Carrie Underwood this Saturday!

I am so excited!  I bought tickets to Toms River Fest months ago, and the weekend has finally arrived!  I get to see Carrie Underwood Saturday night!  I love her and couldn't be more excited to see her!  YAY!  I've never been to TR Fest either, so that'll be a new experience too!  I think I may break out my cowboy boots for the occasion :-)

I got to see lil Mr. Mason over the weekend, he's getting so big!  I swear he grew a foot since I saw him 4th of July weekend!  And he's really starting to have his own look.  And it's an adorable one!  Babies grow so fast.  It's nuts!

And Aly is walking and talking up a storm!  She's got a bit of a 'tude though, must be the Ziemer in her LOL!  But she's a good girl overall.  And my goodness does she look like Kati!  Holy moly!  Totally a mini-me of her Momma.  She said to me the other day "No! I can do it!"  Haha!

No news on my baby-making front.  Only time will tell.  Say a prayer for us, I think we need them! :-)

Bobby Van's Steakhouse

We had a great weekend!  Saturday night we went to NYC for Ron's Birthday Dinner!  We went to Bobby Van's Steakhouse on 54th St in Manhattan.  It was amazing!  We left at 5 pm and had reservations for 6:30 pm- should have been plenty of time to get there- NOT!  We were a half hour late, but thankfully they were understanding (and it didn't hurt that Uncle Phil is a regular there, so he called a few days before and told them to take care of us!)  We had 3 waiters, yes 3!  They totally kissed our asses, which was kinda cool but something none of us were used to!  The food was incredible, but pricey!  We all had filet mignon (and it was literally about 4 inches thick, no exaggeration!), mashed potatoes, mac & cheese (which was the most delish mac and cheese I've ever tasted!), fried zucchini, cottage fries, onion rings and dessert was comp'ed!  They brought our 4 different slices of "cake"- cheese cake, Tiramasu, some sort of flaky pastry layered cake, and a fudge-like chocolate caramel cake.  Very good, but very rich.  I'm not a big dessert person but I tried a little of each (except the chocolate, I really don't love chocolate).

After dinner we had planned on walking around after dinner, but, I wore new gladiator-like sandals  and they were KILLING my feet!  So we were going to just stop in a store and get me some cheap flip flops to wear.  Sounds easy enough right? WRONG!  Everything was closed.  We were on E. 54th between Park and Lex.  Business district.  Stores close at like 7.  Its not like in Times Square where everything is open late.  I was about to cry.  I had blisters, my feet were swollen, I could barely walk.  Plus it was still like 95 degrees at 8:30 pm.  We decided to just go back to the car and drive the FDR and take some pics by the Brooklyn Bridge/ South Street Seaport.  They have these beautiful waterfalls set up under the Brooklyn Bridge for the summer, so we tried to get a few pics of that.  They didn't come out well though, too many lights, air particles, people in general.  I think one came out decent.  Oh well.  

Yesterday, I went over my momma's house to swim and hangout.  Sal went down to A.C. to see The Dark Knight (even though I took him to see it Friday night!) in IMAX.  It was a pretty relaxing day, we took Aly in the pool and made burgers on the grill.  It rained on us twice and Aly thought that was just the funniest thing ever.  She's too cute!  

Out.

Wooo it's gonna be a hot one!

I'm not very good at updating this thing daily, so for now, I'll aim for weekly or every few days!

Let's see, what have I been up to?  We went to the Ocean County Fair last Saturday night!  We had so much fun, as cheesy as a County Fair sounds.  We got a TIN MUG of root beer, can I even say how excited over that I was?!  I love my tin mug!  And of course we got roasted peanuts, can't go to a fair without peanuts!  We watched the motorcycle stunt show, bought a Coach wristlet "off the back of a truck", admired the prize winning animals, discussed gardening with a lady at one of the tables.  It was a nice night.  We didn't get there until about 8 pm, so the sun was low, almost down and the humidity was gone.  It was perfect.  And the smells...oh man!  I enjoy the scents of fairs, honestly, think about it.  Popcorn, sausage, peppers, onions, french fries, funnel cake... yummmmmm!  

And what else... Sunday Kati, Nicole and I took the babies to the beach.  Alyssa absolutely loved it!  She loved the sand, the waves, the sunshine.  She was an angel.  Mason slept through most of it in his Pea Pod though!  We didn't last there too long, it was quite hot and crowded and the water was ice cold.  We'll have to try again one day during the week when the BENNYS aren't around.  Because seriously, if I have to play babysitter to a  lost child again, I may just lose it on the parent who isn't watching their 3 year old.

And now I'm off from work today and I have entirely too much to do.  I guess it's okay though because it's going to be another HOT one.  Part of me wants to blow it all off and go lay on the beach by myself with a book, but alas, the responsible side of me knows what has to be done.  So on that note... I'm out.

It went GREAT!

Our Luau was a huge success!  The weather was so-so, but we didn't let that dampen our spirits!  Actually, after a short drizzle, the sun came out for a bit (around 7 pm).  We had some great laughs, ate lots of food and got a ton of bug bites! LOL  Wouldn't be a BBQ without them!  Didn't matter that we had 8 citronella tiki torches out and bug spray/ towelettes for our bodies!  Sal even sprayed the yard with Bug Defogger (or something like that).  Oh well, hopefully no one contracted West Nile.  

And of course, the boys had to get the MMA pay-pre-view at 10 pm.  $45 to watch men beat the crap out of each other.. nice.  It was the LONGEST fight ever though, I was so tired my eyes were literally rolling back in my head.  We didn't have the house to ourselves until 1:30am.  But everyone enjoyed themselves and that's all that matters!!   Check out the pics on my myspace if you feel so inclined (www.myspace.com/mrsmonardo)

This weekend I'm getting my hair done at long last- why I've waited so long I don't know.  It's been since April!!  I am in desperate need of highlights and a cut!  Then, Saturday night we have Danielle's (the neighbor) 29th  birthday celebration.  That should be a pretty good time.  Sunday Sal is going to a baseball game and I'm hoping to hit up the beach, if all goes as planned.  

Well, let's wrap this up and get dinner started!

4th of July!

I am so excited I have a 3 day weekend!  I got off work today at 3 and started my long weekend of fun!  I ran some errands- had to pick a few things for our BBQ on Saturday, then I came home and did some chores- watering the flowers, laundry, etc.  And you know what?  I didn't even care!  Sure I was doing "work" but I was just so happy to be free! LOL

Our little Luau this weekend should be great- we have a ton of great stuff!  I purchased some decorations and my neighbor, Danielle, got some stuff from her parent's house (they have had a luau or two).  I can't wait to decorate and set it all up!  The weather reports say a chance of rain, but we won't let that stop us.  Worse case we'll set up under Chris' car port and in our garage.  It'll all work out.

Tomorrow should be a good day too, we're going to hang by the pool at Ron's and RELAX.  We all need a day of doing nothing!  Although, in the morning we do have a couple of things we need to do (food prep, mowing the lawn, etc.)  And then Saturday morning I get to play with Alyssa, my fav little girl!  I'll put her to work- she can help take the decorations out of the box- she loves to do that! LOL

Well, I'm in need of a shower, I was washing down the patio furniture and yuck! is all I can say about that!  I'll be sure to write all about how this weekend goes.... 

Till then.