Jonas Brothers Mania

My brother, although I love him dearly, has an almost unbearably large ego. But he's not arrogant or cocky. He just thinks he's the best. At everything. Growing up he used to like to tell me, "If I killed you? Who would notice?" The brother that put me into a figure-4 leg lock and then kicked me in the mouth (purely by accident, we weren't trained professional athletes, after all). He did this the week after I had my braces off. The result? My bottom teeth were straight for one week. Although we're technically adults now...he still likes to torture me. He still likes to say and do things to get under my sister's skin and drive her crazy. Yes, this is the brother I idolized. The brother I cried all day for when he left for college. Call me crazy.


Unfortunately for the rest of us, recent events will probably only add to his "charm." He has 4 daughters ranging in age from 20-11. His youngest 2 daughters REALLY REALLY like the Jonas Brothers. As any good father would, he got them tickets to the recent concert here in Pittsburgh. But he went one step further, he got them VIP tickets to the Jonas Brothers Sound Check Party before the concert. While they were there, the Jonas Brothers asked for 4 friends to come sit on the stage while they performed. My nieces and their 2 friends were picked. It was totally random, but now they will think their Dad is "the man"and had this all arranged, as he's taking full credit:

We Now Return to Our Regularly Scheduled Programming

I guess you could say I've been on summer hiatus from blogging. Rob and I took a 5 year anniversary trip without Bobby. So, needless to say after being away and not seeing "Mr. Snuggables" for almost 2 weeks, I wanted to spend as much time as I could with him. But as Bobby says, "I'm Back, Baby"--yes, he is quoting George from Seinfeld.

Rob and I went to Texas. We did a whirlwind tour of Dallas, The Woodlands (to see my friend, Melissa), Houston and Galveston (to go to Schlitterbahn Water Park). Bobby had a great vacation at the beach with my parents. So, at least he wasn't at home while Rob and I were frolicking in the 111 degree heat.

We stayed at the Magnolia Hotel in Dallas. It was excellent. In addition to a Manager's Reception from 5:30-6:30 with free hooch, they had a nightly "Cookies & Milk" Happy Hour. This was the sole reason I picked to stay in this hotel. MMM. Cookies. It was a nice touch. The hotel itself was gorgeous and we had a huge suite with a full kitchen (not that we cooked) and the staff was so friendly. I highly recommend staying there if you're ever in the Dallas area.

Now, when we decided to head to the Lone Star State, I said I wanted to immerse myself in the cowboy life. This of course meant that I was going to wear my cowboy hat and ride a mechanical bull. In my mind I envisioned myself looking all sexy and natural like Debra Winger in Urban Cowboy:

Thankfully, there are no videos of my bucking bull ride because I didn't look quite as good. The reality did not match my vision; after struggling to even get on the bull, this was me just hanging on for dear life hoping I didn't impale myself on one of the horns...

So, riding the bull was my vacation "to-do". Rob's was to visit "Southfork". He is a huge "Dallas" fan. I have the rubber bins full of VHS tapes of the show in my basement to prove it. I am the complete opposite of a huge "Dallas" fan. But, I willingly visited Southfork and took the tour. It wasn't as bad as I imagined. It was actually enjoyable because they let you walk around the house on your own and I even got some decorating ideas for our next house:

I think big oil paintings of Rob and I would be a good decorating scheme.

The great conversationalist

Bobby is at my parents' beach house for the next 10 days. Without me.

I miss him and think about him every minute. All my daily routines are missing the "Bobby factor".

My parents call several times a day to update me and let me talk to him. At 2 years old, he isn't a phone person. The conversation usually goes like this:

Me: Hello?

Grammy Pat: It's MAMA!!

Me: Put me on speakerphone. HI BOBBY. It's Mama!

Grammy Pat: BOBBY! It's mama. Come talk to mama.

Me: Bobby, are you at the beach? Did you jump the waves? Did you dig in the sand?

Grammy Pat: BOBBY! Get over here and talk to your mother. Say I love you Mama.

Bobby: I looove ewww mama.

Me: I love you, Bobby.

Grammy Pat: Ok, he's running away/playing/done.

Me: Alright. Give him a kiss and hug for me. Talk to you later.

Photo Phriday-Five Fantastic Years Edition

From a Miss

to a Mrs.

June 26, 2004

It's been 5 wonderful years since Rob and I celebrated our fun-filled wedding day! It's been a memorable and exciting 5 years...

In these past 5 years, I've worked at 4 different law firms and I've had 3 different cars--Good thing I don't go through Husbands as quickly! haha

Happy Anniversary, Rob. I love you more now than on that spectacular day 5 years ago. I'm looking forward to many more years of growing old together! Love, Mrs. Robert :)
(and thanks for not greeting me this morning with "Are you F***ing Kidding me?"--as you did on the morning of our wedding...)

Losing a piece of my childhood...

One of my personality traits is that when I am interested in something--I go ALL IN. Michael Jackson was the first Entertainer I loved. (He was a true entertainer, I can't describe him just as a singer, dancer, or actor....)

He still was at the top of my list of performers to see live. (I was supposed to be front and center when he came to Pittsburgh in 1984 but the concert never got booked...). I don't care what went on in his personal life. When I hear MJ, I am a little girl again, singing into a hairbrush, dancing around my room, making up choreography with my childhood friend, Dana. Growing up, I shared a room with my older sister. She had to live with me decorating my 1/2 of the room in the latest and greatest MJ memorabilia:

I even had a Michael Jackson "Thriller" jacket. Because EVERYONE had a "Beat It" Jacket with the zippers and I wanted to show I was a true fan. I dressed as MJ for Halloween. Luckily, he was light skinned so it wasn't full on black-face at age 10...But I adored him. I wore the glove. I moonwalked. My mom even borrowed my costume for a work party, and she won 1st prize! I made sure I had every detail covered...

One of my fondest memories of my grandma was her sitting outside the outside shower at our vacation house in Ocean City, NJ listening to me belt out "BEAT IT" with reckless abandon as if I was singing to a stadium of cheering fans...

Rest In Peace, MJ

My 2 Cents

So, let me start by saying that I am not a regular viewer of the show- I have only seen tidbits and snippets of the show, but it is really hard NOT to be aware of the Jon & Kate + 8 saga...

Hearing all the rumors that there was a "major announcement" being made in last night's episode--and knowing all the celebrity rags were reporting that the "news" was a separation and divorce--I tuned in.

Honestly, the announcement I wanted to hear was that they were quitting the show, getting some family and couples counseling and going to work on the relationship in real life, not on reality t.v. I was holding out hope that they fed the Insider, Entertainment Tonight and Radar.com with some phony info. to throw them off the scent. They didn't. They announced their separation as expected and of course as Kate said, "The show MUST go on". Yea, because as if the kids don't have it hard enough, now they have to have the breakup of their parents' marriage and the fallout from that immortalized on t.v. and for sale on DVD...

Now, even if they had done what I hoped, their path may still have led to separation and divorce, but at least it would have spared the kids the very public spectacle of this very private issue, and at least Jon & Kate could have both slept well at night knowing they had done their absolute best for their family: that they had exhausted all possibilities, that they fought hard for each other AND their kids and that they did it the right way--privately.

Jon and Kate are famous only for being parents to a lot of kids. They weren't actors, singers or entertainers before this t.v. show. They were just a bunch of high school sweethearts who got married and wanted a family. They are not like Brad and Angelina. Their celebrity is like that of Paris Hilton (famous for her name only) or Kim Kardashian (famous for having a big ass and a sex tape*)

If they chose to go back to a normal, non-televised life, eventually the Paparazzi and their fans would lose interest. After all they are just parents raising their kids-just like all of us parents, whether we have 1 kid or 18.

In truth, I really hope TLC cancels the show.

*Credit: Joel McHale and "The Soup" for the apt description of Ms. Kardashian.

Photo Phriday

My little Gilligan. He refuses to wear a baseball hat. The toddler bucket hats are too small for him, so I had to give him mine. It's a little big, but it keeps the sun off his face, protects his head from sunburn and most importantly he keeps it on!