Happy Thanksgiving!!

This year we celebrated Thanksgiving with one of my great friends Christie and her girls. She's going through a particularly hard time right now being separated and transitioning once again. I felt it particularly important to make sure we were all together for the holiday.  I cooked a big turkey which was so moist it fell of the bone! So we don't have a picture of the turkey in it's full glory but we have pics of everything we ate :-)  All in all it was a great day...got to watch Eat, Pray, Love together while the kids played and ended the night well.

our carved turkey lol

Lenah, Jo & Ella

Name Cards 

 Sean, the girls dad being silly

Cheryll laid out lol

Happy Thanksgiving 2010 lol 

So many things we've done...so little time to blog!!

Kinda bummed that it's taken me soooo long to get back to blogging. I have to be more committed to blogging consistently. I have good intentions...but life just sort of sneaks up on you in that way that leaves you scratching your head all bewildered wondering how time got away from you again!

So here's a recap of what's happened since my absolutely-most-fantastic-birthday-ever!  WE WENT TO OAHU HAWAII!  WHAT WHAT!! lol LOVED IT!  I have the best fiancée in the world!  She booked this trip for us in September, which was supposed to be an early b-day gift for Jordan but I have to admit that I was still in glorious birthday/engagement mode so I kinda felt that the trip was still all for me :-)

I so want to live in Hawaii one day.  It is just as beautiful as they show in the movies and on TV and in print ads...truly paradise!

Here are some pics from our trip:

We stayed at the Hilton Hawaiian Village in Honolulu on Waikiki Beach

Appropriately named the Rainbow Tower just for us! lol

View from our room

Jo at dinner the night of arrival

Pool time!

It was beautiful weather! 80's every day!

 We decided our "married" last name over drinks and a coin toss! haha

 Byodo-In Temple

Giovannis Original White Shrimp Truck - oh yea!!!

Dole Plantation

Luau Dinner at the Polynesian Cultural Center

HA! Breath of Life show

Cheryll chillin'

While we were in Honolulu we met with a stylist at Nordstom's to pick out some cocktail dresses/shoes for my Pfizer work gala which was the day after we returned. I'll blog about that in a separate post :-)

All in all...Hawaii was EXCELLENT!!

JUST ENGAGED AGAIN!! Birthday Brunch AND CHERYLL'S PROPOSAL TO ME!!!!!

WOW! YES! AMAZING!

I knew she was up to something!  I kept telling our friends I just knew something was up. See...some call it sneaky, snoopy...I call it intuition and being highly psychic sensitive!  Yup...thats me!

So on Saturday, October 9th, I had this big brunch planned with all my closest friends. One of my besties, Amy, and her husband and new baby girl Haylie were coming for the weekend from Yuma. I had friends coming down from LA and Temecula. It was an absolute beautiful day. I planned this brunch at JRDN Restaurant in the Tower 23 Hotel in Pacific Beach San Diego. There was a huge street fair going on so roads were blocked. I was late because I just had to pick up my favorite cupcakes from Batter Up Cupcakes in Rancho Bernardo to celebrate with. We were supposed to start at 11:30...we started more like 1pm. But that was fine because they had the most yummy strawberry orange mimosas.The weather was awesome...there was music playing from the fair...the babies were dancing and I was surrounded by people I loved. I forgot my camera so I only have a few pictures from the day. I'm waiting on my friends to send all of the pics they took so I can upload them.

Me, Joy & Susan

Michelle had to leave early-ish to take Elijah to Disney on Ice so she prompted the b-day gift opening. I got some cool stuff. Then came the big box. Now, it was disguised as a gift from Bed, Bath & Beyond but I knew better. I had even brought a small clutch knowing that in that box was my new purse and I could just slide my old one into my new one :-)

Sure enough...there it was:

So pretty :-)  But that wasn't all. Inside there was a DVD that said "Play Me" and when I turned around Cheryll had a portable DVD player ready. We popped it in and everyone gathered around. The video was pictures of us...starting with our first date at Disneyland, the Wild Animal Park, our trip to Magic Mountain, etc. In the background there was music...my fav Michael Buble song "Just haven't met you yet", then it transitioned into Gerald Levert's "I was made to love you", and ultimately Musiq Soulchild's "Someone". It was the sweetest thing that anyone has ever done for me. There were lovey-dovey quotes intermittently strewn through the video. Apparently this is what her Aunt had been helping her put together over the past few weeks since she's been so busy. At the end it said Happy Birthday! Then the last two screens read "Tami Will You Marry Me?" and a "Yes or No" hahaha

The box!

This is us watching the DVD...

I swear I wasn't pissed or anything lol...love Cheryll's laughing here!

I was ballin' lol

When I turned to Cheryll she had my ring in her hand and I kissed her and said "OF COURSE!"

Then Jo joined us.

This is my beautiful ring!

Here are our rings together!

(Blue diamonds are so beautiful!)

So next week is our trip to Hawaii!! I'm super excited!! Then when we get back it's save, save, save! 

We are planning on waiting to see what California ultimately decides in the Prop 8 BS.  It would be nice to be legally married in our own state. But if they don't overturn it and open up marriages again by next Summer, we will fly to Boston and get our legal on out there. We're visiting my family for the 4th so we'll fly to MA, apply for the license, head down to PA, hang out and firework it, head back up and have our ceremony around 7/7 or 7/8 and then back to Cali on 7/9.  It'll be small and just our friends from MA & maybe NY. Then I can get the fabulous Kelly Prizel to photograph our ceremony :-)

I also want to gather all my east coast besties to go dress shopping in NYC on 7/5 or 7/6. Joy will be there visiting her family at that time too and I'm trying to get Michelle to come out for a few days so we can all do this together!  It's gonna be amazing.  The dress I hope to find will be worn during our big sha-bang on 10/11/12, destination still TBD.  We're kinda all over the place with this...last week I was talking about buying a house in 2012 and having a backyard wedding hahaha we'll see what we actually end up with. One things for sure...it's going to be amazing!!!!

XOXOXO!!

Why I started this blog on the 4th of July...well, isn't it "Independence" day after all???

Happy Birthday America! Land of the free...home of the brave! We hear this all too often. Blah blah blah blah blah!

Don't get me wrong...I LOVE MY COUNTRY! This is not a post about "let's hate on Obama" or "bless the troops, damn the military." We are extremely fortunate to live in the USA.

I've let someone who I don't even know affect my mood this morning as I reflected on a post in Facebook (of all places!) I know better...but this individual is family of my girlfriend and it triggered some thoughts. Ironically it's "Independence Day"...and I'm contemplating my own independence and what it means for me to live here, now, and how I wish.

I am a lesbian. This is my truth...as natural as tying your shoe is to you. I did not choose this...this is me! Most of my family and all of my friends are accepting, loving, supportive and caring of me. Their love transcends any ignorance or religious politics. But there are real hard sentiments, words and situations we LGBT individuals cross paths with everyday. I cannot legally marry my girlfriend in most of our states...even then it is not "acceptable" to many, whether legal or not. I get awkward looks when holding her hand in public or kissing her. And some even feel the right to vocalize their opinions in ways that are completely disrespectful (uugghh my sister!) or make comments about the travesty my daughter is experiencing by being raised in a home with two lesbians! The horror! lol Sometimes these things make me sad, like today, but mostly they give me strength and the umpf that I'm so well known for in my circle.

So this blog is a tribute to everything that I am and a tribute to this beautiful family we're trying to build together. I love my girlfriend and can't wait until I can call her my wife one day...she's the one!

Have a happy & healthy 4th of July people!!