Shopping is a genetic trait.

Time is flying by! I can't believe Andrew is over 6 months now.  I also can't believe it has been one year since my grandmother "NaNa" passed away.  She left us on 3/30/11... leaving us behind, but moving onto a place where she no longer suffers.  I wanted to share the memoir/eulogy I gave at her service last year.  I miss her like crazy, and wish she could have met Andrew. 

 

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As the only granddaughter, Nana and I had a special bond.  We were always on the same page….In fact the phone call that started off, “ Hey Nana, what are you doing today?” was really code words for …Hi Nana I want you and Pop Pop to take me to Annapolis Mall and shop all day.  Of course, I had to let Nana do her shopping at Talbot’s across the street before we hit up limited too and Nordstroms BP.  Pop Pop was always the third wheel as we went from store to store adding shopping bag after shopping bag to our arms.  He never once complained…

When many think of Nana they remember her fashion style.  Not many granddaughters can say that their grandma not only bought them leather pants, but wore leather pants as well.  She would be the one to tell me what was in style….and she was actually right.  A few names that come to mind are Liz Claiborne…known to Nana as “Liz-a”, Ralph Lauren, and coach.  Nana actually gave me a coach bag about 15 years ago and I thought to myself “what the heck is this”.  Just last weekend I spent way too much money at the Coach outlet.  She also would take me to buy my Basketball shoes for each season.  Buying basketball shoes each season was like the most exciting day of the year for me when I was a kid. I remember once when I picked out a pair of black and white Cheryl Swoops Nike high tops, Nana bought the same ones for herself!  When is the last time you saw a 75 year old lady wearing timberlands? She also had more Adidas athletic gear than I had thanks to the Adidas store next to the bagel place in college park….one of nanas few “go To” restaurants. 

Nana had friends everywhere she went.  There were only certain sales people at Lord and Taylor who she’d shop with…then there was her best friend who worked at burger king (known to nana and pop pop as “burger chef”), who would make her order exactly how she liked it. Nana would order an egg mcmuffin at McDonalds without the egg, and without the cheese.  That only left ham!  She knew exactly how she liked things…. Some seem to think that I inherited that trait…I am sure you can ask my Dad or Erich and they will certainly vouch for that.

Nana sure didn’t lack in confidence.. When I was about 5, she used to tell us she was the boss of everything but I quickly let her know that she was not the boss of God.  How many times did you hear her tell us how people would stop out of the blue and tell her she had beautiful hair, beautiful nails, a beautiful house, and of course a beautiful lawn.  Funny thing is…she did have all of the above.  I remember when Matt would mess up her hair with his fingers and she would pull out her comb and comb it back into perfect place after yelling at him and waving her crooked finger in his face.

Aside from her love of brand names and fashion, she also had a passion for sports.  She was our biggest fan at LBGC, DM, and GC.  She cheered for us at every game like we were going for an Olympic gold metal. Sometimes she got so rowdy it was embarrassing! Once after she fell ill with dementia, she actually thought she was on the USA Olympic volleyball team while we were watching it on TV.  She loved the redskins and went nuts over the Terps.  When the Terps did poorly, she would get so incredibly angry at Gary Williams screaming at the TV…Well now that she’s in heaven she will hopefully be able to help him coach better…as after this years performance it appears he could use her help.  She also told me many times that she played basketball (when there were 6 on a team) so I’m sure she has some skills.

Unfortunately the last few years were more than tough for Nana, and all of us.  I know she is up in heaven getting her hair dyed and cut perfectly like it used to be.  She is probably dressed in brand names from head to toe.  Her closet of clothes with the tags still on is endless…even bigger than before she fell ill.

We all know Nana had a peculiar side to her.  Rubbing footprints out of the carpet after vacuuming, cleaning every room every single day.  I remember numerous times waiting for her to take me shopping but first her and pop-pop had to do housework.  I thought to myself… why do u need to clean and re-clean an already immaculate house.  Then she had to pull the shades in every room depending on what time of day it was so her furniture didn’t get too much sun.  All of these funny things I just learned to accept as part of nana, and I will never forget them.

Id like to make sure that everyone remembers Nana for who she was and all of her colorful traits.  It is hard to look past the last few years when she wasn’t herself. Nana wouldn’t want us to think of her in the bed in the living room.  The disease of Alzheimer’s stole her away form us way too early, but it surely doesn’t have the ability to erase our memories of what she was truly like. 

I’d like to thank Nerissa for her care over the last many years.  I am grateful for not only all you did for Nana, but you have been there to help Pop Pop through all of this too.  Nana leaves behind grandkids, great grandkids, and 2 daughters (who act more and more like Nana every day)…but most importantly of all.. she leaves behind the Patriarch of our family, Pop pop. (his name is joe, head of the whole household).  Pop Pop adored Nana and their marriage of almost 60 years is something to admire, and something I personally aspire to. 

We all know Nana wouldn’t want us to be hanging around today looming with sorrow.  We need to celebrate her life, and remember the good times and memories.  Her gravestone may tell us that her life was 86 years long, but we all know she was really only 39.  Love you Nana, and thanks for being the best grandmother one could ask for.

4.1.11

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Well, she certainly passed on the shopping trait to me.  The other day when Erich came home from his Florida trip, he called to surprise me saying he moved his flight up and was on his way to pick up Andrew and would be home when I got home.  At first I was very excited! (finally, some help!)..... BUT

I quickly remembered the 4 or 5 shopping bags sitting right inside the front door that I was going to put away before he got home!  BUSTEDDDD!!! I don't know if he noticed or not, but I definitely did not do a good job getting rid of the evidence.  (I know, all you women are saying duh, that's what the trunk is for!)

Those shopping bags were a direct result of my personal day I took off last week.  So what, I deserved a day off from work for no good reason....and yes I brought Andrew to daycare ALL day.  I definitely put on scrubs to drop off the baby, AND put them BACK ON to pick up the baby so it looked like I went to work. Sooo, I felt a little guilty.. but this momma needed to get her shop on! Plus I needed a little reunion with the Today show, Kelly Rippa, and Nate.  It had been almost 3 months since maternity leave.  I took my first son, Gibbs for a looong walk around the lake.  We both needed that! All in all, I realized how refreshing just one day to yourself can be; and I also realized that days off are bad on the bank account.  

I work hard so I can shop hard.  Nana (the fashionista grandma) sure would love seeing Andrew decked out, head to toe in Ralph Lauren Polo outfits.  I learned my shopping habits from the best.  Love ya NaNa, we all miss you!

happy birthday to me

Well, last Monday was my 28th Birthday.... and surprise surprise, I spent 12 of the 15 hours that I was awake, at work.  After that day, I ill never work again on my birthday. Ever.   But I'm not gonna vent about work because I did enough of that in the previous post...

Nonetheless, I did end up having a nice birthday...  That weekend we enjoyed a mexican dinner at On the Border thanks to Jocelyn, Todd, Alexandre (Andrew's BFF), and Joce's momma.  I had 2 (TWO!) frozen swirl margaritas, and Erich had 10 enchiladas.  Yes, TEN.  It was unlimited enchilada night.  I think he stopped because he was embarrassed, not because he was full.

I got a few Dunkin Donut cards, someone made me cookies at work, and Jocelyn made me a cake with funfetti icing.  Funfetti icing may possibly be the best thing on earth.  Those color dots in the icing make me one happy lady.
In addition, my mom and dad stopped by my house the weekend prior to my birthday and brought me some awesome Pandora beads to add to my bracelet.

Overall I felt very loved and lucky to have such great family and friends! :)

The day before my birthday I got an awesome gift.  The gift of finally getting back into my skinny jeans,  you know the ones from the pre-Andrew era.  Let's be clear here... when I refer to my skinny jeans I mean the jeans that I used to wear when I was feelin good and confident.  Everyone has those type of jeans... the ones that fit just right and make you feel good about yourself.  I call that favorite pair my "skinny jeans".    I will never ever experience the opportunity to own 'real' skinny jeans.  You know the kind that are straight legged or tapered down at the ankles like this:

I guess 16+ years of playing soccer, added to the genetic gift of my PopPop's tree trunk legs are to thank.  When you have some serious cankles like I do, the only thing you can do is patiently wait for this trend of straight leg jeans to fall out of style.  I cant think of anything more uncomfortable than a pair of jeans hugging my monster calves.  I'm afraid that at the young age of 6 months, I can already tell Andrew has been cursed with the Mahon legs.  At least he is a male and skinny legs are not as important!  Somehow in my family, Tommy and Chris got chicken legs from the Paolucci side and of course the only girl got the Mahons.  Makes no sense!

When I gained 69(not quite 70, only 69) pounds while pregnant, I folded up those JCrew skinny jeans and tucked them away somewhere in the basement.  I said my farewells as I thought I'd never see them again in my life. (Maternity pants should not be restricted to pregnant ladies.  They are simply awesome.  stretchy waistbands, with normal looking pant legs are genius)   But 6 months after becoming a momma, the maternity jeans are in storage and here I am sporting my version of the skinny jeans again.  I'm not implying that they look the same on me as they did before, but at least I can get them buttoned without my c-section scar reminding me of its presence.  That's a start!

Are you still thinking about the fact that I gained 69lbs?  That's what happens when you are 8 months pregnant during the hottest July ever on record (you shoulda seen my cankles while preggo)...

Cute huh?
Adding to the fluid build up, I didn't exactly diet during pregnancy.  Once I decided to bring Dunkin Donut munchkins into work for everyone to share and next thing you know, I ate half of the container on the drive into work...
then I was too embarrassed to actually bring them inside because so many were missing that I left them in the car.   So there they sat on the passengers seat all day waiting for me to eat the other half on the ride home... Which I did. 25 munchkins, devoured.

Those munchkins ended up doing no harm...  Hello again, JCrew skinny jeans, I had missed you.  Happy Birthday to me.

Sweet Saturday Morning

Well, I just want to start out saying that single parents deserve some major props.  Erich typically travels (for work) most of the month of March and this year it was definitely different.  The stress of dropping off and picking up Andrew on time, all the while working at a crazy busy hospital really caught up to me.  I swear, Mercy Hospital has had a full moon shining over it every night for the last 4 weeks or so.  If you don't work in healthcare... you may not know that all the crazies come in when there is a full moon.  Not only have the crazies shown up, but they are SICK crazies.  The cardiology service has been sooo busy lately that 12 hour days are becoming the norm for me.  Im so overwhelmed there that I am thinking of patients even while trying to sleep at night.  I thought a 6 month old would keep you up at night. Nope, Andrew has the hang of sleeping through the night THANK THE LORD.  Instead of a cute baby keeping me up, my mind is racing with the crazies.  When I first started working there, I could sometimes get home in time to catch the last part of Oprah (miss her show by the way).  Now, I'm lucky if I can get home in time for Modern Family.  Even if I'm home in time to watch it...chances are I'm passed out on the couch with my mouth wide open catching flies.  It's very attractive.  How do I know it's attractive? Because I occasionally wake up to the sound of a text message, only to open it and see that Erich had whipped out his iPhone camera to document such beauty.  

Work has been a challenge to say the least, but it sucks way worse when Erich is gone.
When you finally get home, its definitely nice to have some back up when this:

.....turns into this:

Don't worry little Andrew, I felt the same way this morning...
Saturday mornings are usually my favorite time of the week.  You are in a good mood because you got to sleep in (or at least lay in bed longer than you do during the week)...and then you get up and realize you have the WHOLE weekend ahead of you.  You are at the farthest point away from the dreaded Sunday Blues.

...Well this morning was totally a bitch.  First, I woke up and realized I still had to finish some dictations on a few patients. That meant I had to get this done before Andrew woke up because I'm sure the transcriptionist doesn't need to hear a 6 month old squealing in the background.  So here I am... up early - for work.    Then the crappiness continued.  I pull out my Mercy laptop and realize I needed my home internet password.. which is like 2938331 characters long and written on some piece of paper that I have no clue where it is located.  Seriously Fios, can't it be simple like my dogs name or something?
          So I proceed to call Erich (yes i dont care that it is early because he is in Florida), because I know he has it on his phone.  (As mentioned above, he documents everything by taking pictures on his phone..but I bet you 10 bucks he has no idea to get the photos on the computer to save them)....its ringing and ringing and ringing.  No answer.  Its 730 and I am up, after already feeding the baby at 630 and getting him back to sleep...and Erich is not answering his phone.
Then I start fuming.. Here he is in Florida, sleeping right through the phone ringer, and I am at home in Maryland on a rainy day looking for an internet password, for work purposes, on my dear saturday morning.  So then i call again, and again and again.  I think I called 5 straight times (probly more like 10 times) and each time I got more and more pissed off.  Then i sent him a text "I need you to call me as soon as possible" hoping he would at least get nervous or worry or something ...just to make me feel better (I know that is a bitchy thing to do).  But that didn't work... he called me back about 30 min later without the slightest bit of concern in his voice...after I had already found the damn little paper and finished the dictations.

Finding that paper was kind of like finding a needle in a haystack.  I have this tendency to put papers I want to save in this tupperware bin.  This includes coupons, that are guaranteed to expire before I ever even remember I have them.  Also in this bin are recipes that I rip out of Rachel Ray or Good Housekeeping.  I don't even cook. At all.  ... but I have so much confidence that one day I will become adventurous in the kitchen and need all of those recipes.  I guess that's what Pinterest is for... an electronic collection of my favorite recipes that I'll never ever attempt.

And so my wonderful morning continued... as I was searching through the important papers bin, I found two Similac 5 Dollar checks expiring 3/23.  Thats 10 dollars off a 20+ dollar jar of formula.  So then I got excited that I found them on the exact day they were expiring and I could make a run to Target.  For once I was victorious over the coupon bin.   I get to Target, hand the coupons to the lady (after justifying each item I placed in the cart (a pair of shoes, a bathing suit cover up, a teether for Andrew, etc.) with the fact I had 10 dollars off the formula....

And BAM, she says "mam these expired yesterday".  Yep, today is 3/24 not 3/23.  Grrreaaaat, my life is such a $hitshow i dont even know what freakin day it is.  Well, I think the lady could read my face, and just smiled, put them in her little drawerm and said "its ok, I'll pretend I didn't see the date".  I hope karma serves that lady very well.

 

Here goes nothin!

Welcome to my blog... I am hoping to capture the epic fails and successes (hopefully more of the latter), and the daily ins and outs of the Phong household.  I have often heard the comments, "You need to write a book" or "I would love to be a fly on the wall in your house".   So I am attempting to join the blogging world and share some details of 'my so called life'.

I'm not gonna promise daily, or even weekly posts, but I'll do my best to share events, thoughts, and pictures worth your time.  At the very least, you will see plenty of pictures of a cute blue-eyed baby boy with a big gummy smile (I'm not biased or anything).  On a selfish note, maybe I'll get some feedback or parenting tips or general life advice from readers about topics that are obviously on my mind.   I will post as often as I can but at the current point in my life I'm lucky if I can even find time to pluck my eyebrows.  Also, Im gonna put it out there.  I will type with improper grammar and occasional misspellings.  I was a pre-med major secretly so that I could get through college with writing the least amount of papers as possible.  So don't judge me if my commas arent in the right spot.  I don't care nor do i have the time to edit.

I have been wanting to do this since Andrew was born (9/21/11)... and I had the grand expectation while I was pregnant that I would do this once I became a momma.  Well, reality hit me right in the face.  Here we are, he's almost 6 mo. old and I'm just getting around to it.  I thought that I would start a blog for my family and friends to see pictures of the baby (that's what facebook is for I guess) or at least track his milestones (that reminds me, his baby book only has 2 pages filled out).  Well, the blog hasn't happened until now, but in case you were wandering, Andrew smiles..A LOT, eats rice cereal like a champ, is great at explosive poos that ruin outfits on a daily basis, sits up on his own, and is well on his way to the NFL combine at >90th percentile in both height and weight.  That sentence is to catch you up on the first 6 months of his life when my head was spinning too fast to get a chance to share.  Better late than never.

Speaking of late.... no one ever warned me that having a baby meant that you would never ever ever get anywhere on time.  Being late is not cool when you are like me... high strung and anal.  We can't get anywhere on time.  Not surprising if you know Erich, but damn, even lying and telling him dinner at my parents house is at 5 when its really not til 630 doesnt work.  Getting Erich out the house on time used to be tough, but adding Andrew to the picture is a whole new ball game.

The other thing no one warned me about before deciding to become a mother.... Motherhood will turn you into a Bitch with a capital B.  Now that I know this, there is no doubt that I will be writing this kind warning on the little piece of paper at baby showers where you give the mom to be advice.  It all starts with the pregnancy hormones... which have a purpose.  I think the bitchiness of pregnancy is just practice for Motherhood bitchiness.  By the time 9 months is up...you are realllly good at it.  In fact, over the last few months I was trying to think of a name for my future blog and I couldnt quite figure one out that I liked.  So one night I asked Erich, and in less than 5 seconds he said, "Three boys and a Bitch".  I thought wow, can't sum up my life any better than that.

So here's to a hopefully interesting and worthwhile blog to follow... if not, owell...  At least ill have a chance to vent to the world wide web :)  Gotta go...clocks are springing forward and this bitchy momma gets extra bitchy without enough sleep.  hope u enjoy!