AMOB in Ellenton

We took the kids to the Anna Maria Oyster Bar in Ellenton last night. They do this really cool thing where they measure the kids to see how much to charge them. It is a penny an inch - really! This is awesome when they don't end up eating their dinner. The margarita's were only $2.50! So I had to have one.

Here are some pictures of some of the kids getting measured:


Erin - 50 inches

Hayley - 43 inches




Franklin - 39 inches


Grace - 31 inches


For our appetizer, we had Calamari. The kids wanted me to take a picture of it. Here it is:




I ordered a pasta alfredo for my dinner. And it came out in a frying pan. Seriously. Here it is:





Here are some other pictures that I took last night:



Erin, I love this photo


Hayley



The kids all playing after dinner


After Franklin's field trip today to the farm, we are heading to Disney for the rest of the week. I will try and post from there.

Cathy

I am soooo excited!

My sister-in-law Kelli and her family are coming today. She isn't really my sister-in-law. Her husband is Filic's cousin and in Asian culture cousins are like brothers/sisters. So instead of explaining all of this, we just call each other sisters-in-law. We could be sisters though. We get along great.

Anyway, she is flying in today from New Jersey. Grace and I are going to pick them up in Tampa. Tomorrow we are heading to Disney with them. Her daughters haven't been to Disney since 2003, and Filic and went with them. Their son hasn't been yet. They are so excited. I am excited to go with them again. Most of you know that I love Disney.

Franklin is so excited to see Gavin, his cousin. And vice versa. They haven't seen each other in a long time. At one point the wind was blowing yesterday and Franklin asked me if that meant Gavin's plane was landing. How cute. All day yesterday he asked when he would be here. Already this morning he is asking when I am going to leave to get them. I am glad that he is so excited. I am just hoping that they get along.

She loves

Grace just loves her older brother. She calls him "gao gao" which is Mandarin Chinese for older brother. He calls her "mei mei" which is little sister. The first thing she says in the morning is "where is gao gao"

Here are some pictures of her trying to give him a kiss on Sunday.

How cute!

the misadventures of me

Last week was an odd week for me. It seemed like a lot was going wrong. Let me explain...

One night I was making the kids chocolate milk (I make it at night since they wake up before the sun) and went to grab the large can of Ovaltine out of the pantry. Apparently the lid was not on properly because it came off and Ovaltine went everywhere. I was cleaning it up and trying to keep Grace out of it. So then I put the Ovaltine in the kids cups and manage to knock one of them over and onto the floor. Spill number two. Clean that one up. Filic told me I needed to put myself in timeout. I aggreed.

Friday comes. I am watching my friends dog Baily and guinea pig Tootsie. No problems. Well, I have to watch my parents dog Penny starting Friday. As it turns out, Bailey does not like other dogs at all. So I put Bailey in my bedroom. Penny then starts to bark/bother Tootsie. So Penny goes in the bathroom. Since this is no way to live for the weekend I decide to take Penny and stay in Venice at my parents house. Saturday morning comes.... I take the dog out and go back inside. Realize that I left my clothes in the car. I shut the door and go to get them. Well, my parents have a door that locks itself (a security measure!) and I am locked out. My wallet, cell phone, everything are inside-with the dog. I walk around the house to see if another door is unlocked. No. Then walk around and look at all of the windows. All locked. It has been about twenty minutes. I decide to check the windows again. There is a window unlocked. Unfortunately is it five feet off the ground. Did I mention that I am in my pajamas. So I hoist myself up and I am trying to get through the window. I have to move things out of the way as I do this, because I don't want to break anything. Finally back in the house. I quickly get dressed and go in search of coffee. I had to work on Saturday too. It was my last day at K2. All I could think about as I was breaking and entering my parents house was the cops showing up and seeing me. I even had a conversation in my head about what I would say if it happened. ( crazy, I know!) I would tell them that I lived there as a kid and that if they just let me get inside I would show them all of my childhood pictures and my wallet that are inside. Luckily I did not have to have that conversation. But let me just say that I am not that flexible. I could never be a cat burgler.

(And by the way, this is the second time I have typed this post this morning. I accidently erased it the first time I typed it out)

I had taken a picture of the Ovaltine spill but I can't seem to find it. And I couldn't take a picture of me breaking and entering because, alas my camera was inside too!

Cathy

Ni-hao

Ni-hao is Mandarin Chinese for Hello. Ni-hao Kai-lan is a new show on Nick Jr that teaches children two Chinese words a show. My kids LOVE this show. So far they have learned how to say up and down, red and green and wait. I have been learning these words as well. I think that this is a great show.

I am really happy that Nick Jr has included a Chinese speaking character into their programming.

Cathy

want to be a part of my mafia?

I am talking about Cashmere Mafia, the new show on ABC. I am loving it. It has Lucy Liu in it, I think she is really pretty-love her freckles. This show has fashion cool women and it takes place in NYC, what more do you need?!

It's on Wednesday nights. Give it a try, you might like it. You can also watch the past episodes on abc.com

Cathy

Palm Ball

On Saturday night we went to the Palm Ball. It was a black tie event to benefit the Sarasota Conservation Foundation.(they purchase land to make into parks, etc) We were invited by our dear friends Chopper and Krista. The weather was beautiful. I was worried because it was looking pretty grey all day.

I spent the first part of Saturday looking for a dress. I bought three dresses for this event. The third one was it. (I should mention that we had to wear green or blue) The dress was comfortable, sexy and elegant. Things you would never think of when it comes to a formal dress. Had my hair straightened (sp?) because I didn't want to deal with doing my hair.

When it came time to get dressed, Filic could not find the studs for his shirt. We haven't been to a black tie event since we moved in to this house. We looked everywhere. (I am thinking that may have ended up in the safe deposit box with my jewelry) We ended up running into the tux store at the mall to buy a new set of cufflinks and studs. While going through Dillards to get to the tux store, I passed two young girls. When they saw me, they gasped and said "She is so beautiful". I made sure to smile at them. That was me when I was a little girl. I loved to see women all dressed up, looking beautiful and glamorous. I would dream of the day when I could be that glamorous. It made my night.

The food was excellent. For apps they had baby lamb shanks, chicken with dates on a skewer, caviar, and shrimp. A very cool app that they had was this: nozzarella and a tomato on a small dropper filled with balsamic vinegar. You were to put the mozzarella and tomato in your mouth and then squeeze the balsamic vinegar into your mouth. Very cool and tasty! For dinner we had salad with goat cheese, candied walnuts, etc. The most tender tenderloin in this amazing sauce. Filic loved the way the veggies were presented. They cut baskets out of a zucchini and placed carrots and wax beans into the "basket". He asked why I don't serve him his veggies like that.

The band was awesome. It was a latin band that sang in Spanish. They played trumpets, bongos, and the coolest blue bass I have ever seen. It was music that you wanted to dance to. Filic and I were just going with the music, people were starring at us. We weren't sure if it was because that thought we were excellent dancers or the worst dancers they had ever seen! Either way, we had a great time. We talked about taking lessons so we know what to do. My problem is that I want to lead. (it's a control issue with me!) I actually took ballroom dancing lessons in high school, and I loved it.

Overall, it was a great evening. We really had a nice time. I am sure that I went into way more detail than you care to read, but I had to write it down so that when I go to do a layout for it, I will remember everything!!

Sadly, we didn't take any pictures of the two of us at the event. So here we are in our kitchen!!


And I love this look on Filic. In his tux at the end of the evening, with his bow tie untied.





Cathy

A pain in the neck, literally

I have had the worst neck pain this week. So bad in fact, that I thought it was a disc problem and I was going to need surgery again. I could not move. Saw my doc on Tuesday. She is great. After her exam, she thinks it is muscular and sent me for a nueromuscular massage. If you have never had a nueromuscular massage, let me tell you, it is like no other massage you have ever had. This is not the relaxing massage you get at a spa. This hurts. Good news is that I can move my neck more than before I went in. I am very tender from the massage. I am taking steriods and muscle relaxers to get my neck back to being normal-well normal for me anyway. I am not allowed to pick up the kids, etc.

This consists of me sleeping in my neck brace, which is as comfortable as it sounds. My friend Jessi stopped by Wednesday night to drop something off and saw me in my neck brace. She said to me "I thought that you were feeling better" I looked at her and said-"I am". She had never seen me in my brace.

So as I type this, my neck is starting to feel better. I am not going to start over doing it. The house can get cleaned another day. I just want to make sure that my neck is healing.

Because I love you all so much, here is a picture I took of myself this morning in my brace.

Grace started school!

My "baby Grace", as we call her, started school this week. She goes two days a week-Tuesday and Thrusday. She is loving it already. She has the staff of the entire school in her charms. They all were checking in on her, making sure that she was transitioning okay. I am talking Principal, Franklin's teacher, other teachers. How do I know this, because they all came to tell me while I was waiting to pick her up on Tuesday. I was able to peek into her room as they were finishing their lunches. It was so cute to see all the kids sitting at the table eating. It was like a dinner party for toddlers. The teacher was singing and using props. So cute. There was no crying on Tuesday. I thought there may be a little yesterday, but there was none again. I have been told to bring several changes of clothes for her though, as she really likes to play in the sink. She soaked herself twice yesterday. She tells me more about her day at school than Franklin ever has. She is growing up. Loves school. It is obvious that she was more than ready to start. I think she would be happy going 5 days a week, but there was no opening for that.





Here are some pictures. The first is her walking on the sidewalk and the second is of her in her classroom.

never been this close

I have never been this close to Amoxicillin before. I am allergic to Penecillin. Grace is taking her first antibiotic, and it is Amoxicillian. I was a little put off by the smell at first. I had heard that it smells like bubblegum, this does not. Grace does not seem to mind the smell or the taste. She takes it with no problem. This stuff is very viscous. I don't have a problem taking any medicines or swallowing anything, but I think that this would be hard for me.

Maybe this is my kryptonite (sp?)!

Have a great Friday.

Cathy