Cherie Celebrates in Chicago!!

My little sister turned 21 last week, and she decided to celebrate in Chicago for the weekend. Her, one of her friends, hubby, Stephanie, Sarah, Tisha, and I all boarded the Megabus on Friday morning 10/22 at at 6:30a to enjoy a few days in the Windy City.

When we arrived, we went to lunch at Weber Grill where we all had mixed reviews about our food, but I think over all we enjoyed it. After lunch we had some time to spare before the next activity which was dinner. Some took naps, some shopped, and some just kind of chilled around the hotel. I left out closer to dinner, to get some cupcakes for Cherie. I asked the concierge where was there a nearby bakery that sold good cakes/cupcakes, and they suggested Sprinkles. I took off on foot to find Sprinkles, and to my surprise the place was off the hook!! It was a line out the door! Apparently, Sprinkles is a famous cupcake establishment that is all over like Dallas, NYC, Washington D.C., and more! So, I stood in the long line, and got a dozen cupcakes...I must admit, those were some good cupcakes :-)

We went to dinner later that evening at The Cheesecake Factory, then off to a comedy show at Jokes & Notes. After the show, I surprised Cherie with a limo. She was almost in tears! We got in the limo, and was off to the first club, The Green Dolphin. We got there, everyone had a drink, and did some dancing then left to go to the next spot which was Shrine. Overall, we all had a great time that evening until the end. Let's just say that the night ended at 1:30p with Cherie's friend yelling out the window to the Police wanting to file a report against the club, and screaming for justice, Stephanie telling everyone to both be quite, and to get hype, Tisha going off on CJ's friend due to the reason she was yelling at the Police, CJ sitting in the limo in total shock of what was going on, and Darnell was on the phone with Southwest Airlines trying to get a flight back home. I just had to go to the bathroom. Let's just say, that everyone had a few too many drinks! LOL!

The next morning, was a new day! For most of the day we went shopping, and dinner that night at a Seafood restaurant that Darnell choose. Lather that night everyone, but Tisha and I went out to a club. We decided to just call it a night. The next morning we had to get up early to make the bus back home.

I'm PREGNANT!!!! The Cat is Out of the Bag

Well, I am now at week 13 & 3 days, and the pretty much everyone knows. We told all of our family, and close friends a couple of weeks ago after the second ultrasound. Today, I told my co-workers, and they all seem to be very excited and happy for us. Some of them said they had a feeling I was pregnant since my belly was starting to pop out. Ha! Here is a picture of the ultrasound picture at 12 weeks.

Darnell, and I now call the baby "our little acrobat" since during the ultrasound the baby was all over the place doing numerous turns and flips. The ultrasound tech could barely get still pictures of him/her.

Now that I am in the second trimester, I am actually starting to feel a lot better thank God!!! The first trimester was extremely rough for me. As the previous post states, I was always sick, scared to eat anything, and could sleep all day everyday!! Now, I am starting to feel more like myself. I can now eat pretty much anything now, and can go throughout the day without a nap!!

Week 12 - Baby Bump

This is my 12 week belly baby bump! It was actually taken in the dressing room at Pea in a Pod during my visit to Chicago. There, I purchased my first pair of maternity jeans :-)

Week 12 was a pretty good week. Not that tired, and able to eat normal. Thank God!

Baby Sister is now 21!!

Well, my sister is now grown! I can't believe it! Today she turned 21, and decided to kick off her celebrations with the family. She wanted to go to Southern Fires for dinner, so the hubby, my father, aunt Deborah, Aunt Charlester, Uncle B, Mizell, and I all went to help her celebrate.

Here are some pics of the dinner.

The Cake!

Cherie Blowing out her Candles!!!

The Birthday Girl!

My Aunt and Uncle!

My father & Sister

My Cousin & Aunt

Mary J. Blige Concert

So, my BFF, and I are huge fans of Mary J. Blige. When I heard she was coming into town I knew we had to go see her. We searched high and low for some good seats that didn't cost us an arm & a leg, and finally found some awesome seats on Greatest Tickets Online.com

Here is a picture of us at Makeda's house before the concert.

Toronto Getaway!

Thanks to our great friends Mondraea, and Donnie who recently went to Toronto for their anniversary, and came back raving how much fun they had, we too decided it was time for a weekend getaway!!

I am still trying rebuild my time off from when we went on the cruise, so I knew we couldn't go too far. A four hour drive seemed perfect! I told Darnell about the idea, and once I got him on board I started booking the hotel, and bought tickets to shows ASAP!

We ended up having a later than planned departure from Detroit, so we didn't arrive in Toronto until around 3p. We stayed at the Marriott Eaton Centre downtown, and I would recommend that hotel hands down!!! The staff there was wonderful, and as usual the rooms were amazing.
As soon as we checked in it was time to eat! We ended up trying a restaurant that the Calvin's also recommend, which was called Marche. It was like a large gourmet cafeteria/market. They had a lot of different stations where you can choose your meal, and they make it right there in front of you. Darnell liked his meal, but I wasn't impressed with my selection...the risk of being a vegetarian :-)

We then decided to do some walking around for a while to get a feel of the city. We ended up stopping to see some street talent where Darnell volunteered to be a part of one of the performances! It was a lot of fun. We then went back to the room to get ready for the Second City show that started at 8p.
I honestly didn't know what to expect from this show. I know there are Second City locations all over including Detroit, but I never really hear anything about them so I was a little nervous! As soon as the show began I started laughing so hard, and didn't stop until it was over!! OMG!! I do believe that was the highlight of the trip!!

The next day we got a late start again, but still wanted to find a good place for breakfast. We reached out to our Concierge who was absolutely amazing!! Penn was his name, and he was an older gentleman who gave us some awesome suggestions the entire trip. Every place he recommended for us to go was A+!! It was around 11:30a, and he recommended that we check out a place called The Pickle Barrel.

We arrived at this huge bi-level restaurant that seemed to go on for days!! We received our menu, which Darnell joked and called it a catalog for it was so thick! I loved it because there was such a large selection for me! I could have breakfast, numerous types of sandwiches, pasta, stir-fry, and the list went on and on! I ended up getting the veggie burger which was delish! It was so big that I could only eat half. Darnell went with breakfast, and enjoyed his waffle, eggs & turkey sausage. The place was so good that we went back the same day for lunch, and I got take-out breakfast from there before we got on the road!!!!Yummy!!!

That evening we went back to our BFF for the weekend (Penn) to ask him for an awesome seafood restaurant. He again didn't let us down, for he recommended Mediterra. He made the reservations for us, and off we went that evening before our show! Darnell is the seafood eater not me, but I was still able to find a few selections on the menu that would satisfy my vegetarian lifestyle. Needless to say, Penn didn't let us down again!! We both left there with full bellies from some wonderful food!!!

Next, it was time to head over to the Cirque du Soleil show! Now this was the show I was looking forward to the most, but was were I was most disappointed :-( Banana Shpeel was showing during the time we were there, so I just assumed it would be great since the other Cirque show we saw in Vegas was AMAZING! I feel asleep throughout the show, but Darnell seemed to enjoy it. I still want to see Ka and O, and I think I'll be all set with he Cirque shows :-)

After the show we hooked up with one of Darnell's friends, and his wife. They were so nice, and took us to an Asian restaurant lounge. It was really nice!! We order a table full of appetizers that were all AMAZING! I must say the food in Toronto is good good good!!! We didn't go wrong when it came to the food!!

Overall, I would totally recommend Toronto to everyone! We had a blast, and would love to go back anytime (preferably not the Winter). We didn't get a chance to do any tourist activities, so that will be next time around!!

Week 10 - Baby Bump