Sunday at our house

If you're lucky enough to be with an Italian girl, this probably looks familiar.

Sweet Italian sausage and pepperoni

Pot of sauce and meatballs sitting on the stove

Stuffed shells

Prepared meals for gym nights

It takes pain to be beautiful

This morning as I was limping around my apartment, I thought of a saying my mom used to recite to me. "It takes pain to be beautiful," she would say as she ripped the brush through my hair to put it in the perfect ponytail. Nowadays, she recites that line when she is using a comb to pull color through my hair. I feel like I am being scalped but love the look of my rich dark chocolate colored hair once it's all over. I always hated that she said that, but as usual, I know she's right. Oh, the pain and trouble we women put ourselves through to have attractive clothing and shoes, nice tight bodies, and to remain groomed in every way from plucking to waxing and everything in-between. It's just too much to look good all the time!

Her saying has rung especially true for me this week. On Monday, I spent an hour walking around the apartment in my wedding shoes (which are fabulous by the way) to break them in. Today as a result, I could barely squeeze my toes in my ballet flats because both my pinky toes are bruised from Monday. Not to mention, my body is screaming at me today. Last night, I tried a PILOXING class at my gym and today my legs feel like they could give out every step I take. Tonight it's off to Zumba class for another hour of torture... I mean fun, to get bikini ready.

Ladies, I salute each and everyone of you. It takes hard work, dedication and pain to be a woman.

Adios!

Just got my vacation for the wedding and the honeymoon approved! I have to admit, while I am obviously pumped to marry Brian, I am even more excited to hit the white sandy beaches of Mexico as husband and wife. It's going to be glorious... breakfast on the balcony overlooking the water, pina colada's delivered to me under my straw umbrella, romantic dinners on the beach, zip-lining adventures...maybe.  Ok, back to work. Enough day dreaming for today!

One for my baby

If you haven't noticed, this blog is named after a song from one of my favorite artists, John Mayer. I've been attending his concerts since he started touring and was less than thrilled when a group of us saw him two summers ago. Sadly, John spent more time talking than singing and went into a monologue about his anxiety right before he took out a Xanax from his pocket and crushed it with his foot on stage.

Still, Mr. Mayer always will be one of my favorite musical men. I can't deny his talent or his devilishly good looks - even if his facial hair is a bit more on the skeevy than sexy side. Check out the video sent to my good friend, Beth. It's nice to see John back in action, especially with such a class act like Tony Bennett.

Trying something new

This will be the fifth Christmas Brian and I have been together. However, it’s only the second we’ve spent either Christmas Eve or Christmas Day together. When we were both living home we were about an hour and a half away from each other and seeing one another was nearly impossible if we wanted to see our family too. Because we’ve spent a majority of our Christmases together, actually apart, we’ve always thought it was really important to create our own holiday traditions so it felt like Christmas time without actually being Christmas.

One tradition we started was making a gingerbread house. Nothing fancy really, just a kit that we took time assembling and neatly decorating. Last year was the first time we did it in our own place since the years prior we did it at our parents houses. With time before the holidays slipping away so quickly last year we weren’t able to assemble our gingerbread creation until we were only hours away from the big day. Honestly, neither of us was really in the mood to do it but it was on my to-do list and I wasn’t going to let the $15 kit go to waste. As it turns out, it wasn’t so pretty when it was all finished. You can’t even imagine the mess two grown people can make with candy and frosting when they’re being lazy about it.

A good year as far as gingerbread was concerned.

A sad excuse for a gingerbread house if you ask me!

While it had been fun in the past to do this type of thing together it really wasn’t entirely too much fun last year. That’s when we decided that we’d form no tradition that stresses us out. After all, these are the things that should bring us joy and comfort. This year, in lieu of involving gingerbread, Brian had a great idea, which begins a new tradition for us. He purchased a 2011 ornament with a slot meant to put a picture into. Instead, Brian and I wrote what we were thankful for this year. We plan on keeping this one up. Someday when our children unpack the ornaments we can recall what made that specific year so special, I love it.

Do you have an ornament that is really special to you?

So many memories to be thankful for

Growing up, I remember spending a lot of time with my mom’s family. Her side of the family lived relatively close to us and there were a lot of people to see for birthday’s and holidays. The one holiday we almost always spent with my dad's side of the family is Thanksgiving.

Now, Thanksgiving is a day when I think back on so many of the wonderful memories we all made. I can still recall my Grandpa, Lalo, making gravy in the roasting pan on the stove. I can remember the sound of the chairs being pulled along the kitchen floor at my grandparents. I can remember eating the potato chips on the kitchen table and wishing they weren’t always so burnt. I can remember the first Thanksgiving after my grandfather died. There’s a picture of my father, my sister and me sitting on the couch at our house listening to “Alice’s Restaurant” by Arlo Gunthrie. It was the first time in years we didn’t listen to it on the way to 22 Webb Drive. I can remember the Thanksgiving we went to my Aunt’s house while I was in college. I spent most of the day asleep on the most comfortable chair in the world. I remember the Thanksgiving Akua, my grandmothers care taker, and her husband Sam spent with us. I remember the first Thanksgiving my sister spent with her husband’s family and how I cried my way through “Alice’s Restaurant” with my parents singing joyously in the front seat of the Volvo as I tried to hide behind my sunglasses in the back.

It’s weird when you grow up… how things change. This year and for the foreseeable years ahead I will celebrate with the Kanady family. Every year on Thanksgiving my family and my dad’s family will hold a special place in my heart and I'll always keep a piece of the Ortuso tradition alive that day. I know each year I’ll enjoy Brian learning a few more words to “Alice’s Resturant” and I’ll think back on a time when it was just the four of us in a car on the way to spend time with the family.

Goodnight...good luck!

Did you ever have one of those nights where right before you are heading off to bed you get this ridiculous sudden burst of energy? That was me last night. 9:30pm and all the things I had been putting off all night and all week suddenly became of the utmost importance to accomplish. It’s insane how much you can get done in just a half hour if you really try. Take a look...

• Begin soaking toothbrushes in mouthwash. Other than the usual replacement of your toothbrush this is the only way I’ve heard of to clean all the germs off.

• Iron shirt for work. Sometimes I think I should just bite the bullet and send our shirts to the cleaners.

• Clean the bathroom mirror. It has become the place where toothpaste goes to die, disgusting. Also took a q-tip to the crevices in the sliding mirror. Went through 6, needless to say our navy colored towels are still shredding and pieces of towel can be found everywhere.

• Pack lunches. I do this every night and as easy as it is, I never feel like taking the 2 minutes to do it.

• Clean belly button. What can I say; I was on a roll with the q-tips. Don’t judge. Lathering up in the shower e very day is not enough to keep anyone’s belly button clean. It needs more love than a washcloth can give.  How clean is your belly button?

• Vacuum the bathroom floor. I swear no matter how often I clean up my hair after I shower I am always getting pieces of my locks stuck between my toes.

As you might imagine, I was wound up like a top before I went to lay down and didn’t fall asleep for another hour and a half after getting in bed. HELLO bags under my eyes!