Twenty nine and still a kid!

Friday was Philip's 29th birthday.
His birthday request was to go to the Zuma Fun Center with our parents and friends.

The Zuma Fun Center has putt putt golf, go karts, water bumper boats and a batting cage. Philip talked about Friday night ALL week he was so excited. Unfortunately the weather didn't hold up and we were forced to change our plans. I could tell after a really stressful past few weeks at work the last thing Philip wanted to do was go out to some "stuff" dinner and go home. He wanted to cut loose. SO I proposed a new option. Sports Connection: Bowling, Arcade, Laser Tag.....I figured this would be a close 2nd to the Zuma Fun Center.

Everyone had a blast. We brought a cake, sang happy birthday and the guys played as many arcade games as possible in the 3 hours we were there. Everyone bowled....some better than others! A special thank you to our parents, Tania, Hal, Pamela, Josh, Matt, Christian, Sam and Jeff for coming out to celebrate with Philip. He had enough fun to get him through another year...his final year as a 20 year old!

If a birthday was not exciting enough...Saturday was Philip's 10 year Providence High School Reunion.

We made our way down to Whisky River uptown "lookin pretty snazzy". Most of Philip's friends that I knew from high school couldn't make it so I went knowing no one. Philip had a great time catching up with all of his old friends. I couldn't imagine attending that reunion single. Not that being single is bad, but just about everyone there was married. Not sure about the atmosphere for a reunion (dark and loud) but everyone enjoyed the get together and they are already talking about a 15 year reunion!

Sunday we caught up on grocery shopping (We had not gone in 3 weeks!), hit up the gym and did chores around the house that were VERY overdue! I even hung up some fall/Halloween decorations....but you will have to wait for photos!

On to a great week filled with Rosh Hashanah Celebrations ... L'shana Tova... May you have a sweet and healthy new year!

Girl time

My pottery class has turned out to be a great outlet for me. Probably not great for my back but perfect for my mind and my desire to be creative!

The first week was a disaster. I couldnt center a pot if my life depended on it. I think I had some bad energy surrounding me. Luckily I was able to get rid of it in time for the 2nd week of class. I have yet to make a weekday/weekend visit outside of my class time on Wednesdays from 7-9 but I am sure enjoying every minute I am there. I hope to get there this weekend since it's the first weekend I will be home since I started this class 4 weeks ago!

I am currently in the process of making Hanukkah gifts for our parents. Fingers crossed they will come out well and I can actually give them as gifts. Effort only goes so far :)

Philip doesn't love the fact that I come back with dried up clay over just about my entire body and then attempt to sit on our bed. Yeah, I get why that is gross but all I want to do is crash. It's dry!? Come on....

This week I also attended an event at Polished which is a Nail and Wine bar here in Charlotte. If you live in Charlotte or ever come you should check this place out for a mani or pedi. I loved the atmosphere and spending time with the Young Women of Hadassah. I met a few new girls which was also very exciting and we decided after we got our nails done to go over to Big Daddy "The Burger Bar". I had never been and boy was I missing out. I got the Frenchie....6 ox Burger, Applewood Smoked Bacon, Brie, Granny Smith Apples and a side chopped salad. YUM oh YUM!

Two great evenings in one week.....and its only going to get better!

Philips birthday is today.

HAPPY 29th HONEY!!!!!!!!! I LOVE YOU!

We are supposed to go to the Zuma Fun center with friends and our parents but the weather isnt looking ideal for that. Philip's high school reunion is also this weekend....10 years!

I can guarantee that I will have some great stories to share come Sunday!

So much going on, so little time!

excuses....excuses I know.

Why have I neglected my blog so much lately!?

I guess I have so much going on that I cant get on here to write!

I think it is also because my back as been bothering me so much lately I will do anything possible not to sit at my desk any longer than I already do for work.

I am still busy and my back is still killing me but some really fun things have been going on so its time to update.

Last weekend....

NextDOR Shabbat Potluck at the Temple. I coordinated this event and we had about 40 people attend in their 20's and 30's which was a great turn out. I was in one heck of a funny mood. Not sure what got into me but I think it had something to do with this silk wrap dress that I was wearing. I bought the thing in Vegas a few weeks back and you can wrap it about 100 different ways. It definitely heightened the evening for me. Call me crazy!

Saturday morning we got up at 6 AM and headed to Raleigh for a jam packed Saturday.

I threw Lauren (Palmer) Brady and Cassie (Kincaid) Hall two of my friends dating all the way back to high school a double baby shower. Both ladies are pregnant and due 3 1/2 weeks apart. Cassie is having a boy and Lauren is having a girl so it made for a fun shower! Emily opened her home up to all of us and cooked up a storm. I decorated, sent out invites and put together the "games". We played baby "Price is Right" and a Celebrity Baby game. Everyone raved about the non-traditional games and said they were the best they had ever played at a shower. :) Me so happy. After the shower we planned on heaving over to Waraji my favorite sushi restaurant ever but it was closed for Saturday Lunch. DEVESTATION crossed my face like you have never seen before.

Nicole and Dave's wedding was at 3 pm so we headed over to St. Francis for the Wedding. Note...during the wedding NC State went into overtime against ECU. Philip definitely was checking the scores the entire ceremony in a state of panic (Sorry, Nicole!). The wedding was gorgeous and everything went off without a hitch! We headed over the the Royal for the reception and enjoyed seeing many of my old friends from Global Knowledge. The groomsmen were HILARIOUS. The dancing that went down at this wedding was like nothing I had ever seen before.....

After a long day we retreated to Lauren and Shawn's house. We have never stayed with them so we were excited to see their place, check out their GIGANTIC GORGEOUS GARDEN and see Baby Brady's nursery. Everything was perfect. We had such a great time with both of them.

Sunday morning the plan was to meet all of my girlfriends from College and their signficant other's at Irregardless Cafe. Philip ended up being the ONLY guy with 6 girls. Poor guy. It was great to catch up with everyone and we all enjoyed such a delicious breakfast!

What a weekend!?!? I am still trying to catch up on the lost sleep....

On another note... I need to get my fat butt back into the gym 5 days a week. I have been slacking to 3-4 days a week and that is NOT ACCEPTABLE. All of my pants are snug again. UGH.......

Snuggle up to this...

Months ago we were at Sam's Club shopping around for some bulk items and decided it was time to get some new detergent. We are very picky about the way detergent smells admittedly and we decided that Snuggle was the best smelling. We bought the concentrated kind...took it home and have been using it for every load of laundry over the past two months.

Recently I started to question the ability of our washing machine to actually WASH clothes....I would smell this weird smell on my work out clothes, nothing seemed really clean.
We even considered buying one of those Eco-Friendly Front Loading super duper kind but cringed every time we looked at the price tags. I was about to throw my washer out the window.

Just this weekend Philip made another trip to Costco and decided it was time we switched to powder detergent since that is what we grew up on. He brought home this massive box of Gain powder. For some unknown reason he decided to check out the Snuggle liquid container details to realize that it was NOT DETERGENT it was fabric softener!!!!!! How did we not realize this all these months!?!?! We had been cleaning our clothes with fabric softener and not detergent. GROSS...

Seriously. we had yet another Amelia Badelia moment....

So the past two months of odd smelling clothes that didnt seem clean.... all makes sense.
Sorry guys... If I happened to smell around you and you were too nice to say something.
I can promise that has been put to an end once and for all!

GROSSSSSS!
ps I apologized to the washing machine for doubting her abilities!

The light at the end of the tunnel....

August and September have been overwhelmingly busy for the Schreibman's. I thought we were prepared coming into these months but I found my self completely exhausted after this weekend....with still two more whirlwind weekends left before we get a nice break...

We got to celebrate Lisa and Ben's engagement with them on Friday night at 131 Main (our favorite Charlotte restaurant) Philip's parents and Ben's parents joined us and it was great to celebrate them and honor them during this exciting time. Ben and Lisa were in town for Ben's 10 year high school reunion at Myers Park...Philip's is in two weeks!


I spent a lot of the weekend prepping for next weekend. Shabbat Potluck at the Temple Friday night, wake up at the crack of dawn...drive to Raleigh: Double Baby shower that I am throwing for Lauren and Cassie and then Nicole and Dave's wedding ALL in the same day. Lots of preparing....PLUS Philip's 29th birthday is the following weekend along with his 10 year high school reunion.

I don't want to spill any of the shower surprises but its going to be super cute and so are their gifts (that I have spent the past few months gathering things for).

I ran a lot of errands looking for Fall/Halloween stuff.... much to my dismay I only came home with a basket that says Harvest on it. We never made it to the Farmer's Market on time so I didn't get the mum's I was looking for. Saturday we hit up the Barbeque and Blues Festival uptown which was a very HOT experience. Our good friend Josh was out there with his brother Jeff who owns Smokin J's BBQ (riblover.com). There were many different booths to sample BBQ from however we were loyal to Jeff's yummy ribs and BBQ. Hundred's of people came out for the event and I enjoyed people watching as always...but damn it was HOT.

The Miller High Life..

Talk about a lot of people uptown!

Courtney and Josh were also in town this weekend for the Panther's game on Sunday so Saturday night we got together for Taco Night at our house and hanging out like old times. By the end of the night we concluded that they really need to move here sooner than later so we can pick up these chill evenings where we laid off when we left Raleigh. We always have the best time with them... doing nothing. Who doesn't love that!?

I got back into the gym this weekend.....I had not been to the gym on a weekend in two weeks because of all of the travels and I started feeling disgusting. Yes, I am slightly obsessed with my 3-5 day a week gym routine and with this new medicine I am on I can see the pounds packing back on much to my dismay. I am trying to fight this. I am turning a new leaf this week. Back to portion control, back to focus. My back has been bothering me again (pretty badly) so I am going to work on strengthening it, sleeping only on my back and working out religiously. You heard it first.....I always have to write things down to commit to them so here it is.

Sunday my parents and family friend's Ryan and Michelle came over with their new 3 mo. old baby Kiley. She is precious and she slept almost the entire time they were here from 5-8 pm... She is an angel baby. We had a great time with them and were glad that came to visit us from Concord after not seeing them since Michelle got pregnant - WOW~! As always seeing babies makes my desire to be a mother that much stronger....

Shutterfly Shared Picture Detail

After everyone left we gave Bella the walk she deserved all weekend but had not had time for. Philip and I looked at each other and headed to bed at 9 PM - totally exhausted....

I am revving up for this coming whirl wind weekend. I can't wait for it because I am going to get to see so many people in one trip! Global Knowledge friends, and LOTS of college friends.... weeeeeee here I come....I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Slacker!

Where have I been!? Goodness....

Let me back track...
LABOR DAY WEEKEND...

Philip and I had a nice and relaxing time.

Lake Norman boat time with Jason and the crew...

Our Cousin Paige came up from USC and spent the night with us...

Brunch with the Kaplan Clan at Le Peep.... and Lots of pool time...

The past week was filled with much drama.

My trip to the Bahamas was in limbo due to the impending Hurricane Hanna and Hurricane Ike.

All week we were checking the weather constantly.

Finally Thursday the bosses made the call to postpoine the Bahamas to next year and move our trip to VIVA LAS VEGAS....

Initially I was not thrilled. Vegas? Gambling? - I wanted ocean, sand, tropical.

BUT....this was an award's trip. I wasn't paying a dime...and shoot... I might just like it.

I had never been to Vegas... GASP!

As the accomodations information started rolling in I began to get really excited.

Bellagio for 3 nights - King bed ALL TO ME

Spa Treatments

Lots of shopping

Gorgeous large pools

The show "O"!

I was in heaven.

Off I went early Friday morning to Las Vegas... popping my Vegas Cherry once and for all.

The flight was gorgeous. Very clear skies so we could see the Grand Canyon and all of the mountanious regions. Until we landed I didn't realize how close the strip was to the airport!

I met up with the crew that flew in from the office: Dave, JP, Matthew, Kendal, Katie and Aaron and off we went in a limo to the Bellagio to begin our trip!

I was in slight awe... tall buildings, gorgeous architecture, casino's EVERYWHERE. My room was one of the nicest rooms I have stayed in and the hotel service was fantastic. The Bellagio is where it is at.

Our second night there we spotted Michael Phelps in the Armani store (they closed the store down just for him) so he could get fitted for a custom suit. The parazzi stalker that I am got this photo of him before I got shoved out of the way.

The second night we were there we went to see "O". We wanted to go see BELIEVE the new Criss Angel show but it didnt start till next weekend...bummer because I know TWO PEOPLE in that show! "O" was OMAZING. I have never seen a production anything like it. 1.5 million gallons of water. INSANE. I can't even begin to explain what it was like...

Katie and I hit up the pool and the casino's. The first day I sat it out to watch everyone gamble and learned how to play blackjack. I was scared to blow my $400 that I was given by my company to gamble with. The budget conscious side of me was saying, "hold on to it and just take it home". The other side was saying make more money and go to the spa....

So that is what I did. I started gambling a little here and there. Lots some won some. Never had any luck at the Bellagio. Casino Royale and the Palms were where I made my money.

I brought money home... I actually made a decent amount of money so I was quite pleased. I didnt bring home my $400 BUT... I would've had I not gone to the spa.

The last night I hit it big at The Palms. I won $400!....but proceeded to lose $100 when we got back to the Bellagio...grrr. All in all I was quite proud of myself for my first time in Vegas.

The spa....was more than a spa. It was everything I could've ever wanted and needed.

The facilites were spectacular, gorgeous tiling everywhere! So relaxing. I couldnt partake in the spa, steam room or whirlpool bc of some medicine I am on but I still dipped my feet in before my massage. I decided to do it up right and go for the 70 minute Deep Coconut Surrender Massage: This concentrated deeper massage focuses on the back, neck and shoulders, using firm pressure, heated stones, and hot towels, while coconut milk is drizzled along the spine and back of the legs. Heated Indulgence.

THE BEST massage I have ever had... and if you know me you know I have had TONS OF Massages because of my back problems. 70 minutes is the PERFECT amount of time and I left the spa feeling completely renewed.

We had some great food on our trip: Noodles at the Bellagio, Cantonella in the Venetian and Nobu at Hard Rock. My coworker Katie (the only other girl on the trip) and I spent a lot of time together at the gorgeous pools. The guys mostly gambled ALL day and ALL night or watched football at the Sports Book. Not my idea of a vacation....

I enjoyed Vegas. Would I go back? Not anytime soon and DEFINITELY NOT ON MY OWN DIME.... RIP OFF CITY!

After a hellish day of delayed flights, stuffy airports and bumpy planes I made it home around 1 AM Monday night. Home sweet home. I missed Philip and Bella.

Birthdays, Weddings, Engagments, Oh My!

We truly enjoyed our weekend...

Friday night we spent time together to include a trip to Barnes and Noble where we spent well over an hour flipping through books. We both love books, however I LOVE the bookstore. I can spend hours in there no matter how cold they make the place. I love the smell and the feeling of new books in my hands.

We both left the bookstore with books in hand and empty pockets!

Philip purchased The Art of War, a GMAT prep test and a book of Fairy Tales that he swore was a great steal and critical for our library and future children. I left with junk...surprise surprise. Barefoot by Elin Hilderbrand and Twighlight which I found out is a teen book series and I am tempted to return it just because of that! We are both deep into our books already and couldn't be happier.

Saturday morning we attended our next door neighbor Amelia's 2nd birthday party at the clubhouse/pool. I have never mentioned our next door neighbor's the Cardenas' in a blog but they are quite possibly THE BEST neighbors anyone could ever ask for. Amelia loves Bella. She will step outside and start calling her name as she is looking for her. She will come to our back door looking for her or if our garage is open go to the door leading to the house calling her name. Bella is still trying to decide what she thinks about this. After almost one year of exposure to Amelia chasing her she is not a petrified as she intially was, but won't sit still without her eyes bulging out as Amelia pet's her. Our neighbors are perfect in everyway. They look out for us, enjoy dinner with us and are always up for a great chat. We had a blast at Amelia's birthday party and got to meet many friends of our neighbors that we had not met before. Great people! (note this is a fairly old photo, Amelia loosk much older now, but she is such a doll!)

We also attended another neighbor's wedding this weekend uptown. We met Eryn and Paige before they even started building their house in our neighborhood. They used to walk through the neighborhood with their little white dog Daisy checking out the neighborhood. We immediately became friends with them and they just moved in to their newly completed house 2 months ago. They got married at the First Baptist Church uptown and the reception was held at Founder's Hall. The wedding was spectacular. The ceremony was beautiful, cocktail reception was perfect and the location for the reception was spectacular. Everything was put together with such finese! The food was fantastic (salmon, steak, asparagus and potatoes au gratin). We had a great evening with them and they were so gracious to make numerous visits to our table to make sure that we had met everyone (since we knew NO ONE but the bride and groom). We are looking forward to their return from their honeymoon next week so we can spend more time together!

Our dear friends Ben and Lisa that we stayed with in Atltanta last weekend got engaged on Friday night. Of course.... I knew he was planning on proposing after our visit last weekend. He told us his plans, showed me the ring (I got goose bumps!) and I lied my way through the weekend to protect his sacred proposal. We are so excited for the two of them and are looking forward to their Summer 2009 wedding in Chicago!!!!!

Sink your hands in this...

In college I took a semester of Ceramics. I loved it....If you knew me during this time you knew I would go into the studio at all hours to practice throwing on the wheel, hand building or work on some project that I was trying to master. I loved sinking my hands into the clay and turning out beautiful projects that I could keep forever. At the end of the semestser my professor even threw each of us our own project of chioce that he signed as a keepsake. Most of my stuff was pretty amatuer but still beautiful in my own eyes.

I now have the opportunity to put my skills to the test at the Whirling Wheel, a cute studio here in Charlotte. Sarah K. has had an artisitc craving and she asked me to join her in an 8 week course at the Whirling Wheel learning all of the techniques to throw pots, glaze pots and whatever else we might want to get our hands into. We will meet each Wednesday night and I could not be more excited.

Philip has challenged me to make a flower pot..
I want to make something for our bookcase to display.

Class starts after Labor Day. I will keep you posted on my progress....

Spent in many ways....

Home sweet home.
We have returned after a 5 day out of town work/pleasure adventure.

Between Philip and I we covered Charleston, Greenville, Columbia and Atlanta.
Philip really did the majority of the traveling while I worked in Altanta at a Users Conference for the week.

Philip visited a handful of clients throughout South Carolina and even got a chance to meet up with our cousin Paige, Aunt Janice and Uncle Craig at USC. Paige was moving into college and Philip wanted to bring her the "must-have" college basket of goodies. I loved his thoughtful idea and we got busy filling up a large basket for her. We included a USC t-shirt, white board, tin foil, food, pens, pencils, notebooks etc to prepare her for college life. Philip said she loved it and I was so impressed that he had thought of the idea all by himself.

While in Atlanta I went to the Braves vs Cubs game at Turner. They played a double header and the Cubbies won both games. Although the food and drinks were ridiculously pricey we (my co-workers and I) had a great time. My conference went well and I realized how much I missed interacting with people in the field . Definitely some food for thought in that area.

I also concluded that I am very different than my co-workers which should make for a very interesting experience in three weeks when I head to the Bahamas for 4 days with my company. Planning how many nights to get drunk is not my idea of a mature adult vacation... catch my drift. I am looking forward to relaxing on the beach and the great dinners....not getting wasted every night.

Friday the fun began. We stayed with our good friend's Ben and Lisa. Philip and Ben grew up together like brother's in Charlotte. Lisa is Ben's girlfriend and we could not be anymore alike. She and I headed to the pool after she picked me up from my conference and the guys went to see a movie and play basketball. We met back up in time for dinner at Nava in Buckhead. We enjoyed prickly pear margaritas and fantastic fine mexican cuisine on the patio. Saturday we hit up the Perimeter mall for some shopping, played Putt-Putt (I won!) and took naps. Saturday night we went to Taverna Plaka a Greek restaurant with family style food, belly dancer's, hooka's and great company. Jill and Jason (Kaplan) announced that they were expecting their first child and we met Sam's new girlfriend Natalie. The belly dancer's were quite entertaining...dancing on tables and tossing handful of napkins as they shouted OPA! Philip thorougly enjoyed this dinner as you can see...We met up with Darren and Allison at Fado a 3 story bar in the Buckhead area after dinner for drinks. Quite a late night for us home bodies but definitely work all the fun!

We have missed our little Bella Bean so much this past week and are ready to head home, get back to our gym schedules (after a 5 day hiatus) and sleep in our own beds. Thank you to everyone for such a fantastic weekend. We already miss you and can't wait to hear more great news from everyone in charlote...cough cough....ENGAGEMENTS!

Olympic notations...I was fortunate enough to be able to watch all 8 of Michael Phelps World Record breaking gold medals (both individual and team: 7 world records). Last night I had goose bumps as I watchted the US team swim their final relay that broke the world record for the team and for Phelps. The guy is truly inspirational and amazing...What a way to represent the U.S.A!

signing off...we are spent... empty pockets and tired bodies.

Shabbat. Lake Norman. Gym.

The title sums up the weekend.
Friday night we had Shabbat dinner at our house with some friends.
We had a great time and everyone left with full shabbat bellies.
Finally the patio was put to use as well as the new patio furniture.
An all around great way to end a really crazy work week (work has been hellish lately).

We finally hit up Lake Norman this weekend with our good friend Jason Trompeter.
He has a boat name The Court Ship. His dad is a judget in Roanoke and he picked the name because he had a friend whose boat's name was The Scholar Ship. Fitting I must say. Note his boat was gorgeous and it could sit a lot of people. We took the boat out and enjoyed the day on the lake. Philip wake boarded (which is not easy at all), we blew up and floated around in our new floats from target that were the perfect addition to our lake trip. The weather could not have been better. 85, sunny, not a cloud in the sky. We will definitely be hitting up the lake many more times before the summer is over. Possibly my new favorite thing to do.

We also had a great dinner with friend's of Jason's after boating. Amy's husband works with Jason and Darcy is one of Jason's best friends from work. Darcy and Jason. Amy and Darcy cooked up a fantastic meal as we watched the Olympics...

Olympics. I am a sucker for the olypmics. I love watching all water sports, gymnastics, track and field etc. LOVE IT. I could sit planted in front of the TV all day watching the olympics.

We also managed to squeeze in a Gym work out, pool time, tennis and some relaxation.
This was the best weekend I have had in a long time.
The good news is this upcoming weekend is going to be even better.

GOOD THING BECAUSE WORK BLOWS! :)