The Bachelorette and the Bucket

Istanbul, Turkey

I confess I've been watching the Bachelorette this season. I had long since boycotted it for the tacky ways of being "picked" by someone while dating ten other people and all of them professing " I'm falling in love with you!!" after the second date.

No woman...or man for that matter should put themselves in a position to compete for someones love especially when there is a TACKY rose ceremony every couple of days to send a few losers home. YUCK!!

HOWEVER I must confess I've been watching this season for some desire to have some  CHEAP Summer fun. Ali ( the bachelorette) is cute and fun, and of course all the guys are super HOT and fun to look at. But the best part about this season is that they are traveling the world together. Last nights episode was filmed in Istanbul, Turkey.

NEVER have I been so drawn to a city since New York City and Paris. Both places did NOT disappoint and I would go back in a HOT minute. Paris with my super sexy husband was ten times better that our  Caribbean honeymoon, even though i was pregnant with Indy at the time of our trip.

Anywho, Last night I officially started my "Bucket List". As I mentioned this exciting news to my husband, " honey I'm starting my bucket list and I have the first thing I want to do."

Ted, "why... are you dying?"

Me, "no I'm not dying, but it's more a list of things I would like to do before I die." DUH!!

Ted, " Oh"

me " I want to go to Istanbul, Turkey"

Ted, "well that's not gonna happen because there's too much history there for you and I to go and enjoy it together"

me "what ??" "They didn't teach that in school, what kind of history?"

After a few minutes of explaining, basically he said that my public school education probably didn't go into too much detail about Turkey but that he would want to spend a lot of time reading and studying the history there. I of course really just wanna go to shop, eat, see the pretty sites, take a bunch of pictures,   and maybe look at a few historical places.

Just like  the Louvre in Paris, we would  have to do some pre-negotiating on how much reading of every single historical painting, monument,  placard, mosk, sculpture, etc etc  he would be allowed to do and how much of the fun stuff I would be allowed to do. But he did give me a kiss when we went to bed and said that he would love to go to Turkey with me some day.

I told him that would be great . 

Is Barbie Bad Ass??

Yesterday we went and saw Toy Story 3.

After some pre-movie negotiations on what the kids were allowed to have from the snack bar, we headed out and got our tickets. I then stood at the snack bar for 10 minutes with four kids and four different requests for food, snacks and four individual means of paying. Two of the kids had their own money and my two spent a tiny bit of their own money because Momma refuses to buy $30 worth of trashy junk food.

The movie was so great. In a nutshell...

Barbie isn't as Bad Ass as I once thought,

Ken is a big weenie,

Woody is my hero.

The End.

A Day Late But NO Less Important

Yesterday was Fathers Day, we were five minutes away from heading off to the movies when our friends called ( Yes we have friends now) and invited us down to the beach for some fun in the sun and a boat ride. We only had to think about it for about 2 seconds and we were out the door and heading to the beach.

It was the perfect day, playing in the cove ( no oil anywhere) and then a boat ride that included several dolphin sightings. We anchored on a secluded beach and frolicked in the water and on the white sands for a while. The kids had a ball and we adults couldn't remember a better Fathers day. It was perfect!

So Happy Fathers Day

to all the dad's out there that are fighting the good fight to be great Dads.

But I Still Have Clean Underwear...I Think

 Summer  break has been going on now for about three weeks. Three weeks ago I told  my daughter to bring me her dirty laundry when she wanted me to wash it or whenever she runs out of clean clothes.

 It's not too much to ask. Just bring em to me. Every day I look at the spill over of dirties around her laundry basket. It spans about three feet in all directions around her basket. last Night she finally brought down her basket. I was happy. I couldn't believe that she had enough clothes and underwear to last that long.

I didn't have a chance to start her clothes last night so this morning when she was looking for some clean clothes I had to tell her that I hadn't gotten around to it yet. That's OK to her because she just dug down into her dirties and pulled out what she needed!! Oh I remember those days!

Look Out!!!

 Ok so I am now the parent of a driver!!!

OMG, she got her learners permit yesterday and thank GAWD she didn't want to drive home from the DMV!!

I did however let her drive me to the dry cleaners today and she did quite well. But before we left the house she asked me to please  NOT yell at her. For some reason she says it stresses her out when i yell so she politely asked me NOT to. I didn't, and it was a very nice uneventful trip outside of the neighborhood.

Good girl Babe!!!

Mamma's so proud.


P.S. It looks like my comment section is back up and running and hopefully it will be much easier to post a comment of you so choose. You all know how much I love to read waht you are thinking so go ahead... make my day!! That means you too Denise!!

Forty Something

Hi dear readers. It's Shelley again, comandeering the blog once more, this time to honor Steph on her birthday. Birthdays are like a microscope. For one day a year, everybody who knows you (and remember's that it is your birthday) thinks of you. They think about how you light up a room with your smile and loud humor. They think about how creative and talented you are. They think about your inner and outer beauty. They think about how you helped deliver their baby, hang charicatures in their basement, re-decorate their living room, made them throw away their ashamed-to-show-em whites,  said what you were really thinking so they could too, wrote the truth so they could laugh and laugh and laugh.
Thank you for being you. We are blessed by your presence every day, in every word you share, picture you take, meal you create, room you decorate, house you sell or buy, and so much more. We love you so much!

Don't we look fabulous?
You thought you were fat there (up arrow).

So sorry all you loved ones (husband, kids, parents, nieces, nephews, friends) who hoped to be pictured on Stepha's B-day blog. I have to rush off to the street drawing festival and don't have all day to search for pictures. Please e-mail Steph with your comments because she messed up the comment section on the blog and is very sad about not knowing how you feel about her and her writing.



Happy birthday my beautiful sister!



Love, Shell

Raise your hand if you have boob sweat

Went out tonight and saw Sex and the City with several of the ladies in my neighborhood. the movie was great...did not disappoint.

Um yea the movie was great, now lets go backwards and talk about the dinner BEFORE the movie. OK, we'll start by saying that it was about 90 degrees today and about 80% humidity. I hate both the heat AND the humidity. I am a big baby. I don't like to sweat. When I begin to sweat, My hair instantly goes into a ponytail so as to keep it from touching the back of my neck. Yea I'm a crazy weirdo who is a big baby.

So we show up at the restaurant and I begin to cry internally because all of the "ladies" from the neighborhood are sitting outside on the patio. I have on a knit dress and sandals and my hair is down because I just got it colored this morning and the hair lady gave me a super bitchin hair do that was rockin and I needed to take full advantage of my blow-out.

All the beautiful ladies were super decked out in their strapless tops and 5 inch wedge heels. I order a water along with their Cosmo's and settle in and have to meditate to NOT think about the sweat that is beginning to collect in my cleavage. Only one of the ladies is complaining about the heat. I say to her, " Amen sister".

They go on with the chit chat and totally ignore the sweltering heat that is upon us. the other one that is hot too, finally speaks up and asks if we can move inside. I say Yes lets do because the boob sweat is beginning and I won't be able to stop it. At this point they all look at me as if they have no idea what I'm talking about. Oh that's right... young ladies who have breast implants don't have the luxury of boob sweat. There is NO part of the breast that is lying on their stomach. they don't know what their missing.

The conversation turns to shopping. They all start asking each other where they shop. They all look adorable and super sexy. I start to panic because I realize that I'm wearing a dress from target and my sandals are also from target. SHIT I hope they don't ask me wear I shop. I love Target but these girls were NOT wearing clothes from Target, but more from " Cache".

Meanwhile back at the ranch there was a conversation going on that went something like this...

Alex " Ari can I take the apples out side and swack em with a tennis racket?"

Ari "NO Alex you can't"

Alex " why not?"

Ari " seriously Alex? you're gonna ask me that?" "of course you can't!!"

Alex " Fine then I'll take some pretzels and swack those!!"

Ari "NO, you cannot take pretzels outside and swack them either!"

Alex " you're the worst sister EVER, because you never let me do anything FUN!!"

goodnight.