My bff has been reading "Bright Lights, Big Ass" by Jen Lancaster recently. Since she has so heartily endorsed it on her blog, I thought I'd do some re-reading. I started it a while ago, but it my third Jen Lancaster book in a row and sometimes I get kinda tired of the same author....so I shelved it for a while. I had forgotten how. Freakin'. Funny. Jen Lancaster is! I just read the first 100 pages while lounging in a bubble bath. (Sorry for that mental picture, dear readers!) Soooo funny! She writes about all everyday things...like going to the "lady doctor" and shopping at Target. Her blog's really funny too. I have it bookmarked just over there to the right! If you haven't read her before, you need to immediately go to the library, bookstore, website, etc... and get one of her books. I've liked all of them, but I think "Bright Lights, Big Ass" is my favorite. "Bitter is the New Black" is my least fave. I just bought her new book, "Pretty in Plaid" a couple of weeks ago, but I loaned it to my sister. Because that's the kind of sister I am. She said, "Please, Einny, I promise I'll be finished by the time you come visit next weekend". Was she? No. But I'm still reading the other one...so she has a couple of days......

Sunday Afternoon Musings

When I saw the cover of this week's People, I had to get it. Bristol Palin and Jon & Kate news. Seriously, it is a good issue this week. There's an article about Ralph Macchio in it and .... brace yourself .... HE IS 47 FREAKIN' YEARS OLD! How can the Karate Kid be 47!?!? That's just impossible. I guess I never realized that he was 22 when he played Daniel. At any rate, you MUST read the article. There's a delicious picture that features his family sitting in a living room that is just wonderfully cheesy. It even has a statue.

And speaking of Jon & Kate, what is with them?? I was feelin' sorry for Jon, because clearly Kate is a bit of a bizatch. That was until those pictures of him bar hopping with another woman came out. And then I just lost all sympathy. As my bff says, "You made your choices, Jon. Now live with them!" At the end of the day, though, I do hope they work it out. I don't like to hear of anyone going through a divorce...but don't ya'll think they should hash it out in private?

Did you know that Wal-Mart has a surprisingly good selection of books? As a general rule, I hate Wal-Mart. I don't ever enjoy shopping there. Ever. But a dear friend of mine works there now and I think it's important to support your friends. So off to Wal-Mart I went. At any rate, I was surprised by their books. Almost (but not quite) as good as Target's. I did buy Elizabeth Edwards' book, "Resilience". She was on The Daily Show w/ John Stewart last week and I thought she was a pretty classy lady. And I think John Edwards is a major creep, so I'm supporting Elizabeth. I just started reading it, and it's actually pretty good!

Cute Kids in Front of a Boat

The title says it all! This was taken during our Baltimore trip. There are 2 things amazing about this picture:

1) That we managed to get all 4 children looking in the general direction of the camera.
2) That no one jumped into the water.

I know I'm going to get an email any second now from my bff wondering where her copies of these pics are! :-)

Ace of Cakes

So, I've always liked the show "Ace of Cakes"...but now I am totally obsessed with it! My bff and I went to Baltimore last month to visit an old friend, Jayna. (Note: By old I mean I've known her a long time, not that she's old. But, for the record, she is older than me!) Another friend of ours, Michelle, drove in from Philly and we had a nice girls' day out in downtown Baltimore. Our coolness factor was brought down a few notches by the fact that we were tooling around in a mini van with 4 children....but all the same, we had a great time.

It was a gorgeous day in Baltimore - we really got lucky. There was a huge beach ball right in the middle of everything. And by huge, I mean it was officially the "World's Largest Beach Ball" according to the Guinness Book of World's Records! And, let me tell ya, it was huge! So we were standing there waiting for our turn to get our picture taken beside the beach ball when we were stopped b/c they were filming "Ace of Cakes"! How cool is that?? Duff was sooo close to us and he is absolutely adorable in person. I think I caught him checkin' me out. (Haha - I wish!) The cameraman got a ton of crowd shots. And we were with 4 of the cutest children in the world...so I'm thinkin' that maybe we MIGHT be on TV!

So now I'm obsessed with watching every "Ace of Cakes" episode to see if we're on it! If you happen to catch an episode with the world's largest beach ball, take time to watch it!

Queen of the Gnomes, Part 2

Here's a cute picture of mama Hilton with her birthday gnome. I'm not sure what that stick is.....

There's No Place Like Gnome

"Your blog sucks". This is the feedback I received from my mother last night at dinner. As if I didn't get her drift, she went on... "I liked your blog so much better when you lived in Erie. You kept it current then". I politely reminded her that I was unemployed and then in training for part of the time that I was in Erie, so I had much more time on my hands. Plus, if I wasn't at work, it was probably snowing 12" or more, so I was trapped inside my house with no entertainment save my computer. But let me stop before I get too sidetracked.....

So, mom, this one's for you.

My mother is crazy. Crazy for gnomes that is. Seriously, she loves loves loves gnomes. Personally, I think they're a little frightening. She's made an entire gnome garden. Dead serious. The left side of the house (outside, of course) is filled with the little things. She has an OSU gnome, a Santa gnome....and the list goes on. I'm not quite sure when Cheryl discovered her love for gnomes, but it has to be relatively recently, because she "only" has about a dozen. On her b-day, she received yet another one from my father. (Thanks, Curt, for feeding her insanity.) We decided it would be funny to gather up her gnomes all around her and take a picture so we could mock her forever. So here she is...the Gnome Queen in all her glory.

Author's Note: For more fascinating information on gnomes, consult wikipedia. Also, just for kicks, go to etsy.com and type in gnomes. There is an incredible amount of gnome shiz you can buy. There are some strange people out there.....

The Bunny Cake

So, for years .... basically as long as I can remember, my grandma has made a bunny cake for Easter dinner. And this year proved to be no exception! There was a little bit of a debate this year, because my mom had already planned dessert and my grandma still insisted on bringing "the cake". Little did Cheryl know, I had already written a letter to g'ma requesting it. Please note: My mother is not a heartless bitch who enjoys disappointing 88 year olds. She just didn't want my grandma to go to the trouble. And to be honest, no one really eats much of it anymore. But, gosh darn it, the bunny cake reminds me of my childhood. And I still want that cake as long as Helen Hilton is still alive and can hold a mixer! So here it is....the bunny cake. Isn't it cute??

Excuses, Excuses

I can't believe I haven't made a blog post since March 25th! Yikes! I feel sooo out of touch with everything lately! Since my Disney vacation, I feel like life's been a total blur! To begin with my allergies have been horrible. And I do mean horrible. With a capital H. Work's also been pretty busy lately. (Which ultimately is a good thing, because I'm happy to be employed!) And then I went to North Carolina and Baltimore for a week. Finally, for the past 5 days, I've been dog sitting my parents' one-eyed dog, Lucy. Sweet dog, but man am I glad to get back to my own home!

Honestly, I'm a little tired of all the facebooking and blogging and twittering. Does anyone else think it can be overwhelming?? Some of my friends are SOOOO good at keeping current with their postings. I'd say I don't have the time, but....truth is....I'm just too lazy! When I get home from work, most days I just want to relax.

A couple weeks after I got back from Disney, I made a quick trip to Cleveland to see my friends Katie & Reggie. Their baby, Reilley, is pictured above! Isn't she just the sweetest thing? They are so good with her, and I was glad that I FINALLY got to see her! Katie & I took her to Beechwood Mall, and she was a complete angel the whole time. Which is a good thing, because her mommy loves her some shopping!

I'm bound and determined to post a slide show of some Disney pictures this afternoon. I just have to hunt down my bff so she can walk me through the process, because I am no so savvy when it comes to computery stuff!