Where have all the gentleman gone??

*Fare Warning*

This blog you are about to read is the rant of a 6 month pregnant woman!!

Here is the thing people, over the holiday's hubs and the family and I have been to numerous restaurants! Many of said restaurants have had a wait to get a table. Also, many of said restaurants have had plenty of seating for people to wait on their asses before eating large quatinties of food! Here is the thing... in the 10 restaurants I have been in the past 10 days, not ONE, ONE I say, person has gotten up and offerend me their seat. One time we were at Snuffers and this gentleman moves over to let this obese woman have his seat, but the small pregnant girl, that is (to me) OBVIOUSLY pregnant, never gets offered a seat. Can anyone explain where common courtesy has gone??

I mean come on! When I go to NY and ride the train, people are always getting up and offering preggo woman seats! Are you gonna tell me that New Yorkers are nicer than Southern Hospitality??

Listen, here is the deal. I am not out of shape, but I have NEVER carried this much weight before in my life. I went shopping yesterday (for about 4 hours) and I could barely stand at the restaurant while waiting for a table. Not one person, woman, man or child offered me a seat. Have people gotten so self centered that they don't care if a pregnant woman stands, while a they stit their happy asses down??

To top it off, last night I am standing there with my 85yr old grandmother, who OBVIOUSLY has a very hard time walking, and the both of us, pregnant and old, were standing there. NO one person, not even these two women (one daughter - IN SNEAKERS, or her mother) offered us a seat. They just sat there looking at us and smiling. Smiling?? Are you serious?? My poor Nona is hanging onto the wall, while you two sit there smiling at my pregnant belly? UGH!

People, PLEASE!, if you see an elderly OR pregnant person, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, offer them your seat! Even if you can't reallly, really, tell if the person is pregnant, just offer them a seat. If you are a man and you read this, offer your seat, just for the hell of it! Just to be a gentleman!

Advice???

Ok folks, I have this baby shower where I am going to in NY. All my famiglia is going to be there, and I really want the pictures to be cute. I have this adorable jacket I wore Christmas Eve.

What do you think? Cute for a baby shower in the dead of winter or what???

23 Weeks Pregnant!

Baby Brady is more than 11 inches long and weighs just over a pound (about as much as a large mango). His skin is red and wrinkled. Blood vessels in his lungs are developing to prepare him for breathing. He can swallow, but he normally won't pass his first stool (called meconium) until after birth. Loud noises heard often in utero — such as your dog barking or the roar of a vacuum cleaner — probably won't faze your baby when he hears them outside the womb.

This is just so amazing to me because I can remember when he was the size of a raspberry. Now he has clothes and a registry, a name and a room. Aww, just so amazing. God works in AMAZING ways!!

-----------------------------

On a total random note. My baby bro brought over his new Christmas gift, a Wii, and my hubs and I just can't get enough of it! Tennis is so fun! The whole fam was over here yesterday for dinner and even my Nona was having a blast. She thought it was so funny.

------------------------------

Also, have you ever seen that show the first 48? OH MY GOSH, it is so freakin awesome. I love murder mysteries and this is real. Damn, I am obsessed with this weird ass show.

Blah!

I wish I had something witty to write or even just something funny. Unfortunately my brain is in blah mode. Maybe it is because I have so much stuff to do in the next couple of weeks, my brain is just overloaded.

This Sun we have this party, that I am not really feeling good about going to. (I'll expand more after the party.)

Then, in one week my NY baby shower takes place, and my brain just won't stop thinking about the food and what to wear. Also, how I am going to get the gifts from NY to TX AND what everyone is going to buy.

Then, the week after we get back is my Mom's 50th birthday, and we haven't scheduled all the plans, and the week after that my baby bro turns 13... eek!

Not to mention, I have a baby room to decorate, baby furniture to buy, a car to sell (currently I drive an Eclipse Spyder Convertible and we know it won't be good for the baby) and a new car to purchase. All while planning and attending baby showers before I get to meet my little man!

UGH! Sorry, that was a brain dump. I just feel like so much is going on and before I know it, time will have run out. So... I will leave you with the cutest baby clothes ever!

Brady got more Christmas gifts than all of us and the little man isn't even here yet ;-)

What a Christmas!!

I cannot begin to tell you what an amazing Christmas the hubs and I shared! I have never felt so much love and so much warmth than I did this year. It was extra special to me, because I know, that these 9 mnths I share with my little guy are the only time he is all mine :) The rest of his life... I am letting go.



A breif sonopsis of the days...



Christmas Eve - we woke up around 8am, and I decided it would be awesome if we could exchange gifts, just the two of us, so that we could appreciate what the other got (without all the family comotion.) I am very sneaky when it comes to Christmas and I have had the gift wrapped, under the tree for close to 3 weeks. His, apparently, was in his crazy messy office, that I never venture into unless I am giving him work day kisses! I gave him the Steven Colbert book- I am America. I don't really get that guys humor but I know hubs has been wanting to read it, so I thought, what the hey. He travels so much it will be great for the airplane. Then I open this huge box, that felt very heavy, only to find out he got me an hour and a half preggo massage. He weighted it down with a 2lb weight and put it in a huge box so I would't guess what it was ;-) God I love this man!!

Then we headed over to my parentals house, to eat, eat and eat some more!! We had luinguini with clam sauce, pasta with walnuts and shrimp scampi. Then we had "fish salad" which is this amazing salad that has scuingili, calamari, celery, garlic and lemon juice. Mmmm! So tasty! Plus, we only get these dishes once a year, so it really is a treat to enjoy the food that goes along with Christmas eve! Then, after eating, we had a random power outage. We sat there for about 1 1/2 hours with no light, no tv, no music, and just talked by the candlelight. It was really a lovely peaceful evening.

After 7pm we headed to the hubs grandmother's house, to do the traditional Christmas even present opening. We got so much stuff, I don't know where to begin. We got money, clothes, manicures and pedicures... oh my... just too much stuff (as usual.) Brady even got a couple of gifts. Then, when all the comotion had died down, we drove back to my parents house, to sleep tight until Santa's presents came that morning.

Christmas Day - We awoke to coffee brewing, dogs snuggled on the couches with blankets and Christmas music playing in the background. Christmas morning is one of my favorite mornings. There are always too many people talking at once, too many presents being opened and too many deserts and coffee being passed around.

Here are some pics of that morning, that really just sum up the wonderfulness!














The rest of the day was spent playing a Wii (my baby bro got) and traveling to my hubs parents house, to eat, play more Wii, and eat some more.

Last night we got home at around 8pm, brought all the gifts in and crashed in the bed. We were so tired, we tried to watch Deal or No Deal - Christmas edition, but fell asleep half way through :)

Hope you all had a fantabulous Christmas. Lord knows we did!

Holiday Recipes!!

Since the holiday weekend has begun, I thought I would leave you with some recipes, just in case you are cooking!

For breakfast Christmas morning... if you don't cook Frittata (which is an egg dish with ricotta cheese and sausage, that is baked (a family Christmas event for us)) then you should try

Veronica's Apple Pancackes
My mom said it looked really bad while I was mixing it up, but the moment she put a bite in her mouth, she was a changed woman!!

For lunch have a beautiful Roast Turkey!

Then for desert, try out these amazing recipes for Pumpkin Pie and Peppermint Bark (courtesy of Perks of being a JAP.)

Hope you all have a phenominal and Merry Christmas, filled with laughter, food and blessings!!

Ciao for Now!!

Holiday Hoopla!!

So my dear blogging friend at Jelli pants has tagged me for Holiday Meme.

Here are the rules:

1. List 12 random things about yourself that have to do with Christmas

2. Please refer to it as a 'hoopla' and not the dreaded 'm'-word

3. You have to specifically tag people when you're done. None of this "if you're reading this, consider yourself tagged" stuff is allowed.

4. Please try and do it as quickly as possible. The Christmas season will be over before we know it... OK... Got the rules?

P.S. God... if you read this blog... if you could give my friend Jelli Pants a beautiful baby in her tummy, sometime soon, I would certainly appreicate it! Thanks.

Here is my list ;-)

1. Every year, when I was little, my parents and I used to go pick out a Christmas tree, and drink hot cocoa on the drive over. It was one of my most favorite holiday events!!

2. Although, I love decorating, I believe tree's should be a trip down memory lane! All my ornaments (well, since we have only been married 3 years - together 5 - there aren't that many) and my rents ornaments have special meaning! My baby bro and I made a lot of them, there are places we have been and hand made ones from Nona!

3. This year, all I want are stuff for Brady, a vacuum (actually a Dyson), and a camera (to take pics of Brady, of course!)

4. I always by the hubs the best presents!! He can never figure them out, but that is what happens when you love a person so much, you know them better than themselves!

5. I got our first Baby Brady gifts last night. One is the pic above - an it's a boy ornament - from my mother-in-law, and the other was from a dear family friend of one blue and one blue and white striped onesie (sp?) with a light blue hat. It was PRICELESS! Can't wait to see my man, struttin' his stuff in that!

6. My favorite day is Christmas Eve. In the Italian culture (maybe Roman Catholic - who knows - it all merges in my mind) you don't eat meat Christmas Eve. Only Christmas day! So my daddy always prepares an amazing 6-8 course meal for Christmas eve. There is always a soup, shrimp scampi, scungili salad, olive and celery salad, and of course, the piece de resistance... Pasta with Walnuts. Don't worry, most recipes will be on my food blog after Christmas!

7. Christmas songs make me happy! Plus, I think I am a 1940's blues singer, reincarnated, so I love all Rosemary Clooney songs, Nat King Cole, Tony Bennet, and of course the Godfather... Old Blue eyes... Frank Sinatra!! Especially during the holidays!

8. I could be the worst wrapper of presents, in the history of wrapping presents. I always use one wrapping paper and I love making those bows out of the scrap paper :) Hee hee!

9. This is the last Christmas there will be just hubs and I. Next year, we'll be lucky if we get some socks, with Brady hanging around :) I just can't wait!!

10. I wish I had more money, so everyone I loved could get a gift!

11. I have never spent a holiday alone... knock on wood, Thank you GOD!

12. Midnight Mass (on Christmas eve) when we go to NY always makes me cry. We go to the church my grandparents were married in and it is always snowing, something we rarely get in TX. Midnight Mass is really what Christmas is about, and that make me happy.

Ok, now I guess I tag, Pink Ditz, BB, and Clueless Cat - if your into it... do it! If not, have a fabulous Christmas!!