I'm Addicted

Oh.

My. 

Goodness.

The Tudor era has always been interesting to me...King Henry VIII anyone?

But, I've always only known the surface stories...the beheadings, the portly king with the drumstick in his hand, the 6 wives, etc. etc. etc. 

While this 4 year series certainly takes dramatic license at times, it certainly has a place to re-ignite our curiosity about history.

I hear students all the time complain about learning history..."Why do we have to learn about all these things that happened a long time ago?"

People in the South are possessive about their religion...even the Southern Baptists who cling tightly to their King James Bibles.

Wonder if they've ever thought about where that Bible came from?

From Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn's union, the world was given Elizabeth I, one of the greatest rulers in history.

When Elizabeth died without an heir, she had chosen the son of Mary Queen of Scots as her successor

King James anyone??

Very exciting stuff, ya'll!

Enjoy the trailers below:

Season 1

Season 2

Season 3

Season 4

Welcome Summer!!

All grades were turned in by Wednesday and I worked most of the day on Thursday in my office just trying to straighten everything up.  We will be moving offices sometime this summer so I've been trying to get some of my office things packed up and ready. 

I woke up this morning with every intention of doing the same.

But I just couldn't do it.

I spent half of the morning in my pajamas...washed load after load of clothes and dishes, changed sheets, cleaned the pool filter, arranged some pictures on my mantle...and napped.

I did finally put on some shorts and a t-shirt...but no make-up, my hair in a ponytail and barefoot for most of the day...when I didn't have on my house shoes ;)

The best nap of the day was with Uh-Oh...all the chaos of late has had Uh-Oh in a tizzy...his meow has taken on an alert distressed level...he's been in and out at all times of the night and day...he just can't seem to settle down...I know exactly how he feels.

But, today we both relaxed on the couch...he was purring and I was snoring.  It was nice not to have to feel anxious about what was next...where I had to be...or a stack of papers to grade.

We still have a senior party next week, the firstborn's graduation and a trip to Maryland and summer school...

But it was nice today to just take the day and be home.

Really Home.

Have I mentioned how much I love HOME?

:)

Fat Tuesday...to Lent

Even congressmen were wearing Mardi Gras beads today :)

At dinner tonight my firstborn and I saw a 60 something year old man with a court jester's hat on.

And, we've eaten our share of King Cakes over the last month...yum!

While I love the history and culture of New Orleans, I wouldn't be there for $1,000,000 tonight...

the final night of the party...the final parade...the final drink...the final night of hedonism...

before Lent begins tomorrow and all the partiers become saints :)

All silliness aside, The Ash Wednesday service is one of my favorites; I am humbled by the symbolism of the cross imprinted on my forehead with ash.  Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of a 40 day period of repentance before Easter Sunday.  I don't usually "give up" something for Lent...but I do try to be more mindful of the reasons I believe what I do and try to live my life in the way that I think God wants me to.

Does that mean I'm going to always do the right thing?

Absolutely not.

Am I going to make mistakes?

You bet.

Am I forgiven?

No doubt.

:)

That's the most beautiful part.

Thanksgiving Holiday Wrap Up

I think I've mentioned before that Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday...and this year was no exception.

I'm pretty sure that Thanksgiving appeals to me so much because it is a fairly calm holiday as holidays go.  It is a time for family to gather together, share a meal, the Macy's Parade, football and most of the time relaxation. 

We are pretty lucky.  Our families (both sides) get along well enough that spending the day with one another is not a difficult challenge.  Our college also takes the entire week off for Thanksgiving; we do this instead of having a Fall break.  I LOVE it.  I get to be Mommy during the week of Thanksgiving, my house gets clean, I get to cook, and I get to take lots of pictures.

As my girls have grown, I've enjoyed letting them step in and add their own personal touches to the day.  My firstborn was in charge of decorating the mantle this year...I showed her some pictures of what I really like, she helped me shop for the needed supplies, and then I let her run with it. 

She used mostly natural ingredients, pumpkins, acorns, walnuts, pecans, pine cones, pomengrantes and red pears.

Then, she added green, gold and rust colored ribbon and a Tom Turkey right in the center for extra sass.

We stumbled across a little decorative squirrel and added him as well to honor our little buddy Squeakers who was released back into the woods successfully last weekend.

I think she did a very nice job :)

My youngest decided on her own this year to decorate the piano. 

At school she made pilgrim people with toilet paper rolls, so she decided we needed a nativity of sorts of pilgrim people on the piano.

We have no toilet paper on the roll at our house right now, but I think it's worth it to have such a special and personal touch :)

My middle child's contribution was a Butterfinger pie she made for the first time last year.

This is her own recipe that she found and tweaked (graham cracker crust, ice cream, whipped cream and Butterfinger candy bars)...and it's delicious.  I have no pictures of her pie because she made it while I went to retrieve our pre-cooked turkey...and it was eaten long before I could get around to photographing it on Thanksgiving Day.  One of her cousins told her it was one of the best pies he had ever tasted.
Made my middle child's day!

I do not try to make Thanksgiving perfect because I am no Martha Stewart and I don't have problems with that. Over the years I've made many mistakes.
I've caught things on fire (marshmallows and rolls)
I've dropped things (rolls)...and I have forgotten the cranberry sauce more than once.
I've learned to expect hiccups and laugh at them.
Such is life, right?
The test of my positive Thanksgiving attitude this year centered around the love of my life, The Head of My Household, who was, in his innocent manly way, trying to help.  He announced a couple of weeks ago that he ordered a turkey from our college.  When I asked how big it was, he said he didn't know.

I asked if it would be frozen.

He said he didn't know.

I explained that I really wanted a fresh turkey this year.

He said it might be fresh but...

he didn't know.

I asked when I would be receiving said turkey because I wanted to brine it this year.

He said, "What's a brine?"

I bet you thought he was going to say he didn't know.
:/

The Head of My Household brought home a rock hard solid 10 lb. turkey (the smallest turkey we've had in years) and a ginormous pan of cafeteria dressing Tuesday night.  I had actually already boiled and deboned my chicken for my dressing this past weekend.  I love my dressing.  It's my mom's recipe and it just is Thanksgiving to me. 
The worst part was that I couldn't tell if this concrete slab of cafteria dressing was cooked or raw. 

Oy!

Since my idea of an unchaotic Thanksgiving does not include babysitting a rock solid frozen turkey for 48 hours while it bathes in a cold water bath, nor does it include me feeling guilty for the rest of my life for thowing away a perfectly fine pan of dressing and hurting the father of my children's feelings. I put my big girl britches on, put the rock hard solid turkey in the freezer for another day, chipped away at the monument of dressing (which turned out to be raw) and called the nearest HoneyBaked Ham store.  Did you know that they will sell you a fully cooked turkey even on the day before Thanksgiving??

Guess what?  The day turned out just fine...even though no one ate much dressing.  In the middle of lunch my older daughters asked if I made the dressing.  When I told them no, they said, "We knew it!!"  "We like your dressing better, Mom!"
Yay, me!!

Over the last year our extended family has gone through and is still continuing to experience some pretty substantial changes.  My goal for Thanksgiving was to create a relaxing, uneventful environment where everyone could just rest their minds and have a little peace for a few hours.
I think we were able to accomplish that and more.

I'm thankful for Thanksgiving.
:)

Magazine Monday, Nov. 1 - Martha Stewart Living



Martha Stewart you say? 

I like Martha Stewart for the very reasons a lot of people dislike Martha Stewart.  The woman has the uncanny ability to make a mountain out of a molehill.  :)

No joke.

Instead of going to the store and buying a paper bag, the woman will go into her backyard, chop down a tree, have it processed in her mini paper mill she keeps in her 100 year old shed, and wallah, she has a paper bag that looks just like the one I bought in the store for 25 cents. 

Martha doesn't ever try to tell you this is how you should do it though; Martha is a self admitted control freak and OCD person.
If Martha wants to make a paper bag instead of going to buy one, she does.

You go, Martha.

I've been a Martha fan since I bought this book

Remember this?

Me and Martha, we go way back. :)

The magazine continues some of the tradition started in her original books...along with some newer sections as well.
One of my favorite newer sections of Martha Stewart Living is her photography section.
Oy.

Of course Martha has her own little studio...filled with several computers for various and asundry purposes...

particular photo editing programs and online services that she likes to use...as well as a big screen HDtv for previewing photos.

Did I already say Oy?

And heavens to Betsy...please don't forget all the top of the line photography equipment...

I was drooling at this point.

After I finished updating my "Dream On, Sister" wishlist, Martha brought me back to reality...

pears decorated using simple but delicious smelling cloves to welcome guests...

Now, I was kidding about Martha bringing me back down to Earth from the stratosphere of camera equipment....

this is the stuff I really like about Martha.

Whenever possible, Martha uses natural ingredients and decorates using traditionally inspired ideas.

I'm giving these pears a try this year...they're just so warm, unpretentious and inviting.

Don't you think??

How 'bout this pomegrante door hanger as the photo introducing her "Good Things" section??

If you know anything at all about Martha, you know there will be some very "good things."

 

More good things...

this time for the kids...

 

Martha can get really get elaborate with entertaining, but she seems to try and be realistic about it as well. 

Take this breakfast planned for when a hostess may have a large crew in the house...most people have their own routines, likes and dislikes, etc. 

This kind of breakfast would satisfy most...and doesn't mean the hostess has to spend hours and hours in the kitchen preparing each and every meal

My brother says people who stay at my house are on their own.

He stayed at my house once, and I didn't make him breakfast.

Now, he'll never let me forget it.

Little brothers are just that way ;)

 

Martha always includes things from her own home as well as ideas and photographs from the homes of other real people...not celebrities.

 

I love that this table has a bench with it :)

The table my parents had in our dining room while I was growing up had a bench :):)

And, I absolutely adore the pumpkins and long candles as centerpieces.

 

Oh my!!

Aren't these seasonal desserts fabulous!!!!

And, of course, Martha will talk you through wine selection...frugality is always considered but with the understanding that you should always buy the best wine you can...and by all means, depending on the occasion, you may, in fact, have to splurge.  The choice is up to you.

 Besides entertaining, there's also a section for weeknight cooking...this pasta shells recipe is a family favorite and can even be prepared and frozen on the weekend to be taken out some busy night and still provide a hot nutritious supper for a hungry bunch of kids and husband. 

Martha provides the original recipe as well as some options for fillers depending on an individual's family's personal likes and dislikes.

 Now, this is the kind of mountain out of a molehill that I think Martha does very well. 
While she is certainly ahead of the game with the newest and most sparkly techno gadgets, she also honors timeless traditions such as letter writing, invitations, and thank-you notes. 

There is nothing like a handwritten note...yes, email is quicker and can be shot out in a heartbeat...but a handwritten note sends a message just with the note itself...no matter what it says inside...that the writer thought enough of you to go the extra mile...to put in a little extra effort...to send you a message.

Now, here's where Martha overwhelms me and even makes me feel guilty.  The section on housekeeping kills me. 

She has a housekeeping agenda.

Daily, weekly, monthly, bi-annually and yearly.

Oy.

My housekeeping agenda is.....

get it done when you can, when you think about it, and/or when somebody runs out of underwear :)

This month's housekeeping includes how to make room in your home for guests...closets, drawers, etc.

A final recipe for each month usually goes along with the season of the magazine issue.

For November, it was a Pumpkin Cream Pie

Gingersnaps for the crust!!!!

I'm makin' this for our Thanksgiving this year!

Even after all that baking, decorating and entertaining, Martha is not done yet because she is also a collector...where in the world she puts all of her stuff, I'll never know.  But, there is always a section on a particular collectible, how to tell authentic from copy, and lots of gorgeous pictures of the various forms, kinds, labels, designs, etc.

With all her organization, cleanliness and attention to detail, it may surprise some to know that Martha is a pet lover.  She actually has numerous cats and dogs living inside her house and quite a few other animals as well living outside. 

In last month's issue Martha showed how her renovated kitchen was organized (she had, of course, planned out every inch) including a "pet station"...each of the animal's food bowl and containers of food were, of course, divided and had their own little individual station...

Uh-Oh asked why he did not have his own pet station.

I told him to quit reading my magazines. :)

On the flip side of this month's issue is an actual section on pets.

Martha has always had Chows and Himalyan cats...another of the reasons I like her...most of her publications include pictures of her animals sitting in chairs, on couches, etc. where they obviously are comfortable being.

I don't read every section of Martha Stewart Living because there are some sections that don't appeal to me at all...the crafting section (this month was knitting)...yes, Martha sews...why are you surprised???

 and the gardening is a little over my head...

but I still look at the fantastic pictures :)

Keep it comin', Martha!

6 Days and Counting...

My girls

looking for shells...Summer 2009, Destin FL

Here's hoping this next week goes by FAST!

Broadway

My mom, my middle child, my firstborn and I saw 4 absolutely incredible shows on Broadway while we were in NYC last week.

Beyond a shadow of a doubt, these were the highlights of our trip.

Even after 4-5 previous NYC trips, I had never been to a Broadway show (on Broadway).

I was mesmerized and now want to see every single show playing!!

Phantom of the Opera

One of the oldest shows on Broadway, most everyone knows this story.

The villain who is frightening but smoldering at the same time.

The ingenue learning from a teacher she doesn't know or understand and who sometimes frightens her.

The man who falls in love with the ingenue and vows to save her from the "Opera Ghost" or OG as he signs his notes.

I was astonished at the set and the theatre.

The beauty of an antique show palace along with the technological abilities and special effects took my breath away...the giant chandelier actually falls from the ceiling in the middle of the show!!!

And, the Phantom himself is climbing all over the stage, over the stage, on top of the ceiling, etc.

My favorite scene is the part where the Phantom mesmerizes Christine into coming with him to his lair under the opera house.

The entire stage turns into a steep staircase that falls down into a deep foggy swamp where Christine and the Phantom sing "The Phantom of the Opera" and glide through the smoky air.

Spooky candelabra appear from the floor as they get closer to his home...

I have no idea what was going on in the theatre around me during this number...I was off in the swamp with them.

In the Heights

In the Heights is one of the newer shows on Broadway but racked up at the last Tony Awards.

I now know why.

This is a fast paced show about a neighborhood called Washington Heights in a barrio in NYC.

or barrrrrrrrrrrrio as the Latino company sings.

The character Nina returns home after her first year at Stanford...the first one to make it out of the barrio, she has decided to quit college.

She is obviously embarrassed to tell her parents as well as her extended family members, the neighborhood that has supported her since she was born.

She is at a turning point in her life and has many decisions to make just as the neighborhood itself is evolving.

Usnavi is a solid character from the Caribbean who runs a small store next to Nina's parents and is in love from afar with Vanessa, a beautician who dreams of escaping the barrio to live in a uptown studio apartment.

Usnavi is a rapper and man alive, can he rap!

Usnavi's rap shows how rap is an musical artform rather than the string of profanities that today's rap is famous for...

Carla, another unforgettable character, is a perfect illustration of the word "sassy"...Carla  owns the beauty shop in which Vanessa works...and is in the process herself of moving her shop to a better location.

Carla is streetwise and streetsmart with a good head on her shoulders.

She also doesn't hesistate to say what's on her mind.

Carla is one tough cookie...but in the end she helps Vanessa finally get what she needs.

The numbers "Vanessa" and "96,000" absolutely blew my mind.

What is incredible about this show is how so many things can be going on at the same time on stage...but in a completely orchestrated way...

How do they do that????

And, why can't I do that??

Characters are dancing and singing parts all over the place...

and then at the end of "96,000" they all come together across the front of the stage singing in perfect unison!!!

Whoa, Nelly!!!!

The dancing in this show is street dancing...I don't even really know how to describe it...the amount of talent on the stage and the years of expertise and training put into making this show what it is...

Holy Smokes!

This incredible company of singers and dancers also entertained our kids the morning of the show.

2 of the cast members taught our kids  parts from the number "96,000."

I'm still singing and my kids are still dancing!

Wicked

I'm going to try hard to find some words befitting the show Wicked.

But, I'm probably going to have a hard time.

I've never seen anything like Wicked.

Ever.

Never.

Guh-Linda, the "good" witch we all grew to love was not quite as "good" as she seemed.

She is rich and spoiled, and vain...really really vain.

Elphaba, which is the wicked witch's real name, is the same age as Glinda and they meet in college.

Elphaba has green skin...she is different...and just like every "different" kid in school, she is treated poorly, even by her own father.

Elphaba and Glinda accidently become roommates...

And then they become friends...friends who accept each other for who and what they are...good and bad...even when they have to go their separate ways in the end.

Glinda vows to make Elphaba "Popular," and the actress who portrays her is hysterical in this number...from Glinda's characteristic hair toss to her perky mannerisms, the theatre was filled with laughter throughout the show.

Another number which is reprised in several places during the show is "I Hope You're Happy."

Glinda is a high pitched soprano, and Elphaba is a lower pitched alto.

Their voices together are magical.

I've frankly never heard two people singing together who sound like these two.

It's as if the music was made for them and them alone.

They play off each other and respond to each other almost as if they haven't rehearsed it a gazillion times.

If I have to pick a favorite number from this show though, it would be "Defying Gravity."

Hands Down.

It starts out quiet and grows and grows and grows...until Elphaba has finally embraced her wicked side and is dangling somehow midair on her broom with dazzling lights covering the entire darkened stage singing from the top of her lungs.

How the heck did she do that?????

When she finished that last note, the entire theatre stood up clapping.

I wanted to scream, "Bravo, Bravo!!"

I wanted to BE the Wicked Witch of the West!!!

And DEFY GRAVITY!!!!

Please, please, please, if you are only going to see one show in your lifetime, see this one!

I ain't kiddin'

West Side Story

West Side Story was the last show we saw.

Now, I've seen the movie a bunch of times.

Natalie Wood, fake brown skin, lip synching and all, is one of my all time favorite Marias...any other Marias have really big shoes to fill in my book.

Since the movie is a musical, most folks have experienced at least a little of the dancing and singing epitomized in this show...

But, until you've seen it live...

you ain't really seen it!

Now, let me say something about the gentlemen in this show.

Oh.

My.

Goodness.

Help me, Lord.

The Sharks and the Jets...dancing against one another.

Oh.

My.

Heavens.

There's obviously a lot of ballet trained dancers in this show.

These guys really know how to leap!!!

And, when you add the ladies to the mix.

I could barely breathe.

The numbers "America" and "Dance at the Gymn" were my favorites.

"America" is sung by Anita and backed up by the other Latina ladies.

It made me want to jump up and start shouting.

"Dance at the Gymn" is the epic comparison of cultures through dance.

RAW!!

I wish I could dance like that!!

West Side Story has been revised to include more Spanish, and the effects are dramatic.

We all knew what was going to happen in the end, and some of the Romeo and Juliet like scenes can get a little sappy...but I was in tears with Maria at the end...as was my firstborn.

Incredible!

Our time on Broadway will provide my girls and I and my mom with some incredible memories...

especially since we shared them together.

Home Sweet Home

I'm home...heavy sigh :)

I love to travel...I really really do...

But I love coming home too.

I'm a little bit of a baby when I travel.

The Head of My Household would gasp at that statement.

Things that bother me (hotel room bathrooms, the way a room smells, etc.) just don't bother him.

Over the last 21 years, he's just learned to put up with my neuroses.

I need to know where my stuff is...

I need to have a place to put my stuff...

I need to have a room that looks and smells clean (I've seen all those 20/20 episodes)...

I need to have food (regular/normal food preferably) available at all times just in case I need it.

I need to know where I am and where I'm going.

I need a plan when I travel.

My friend Missie would gasp at this statement...not because the it is an understatement, but just the opposite.

I'm pretty laid back at home...but when I'm away, I want to know what my future holds.

I need to be able to relax.

and I need to not be exhausted.

I need to have some semblance of control...I don't have to make all the decisions, but I don't like the "fly by the seat of my pants" method of decision making when I'm in unfamiliar territory.
In other words, I'm not your "backpack across Europe" kinda gal.

While we had a great time in NYC, I learned on this trip that I'm not a fan of traveling in large groups.  We had 115 people in our group...55 of those people were teenagers.

2 of those teenagers were mine.
There were times when I felt like I knew more than the tour guide, and that in itself was a little scary.

We were planted right in the middle of Times Square also.

Can you say crowds?

Can you say tourist trap?

Can you say a mess?

Can you say long lines?

 I've been to New York 4-5 times.
The New York my kids experienced on this trip was not exactly the New York I had hoped for them.
They came away thinking New York is dirty, loud, rude and chaotic and so much different than their familiar surroundings at home...

 Um...Ahem...

 Anyhoo...

I'm going to take them back to NYC.
My Way!
At Christmas.
In time to see the Macy's Parade on Thanksgiving Day.
And the lighting of the Christmas tree and ice skating at Rockefeller Center.
The city all dressed to the nines in red, gold and green and sparkly lights.
To see The Lion King and Mary Poppins on Broadway.
And stay far, far away from Times Square.

That's how I first experienced NYC...
and it will forever live on in my mind as a city of magic.
I even have a shrine in my home devoted to that first magical trip :)

I'll share the highlights from our trip over the next couple of days :)

A Few Wonderful Hours at The Summit

My mom, my girls and I ventured out yesterday for lunch and to find the youngest some shoes for Easter Sunday.

Our favorite place to shop in Birmingham is hands down, The Summit.

It seems insulting to call The Summit a shopping mall.

Because it is so much more than that.

The Summit is kinda like Disney World...

different areas...different kinds of stores...big names as well as smaller boutiques...and lots of really nice places to eat...no way possible to do everything at The Summit in one day.

One of the newest places to eat a recently opened section of The Summit is a place called Flip Burger.

Rhoda at Southern Hospitality suggested it a few posts ago, so I put it on my list for this trip.

When you walk through the door, the first thing you see is this cool mural that is on the ceiling.

You also hear music...hip, popular rock music.

We waited for about 20 minutes for a table...Flip Burger is not a huge restaurant...it's long and rectangular, divided into 3 long rectangular sections, a bar, a regular seating area down the center and a row of booths.

Here are my oldest and middle children sitting in one of the booths...almost like sitting in a space capsule.

The oldest said she felt like she was in Japan.

My firstborn is a connoisseur of potato soup, so she order this as an appetizer and got a surprise extra serving with her meal...which we all sampled :)

DELICIOUS!

If you like real hamburgers, put together with all kinds of other fresh ingredients, and fresh unique sides, you would like Flip Burger. 

You might even have a conversation about foie gras like we did :)

You can add foie gras to your milkshake if you want...but we didn't.

Especially after we had a long conversation about duck liver.

This is my middle child's lunch...those fries are fresh cut as are the pickles...the pickles are really marinated cucumbers...fresh and crispy...and the taste just pops in your mouth.

They don't have a kids' menu...so my youngest ordered the basic Flip Burger with all the extras on the side...she's a hamburger with ketchup only kinda gal. 

The folks at Flip Burger were more than happy to oblige her.

These are the sweet potato fries...

which are really tempura sweet potatoes...

and are scrumptious!

How about asparagus fries?

When I saw these on the menu, I wasn't really sure...

But, my mom ordered them and let me have some of hers...

again, sorta like tempura asparagus...but oh...so fresh and good!

Of all the interesting decor elements, this t.v. frame was my favorite.

I can so see this hanging on either of my teenager's walls.

After we left Flip Burger, we walked down one side of the new section at The Summit. 

We spotted a new boutique called Gloss.

The "big girls" are experts at finding new and interesting places to shop.

My firstborn is the most fashion conscious of all of us...

Once she enters a store, she has her own agenda and she doesn't really talk to anybody else...she goes around mentally putting pieces together in her head..

My youngest is used to walking into these kinds of stores, taking a look around and realizing pretty quickly that there's nothing here for her.  Her first question today was, "When are we going to Gymboree?"

My middle child, who likes clothes just as much as her big sister, doesn't have quite the same shopping strategy.  She's been known to completely lose control and walk around picking up handfuls of stuff to try on. 

I turn my midle child over to my mother whenever we go shopping.

Gloss has beautiful clothes! My firstborn was excited about the new possibilities at hand. 

The scope is casual, but the tops and dresses are feminine, silky and blousy.

Thank-you God that tight shirts are leaving us this season.

Tight knits are not made for women who have given birth to three children.

Thank you very much!

After being reassured that Gymboree was still on our agenda, my youngest spied the brownies and cookies and planted herself on the couch next to the chocolate.

The ladies at Gloss had already offered these to us, but we were so distracted by the clothes when we first walked in the door that we really didn't notice these goodies.

My youngest did though.

The store itself is really pretty...wood floors and shiny...

not overly packed to the gills with 800 of the same items so that you meet yourself coming and going all season. 

I realize that sounds snobby...I'm not a snob, I promise...I do, however, like unique things.  I don't mind sharing, but I don't want clothes that are exactly like everybody else's. 

I'm not a fan of the "Stepford" look.

My firstborn and middle child scored several pretty new tops and got distracted again by the jewelry at the counter.

I actually think my mom was just as distracted as they were :)

My youngest was still keeping watch over the cookies...but beginning to get a little ancy herself.

When she starts this kind of stuff, I know we've almost pushed her to her limit.

She's going to need a Gymboree fix soon.

Ahhhhhh...so much ahead of us.

After we left Gloss, I felt a pull from down the sidewalk...

I knew when I saw this insignia hanging on the window, that I was really in big trouble.

Holy Smokes!

There's a Brighton store at The Summit!!

Now, the folks at Brighton have little kids just as figured out as those smart folks at Gloss...

instead of chocolate, they offered my youngest a basket full of toys, which she immediately began to plunder.

The Brighton folks want the adults to have all their attention on their wares.

Lord, help me control myself.

Help me, please.

This season they've even added flip flops to the shoe selection.

Since I began to have trouble concentrating, and I convinced myself that the purse I attached myself to from the moment I crossed the threshold was really too small, we decided to keep moving...

Anthropologie sucks our "big girls" right inside every single time.

Gymboree is within sight of Anthropologie so there was no way to keep control of the youngest any longer...plus, she'd been more than cooperative so far.

The youngest took control of her destiny at this point of the afternoon.  She has an agenda that gives her oldest sister a run for her money.

The youngest did score some yellow espadrilles to go with her yellow Easter dress...more on that tomorrow.

While I would love to share some photos of my youngest in her element, shopping for shoes at Gymboree, I won't be able to because of this this freak of nature...

I'm sorry for being mean...

but this woman is one of those people who thinks she's the only person on the face of the earth.

She walked into the store talking to someone on her mobile ear device...at about 3 times the volume normal people talk.

I promise.

I'm not exaggerating.

She was rude.

She was obnoxious.

She was evil.

Why can't these folks shop online??????

 

We ended the day at another iconic restaurant in Birmingham, Johnny Ray's.

We've eaten at Johnny Ray's since the original place on Hwy 31.

This is the new Johnny Ray's at the Colennade.

There's nothing better than a Johnny Ray's pulled pork sandwich...

But, the very best thing at Johnny Ray's is their Coconut Cream Pie.

Oh my...

Please don't tell Jillian Michaels.