Teaching the Hustle...

Brayden and Addison hustling papa for some ice cream...

Tony teaching Brayden to play pool..

Brayden trying to hustle two little boys..Tony had fun teaching him all the game..

Some HIlton Head Pics..Brayden and Addison

Cake Anyone!?!?!

Ok, so Julie REALLY outdid herself and made me a 3 tier cake for my bday!! Keylime, Strawberry and Almond. I have soooo much cake at my house that I need to stop eating and picking at. I just wrapped up four plates to take to my Jazzercise peeps. So last night was really a blast..pictures to come soon...or as soon as I can :) If anyone wants cake leave me a message or stop by my house if you know where I live! :)

33 years...

old..Is there any significance with 33? Sounds catchy if you ask me. Today is my 33rd Birthday. When we were in Hilton Head, my family got me a cake. For some reason we took pictures right before we went to bed, the night before we were leaving at 6am. Tony was trying to do 3-0 I think since he tries to make funny jokes about me being a cougar. Like wow, I can't be that old can I? Ugh..boys in their 20's. The morning has started out good with presents and Lennox and Lane wishing me a Happy Birthday..off to Bootcamp :)

Cute new artist, Emily Eaton. My sister Mika's best friend Alison, well this is her niece. Pretty good for 17 years old..

Rest Easy Sweet Jasmine and Bella

Heard the terrible news that Jasmine here on the cover of SI was hit by a car and has passed away, and Bella Rose, my friend Diane's baby lost her battles. Read Diane's letter to Bella's Abuser. What a depressing day....Ted Kennedy too! We found out yesterday that a house we have been back and forth wanting for 9 months after us making an offer was sold to someone else. I've just poured myself a glass of wine..tomorrow will be a better day! Rest in Peace...

Groomsmen and NIck and Norah's

We watched two movies on Sunday that I had tivoed. Love doing this btw, I feel like we are getting our money's worth on having every single movie channel...

Groomsmen. Has anyone heard of this one? Came out in the summer of 2006, about guys getting together for their friends wedding..focuses on their relationships. Lots of people in the movie: Edward Burns (wrote it), John Leguizamo, Jay Mohr, Brittany Murphy, Jessica Capshaw..Kinda slow, sometime was off with it, it didn't really flow and they must have cut things out. Tony picked this one of the Tivo.

Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist. Came out in October 2008. Very cute movie..Kat Dennings and Michael Cera are such a cute pair! Alexis Dzenia (E's girl Ashley in this season's Entourage) is in it too. Follows this group of friends looking for a band (Fluffy) one night in NYC. Made me want to visit NYC and reminded me about staying up all night in high school/college. I picked this one off the Tivo and loved it! 

Welcome Home Dad!

This started out as, "Hey take my picture with the boys". Lane trys to pose and Lennox, well he was being his 'stubborn' Lennox self, and just wanted some kisses instead! And Lennox likes French Kisses :) 

Barb A Rosa's Real Pit BBQ and Ribs #19 on the Tour

Barb A Rosa's 

7822 US 51 N.

Millington

We went to Barb A Rosa's Real Pit BBQ and Ribs on July 17, 2009. 

Courtney's Review: I thought the pork sandwich was one of the best I've had. Great flavor in the meat and I loved the mild sauce...perfect blend of brown sugar and spices. The owner gave us a taste of his new dry rub and it was delicious...reminded me of the seasoning on bbq chips...can't wait to go back and try it on some ribs. I'll definitely go back to Barb B Rosa's.  

Brett's Review: Barb-A-Rosa's was prob the best BBQ sauce we've had anywhere so far. Kind of a far drive for said sauce but good none the less. The owner, Dave Flashner, 

 has been a friend of mine for years and I've been to enough cookouts at his house to know the guy can BBQ. The only negative was the ribs. They weren't bad by any means but relative to the pulled pork and the sauce, which were awesome, they did leave a little to be desired. I would definitely recommend Barb-A-Rosa's to anyone out in the Millington area. Good luck Dave!!! I give them a 4.5/5

Diane's Review: Barb-a-Rosa's barbecue was very good. I liked the beans and so far the slaw on my sandwich was the best. The actual barbeque sandwich was tasty and I enjoyed it. They could work on the atmosphere of the place. It could use a little clean up, paint up. I would give the sandwich a 3+.

Randy's Review: Barb-a-Rosa's has been a reliable stop for "Q" in Millington for over 2 decades. Now under new ownership, perhaps there will be some positive changes. Dave, the new owner, has extensive background in both food and beverage management. The lunch plate special for 4.99 (drink included)  is one heck of a buy in the world of swine. When in the environs of Millington, this restaurant is certainly worth a stop. I give the meat a 3.5. The beans, slaw, and fries were above average.

Tony's Review: Kembree brought me back the ribs, beans and slaw. The ribs were not good. They left the fatty 'membrane' on them and they were hard to eat and not a lot of meat. The beans and slaw were just ok. I wish I could have gone and tried the other things, but I had to work. 

 I would like to go back and try the bbq after hearing all about it. 

Kembree's Review: I'm glad we made it back to Millington to try this place out. We found out the last time we tried to make it out there, the ownership was changing and that was the 'family emergency' to why it was closed that day. Its a cute 'country' type spot with auto dealership paint decals on the windows. There was a good crowd and I thought the prices were good. The music was terrible, some sort of classic rock was loudly playing and the Jesus hand painted saw on the piano was more than unique. 

As for the the actual barbeque, Wow! It was really good. I had the fries and onion rings as usual since I don't do slaw and beans.  The onion rings were homemade and great. The sandwich had a great flavor, I really enjoyed it. The pork was good and smokey and the sauce was great. He let us try the dry rub and I loved it. It is not yet on the menu, but I would love to have some of it at home, Courtney and I decided it was like BBQ chips seasoning. I would give BarbARosa's a 4 out of 5. 

Yummy Pizza...

We just finished a Meaty Mama Pizza at Mama Mia's Pizzeria. It was so delicious. Mama Mia's is on Houston Levee next door to Emack and Bolio's that I blogged about before recommending its great ice cream. Mama Mia's is worth the drive wherever you are in Memphis for great pizza in a clean environment. It's locally owned and the owner has picture of famous tv families all over the walls from "Friends" to "Different Strokes" to "All in the Family" to "Roseanne". Come try it! Bellydancers: their website is homeofthebigmama.com ;)

Football Reality....Child Please!

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Hard Knocks: Training Camp with the Cincinnati Bengals..been a fan of Hard Knocks from the Baltimore Ravens days. This is REAL reality, no staged crap like the normal reality 'crap' I am ADDICTED to. Chad Ochocinco is so funny, I wish they would show more of him. Someone make me a Tshirt with "Child Please" on it!! PLEASE! Tank Johnson's little girls are ADORABLE! I highly recommend watching if you like football and like to see what's "behind the helmet'. And if you have HBO.

The TO Show is my other fave Football Reality show, although it is a little staged and I HATED the first episode. It's basically about TO and his two publicists/assistants, Mo and Kita. They are ok, but major HATERS on every girl TO dates. I would NEVER act like they do, I swear, when one of my guys brings around someone questionable, who cares? I mean there is no ring involved yet. I told DS that we should of had a reality show. It would have been way more exciting to watch. We have had some great times!!  I can think of one wild time in the Red Room where I was the best wing man (woman) ever with two models that were more into eachother than him..whew..if there only was a camera around! :) Same night Kid Rock was in there and anyone know I take 1000's of pics but NEVER of celebs in a club, I was taking pics of us and Kid Rock with his greasy hair and overalls came and stuck his hand in my face..hello, I wasn't even aiming your way..whatever..anyway, The last two episodes of the TO Show have been better and I'm more into it now...Its on VH1 if  you care to watch..

Diane the Hostess with the Mostess!

Diane and Randy had us over when Will was in town (the country) from Dubai. Diane prepared a wonderful meal (as always) and we got to meet Elizabeth, Will's girlfriend. I am so envious of all of the wonderful traveling they get to do out of the United States. I will be doing some of that soon I hope! It was a lot of fun and I am so late posting. 

No Vick at Dick's

Glad to hear that Dick's has decided NOT to sell Michael Vick's jersey. Again, he did his time and has a job now, but let's not promote him to kids as a role model, so I agree with Dick's doing this. I'm still waiting on him to make me change my mind and see what good he is/can doing/do. Still waiting, waiting on you Vick..60 Minutes just didn't cut it. 

Speaking of the Engagement..

I have done ZERO wedding planning. Still no date, but I am focusing in on July 2010. No site yet, I guess I won't make it up to Knoxville until Labor Day weekend to check out places, we've been sooo busy. Its like we got back from Miami, got engaged the next weekend, the family game the next weekend, Daytona the weekend after that, house stuff in between and the next weekend, then Hilton Head this past weekend. It didn't help that I got Sick-Sick a week ago and I still have this sinus infection thing! I'm much better, but I still am so worn out from all the coughing and blowing my nose still. Who would have thought I had that much phlem/snot in my head (gross I know! TMI) We have a house inspection today, so after getting home yesterday we have had to straighten up the house and I have to find somewhere to take the dogs this afternoon while they are inspecting. Lane didn't have his bordatella shot within 6 months so the PetHotel won't take him. Our vet only vaccinates them for it once a year, but the PetHotel has to have it every six months. Lane had the shot 7 months ago, so its no good according to them. Can I add anything more to my plate? Oh ya, I have all these mini-crisis's I am having to deal with, normal for my job, but having to juggle it all..

Lennox and Lane's Engagement Gifts

So I told Tony the other day that Lennox and Lane needed gifts for us getting engaged. Just a good reason to get them new balls from Planet Dog. They actually don't have two of the same thing except for their Kongs. These are the ONLY two toys that they haven't totally destroyed, and they aren't cheap, but its worth it for us. But let me clarify. These balls from Planet Exchange are 5 out of 5 chompers which means they are meant for heavy chewers like my boys, but after they start to wear down, they can start tearing away the 'continents' off the planets, but have not been able to actually completely tear the ball apart. When they arrive they smell minty and I think they made from recycled products. Now for the Kongs, they only have an Extreme (Black) Kong. The red ones they tear up. Princess, since your mommy just got engaged too, tell her she needs to get you an engagement gift! :)

Well as expected..

We missed our connection in ATL by about 10 minutes. Of course we landed in time, but they had no where for our plane to go, so we drove around forever and then finally got a gate. Jumped on the tram-thingy went from D to A, ran 18 gates all the way to the end at A1 and they had just closed the door. The agent refused to help us, he was getting ready for the next flight. Thanks again for that customer service Delta. He said we had to go back to the next gate with the next flight, which was A34..the FURTHEST gate away from us. Well atleast we are booked for this flight at 11:50am. Happy Thoughts...

Blogging from Hilton Head Airport...

...because guess what!? We are delayed once again on another Delta flight. This is about 4 in a row. This time it was because the engine gauge on the plane did not work and they had to 'wake up' a mechanic to come look at it. Attention Delta: Please look into updating your planes!! There is always some sort of mechanical error that they TRY to blame on weather..not this time! We were in the front row and heard the captain telling the flight attendant. Previous to that comment, we heard "Hey we need some coffee up here."

I think there are about 6 flights out of Hilton Head a day, it very laid back here. We had a 6:30am flight, got here about 6:40am and the security was not even open yet. Yep, so we waited a couple of the dozen or so white rocking chairs until the security crew got here. Boarded our tiny prop plane with 11 rows on it and then got the bad news that we are delayed. Luckily we had a 2 hour layover in Atlanta and keep your fingers crossed that we make that connection. We do not feel like hanging out in the Atlanta airport any longer than we need to. Miss Lennox and Lane...

UPDATE: Boarded the plane at 7:32 EST, got on the plane, "Let's try this one more time"...sat down, overheard flight attendant and pilot.."We can't take off yet, there is a ground hold in Atlanta". DAMN U ATL!! 

Another (Fashionable) Reason Tony and I are compatible..

So before we left Daytona Shores, Tony found out there was a Gucci Outlet in St. Augustine about an hour away and wanted to go! Tony does love his clothes and style as well as I do :) Unfortunately, the Gucci outlet was not that great. Well, I guess if I shopped Gucci regularly and came to the outlet the prices would be great, but since I rarely if ever shop Gucci, then the prices weren't that great. I mean they had some deals on some shoes for me, under $200, but they didn't look 'Gucci'. I don't mean with the Gucci label all over them, but the style was just something normal I could get at any department store. The few pairs I liked were $500 and up and I just didn't need them really. And for Tony the shoes were all small Italian sizes and they didn't have any in size 12 US. The clothes weren't any better for him either, or me for that matter. They were too tight for him, and just too much for me. I mean if I had a red carpet to walk that would be one thing..Then there were the purses. They had so many with the 'Ed Hardy-esque' style that I would not waste my money on at this point. A gorgeous red leather one I found had a hefty price tag of $2500. So no luck at Gucci, although I loved that it was Tony's idea to go. We did get some good stuff at Michael Kors, Kenneth Cole and Juicy Couture. So, the trip was worth it for sure, just not the best Gucci trip.