Right...I DO have a blog

Hi, remember me? I honestly didn't even realize it had been so long since I posted something. My excuse, none other than I've been B-U-S-Y. It all started when Matthew went on another marathon trip to Brazil, leaving me to be a "single" mommy for almost two weeks. I hosted a bridal shower for a friend, which meant endless hours of cleaning, cooking and shopping, all while chasing around the miniature version of the Tasmanian Devil. I'm constantly amazed, and reminded of the boundless energy which my child has. (23 months old today by the way!)

Since Matthew was gone I spent Valentines Day at Chick Fil A with Ava and a friend and her kids, if that isn't romantic then I don't know what is. (totally irreverent to the rest of the post but since you might have been wondering what my special husband did for me, now you know)

Last Thursday I took off north towards Chicago (via Cincinnati to pick up another friend) for a kid free, girls weekend. Since the "great ice storm of 2008" was planning an attack, I managed to get out of here just in time, only to get STUCK in Cinci for the night. My friends normal 10 minute drive home turned into 1 hour and 45 minutes, so we decided it was in our best interest to wait until Friday morning to take off and go. Not sure why mother nature picked THAT weekend to wreak havoc, but I wasn't going to let her spoil my fun. We finally made it to Chicago at about 1, we ate lunch with my friend and then she left us laying on the couch for a couple of hours while she went and taught at the gym. That's right, you heard me, I drove all that way up there to lay on the couch, and you know what it was G-L-O-R-I-O-U-S. Friday night we hit a local martini bar with a good band and just played catch up. Stacy's a dear old college friend of mine, going through a divorce after less than 3 years of marriage (she actually found out he was cheating 9 months after they got married, tried to work it out and he sucks...nuff said) so a girls weekend was just what the doctor ordered.

Saturday we got up, hit BW3's to watch the UK game, and proceeded to head north to Wisconsin to shop. Let me just tell you that shopping after drinking is NOT always the wisest decision. My husband has yet to find out exactly what I spent, so I'm going to try and hide the AMEX bill when it comes this month! We came home with massive amounts of stuff...seriously enough to clothe a small army but totally worth it. We had a wonderful dinner (pizza) and headed out to a place called Austin's Fuel Room, which wasn't anything to write home about, that was UNTIL went into the next room to hear the band play. I could honestly say that Hi Infidelity was possibly the best cover band I have ever heard. I can't get the link to work, but if you are ever in the area, you should check them out. Website is www.HiInfidelity.com. They played anything from Journey, to Bon Jovi, to Tom Petty to old country classics. It's a damn shame that they are a local Chicago area band because I don't think it would take much for me to become a groupie. I think I might have had secret thoughts about the lead singer, probably because of the way he sang "Faithfully" to me. Okay, not directly at me, but close enough. I'm sure those warm fuzzy feelings were a direct result of the few beers, okay a lot of beers that I had, because Sunday morning I only had warm fuzzies for my hubby.

So that's where I've been. It's taken me 3 days to recover, and now I'm gearing up for some fun at the George Strait concert Friday night.

I'll leave you with a few pics from the trip, most of them will stay nicely saved on my computer for my eyes only.

Pics and updates of Ava to come, she's quite the character these days.

Stacy and me at the Martini Bar...


Stace, me and Haggard. Not sure why my boobs look like saddle bags...not the best pic but the most sober one of all 3 of us from the whole weekend.

Us watching our boys in blue.

At the Welcome to Wisconsin sign that I made her pull over for. For some reason I thought it was absolutely necessary to take this. Can you find me in the pic???? I'm the one with the ginormous beer gut...lord have mercy)