*I don’t get paid for my opinions in any way; this is just me sharing stuff that I like and I think you will too.

I am sick this week and while I managed to make it to Whole Foods for my weekly grocery shopping trip, I didn’t have the energy to cook dinner, so I bought this delicious family meal from Whole Foods instead.  Okay, okay, I admit it–I buy this Family Meal every Monday for dinner!   But I don’t feel bad by not cooking, these Family Meals from Whole Foods are made fresh every day and with the same organic, quality ingredients that I would use.  Every week there are at least 3 different meals to choose from; each meal has a meat, a side and a vegetable, enough to feed a family of four (with left-overs), and includes a salad with dressing as well.  We have had several different meals and they have all been excellent; my whole family loves them.  This is the meal that we had last night: rotisserie chicken, garlic green beans and roasted potatoes.  My son doesn’t even like green beans and he loved these. 

Look at this well-balanced plate:

The meals are found in the refrigerated case; I just pop it in the oven and dinner is on the table in a few minutes.  Best of all?–The WHOLE MEAL IS JUST $14.99!!!!  Can you believe it???  So the next time that you are pressed for dinner, don’t go through the drive-thru, grab one of these meals from Whole Foods for a quick and nutritious meal.

© 2008 – 2009, Funkidivagirl.com. All rights reserved. Republished only with permission.

7 YEARS OLD TODAY!

© 2008, Funkidivagirl.com. All rights reserved. Republished only with permission.

How many of you remember this song?  Oooooh, I love me some Switch!  This song was made in 1978 and I was just a little tyke, but it has stood the test of time; the vocals are on point and just listen to that guitar solo.  Those were some smooth brothers. Here I am singing this song about 15 years ago at one of our frequent house parties. It’s 3:00 in the morning and those are my neighbors and good friends, Dawn & Chris, singing with me.  “There’ll Never Be” is one of those songs that makes you think that you can sang.

Take a listen, grab your hairbrush and sing along: 

© 2008 – 2011, Funkidivagirl.com. All rights reserved. Republished only with permission.

Volunteering in my daughter’s classroom a few months after Christmas, I overheard this conversation:

Girl 1: What did you do over Christmas break?

Girl 2: I went to The Ritz-Carlton in Puerto Rico

Girl 1: Oooh, I love The Ritz-Carlton!

My Girly: Me too; it is the best place to stay!

Several other kids in the class chimed in that they too had been to several different Ritz-Carltons around the world and they all agreed that it was the best place to stay.

We are creating monsters.  No Holiday Inn for these kids!  As we often tell our son (who has champagne tastes on a $10/week allowance), plan a lucrative career now to support yourself because this gravy train stops soon.

But really, you can’t blame the kids; Ritz-Carltons are nice.  Recently we went to The Ritz-Carlton Lodge at Reynolds Plantation on Lake Oconee.  It’s here in Georgia, about an 1 1/2 drive from the city of Atlanta. This was our second visit there and once again we had a wonderful time.  True, we had to get over the fact that the resort has plantation in it’s name (which is why I think my husband “accidently” calls it Reynolds Town instead of Reynolds Plantation) and an incident during this last visit did remind us that we were indeed in Greensboro Georgia, but still it is a wonderful place.

Our first visit was taken in December 2007 a couple of days before Christmas.  We just wanted to relax and reconnect as a family before the hustle and bustle of Christmas fully descended upon us.

This is a review of our first experience at The Ritz-Carlton Lodge:

The Atmosphere: The hotel looks like a lodge; it is new, but it was built to look old. The lobby is huge and was decorated for Christmas with a gigantic (real!) gingerbread house and several Christmas trees. There are also Christmas trees throughout the whole hotel. We loved the atmosphere in the lobby lounge and spent most of our time there on the sofa right in front of the huge (real wood-burning) fireplace. There is also a terrace outside the lobby lounge with rocking chairs that overlooks the grounds and lake. Outside at night thousands of white lights twinkle from the hotel and on all the trees. We went for a walk in the night just to see all the lights. The bellhop told us that the Ritz deliberately has “smells” piped in all over the hotel and it did smell wonderful everywhere.

The Room: We stayed in a standard room and while it was not very large (460 square feet), it was very well appointed. The beds were incredibly comfortable with feather toppers, fluffy pillows and down comforters. We had two double beds, an arm chair by the terrace window, a desk and chair, an armoire with the TV, dvd player and drawers for clothes and a huge closet. In addition there was a unique coffee and tea maker and a honor bar (that we didn’t use). The bathroom was beautiful and spacious with a separate toilet, marble shower and a huge tub. There were 2 adult robes hanging and when my son tried to wear one, I noticed a note saying that housekeeping will deliver child-sized robes upon request. Right away they brought a robe sized for my daughter and another one sized for my son to our room. A request for more towels was met immediately as well. Sliding glass doors opened up onto a small patio with two chairs. (more…)

© 2008 – 2011, Funkidivagirl.com. All rights reserved. Republished only with permission.

Every region has its stereotypes. West Coasters are hippies, flighty and materialistic.  Mid-westerners are frumpy, stodgy and practical-minded.  Northeasterners are chic, in-your-face and matter-of-fact.  I have lived in all of these places and must say that the stereotypes are true to some degree.  Each region has its own particular flavor that makes it unique.   The blessing about living so many places in my short life is that I can roll anywhere and feel comfortable with anybody. 

The South?  Well, that’s whole other world.  Southerners truly love the South and wouldn’t possibly think of living anywhere else.   And if they happen to find themselves moving out of the South, it is only their body that moves, not their heart.   I actually admire that about Southerners, their fierce loyalty and complete surrender to their beloved roots.   And that steel magnolia thing that the Southern women have?   So true; these women are smart, beautiful and savvy.  Never underestimate a Southern woman.

I am not unfamiliar with the South; while growing up in the Mid-West I spent almost every summer in Alabama with my grandparents.  But living here is another thing.  When I first moved to Atlanta, there was no Ikea, no Trader Joe’s and Bloomingdale’s and Nordstrom had just opened.  My first thought was, WHERE THE HELL AM I??  But soon I was able to appreciate the particular charms of living here.  And of course it helps that they eventually got an Ikea and Trader Joe’s.

Things I like about The South:

• sweet tea
• grits: they can be ordered almost anywhere
• trees
• warm weather
• the word “y’all” (much more charming than “yous guys” up in New Jersey)

Things I hate about The South:

• the confederate flag
• “yes ma’am”
• palmetto bugs:  huge mutant cockroaches that fly

Atlanta is a big city and mostly it feels like any other city.  I live in the city, not the suburbs, not the country, so many people I encounter are like city people everywhere.  But sometimes I have one of those “Hello!–You’re in the south!” moments.  Two incidents in particular come to mind. 

The first one happened last spring at my son’s basketball game.  We were outside the city limits at a small private school.  It was 4:00 p.m. on a workday, so usually at these games we just see the parents of the players.  Well, this school gym was packed with all the local folks.   Apparently 8^th grade basketball was the entertainment highlight of the week.  Their team was killing us and clearly they were going to win the game.  Still this lady (rooting for the other team) sitting behind my husband, daughter and I screamed in our ear the entire game:

“Git ‘em, Tyler!”

“Here he come!”

“You know what he gonna do!”

“Git ‘em!”

Oh. My. God.  My daughter was frightened and it was all my husband and I could do to keep a straight face.  We were all dang near deaf by the end of the game.

See, that is another casualty of living here; you start using words like “dang” and “mighty” in your everyday conversation.

The other incident happened this past weekend at the Ritz Carlton Reynolds Plantation resort at Lake Oconee, about 1 ½ hours drive from Atlanta.  Since my kids were on fall break we went there for a few days.   We had been there before and loved it (hence our return) and over-all had another fabulous vacation.   But this time we were more heightened to the Southern-ness of the other guests and that we were in Greensboro, Georgia. 

Maybe it was the gaggle of Sarah Palin button-wearers converging at breakfast.  Rolling through the lobby with our Barack Obama shirts and dreadlocks, I’m sure that we looked like straight up gangsters.  

Or perhaps it was the men in their orange University of Tennessee Dockers; UGA whipped their butts that day in Athens and a huge crowd decided to nurse their wounds in the luxury of the Ritz.    Only loyal Southern football fans would wear those pants. 

Maybe it because every kid at the resort was called by their first and middle names: Riley Jean, Emma Ray, Bass Lee.  All the above is indeed more Southern-ness that we have ever encountered in our eclectic Atlanta neighborhood.

But, really the clincher was when we were at the pool with the other resort children (the Riley Jeans and Emma Rays) and they asked my daughter “why is your hair like that?”  Lord help them, these children clearly hadn’t been around any little black girls before.  Not only were they ignorant, they were also bad-assed kids rude (not very Southern, I might add; Southerners are usually big on manners); the same children were doing cannonballs into the hot tub and later loudly commenting on a lady’s red hair.

For sure, this incident is not a Southern thing per se; it could have happened anywhere in America where kids do not ever see people that look differently than they do, but when you are at a place with plantation in its name, you can’t help but to make some connection.

So, it is with a jaundiced eye that I view my new home.  I love the drawl, rocking chairs and iced tea, but not the horrific history that is still quite visible in celebrated landmarks and icons.  I must say, living here feels mighty peculiar. 

© 2008 – 2009, Funkidivagirl.com. All rights reserved. Republished only with permission.