Life - The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

The Black Eyed Peas LA Concert

2010-03-30T22:37:00.000-07:00

It's 1.38am and I so wired. Wow, I was a little part of history. I attended a Black Eyed Peas Concert, tonight, that had a live feed to 400 some theaters spread out over the entire USA and some in Canada. I was at one of those theaters tonight with my girls. It was the first time that was ever done, and to top it off it was also filmed in 3D for later viewing I suppose. They only had one performance that was possible to be viewed like this. It was phenomenal, they went all out, over the top, huge stage, lighting was superb, the costumes were very obviously many fantasies that were fulfilled, and why the hell not, if you can. The costumes were very futuristic and superhero looking from cartoon to metal. I did notice a little sub-consciousness of Michael Jackson's influence, it was never spoken but very obviously felt and quite visible. Many of the costumes resembled Michael Jackson's personality and style.

Not to take the lime-light away from The Black Eyed Peas who did an amazingly entertaining job. I thoroughly enjoyed it and was not bored for a second. I am so very sorry that I did not make the actual live concert in Tampa Bay. Rock On...Tonight's Gonna Be A Good Night.

Clean Kids Rooms

2010-03-04T06:59:00.000-08:00

Is this hopeful, wishful thinking, unrealistic or simply never going to happen? We have rules in our house for the simple sake of sanity and some form of order and being able to find what you are looking for, when you are looking for it, and yes it would be nice to have clean clothes every day that smell of fresh linen and food on the table that isn't just mac 'n cheese or pizza. Making it to school or work on time and looking half way decent is a blissful feeling letting us tackle that spelling test.

My children are so loving, caring and all the good things children should be by nature, however for some odd reason their rooms are never clean, their chores are not done or at least not completely or rather half-heartedly...why? Is the complaining from me worth them not doing it? I doubt it, but the same story goes on, and on, and on, yes...and on.

I'm at a lose for anymore punishment, deprivements, arguments and debates...if anyone out there has any suggestions how to somehow have little people, care and want a somewhat orderly house, hence life. If everybody just does that little bit on their own then mom doesn't have to be the Big Bad Wolf. Somebody, anybody...we want your suggestions, please don't hold back and let us all know for the sake of our sanity. In the meantime I'm not going to clean up. Truly have a blissful day if this is at all possible.

Medical, Medical, Medical

2010-02-16T14:37:00.000-08:00

I thought this was going to be my first UGLY blog, but I was pleasantly surprised. I had 3 days of medical stuff going on this week. I could see it on my schedule, knew it was there obviously but every time I glanced over it I felt nasty. I used to be so afraid of the medical profession, was petrified of doctors. After having children, and the whole world and their friends have seen your entirety :)...nothing much shocks or scares me anymore, no not even needles.

So finally the week was upon me, the first was for my routine brain checkup, which sounds so mundane and ordinary, but quite the contrary, first an MRI and then an appointment with the Neurosurgeon whom I love, Dr Donald Smith who saved my life. Anyhow enough goosh, alright one more...this was the first time in 8 years that I was actually nervous. I peeked at the scans and thought I saw something. "Come on, look here", Dr. Smith said, and I followed him like a little school kid. My brain was up on the white board lit up like Broadway. "Your brain is perfectly normal. Everything seems to be fine.", oh my was I relieved. Phew. Done. He only wants to see me in 3 years, WHOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOO.

Very relieved, the next morning seemed easy going to Dr Ronald O'Neal, my wonderful dentist, to get 2 fillings. I love going there as I know they will take care of everything for me and to top things off, they are funny too. It's a no-brainer. Yes Doc, still flossing.

Wednesday, got dressed and my folks picked my up and off we went to my moms doctors appointment. I decided to give her some moral support. Her follow up with Dr. Springle was good news and she ended up going to him after she asked me who my doctor was. "He listens to you and cares." I told my mom, so he is now also her doctor. Afterwards my dad treated us to lunch and off we went our own way.

It all turned out well, I had made all the appointments first thing in the morning and once they were finished I hadn't booked any other appointments or chores for the day so they ended up being great catch-up days and actually quite productive.

So I guess going to the doctor or dentist isn't all that bad. If you guys have any tips for time-management on going to the doctor please share them with us and write a comment. Thanks for the lunch dad, mom glad everything is fine. :))) Love ya.

Vanoula Tzouroutis

Good Times at Being with MommaZine

2010-02-14T14:53:00.000-08:00

Seeing old friends, great wine with wonderful surroundings at Being celebrating the opening of MommaZine (from Moms from tots to teens) which we all love to read about fellow Momma's and their style of life and tips. It's full of wonderful information. I cannot wait for the 2nd issue to come out. MommaZine is also purse size for the convenience of always having it with you.

A little cold for Florida (St. Petersburg), I know, I know it has been really cold up north, but we are certainly not used to this much cold...but we all got warmly dressed and headed off to the opening.

It was Friday night at the Being Furniture Store which believes Being is the Art of Living a Beautiful & Inspired Lifestyle. Always inspiring and leaving you wanting more, an absolutely salivating collection of home goods.

Being has moved from Baywalk to 4th Street North. I drive past it every morning on my way home from dropping the kids off at school and vow to myself, "This week I will go look at the new location."...so I was so happy to hear that the event was going to be held there. I was surprised by all the new goodies they had and already have a list of things I want.

We were ushered to go visit the new store store next door called FIG (fine linens-interior necessities-garden accessories). Oh my, I thought I died and went to heaven. Sigh...I had to take a moment, St. Petersburg is so starved of this stature of style...simplicity, elegance with a realistic and livable luxe. The 2 stores compliment each other like house and home.

We shopped twice, listened to the author Charla Muller who spoke about her new book 365 Nights which was a nice surprise and very interesting, socialized and celebrated MommaZine. What a content feeling, I think that would be, "killing 5 birds with 1 stone". Going home I felt warm, yes warm and fuzzy, what a fulfilling evening and an entire long weekend ahead, don't you just love it?

My Cup Floweth Over with Euphoria

2010-01-09T11:41:00.000-08:00

No television, no cell, no computer for 2 full weeks, and no I didn't need Oprah's help. My family and I visited a mosque filled with marble, a record breaking size chandelier full of Swarovski crystals, the biggest Persian rug made by hand and breath-taking views of the detailed architecture. We later visited the Souk in the old Dubai area which was filled with local goodies from gorgeous pashmina's, handmade local embroidered shoes, old silver containers, embroidered bags, lots and lots of beads, objects made with love and care and full of beauty and color. We later ate at a local restaurant. Our local lunch was topped off with Morrocan tea which was remarkably clean feeling.

After the kids played the next day at the beach and our batteries were charged again, we headed off to Dubai for the day again. This time we went to the modern "western" mall. I thought, "Oh well another mall". Well, I thought America had it all, this made New York City look silly. We visited the biggest mall in the world. First stop was for coffee after an hours drive in the car with kids, we recharged again and marked off on the mall map were we all wanted to go as looking at the whole mall in a day was impossible. I have to mention I went to the biggest book store that I had ever seen, it was huge, superhuge, monsterous. We had lunch just outside the mall across from the man-made waterfront fresco style with a front and center view of the tallest building in the world which opened the day we flew out. It made the other tall buildings look like lego blocks. So, so space-age I was blown away, I love progress and this reminded me of a sci-fi show that I watched as a child and now there it was in front of me. All that was needed was a small spacecraft to fly in on one of the sides and park. At the end of a very successful shopping day we headed off to the same coffee shop with lots of bags in hand and beaming smiles from everybody. Another cup of coffee before we headed back to Abu Dhabi for a good nights sleep.

Wide awake and off we were to get our nails done, seems no matter where you are in the world, looking good and keeping well groomed is important. That night we went out sans kids and my sister-in-law treated us to drinks at the world famous Yaz Hotel which looked like we were on a space ship, even the staff looked futuristic. After an hour a driver picked us up and took us the The Chamas a Brazilian Grill Restaurant where we were treated to an amazing dinner with all types of meat and anti-pasta known. What a blissful feeling, good company and taste-bud-partying food, a saturated feeling in every aspect. Happy Birthday Steve and thank you Nicki, an unforgettable evening.

In between life had to carry on, so we headed of the local supermarket which is equivalent to our Walmart/Target. Lulu's...oh so much fun, in the checkout line there were French, German, British and the list goes on, such diversity in such a small country, but this means all sorts of accessibility to wonderful foods from all over the world. We had a blast shopping for groceries, who knew?

We thought a visit to United Arab of Emirates would not be complete without a look at The Royal Palace Hotel and their exhibit of the forthcoming Louvre, Guggenheim and several other humangus and never-tried-before buildings. The Louvre will resemble white lace and one of the other buildings have been modelled after a detailed version of a leaf to be built in white. This was so interesting as in my other life I did Architecture, so I thoroughly enjoyed this.

That night we had dinner at the Lebanese Flower Restaurant, oh my was this delicious. Falafel, kofta lots of olives, garlic spread (beware whoever did not have any) and lots of salads topped off with Arabic coffee.

Our cherry on the top of this vacation was a camp in the desert. My mom asked me, "Which hotel did you stay in?". I had to explain to my mom there was nothing, nothing, nothing but you the sun, sand, a GPS and two 4 x 4's. We saw camel tracks, other brave campers tire tracks, lots of dunes the which took 20 minutes to climb with a proud exercise in the English language. Yes...I finally made it up just before the sun went down to have sun-downers with my husband, Steve and Nicky. What a breathtaking view. The kids Summer, Skylar, Josh and Ben were forming a club on the other sand dune and where collecting pebbles for trading. As the sun went down Steve went down the dune on a snow sleigh, Sean opted to go down as is on his butt, collected lots of sand in places you don't want sand, and I took super large steps and ran down, it felt like I was walking on the moon, I felt so very skinny as I felt very light, while the sand made a barking sound with every step, deep and pretty loud. This was my first experience at camping and it wasn't bad at all considering Steve and Nicki had done this many times before, each family had a tent with air-matresses hence the bedrooom, a sisel mat bordered the kitchen which had a 4 seater table for the kids to eat, a 5 gallon container held fresh water, a huge picnic basket held all the plates and so forth, and a huge basket held all the marshmellows, chestnuts, olives, coffee and the list goes on. The best food of the night was the casserole that Nicki had prepared before hand by Jamie Oliver based on a recipe in The Ministry of Food (which I could not find in the USA and was forced to get it from Amazon UK, I cannot wait for it to arrive), and was cooked on the great fire that we all huddled around to keep warm and eat this wonderful casserole, it was delish. :) Nicki was clever enough to bring glow-in-the-dark bracelets for the kids who had fun to no end with them.

When Steve called about 6 months ago and said this might be our last Christmas here you guys need to visit, I was reluctant. Considering it's location I was hesitant, the news was constantly bad about the Middle East and it had a big black mark to the Americans, so it made me think more than twice. After uhmming and ahhing we actually went for the winter break of 2009-2010. I am so glad we did it, we saw a part of the world I never thought I would see, didn't cook a meal in 2 weeks, or do any housework and had no electronic gadgets except the photographic camera. What an amazing trip, I feel more patient, more kind, better paced and don't feel guilty to do for myself first sometimes. Many, many thanks for coaxing us to visit, Steve and Nicky, and for showing us Abu Dhabi and Dubai like no-one else would have. Thank you for showing us so much love and being exited about the adventure and our visit. ps: The girls already miss the boys and the trampoline.
by Vanoula Tzouroutis

I Feel Human Again

2009-11-16T10:13:00.000-08:00

I truly enjoyed this weekend just past. My mom and dad watched the kids and my husband and I went away to Mount Dora for the weekend to celebrate our 20th anniversary.

We slept in late, ate a hearty breakfast, shopped, ate some more, shopped again, watched movies, slept, and ate,for 2 full days. I feel full in every aspect. I feel human again. Yes, give it to yourself anyway you can, fill up that cup, demand it if you have to dammit.

That's it, all it took was 2 days of bliss, time to dress decently, brush you hair just once more and apply lip-gloss that one extra time during the day, because you're not scrambling for some-one else. After all this selfishness I was so happy to see my girls again.

For Christmas, all I want are 2 more day just for my husband and I. Thank-you Santa, I'll be waiting in anticipation.

A Night with MJ, Lola, Duchess & Contessa

2009-11-04T18:47:00.000-08:00

Wooooooooooooo.....wooooooooooooo.....woooooooooooo. Wow, what an effortless dancer, unpredictable dresser, creative performer, humble soul, absolute perfectionist to the second, lover of new heights and expectations, crotch holding, extremely agile, skinny-skinny, musically patient, natural singer and such a suprisingly beautifully mannered man.

5 Days ago I bought tickets for Lola, Duchess, Contessa and myself, Vanoula Tzouroutis, to see the "This Is It." movie. Yesterday at 10am I started texting, "You have me working day and night" to Lola, Duchess and Contessa. Not a very obvious song title of Michael Jackson, and after speaking to them later they thought I had sent the text to them by mistake. I did want them to be a little confused though.

The next hour I thought I should make it a little more obvious..."We are the world". Slowly I started getting Michael Jackson song titles coming back to me. I sent one text out every hour to my 3 friends till 5pm, then started all over again this morning with more titles, leading up to the last one which I sent them just before we walked into the theatre..."This Is It".

An amazing artist who silently commanded the best. I did leave the theatre feeling happy though, I found myself smiling a lot during the movie. What a Thriller of an evening it was and I got to share it with Lola, Duchess and Contessa. You all know who you really are. Thank you for making me feel like I was 15 all over again. Popcorn anyone?

Vanoula Tzouroutis - November, 4, 2009