccer love but not one of the four Golden (or should we say Brunette) Girls.