My brother, the watch dog

This is my brother. He is awesome. And contrary to how this picture portrays him, he is not mentally incapacitated. He is actually quite smart with a very sharp sense of humor and has the ability to brighten any one's day.

My brother will be house-sitting while we are away on vacation. He is bringing his pit bull, Romeo over as well to make sure that the house is well guarded from lawn-mower stealing bad guys. Frankly i don't think he needs his pit bull to scare people off. He should just wear this hat when he goes outside and people will be plenty scared.

You say it's your birthday!

We celebrated funk-ay grandma's birthday on Sunday. Contrary to the number of candles on the cake, she turned 89 years old! and i baked and frosted that cake all by me self. I splurged at the grocery store and bought one of those new hallmark cards that plays music when you open it. The particular card that i bought played "Dancing in the Street" by Martha and the Vandellas and it sure surprised her when it started to play. she looked around and turned to me and said,

"what in the heck is that noise?" I stood up and started dancing, "It's your birthday card grandma!"

"great!" she says. "That will keep me company during the day!"

And i chuckle to myself several times throughout the work day, imagining grandma grooving to her birthday card. Get down with your bad self, grandma!

We run for my mom

This is my mom. we are laughing at the fact that the Pocket is walking backwards into a group of 7 year old kids and he doesn't know it...yet

Note to self: wearing big sunglasses and a hat at the same time is not cool.

Today was my first Race for the Cure. My work had organized a team and i couldn't pass up the opportunity. besides, my mother is a two time survivor of breast cancer and she is the strongest person i know. So Hot Pocket, my mom, and myself, jumped into the car and battled the traffic to attend this awesome event. I don't think we were prepared to be as moved and as motivated as we were when we got there. Over 16,000 people attended, the largest crowd ever, and the electricity and passion from the group was incredible! Everyone who participated had a story and a reason to run for support. We run for you, Mom.

My grandma, the gangsta

First off, my grandma is the cutest lady in all of the land. she is just so....DARLING! she is teeny and down right hilarious and we are so similar that sometimes it's spooky. I think if we were both 25 years old, we would be best friends. well, i think actually we would be the same person.

The other day i was maneuvering around myspace and i came across my baby brother's myspace page. The caption under one of his pictures said, "Is your grandma this Gangsta?...Nope." (apparently "..." runs in the family.) Upon further inspection i noticed this picture of my grandma. Hat on backwards, throwing up a peace sign. and YES people, those are her regular glasses that she wears on a DAILY basis.

You can imagine my astonishment and relief! Relief, you ask? Well on occasion, I have been told that i pretend to talk like i live in the hood. After conversations with my boss at work i occasionally throw in a "Word." to end my case. or perhaps i will say, "fo' shizzle, yo" when asked to complete a task. And i call everyone "bro" including my husband. In fact yesterday, after graduation, my husband and my brother pulled up to the gas station and asked me if i wanted anything to eat. my response was "Fo' shizzle, bro! Get me a hostess chocolate snack cake, word." It's as annoying as it sounds but it just comes out of my mouth! it's like i was born this way!

Anyways, i digress. you can imagine my relief when i noticed that my grandma is secretly a home girl just like myself. that means i innately learned it from her and that is just the bomb. Word.