bow-wow

Dear Vet,

Why do you charge so much for an exam and vaccinations that another vet 1 mile away charges significantly less for? What makes your service worthy of charging so much? Do your shots not hurt as much? Do you give me a treat when your done?

ps. I am divorcing you and leaving you for someone else...

bow-wow...

Bella Bass Schreibman

Home Sweet Home...

It was great to finally be home for a weekend...but not just any weekend, a LONG weekend! Friday night we started things off right with Pamela and Josh who recently just returned from their honeymoon. In true Rittman style Josh made a cake. Yellow cake, brownie, yellow cake (3 layers). It was quite a cake and he even put an American Flag on top in honor of Memorial Day Weekend and Philip, ha! We grilled out kabobs and sat on the patio enjoying our new patio speakers and the great company.

While we were out of town last weekend Kim and Payam (who own Smart Home Now and happen to be good friends of ours) came over and installed surround sound in our family room, speakers on our patio and SONOS in our house. WE LOVE ALL OF IT. The surround sound, sounds amazing, the patio is entertaining and the SONOS sound system and access to millions of songs is worth the price! SONOS is like a big ipod! I even kept the music running in the house all week long while I was working.

Saturday we helped my parents move in the morning before we headed to the gym. It had been a week and a half since I had gotten in one of my really good work outs so this was a treat. Philip played basketball with the guys. The weather was looking pretty rainy and cold however by 2 PM the clouds had cleared and it warmed up. We headed to our friend Sarah Kaplan's pool for a Jew Crew get together. We had a great time seeing everyone and meeting Sarah's twin sister Rachael who was visiting from Atlanta. Saturday night was Quesadilla night with Pamela and Josh at their house. Yummmm. We were exhausted by the end of the day...

Sunday we finally slept in, hit up the gym, cleaned our HOUSE, laundry and even helped the parents move some more. Philip's parents have a handful of people over on Sunday night so we enjoyed chicken and burger's on the grill with them.

At some point this week we decided we wanted to look into trading in my Accord for a Pilot. We knew that when my lease was up we wanted to look into getting a Pilot because we LOVE Hondas and know its a great SUV. We have heard that this is the time to get a Pilot because they can't get rid of them and then need pre-owned USED Accords so they are making great deals. We didnt however know all of the stuff behind buying selling and negotiating on cars. Luckily a family friend educated us and we realized this might not be as easy as we think. NOTE: I barely drive hence the crazy reason why we want to get a get Pilot that guzzles $4 a gallon gas. We need an SUV in our family, no one has one and I am thinking down the road with kids. We visited the dealership, talked them down 5k on the car but it still was not in our best interest and they couldn't get our payments to where we wanted them SO WE WALKED! It felt so liberating to walk out of the dealership with NOTHING. We stuck to our guns and plan to wait anouther 10+ months till my lease is up and get one of the 2009 Pilots where are so much better looking in general.

To wrap up the long weekend I played Mahjong with some of my girlfriends on Tuesday night. This is a new game that I took up when I moved to Charlotte with some of my friends and we have a blast catching up, eating and playing. Of course I lost both games, but I had a blast with Dana, Sarah and Jill!

Time flies...

It's amazing that it has been 5 years since I graduated from good ole Meredith College. This weekend was our 5 year Reunion. We made sure to celebrate in style and stayed on campus in the dorms. I dont know how I lived in those dorms for 2 years....2 nights was bad enough! We all had such a great time reiminiscing, staying up late and catching up on the latest in life. Career paths, marriages and babies all were the hot topics amongst all 60+ alumane that attended the weekend. It's amazing where life takes us in only 5 years! It was great seeing so many old faces. It felt like just yesterday that we were all together at MC.

Meredith's campus is more beautiful than I ever remember. The grounds were gorgeous. Either I didn't appreciate the landscaping before or they did a lot of improvements since I was there. After years away I am proud to say that I am a Meredith College alumnae.



Sunday I flew out to Montgomery, Alabama for my cousin Paige's high school graduation from St. James School. Paige is the youngest cousin on my mother-in-law's side of the family and she couldn't be more precious. I truly adore her and we had a great time celebrating with all of the family. We got to spend time with the cousins (Emily had to leave early to get back to lil-big Jacob in Atlanta and I missed seeing her & Carol sadly couldnt make it) Thank you Aunt Janice and Uncle Craig, Paige and Missy for having us at your house! Of course we ate way too much food, but we did get in a few game's of tennis. Philip and I are thinking about picking up playing double' s tennis as a new hobby (although I have a lot to learn, I do enjoy it.) He won every game we played but we had a great time. We were grateful for all of the wonderful weather during our trip. Mazel Tov to Paige. We are very excited that she will be going to the University of South Carolina next year which is only 1 hour away from us!

Now its back to the grind...No more PTO...no more time off...but a short week!



On an exciting note: My parents rented out their house and are MOVING into a smaller place in the next few weeks! This is very exciting! Even more so exiting is that they rented a home in our neighborhood! Call us crazy but we are very excited that they will only be 4 streets away. We are so lucky to have both of our parents less than 1 mile from us. My mom keeps asking us, "are you sure its ok...?". We are starting to wonder what they are going to do... hhahaha, of course it is ok.

I feel so lucky to have parents that we are so close with. We moved to Charlotte to be close to both of our families and we couldn't be more happy that they are only a hop skip and a jump away from us!

Celebrate!

This weekend we had many reasons to celebrate!

On Friday our good friend Erin Goldstein graduated from UNCC. Philip and I both have known Erin for over 12 years! We are so proud of Erin and her graduation as she has overcome a lot of obstacles to get to where she is now! She is headed back to Graduate school to get her Master's in Social Work. Her parent's threw her a graduation dinner party at their house and served Price's fried chicken, mac and cheese, biscuits, salad and too many delicious desserts to name. Mazel Tov Erin and Happy Birthday to her partner Mclane!


Saturday Philip and I graduated from the Robyn Farber Leadership program at Temple Beth El. The program was approx. 9 months and we met each month to learn about the Temple's history, operations, leadership and more. We were very honored when we were asked to be a part of this program and are excited about our new roles we will take on at the Temple and in the community.


Saturday night Pamlea and Josh FINALLY GOT MARRIED after an 18+ month engagement! Josh, Philip and I all went to Israel on the same trip back in 1996 and we randomly met him "again" when we moved to Charlotte. The four of us could not be more alike. The wedding was gorgeous and Pamela looked beautiful. I loved her dress and the reception view at Roof with a View was beautiful! We were so glad that we were able to celebrate with them and that we have become such great friends. Charlotte would not be the same for us without them.


Sunday was Mother's Day. We decided to go for Spanish Cuisine at Sole Spanish Grille uptown. After dinner we headed to Sheketak, the Israeli STOMP show to Celebrate Israel's 60th Anniversary. The show was amazing... we thought it was going to be good, but it was GREAT! What a great way to end a weekend full of Celebrations! happy Mother's Day Mom's!


Ps. The landscaping is all fixed and it looks better than it did before. I will post photos as soon as the fence slats go up on Monday afternoon so you can see how much diffrent everything looks. I am smiling again.

Vent

I had a knock on my door this morning around 10 AM. I dont answer the door unless I am expecting someone so I ignored it. My next door neighbor called me... "renee... I think you need to come outside, there are some issues in your yard with your NEW landscaping". Philip and I just put a good deal of landscaping in our backyard to create some barriers around our yard and to create privacy...and because we just plain love landscaping.

We come to find out that the builder told us our property line was xyz...."Your property goes to the silt fence". Guess what... it doesn't... at all. Homeowner's even approved our landscaping....

Turns our the people behind us are fencing (which is fine) and they also were told your property goes to the silt fence. The fence company came out today to install the fence and guess what....WE LANDSCAPED on their property. YUP.... One red maple and one large pussy willow and 3/4 of the bed we created are all going to be cut off by their lovely white fence.

Although this is not honestly the end of the world it makes me sad. We put so much hard work, energy and money into this landscaping and now we are going to have to spend more hard work time and money in this landscaping. Our neighbors are fine with leaving the bed, bushes and trees...so the bed will stay, they will just fence right through it... Sad....

The fence posts are the *NEW* property line.... We will pull up the pussy willow and move it in front of the maple tree.

***UPDATE - we bought 8 shrubs yesterday late afternoon and our landscaper came out to take a look. He will be back tomorrow to rip up the pussy willow and begiin extending the bed on our property and planting the shrubs we bought. We bought 4 Butterfly Bushes, 2 Tea Olive Tree's and 2 Luestruem's (I can't remember what the names are for these ones but they grow big and pretty quick!)

Oatmeal

My stomach is still a disaster. It has been one week since we returned today and I still can't keep down a regular meal.

All I can eat without feeling sick is oatmeal.
I love you Trader Joe's Steel Cut Oatmeal. You are my life right now.

If this isnt better by this weekend I think I need to get checked for Dominican Parasites ......

NYC meets NC

The day after we returned from the Dominican we had a very exciting visit from the Bass (now Blumenthal) cousins and my Aunt Doris.

My dad and his brother (my uncle) were 12 years apart so when my had me my cousins were almost already teenagers! Growing up I spent a lot of time with my cousin Robin who is older than me. She would fly to Texas from New City NY when I was a baby and spend the summer playing with me. We used to have a great time...or at least that is what they tell me!

Fast Forward to now: my cousin got married the weekend before Philip and I - 2 years ago. Almost one year ago she give birth to one of the cutest little boys I have ever seen, Spencer Reid Blumenthal. I know I am biased but I am serious. HE SHOULD MODEL. On top of his cuteness he is really really well behaved.

Robin, Seth (her husband), Spencer (my new cousin) and my Aunt Doris all flew in from NYC to visit for 4 days. All of them stayed with Philip and I which was a treat. This was the first time that I was hosting family in my OWN HOUSE! My parents house is for rent so when we were planning we were not sure if they would still be in the house so we decided it would be fun to have our first family house guests! We had a great time. Dinner at my parents one night, lunch at M5 (which by the way is soooo good, especially on the patio), Brooklyn Pizza, a Cook Out at our house, Brunch at Pewter Rose and Philip's homemade Belgium Waffles and more. We even made it to the gym so that they could check out the amazing facilities at Shalom Park and the Jewish Community center here in Charlotte.

My Aunt is very interested in moving away from NYC after living in NY for 30+ years and making Charlotte her home. My parents showed her around and they checked out many different places that she might be interested in. I think they decided that they really liked Charlotte and if only they could convince Seth to move away from the city they would make Charlotte their home!

Some funny notes from the weekend:

I am cheap... I use single roll toliet paper and whatever is on sale for paper towels. My cousin and Aunt swear by Downy paper towels and Charmin Double Roll Toliet Paper. My cousin went through more paper towels when she was here then I go through in a month (She has an excuse... the baby!) However...she doesnt like to use hand towels, dish towels etc. GO GREEN....!

They thought it was so funny that when they got home they called the toliet paper company and had them send me an extender for my toliet paper holder so I can buy double rolls. I am still laughing about this.

The guys ate more hot dogs than they probably ate all year in one weekend. Wachovia Cup totalled 6 consumed hot dogs, cook out - 6 hot dogs and left overs for lunch 4 hot dogs. WOW. Enough already!

Seth and Philip really had a great time. My office gave me two free tickets to the Wachovia Cup and they both went on Friday. They saw some of the most amazing homes on the course at Quail Hollow and went on and on about them. We actually got to see what they were talking about on TV. WOW. The guys enjoyed time on the patio smoking cigars Seth brought and throwing back a few beers.

We could have not asked for better weather. We will miss them and we hope to make this a yearly family visit now that we are all grown up. It was great to spend time with my family since they live far away and we don't see each other that often. I am going to miss Spencer so much. I only wish that my child one day is as golden as him.

Our trip....and my stomach

For our 2 year anniversary we decided to head to the Dominican Republic since it was somewhere tropical I had never been. Philip's boss went to the Dominican last spring to propose to his girlfriend and suggested a resort that he stayed at as a "great deal and a great place!" So... as we pondered our anniversary back in November we booked the trip for 6 days for April 25th to May 1st.

We arrived in Punta Cana!

All in all we had a nice and relaxing trip. Got a great tan, massages (which were wonderful) relaxed on the beach beach and enjoyed the ambiance of the resort as well as the fountains and architecture. Unfortunately the service and food were not what we expected. The gym as well as our room smelled musty and slightly mildewy. We got used to the room but the gym odor kept us away more than we had planned. We found other ways to be active!

The first night!

The resort was well decorated with large staircases and many long/large pools. The beach was gorgeous and also was quite big. You could walk up and down the beaches and see into the other resorts which was fun to do when we needed a change in scenery. We saw a lot of boobs... large boobs, saggy boobs, fake boobs, hershey kisses, small nipples, big nipples. You name it we saw it. There were too many people topless to count on a daily basis. Philip even swears he saw someone naked but I never saw that.

Our patio with Philip in the Jacuzzi!

The view from the patio of our room.

We enjoyed an in room jacuzzi and a patio jacuzzi. We definitely enjoyed both of them on many occassions. The bed was fantastic and we both slept like angels the entire time. I don't know if it was the booze or being exhausted from the beach or both...but the beds were heaven! We enjoyed getting dressed up every night for dinner in the brightest beachy clothes we had. I am sure people referred to us as the "bright couple!".

The first night in typical Bass-Schreibman tradition we got both got picked to be in the Battle of the Sexes show. We have some great photos that will be wonderful black mail on day. by the end of the night we were soaked sweating from running around the entire amphitheater trying to win for our respective teams. Another night Philip decided that he wanted to volunteeer me to dance the Meringue with one of the entertinament staff . To sum that up in one sentence... The guy said I needed to loosen up hahah! Philip enjoyed participating ini all of the activities at the resort to incude Water Volleyball and Aerobics. We got some great photos of beach Aerobics!

Philip and his beach aerobics!

We did an exciting excursion while we were on the trip.... or at least it was exciting to Philip. I am not a hug excursion fan. I would rather sit my lazy butt on the beach and read my book on most vacations. We went snorkeling, swam with sharks (nurse sharks) and held a sting ray (minus the sting!). The afternoon we chose for this trip happened to be the only afternoon it really did rain for more than 1 hour so it was perfect. Since we were in the water it didnt matter that it was raining. Although it was quite chilly when you got out and had to stand on a boat for an hour to head back to mainland.

On the way to swim with sharks...

Before

After

We learned to master the concept "Hurry up and wait!" on this trip a lot :)

Lesson Learned #1 First and foremost... we will never vacation at an all inclusive resort that allows children unless we ourselves plan to bring our own children (when that day comes). Adult trips are adult trips... We did not think about this until we got there and realized how different this trip was compared to our honeymoon at an adults only resort. BIG Difference... especially when it comes to entertainment, activities and relaxation.

Lesson Learned #2 Kids don't know the difference between Hilton Head and Punta Cana... Why pay $1000 to bring your child to Punta Cana and have to deal with all of the travel when you can drive to Hilton Head or the closest beach for 1/4 of the cost!? I am still trying to figure this one out...

The last night was when things went down hill for me. I didn't drink too much on this trip because the drinks were just not that great in general to me. I did however eat the food but, was cautious about what I ate. Out of the 7 restaurants 2-3 were decent. The others were just plain BLAH or you felt like a piece of meat being rushed in and out of the place. The last night I ate grouper. Always drank bottled water and brushed my teeth with it. I woke up at 4:30 AM on the last day in EXTREME stomach pain. I was completely nauseated and my stomach kept going into my chest and then back down. I felt awful. Luckily it was raining the entire morning so I didn’t miss out on the critical sun time. I laid in bed rocking myself in hopes that I would feel better before we had to leave for the airport at 12 noon. Nothing helped. The sight, smell and thought of food made me feel even worse (DISCLAIMER: NOT PREGNANT!). It was a rough day for me in general. We got to the Punta Cana airport safely but we had to wait in lines for 3 hours in 85 degree weather with intense humidity. I was bent over in line the entire team trying not to toss my cookies or pass out. We made it onto the plane and I was able to relax a little, although my whole body ached.. booo. Got to Atlanta safely, ate some chicken noodle soup as we ran to the plane. I had not eaten in almost 24 hours so I needed something at this point and I could handle 1/2 cup of broth by now. We arrived in Charlotte by 10:30 PM. I started to feel a little better thinking this was temporary.....WRONG.

I am still sick to my stomach. Damn - Dominican Stomach Bug. I dislike you. I don’t understand why you had to turn my relaxing vacation upside down.

Needless to say we love vacations , we had a fantastic spending time together and are already plotting where we should go next year :)