Are you ready for some football?

Wow you guys, I had an AMAZING weekend!! It was a great weekend for football in our house. The Seminoles won, the Bucs won, and the Gators lost... doesn't get much better than that! Joe and I had the extreme privilege of attending the Bucs game in Tampa Bay. They played the Green Bay Packers in the "Battle of the Bays".

We had amazing seats, 4 rows from the field in the Buccaneer end zone. For those not familiar with Raymond James Stadium, that is the end zone with the pirate ship. We've been to a couple of games before but they are always SO much fun. Its a total party atmosphere from the moment you park your car. People are tailgating, having a good time, the music is blasting, every one is hyped up and all there to cheer on their team. It was a hot day and at some points I felt like I was melting into my seat but it was so worth being there to watch Tampa beat Green Bay.

I've posted some pictures here for you all to enjoy:

Buccaneer Cove: ********************************************All huddled up:


Fly over before the game:**********************************Dexter Jackson and JON GRUDEN!!!!!!


We seriously had an amazing time. There were so many exciting and nail biting plays. There were lots of fumbles and interceptions, which aren't so great for the teams, but make for very fun, very exciting football.

It was a long, hot day and we were definitely exhausted yesterday (and still a little today) but we are so glad that we got to go. We're actually trying to put together another trip in December in honor of Joe's 30th birthday. We're going to try to get a group together to go so that we can tailgate too. I'll keep you all posted on that one.

Off the topic of football, I really wanted to thank everyone for the outpouring of support for my team on our Strides Against Breast Cancer walk. There is still time to go online and join my team to walk and there is always time to donate.

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend, let's push through this week and make it to Friday!! Joe and I have some very exciting plans coming up next weekend too. Stay tuned!

Let's do this!

I'm sure you all know by now about the terrible news Aunt Patty received this week. I think our whole family is completely scared and devastated. I feel very helpless and kind of pissed off. I know I can't "help" necessarily but I felt the need to do something, anything, to show my support.

So, I've decided to start a team and join a walk for breast cancer that is happening in our area on October 18th. I've started a team that I've named Patti's Perky Posse. I wanted a name that was funny, just like Aunt Patti is, but also that showed our support for her. I would love it if anyone out there would like to join us on our walk but would love it if you could make a donation as well.

This family alone has been affected by breast cancer many times. I'm sure everyone out there knows someone who has been affected by breast cancer. It scares me that someday I could be facing the same challenges that a lot of women are facing right now. We need to work towards a cure for this disease. We need to work together to not only save the women who are fighting cancer now but to save their daughters and granddaughters. Let's get together as women and fight for a cure.

I've made a team page but right now it is very boring. I'm hoping to figure out how to spruce it up so it'll be a little more interesting to look at. But, I'd love it if everyone would take a look anyway. You can get some information about the event, about my team, and learn how to donate. I appreciate everyone taking a minute to check it out. Do it for your mother or grandmother or friend or aunt or sister who is fighting breast cancer. Or, if you've not personally been affected by cancer, do it for my aunt. Trust me, she's worth it.

Making Strides Against Breast Cancer - 2008-2009

Hi, my name is Tricia...

and I'm addicted to reality TV. Well, maybe not all reality TV but I do have one new favorite reality show. I really just started recording this show to see what would happen... maybe even to see how bad it was but now I'm totally hooked. Its the Rachel Zoe Project on Bravo and I love it!

I've never had a very good impression of Rachel Zoe. I don't know if I was because I took Perez Hilton at his word that Rachel Zoe was an anorexic, pill pushing, psycho or if I was turned off by her too much fur, too big sunglasses, too small body. I knew that Nicole Richie was one of her clients and I had read about the "Zoe bots", the girls that she styled that all somehow ended up looking the same... very skinny, very big sunglasses, etc... But I had no idea that she styled some very "normal" celebs too. She has styled Cameron Diaz, Debra Messing, Joy Bryant, Jennifer Garner and more.

The show follows her around during her normal day. She has two assistants that couldn't be more different from each other. Taylor is the type-A rocker chick who is not tolerant of anyone that is not her. Brad is the cutest, most well dressed, preppy gay guy who is obsessed with fashion and really just wants to gossip and be friends with Taylor and Rachel. Of course Taylor wants nothing to do with him so you can imagine the hilarity that ensues. They get to run around LA and New York shopping and picking out ridiculously expensive, couture and/or vintage clothes and jewelry and shoes and bags. Its like my dream... without the fur or lack of food.

Another thing that has me hooked on this show is the "Zoe-isms". All the little sayings that Rachel uses that are silly and funny but that express the true emotions that you experience when you see something that just blows you away. They kind of remind me of the line from Season four of Sex and the City when Carrie was looking for the perfect pair of shoes to wear on her date with Big right before he moved to Napa. She finally sees them in the window of the shoe store, walks over to the window and says, "hello lover". Perfect. Some of my faves that Rachel Zoe uses are, "shut up", used when she sees a piece of clothing/jewelry/shoe that is so gorgeous that she just can't believe its possible that it even exists, "I die", also used when viewing an item that is so wonderful that she can't possibly leave the store without it, and "bananas", pretty much used to describe her crazy, hectic lifestyle.

The show is totally fun with lots of awesome clothes but still with enough bitchiness to keep it interesting. I love the programming that is on the Bravo network and am super pumped that another one of my favorite fashion related shows is coming back next week. That's right, Tim Gunn and his guide to style are coming back next Thursday. I love him and love his show. He gives advice to women on how to dress for their bodies and lifestyles. I highly recommend that you all check out these shows and I hope you fall in love like I have.

It's so hard

This has been a tough weekend. We were surprised with another pregnancy announcement. Of course it wasn't ours. I honestly don't know what to say anymore. I'm running out of words. So, I'm going to let someone else say it much more eloquently than I ever could. These are the lyrics to a song by the Dixie Chicks that really hit at the core of what I'm feeling.

So Hard

Back when we started we didn't know how hard it was
Living on nothing but what the wind would bring to us
Now we've got something I can imagine fighting for
So why is fighting all that we're good at anymore
And sometimes I don't have the energy to prove everybody wrong
And I try my best to be strong but you know it's so hard
It's so hard

It's so hard when it doesn't come easy
It's so hard when it doesn't come fast
It's so hard when it doesn't come easy
It's so hard

It felt like a given something a woman's born to do
A natural ambition to see a reflection of me and you
And I'd feel so guilty if that was a gift I couldn't give
And could you be happy if life wasn't how we pictured it
And sometimes I just want to wait it out to prove everybody wrong
And I need your help to move on cause you know it's so hard
It's so hard

It's so hard when it doesn't come easy
It's so hard when it doesn't come fast
It's so hard when it doesn't come easy
It's So hard

I live for the moment when all these clouds open up for me to see
And show me a vision of you and me swimming peacefully
Last night you told me that you can't remember how to feel free

It's so hard when it doesn't come easy
It's so hard when it doesn't come fast
It's so hard when it doesn't come easy, easy
It's so hard

My Crystal Ball

Here we go again. I know that over the last month or so I've been spewing a bunch of crap about living for today and trying not to worry too much about the future, blah, blah, blah. Well, I'm kind of over that right now. Its been a frustrating week and right now I'm wishing for a crystal ball so I can look into the future and see what's happening. Actually, I don't even need a crystal ball. Maybe I could have, like, the Ghost of Tricia's future visit me or something. Although, a ghost would probably freak me out and scar me for life so we'd better stick with the crystal ball.

Things are kind of crazy at work right now. Our contract is up and a new company is taking over. I, fortunately, was offered my same position so I'm safe for now but there are lots of people who will not be getting a job offer. I just can't even imagine what they're going through right now. In this terrible economy the last thing somebody needs is to lose their job. And, while I'm safe for now, that might not be the case in a couple of years when they retire the shuttle program. Who knows if I'll have a job then, who knows if anyone at the Space Center will. If that happens, this little town we live in could turn into a ghost town. Its a scary thought and its hard to make plans for the future when the future is so uncertain.

Which brings me to my next issue. With the future of our local economy being so shaky, I worry about the real estate market here. When we bought our house our plan was to live in it for around five years, sell it, make a profit and buy a new, bigger house. Well, we've been here 4 years and the real estate market is in the crapper so bye bye profit. And we're ok with that for now. We've made some improvements to the house to make it more comfortable since we'll be here longer than we anticipated. But now we're wondering how much we should continue to do. We figure, at this point, that we'll be staying in our house for at least 5-7 more years. We would love to put a screen enclosure over our pool. Actually, our plan is to redo our deck to improve our drainage issues, re-tile and resurface the pool, enclose the pool, and re-wire the porch for a fan, lighting, and surround sound. We've gotten a couple estimates so far and we've been pretty shocked at how much it will cost. I think we could probably put in a brand new pool for what some of these people are asking. We'd love to do it though and it would make our back yard so much more enjoyable but we don't want to be the most expensive house on the block and we honestly probably won't make the money back that we spend. Its just so hard to decide whether to do it or not. See why I need a crystal ball!

Then, of course, there is the baby issue. I honestly don't know where to begin. It is such a source of anger and sadness and frustration that I kind of hate talking about it and really like to just push it out of my mind. But, unfortunately, I can't. It is something that we have to think about and talk about and make decisions about. I mentioned earlier that my company at work is changing. Well, along with it, my insurance is changing and we're losing infertility coverage. Talk about a huge kick to the gut. That was one of the main perks of my job. So, we're back to being self-pay for all of our treatments come October 1. I just don't know what to do. Do we continue to seek treatment, shell out thousands of dollars, inject my body with all kinds of medicines that may come back to haunt me one day, put all our hopes into treatment that isn't guaranteed to work? Do we resign ourselves to a childless life? Do we shell out thousands of dollars to adopt and hope that the birth mother doesn't change her mind or that she doesn't do drugs while pregnant or that she or the baby's father don't have serious mental illnesses that run in their families? Do we do nothing and hope that someday it'll just happen?

I just wish I could look into the future and see how things are going so that maybe I could be a little more at ease right now. Unfortunately there is no crystal ball or time machine or ghost of Tricia's future that can help me with that. So I just have to choose what I think is best for me in this moment and hope that I'm making the right decision. Maybe tonight is just a bad night for a blog. I'm actually kind of depressed after writing this. Ugh... I think I'll have a glass of wine. That'll make all my problems go away, right? If only it were that easy.

Garage sales, football, and pool time

I can't believe that it is already Sunday night! Where do the weekends go? I had a great weekend but I really can't believe that it is already over. I have this weekend ritual that starts when I get up on Saturday mornings. During the week I keep the blinds in the windows along the front of my house partially closed. I can still see out but they are turned up a bit so that people can't see in. On Saturday I like to open the blinds all the way. It just lets so much beautiful light into the front of my house. Joe usually cuts the grass on the weekend and I like to look out the windows to admire the great looking lawn. I leave the blinds open this way until Sunday when it starts to get dark. Then I turn them back to their "weekday position". I always hate that time on Sunday because, for me, it officially marks the end of the weekend.

I was pretty busy this weekend. I've been collecting some junk for a while now in hopes that I'd finally get enough to have a garage sale. But, after a couple of months of gathering things I only had one box. One of my girlfriends recently moved and was having a big garage sale so I added my stuff into her's and another friend's stuff and we had a big garage sale. When I was little I used to hang out in the garage and watch my mom and her girlfriends ready their stuff for garage sales. Let me tell you, its much more fun to watch than to actually have to do it. Its so hard trying to figure out how much you think someone should pay for your stuff. You know how much you paid for it and how useful it was to you and know that it could be useful to someone else. Its kind of a kick in the gut trying to sell something for a third of what you paid for it. We spent the majority of Friday night going through boxes and setting up tables and pricing items and getting eaten alive by mosquitoes. Saturday morning we were up bright and early to open shop. That was the funniest thing for me. I love how people come to garage sales and try to "haggle" with you on the price. We seriously had one lady try to talk us down from $1.00 on a book to $.50. Really, is that $.50 really going to cut into your bottom line? It just cracked me up. Overall the garage sale was really successful. I only made like $30 but my friend did really well so I think everyone was happy.

Saturday was an extremely hot day and I think the combination of the heat and the haggling really took it out of me. Besides a quick trip to Blockbuster and the grocery store, I didn't do much for the rest of the day. We watched my Florida State Seminoles crush UT Chattanooga. That made me very happy... GO NOLES!!

This morning I slept in late and when I got up Joe made me cinnamon rolls to go with my coffee. I got some cleaning and some laundry done and then headed out to the pool. It was another scorcher here so it felt so good to be in the pool. Becky and Pierce came over to play for a little while and we had a good time teaching Pierce how to play with the hose. After lunch, and a mid-September sunburn, we called it a day. Becky and Pierce left and I joined Joe on the couch to watch some Buccaneer football. Tampa beat Atlanta so that made Joe very happy. We had a little dinner of BBQ chicken and creamy orzo with peas and now we're just waiting for all our shows to start. We've got Entourage and True Blood on HBO tonight. (Side note- have any of you been watching True Blood? What do you think?) So that was my weekend. I hope you all had a wonderful weekend as well. On to the new work week. Let's hope we all make it through unscathed.

FAB new show alert!!!

I think I may have found my new favorite show of the fall season! In fact, I'm so in love with this show that I'm blogging about of and it's not even over yet. The fab new show is Privileged on the CW and I'm totally hooked.

The show is about a girl who graduated from Yale and has aspirations to be a great writer but the only job she was able to get was writing for a crappy tabloid magazine in New York. She tried to write stories with substance but her boss preferred more "scandalous" stories and fired her. I guess her boss felt bad for her so she gave her a lead on a new job in Palm Beach, FL. Turns out the job is tutoring two spoiled society sisters and trying to get them into Duke. The job comes with some pretty awesome perks including a room in a bomb ass mansion, an Aston Martin convertible, $1500 a week salary, and tons of free time to write. Pretty sweet deal if you ask me. The girls are pretty big pains in the ass so I'm sure there will be lots of drama with them.

The main character is so charming and funny and gorgeous. She's a really relatable, goofy girl. I can't wait for be next episode! In my opinion, this show is a million times better than the new 90210. I recommend you all check it out. Next Tuesday at 9 on the CW.

Bloggin' on the go

OMG you guys... you have no idea how totally awesome/totally nerdy I feel right now. I got an i-phone this weekend and I am blogging right now on my i-phone while lying in bed! I can now blog on the go! Maybe my dream of being the "fashion police" will possibly come true. I can take a picture of a fashion offender, upload it to the blog and tell you exactly what the crime is and what the fine should be. LOL

Just so you know, I fully intend to blog about the VMAs I just haven't watched them in full yet. I tuned in for the pre-show, hoping to see a proper red carpet but was really disappointed that they spent more time having Sway show us the celebrity limos from a freaking helicopter than they did showing the actual celebs on the red carpet. I stayed on with the show just long enough to see Britney Spears open the show and Rhianna perform Disturbia. I thought Britney looked awesome but really nervous. But, overall, she was vastly improved over last year. I will keep you all posted on what I thought about the rest of he show once I watch in in full. Oh yeah, I did see a portion of Christina Aguiellera's performance but was too distracted by her outfit to pay attention to anything else. I understand than the girl had a baby just a couple of months ago and, believe me, I think she looks great but those pants were a terrible choice. I know this is going to sound really weird but I don't know if the pants were too sheer or if she wasn't wearing the proper undergarments but it seemed like her pants were being "swallowed" up by her vagina. I know, I told you it was weird, but it was very distracting.

Anyway, my hands are getting tired from typin on this little, tiny keypad. So far my first i-phone blogging experience has gone pretty well. Sorry for the typos, I haven't figured out how to fix them without erasing a whole line of text. Don't forget to leave me your thoughts on the VMAs.

Eat something!

Now that Labor Day has passed all of our fall shows are starting to come back. This week I watched the season premiere of Gossip Girl and the series premiere of 90210. The new 90210 has been getting major buzz lately so I definitely wanted to tune in so I could give my two cents on the new incarnation of one of my favorite shows of all time.

I thought the show was just ok. It wasn't very believable. Do kids in Beverly Hills really drive Lamborghini's to school? Back when the original came out the kids drove Mercedes and BMWs, which I think is a lot more believable than a Lamborghini or a Bentley. Oh yeah, and the guy driving the Bentley also had his own plane? At 16? Really? I know its just a show but I thought they went a little overboard with that.

I liked the little bits of nostalgia that were thrown in there. The girl doing the news was obviously Andrea and Jessie's daughter (Zuckerman-Vasquez) and having David and Kelly's sister, Erin, a major character in the show was kind of neat. It was fun trying to pick out who the new Kelly and Brenda and Donna were and who the guys matched up with. I don't think the new guys have the same appeal as the original cast did. I don't think you'll be seeing pillows and posters with any of the new guys on them. Maybe I'm just too old to think the new guys are hot. Maybe girls will go crazy over them. Joel McHale on The Soup brought up something I hadn't even thought of. He mentioned the severe lack of side burns in the new show. LOL... I thought that was great.

It will be neat to see where the writers take these new kids. Remember in the old show there was always some moral problem that the kids were facing? From diet pills to underage drinking to teen pregnancy, it was always something. They've already introduced one character who is addicted to pills so we'll see how that plays out. If they want to keep up with Gossip Girl they're definitely going to have to amp up the drama.

The thing I noticed most about the new 90210 was how skinny all the girls were. The main character, Annie, is so damn skinny. I couldn't stop staring at her stick-like little legs. I can't believe that the producers would put girls that thin on a brand new show. As if teenage girls need more pressure to be thin these days. I kept thinking to myself that the camera adds ten pounds and those girls looked anorexic already. Imagine what they look like in real life. Scary.

I guess we'll just have to watch and see where the show is going to go. I hope that more of the old characters come back for cameos. I enjoyed seeing Kelly and Brenda but I'd definitely like to see some of the other characters.

Oh, don't forget to set your DVRs for the MTV VMAs tonight!!

Home Sweet Home

After a crazy two weeks, we've made it home. As much as I love going on vacations and visiting different places and seeing family and friends, I really love coming home. I love my nice quiet house, my snugly bed, my closet and a dresser with drawers where I can see all my clothes right in front of me instead of digging through a suitcase trying to find something cute to put on.

We had a wonderful vacation. It started out really crazy and hectic with Joe flying across the country but by Thursday we were right into the swing of things. Getting on to our flight from Orlando to NY was interesting. I've never traveled with kids before and it really does add a new layer of stress and unpredictability to things. I honestly don't know how people travel with children by themselves. There were three of us and only two babies and it was all we could do to get our bags checked and get through security. I think we may have gotten the most unfriendly flight attendants possible for our flight also. There was a mix up about the seats on the plane and where the kids could sit and it just made getting off the ground really annoying.

The day after we flew in I got on the train and headed into the city to meet up with Joe who was flying in from Colorado. I have to admit that I was really nervous about being on the trains and navigating the city by myself. Once I got on the train and settled I took out my book, Confessions of a Shopaholic, and just read for the two hours it took to get to NJ. Once I got there I hopped on the PATH train into Manhattan. That was a little nerve wrecking. My stop was the last one and by the time we got there I was the only person left in my car. I kept imagining some scary person getting on with me and robbing me or something. I know its irrational, the train was moving, but I was really scared. I got off at the last stop and was trying to find the connecting subway to take me uptown close to my hotel. I had mapped it all out online and was looking for the E train. Well, no such train existed where I was so I decided to get up on the street level and start walking in the direction of my hotel. So I walked, and walked, and walked. I got off the subway at 33rd Street and walked to 51st Street... with my 20 pound bag on my shoulder. Everyone asks me why I didn't get in a cab and I really don't know why. I've never hailed a cab in my life and was scared, I guess. I was really afraid of sticking out like a tourist and didn't want to "do it" wrong. Come to think of it, the big white bag over my shoulder probably made me look like more of a tourist than not calling a cab the right way.

I did finally make it to our hotel and found Joe there waiting for me. The hotel was great. It was beautiful. There were no Gossip Girl stars around but it was still neat to be in the same courtyard where the show is filmed. Our room was very nice although we didn't have a very good view. We looked directly out to a brick wall. We could see left and right just not straight ahead. Oh well.

Once we freshened up we went out to walk around and grab a quick bite to hold us over until our big dinner out. I seriously love New York City. It just has such an energy and it sucks you in. The city has charisma. The sites and sounds and smells and excitement are intoxicating. We popped into a little sandwich shop and got something to eat and then walked back to the hotel. Our dinner reservation was for 9pm at Tao and we knew we could walk there from the hotel. We got all dressed up in our Florida goes to NY finest and headed out. I think that may have been my favorite walk of the trip. We were all dressed up and walking hand and hand down Madison Avenue at night. I felt like we were out on date night. We really overestimated the time it would take to walk to the restaurant and ended up getting there twenty minutes early so we headed in and to the bar. It was a lot smaller than I thought it would be... and a lot more packed. The music was so loud it was like being in a club. We jockeyed for position in the bar area, mainly trying not to get knocked over or not knocking someone else over. We were finally able to snag a little two seater couch and stayed glued there until our table was ready... at 10:05pm. I guess in NY reservations don't matter. We had a couple of drinks though and just enjoyed people watching.

Our dinner was ok. I think the food is along the same level as the Cheesecake Factory, which is good, just twice as expensive. The atmosphere is really what you pay for. It was a beautiful restaurant. We ate on the second floor so we were able to see the first floor with the big Buddha statue and the private third floor dining room. The walls were exposed brick, which I love, and it was just really open and airy. Definitely an experience.

Friday was just as fun. We did everything on my list. Top of the Rock, the water taxi tour of the NY Waterfalls, the Chelsea Market, and cupcakes at Billy's bakery. We were able to successfully navigate the subways and the streets. Heading back to our hotel we walked along the streets in Chelsea and I, again, fell in love with New York. The streets down there are much different than they are uptown. They are lined with trees and the brownstones have these amazing stoops with scrolled metal work and there are beautiful window boxes filled with flowers. People were walking their dogs and coming home with their shopping bags. It was so neat to see where people lived. It made me want to move to New York. I'm sure that I'd never be able to afford a brownstone in Chelsea but you better believe if I ever win the lottery I'll be spending at least a year there.

The rest of our trip was all about relaxing and spending time with the family... and eating. Meg's wedding was beautiful and unique. I thought the tropical theme and island-y music was so much fun. I had a blast laughing with Joe and with Breanne, dancing with the babies and watching them run around and "rule" the dance floor. These family moments make such great memories and I'm so glad that our family really makes the effort to be there for the special events. Usually our reunions revolve around weddings but we discussed having an annual family reunion since the next two kids of marrying age have vowed never to get married. I think we should really stick with that plan. Who is the first to host it? Canada anyone? ;)

So thank you family and cousins for yet another wonderful vacation. Thank you Dan for talking me into my first trip to a drive-in movie. It was great, even though we didn't stay for the second movie. Thank you to all my cousins and aunts and uncles for the laughs and the love. You guys are truly the most fun family ever. I don't know anyone who has as much fun just being with their family as I do. I put a couple of pictures in the family album but will gladly post any pictures you email to me. I love you all and can't wait to see you again.