Movin on up....

Things have been very busy in the Brantley household as of late. starting with K's career news - referring to this unsavory post Furloughed in April - thankfully this didn't happen! not much more to say about that except it wouldn't have been very good for us.

however, it did turn out (much to our surprise) that K had almost 150 roll over hours (read: a month of PTO) of grandfathered vacation time (in addition to the regular time he has for this year) and he "has to" use at least 80 hours of it by Labor Day --- ummm, OK no problem!

So, he took off 9 days over Memorial Day and is doing the same over July 4th and Labor Day. Pool, Sun and Lounging - here we come!

We had sweet 'stay-cation' over Memorial Day which also happens to by my birthday week and did a lot of sleeping, hanging out, reading and catching up on things that we always seem to busy to do - it was AWESOME!

This year for my birthday we had a fun picnic at a local park - there were about 20 or so of us and Traci and Scott even brought their Eagles Camper for maximum luxury picnic support - that was sweet!

And K is so sweet - he did the most thoughtful thing for me - instead of buying me a material present he made a donation in my name to P.A.W.S so we can help save the lives of some innocent, abandoned, neglected and abused animals - my heart melted b/c that is so in line with what I really care about and a new pair of earrings or purse or whatever is cool but the donation is much cooler to me!

And in BIG NEWS........

Kareem has gotten a huge promotion and substantial raise - which is usually a really big deal but in this economy where people are getting laid off left and right and no one seems to be getting salary increases this is EXTRA HUGE so I am obviously very proud of him and happy that all of his hard work and dedication is paying off!

Busy Brantley's but I promise we (meaning I) will try harder to post more throughout the summer b/c we have all kinds of fun stuff going on!

busy busy weekend...

This past weekend was slam packed but great!

Justin and Andrea came home for good from their 18-month stint in Munich, Germany and came to stay with us for the weekend. We finally got to meet little Liam!!!! Wow - he is such a good baby - so laid back, happy and well-adjusted! Justin and Andrea are definitely great role models for K and I - they are not neurotic, overly worrisome nor make a big deal out of small stuff - it is awesome to watch!

We also found out that Mabel is a super-freak-baby-stalk-psycho who thinks she is part babysitter / part security guard. She loves Liam and thinks it is necessary to lick his head, hands and feet whenever they are exposed and within 2 feet of her - he didn't seem to mind so we all thought it was pretty entertaining. She also really disliked his pack-n-play - we don't know if she thought he was trapped or what but whenever he was in there - she cried and circled it as well as tried to dig him out with her big ass bear paws - yeah that was not good lol!


Drea and I had a girls beauty day on Saturday, starting off with some much needed Waxing, then to Manicures + Pedicures then to lunch, then to get some Vino and head to Megan's for some amazing Facials with MicroDermabrasion.

Kareem + Justin spent the day with Liam around the City and then met up with Aunt Margie - Drea and I got to spend a little but of time with her but not as much as we wanted b/c she had to had back to upstate NY.


Saturday night we went for Sushi and took Liam of course - he was so good and after he woke up he decided to hold onto chop sticks and pretend he was having Sushi too - he must instinctively know how freaking good Mikado is!




Then we all went on a mission for some Frozen Yogurt and finally back to the house to just hang out :)

Sunday was super duper busy as we went for brunch at El Camino Real and then made the drive up to Hamburg for Pop-Pop's 89th Birthday Party!


It was so awesome to see Pop-Pop finally meet Liam - the oldest and newest family members ...


Pop-Pop is doing great and told us that he does 50+ Push-Ups every morning - yeah Kareem and I definitely got a reality check and were like "wow - we are L-A-Z-Y!"

From there K and I headed over to Jarrett + Sarah's for a surprise 35th Birthday Dinner Party for Jarrett - he totally didn't know we were coming and was really surprised! Sarah went all out and hosted a FABULOUS dinner party - the food was amazing, the drinks were flowing, the decor was perfect and the guest list was great - one of the best dinner parties we have been too in a long time - so good that we didn't get home until almost 2:00 AM (and on a Sunday night!) but we failed to take ANY pictures at all - I think we were just enjoying ourselves so much we completely forgot!

Overall, we had a great weekend and Mabel was exhausted from all of it - here she is getting a treat for being soooooo good!


Love,
A

Theme Dinners - Greece

Jenna and I have been talking about hosting 'theme dinners' forever and we finally manged to plan the first one. Kareem and I hosted at our house and the theme was 'Greece'.

Everyone made a dish and our menu was...

*Greek Style Wild White Trout
*Chicken Kebabs with Tzatziki Mint Sauce
*Roasted Lemon + Oregano Potatoes
*Greek Salad
*Toasted Flat breads with Pine Nut Hummus + Red Pepper Spread
*Veggies, Hummus, Olives
*Wine, Wine, Wine, Wine + Coffee

I meant to take some pictures of each dish but forgot - next time we will totally remember because it will be fun to look back on that!

Here some appetizers to snack on...


Here is the table pretty much set - I made a centerpiece inspired by Greece with fresh lemons, grapes, mint and oregano.


Renee and Tommy joined us for dessert and wine as they were lucky enough to have Tommy's mom in town to babysit for Van. I took this picture so I am obviously not in it - I keep telling Kareem we need professional photogs around at all times to capture all the fun things in our lives - like Hugh Hefner LOL - he thinks I am certifiably insane. (it is a good idea right?)


and since Renee's birthday is Tuesday (St. Patty's Day) we all had a little birthday cake for her!




Kareem also managed to find a Greek music station on Pandora - it wound up being like Greek Techno music! haha

This was a lot of funnnnn - we are really looking forward to the next one - Jenna is hosting and the theme is 'Moroccan' - promise to take pictures of each dish!

love,
A