A Belated Valentines Day Post

Well,  I will be honest, we are still kind of in a fog after Charley's surgery. It seems the more he heals the more miserable he is getting! So I am sitting here still in my pajamas watching Disney's Enchanted (what can I say, my son likes musicals!) and writing this post. 

Seems like and eternity ago that Joe and I enjoyed our Valentine's dinner! 

Do you remember voting on these?:

Well, the winning look was: Ensemble #3 with Hair and Makeup from #2. So that is what I wore on our Romantic night out!

We went to The Melting Pot, which is a fondu restaurant and it is REALLY yummy! 

We didn't get any full body shots because I forgot, and quite frankly I looked way better in this dress in the earlier photos I took. I had to stuff my pregnant body in this little size 4 and my ta-ta's were screaming to be let out! 

See what I mean!? I was risking total humiliation every time I moved my arm....Joe didn't seem to mind.

I am looking at these pictures and I am jealous of myself! This food was so delicious! 

So let this post be proof that I followed through with my Valentine's day "get out of my funk" challenge! And I thank you for participating in it! 

What I Wore, Anniversary Edition

It's time for another What I Wore Wednesday!  I know if you haven't done this before you might think it is silly and vain to take pictures of yourself and post them on the interenet for the world to see.  And you're probably right.  But another thing that it does is forces you (in a very fun way, of course...) to actually change out of the sweats you were planning on wearing to the gym {but didn't quite make it} and put on something cute.  If you have a husband, you might do it for him, but a lot of us women kinda do it for us.  It makes me feel better and cuter when I put a little effort into what I look like.  Vain?  Maybe.  But whatever.  I got out of my pajamas.

yes, I am Amazon woman. I am already 6' tall and then I go and wear 5 in heals. Sorry, short people.

Var and I went to see Captain America.  It was really good.  I liked it a lot.  And believe it or not, my 6'7" black Bahamian basketball player of a husband is secretly a big comics nerd.  So yes, I {or I should say he} sees every super hero movie out there.  B flicks included.

This was a fun last minute 'do I through together to look decent. It worked and I liked it.  The necklace is from Africa!  Check out my post here on The Nakate Project or you can go directly to their site.  Oh and the husband and I are doing a photo shoot for them this weekend! I am so excited!  Except I am so not a model... Should be interesting

If you follow me on Twitter or saw my 'marriage advice' post last week, you know that my husband and I celebrated our 4 year anniversary!  FOUR YEARS!  Just kidding, I know that's just baby talk in anniversary language.  But hubs went above and beyond to make is special which was SHOCKING, but lovely. 

We started the morning with Denny's breakfast.  I was sitting at our kitchen table about to take a bite of Cheerios and he comes down stairs and says 'put that down, we're going out.'  I had just planned to take my friends kid for the morning, she's 7 months pregnant, and I was going to a friends house to have the kids swim.  Whelp, my mom swooped in and took the boys and we were off.  I got ready super fast {hence the fedora to cover bad hair} and we didn't return again until the next morning!  If we had music playing in the background, it could have been a movie.

We got our nails done after breakfast.  Yes, husband too, which was awesome.  Awesomely funny.  They had to whip out the power tools for this guy.  Like seriously, Dumb and Dumber stuff right here.  The poor lady working on him was pregnant too!!  I felt so bad for her, she got the biggest tip.

Then we got a couples massage where he fell asleep and I conquered the world {in my head}.  It was sooooo relaxing.  Although I would have liked to fall asleep.  After that we headed out to Westlake, a very beautiful community with a very beautiful hotel.  He got us a room there!  What?? Who is this man and where is the one I married?  Wait.  Scratch that.  I'll take this one.

We went to Universal City Walk, had yummy dinner at Bubba Gump's and saw Friends with Benefits, which was funny, in case you were wondering.  What a lovely day.

heading out to date night

Well, gosh, after that my life isn't that interesting.  This dress I wore on an out and about day with the fam bam.  It is comfy and light-weight and perfect for summer.  The hair was fun to do because you tease like there is no tomorrow.  I'll have to show you sometime.

Here is a better view of the hair.  Tease, tease, tease headbands, puff the hair, tease the pony, wrap it around, pin the bun.  Okay, I'll do a video, I promise!

Oh and I found the perfect photo for the Summer Loving' Photo Contest on Friday.  No, I am not entering my own contest, but it will motivate you all to enter yours!!  It is super awesome, can't wait!  Get yours ready!

Oh and a quick shout out to all my Facebook buddies.  I super duper appreciate the feedback on my name over here at Ma Nouvelle Mode.  Like super duper duper thanks.  You're all awesome.

Have a great day!

My Marriage Advice

My husband and I are celebrating 4 looong, glorious years of marriage today.  And because 4 years of marriage is more than most Hollywood couples, I feel like I am qualified to give everyone marriage advice.  So here you go.  :)

1.) Wives, learn to cook.  Didn't your momma ever tell you the quickest way to a man's heart is through his stomach??  That's how I bagged my man! (seriously not. Could not cook when we first were married)

2.)  Be easy.  Now I know I am married to an islander, but just relax ladies!  Life will not always perfect and those fairytale-endings you read when you were younger aren't true!  Your prince may have come, but I am guessing he took longer to get here and has a little more junk in the trunk! (not to mention he probably doesn't have a castle!)

3.)  Keep things spicy.  I like to keep it real.  Few ideas for ya: surprise him by wearing his shirt when he comes home from work.  Read my post on how to pick him up from the airport.  Breakfast in bed.  Get a babysitter without telling him and let him come home to you wearing something... nice.  You get the idea.

4.) Just because he is quiet doesn't mean there is something wrong.

5.)  Sometimes it is okay for you to be quiet.  Even if the only person you have talked to all day is a 4-year-old who repeated the same questions 50 times. 

6.)  Be respectful.  Men dig respect.  And I don't mean like bow every time he walks in, but respect his choices in the house. 

7.) LAUGH!  At yourself, at him, at your kids.  Keep things light, it helps keep fights to a minimum.

8.) Most importantly (for me at least) look to yourself first.  It isn't always easy, but before blaming and getting angry at him, try to see what you might have done and try to work on yourself.  After all, you can only control your own actions!

Well, that's all I got.  Maybe in another 4 years I will have 8 more things to tell you!  Love your man, ladies!

Var, I know it isn't always easy, and I might drive you crazy sometimes, but thank you for sticking with it and always trying to be better.  Here's to another 4 looong years.  Love you!

Date Night

Last night I got to go on a date with my husband.  I was exciting on many levels.  One, it had been too long since our kids were sick.  Two, I wanted to have a good reason to wear a cute outfit (not just walking to the post office).  Three, I wanted to have a reason to try to do something different with my hair.  So here is what I came up with. 



My husband is cute, I promise, he just loves to make weird faces in my pictures!





A picture of my eye makeup

 I love playing around with hair, although I often don't have a lot of time.  Well I made it a point yesterday to do something different with my hair.  I had seen this on the Amazing Race (Like, my favorite show ever!) one of the girls had the front up like this and I wanted to try it. 



Excuse the face, I didn't want to smile and I didn't want to try to look sexy, so I made a face. Just dorky!

 For the hair, I just teased it right in front and pinned the Snooki-poof back.  Then the side I took just in the front and twisted them up and pinned them with the poof.  I liked it because I hate my ears, and it didn't show how bad they usually stick out!  I think this pic is after my son was grabbing something and messed with the poof a little bit. But oh well, I am sure you could do better!

Here is my outfit.  Please ignore the weird pose and picture.  My husband was hungry and not interested in taking a long time taking pics.  I didn't even get the jacket and scarf off.  Oh well.  I am wearing Target leggings, Payless shoes, european dress I got for 40% off! belt that came with another shirt, and the scarf was a gift from my mom.  The jacket is also european, like 40 euros I think.

We walked down little streets like this to get to the restaurant.  I love little French streets, they are so pretty and old.  We don't really have anything like it in America.  It was a little rainy, but thankfully, not too cold. 

And I ate this.  It was a buffet, gotta have buffet with the husband, and it was good.  I are almost everything on the plate plus dessert of course.  mmmm  I want to do it again tonight!