Isabella Fiore: Because I deserve it

Isabella Fiore Embellished Leather Hobo in Cream, $875

Every year on my birthday, my husband claims he never knows what to get me. In the past, he has bought me chocolates or sent me to a spa for the day, because that's what he thinks I like. Those things are all good, but I would prefer a gift that is more tangible. A gift that won't disappear after I eat it or after the nail polish from the mani pedi at the spa has chipped away. This year, I want a designer handbag. This stud muffin from Isabella Fiore will do just fine. Whites and creams are in for spring, and this handbag is just the ultimate accessory to complement any outfit.

The skinny bug spreads to Pakistan

"These models look hungry, feed them!"


Just take a look at these models from Bargello Shop modelling the latest in Pakistani fashions. They are all skinny as a rail with no muscle tone. Apparently, this is what most of the girls in Pakistan look like, it's the "ideal look". Pakistani fashion boutiques don't sell Ready-to-Wear fashions in anything larger than a size 10. If you are bigger than a size 10, you need to haul your hefty butt to to a tailor who will custom make clothes for you.

My husband recently went to Pakistan to visit his family, and tried really hard to buy me a shalwar kameez suit from one of the trendy boutiques. Nearly all of them said, sorry we don't carry her size. Only one boutique, Maria B., seemed to empathize and altered their size L shirt to fit me.

Why has it come to this? They might as well hang a sign on their front door that says "Sorry we don't carry fat sizes." Is a size 12 really that big?

To make matters worse, I got a call from my Mom the other day. It started out pretty typical with a "Hi, how are the kids, blah blah blah," then she got to the point and said, "Actually, the real reason I'm calling you is to tell you that you are fat, you are starting to look like an "Auntie"(transalation: a woman as old as your mother whose plump body shows clear evidence she has had kids and didn't do anything to get her body back) and you are too young to look like that yet. You should look like a "larki" ( transalation: young girl with perky everything). You need to get get your body back and join a gym that has babysitting. Find out what the rate is, I'll pay for the membership."

My mother is very blunt (ya think?), but I know deep inside she has good heart with good intentions. She reminds me very much of Joy Behar from "The View". She is of the philosophy, "I'm your mother, if I don't tell you the truth, who will?"

My cousin in Pakistan was like "Why don't you just lose weight? Then you will be able to fit into boutique clothes." Okay, I get the message. I know I've been obsessing a little to much with handbags to avoid the fact that I still haven't lost the baby weight, mainly because I'm too tired and sleep deprived to even think of stepping on an elliptical. When the kids go down for a nap, I feel like napping too. But starting today I'll make an effort to eat right and start exercising. But who will eat my kids leftover mac n' cheese and tater tots? My mother's response, "If you want to lose weight don't be a garbage can." Now this statement, albeit a blunt statement, actually made sense. Thanks Mom for not beating around the bush and telling it like it is. I don't want to look like these models, but I'll be happy to get down to a healthy size 8.

Pedestrians have the right of way, bitch!

I've really got to stop swearing in front of my kids! Today we had another highly caffeinated playdate with the train set at Barnes and Nobles. As we attempted to cross the parking lot from B&N back to our minivan, this woman driving in her car refused to stop for us, even though we were already in the middle of the road. Even though I knew she couldn't hear me, I yelled to the back of her car "Can't you see we're crossing the road bitch?!" My son chimed in, "yeah, you bitch!" followed by "you asshole!" Out came the a-word again, I don't know how to erase this from his vocabulary. Why can't I keep a clamp on my tongue in front of the kids in the first place to keep them from hearing such words?

The woman in the car is long gone now, but I am still so furious. How can you not stop the car when you see a mom, holding the hands of three little children, crossing the road right in front of you? I excused my son's torrets this time, but on the drive home tried to explain how we're not supposed to say bad words. I'm such a hypocrite.

Best Dress

I know tomorrow there are going to be tons of opinions by the fashionistas as to who was a hit and who was a miss, but I think all will agree that Michelle Williams had one of the best dresses of the night. I love how she paired a red lipstick with a mustard yellow dress. The design looks great on her, I can't believe she just had a baby a few months ago. She looks really great for a new mom.

The Dress


The train in the back (I love this!)

photo source: Yahoo Photos

Now that's a necklace!

Kiera Knightly definitely takes the cake for the evening's best bling. That necklace is amazing. It looks like a bejeweled peacock, and I don't mean that in a sarcastic way![photo source]

Blogger Urban Legends

Did you hear about the one where the blogger revealed so much personal information about herself that a psycho killer showed up at her house, and raped and murdered her?

Or the pedophile, that scoured mommy blogs for pictures of little children so he could use them inappropriately, or even worse, kidnap the children?

Stories like this scare the hell out of me and made me a little hesitant about starting a blog in the first place, but we can't let stories like this force us into cocoons and prevent us from writing about what we love. We just need to be careful about how much information we wish to reveal about ourselves while still managing to enjoy communicating with the majority of the good, well-intentioned people in our blogosphere.

I encourage everyone to read this wonderful article written by fellow blogger Darren Rowse. It details his experience with a cyberstalker and how you can protect yourself from having a similar experience happen to you.

Blog Stalkers - Personal Safety for Bloggers

Sick from my own cooking!

Well, the husband finally got back from Pakistan and we are all back home now. I spent the last couple days just unpacking and settling back into the house. My son had been asking me to make him meatloaf and mashed potatoes for dinner because he saw Caillou eat it on TV. I had a feeling he wouldn't like it (extremely picky eater), but I humoured him anyway and made it. I'm not really that good at making meatloaf, the only kind of food I can cook is Pakistani or Italian, or limited American food like roasted chicken with rosemary and thyme, but I tried it using a recipe from a cooking magazine. As expected, the kids didn't even touch the meatloaf, it looked too scary (I must have really f*kd it up) and they only ate the mashed potatoes. The husband didn't touch the meatloaf because an egg was used as an ingredient and he doesn't like food that uses eggs as an ingredient (yet he eats fried eggs, egg salad, pancakes, brownies, and pasta carbonara with no problem! You can see where the kids get their picky eating habits from.)

So I ended up eating a good portion of the meatloaf myself because I didn't want to waste the 1 1/2 pounds of ground beef I spent so much time preparing. Big mistake! I spent all of last night feeling sick. I tried to throw up but couldn't even though I was feeling naseous. My obsessive compulsive fear of vomiting and making a mess of myself probably was a big hinderance. This morning while the husband was getting ready for work, I tried throwing up again, but it wasn't happening. Husband tried to gross me out and couldn't understand why I had such a hard time throwing up, "just make yourself gag, models do it all the time," he said. Um yeah, I'm not a model, and I am so desensitized by my kids vomiting all the time that even the thought of puking is not making me throw up. So now I'm just drinking black tea (milk lessens the effects of the anti-oxidants, so I'm skipping that for now) and I'm eating Saltines until I feel better. I really feel for my kids now when they have the stomach flu. The last thing you want to do it eat food when you're feeling nauseated and all I usually do when the kids are sick is keep asking "do you want to eat something?". I won't do that again. I threw out the meatloaf this morning, it was too gross. It's safe to say this is the last time I will ever attemp to make meatloaf at home. I don't know why I bothered to make it in the first place when I could've just ordered the entire meal from Boston Market, but I was attempting to be a "good mom" who makes homemade food for her kids. Forget it. My kids entire menu of acceptable foods can be found in the freezer section of the grocery store: Stouffer's mac n' cheese, chicken nuggets, fries, pizza, tater tots. The only thing that I can cook at home and know they will eat is pasta (just butter and parmesan cheese please, NO SAUCE!) and Pakistani rice dishes like chicken pilau or mattar pilau. I try to give them variety by cooking different things for them sometimes, but I don't know why I even bother. All I hear is "I don't like this, can I have something else?" all the freaking time. Meanwhile, I get sick from my own cooking!