Posted on October 31, 2010
I come from a huge family. Not huge enough to have a birthday every day of the year yet, but huge enough to have one every 3 days 
. You do the math.
There are a lot of little ones in our family–all of us are baby lovers . I personally get attached to every little one that I hold, and even the ones that I have not seen in person yet. So, ‘nough said–I love babies [and children] , and I love them equally. But… once every few years there comes a kid who manages to steel my heart and soul completely… forever… regardless of the good or the bad they manage to do. It’s combination of personality, charm and something else that cannot be explained. They just manage to melt my heart on a whole different level.
One of such special kids is my great-niece G*. She is a sweetheart. Oldest of three kids she is mature beyond her age. Balanced and well mannered, smart as a tack, kind as a little kitten. I don’t think I have every seen her misbehave. From her very early childhood (I first saw her when she was only a few months old) to now, she has been even tempered and a total sweetheart. It does not mean that she can’t have fun, but… well, she just has my heart to the deepest recesses. You will be able to see what I am talking about just by looking at her pictures. She is the kind of kid you would love to parent, or at least take home with you–which I have been tempted to do on a few occasions.
[told you she can have fun!]
[she is a doll even when she is not feeling well 
]
[she fits in with kids and adults alike--she knows when to speak and when to be quiet]
[she is a gem! a diamond!]
…and now I miss her so much
Posted on October 30, 2010
Last night hubby and I were invited to a party. We decided to make his favorite dessert to bring with us: apple pie. Since it takes a bit of time to peel apples and I still had to beautify myself I enlisted his help.
He is smiling like that for a reason–I made one pie just for him!
At our friends’ house Demetrye quickly bonded with their pup–they only other of male species in the house for the night. His name, befittingly, is Jean-Claude, and he is quite the attention seeker.
I was so surprised to see a gorgeous young lady that came to greet us–I knew her as a 6 year old. I could not believe that she is now in college. I know that dates me a little, but she is has grown to me an amazingly smart and gorgeous woman.
We have not seen our friends for a long time–at least 6-7 years, so it was a great time to reconnect and have fun.
It is hard to believe how time flies–I still feel 21 inside
Posted on October 29, 2010
I am a really cheap date… Now, don’t gasp or roll your eyes–I did not say anything dirty and it is true. I always told my hubby that it does not take much to make me happy–he is more than enough. Everything else is extra. When it comes to dates, as long as I am with him and what he does for me comes from the heart–I am a happy camper. Don’t believe me? Then I’ll tell you about our last night’s date.
I was behind my PC for a few hours, then had a great power yoga work out. When Demetrye got home after his workout I have had enough of sitting down and needed a breather. Recently one of the local grocery stores opened a new location, which we planned on checking out last week but completely forgot. So, I got dressed, went downstairs and told my hubby that he needs to take me out… He was more than happy to oblige.
We went to Kingsdale’s Giant Eagle, which was… giant! The place looked more like a Whole Foods store that we are used to–a restaurant, bakery, thousands of square feet of groceries. We heard that the store employs about 500-600 people.
Being the memory keeper that I am, there was no time to waste, so I whipped out my point and shoot camera and had fun. In the beginning I had to twist Demetrye’s arm, but as soon as I reminded him of his promise not to shy away from the camera any longer, I had him where I needed–wrapped around my little finger Needless to say we got looks… But they were not the bad kind of looks as in “look at the crazy kids on isle 10″, but rather “I wish I could do the same thing and look as happy” looks.
It happened that the first image we took of the two of us was by HOT sauce shelf. Need I to say anything else?! 
Even one of the managers who passed by us noticed it We are SIZZLING HOT, baby! [no, I am NOT self conceited ]
I love the image on the left of Demetrye by his “weakness” shelf [he has a thing for potato chips ].
We grabbed a slice of peanut butter brownie [$2.50] and headed over to Barnes and Noble book store–we are admittedly book warms and books stores are on the list of our favorite “date” spots. Having browsed the books shelves we stopped by a local library, grabbed a movie and called it a night.
So, our date cost us a whopping $2.50 plus the gas that we used [BTW Demetrye ate most of the brownie, since I am not a sweets person]. That’s it! I told you I am easy to please At the end of the night I was as happy as I could be, and I went home with the man of my dreams
Posted on October 28, 2010
Couple of weeks ago I was fortunate to meet a great person–a local wedding planner named Emilie Duncan. Emilie runs Emilie Duncan Event Planning in the Columbus OH area.
I first came across Emilie’s site and then Twitter page while still in Washington. I really wanted to reach out and connect with as many vendors in the wedding industry as possible, so I e-mailed a ton of e-mails to as many as I could find. I heard back from only a handful, Emilie being one of them.
Before we finally moved to and settled in Ohio, Emilie and I chatted a few times through e-mails and Twitter, but we were finally able to schedule a meet up and put faces to names
I headed out to our meeting place early enough to make sure I beat the traffic and to get a decent seat–it was getting close to the lunch hour. Unfortunately [and you will see in a second why] I got there in plenty of time. I went to the counter [at Panera Bread] and decided to order myself a little something while I waited. Now, this girl {ME} is NOT a caffeine drinker. Never been one and not planning to change it. Caffeine is a no-no for me, unless I am having a CUP of green tea. With that in mind you would think that out of all people I would know my own limitations. Not so! I ordered myself a serving of their frozen mocha caramel… and nearly finished it before Emilie arrived. Needless to say, the worst that could have happen did happen. I was jittery. I could not sit still [but had to]. I could not speak as I normally do–I had too much energy for that! I had a hard time concentrating on our conversation at some points, which is totally contrary to who I am… I think I might have totally scared Emilie off…
Caffeine rush has not worn off for several hours! I got home and had to exercise to help it along. Since then I have sworn caffeine off for good. No, can’t do!
Poor Emilie, and my poor brain–we paid the price. But Emilie was such a sweetheart and put up with my crazy self {thank you, Emilie}.
So, lesson learned: caffeine is not for me!
PS: I recently chatted with Emilie and sweet-talked her into doing an interview with me about WHYs and HOWs of hiring a Wedding Planner. {I told you she is a sweetheart!}
