looking for bits of my weekend?

If you came by looking for bits of my weekend.
It's not here.
It's over at my new blog:

www.6inthecity.com

Please come on over!

mama's got a brand new blog

I have made the switch from blogger to wordpress.

Behind that sentence lurks the following data:

• I have consumed large amounts of chocolate.
• I have bugged the heck out of my savvy 18 year old computer genius.
• I have spent way too much time designing a new template.
• Lily has spent way too much time in front of Nick Jr. and now needs to be weaned.
• I had more than one dream at night about how to code something in CSS. Wait. They were more like nightmares.
• Did I mention the chocolate?

But, hooray! I have a new blog.

Go check it out and let me know what you think.

My new blog is here:

http://www.6inthecity.com/

I won't be posting on blogger anymore, so make sure you change your bookmarks, your RSS feeds, your life...

bits of my weekend- volume 13

I can't believe I've been doing Bits of My Weekend for 13 weeks now. I love the community that's growing from it! If you haven't joined up yet, I encourage you to do so.

There is always a parade happening in NYC.

This weekend we watched the NYC Dance Parade.

Thousands of dancers danced the streets.

Some had a bit more flair than others.

I now have a sudden urge to learn how to belly-dance. Is that ok?

Fake tickets were handed out to bystanders who were not dancing. I ran away before I could get mine.

Flea market in Noho.

Trying on hats in the flea market.

This one's a keeper. I'm talking about the hat. Well...actually I'm talking about him, too.

A weekend is not complete without a cupcake. This is the adorable bakery called Butter Lane in the East Village. Delicious!

Peaceful view from our living room.

I heart New York.

What did you do this weekend? I'd love to know!

Add your linky here. But, please link directly to your post that is about what you did over the weekend. It's great if you title it "Bits of My Weekend." But you don't have to.

If you merely link to your blog and a random post that has nothing to do with your weekend, I'm afraid I'm going to have to be mean and delete your link. Gasp! Please don't make me do that. But please share your weekend!

marriage is....

Twenty-one years ago today I walked down the aisle (with extremely big hair) and married this man.



I once heard someone say if you marry the right person, you will never have a fight. That person is drinking a very special Kool-Aid. That's not reality, unless maybe you've only been married a year and live on separate continents. But you know what? It seems that people don't often talk about the reality of marriage.


Marriage is bliss.

Marriage is hard.

Marriage is tears.

Marriage is uncontrollable laughter.

Marriage is lonely at times.

Marriage is security.

Marriage is not keeping score.

Marriage is being so angry you don't want to be touched.

Marriage is having someone wrap their arms around you at night while you sleep.

Marriage is selfless.

Marriage is putting aside your own dreams for a while so the other can fulfill theirs.

Marriage is finding the log in your own eye.

Marriage is love. A love you never knew before.

Marriage is forgiveness.

Marriage is making time for each other no matter what.

Marriage is trust.

Marriage is adventure.

Marriage is loving the same person, even though time inevitably changes who we are.

Marriage is commitment. A digging in with your heels type of commitment.

Marriage is comfort.

Marriage is being uncomfortable.

Marriage is having someone see your true self and still love you.

Marriage is work.

Marriage is painful.

Marriage is praying in the middle of the night together when it seems all hope is lost.

Marriage is rejoicing.

Marriage is honesty.

Marriage is preferring the other person.

Marriage is messy.

Marriage is real.

Authors John and Staci Eldridge describe marriage as a "love story in the middle of a war". I love that. It's honest. It's real. I think that sums it up. Marriage isn't perfect because people are not perfect. It is a journey we go on together through this life.

There is no one I'd rather be on this journey with than my husband Rod.

I love you Rod even more deeply than I did 21 years ago. Thank you for loving me, too.

Happy Anniversary!

bits of my weekend- volume 12

Can't believe the weekend has already come and gone!
Here are some little bits of my weekend.

Fruit stand right outside my apartment building.

He's open every day until around 2 am, unless the temperature is below freezing.

Please don't hate me.

Holding hands.

We went to the park and I spotted this little family of boys. Loved their balloons.

Do you see the little lighthouse in the background?

I have a thing for flower boxes.

I also have a thing for this guy. He's growing up way too fast.

What did you do this weekend? I'd love to know!

Add your linky here. But, please link directly to your post that is about what you did over the weekend. It's great if you title it "Bits of My Weekend." But you don't have to.

If you merely link to your blog and a random post that has nothing to do with your weekend, I'm afraid I'm going to have to be mean and delete your link. Gasp! Please don't make me do that. But please share your weekend!

quote of the week

"I'm starving. I wish I had a girlfriend so she could make me a sandwich."

-said by my beloved 15 year old son, Bo

"i'll have what she's having."

name the movie

my son sacrificed his eyeball to afford me some mother-son time

My 15 year old, Bo has something wrong with his eye. I figured this out when he put his contact in his right eye, proceeded to clutch his eye socket, drop to his knees, and hurl words through the air that we have told him not to say. I know. I'm pretty intuitive. It's probably my strongest motherly trait.

Anyway, I thought he might need to see an opthamologist. Here's the problem. We don't have an opthamologist in the city yet.

So I looked up our insurance on line and found a doctor (tired of spelling opthamologist) close to our side of town. I called, explained the situation and they told me they had an opening. IN SEPTEMBER. I'm pretty sure his eyeball could fall out by then. Plus grandparents are visiting soon and they're not really fans of the whole "hurling words through the air that we have told him not to say". They're from Oklahoma.

We needed more of an immediate plan.

So I did some research and noticed there was a walk-in eye clinic downtown. Bo and I headed down there after lunch. Fast forward 4 1/2 hours of our lives that we will never get back and we were STILL THERE. Turns out "walk-in eye clinic" is code for "we'll take anyone who doesn't have insurance, doesn't have a regular doctor, or is just lonely and wants some one-on-one time."

Picture the worst DMV experience you've ever had and multiply that by a gazillion. I won't bore you with all the details, but I will add a fun fact. It was my second day of my new No sugar, No carb diet. To assume that I wanted to start climbing the walls using only my fingernails would be accurate assumption.

And Bo, well at one point Bo said, "Don't they know I am a 15 year old teenage boy, testosterone raging through my body, and I might go postal any minute?" Yes, they know that, but they really don't care. This is New York. It takes a lot more than that to scare people.

We were trapped in a waiting room with about 150 other people called Area A. If we left, we could lose our place in line. But because Bo is growing boy, he needs to eat every 15 seconds. He tried posting to his facebook status that food was needed. Unfortunately none of his friends were able to come to his rescue. Either that or they knew that Area A was the pit of hell and should be avoided at all costs.

We finally saw the doctor right before our bodies started to decompose from waiting for so long. Actually we saw 2 doctors who gave us 2 different diagnosis. A whole other story. But we picked the diagnosis we liked the best. Bo has a scratch on his eye and was in need of some antibiotic drops.

Even though it was a long afternoon. It was not a total loss to me:

Cost of transportation to and from eye clinic: $20
Cost of antibiotic drops: $100
Finally being able to spend 1 on 1 time with my 15 year old even if it was Area A: priceless

window shop wednesday - volume 4

Diesel on 5th Avenue

Interesting ad campaign...Don't think most people need encouragement in this area, do you?

because i need to laugh today

I reached back in the archives of my old blog and found this. Thought you might like it.
It's a little conversation Lily and I had when we lived in Colorado.

Lily: "Mommy, did you just get out of the shower?"

Me: "Yes."

Lily: "Was Daddy in the shower with you?"

Me: "No...he's downstairs in the office."

Lily: "Oh. I thought he was in the shower with you."

Me: "Nope."

Lily: "Well, if he was in the shower with you - that would make you VERY married."

are you a carrie, miranda, charlotte, or samantha?

I started a fun discussion related to Sex and the City over on my review blog.

Would love for you to take few minutes and go check it out.

Come join the fun and share which Sex and the City character you are most like!

bits of my weekend- volume 11

We had another lovely weekend.

Tea at Alice's Tea Cup.
Highly recommend the chocolate, strawberry tea and the pumpkin scones.

A little trip to FAO Schwartz with Grandma Gigi.

The most fabulous craft project ever. Playfoam sculpting beads never gets hard, is not messy, and is also quite addictive for adults to play with.

For Mother's Day, I requested a family photo. They all miraculously obliged. This made me quite happy!

What did you do this weekend? I'd love to know!

Add your linky here. But, please link directly to your post that is about what you did over the weekend. It's great if you title it "Bits of My Weekend." But you don't have to.

If you merely link to your blog and a random post that has nothing to do with your weekend, I'm afraid I'm going to have to be mean and delete your link. Gasp! Please don't make me do that. But please share your weekend!

i invaded Bono's personal space

Rod and I attended the premiere of The Lazarus Effect earlier this week at The Museum of Modern Art.

It's an HBO documentary about the the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Africa. Did you know 40 cents/day can provide medication for those suffering with HIV? This medication can radically change their life. This is a great cause and I encourage you to check them out and get involved. I'm not going to say anything more about the cause because I know you are going to check out the above link. Right? Please check out the above link. Did I mention you need to check out the above link? Thank you.

I realize I didn't post a picture of the dress I wore to the event on yesterday's post. I'm going to show you a little pic of the fabulous shoes I wore instead.

Hello, lover.

A pair of Prada shoes can even make parquet flooring look good. And yes, I need a pedicure. And yes, those shoes were bought at an outlet.

Anyway, the event was fantastic. A great date night for Rod and me.

During cocktail hour, some celebrities began to arrive. I didn't bring my good camera, so my pictures aren't the highest quality, but I thought you'd still like to see who was there.

Gabby Sidibe from Precious.

Iman

Iman is such a beautiful woman. Flawless.

Here's a picture of her shoes. I don't know what came over me, but I felt it was important for me to show you her shoes.

And look! There is Hayden Christensen.

Are you wondering how I'm getting so close to these people? I walked right up to the media section and breathed down the necks of stood behind these people.

Living in New York has given me courage. And less personal boundaries. And an extra 5-10 pounds, but I don't want to talk about the pounds right now.

All of a sudden there was some commotion. I looked up and saw Bono.

Well, hello Bono. You're looking very nice this evening. It's OK for me to say that. I think my husband has as big a crush on him as I do.

I couldn't take just one picture of Bono. I had to take about 20 or 137.

And I'm sure you're wondering what kind of shoes Bono wears to such an event.

You're welcome.

All celebrity-stalking aside, it was a great evening. The movie is quite sobering, but gives you hope and a desire to become involved in this fight against HIV/AIDS. We all need to be involved.

Please watch the movie when it comes to HBO on May 24th later this month.

girl power....activate!

Rod and I had tickets to a big event this week. Which meant I had to figure out what to wear. Which meant I had to have a teenzy, tiny anxiety attack first.

We moved from Colorado, the land of blue jeans, flannel and hiking boots. I don't own a lot of swanky New York attire yet. Plus there's that whole issue of eating every carb in sight since we arrived last November. Not too good for the waistline.

My first instinct was to tweet Rachel Zoe. This was a true fashion emergency. Unfortunately, tweeting Rachel Zoe does not produce the same result as sending a flare up for Batman or something. Rachel Zoe doesn't own a bat mobile. But if she did, I'm sure it would be buh-hanans.

Since I didn't have Rachel, I grabbed the next best thing. My 7 year old daughter, Lily. She is an expert Project Runway watcher. She was thrilled and jumped right into the task at hand. We both crowded into my closet (if you live in a NY apartment, you know this is quite a feat) and started going through all the possibilities.

Me: "Lily, I just don't know what to do. I don't think I have anything that will work."

Lily: "Don't worry, Mom. We'll find you something. WE HAVE GIRL POWER!"

Bless her heart.

I pulled out a couple things and threw them on the bed. I started trying on the first one and Lily ran out of the room, but was back almost immediately. I turned around and said, "Well, what do you think?" People, she did not answer me.

Instead she held up a number.

The number 1.

She rated my dress a 1.

Apparently, she had run out of the room earlier to whip up a set up score cards, numbering 1 to 5. She thought a scoring system might help us narrow down the choices. And provide more opportunity to mock her mother.

After several dresses, we did agree on the final choice, a white Tibi dress that I bought last year at an outlet. And though my self esteem was damaged a bit by my original low scores, I went to the event knowing Lily thought the dress I ended up wearing was a strong 5.

So, if you are unable to get Rachel Zoe in your next fashion emergency, feel free to contact my daughter.

Lily, stylist to the Upper East Side carb-aholics. Coming soon to Bravo TV.

PS. Don't worry Mom. She's not really starring in her own Bravo reality show. I just made that part up.

thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's fabulous outdoor space

Maybe God needs to add this to His original Ten Commandments. For my sake. Amen.

It's true that from my apartment I have fabulous views of the city and the water. It's glorious and I absolutely LOVE it. But now that it is spring, I see that my 31st floor apartment also has views of some outdoor spaces.

Luxurious outdoor apartment spaces I tell you. Luxurious.

Here's a few I can see from my apartment. I've got a pretty good zoom on my trusty camera (a little blurry, but still good).

Oops. Sorry, I didn't know you were sunbathing. Thank goodness you aren't European. That would have been embarrassing. For me.

What about this one? I love the teak furniture, don't you? Very symmetrical. I like that. I tend to get a bit agitated if things are off center or on the diagonal. For instance, if I walk into your bedroom and see your bed is angled from the corner, I will get the shakes. I'm just warning you.

This one's harder to see, but it looks like they have an arbor built on their terrace. With vines growing all over it. Lovely. Just lovely.

This has a little gazebo over it. It's pretty swanky though. I'm waiting for them to have a party and I might go crash it. It looks like the type of outdoor space that has a lot of parties.

I love that they have a greenhouse on their terrace. I bet they grow tomatoes. Or orchids. Or something else.

OK, that was the last one. I'll put my camera away for now. But aren't you glad I risked their privacy to show you how some people live in the city?

i live in a small space, yes i do. I live in a small space, how 'bout you?

The title of this post should be read as if you were chanting like a high school cheerleader. Go ahead, try it again. I'll wait....Wasn't that much more fun?

I live in a small space. Let me clarify, for our family it is a small space. I have to clarify, because it seems one can no longer make statements like that without angering the internets. Without said clarification, angry emails can be hurled my way like blocks of cheese, saying I am a liar. I like to avoid angry emails unless I'm feeling particularly feisty. I'm not feeling so feisty right now. But I am craving cheese. It's a bit of a dilemma.

Anyway, I got to thinking about our home in Colorado. Probably because WE FINALLY HAVE A CONTRACT ON THAT HOUSE. After 10 long months. Thank you economy. As I was thinking about that home, I was reminded how different our current space is.

Here's a few of the differences:

Colorado: 6 bedrooms
NYC: 3 bedrooms (one of which was converted from a dining room)

Colorado: large family kitchen
NYC: tiny kitchen that gets me hostile if more than 2 people are in it

Colorado: living room, dining room, office, family room, media room...
NYC: den (and... there is no more. That's it.)

Colorado: 4 full bathrooms
NYC: 2 full bathrooms (3 boys share one and Lily shares with Rod and me. As a result our bathroom is usually covered in pink toothpaste.)

Colorado: Total square footage of 5000sq feet
NYC: Total square footage of 1200sq feet

Different, right? But to be honest, I think we have adjusted quite well. Yes, Lily still calls our apartment, "the hotel" but it feels more like home now. Here are some reasons I prefer our tiny space to our larger Colorado home.

• I used to use my cell phone to talk to my kids. When we were all AT HOME. We were so spread out in that big house. Now we're usually in the same room.
• It was possible to go the entire day without seeing one of my kid's faces. They hid in their tricked out media room for hours on end. Now we literally run in to each other approximately 1,387 times a day.
  
• I used to find out what's going on with my older boys via their Facebook status. Now I just overhear then talking on their cell phones with their friends because their bedroom is next to mine. Side note: I've learned A LOT of valuable information.
• Our whole family used to be home-bodies. Now we are explorers. Our life goes beyond our 4 walls. It has to.
  

I don't think I'm just looking a the bright side. These are things I genuinely love about moving to a small space. In fact, if we ever move again, I don't want a huge house. I like this better. We are a family, probably more now than ever.

Clearly, I've drunk the Kool-Aid.

bits of my weekend- volume 10

We had another beautiful weekend in NYC. I love that spring is finally here! It's great to get outdoors and explore the city.

We headed down to the Tribeca Film Festival Family Fair. But on our way I got side tracked by the Manhattan Municipal Building. I just loved the architecture.

The Family Festival was a lot of fun. Great food, interesting people, lots of music.

I'm pretty sure this is art. Well, actually I'm not sure. It could have been an exhibit for full-body spanx.

The food was amazing. I'm a southern girl and have been craving a pork sandwich. I couldn't believe it when I saw a table selling them.

Please do not email me about the horrors of eating pork. I am well aware of them. I have even taught nutrition classes about it. I am a hypocrite. Thank you.

At $59 for 4 pork sandwiches, and 4 pink lemonades, I quickly realized this was not the same type of street fair I grew up on in Tennessee. It's a tad more pricey. Delicious. But pricey.

I was pretty happy with my choice of pork sandwiches, until I saw the tacos.

And the lobster rolls.

We also learned some valuable information at the street fair. Lily's phobia of puppets extends to the "larger than life" puppet category.

And maternal instincts were not required to make this discovery. Everyone within a few feet were well aware of Lily's phobia.

To cool off we took a walk down by the Hudson River. So beautiful.

With a view of the Statue of Liberty.

There is a great park on the river, too. The kids sat and watched the ducks for a while. Lily tells us grandpa LOVES ducks. And that he loves them so much he hangs them on the wall.

Finally back home to make homemade pizza for dinner. Lily is the expert oven watcher in the family. And I'm pleased to report that the pizzas were delicious.

I hope you had a great weekend too!

Add your linky here. But, please link directly to your post that is about what you did over the weekend. It's great if you title it "Bits of My Weekend." But you don't have to.

If you merely link to your blog and a random post that has nothing to do with your weekend, I'm afraid I'm going to have to be mean and delete your link. Gasp! Please don't make me do that. But please share your weekend!