My Weekend, By Mandi Swedlow

After we went to a beautiful wedding on Saturday in Orlando, We bought some goodies at ...
We got THIS: and this: .

Then my sister calls, who was at with her husband for their Anniversary (same day as ours). They convinced us to go to Pleasure Island to hang out, but we ended up doing this: and this: here: until the wee hours of the morning.

On Sunday, I looked like this: until I got some and a to settle my stomach.

We relaxed on the trip home, got the stuff from upstairs (in the same dress that I bought it in the day before), FINALLY got a shower and got some pictures on . (But not before I stubbed the out of my toe on the newly placed stuff on the floor.) After a few choice words, and once we were relaxed and fed, we went to to buy THIS!! (Kids not included).

So now we have a potentially beautiful living area AND dining area. I say ‘potentially’ because right now, my house looks like this:. (And who knows – we probably do have goats sitting in our living room...)

Hopefully I’ll get it cleaned up soon.

The Weekend

This weekend was jam-packed with stuff. I had a moment of insanity when I asked if my friend's 4 kids wanted to spend the night friday night. :P So my house went from NO kids to 4 kids ranging from 8-11 for about 23 hours. It actually wasn't that bad. We went to Movie in the Park downtown at Treaty Oak. They were playing Hook. I LOVE that movie! When we got there, of course, they wanted to play on the tree and not watch the movie. Luckily Barry was there to play with them so I could watch Maggie say " C'mon Daddy, Mommy could do it!"

After they all were ready to go, (and before the end of the movie, of course) we went on the tram here in jax. its this sad excuse for an El train, but at least we have something. It was later so we just rode it back and forth across the river. The kids seemed to have gotten a kick out of it.

The next day we were up before nine, and they were ready to swim, so after some cereal, we went swimming in the pool. Then lunch, swimming, and of course Barry introduced them to Peggle, so now there are 4 more people in this world addicted. Before we knew it, Daddy James was there to pick them all up!

After they left, we got ready and went to BW3's for the UFC fight. It was Awesome! Had a few drinks and an all around great time. next time we think we'll go to a friend's and split the pay-per-view, because beers were re-donk-ulous expensive.

Sunday, my sisters and I took my mom shopping for a girl's day out. My mom just stayed in the dressing room and we would just bring her stuff. My new favorite store? KOHLs. it's flippin' awesome. I got 2 dresses, 2 pairs of shorts (with belts), and a pair of slacks for 99.97. Not bad, eh? I love hanging out with my mom and sisters. We laugh the whole time.

Other than that, the 2 hours i had to relax was of course playing Peggle or hanging out with Barry. :)

All in All, a good weekend. :)

Grandma Blimp

My grandparents called today to wish me and Barry a happy anniversary. My adorable Grandma sounded so good! So i told her. I said, "Grandma, you sound awesome!" Her response?

"I am awesome!"

Then she was quiet for a while. She broke the silence by saying, "I'm gonna be a blimp." I'm like, what? She said if she keeps eating the way she does she's going be be a big blimp! I told her she can eat whatever she wants. :) She was enjoying a chocolate eclair with milk. YUM!

One Year Ago Today...

Barry and I said "I do!"

How time flies when you're having fun.

Peggle

... I'd leave a more interesting blog, but my husband introduced me to a new addiction: Peggle. So, if you're wondering what i'm doing... Don't worry, i'm just depriving myself of much needed sleep playing this game. I'd explain more about it, but i just won a challenge and i have to get back to the game...

Braydon

Tonight, Braydon was 'talking' up a storm, which is great because he's still quite far behind. My sister really needs to get it on video before he starts talking for real. His words are still very, um, hard to understand. But he knows exactly what he's saying, and once you get it, you can see what he's trying to say. (i.e. "Tick" could be sick, stick, or kiss). He burped today after some Diet Caffine Free Cream Soda, and instead of saying "Excuse Me" he says, "heehee! ...Me." With the "I claimed that one" most adorable smile you'll ever see . Most of the things that ashton and braydon do or say are soo cute, but because it's how they say them more than what they, it's so hard to describe. Like:
Daddy: "On your way, will you grab that napkin and wipe your runny nose?"
Braydon: "O-tay!" and preceeds to smear snot all over his face, place the napkin snot-side-down on the table, smile, and run into the living room.
It was freakin' adorable.

Design on a Dime!

Check out my new dining room!

Kudos to my awesome friends for helping me refinish my dining room chairs and decorate my dining area!

Eric and I had a great girl's day out shopping for fabric and accessories. We went all over jax, but $73.88 later, we got the supplies to redo my dining room, including re-upholstering my chairs. We (me Eric and my friend Dave) were up until 1:30 Saturday night doing all 6 chairs. Barry did what he did best and stayed in the other room and played on the computer the whole time. BUT, straight from the HGTV show, we took things that i already had, mixed a little new in there, and VIOLA! New Dining Room! Why would I do such a thing, you ask? Well, this is what our chairs had on them when we bought them:

And this is what they look like now:

Thanks again to my awesome friends for helping ugly dining rooms everywhere, one rooster at a time.

Loves, Hates, and Whys

So. I love food. Absolutely love it. I love chocolate. I love how it feels when I eat chocolate mousse. I love cheesecake. I love Cheesecake Factory. I love carbs. I love Maggianos. I LOVE Maggianos. I love my mom's cooking. I love fried almost anything. I love fried potatoes. I love creamy mashed potatoes. I love creamed corn. I love pasta in cream sauce. ... I love food.

I hate feeling fat. I hate that I’ve been married only a year and I know I won't fit into my wedding dress. I hate sitting here feeling my belly on my thighs as I type. I hate feeling tired almost all the time. I hate that my cleavage sticks out of almost every top I own (yes, this is a bad thing). I hate that I meandered through the "Women's" Section at target today. I hate that they call it the women's section. Just call a spade a spade. It’s the fat section. Maybe if they called it the fat section, fewer women would be fat. I hate that I make excuses to not go to the gym when I have a free one here in my complex. I hate that I look in the mirror and just look away. I hate that all my clothes are either too small or too short for me to wear, or that when I wear them I look like a torso-less freak.

I enjoy watching the Biggest Loser. I think "Good for you! I should be doing that!" every time I see someone jogging down my street. My mental motivation is there. I see friends and people on TV that have lost weight and kept it off and I think "I can do that!" ...why don't I? Why can't I just get off my ass and move? Why can't I resist the smell of fresh cookies baking at work? Why can't the thought of loosing weight help me loose? If that were the case I’d be a size 2 by now. Why can't the FACT that I am a size 16 for the first time in my life motivate me enough to just do it? Why does my love for the instant gratification of food overcome my want and desire to be healthy and thinner? Why can't the idea that if I loose weight, I may be able to actually conceive a child one day when we're ready? That, in itself, should motivate me?

And it does...until I smell those proverbial cookies again.

West Wing

OK, so, I agree that the West Wing is one of the best written shows that has ever been on TV.

HOWEVER.

I watched the entire serires with Barry a while back when he borrowed them from a friend. Recently he was given all 7 seasons on DVD as a gift. Since then he's been watching them all over again. SHEESH! I don't even know if Rachel and Giada are still on the air because all we've been watching is FREAKIN' WEST WING. good grief. As i type right now President Bartlett is about to get shot. crap.

Oxford, Here I Come!

I was texting a friend yesterday in response to his text saying that he just bought Rock Band on the xBox 360. I meant to say SWEEEEEEET!! But with the wonders of T9, it ended up SWEDEDEDEU!! Buahaha! So I have decided to make it my goal in life to get the word Swedededeu in Oxford's English Dictionary right along with Bootylicious.
Therefore, let me 'splain. Swededeu can have a miraid of conotations:

• "Swedededeu! Rockband is awesome!"
• "Do you know how to get to Main St. from here?" No, eh, swedededeu? *shrugging shoulders*
• I just spilled my beer! Swedededeu!

and my personal favorite:

• Swedededeu, Muthafucka! (Obvious Die Hard Reference)

So, in conclusion, help me in my efforts to add Swedededeu to the dictionary. Use it daily.

...Now if i could just get Beyonce to write a song about it.

My Secret

I'm wearing yoga pants to work today. :)

I bought some yoga pants to work out in the other day and changed before i left work. My co-worker stated that they looked like nice tweed slacks and that she didn't realize i changed. I said "SWEEET, i'm going to wear these to work one day!"

Ta-da! Yoga pants at work. :)

Blog Tutor?

So, i've mainly used my blogging to keep in touch with my friends out of state so i don't feel like i'm so far away. It's been great to hear about the awesome things that go otherwise unsaid for one reason or another and to truly feel like i'm apart of their lives still. However, I wouldn't mind venturing off to read other's blogs and get others to read mine in return. Is there a blogging etequitte that i should know about? Is it ok to comment on other blogs or should you know who they are? Its not like i have anything noteworthy to say to the outside world, but frankly, I like attention and i wouldn't mind having more of it. Maybe it'll give me the courage to start speaking my heart and mind about things that i haven't even been able to admit out loud to myself yet. Any tips?

Ramen

I love reading about all of your funny kid stories, so i thought I'd add one from my kids:

Our cats love to bring us presents that they leave us while we sleep. When I wake up, there's usually a myriad of cat toys, socks, and other things randomly left on the floor throughout the house just waiting at the door of the bedroom. They found a new favorite: Ramen. We bought a mondo box from BJ's and it's sitting on the floor in the pantry. For the last few weeks, this has been the only thing they bring us. I would love to set up a hidden camera to follow them from pantry to bedroom. I wonder what's going on in their head on how excited we will be to find this treasure in the morning!

My First Cheesecake

At work, we have a reward program for selling a certain loan product. The more booked, the more 'perq points' you get. I had 11 points and that was holding for a while so i thought i'd cash in. I SOOOO wanted a kitchen aid mixer but it was 20 points. I tried lobbying for other's loose points until i found out you can't transfer. Oh well. I ended up with a cuisinart hand mixer (in pink for breast cancer). It was only 4 points! (I got a digital picture frame with my other 7 points)
I had to make SOMETHING to try it out, so i decided it was time for me to venture in the cheesecake realm. I've done plenty of cookies and breads, but never a cheesecake. Plus, i hadn't even taken the spring form pans out of the box from the wedding. Kill 2 birds with 1 stone. :)
I settled on an espresso cheesecake. It called for a hazelnut crust and i didn't feel like buying hazelnuts, so i created a chocolate graham cracker crust with Almond Extract. (YUM!) I brewed my own fresh espresso and used fresh lemon. My mixer was great! So what if i had to hold it with my hand, it's still better than NO Cheesecake, right?
WELL.... it turned out pretty good for my first time! I didn't read the directions all the way, so i forgot to put it in a water bath as it instructed. So stupid me put it in one with 20 minutes to spare and it fell. No problem, just a gob of chocolate whipped cream and BLAM! good as new. I must admit, the crust was pretty darn de-lish-ous. The next one will be even better!

Stolen from Angelle

If you are out there, leave me a comment with your answers to these questions. Even lurkers can take a stab at it. If you are a regular reader, you probably have a guess at some of these.

1. Where did we meet?
2. Take a stab at my middle name.
3. What is my favorite color?
4. Color of my eyes?
5. Do I have any siblings?
6. What's one of my favorite things to do?
7. What's my favorite type of music?
8. What sport do I like to watch?
9. What is my favorite drink?
10. Do I have any special talents?
11. What am I most adamant about?
12. How many children do I have?
13. Your thought or memory when hearing my name.
14. If you and I were stranded on a desert island, what is one thing that I would bring?

Update Schmupdate

• OK, so... I suck at blogging. I said i would blog like 10 days ago, and here i am. I didn't get any comments about it, so I'm assuming no one is missing them. But anyway, I'm just checking in. I don't really have any collective thought going on right now so here's a ramblings on what's been happening recently:


• Work has become quite busy actually, which is where i did most of my blogging before. I'm going to blame this on my lack of blogger skills.


• My trip to Chicago was awesome. WAY too short, but really good. My grandma is doing OK. She actually took 46 steps on the day we left, which is like 3 times more than she's done since the brain surgery. That's flippin' awesome. She still has her wits about her even though she's not as talkative as she used to be. Except when she's drinking wine. On Saturday we celebrated my grandparent's 60th wedding anniversary, so we had drinks. she started off trying a light white wine and didn't really like it, so we gave her a sweet red wine instead. Well she gobbled that off and then started just drinking anything that was near her, which is pretty funny considering she's confined to a wheelchair. She asked to be pushed into the kitchen to check on dinner, saw my aunt's glass of the white wine she didn't want before and just reached out for it like a kid who sees the cookie jar just beyond her reach. So as the obedient granddaughter, i gave it to her. and she chugged it like it was water! Well, needless to say, after about 3 or 4 glasses, she got pretty talkative. It was great.<---Grandma throwing one back
My dad, grandpa, grandma, and me me and my grandpa!


• While we were in Chicago, it was pretty cold. the snow was beautiful! we actually got to walk out on the lake and make snow angels. I LOVE the snow. I didn't want to leave the cold weather.


• More so, i didn't want to leave my grandparents. I am SO glad i went on this trip. Seeing grandma doing so well was great, but as you can see from the pictures, she's an old woman now. And she's lived a full life, and i know she's got a few more good moments in her. I just hope i get to be in a few more of those moments. But if not, at least i won't be regretting not going back up there. Love you, Grandma!

• Like i mentioned before, work has become super busy. When i was on my cruise they announce that we are purchasing another community bank in the area. that's a huge deal, since we're just a community bank ourselves. so we're very much involved in the whole process. and since we want to look like we have our shit together by the time of the merger, there's a lot of work to get done that's been put off before now. And I'm in the thick of it getting things done. Which is exciting because i think it's really getting me recognized. I just hope it pays off come review time (which is this week BTW). Wish me luck!


• Last weekend my bro-in-law came down from NYC with his girlfriend and we went to a Machine Gun Shoot down in Hernando County. it was FREAKIN. AWESOME. I got to shoot a fully automatic weapon AND i got to be one a very select few that got to stand on top of a Humvee and touch a mini gun. 6000 rounds a minute. That's insane. Here's some pics from that:

OK, so i turned redneck for a day. With all those guns, who wouldn't? It was awesome!

And this is me getting my ass kicked by a piece of metal.

• Other than that, life is pretty normal. We have a camping trip scheduled in April to Ginnie Springs, and then up to visit the Gallers and the Maddex's in July. Other than that, I've got no crazy road trips on the calendar. Any ideas? :)


• Barry and I are doing great! He's such a great husband. Nuff said. :)


• We still have our weekly dinners at my parents house. My mom cooks every Tuesday and we enjoy a couple hours of eating and talking about our weeks while Ashton and Braydon are in the background playing and most of the time getting in trouble with something silly and boy-like. it's a great day and i look forward to it every week.How ridiculously adorable is this picture?? Just taken in February.
• Ok, that's it for me for now. No more promises of regular bloggings, but i will do my durndest!

Back In FL...

Hey ya'll. I'm back in Florida, but it's late and I'm tired. I'll post about my trip hopefully tomorrow. Sweet dreams!

Wanna Go Muddin'?

On my way to work the other day, I passed a beautiful and shiny black Mercedes Benz SUV. This fine machine has an MSRP anywhere from $42,680. to $87,825. And this decal was on it's rear window:

"North Florida Offroad"

Umm....RIGHT!

More Pictures From The Cruise

So... I didn't have too much fun on our cruise. as you can see from the pictures.




ARGH. We be pirates.




No, I am not a pedophile. I was trying to win 24k plastic piece of ship on a stick by peeling an orange w/o my hands. I did it too!



Mmmmm.... Dessert?!?



Check out our pirate booty!




Ok, so i rewarded him for a nice t-shirt... and I had alot to drink.




On top of Xunantunich (and suprisingly sober!)

Ticka?

Braydon: "Ash! Ticka?"
Ashton: "Thank you Braydon, I'll have a sticker! Wha-Those are FLOWERS! HEY! You've got flower stickers!"
Braydon: "Yes!"
Ashton: "NOOOOOO, I don't want a FLOWER sticker! Geeeez..."

...I guess you had to be there. It was adorable.

What's That Smell?

The other night Barry was watching TV when i went to give him hugs and kisses. As I kissed his neck I noticed that he smelled 'funny'. It was not a nice smell, but I for whatever reason kept sniffing around to try and figure out what it was he smelled like. "Did you take a shower today?"
"YES!"
"*Sniff Sniff* You smell...*Sniff* like my Grandpa...*Sniff Sniff*... "
Barry was like, "well I did hang out with Chris today and he smoked a cigar."
"AWWWW! You really DO smell like my Grandpa!!" So then i started sniffing all over.
I told my mom about the story and she said that interesting because this week will be 4 years since he died. Awwww. I'll have to hang out with Chris more often. :)

Awesome old people

These are the old people I mentioned in my earlier post about the cruise. It didn't matter if it was a fast or slow song; this is how they dance. they are awesome! :)

Visit to Chicago

Soooo I'm going to Chicago this weekend to visit my Grandma and Grandpa. I'm super excited about being up there, especially in the winter. Today it was NEGATIVE 3 degrees! BRRRRR! It should be up in the 20's before the weekend though. Phew. (please note the sarcasm).
I may have mentioned this in another post, but my grandparents house is my favorite place in the entire world. The smells and the view from the lake, the creaks in the floor, and the low hums of CNN Headline News on the TV at all times in the back ground. Getting stuck in the dining room chairs because they don't slide well on the worn carpet. All these little things make this place magical. I'm also super excited about seeing the additions they've made to the house to make it more grandma-friendly. They added a whole new bedroom so they could put everything that she would need on one floor (laundry room, bathroom, kitchen, etc). They also put in a wheelchair ramp.

For the last week and a half, grandma has been doing great. She's talking and alert, and even sang happy birthday to my mom on the 7th. When my dad told her we'll try and bring some warmer weather, she was like "You better!"
The thing i'm not looking forward to is saying goodbye. Because that's essentially what this trip is. Not just saying goodbye at the end of the weekend, but saying "Goodbye, Grandma." Forever. Just the thought of it is eating me up. I can't see here ever making the trip to Florida again. She's become an old woman. And old people die. I'm just trying not to dwell on it, but that's pretty impossible. Hopefully i won't be in tears all weekend. I'll let you know how it goes when i get back.

Girl's Cruise

What an awesome week to get away and just have fun with the ladies. We had themes each day, so needless to say, we were the life of the cruise. We had so many people taking our picures. Sooo here's the run down:

Day 1: Princess Day.

We all wore tiarras. I didn't see them as being crazy-out-there but we got so many questions like: is this a bachelorette party? What's with the crowns? Are you queens? So this was our chance to say "Keep a lookout for us, we have themes every day."

Day 2: Hawaiian Day.

Grass Skirts and leis for the day, 'formal' flower dresses for the captains dinner. We watched a scavenger hunt and one guy needed to wear a bikini top, so coconut top it was. :)

Day 3: Mardi Gras Day.

Our first port was Grand Cayman. We went to Senor Frogs. It was my first time going, so i didn't know what to expect. i was just thinking it was a fun bar. DUDE it was a fantasticly fun bar! We had a hell of a lot of free rum shots and sang and danced to some groovy tunes. We stumbled back to the ship with out balloon hats donned and enjoyed the rest of the afternoon on the Lido deck. In our balloon hats of course.

Day 4: Rock Star Day.

My favorite day of the cruise. Yes, wigs were included in this awesome day at Carlos n' Charlies. We landed in Cozumel and found the bar about 3 miles down the beach. Then it was a wild day of dancing and taking shots of what we think was sangria, danicng with some dirty mexicans and flirting with everyone.

I wanted to wear the wig every day for the rest of the cruise.

Day 5: Eighties Day.

I didn't really pack anything for 80's day and we were going to the ruins of Tuna Sandwich, Belize (or Xunantunich for you technical types). The ruins were amazing. I'd been to Tulum before, but you couldn't climb Tulum like you could these.

The views were breathtaking. We were about 1/2 mile from Guatemala. On the way back one of our tires blew.

Moral of this story: If you're doing some travelling on your excursions, ALWAYS book it with the cruiseline. We were about 40 minutes late, which would've landed us stuck in Belize. It's a good thing they speak english there.

That night i ended up wearing my green bra and bright pink senor frogs tank top, and teased my hair with a half-pony to the side. I was 80's enough. elch. No drinking this night because tomorrow is diving in Hondouras!!

But i did end up dancing for a short bit with these awesome old people.

Day 6: Party Girl Night.

Diving in Honduras was awesome. The best part though was just looking at La Isla de Roatan.

It was awesome. it's one of those places that make you feel happy just knowing that there's a place in the world that beautiful. I was definitely sad to have to leave there after only a few short hours. While we were there though, i did get to check on my yacht to make sure they were keeping up with it.

I was happy to see my helicopter in one piece.

That night we got all dolled up for the 2nd 'formal' night. Nothing too crazy happened, or i would probably have a picture of it here.

Day 7: Pirate Day!

Ok, so my favorite day was a toss up between this and rockstar day. Pirate day was our last day at sea and by the end of it we had everyone we passed saying "ARRRRRRRR!!" with their hooks out. It was an awesome end to an awesome week! And we were some smokin' pirates too. :)(at least these guys thought so!)

Update: We decided that we want to make our Girl's cruise an annual thing, so if you're a lady and you want to have fun for 5-7 days, let us know and you can join our debauchery! I'm sure there will be more themes to come, and some will probably have encore appearances. :)