Mama's Night Out

I got invited to a Mama's night out and joined the MAMA TRIBE 2010.

I received an evite with a picture of some very sexy high heels stating that it was time to leave the kids with Daddy and head out for a night of restorative yoga at inYOGA Center. This place was amazing!!! What a studio, with amazing bathrooms including a shower. It has a great boutique fully stocked with clothes incense, jewelry and of course anything you might need for a class of Yoga. Fantastic furniture. A dinner table that I would die for, perfect for my huge family and made of solid wood. Leather chairs I also wish I could have, big enough to share, which I did, or snuggle up with a blanket and read for hours. The studio offers teas, water and tangerines for the patrons. The actual studio was huge and so beautiful. I urge you to check them out. They are located in Valley Village and have classes for everyone and every level including prenatal and I am sure you can guess mommy & me classes. www.inyogacenter.com They have an amazing promo right now for all new inYoga students $30 for 15 days unlimited yoga. 

It started with mamas coming in one by one, can anyone believe I arrived on time and actually early. I was the first one there and saw the gifts lined up. All the moms were so friendly and nice and before long we were sharing parenting stories. It was incredible to be surrounded by all these moms. I had never joined any mommy and me classes so this was an entirely new experience for me. Caitlin Reid was our yoga instructor. She stayed late for our private party and lead our class that started around 9pm. She was really amazing, it was a beautiful class, she played close attention to our form especially to the pregnant moms, offering modifications in poses if needed. It was a class filled with mommy energy, and at the end of the class I felt entirely relaxed and and felt disappointed for not practicing on a more regular basis.

This was followed by healthy treats like Vietnamese spring rolls, Thai papaya salad, crispy egg rolls fried in grape seed oil and Mexican hummus with pita bread. We were asked to bring a bottle of wine to share. Oh and these ladies brought some excellent wines. Each wine glass was given a pretty blue circle with a stick back that you could hand write your name and attach to your glass. I really enjoyed myself talking it up. I was not the first or the last to leave and if you are a mom with a toddler you can understand just how tired you can be by 11. To top the evening off we were gifted a incredibly wrapped set of handmade earrings by CheliJewelry Cheli Jewelry.com. Check out the pictures. Wow!

I was told that these go with any skin tone &  outfit.

Thanks

Koko's Turkey Roasted & Carved 

This year has been a crazy year for me. Every year probably is but I am writing about 2010 baby. The holidays were amazing. I enjoyed myself with family. I started early this year (Wednesday) and it was actually refreshing! I cleaned and applied all my seasonings to my 25lb bird early afternoon. Roasted my turkey and it was finished at about 1am. I woke up at 6:30 but stayed in bed until 7:00 when my niece called my cell to ask if we were still volunteering at the Pasadena Union Station Dinner in the Park, but it was actually late breakfast time.  We specifically volunteered through my good friend, (Fight Academy) Rahima's company Loopnet provided the Kids Zone. We got there early, I am starting to like arriving on time :) Ok back to the topic! I really was a worker bee and I unloaded, set up and supervised. Supervising included picking up trash. hehe But really, it was amazing experience. So many many volunteers! Loopnet provided all the supplies, cotton candy, temporary tattoos, face painting, huge jumper, gift bags, beading and those plastic looking beads you melt with an iron to make a specific shape. Fight Academy supplied the muscle, they carried the bouncer and cotton candy machine and the generators since it was Thanksgiving and the supply company was closed and delivered the day before.  It almost feels wrong saying that I had fun, but I really did. Bella spent hours making cotton candy,  she was covered in it. On her hair, on her hat and on her clothes. We headed home around noon & Richie was in the process of getting ready to deep fry his 13lb turkey and dozen turkey legs.MMMMmmmm. 

Richie's Deep Fried Turkey 13lbs

I cleaned up after and sanitized our kitchen from all that raw turkey. Close to 60lbs of turkey!!!!! gobble gobble. It actually took a while. Then we packaged all the food , loaded the car then headed to my sisters. 

Weeeeee Gave my mom all the drippings and other ingredients so she can make her bomb gravy!! Oh yeah and Wondee (mom-in-law) made spicy garlic green beans. So good. We ate and since it was my family, boy did we drink. Oh while I was heating the stuffing, I burnt my fingers good. It burned until 9:30. I sprayed it with some numbing stuff, I think it worked. I have not burned my finger tips in so many years. BOY DID IT BURN... THAT DEEP BURN. We headed to Richie's uncles for 2nd dinner around 5:30 with an ice pack in hand. We arrived 7 minutes late, remember I am getting used to this whole "on time thing". I have a problem with SEVERELY under-estimating the time it actually takes to do anything. I also have this inherited awful habit of pulling the finale out of my bootie at the last minute, saving myself just by the hair of my chinnie chin chin, had a talk with my brother aka ladies man about this and we are both trying to change change change it!!! Back to the subject.... 


Dinner of course was the BOMB at Loongti's. omg.. And we ate again. And......... we drank so more. I was stuffed! I did not have any room for dessert at all and yes for the first time in my entire life, I unbuttoned my pants. Hehe. The AZ cousins, 2/3 came to dinner and we chatted. The girls were girls and the boys were boys. The girls talked it up and the boys video gamed it up. Bells was a floater.  Since my fingers were burned, I could not possibly help clean up. :( I actually still tried.hehehe At 11:30 we made our way home.  It was a night! Richie and I un-winded and the girls slept. I am thankful to be loved by so many. My sister loves me and has that unconditional love for me. I can go through those sappy Sister Birthday cards, and they actually apply to my sister. My brother aka ladies man is the one brother of five that I actually speak to and can depend on and has my back like scary crazy cool brother. His daughters are beautiful and amazing in very different ways. My nephews aka my first born are amazing! They are all so super duper smart! I love them! But to discuss being thankful, I now have a teenage daughter who was recently flirting with a much older boy, I had not until that moment felt like a "real" grown-up, I suddenly wanted her to have all the opportunities I did not and avoid the less desirable choices I had made. I want her to know that we are a team. We are and will always be. I really really love my family and I really love my planet, earth. I care about animals. I love kids and old people. I went to college, including nights to be able to work, have a baby and go to school. I had my daughter at 19. I got  a job at a birth center while in college so that I could get my birth for 50% off. I had a drug free birth, took care of  my daughter, went to school and worked more than part time. I kicked butt, not because I was trying to prove something but because I saw my goal & everything in the middle was just what I needed to do to get where I needed to be. I actually had a social life believe it or not. All of that is thanks to my family who would baby-sit so I could study or go out to a bar to celebrate passing a test with my classmates. I have been with my man since I was 15 and we have had so many hiccups along the way. But at the time... I was one of the youngest chiropractors to graduate from my college at age 25 and I did it all with a baby! I studied and studied, I had 28-32 units a trimester! that is double what is considered a full time student (12-15 units) and I was in school 50% more since I was on the trimester schedule not the standard semester schedule. Passed 4 parts of the national board exam, Not to mention while in school was working on my fellowship in pediatrics and pregnancy so that I could save 50% approx. 5 thousand dollars and studied and passed that exam. I also volunteered coaching kids play sports at the local rec center for several years. I traveled our country playing basketball in the Chiropractic Olympics once a year, including Iowa, Texas and New York. I hiked 29 miles of the Appalachian Trail. Got married in Costa Rica and loved Thailand, swimming in clear turquoise water and visiting my family in Mexico swimming in fresh water and the most beautiful fish. We live in a Beautiful World! I traveled this planet which has changed me crazy!! Traveled to Bali, working on 100's of bodies and witnessing miracles! I am now a pediatric chiropractor. I own my own business and we survived the economy. I am so thankful that I am where I am. I have evolved. Many of my circle have also evolved and my circle has evolved very much, but to get to the point, I was pregnant at 18, had my baby at 19, was a DC at 25, Opened my own business at 26. Incorporated at 27. I am now 32. I have 2 kids, a man I have been with for 16 years(1/2 my life) and a 50% business owner. I can honestly say it was not easy, but I never gave myself an alternative. I can not say whether or not this was a good thing but I can say it is my life and I am thankful.