Love ya!

WOW sounds pretty long doesn’t it? What did you do in the past 10 years? I know what I did. Here is recap!

2000 -

Celebrated my daughter’s first birthday April 16, 2000 – Celebrated 1 year of employment at TPG Direct November 1, 2000.

2001 -

Celebrated getting my driver’s licence. Yes I waited until I was 25 to actually start driving.

August – My sister, BIL and two nephews moved to Florida

2002 -

July 28th invited friends out for my 26th birthday. I rented a cheese bus we went to various clubs in Philly. I remember to this day that birthday was amazing. Why? Well that is the first time Michael and I kissed. Sounds childish but it was the best night of my life. I remembered that kiss like it was yesterday.

September – Invited Michael to be my date at a co worker’s wedding. It’s official we started dating!!

December – Michael invited me to PAND a New Year’s Eve celebration at the Radisson Hotel.

2003

Celebrated 1 year of courtship with Michael. The funny thing was our gifts to each other were scrapbooks of our first year together.

The first page of my scrapbook included the following -

I always knew that falling in love would be very special and true.

I am the luckiest woman to have fallen in love with you.

everyday our love gets strong, strong enough to last our whole life long.

Here is my gift to you on our first year anniversary. Its filled with Joy, Happiness and Love, all of which you have given me every minute of everyday.

Even though I had many things to be thankful for in 2003 I also experienced some sad times. My best friend Koryn lost her boyfriend/the father of her child that year. I remember getting the phone call and just dropping to the floor when I heard the news. Shawn was a great father and a good friend. He is still missed greatly to this day. 

2004

July 28th celebrating my birthday in Fort Myers Florida with my sister and her family. Another memorable birthday. Michael proposed to me! I was shocked and excited and I couldn’t believe I was going to get married especially to this man who not only adored me but adored my daughter just as much. He knew we were a packaged deal and he wanted a family.

After a few days of letting the excitement soak in and our trip back home we set a date. The last week of May of 2006,however, we didn’t know that Michael’s good friend also got engaged and picked the same day we did….now what? Well I was very upset, my emotions were running high. I just enjoyed a fantastic vacation, my sissy got to share one of the best nights of my life and now I may have to change my wedding date! It was very important to me as well as the other couple who picked that same day. As always to make everyone else happy we decided to move our wedding back a week to May 13th. We not only got to celebrate our wedding it was also my mother’s birthday! The gift to my mom on that special day was for her to walk me down the aisle.

We also lost two great people this year. My good friend Heather lost her dear bubby and Koryn had another devastating year and lost her cousin of brain cancer.

2005

I spent most of my time planning my wedding in 2005 so its kind of a blur.

2006

My wedding year.  All of the planning paid off well. My bridal party included Diane Garcia ( my bff mom) Alexis Javardian (Tron’s cousin) Stephanie Clerkin ( my cousin) Karen Anderson ( my close friend and also my private hair stylist) Koryn Garcia Maid of honor (my bff since freshman year of hs) and Jennifer Santelle Matron of honor ( my sissy). We had 3 flower girls Victoria (Koryn’s daughter) Victoria ( my cousin) and of course Queen Isabella. The groomsmen included Ralph Garcia, Antranig Garibian, Rasteen Norwoozie, Tim Lawrence and Mr Hollywood himself Vahan Paretchan ( Best man and brother of groom)

We had the ceremony at Holy Trinity Armenian Church and also for conveince we had the reception in the church hall. It was wonderful.

We honeymoon in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. I can’t wait to go back someday…soon

2007

This year included many weddings,birthdays as always, our first wedding anniversary.

2008

This year we lost a dear co-worker to cancer. My boss for 8 years of employment at TPG Direct lost her battle with cancer. Gale was a great inspiration to many. She was an awesome boss and a wonderful wife and mother.

2009

The year of trips – Poconos ( annual ski trip with friends) California (visited my husband’s brother) Rhode Island (my husband’s cousin wedding) Disney World.

Also we got to witness Don and Judy’s wedding. Michael’s aunt and uncle.

Elected to Holy Trinity Women’s Guild board member

We got a puppy – Bubba

We got the swine flu

Celebrated 10 years at TPG Direct. Time flys by!

2009 was a busy year and along with plenty of ups to fill our glass we also had a horrific tragedy that struck four families and tons of friends. Both Michael Sanders and Jay Stef along with two of their close friends died in Oct in a major car accident on Interstate 95.

RIP to all four guys that lost their lives too soon.

So that’s it. A decade in the life of Meme’s Fun House.

2010 is looking up for me. I plan for this upcoming year to be about me! I plan to shed lbs. kick the habit and maybe just maybe working on giving Isabella and Bubba a little brother or sister. Now wouldn’t that be nice.

Enjoy all NYE celebrations and be safe!!

My vow during these three days off was the relax and not be stressed out. I was really working on overtime there for a while. I remember during my daughter’s Christmas play I just sat there crying. Of course I was to happy to see Isabella growing up everyday and now she is in 5th grade singing her little heart out on the altar of her church, but I was so stressed. So many things to do and not enough time. As my husband held my hand and told me everything would be fine I was just trying to wipe away my tears so my daughter wouldn’t see me crying.

So of course work had to add to the stress I was trying to get everything done before I took my time off and before our annual Christmas Party. I did get it done and the Christmas party was fantastic.

It was at the Chart House in Philadelphia.

The food was very good. I chose the Baked Tilipia and it was yummy! I definitley recommend it. Not only was the food good the view was fantastic. The Chart House is located on Delaware Avenue right on the river.  We also had a chance to win several prizes. 3 Net Books, 5 I POD Touch, 1 GPS, 1 Kodak Digital Camera, 1 Kodak Mini Video Camera, 1 Sony Reader and 10 $25 American Express Gift cards.

And I won…..

an I POD Touch!!!!

After the Christmas party I headed home to start preparing for our first annual family baking and Christmas tree decorating night. It was so much fun. We ordered pizza and made snowman, gingerbread, candy cane, teddy bears, stars and hearts sugar cookies. It was a great time. My mom and her partner in crime joined us.

My mom even wore her holiday shirt

Our Christmas Tree decorations

My very own personalized Christmas ball from Karen

My favorite – Snowman with Bella

I love Snowmen

and reindeer especially when they are made by Isabella with popicle stickes

Our new addition stocking

Our center piece we are all monkeys…

I hope everyone enjoys the holidays and have a safe and fun New Years!!

 Now that the holiday season is in full swing and with the new addition of our favorite little puppy

He fits in just perfect

 I am finding myself with absolutely no time to spare. Not that I had plenty of time before. I am trying not to put anything off that I could do today because if I wait until tomorrow something else pops up and what I put off gets put off even longer. Things to put off  – I have a sink full of dirty dishes and a dishwasher full of clean dishes.

 I have no energy left tonight to unload the dishwasher and load it back up. A simple task to many but for me as tired as I am it turns into a daunting task that seems to never go away especially since I thought I just cleaned as sink load yesterday. Finding time to fit everything into a day is bringing me to my favorite wish of all time..just a bit more time is needed. More time to clean the dishes, fold the laundry, study with my daughter, walk the dog, find a great science experiment for Isabella to do over the Christmas break, go to report card meetings, feed the dog, cook dinner, finding a chance to take a breath and go Christmas shopping. Right now my life can be compared to a fun house in Disney instead of the fun houses you find in a roadside carnival.

I can’t even find time to watch my favorite TV shows. I have to grab the laptop and figure out if I want to write my blog, entertain myself on Facebook or watch shows on www.fancast.com. I sometimes wish my life was a bit more simple but then I think about that if my life was more simple I would probably be lying in a coffin six feet under. As long as there are dishes to wash, and homework to study, a dog to walk ,a carpet to be vacuumed, and a tree to decorate I am living life, my life, my family life, Meme’s Fun House!

I hope I can continue to write more this week. Peace out for now.

Meme

The menu is coming along great! I found a recipe online for make ahead mashed potatoes www.whatscookingamerica.net

The recipe is quite simple and will be sure to free up alot of time and space tomorrow.

Shirley’s Crock-Pot Mashed Potatoes
5 lbs. potatoes (9 large)
2 3-ounce packages of cream cheese
1 cup dairy sour cream
2 teaspoon onion salt
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
2 tablespoons butter

Cook peeled potatoes in boiling salted water until tender. Drain. Mash
until smooth (meaning no lumps. Nobody likes lumpy mashed potatoes, right?). Add the rest of the ingredients, beating until light and fluffy.

Cool mashed potatoes slightly, cover and then refrigerate

Crock-pot Variation: Cooking the prepared mashed potatoes in the crock-pot is a great way to keep the oven freed up for the other dishes. Take the prepared mashed potatoes out of refrigerator about 3-1/2 hours before serving time. Spray non-stick spray inside your crock-pot add mashed potatoes in crock-pot. Cover and cook on low heat for approximately 3 hours, stirring once or twice. After potatoes are cooked, stir, and then add some additional dollops of butter just before serving.
 

Maybe not the most healthiest of dishes,however, the taste so good and sometimes that is all the matters.

Next up tonight homemade Apple Pie!

I would like to wish everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving and for all the nuts that will be out on Black Friday look out for me I will be there too! Good Luck and stay safe.

Peace out – Meme!

What is going on here? Burka Barbie?

What will they come up with next.