Welcome to the Wonderful World of Jen

I am skipping class next Monday night because I will be here instead:

THE SHERO AWARDS featuring QUEEN LATIFAH
Celebrating the pivotal role of women in our Community.

Monday, October 15 at 8pm

Queen Latifah, one of the most prominent female performers on the scene for over a decade has made tremendous inroads in movies, television, and music with a Grammy Award and five additional Grammy nominations, an Emmy Award nomination and an Academy Award nomination. In addition, she runs an artist management company, Flavor Unit. A role model who takes the responsibility to heart, Latifah helps celebrate the first ever SHERO Awards!

The first SHERO Awards honors Suzanne F Cohen of the Baltimore Museum of Art and other local women, the un-sung “Sheros,” for their contributions of time, talent and treasure to their community. In addition, scholarships based on a demonstrated commitment to community service will be awarded.

I will be there because my mom is one of the local Baltimore Sheros - she was nominated by Girl Scouts for Outstanding Volunteer Service and she won!!!  GOOO MOMMY!!!!!

Well, I wasn't supposed to be back until Thursday, but things went differently then we thought they would yesterday, so I am back today already!

This was a good weekend. (Well, except for one thing. We found out my 17 year old cousin is in the hospital because both of his lungs collapsed. The doctors basically have no idea what happened to the kid. They did emergency surgery on Saturday and stapled his lungs together--I think--and he's in the ICU right now. We have NO idea what his prognosis looks like. It's scary....) After I had lunch with David on Friday, I headed over to The Boy's house. We ran some errands together and then went to dinner at Red, Hot and Blue (YUMMMMMMMMM) before stopping at BlockBuster on the way home. We got "Hercules" (Disney version) to watch with his sis, who was one hurting puppy on Friday night. I got a GORGEOUS pair of opal earrings to match my necklace from two years ago, which was so sweet of him.

On Saturday I packed up stuff and headed home to mom and dad's house. G and Jes joined us for dinner, then G and I made a very "Trading Spaces" ottoman for my living room that I think is super cute. I couldn't fit it in my car today with everything else, so I'll have to get it tomorrow, but I will take pictures so everyone else can see the cuteness, too. ;) We also dyed Easter eggs, which turned out awesome. Those pictures will also be posted soon, hopefully!

Sunday G met Jes and I at church, while mom and dad sang in the choir. After church, we headed over to Deale for brunch with my dad's friends. Then it was back home to open our Easter baskets, then off to Balmer for Easter dinner with my mom's friends.

Yesterday I had off from work, so I was home. When my morning plans got changed, mom and I decided to go SHOPPING! We met up with KT and Miss Heidi and found KT's prom shoes and then went a bunch of other places. I took them to lunch at Chipotle, which was the first time any of them had ever had it, and they really liked it. We spent the rest of the night at Miss Heidi's eating yummy food and hanging out, which was fun.

Today I am back at work, but since I was prepared to not be here, I don't really have anything to do! I have a group coming in tonight, but I don't need to be here since everything is all set for them to let themselves in. I've discovered that when you work for a church, the week before a church holiday is slow because everyone is prepping for it and the week after is slow because everyone is recovering from it! But that can be nice, since I don't have to worry about being crazy busy today.

I need some suggestions....

We are looking to do a family reunion with my mom's brothers and sisters "before Grandma dies" which they have been warning about for years now. But anyway, we are looking for something not TOO expensive in a warm place. Possibly in January, but anytime between late Aug. and, well, next summer. March could also be a good possibility with spring break. We will have kiddos from about 6-12, a high schooler, possibly my sister, me, my mom's sibs, and my grandma, who is not super mobile. So there needs to be enough to do to keep the kiddos entertained, yet not a crazy active place that grandma needs to be running around.

Initial ideas were the FL keys or NC, but that puts us in hurricane season, so that might get vetoed. If you are thinking that, too, any ideas on how to find a big ol' beach house in those areas? Any other ideas??

Vegas rocked.

We went in almost every casino on the strip:
*The Wynn (new $3 Billion dollar one that was GORGEOUS)
*The Bellagio (and its fountain show)
*The Mirage (and its light/fountain volcano show)
*Treasure Island (went to Kahunaville for drinks and got TANKED but missed the pirate ship show)
*Cesear's Palace (damn that mall is LONG)
*New York, New York (can't think of anything for this one)
*The Flamingo (it has PINK windows!!!)
*Excalibur (where mom won $23 on a quarter slot machine)
*MGM Grand (where you could pay $200 cash to hold a baby lion for 5 minutes)
*Paris (went up in the Eiffel Tower)
*Imperial Palace (where we stayed and went to the Auto Collection)
*The Venetian (can't think of anything for this one either)
*Harrah's (where Jes won $6 on a penny slot machine)
*Alladin (where Miss America contest was the day we left)

We saw two shows:
*Cirque du Soleil's Mystere at Treasure Island - AWESOME! It was all about dance and acrobatics and elaborate costumes and opera music that reminded me of The Fifth Element. Grandma kept falling asleep but I kept poking her awake since she really wanted to see this one.
*Blue Man Group at The Venetian - AWESOME! Most of their show was about music and lights and they played a lot of PVC-made instruments. Grandma kept falling asleep (despite the fact that they handed out EARPLUGS since it was so loud!!) but we let her sleep through this one!

We went to one nightclub: (well, Jes and I did)
*Studio 54 in MGM Grand - Fun until the house music came on. I don't understand why DJ's take perfectly good dancing songs and muck them up so you can't even find a beat. The average age of the patron in this club was probably 45 and to see them try to dance to a trancey/ravey kind of music was quite entertaining.

We did a buffet almost every day we were there:
*A few at the Imperial Palace because it was there and convenient.
*One at The Bellagio which was HEAVEN. Oh my. One of the best offerings of food I have EVER had. I took much pictures of just our desserts, which were sooo yummy.

The weather was ok...mostly in the 50's, but not rainy, so that was good.

All in all...FABULOUS trip!! I had a blast. =)

My little sister is now 21!!!!

As Erik wrote on her card, "Hide the children, the McClurg's are drinking as a team!!!"

Last night was so very fun celebrating Seeby's birthday.

We leave for Las Vegas on Wednesday morning.

What a super week!!!

Well I had a pretty painful Thanksgiving....

First my sister ran me into a wall (accidentally) and almost broke my elbow, then my mom was cooking gravy on the stove and dropped a lid from another pot into the boiling gravy pot and then that fell on the floor and sent gravy flying everywhere...all over me. So my fancy outfit and I went into a cold shower together. *Sigh* But I only have a tiny little spot on my arm from the grave fiasco and my elbow still freakin hurts from my abusive sister. ;)

We had a great day, though. Twelve people over for dinner, then G joined us for dessert (with homemade peppermint bark--YUM!!!) so we had 13 people around the table. Crazy!!! For dessert Jes and I ended up sharing a chair since we couldn't fit another one around the table.

All in all, it was a good day, hanging out with the fam and the boy, watching "The Incredibles", eating waaaaaaaaaay too much food!!