YES WE DID!!

We've sent a LOUD and CLEAR message...hope has finally trumped fear...how exciting!!!

An Election Day Request

I trust that everyone exercised his or her right to vote today???

Well, as I'm sure we are all hyper-aware, this year's political campaign season is about to reach its dramatic climax. While we await the results, I actually have a special Election Day request for one more vote on behalf of my better half. Some of you may know that he has been nominated by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch as one of St. Louis' 2008 Top Real Estate Professionals. A win would mean not only the humble reward of recognition, but also $8,000 worth of advertising with the Post! Cool!

If you're someone who Matt has personally assisted with real estate services, or even if you just occasionally stop by his blog and you've ever come away with a nugget of helpful information or interesting gossip and you feel so compelled, please don't hesitate to cast a vote his way!

After a quick and painless registration, you may vote online here, once daily through December 31, 2008. In the upper right hand corner, there's a graphic that says "Does Your Real Estate Agent Rock? Vote for the 2008 Reader's Choice Top Agent." Matt appears on page 2 of the nominees :)

Thanks for indulging some late-season campaigning, and good luck Matt!

Sam Covers The Supremes

I know...it's been awhile. But I'm confident that all will be forgiven after you watch the following. I give you my nephew, Sam:


Untitled from meghan on Vimeo.

E-Coli, Anyone?!

Count me in!

That’s right, kids: we’re headed to the Lake of the Ozarks for year trois of our annual summertime debauchery. This year, 13 of us will pile into the 5 bedroom house on the water and boat that we've rented for the weekend. We have packed literal carloads of every type of artery-clogging, terrible-for-you food imaginable. And of course, 15 30-packs of beer. Hopefully it'll be enough.

In addition to beer consumption, there will no doubt be an embarrassing admission or two during multiple rounds of "I've Never...," plus all manner of dreadful behavior meant to secure the Coding Out Award. I won't even try to explain its name...all you need to know is that it is bestowed upon the most ridiculous vacationer of the weekend. There really is a trophy, with an engraved plaque and everything. And I'll be damned if a dude gets it this year. Maybe drinking some lake water would guarantee me the win?

Fug that. Of all the disgraceful conduct in which I may engage this weekend, I hereby solemnly swear that it will not include dipping so much as a pinky toe into that nasty cesspool they're still calling a lake. I’m seriously baffled by the assertion that at 12 times what is considered a "healthy standard," Lake Ozark's e-coli level this year is still within safe swimming parameters! Ummmm - no thanks!

Hope everyone's enjoying a nice, bacteria-free weekend :) Catch you next week...

McSneaky

It appears that the dogs took advantage of our less than coherent (ok, comatose) state in the wee hours of Sunday morning.

Later that afternoon, after the Advil had started to take effect, we went to kennel the puggles before leaving to run some errands. In Louie’s crate, we discovered the remnants of our midnight McDonald’s feast: a shredded Big Mac box and about 5 ketchup packets. And before anyone scolds us too harshly, I do remember enough to be positive that I polished off that entire Big Mac, thank you very much. Wait, did I seriously just admit that? At any rate, whatever they managed to get away with wasn’t much, and the ketchup packets were luckily unopened.

We’re not sure which one is the culprit or whether they both had a hand-er,paw-in this transgression, since both Louie and Des have a preference for Louie’s crate (we frequently find Desi napping or playing in it instead of his own). However, I personally think that Louie seemed to have the guiltier looking face of the two. You be the judge:

McSneaky from meghan on Vimeo.

Jamba Juice It's Not...

but my smoothies aren't too shabby, either.

Honestly, my diet has absolutely sucked this summer. With all of the BBQs we've been going to, I've rekindled my love affair with zero nutrition white flour. Forget the burgers, just give me the buns! And who knows what posessed me to buy the stuff, but I did and now I've been eating Hawaiian sweet bread like it's going out of style and my frugal nature has prevented me from just throwing the damn package away.

For the record, I don't adhere by any means to a strict and obsessive diet - I never have and never could. I mostly like and choose healthy foods, but I eat what I want and follow the "everything in moderation" philosophy because I believe strongly in balance. So every now and again, if I eat some potato salad or fast food, I don't beat myself up.

That said, I've been feeling like a bag of crap lately and I know it's in part because I haven't been eating a balanced diet. I usually do a decent job of incorporating fruits and veggies into my meals, but I decided I needed to recommit myself to that as well as getting plenty of fiber.

So, I bought a bunch of fresh and frozen fruit on Saturday including mango, strawberries, peaches, blueberries and raspberries. I cleaned, washed and chopped the fresh stuff and packed it all into the freezer with the intention of making real fruit smoothies for breakfast the next couple of weeks.

As a hangover cure on Sunday, I pureed together:

1/2 c. mangoes

1/2 c. strawberries

1/2 c. blueberries

1/2 c. nonfat vanilla yogurt

I also added crushed ice, but it was unnecessary since the fruit itself was frozen and to be honest kinda effed things up.

It was a little tart, I think because half of the strawberries I bought weren't super ripe, so maybe I'll add a teaspoon of honey or something for next time.

It was good though and a filling way to pack in the recommended fruit servings for the day!

I'm a Bridesmaid!

Err, matron? How ugly does that sound? Is that what you really have to call a married bridesmaid?


In any case...yay! I can't wait to be a part of this wedding!!


In true Tricia style, she invited her whole side of the wedding party (including her precious flower girl, Madison) to Cyrano's in Webster for "wedding chit chat."


She treated us to dinner, the best bread pudding in the city (mmmmmmm nom nom nom) and presented each of us with a perfectly wrapped box complete with a tag displaying a cute poem asking us to be her bridesmaids! Our gifts were J.Crew grosgrain flip flops in different colors. What a sweet idea! I'm pretty sure I just called my bridesmaids and said something like, "so you wanna?" This was definitely much better :)


Here are all of the girls, minus one of the Emilys:




Thanks Trish! Can't WAIT for 6.20.09!