Cruisin...

Vacations are the best... time off work, no cooking, relaxation...what else more could we ask for!?
We found a killer deal for a cruise out of Jacksonville, FL for 5 days that would take us to Key West and the Bahamas. We couldn't resist the temptations to get away right before Thanksgiving so we booked it. My mom found the deal and the whole clan came along and it was a blast.

My parents, Philip's parents, my sister and Rich, Uncle Jay, Aunt Betsy and a friend Iris. Eleven of us set sail on Saturday Novemeber 15th which happened to be my sisters 25th birthday! We celebrated her birthday in style on the ship singing at her during dinner and presenting her with many cards. The trip was her gift from many of us. Philip and I also gave her a gift that will last the whole year (her wedding dress!)

The first day (the day we boarded the ship in Jacksonville) it rained on and off and the weather was less than desireable but at that point we didn't care... we were on vacation.

The second day was a day at sea and it was beautiful. We spent most of the day relaxing on the ship, soaking up the sun, reading our books and napping while the boys played ping pong, shuffle board etc.

The third day we spent at Key West. We had been to Key West before on our last cruise but we got off to check out all of the shops and eat some good food. We ate lunch at this lovely street side restaurant Fogarty's that a handful of the ship's entertainment staff was eating at so we figured it was good! We spent the rest of the day on the ship relaxing which was the theme of this vacation. Several evenings we played bingo and we always attended the shows. I can't leave off the fact that Philip got called up to be a part of one of the shows. We have a lovely video capturing his participation in the entertainment which was priceless. It involved a boa....

The fourth day was spent in the Bahamas and we spent the majority of the afternoon in the Bahamas. We shopped all of the streets and ate crabs cakes and conch at a local restaurant on the streets. It was pretty windy so we ended up heading back to the ship for dinner (and it was free as always which was a plus!) This evening was the talent show and Rich entered and performed for the guests of the cruise ship. He was definintely the best act! He sang and played the piano....!

The final day was at sea and it was quite rocky. Not the rockiest I have been on but pretty rocky. Enough that the barf bags appeared all over the boat! We REALLY Relaxed today because it was too chilly to spend time on the deck sunbathing. I finished reading TWILIGHT!

ENJOY THE SLIDESHOW of OUR TRIP!

We truly enjoyed our very relaxing vacation minus the constant headache I had from all of my recent neck/back pain. We slept really well thanks to the slight rocking of the ship. NONE of us got sea sick :) We are all very well rested and ready for another short week before THANKSGIVING (our favorite holiday!).

Aunt Hilda and Uncle Bill are coming in from TX, Aunt Janet and Cousin Brittan are coming from TN, Rich's parents are coming from Winston and Eliza and Rich from DC! We can't wait to have everyone in town including all of our friends for the big annual Friday night JEW CREW PARTY!

Lots of big updates this coming weekend/Monday! Stay tuned...
Family...shopping...lots of food...dress shopping with my sister...and so many photos!

Blessings!

Wednesday evening was a very busy evening for two very close friends of mine.

Raleigh:

Cassie Hall one of my best friends since my freshmen year of college gave birth to her first child Garrett Christopher Hall at 10:40 PM via emergency C-section. Garrett weighed 8 lbs 4 oz, 21 inches long and was almost two weeks early! Both mom and baby are doing wonderful. I am so sad I won't be able to meet little Garrett until December but I know he will be worth the wait! Congratulations to Cassie and Nathan on their first child!

Charlotte:

Kim Amster a very close family friend of ours gave birth to her second child! Kim and her husband Payam waited to find out the sex of their child and were surprised with a bouncing baby boy! They already have a daughter Soraya who is 2 years old! Kim was due Friday so he came right on time! I have yet to confirm some of the details however I am 99% sure they named him Ari. Congratulations to Kim, Payam and Soraya on their new edition! We can't wait to meet Ari!

What a wonderful blessing for two wonderful friends.

I am in baby heaven....

Faster than the speed of lightening!

You would've thought we were Speedy Gonzalez this weekend.

First stop to visit Lauren, Shawn and 3 week old Ella Grace. Lauren and I not only went to high school together but we also went to college together... we have known each other for a a VERY LONG time so this was really exciting....she is a mommy! Unfortunately we could only stay for 45 minutes but we had a great time. Ella Grace is beautiful and she loves to snuggle on her mommy's chest. Lauren and Shawn are definitely blessed with a beauty! Thanks for letting us stop by to see your new bundle of joy!

Second stop Panera to pick up lunch to bring to Cassidy and Andrew's.

We picked up lunch for everyone and headed over to their house to visit for a few hours. Philip had never met Keelyn and I don't think he had seen Hailey since her 1 year old birthday party. Hailey is now 3 and Keelyn is 9 months! I think Hailey was a little scared of Philip at first, but by the end of our visit she was running around showing off all of her stuff to him. We had a great time hanging out with the kids, feeding our bellies and taking lots of fun pictures! Thanks for letting us stop even if it was only for a short visit!

Third stop was to Courtney and Josh's....were I preceded to take a nap. I know go figure. I go over to a friend's house and crash :) They are used to it. Thank god. Courtney wasn't even home so Philip and Josh hung out and watched football.

Fourth Stop: NC Tigers End of the Year Banquet Dinner. About 50 people ending up coming which was a fantastic turnout. The dress code was cocktail attire and Philip and I had a bet about the dress code. He was convinced that these sweaty stink athletic dudes were not going to get dressed up and that the women or wives wouldn't be wearing cocktail dresses.... I won....! Everyone looked so sharp and snazzy. It was the perfect way to congratulate the team on a fantastic year (one of their best year's since Philip has been playing with the team, which has been 7 YEARS!) The three course dinner was fantastic and it was great to catch up with everyone!

I didn't make it to the gym at all this weekend. What a let down....

and because my back has decided to flare up I haven't slept either.

Bah humbug! Poor Philip!

Pain in the Neck...

You would think that I slep in some concocted position (like my friend's baby) when I talk about the amount of neck/back pain I am in....

Yes I have a history of really bad neck and back pain... and it comes and goes without any warning. But this is out of control.

I am breaking down and heading to the Chiropractor today to get re-aligned.
I cant even sit in some of my pilates positions, or on both butt checks because my hips are completely uneven!

Side note... for the first time ever in my life my insurance does not cover ANY chiropractic care.
I think this is such a joke....no coverage.

Boy does our healthcare system need to be straightened out....and so does my medical coverage (which is sub-par!). So glad we have a NEW PRESIDENT TO MAKE NEW HEALTHCARE CHANGES!

7 lbs of sugar!

Friday was a blast...

Ever since I moved to Charlotte and left Global Knowledge (which had the BEST Halloween celebration I have heard of or found anywhere)...although Leah Guenther's company is a pretty close 2nd...I have tried to make the most of Halloween on my own.

I love Halloween. I love giving out candy, telling the kids to be safe and brush their teeth and checking out their super cute costumes. I also love to entertain...so I decided this year to combine those two things. We invited several couple friends over to enjoy homemade chili, pumpkin chocolate chip bread and beer. We had a great time and everyone enjoyed checking out all of the trick or treaters.

I would run to the door when the door bell rang...or just leave the door open so I could spot the little ones. We had big ones, little ones, not dressed up trick or treaters (which Philip always gave a hard time to), slutty looking trick or treater's (who let's their kid go out looking like this!?), and the one that won best costume was Operation Man.

Let me elaborate for all of your because I didn't take a photo because it felt super creepy. It was bad enough I asked the mom to bring the child into the house to show everyone her costume. Yes I really did that. OK so back to the costume your dying to hear about.

Now you remember operation man looks like this:

Well this parent didn't just do the typical operation man with the cut outs for the different pieces...they also put foil around each opening and there was a pen just like with the real game that when you touched it to the foil the ENTIRE COSTUME VIBRATED!!!!!! I mean seriously.... it was the best costume of the night.

Philip decided that our children will never wear He-man costumes that zip up in the back from Walmart that have the big muscles...he thinks that they lack creativity and the child should go without a costume instead of that....he was pretty opinionated about this and I told him that I thought it was fantastic that he wanted our children to have creative costumes....so he gets to make/create them, while I carve the pumpkins :) Nice compromise don't you think? Bella's costume was pretty darn cute if I might add....

After spending two days preparing for this party I was exhausted by 930 and the party was dying down. We ended up giving away 7 lbs of candy. We had THAT MANY kids come through. I would estimate about 250 kids.

Philip dressed up as an Australian Rules Football Player and wore his very short shorts....hopefully he didn't scare the guests too much! We also captured some photos of Bella with our next door neighbor Amelia before it got too dark. They are best friends and enjoyed hanging out over some Halloween pretzels!

Jeff and Naomi brought Ella with them for the party and I carried her around most of the night. When I would come to the door people would ask me how old my daughter was... oh how I loved that :) Another neighbor said, "Boy I havent seen you in a while but not long enough for you to have a baby...what's the deal!?" hahhahha. She was so good and so cute in her Halloween outfit.

Happy Halloween. I hope you and your children all had a wonderful time...AND make sure they brush their teeth, PLEASE :)

Priceless...

My pooch is priceless.

I spent the entire evening carving pumpkins because Philip had class.

I not only carved my pumpkin but I also cleaned his out so that when he got home at 830 it didn't have to stay up too late....even though we didnt get in bed till 11!!!

Bella seemed to really like pumpkin carving this year. I am not sure if it was because more scraps fell on the tile kitchen floor for her to snatch up or what. She has experienced 5 Halloween's so you think this one wouldnt be any different.

I was really happy with the way the pumpkins turned out... especially mine :)

Tonight we are having several friends over to help us give out the 7 lbs of candy we bought to the hundreds of trick or treater's in our neighborhood.

I made two large pots of chilli (one veggie, one regular), beer cheese bread, cornbread, pumpkin chocolate bars and the drinks will be flowing. I am looking forward to it. I spent last night slaving over the stove baking some Banana Coffee Cake Struesel before my bananas went bad and the pumpkin chocolate bars. Boy do I love Pumpkin pie spice....it makes the whole house smell delightful!

Oh happy fall...Happy Halloween...I love this time of year!

Date night...

Saturday night was declared as date night.

We try to have date night at least once a month.

Just the two of us.

Dinner and spending quality time together.

We decided to check out a newer sushi restaurant: Yama

As many of you know I have an obsession with sushi....and crave it constantly!

Yama was fantastic. The menu even breaks down the cooked vs uncooked sushi rolls which I loved! We orderd 5 rolls... yes... 5.

God, they were so good.

We ordered so much sushi that they brought it out in a BOAT!

We ate ALL 5 rolls. Please forgive us and our big apetites (we didnt eat lunch!).

Side note:.... while at dinner Eliza called me 5 times.... this is when I realized, " I better call her back...I bet she got engaged!" I was right...!

On our way home we stopped at Dean and Deluca and picked up a delectible dessert: Chocolate Dome (cookie crust, choclate ganache and some other cholocate ridiculousness that I cant remember). Our plan was to take it home and eat it and relax in our sushi, chocolate coma.

We got sidetracked. Friends were making smores at their house and that idea sounded too good to turn up so we made our way over to their house and enjoyed a lovely fall night making smores outside in the fireplace!

Date night was a great success but we never ate the chocolate dome...!

MY SISTER GOT ENGAGED!!!!!!!

MY SISTER GOT ENGAGED!!!!!!!

Big weekend in the Bass family.

My parents somehow were able to "keep the secret" from me....even though I had many suspicions all the way up until when my sister called to tell me Rich had proposed.

Short story....Rich asked my parents for permission. He also asked my parents to meet him and his parents in Greensboro at our family jeweler's approximately one month ago with the diamond that my grandfather left for my sister (he left each of us one). They all met for the first time and helped him pick out the gorgeous setting. They got along really well and had lunch together. All without Eliza knowing....which is a big feat!

Gorgeous Ring!

The proposal. Rich flew up to DC to see Eliza this past weekend. He has told her that he wanted to take her out to a nice dinner because he is getting ready to move up there and money would be tight and nice dinner's would be few and far between. Before they went out to dinner he presented her with a book that he put together with a song he had written for her. Rich is a musician (plays dueling pianos as a hobby etc). After he presented her with the book he proposed to her. They both went out to nice dinner in DC and celebrated! Rich fooled Eliza because she thought he was going to do it on our Cruise in 3 weeks that we were all going on. Great job Rich on pulling on over the most suspicious bride to be :) Welcome to the family!

We are so excited for Rich and Eliza. It seems so surreal. My little sister is engaged?! I was in total shock at first. I can't tell you how many times I said, "my little sister is engaged, oh wow!". Not that I didn't think this would ever happen but she is my little sister after all. Rich will gain a sister, I will gain a brother....neither of which we have either had before! Its a good thing we all get along really well :).

They are planning for an end of September early October wedding in 2009. Details will definitely follow. I will be the MATRON of Honor....Does that make me old? or Matronly? I sure hope not.

2009 is going to be filled with some AMAZING life changes....I can feel it already!

Mazel Tov to my sis and Rich on their new status: Fiance'!

Fall is definitely here and so are babies!

Last weekend I took Friday off and drove with my sister to D.C. to stay with her and to visit. We had a great time. After we made the 6 hour drive back we stopped by her apartment....

Talk about the ritz living in D.C. She pays quite a little penny for condo at The Post on Massachusets Ave, but its gorgeous. A beautiful rooftop pool and view of the city, very nice garage with her own parking spot, a state of the art gym and a continental breakfast every morning. Talk about NICE...but you pay the price!

Since she works for Red Bull, just about everywhere we go is "one of her accounts". We decided to make a trip to Annapolis for the big Boat Show that was taking place. We ate dinner at Puser's and walked around Annapolis.

It was gorgeous and reminded me so much of Charleston with all of the little shops and cute houses. What a great place! We actually spent the night at a hotel in Annapolis and walk up bright and early to head back to get a work out in before our days adventures went down. We went to Taste of Georgetown and enjoyed some Falafel from one of her clients. We also visited the Harbor which was beautiful especially since the weather could not have been perfect. Just cool enough to sit outside without wearing a jacket.

We also did a little shopping while we were in Georgetown and scored some great things at H & M and Anthropologie. I bought my sis a new snazy winter jacket and I know she was very excited about that seeing how cold DC gets in the winter. We had a great weekend spending time together just the two of us. I can't remember the last time it was JUST US.... sisters! Saturday night Eliza dropped me off to meet up with Andrea at Neiman Marcus...(her now former employer, since she gave her notice the day after I left, yippe!). We went to a dinner party with some of her co-workers and had a fantastic time dining with them at their beautiful home and eating a yummy Italian meal!

Sunday Andrea and I did NOTHING.... which is what we love to do. We got up and she made me homemade oatmeal which was delicious. . We watched T.V., football, made cookies, scones, bought mum's for her front porch and did more of nothing. It was perfect in every way. I had the best weekend with two of my bestest's and I was so glad that I made the trip to visit them all in D.C. My flight was late so I didn't end up getting back to Charlotte till midnight. My dad was out of town so I decided to spend the night with my mom. We had a sleepover which reminded me of the old days when I used to live at home.....I love my mommy.

Even though last week everyday was something like this... Wake up 50 degrees, Lunch time 80 degrees, go to bed 65 degrees.... we have officially entered fall. The cool crisp weather has arrived ALL DAY LONG and I am loving it...but it makes me want to stay in bed ha!

ps. lots of babies have been born in the past two weeks.

Isabella "Ella" McGinnis daugther of Jeff and Naomi McGinnis

Ella Grace (double name) Brady -daughter of Lauren and Shawn Brady born this Friday!

So many exciting birth's to celebrate with wonderful friends...and many more to come!!!!!

Apples and Honey

We love this time of year.
It starts to cool down, the leaves are changing colors as they slowly fall off the trees.
I especially love that I dont have to run the air conditioning or the heat....

and the Jewish Holidays are in full swing.

Last week we celebrated Rosh Hashanah (The Jewish New Year).
We enjoyed a lovely family & friends dinner and attended services on Tuesday to welcome in the new year as we prepare for Yom Kippur (Day of Attonement that follows 10 days after Rosh Hashanah).

We also enjoyed apples and honey for a sweet new year.
I baked a fantastic Apple Coffe Cake to share with the family.
My parents invited a few of our friends to join us for dinner Erev Rosh Hashanah so we had quite a crowd! We were so glad that Tania, Hal, Pamela and Josh could all join us for a lovely dinner.


My sister and Rich come in for Yom Kippur on Wednesday of this week to join us and I am looking forward to seeing them!

L'shana Tova to ALL!