Happy NYE!

My mom was so sore yesterday she couldn't get out of her bed so we decided we would dress Maison up in her NYE party dress and take her over for a visit.

After our Nooey visit, we put Maison to bed, and Adam went to pick up dinner from Sea Breeze. We had a delicious dinner and a wonderful night ringing in the NY with Seacrest and the "Shore Whores". HAPPY 2011!

Pre-NYE

My parents were supposed to have a NYE party tomorrow night but since my mom is extremely sore from her accident they decided to cancel. Adam and I had planned to go out to dinner tonight at Seasons 52 since we thought we would be at my parents on NYE. Despite my mom feeling awful, she still came over to watch Maison so that Adam and I could keep our dinner plans.

Seasons 52 was awesome. They change the entire menu 4 times a year for each season. All their ingredients are locally grown and each entree is less than 500 calories. This includes the side it is served with. It was delicious and it was so nice to take a break from Maison's illness.

Speaking of Maison, this afternoon we had another warm day so I decided to take her out for a walk. You just have to rock a ponytail with you Addidas track suit ;oP

Happy 2010, a family affair...

This year we went to my parents house for New Year's Eve!  We rang in the NY with Ryan Seacrest, Dick Clark (so sad!), and Snooki and The Situation.  Yes, that's right we flipped between Dick Clark's Rockin New Years and Jersey Shore.  If you haven't seen it you have to tune in on MTV.  It is so trainwrecklicious it is not even funny!

   

Maison made it to New Year's despite several attempts to put her down at her normal bedtime.  That child is a true Warbington...nosy as can be.  She comes from a long line of 'nose-balls'.  Starting with her great-great g-ma, Maw-maw, followed by her great g-ma, Annie Boo, and the biggest 'nose-ball' of them all her g-ma, Nooey, aka Snoop Dawg, aka Conni Warbington Ellington.  Yes, that's right my mom is the modern day Mrs. Kravitz.  She has to know what's going on ALWAYS regardless of circumstance and Maison is following right in her footsteps.  She will not sleep if she thinks something is going on.  'Something' could be defined as little as a rotating fan and that child will watch for hours...I mean HOURS.  So since 'Miss Thang' was up all night we turned it into a photo op...

    

Maison working the room in her fur coat (due to political pressure Miss Thang decided to wear 'faux' this year)

    

Three generations of Warbington-Ellingtons:  Conni (Nooey), Shari, and Maison

Four generations of Ellingtons:  Claudia (Nannie), Byron (G'Daddy), Marcia, and Maison

     

3 Maslows - Adam, Marcia, and Maison

     

3 look-alike Ellingtons - Shari, Marcia, and Maison

Hope everyone had a Happy New Year and got to ring it in with family and friends.

Soccer Mom...literally!

I knew once we had a baby we would have to buy all sorts of new things but never in 10 million years did I think that having a baby would require that we buy a new car...and not just a new car but a car the size of a Sherman tank.  I mean...come on....the baby doesn't even weigh 12 lbs yet but she warrants a car the size of a tank?

Ok...so it's not completely all Maison's fault...it is also her father's fault; her 6' 7" feet tall father's fault.  We didn't realize that given Adam's height a car seat cannot fit behind his chair or in the middle seat so the 7 passenger mid-size Lexus SUV was just reduced to a 2 1/2 seater (2 adults plus a baby).  So how does this happen...

1.  Lexuses are made for Japanese people not tall Americans so the 3rd row of seats is so useless it was removed the first week we bought the car and left in the garage to collect dust.  Let's put it this way...they have been in the car ONE time and I sat in the 3rd row by myself turned sideways.  Yes!  at 5' 3" I'm too tall for the 3rd row 'stadium seating' (i.e. NO LEG ROOM) that was built for Japanese children.

2.  There isn't much distance between the front row and the 2nd row so if Adam is the driver or passenger no on can sit behind him and that includes the car seat.

3.  Issue #2 renders the 2nd row middle seat useless as well.  

Summary, if Adam is in the car then only one other adult and the baby can fit thus only a 2 1/2 passenger car...sigh.

So unless I want Adam to complain indefinitely about being cramped we had to get a new car and get rid of the Lexus...that's right...Adam would rather have his F150 than the Lexus.  Call it supporting American made companies, call it Japanese cars are not made for COS (that would be Customer Of Size per Southwest Airlines).   Whatever you want to call it, my husband would rather drive a big 'ol RED F150 truck than a luxury foreign car....and he says he's NOT turning in to a Texan...hehehehe ;o)

So on NYE we went to Ford (does anyone else sell American cars?) and bought an Expedition.  Yes, the 3 row, 8 passenger, AMERICAN MADE SUV, that only a good Texan would go buy.  And no it's not red but black...what can I say ... despite the Texas heat, all the Ellington kids have a thing for black cars.

That's right, I now have everything required to be a soccer mom:

Child - check

Child that plays soccer - in progress, but I play...that should count, right?

Huge Ass SUV - check

Drives while on cell phone - check

Bad driver in general, really bad driver in HA-SUV, especially while on cell - check

So if you live in the Dallas area and see a black expedition drifting into your lane...being slow to start at a green light...or driving in circles to find a 'left turn' parking spot (aside...I can only park to the left...don't ask!  this was true in all cars I've driven not just the Expedition) then take my advice and stay out of my way as my nerves are probably shot from hearing a crying baby and having 4 hrs sleep and I'm probably texting or searching the web for directions while driving the car and talking on my cell (on bluetooth of course!) to Adam, my mom, or my sister.

God help you if you don't heed my advice because now I'm bigger than you (unless you are in an Excursion or Suburban) and would win if we were to make contact.  OMG....am I that competitive??? 

Jinxed on NYE!

Should I consider it bad luck that almost EVERY year I am sick on New Year's Eve? Adam and I both had to work on NYE so we didn't do much on Tues night. I woke up at 1:30am completely nauseous and proceeded to throw up for the next 4 hrs. I ended up working from home on Wed. which I'm sure my manager thought I was totally faking and just trying to start my NYE celebration early. I went to the doctor and found out that I had a severe sinus infection and a possible stomach virus. While everyone else was kicking off their celebration, I was laying on the couch watching a House marathon. We ended up making it to my parents house about 15 min before midnight. My parents friends from Atlanta, Benny and Gwen, were visiting them. Here are some pics from NYE 2008.

           

To proved that I'm jinxed on NYE with illness here is the recap of NYE 2005...

Adam and I went to Napa shortly after Christmas and had plans to celebrate NYE in San Francisco. I was sick with a cold the entire time we were in Napa. I couldn't taste, much less smell, any wine but had a great time regardless. On the morning of 12/31 we were scheduled to drive to SF for our NYE plans...dinner at La Suite and then a party at the Bubble Lounge. We headed out of Yountville towards the bay bridge and literally saw cars floating down the road in front of us and a fire truck parked side ways across the road denoting that the road was closed. I was bound and determined that we were going to make it to SF in time for our plans that night and our flight on Jan. 2 to LA for the Rose Bowl, so I literally called the radio station 15 times trying to find ways out of Napa. They were reporting that all exits were being closed making it impossible to reach the other way out via the Golden Gate Bridge. Adam decided to try to find our way to the Golden Gate Bridge by going north to Calistoga and then coming back down to get to the Golden Gate Bridge. I have never been through such flooding in my entire life. There were literally waterfalls coming down across the road. On top of being really sick I was becoming extremely car sick by the moment and started to rethink my decision to encourage Adam to try to make it to SF.

Some how Adam got us out of Napa and into SF; though it took hours we made it with enough time to shower and get ready for NYE. We heard on the news that about an hour after we cleared the Golden Gate Bridge it was closed. We were staying at my family friend's, Travis, house and he had warned us that it may be difficult to get a cab on NYE and said if we got into a bind we could use his driver, Alex. Adam called cabs for 2 hrs and couldn't get anyone that would be willing to come get us. We had come this far and there was no way I was giving up even if we had to walk. With 10 min left before our dinner reservations we broke down and called Alex. This guy was amazing...not only did he immediately come get us, he drove through parking lots, over medians and curbs and got us to our reservations ON TIME!!! Dinner was awesome, Bubble Lounge was cool, and Alex returned to pick us up and take us home so all was good.

Well, until the next day when I woke up feeling like I was dying but wanted Adam to see the touristy stuff in SF since it was our last day before we were heading to LA. We had lunch in Ghirardelli Square and then walked to Lombard street as it started to pour down rain. We ended up walking to Fisherman's Wharf trying to find a pharmacy as I was getting sicker being in the cold, wet weather. Adam didn't want me in the rain any longer so dropped me off in a Starbuck's while I waited on him to go find some meds. He was gone for what seemed like hours and we finally took a cab home. By the time we got home my fever had gone up to 102 and I really couldn't do much of anything besides sleep.

Next day we flew to LA. We were staying at a hotel in Burbank. When we arrived the desk clerk asked if we wanted to upgrade to the renovated section of the hotel. We were only going to be there 2 nights so we said no. We got to our room and it was disgusting in general but truly gross when I moved the ottoman to put the suitcase down and there was a half eaten hamburger and a ball of hair (like when you clean out a brush) underneath it. I immediately broke down as Adam called to get us moved to the renovated section regardless of cost. The other section was MUCH BETTER. I had to fire off a phone call to Kari because I knew if the room was not up to my standards it would not be up to hers. She in turn warned her mother who immediately called the hotel to get both of them upgraded.

On Jan. 4 we went to the Rose Bowl. I was still sick and miserable, I had limited hearing and overall felt like crap but it was my Horns playing for the National Championship so there was no way I would miss it. I tried to get in the spirit of things by having one beer and some classless USC fan kicked it over while Kari and I were in the bathroom...god, I hate USC fans. Anyway, the game was amazing and UT won so I'm thinking that I may be jinxed only the actual day/night of NYE but good things sometimes come the 1st week of Jan. so maybe I shouldn't worry about it too much...

A few Rose Bowl 2006 memories: