What I love! | Peaches Prattlings

{November 11, 2017} Happy birthday WCH!!

It’s actually CH, his given name is WCH and we just called him by his middle name.

Did you need to know all that? Probably not, but it’s my blog, ha ha! But what you do need to know is that November 11th is a very important to me. It’s the day my son, WCH was born!

I met WCH about a month after his seventh birthday and it was love at first site! We hit it off immediately, I get along with kids, but this one was special. His sister, TYL, now she was another story, a much tougher customer! She was very protective of her dad and brother and I respected that very much.

WCH was cute and funny and shorter than me! He was loving and sweet and a hugger and a love muffin and a snuggler, oh we all loved Saturday and Sunday mornings, they used to crawl in bed with me and we wild talk and cuddle and laugh and tickle and be silly, just like parents and kids should be!

It was such a treat to watch him grow up into this amazing man I see before me today. A very smart kid, on occasion I wasn’t sure if he any common sense, but I think that’s part of being a kid!

Today, seeing the amazing man he has become is so fabulous. He is a wonderful husband, a doting uncle and always a kickin’ brother! He is confident in the kitchen and everyone works for and with him respects him and values this relationship.

It makes me swell with so much pride to see him today and hope that I had a small part to play is his amazingness for the time we were together as a family when he was a kid.

Happy, happy, happy to a man I still think of as my baby boy! I hope today is as fabulous as you!

{November 10, 2017} Happy birthday Saint J!

No, you didn’t miss a religious holiday! This is the birthday of family!

I have told you about Mr & Mrs B before, they are LBK’s parents. I even told you a little about them earlier in the week, they are KK’s grandparents!

Mrs. B worked with my mom for years at the same school. They started when I was a kid, so the two families became great friends. We celebrated holidays together, their house was the first time I decorated a Christmas tree! They had latkes and lit a menorah at our house. We’ve celebrated birthdays together and traveled together, as families when we were kids and adults with our respective families.

They are an amazing family and Mr & Mrs B are like another fabulous set of parents. They have been there through all the good and bad my family has been through, as we have for theirs. They remember every birthday, not only dad and LaLa, but GES, me, EJS and MGS and dad does the same for them and LBK and her kids. They are also catholic, hence, the reason we dubbed Mrs B as Saint J when I was younger.

I used to cal them by their first names and then as soon as I was in a class that Mr B taught, they became Mr & Mrs B to me. I even address their cards as ‘Mr & Mrs ‘The Bs’. I’ll never forget one day Mrs B said “You know, you could call can all us J & E”, um, nope! I tried, not going to happen.

Today is Mrs B’s birthday and should be celebrated! Mrs B is getting to do what she loves today, spend the day with her family! Happy birthday Saint J! I hope today is as fabulous as you!

{November 9, 2017} A new experience… And for some cookie dough!

I got to the airport today and asked a question.

This question led to quite a few checks. And it was all for cookie dough! Let me ‘splain!

A few months ago I was traveling and left over food, as I often travel with snacks and some leftovers, especially if I’m going to eat it at the airport or on my flight. Well, this occasion, I happened to have a small jar of peanut butter and it was taken away. Apparently, you can hide a bomb in the peanut butter or bomb parts, I don’t remember, to be honest.

So, I got this fabulous new treat the other day at the grocery store and I wanted to bring it home to share with my dad, since we both like cookie and I hope we both like cookie dough. Based on what I learned from him on snacking as a kid, I say yes.

Anyway, it comes in these little cup containers, like pudding, and it’s solid, but since peanut butter is too, I thought I would ask. I asked the desk agent when I dropped off my bag if I could take the cookie dough cups with me, she looked at me quizzically and then said she would check. I told her if I couldn’t take them with me, she could have them! She LOVED that!

Off she went to ask one person, no answer, then another and another, finally, and I wish I was fast enough with my phone to snap a pic…she was standing with two TSA agents looking at the packaging and discussing!

Result…I got to take my cookie dough with me! It’s in the fridge and dad and I will be enjoying tomorrow!

Are these things really worth all that effort? You bet your sweet bippie!

Y U M!

{November 8, 2017} It’s signing day! Proud auntie moment!

Two amazing young women I have had the honor to watch grow up are now committed to two great colleges for their respective sports.

I’ve talked about these two girls over the years. KK I have known since she was a baby, her mom and, LBK, have known each other since we were kids. Our moms worked together at the same school and her dad was my teacher of French in middle school. I got to see LBK get married an watch as she became a mother to three amazing girls!

ST, is the daughter of my friend JCT, who I have known since 2009 when we started on a project together in Atlanta and we have been steadfast friends and family ever since.

Well, these two young women, have been enjoying their respective sports for as long as I can remember. KK is a champion fast pitch pitcher in softball and ST is an amazing golfer. They have played for their schools and independently for years, traveling the country competing in different venues.

High schools and colleges have been looking at both of them since they were in middle school, possibly even sooner, but they couldn’t do anything about it until they at least got into high school and boy did the schools start knocking down the doors! It was tough competition for them to say yes, the offers, the scholarships, the visits, the chats, the phone calls, basically, the courting!

And today, they made final, official decisions. They had made their decisions a while ago, but it wasn’t official until they put pen to paper and signed! When you are at KK’s house, it’s covered with things from her new school, has been for months and at ST’s you knew where she was going.

ST made the decision that she wants to play golf at and for the University of South Carolina Gamecocks and KK is going to play softball at and for the University of Delaware Blue Hens. How fabulous is that!

I am so proud of both of these girls, watching them grow into smart, strong, talented young women and being noticed by others, not just their family and friends for amazing achievements.

I wish them so much love and good wishes and happiness for life and right now, the next four year, working hard and showing their school and the world what they can do! I cannot wait to come to a game and watch them shine!

Have fun, good luck and don’t forget auntie J wants a hoodie!

{November 7, 2017} I had a domestic, no frills evening!

I LA LA LA LOVED it!

It’s Tuesday, I’m away from Chicago, in Lincolnshire, what’s on for the evening?

Did not want to do take out tonight so I stopped at a really nice market, that I tried to find yesterday, ended up at a restaurant of the same name! I picked up some food for dinner and snacks for the rest of the week.

I went back to the hotel, got some quarters and headed to the room. Why did I get quarters you ask? No, not to play video games! I need to do laundry!

I’m staying at a Homewood Suites, each room is like an apartment, with a kitchen, sometimes a separate bathroom, which ick I had now. The thing I like about staying at places like this is you feel like you’re home almost.

So, I took the first load of laundry down, came back and started cooking. I made vegan mac-n- cheese, had some hearts of palm and fabulous juice and Icelandic water.

Downstairs in between to swap the washer for the dryer, back upstairs to eat. The dryer didn’t quite did its job, hence all the clothes strewn about! If you came to my room in any hotel, any other night, it would not look like this.

Now, on the other hand, my dad may be having flashbacks right now to my room growing up!

But look, i even loaded the dishwasher!

This may seem dull to you, but as someone who loves in hotels and usually goes out to dinner or orders in, this cookng thing is awesome! And no, I’m not giving up my lifestyle! This was a treat, you don’t do treats every day, you get spoiled…

That’s some logic, huh?!

{November 6, 2017} I don’t know if I could be a food network judge.

I would love it, but I don’t know if I could do it.

Do they have a vegan, no citrus, no fried, no spicy, no caffeine, no chocolate, no dairy, no apple, no honey, no agave? I’m sure there’s more, but I’ve lost track.

I love the Food Network for some shows. We know I like Gordon Ramsay and Kitchen Nightmares. I started watching Cooks vs Cons and recently Beat Bobby Flay, really like that show! I also really like the baking competitions, sugar competitions, carving competitions. I find them fascinating!

But, with my dietary restrictions, I watch all of these fabulous creations come to the table and realize I wouldn’t eat half of what they make! All those desserts look amazing, but I would have to sit out the judging, so that means I’ll never be a judge, sigh.

I’ll just have to keep watching on the sidelines.

{November 5, 2017} It’s daylight savings time…ok.

Why do people still freak out about the time change?

It’s ‘Fall back, Spring forward’, simple as that. What about flights? Meetings? Other stuff? Way back when, well, way back before smartphones, I don’t want to say cell phones, because we used to have to set and re-set the time, but with smartphones, it does it for us!

Smartphones, all good. But now what? Now I have to run around the house changing the stove clock, the microwave clock, the bedside clock, ooh, let me date myself, the VCR!!! Oh wait, I live in a hotel, I don’t have to do any of that! Muwahaha!

Of course, what does this mean? It’s going to get dark earlier and by the time you sort of get used to going into the office and leaving the office in the dark, the time changes. Grrr.

Interesting Fact: Did you know that there are several areas in the United States that do not observe DST, daylight saving time? That would be Arizona, Hawaii, American Samoa, Guan, Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands. Little known fact. So…the nice thing about this fact is that right now, PSM and I are only four hours apart instead of five, between Hawaii and Chicago. Wahoo!

{November 4, 2017} How much can you pack into one day? We’re in Vegas, let’s see…

You know how I roll, right? It’s a weekend, so let’s pack as much into it as I can! Who needs sleep?!

Saturday morning came way earlier than it should have, but that gave us the opportunity for pillow talk. Literally. We both stayed in bed, turned on our sides and, refusing to remove our heads from our respective pillows and talked. There you go, pillow talk!

Eventually, it was time to get up and greet the world, sigh. Get motivated and have some breakfast. How about that view!? We had breakfast at a cute little place between the convention center of the hotel, also where our room was, and the casino, Bacio. We shared a skillet and some pancakes. Don’t you love how they gave me raw sugar? Like rock candy! I remember when GES used to make rock candy!

We leisured over breakfast, deciding on what to do later in the day. First thing…I have always wanted to go to the neon sign museum. Let’s go! The Neon Boneyard was…sold out! They were closed from 2pm-9pm for an event, wonder if it was a wedding, how cool would that be! So…we got tickets for an 11:45pm tour! Love that!

We discussed other things to do and decided on a show for later tonight, but had to fill the time before that! We weren’t far from Freemont Street, check out the Container Park and the Fremont Street Experience. I did that back in August and got to share it with PSM.

After we toured the Container Park, we went across the street to the Fremont Street Experience and started to wander. The first alley that we wandered in to had a storefront that we had never seen before, it a place for throwing axes! What? It’s called Axe Hole Vegas, go figure!

This was so much fun! We were slightly skeptical, but that went away with the first few throws! It was like a batting cage for throwing axes. There were five lanes with two targets each, giant tree stumps with a bulls-eye painted on it. We received a brief lesson, three different ways to throw at first, later came some trick throws. I tried the first three, two different one handed and one two handed. I mastered, to a point the two handed throw, the one handed, not as much. PSM killed it with the one handed and the trick throws! And all with his non-dominant arm, so impressive!

We really had a great time! I’m now on the lookout for places I/we can do that again! What a great way to blow off steam! And just have fun! I wonder how many of my friends and family would love this!

Next, a walk down through the Fremont Street Experience, experiencing the sights, smells, sounds, the outfits or lack there of! I couldn’t share some of what we saw or didn’t see! Oh my, I’m not sure we were old enough! Ha ha!

We walked through Fremont Street and then into Binons to see where The World Series of Poker began, a piece of history. Then to the end and back of The Fremont Street Experience. We worked up an appetite, time for lunch.

We went to a place that was recommended, Vegenation. The atmosphere was great, the service and food, lacking, unfortunately. We had a different person seat us and take our order than our actual server. The black rice sushi was fabulous, but our entrees, not so much. PSM said his was flavorless and mine, well, I ordered eggplant parm with the sauce on the side.

It came out and when I inquired about the mozzarella that should have been on top, the server said ‘Oh yeah’ and brought me cold shredded mozzarella, seriously? I almost finished my meal and I said something when she asked how the food was and when I mentioned it, ‘oh yea…do you want me to take it back?’ I’m sorry, it took you to almost the end of the meal to ask?

We talked to the couple next to us, not much better. Oh well, Las Vegas has been great so far with vegan, you can’t win them all.

Back to the hotel too get a little rest.

After a sit down, it was off to our first evening activity, Terry Fator! http://terryfator.com/

Terry Fator is a fabulous ventriloquist wor won America’s Got Talent in 2007 and has been at the Mirage Hotel ever since. His show is 90 minutes and he introduced us to eleven of the thirteen puppets he works with.

He won America’s Got Talent with Winston the Turtle and he opens and closes the show with him. Terry Fator is the master of impersonations and can sing like just about anyone!

One of the things I really like is that 100% of the profits from his merchandise goes to military charities. https://terryfatorshop.com/pages/military-charity

Dad took me years ago and now I get to share with PSM, he loved it!

After Terry Fator, we walked the strip back towards our hotel. On the way we stopped by the Linq Hotel to tour the area that was restored and created a while back with shops, drinking establishments, tourist stuff, street vendors, street performers, the Ferris wheel and people, people, people.

We stopped for a snack for PSM at Gordon Ramsay’s Fish & Chips. And anyone who knows me knows I love Gordon Ramsay, so this was a treat! No, he wasn’t there, it was just his place! And exactly as he preaches, simple! Fish or shrimp or chicken and chips, that’s it!

On to our next stop, The Bellagio Hotel. I love watching the fountain, the way it’s choreographed to the music. Then inside to the reception desk to see the Chihuly flowers, don’t forget to look up!

And then to the right to The Conservatory to see what amazing creations they make with flowers for the season, stunning! Just takes your breath away! This is something I always recommend to people visiting Las Vegas, its a must!

Then back to the hotel just in time to get the keys and get to the Neon Boneyard! Is this fabulous or what!!

This museum was established in 1996 and it is filled with signs from old casinos, hotels, businesses. It was cool looking through the fence during the day, but to see some of the signs lit up, in all their splendor! Some are still working and others need some love, hopefully they’ll get it!

If you’re in Vegas, I so recommend this place! PSM said it reminded him of a post apocolyptic movie set, I could see that!

Definitely two thumbs up! Now what? Well, it’s after 1am… flight is at what time?

I do hope you enjoyed your day in Las Vegas as much as we did!

{November 3, 2017} Vegas bound baby!

I’m off to Las Vegas this weekend. Or as some like to call it, the City of Lost Wages!

So, as you know, I travel for work and PSM does as well. One thing anyone who travels work will tell you is that we will do a lot of things to get us to that next level.

Ask that traveler you know if they have ever taken a trip just to get the points, they will tell you either they have or would. I know I have!

PSM is close to the next level on United, so… what to do? Ask ‘Where should we meet for the weekend?!’ So, a weekend in Las Vegas it is!

I went to Hilton to see what was available and found out that The Tropicana is now under the Hilton banner. Sold!

Earlier today, PSM video conferenced with me to show me the room. I had called to ask about the reservation and got upgraded, works for me and now, I see the room.

The Tropicana is the cabana feel in each room, bamboo and wicker furniture, palm tree in the bedroom, hurricane shutters on the windows and doors. Its fun.

Can’t wait to see what tomorrow and Las Vegas have in store for us!

{November 2, 2017} Bad Moms Christmas Girls Night!

What a delightful combination! Bad Moms and Girls Night!

Tonight, I had plans with co-workers. Originally it was going to be feet up, fireplace on, movies and delivery at my hotel. This turned into dinner and a movie! Almost the same!

DLP and I introduced our new team-mate, LS, to Vapiano’s, yum! And then went to one of the AMC movie theaters with the recliner seats. So…we went to a restaurant for dinner, then at the movie theater, see movie, reclined and kicked our feet up and someone delivered popcorn to our seats. Close enough!

We laughed, oh did we laugh! It was surprisingly good! Better than I expected. Let’s just say I had high hopes for Pitch Perfect 2 and was sorely disappointed, except for a few scenes. With this movie, there were some moments you thought, oh my word, but, to be honest, it kept true to the format, Amy, played by Mila Kunis is stressed out trying to be the perfect mom and give her kids the perfect Christmas. Kristin Bell plays Kiki, slightly neurotic, people pleaser, just wants everyone to be happy and get along. Kathryn Hahn is Carla, easy, literally, going, just wanting to get through the day.

They all love their kids more than anything, would do anything for them, just want them to be happy and enjoy Christmas. Then…their moms arrive! Uh oh!

Christine Baranski is Amy’s mom. A hard, controlling, condescending perfectionist, think Amy was a little stressed out?! Cheryl Hines is Kiki’s mom. Um, let’s just say a little clingy? Ok, A LOT clingy! Susan Sarandon is Carla’s mom and if you thought Carla was, well, let’s just say, foul mouthed and loose, want to guess where she gets it from!

Moms come in and drive their daughters crazy. Daughters try to have the Christmas they want and you know what happens when Amy, Kiki and Carla get together? No holds barred, throw down, drinking, smashing, grabbing, get wild girls. Do they let off steam? Yes they do! Do they wreak havoc? Yes they do. Do they have a good time? You bet your sweet bippie!

There’s love, fighting, frustration, foul language, stripping Santas, lashing out, acting out, making up, understanding, compromising, friendships, love and…a camel. Yup, I said a camel.

I give this movie two thumbs up. If you’re looking for an Oscar worthy movie, this ain’t it. If you’re looking for a movie to make you laugh, gasp, cringe, laugh and do it all over again, this is it!

Be a bad mom, today, Christmas and every day!

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