Memorial Day at Kentucky Lake

I hope everybody had a wonderful Memorial Day Weekend. J and I headed out to Kentucky Lake for the weekend. J's dad, Jay, has a good friend that owns an RV Park & Marina down there - Waters Edge RV Park & Marina. He generously let us stay in the rental chalet for the weekend; which was just beautiful.

For those of you not familiar with Kentucky Lake, imagine Lake of the Ozarks*. Now subtract all of the drunks, all of the "testosterone" boats, the inevitable holiday boating deaths, the overcrowding, the bars, the t-shirt stops, the tanning bed stores, the miniature golf, the go-kart places, the bungy-jumps, the condos and the presence of lake house on top of lake house, and finally the stand-still traffic. What you have left is an absolutely beautiful lake, largely undeveloped and full of natural beauty. We didn't see a single party boat. It's all about family fun - jetskis and water skiing and fishing.

*This is not to say I don't enjoy Lake of the Ozarks, I absolutely do! I'm just pointing out the vast differences between the lake most readers will be familiar with and Kentucky Lake.

Mike and Mary Beth went down with us, as did Jay. We took the boat and all of our fishing poles and looked forward to all the fish we'd catch (and also, I took my fishing hat - hot, huh?).

Got down there late on Friday night, visited for a while and went to bed with visions of fried crappie dancing in our heads. Went out Friday morning - nothing. Not one damned fish. Mary Beth had one play with her bait... but didn't hook it. Oh well - we'll go in for lunch and then try again. Went out after lunch and again - nothing. Not one damned fish. Fishing sucks. Fishing is not fun. I hate fishing. I told Jay and Mick (the owner of the marina) that I was pretty sure there weren't any fish left in Kentucky Lake.

So on Saturday evening, Mick introduced us to Paul - Paul had been out that morning and was already back before we even got out of bed with his day's limit. He literally catches thousands of fish every year. Holy cow! So Paul took us under his wing and told us what we were doing wrong. He gave us the correct lures to use; told us how to cast them, told us where to go (to the mouth of a cove within a cove) - he even specifically directed us to his favorite spot; and sent us back out on Sunday.
So we all got up early Sunday morning and loaded back into the boat. We found the cove within a cove that Paul had directed us to, put his lures on our lines and gave it a shot. Sure enough, 30 minutes later I was pulling in the first fish of the day. It was tiny little bluegill (far too small to keep, even though I wanted to keep it and have it mounted).

After that it was just one after another. We all caught plenty of fish and when we headed back to the dock for lunch we were a much more enthusiastic group of fishermen/fisherwomen/fisherpeople!

We all ended up with plenty of fish to show for our work - I caught a total of 12 fish that day (proud to say I was the high score). Mary Beth caught the biggest fish of the day:

Of course, J and Mike caught plenty of fish as well

So we had a great time and in the end we caught plenty of fish (which are now sitting in my freezer), all thanks to Paul and Mick!

Dr. Jeremy Doolittle

For Christmas I had a beautiful red hydrangea wreath up on the front door. I liked it so much (and it was big and a pain to store away) that I decided to leave it up on the door through the winter after Christmas had passed. Apparently, I'm not the only one that liked it...

We were leaving to go to dinner one night and when J opened the front door, a bird flew right into the house! Seems it had decided to build a nest in my hydrangea wreath and when we opened the door we startled it into flying away (naturally). But J opened the door so quickly that it flew in the house instead. It nestled in on top of the TV, so J grabbed a broom and tried to get it to step onto the broomstick. Instead it flew across the room to stand on the floor lamp. J tried again with the broomstick. Back to the TV. Again with the broomstick. Back to the lamp. Again with the broomstick - and this time it worked! J just pushed the broomstick gently against our little visitor's chest and she stepped right up onto the broomstick and Jeremy let her out the front door. While all this was happening I was running interference trying to keep the dog and the cat out of the living room.

We thought it was a cute story, but a total fluke. Just a week later she flew in again. She and J danced the same little dance all over again. Except this time, when he stepped out onto the front porch she didn't want to fly away. He offered her his arm and she hopped right on! So I grabbed the camera a took a couple of shots. She was missing her right eye, so I think that's why she miscalculated and ended up inside the house twice.

I hated to take her prospective home away from her, but I took down the wreath after her second visit to the living room. I'd rather force her to find a new nesting spot that to let her become a snack for Grace the cat. Who spent the next week or so licking her lips at the front door every time it was opened...

Michael Bublé loves me... and also, we got a foot of snow!

Sunday afternoon I met a bunch of girlfriends for dinner and we sat out on the patio to eat because the weather was so beautiful. It was 80 degrees... and then 48 hours later it was 24 degrees out and snowing! Here are picks of our back patio after Tuesday's snow storm. We got a full foot of snow! It was pretty wild. I left for work at 7:30 and not a single snowflake had fallen. By noon the roads were almost impassable, the snow was halfway to my knees and I grabbed my laptop and headed home to work from the safety of my living room. My 20 minute drive home took me about an hour and half. There were so many cars and trucks in the ditches or stuck that I honestly lost count on the way home. After 45 minutes or so I called back to work and told my direct reports to just go home - don't even try to stick it out. When it finally stopped snowing that night we had a full foot of snow. Yet just two miles north of us they only had two inches.

And now, just 48 hours later - it's almost all gone. Of course there are still a few inches, but it's melted off of all the sidewalks, driveway, etc that hadn't been plowed. Seriously - we've got weather whiplash!

Went to see Michael Bublé in concert. He was amazing -very funny, very charasmatic, very entertaining. Michelle and Jeremy Jam went with us. The two Jeremys even had a good time (much to their surprise). Of course as soon as Michael saw me he fell madly in love with me and sang directly to me the entire night. You can tell from the pic above, right?

Boobs, Booze and Bullshit: The Wedding Dress Bacchanal

I’ve written often about my group of friends that refer to ourselves as BB&B (Boobs, Booze and Bullshit). We get together for dinner once a month, go to the lake every summer, and then every winter spend a weekend together doing something wonderful. Last weekend was that weekend.

What do you do with your wedding dress once you’ve worn it? You looked high and low to find the perfect dress. You look amazing in it. You spent a small fortune on it – and then you wore it once, just once. Chances are nobody’s going to wear it again – very very few daughters or daughters-in-law want to wear somebody else’s wedding dress. They want their own dream dress just as much as we did. Mom used hers to make the ring bearer’s pillow for my wedding and another for Jonas and Shaina’s wedding.

We started planning this one a year and a half ago. Mary Beth was the last of us to get married – so once she was married we all had wedding dresses. She’d been looking for “the dress” for a while when we all started talking about what we did with our dresses after our weddings. Some were lovingly cleaned and preserved, some weren’t. Mine was wadded up in a laundry basket somewhere in the basement. Michelle’s had spent the last year riding around in the trunk of her car. Some of us had no idea where the hell it was.

Remember the episode of “Friends” were Monica, Rachel and Phoebe all have on wedding dresses and take turns tossing a bouquet to one another while drinking beer in Monica’s apartment? We did too. It came up during this conversation. Finally we decided we should wear them again. But just wearing them wasn’t good enough. We were going to wear them OUT – all over St. Louis.

The Riverfront Times wrote a blurb about our evening out the Wednesday before our weekend. My interview with the reporter was about 45 minutes long, so she wasn’t able to use a lot of what we talked about – it was pretty cool anyway: (scroll down to WED DREAM).

We all got together Friday night at Shayla’s new condo and did our usual drinking, laughing, acting stupid Friday night activities. Saturday morning we headed to Go!Spa to pamper ourselves before the big night with massages, manicures and pedicures. Then back to Shayla’s place to get ready. Eight women showering, doing hair and makeup, and putting on wedding dresses with just one functioning bathroom was quite a challenge. But we did it and were only 30 minutes behind schedule. Keep in mind that getting into a wedding dress isn’t easy. At least two of us had to be completely laced up!

The limo (Mom paid for a limo for us for the day – THANKS MOM! – as a “thank you” to the BB&B girls for last winter) arrived at 3. And at 3:30 eight women in wedding dresses, and one really hot guy with a camera – we looked pretty damned good I must say – piled in and toasted the day with champagne.

Jill’s brother-in-law, Shea Behymer, joined us as our official photographer. We started at Tower Grove Park and took a few pictures on the rocks. Saw a wedding party that looked at us like we were nuts. The guys thought we were a riot – the bride… not so much. Whatever. After that we headed to the arch for a few pics there and in front of the old courthouse. Our final photo shoot was in front of Busch Stadium. We’d planned on taking more posed pics (Keiner Plaza and Forest Park) – but it was cold and we were ready to get our drink on.
From the stadium we headed to Broadway Oyster Bar. Had a blast. We danced, we drank, we took over the place. Grant Wistrom, formerly of the St Louis Rams and originally from Joplin, was there – so we had our picture taken with him. (I drunkenly proclaimed him hotter than when I met Kyle Turley, and he heard me - so that was embarrassing...) Beatle Bob (a St Louis legend) was also there – so we had our picture taken with him and the owner of Broadway Oyster Bar. The owner bought us a couple of rounds, which was very sweet of him.
From there we walked up to block to BB’s Jazz Blues and Soup for dinner. While we were there, Shaina took the stage to tell the whole place about BB&B and how she loves and appreciates us (we’d been drinking for a while at this point, so we all had the “I love you”s).

After dinner, we piled back into the limo and headed to Bailey’s Chocolate Bar. They don’t take reservations, but if you have a party of 10 or more you can call ahead and they’ll accommodate you. Or so they claim. I called ahead and the woman that answered that we’d be there in 30 – 45 minutes. We arrived and were told that we’d have a two hour wait. I told her that I’d called ahead and been assured we’d have a place to sit. She didn’t care and was rude on top of that. I’d only been there once before and loved it. Won’t be back – BITE ME, BAILEY'S CHOCOLATE BAR.

So anyway… we rerouted ourselves and headed to The Great Grizzly Bear. Where we danced, we drank, we took more pictures. We ended our evening at The French Quarter, near Shayla’s place to wrap the night up. As we walked in, a guy up front said, “Hey! I just read about you girls in the Riverfront Times!” Two or three other people earlier in the night mentioned the article – we’re famous now, ya know.

It didn’t take long for us all to pass out after we got home at midnight. It’d been a long day – and most of us were pretty drunk. As far as I know there weren’t any painful hangovers the next day – just a lot of sore ribs and backs. I now remember why I stood through most of my wedding day. Wedding dresses are made for looks – not for comfort.

Shea took almost 300 pictures of us and they’re hilarious. The posed pics are pretty cool – but it’s all the candid pics of the party in the limo and the dancing and everything else that I love. And frankly - I'm not about to share most of them with the general public!

We keep trying to top ourselves – but I just don’t know how we’re going to top this one! I LOVE YOU GIRLS!

Let's Get Political - first political rant of '08

It’s my blog, I can say whatever I want. So can you. Just not necessarily to me.

I find it so frustrating hearing people around me spout political opinions that are so rarely really well thought out. And I agree with some of those opinions – but I agree because I’ve put some thought into it, I’ve researched it and I’ve come to my own decision. Not because it’s the “party line”. Those of you have chosen a political party and support that party’s platform no matter what it is… I don’t understand you. Email me. Explain it. Leave a comment below. I can’t find one human being on the face of this earth that I can agree with on absolutely everything – let alone a politician. But an entire political party??? Forget it.

And I’m not just talking about strangers. Some of these people are my loved ones. My friends. My coworkers. People I respect and admire – people whose success I’d like to emulate.

How is it that absolutely every word that comes out of the mouth of a candidate from the opposing party is totally wrong? Why is your candidate always right? Do you even listen? Is there honestly never an opportunity to learn from another’s point of view? It’s amazing to me that you can judge someone so harshly, find everything about them and everything they stand for so laughable on the strength of their political affiliation. I can guarantee at least half of you reading this are wrong about which party I lean toward… yet you think you agree with me. Would I suddenly become a pathetic laughable moron in your eyes if you knew my political affiliation?

I’ll be voting in the Missouri primary on Super Tuesday. I always do. I do agree with more of the tenets of one party over the other, but I’m certainly not a “die hard” Republican/Democrat (those of you who know me well know which party I relate to – but that’s not what this message is about). I’m socially liberal and fiscally conservative. I take the success, freedom and protection of this country very seriously. I am a news junkie – I watch the news every morning while getting ready for work. I immediately log onto msnbc.com and cnn.com as soon as I get to work. I check them again on my lunch break. I watch the news every night, and if there’s nothing interesting on TV – I put it on CNN or Headline News for background noise. If you want to discuss politics with me, feel free to do so – but do your own research first. I don’t want to hear what your parents raised you to think. I don’t want to hear what Bill Maher or Rush Limbaugh told you. I couldn’t care less what you read on some stupid email (I swear the next moron that sends me an email about Obama being a radical Muslim or Cheney’s daughter going to Baghdad to be a human shield… I will hunt you down and beat the shit out of you with your own computer – http://www.snopes.com/ people, GO THERE before your forward yet another stupid and intentionally misleading email).

DO NOT ROCK THE VOTE PEOPLE! I hate that. I don’t want you to vote if you aren’t interested enough to go register like a responsible adult. If you haven’t taken the time to educate yourself on the issues of the campaign and familiarize yourself with the candidates – do NOT vote. I don’t want your unconsidered and reactionary opinion to sway the direction of my country.

That being said, what I do want is participation. PARTICIPATE in the election of our next president. Watch the debates – both Republican and Democratic. Listen to what everyone has to say. I can guarantee that if you’re truly honest you’re going to find that you agree with candidates from both sides of the fence on different things. My most important suggestion – MSNBC is a great place to start. There’s a matrix on their website that you can view and rate. You read each candidate’s stand on five of the biggest issues in this campaign and you rate their opinion in comparison to your own feelings. Do it without really paying attention to the party or candidate – just read the opinion and rate it. I filled it out a couple of months ago – I had plenty of red and green on both sides of the fence. And my top three candidates were not all on the same party. You might be surprised at your own results… http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21116732. Once you’re done, click on “All Users Ratings” and see the other 200,000 people who’ve filled it out felt.



Rant over. For now.

Hunter Samuel Broad - I'm an aunt again!

Introducing Hunter Samuel Broad. He was born Tuesday night, December 18 around 11:05 pm; weighed in at 7 pounds and was about 21 1/2 inches long. And of course he's absolutely perfect.

Jonas and Shaina are his proud, and really tired, parents (my BIL and SIL). His big sister Elle (7) has given him the seal of approval - she said he was really cute, so they could go ahead and keep him. Big brother Caleb (also 7 but not pictured below) was just glad there's another boy in the family!

Since J and I don't plan to have children of our own, this is as close and I'm going to get. My boss was teasing me Tuesday afternoon about how excited and antsy I was - and he's right I was going nuts. I've been so excited all summer and fall and I'm just really pleased that he's finally here and I can get to know him. I have two nephews and two nieces - but this time I kind of get to get in on the "ground floor" so to speak. I don't get to see my brother's children very often; and while I see Caleb and Elle all the time and love them both to death, I didn't really get to know them until they were toddlers. So I have every intention of smothering this boy with love and attention.

In other exciting news, my little sister is pregnant and due in August - so I have another niece or nephew on the way...

In considerably less exciting news - we came home from St Thomas to a hot mess. J went downstairs to do some laundry the weekend after we got home and when he stepped off the stairs he heard "squish". The carpet was wet. Apparently the sewer backed up and flooded the basement while we were gone. Sigh. I didn't even go down, I didn't want to see it I didn't want to smell it I didn't want to even think about it. However - I must brag on my insurance company - they've taken care of absolutely everything. J called them and they were at the house the next day. We thought they were just going to look around and assess the damage, but they showed up with an entire disaster recovery crew and ripped up the carpet and baseboards and sprayed chemicals and set up huge exaust fans all that morning. So when I got home that night I was amazed and very pleased. Even as we speak a group of workers is moving everything out of the basement and into a POD that was delivered to our driveway last week. Then the new carpet will go down, they'll repaint all the walls, and the new bathroom vanity will be installed. Then they'll unload everything from the POD and we'll have a fresh new basement!

J and I are headed to Mom and Dad's for Christmas, we'll spend a nice long four day weekend eating and exchanging gifts and playing outside. I know we'll have a wonderful Christmas and I you all do as well. MERRY CHRISTMAS!

The Buck

Well, there it is - Jeremy got his buck last weekend. It's a eight-point buck and it was pretty freaking big! This last week was muzzle loader season.

Jeremy Jam was with us and he was in a stand to the west of me, with J in a stand to the east of me. The weather was nasty and freezing raining on us. Didn't see a single deer all morning and was just about ready to give it up for the day when this great big thing comes sprinting through the field in front of me. He ran the 1/2 mile or so through the field to pause in front of Jeremy Jam's stand (but was obscured by a tree so he couldn't get a shot off), then ran by me and paused (but I couldn't get my stupid glove covered thumb between the hammer and the scope to pull the hammer back - I was so frustrated) for just a couple of seconds and ran over to J. .. where he stopped running and started walking into the woods.

Our radios weren't working so I couldn't warn him that it was on the way. I just stood there watching and listening - praying he'd get a shot at it. Finally I heard J shoot. I was so excited for him, but knew I shouldn't get down and run over there in case it wasn't dead yet - I didn't want to spook it. But after just a few minutes (that felt like an hour), I saw J's blaze orange vest moving through the woods. So I climbed down and ran over - he'd dropped it immediately. It was almost as exciting as if I'd taken him myself. Almost.

For those of you keeping score (not that I am...): Jeremy - 3; Heather - 0. This weekend is the bonus doe weekend. I'm going to try again - wish me luck.

Happy Thanksgiving from the Virgin Islands!

Happy Thanksgiving from St Thomas! J and I are over here on vacation with my parents. Just took the pictures above a couple of hours ago. We flew in Monday afternoon and it’s been wonderful. This is the 3rd time J and I have been here, the first time for Mom and Dad. We’ve been snorkeling, spent the day on St. John, did some shopping, of course we’ve eaten some great food (had some grilled salmon at Off The Hook that was to die for). We still plan to do a lot more shopping, tour the island, maybe make it to Coral World, maybe some fishing, etc. Rumor has it that it snowed back home last night… it’s much nicer here. The high is in the mid-80s every day and the low is 75 every night.



We had Thanksgiving dinner delivered to Mom and Dad’s room tonight and ate dinner out on their veranda – see above. Nicest place I’ve ever had Thanksgiving dinner, that’s for sure!

The weekend before we headed to St Thomas, Mom and I were in Louisville to see Paula Deen Live. It was nice to spend the weekend with Mom, we don’t get the opportunity often these days. We stayed at the http://www.brownhotel.com/dining/hot-brown.htmlBrown Hotel, which is beautiful, and spent enough time at the lobby bar to befriend the bartenders before we left. Of course no trip to the Brown Hotel is complete without having their signature “hot brown” – and we did. Yummy. It’s roasted turkey set on toasted bread and covered with some sort of creamy cheese sauce with tomatoes and bacon on top.

We also toured Maker’s Mark distillery. I was shocked to learn that all of the Maker’s Mark in the world is made in that one little distillery. Here’s a pic of Mom getting ready to dip her own bottle of Maker’s Mark bourbon into the wax:

Of course- that was also the opening weekend of rifle season. Seems like everybody got a deer while I was gone that weekend. J’s Grandpa Sam, Jeremy Jam, Jonas, Jeremy, all of my cousins – everyone but me. I went out last Saturday morning, didn’t see anything, and then drove back into St Charles to host my sister-in-law’s baby shower (she’s due in just FOUR WEEKS – I can’t wait), planning to head back out after the shower for the remainder of the weekend to finally get my deer. But no – instead I got a flat tire. Argh! So that pretty much killed the rest of my weekend, so I still don’t have a deer. But it’s muzzle loader season through Dec 2, so I still have hope…

Speaking of flat tires – we got a flat on our rental jeep over in St. John yesterday. The roads over there are as twisty and hilly as you can imagine (you’re winding your way through the mountains, after all) and barely wide enough for two vehicles to pass one another, and there’s no such thing as a shoulder. J was driving and there was really no place to pull over, but he found a spot with about a foot of shoulder and that’s where he and Dad changed the tire. My heroes. Got the spare on and realized that it had a plug on the sidewall – not a good thing. But we made it back in one piece.

I’ll probably post later with more pics and more stories. Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Halloween, New Orleans, 2007

J and I met a couple of friends, Sid and Elise, in New Orleans for Halloween this year. Had a great time, of course - but don't we always? As you can see from the picture above we dressed up as a wet t-shirt winner, Greek god, pinup girl and jailbird. We got in on Halloween morning and stayed through tht weekend. The weather was perfect- high of 80 every day and the lows were only in the mid-sixties.

Of course we had lunch at Acme Oyster House right off the bat - it's our favorite restaurant in New Orleans. We're so pathetic - we ordered the exact same thing we do every time we're there - I got a fried oyster po boy and he got a catfish po boy. Just as good as we'd remembered. Had dinner at Arnaud's Jazz Bistro Thursday night. Seriously, the very best fried oysters I've EVER had in my life. We took a steamboat ride down the river, drank a LOT of cajun bloody marys and browsed through antique stores and art galleries. We stayed in a cute little boutique hotel just off Bourbon, the Prince Conti Hotel - our room was very nice but since it was right on Conti Street, it was pretty loud.

This was our first trip back since Katrina. Since the French Quarter wasn't under water it looks exactly the same. Everything in that area looks exactly the same actually - but it sounds totally different. It took me a minute to figure out what was wrong, but I finally did. It's the sound of the French Quarter that's wrong now. It used to be that when you walked down Bourbon you heard live music coming out of nearly every door - it was zydeco and blues and jazz and it was all live. This time we heard DJs spinning music, mostly 80s music. There was some live music, but nowhere near enough. The musicians aren't back, and that's the soul of the city, at least as far as I'm concerned. When we took the steamboat ride it took us past the lower ninth and it looked pretty bad.

That being said - we still had a good time, and we'll be back.

HAPPY 3rd ANNIVERSARY TO US!!!

Jeremy's HUGE buck...

So yeah - we didn't even know it was a buck until we turned it over and saw his... buckhood. I mentioned in my last post that it's bow season. So J and I have been in the woods almost every weekend since the season opened - as a matter of fact, we're headed up to my parents' place again this afternoon.. Last Saturday he shot what we thought was a doe - he didn't even have buttons showing, just bumps on his skull that would have eventually turned into buttons (that's what he's pointing at in the pic above)! But a young doe or young buck is the best tasting meat, so we're pleased. Of course now he's going to spend the rest of the winter being picky and looking for a nice big buck with a monster rack. I, on the other hand, am still just waiting to shoot something! I've shot twice - hit the deer I was shooting at the first time and gave her a nasty little paper cut on her back, I think I totally missed the second time.

As some of you already know, I spent most of this year pursuing my C.P.M. (Certified Purchasing Manager) certification. Getting your C.P.M. is something like an accountant getting their CPA or, to a lesser extent, like a lawyer passing the bar. The C.P.M. designation is globally the most recognized designation for supply management professionals. This means more money, better jobs, more recognition, etc. In order to qualify one has to pass Modules 1 through 4 of the C.P.M. Exam (which are very difficult), and have either five years of full-time professional (non-clerical, non-support) supply management experience or three years of full-time professional supply management experience and a four-year degree. Once you're certified you have to be recertified every five years (which is a huge pain!) - until you have 18 years of full-time professional supply management experience, and then you receive your lifetime certification.

I started early last spring, took night classes and review classes and studied my butt off and passed all four modules on the first try, sent in my application and am finally officially certified! I have just over eight years of experience, so I'll only have to recertify once before I'll have my lifetime certification. I am incredibly relieved to have this under my belt. It took a lot of time and money - but in the long run I know it'll be worth it.

The Self-Neukomm Wedding

At long last, Mike and Mary Beth are married. They were married on September 22 and it was just beautiful. And as you can see from the pics - they're pretty happy! They went to Hawaii for their honeymoon and just got back last week.

The reception was one hell of a party - everyone had a great time. And if they didn't - it was their own fault. BB&B was there in full force (of course). We have pics of all nine of us all dressed up in the same place (a very rare thing, trust me) - once I can get one of those pics, I'll be sure to post it.

MB asked me to be her matron of honor (argh - "matron" makes me sound so old), so I gave a toast at the wedding. This won't mean much to those of you who don't know MB and I - but I'll post it anyway.

There are thousands, no millions, of people out there who truly mean it when they say, “I hate to say I told you so”. For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Heather Broad – and I am not one of those people.

I am absolutely thrilled, ecstatic, over-the-moon with joy and honored to be standing here at your wedding and be able to say, “I told you so”, and “I told you so”.

I met Mike a little over eight years ago and he has been one of my favorite people ever since. Mike unwittingly introduced me to my husband, Jeremy, exactly eight years ago Sunday. And Mary Beth is my nearest and dearest friend. She is the friend I turn to first. Whenever I need her, she’s there – whether it’s to take a roadtrip to Memphis at the last minute just because I need a little B.B. King; or because I’m falling apart and need somebody there to help hold me together.

So when my two favorite people were finally single at the same time, I knew they needed to be together. So I took it upon myself to shove that fact down their throats. I did some very crafty maneuvering behind-the-scenes to get them together. I dropped subtle hints such as “If you don’t go out with Mike and fall in love and get married and have babies with him you’re a total moron,” and “So anyway, I’m just saying – If I were a single man I’d totally fall in love with Mary Beth and live happily ever after because otherwise I’d have to be a complete idiot. But you can do whatever you want... if you want to be an idiot.” And you know up until this very moment right now – I don’t think either of them had any idea what I was up to…


In closing…for along time, Mary Beth thought she was Carrie from Sex In The City – but she’s not, she’s much more like Charlotte. She wanted all the romance, the handsome husband, the happy family, the white picket fence and the whole nine yards. She just didn’t know it until Mike - her knight in shining armor - showed up, roses in hand.

So a toast to Mike and Mary Beth – to love, laughter and happily ever after. Cheers!

So... I think this pretty much wraps up my wedding career. All of our siblings and most of our close friends are married now (or not interested in getting married anyway) - so it'll probably be a while before we're involved in anymore weddings. At least until the second marriages start!

Long time no blog...

It’s been a really long time since I updated. Sorry – it’s just been such a busy summer. And every year just seems to go by more quickly than the last one. Sigh. So here’s an update on the last six months…

I have a new nephew! My little brother, Chad, and his wife, Angela, had a little boy on April 27. His name is Carson Nicholas, and he is as cute as he could be. He’s had some medical problems, but hopefully all will be okay.

I have a new brother-in-law! My little sister, Nicole, got married at the end of May. Her husband’s name is Jeremy (at least it’s easy to remember)! Their wedding was an outdoor wedding in the rose garden of a park near where they live. It was beautiful and they totally lucked out with the weather. It rained all morning, cleared up for the wedding and started raining shortly after the indoor reception started! The reception was a lot of fun. I got to see some of Chad’s friends that I hadn’t seen in over a decade. They’re all married and have kids now – how OLD am I??? Geesh.

I’ve had some medical issues this year – hopefully all over with now. I had a basal cell carcinoma near my right eye that had to be removed through Mohs surgery. Second time I’ve had to do this. But unfortunately since it was at the inside corner of my eye, it didn’t heal well. It was leaving a webbed appearance at the inside corner of my eye. So they went back in and took some donor skins off my eyelids (doesn’t that sound gross?) and did a skin graft. So I ended up getting a free eyelid lift out of the deal – which is pretty cool – but it’s still webbing a little. I’m tired of messing with it so I’m just going to let it heal completely and if I’m still not happy with it, I’ll go see a plastic surgeon about it. But the eyelid lift is pretty dramatic I think (see before and after below). Of course the second pic is with no makeup on...
In June we celebrated the Jeremy and Mike’s first anniversary as owners of Azar Automotive. Mary Beth had a big BBQ at their place in honor of the big event. It was a lot of fun. Tons of people were there, it’s so nice to know that so many people love and support Jeremy and Mike and wanted to make sure they were there to show it.

BB&B had our weekend at the Lake in July. We seem to have a REALLY hard time getting all nine of us together at once. Shaina wasn’t able to join us this time, but here’s a pic of the eight of us getting ready to go out and get our drink on.

As always, we had a great time. Lots of stories from the weekend, but not a single one that’s fit for public consumption!

The last month in particular has been chock-full of wedding events for Mike and Mary Beth’s upcoming nuptials. We rented a private party box for a Cards game for their Bachelor and Bachelorette parties. Had a blast! The Cards won, which was the beginning of the sudden surge they’ve made here at the end of the season… Most of us had rented rooms downtown for the night, so after the game we headed to Broadway On Beale. Hee hee – here’s a pic of Jeremy and Katie dancing.
Threw the obligatory couples shower. It was nice and they received some wonderful gifts. BB&B had a surprise “bridal shower” for Mary Beth at Clayton On The Park. We rented a suite and gave her the kind of gifts you can’t give her at a coed wedding shower… Had an amazing dinner at Finale and then headed up to the Rooftop Veranda, where the guys met us and we spent the rest of the night laughing and drinking.

And that brings us to last weekend. Took my Hunter Safety course as mandated by the Missouri Department of Conservation (in order to hunt legally) – it was from 9-4 both Saturday and Sunday. Jeremy Jam and I took it together. I was really not looking forward to it and thought it would be a huge waste of time. However, we lucked out and got some great instructors – they kept it moving and we both felt like we learned a lot and got quite a bit out of it. That being said, I’m REALLY glad it’s over! So this weekend is the start of bow season and I’m going to be out there hunting for the first time. Jeremy’s very psyched up about the season opening, so he’s going on his own Saturday and then going with me on Sunday… I’ll keep you all updated on my progress.

I promise to start blogging again regularly.

It’s “Tony” to me, but it’s “Mr. LaRussa” to you!

I surprised J this year with a trip for his Valentine’s Day/Birthday gift. I took him to Cardinals’ Spring Training down in Jupiter, Florida. We just got back Sunday night. The trip was wonderful. We both had a great time – and it was awfully nice to get away from the cold and the snow and hang out on the beach for a while!

We got down there Wednesday afternoon and after checking into our hotel in West Palm Beach headed out for some seafood. The concierge suggested Spoto's Oysters , so that’s where we ate. It was delicious! Lobster and crab and shrimp, oh my! We sat outside and enjoyed the ocean breeze – we were just a half block off the water. A couple of friends had recently moved to the area, so they met us for drinks after dinner.

Thursday was a free day for us so we slept late. Drove down Palm Beach Island – the Gold Coast in Florida – and gawked at the miles and miles of multi-million dollar estates. Starting with Donald Trump’s Mar-A-Lago, of course, and working our way south – the amount of money represented by all of those estates packed together like that is hard to comprehend. We ate lunch on the beach and found a place to drop a line in. Shockingly enough, I pretty quickly lost interest in fishing, but Jeremy kept at it – still didn’t catch anything.

The good stuff started on Friday. We had tickets to Friday afternoon’s game vs the Mets. Our seats were just six rows off the first base line, so we were very close to the players. Many stopped to sign autographs. Jeremy got some great pictures. Lou Brock was there – which was a real thrill for both of us! We had another delicious dinner by the beach at Shore Restaurant and Beach Bar (we had the guide-book recommended Kobe Beef Sliders with Truffle Parmesan Fries appetizer – to DIE for) in Delray – which I love, by the way. Atlantic Street, which runs through Delray and ends at the ocean is such a neat area – it reminded us both of a toned down Duval Street (Key West).

Saturday was the highlight of the trip, though. We had tickets to Saturday’s game as well and we made sure to get there early. So we were there in plenty of time to watch batting practice, have a couple of beers, get some food, watch the game, etc. Bob Gibson was there, but of course wasn’t interested in the fans – didn’t sign any autographs or come over to talk or anything – but it was still a thrill to see him so close.

The best part of the whole day, though, was the ticket-only BBQ after the game. I bought our trip through the Cardinals’ organization and you can buy a ticket to this BBQ after the game (they do it four times a year) that will be attended by some of the players. I was afraid it would be a little cheesy and nobody would actually show up but I was wrong. Tony LaRussa, Chris Duncan, Adam Wainwright, Brad Thompson and another pitching hopeful (whose name I forgot) were all there. So we got to meet them all, get their autographs, chat with them, etc. Meeting and talking to Tony LaRussa made the entire trip totally worth it. I called him “Mr. LaRussa” and he corrected me – “It’s Tony. Please.” So… Tony and I are on a first name basis. We’re thisclose. We’re buds. Jeremy took his book Three Nights in August with him, just in case such an opportunity would arise and asked him to sign it. See below.

Boobs, Booze and Bullshit's Favorite Things

It only took me a month, but here they are as promised (in no particular order):

Lash Stylist Comb Mascara by Maybelline - Can I tell you how much I love this mascara? It's got this "v-styling comb" rather than a brush and it works so well. It comes in both washable and waterproof formulas - just the normal old colors though. But it doesn't clump and it separates your lashes and makes them look long and beautiful. Threw away my old standby Maybelline Great Lash in the pink and green tube that I'd been using for YEARS as soon as I tried this.

Nivea Body Lotion - For dry skin. And yes, we all immediately put it on when we opened this gift. I've been putting it on every night since I got it. In the winter, having the heat on inside all the time, your skin gets so freaking dry and scaly - so this is sitting on my nightstand.

Basket w/ notepads and Champagne flutes - This basket is now on my nightstand holding all of my reading material (a bunch of magazines - I subscribe to way too many, and books). And of course the flutes were put to good use right away!

Slipper socks and moisturing foot/body cream - My socks are pink with little skid-proof hearts on the soles of the socks. So cute. We all put these on for bed Saturday night.

Mary Kay Signature Mascara - Ever since Jill gave us all Mary Kay makeovers last summer when we were at the lake most of us have developed a Mary Kay addiction...

Singer Smart Scissors and handmade glass wine charms (they're all little hearts - so CUTE) - These scissors really work - and they're just as seen on TV. Yep, they are. Most of us immediately cut up the box they came in just to play with them. At least those of us that could figure out how to work them (those that couldn't... you know who you are...)

"Love Spell" body splash by Victoria's Secret - This was spritzed all over the place as soon as we all opened this gift. Michelle's house probably still smells like "Love Spell". Yummy.

Charles Shaw Chardonnay - The original "Two Buck Chuck". That's right, two dollars. And it's good stuff. Love this stuff. Go to Trader Joe's and buy your own. Right now. Buy a whole case! And don't tell anyone how cheap it was - they'll never know.

Boursin Cheese (Garlis and Fine Herbs) - Or "crack" as it's called in our house. It lasted a solid 20 minutes after I got home with it.

Blistex Cherry Lip Infusion - I love this stuff! Instant new addiction...
Oreos - Okay, seriously. Who doesn't love Oreos?
Xlhileration! Retro Oxford tennis shoes - Eight of the nine of us wore these out on Saturday and we've decided we'll be wearing them for an upcoming special event... you'll see...

Bookmark and BB&B photo and frame - Okay, I'm not about to post the picture we received. Shayla put together pictures of all of us and put it in an 8x10 frame. It's hilarious and awesome and I'm still not about to post it!