We planned on leaving by 9am in order to get to Cleveland in time for check in. It takes about 2 hrs and 45 mins to drive to Cleveland from my house. Check in started at 12:30 but the event didn’t start til 1pm.  Well my dumb *ss wakes up at 9:30… yay me. I still had to shower, get ready and take my kids to the sitter. I rush like crazy and we get on the road by 10:30am. I drive like an absolute idiot 85-90mph nearly the entire way. We get there at 12:45 and the line isn’t even inside the building yet. It was really chaotic and we didn’t realize forever that we were in the wrong line. nearly 50 BHs showed up with no invites hoping that somebody wouldn’t have a +1. (Side note: Some people didn’t have a +1 and refused to take anyone outside… b*tch move if you ask me. lol.) Anyway, we get in we get seated and I realize my dumb ass left my #ddubggw sign at home… major fail, but at least we made it there on time and in one piece.

Since I couldn’t con any of my #ddubggw ladies into coming with me I ended up taking my best friend who is sort of a fan but also really loud spoken and pushy so I knew she’d get us places. lol. Okay so absolutely no cameras or video cameras were allowed and they even checked the cell phones at the door but my friend had the idea to shove her phone in her bra and pretend like she didn’t have it. (I’ll elaborate on that later.) We get seated and wait til about 1:30 before Jared even takes the stage. lol.

Then guys came out: Joey first as the campaign manager/hype man gave this big awesome speech bullsh*tting his way thru it as only Joe could do. lol. Then Donnie as the President of Block Nation gave an empowering speech about how far we’ve come and where we’re headed for the future shaking his fist Bill Clinton style the entire way. (I swear I saw everyone in the audience mimic him at least once. lol.) And finally Danny came out as the VP of Block Nation and gave a short and sweet speech about living healthy.

They then opened the floor for questions. They had microphones on the outsides of the stage and everyone who wanted to ask a question lined up.

The main subjects discussed that I could remember were:

• People want longer notice of events going on sale so they have time to plan.
• They asked if they could post minutes on NKOTB.com so the BHs that couldn’t attend would know what was going on. (I believe it was Joey wh said “Yeah but first we’d have to check and see if someone in the audience took minutes. lol.)
• The hinted at a huge event in the states this summer. (Possibly some sort of Woodstock style event.)
• They also CONFIRMED that they have been in the studio working on a new album.
• Someone requested an updated version of PDGG “post-Joey puberty”. LOL.
• They said the cruise themes will be revealed very soon cause they know we want to shop and prepare.
• They said they’re working on improving the flow of m&g’s and photo ops.
• Someone requested more Waffle House events and Donnie said he’ll keep it up as long as everyone continues to be safe. (ex: getting your face time and letting everyone else have their time too, not going all crazy lady and crowding him or everyone else, etc.)
• Someone requested that Donnie get the other NKs guest spots on Blue Bloods.
• They also said a cruise DVD is in the works.
• Donnie said he has heard our requests about an all-inclusive live Back Rub on the cruise and he said there may be more than one this year.

After the Q&A they played what seemed to be a Fenway concert video from the NKOTBSB tour. There were ending credits and everything… hopefully this will be released soon. While they were playing the Fenway footage the guys were walking around giving autographs and hugs. To my surprise I went pretty catatonic trying to avoid another Jordan incident. (See my previous blog. LOL.) I honestly don’t think I would have been able to move if my friend hadn’t dragged me over to Donnie. I had him sign my pin, I got a hug, and said hi. We moved over to Joe’s side of the room. He asked me if I had something for him to sign I said I’m just here for the hugs. He laughed and said, “Well in that case….” and hugged me. We also got to talk to Danny for a while. I got a hug and asked him about a workout DVD and he said, “It’s a possibility.” So after we meet the guys we’re hanging around watching the Fenway footage and my friend pulls out her phone to try to get a pic of Donnie. Both Earl and Jared and everyone working was on the complete opposite side of the room. The flock of girls around Donnie thins and he sees her phone. He was like, “Hey!” and pointed right at us. He walks over and tells her, “I’m sorry but you can’t do that you’re gonna get me in trouble.” He says (all the time rubbing her arm), “Honestly we don’t care but with this Fenway video the company that produces it, copyrights, and legal stuff… it might get us in trouble.” She says “Okay I’m sorry”. He said, ”It’s cool just make sure you put it away.” And he hugs us both again and goes back to the flock of BHs.

Our conversation afterward went like this:

Me: “OMG you got us in trouble.”

Her (laughing): “No I got us a 90 second conversation with him and a second hug.” LOL.

Me: “Too bad we didn’t get spankings.”

I told her later I was going to tweet him an apologize again for my obnoxious friend with the camera. LOL.And for the record she didn’t even manage to get a decent pic. LOL.They were all either ungodly blurry or of the back of a random girl’s head. But all in all it was a great day I got to meet 3 of my favorite guys and we had some laughs at our being reprimanded by DDUB. I’m now as pumped as ever for this cruise. All of the love in the room for the 5 brothers and 200 sisters… I can’t imagine the crazy fun that awaits us on the cruise :)

-Tab

Here they all are, by request…….

~Gwen

UPDATE: Our BLOCKHEADS pic was a hit on Twitter! It kept getting retweeted and, from what I hear, it’s been making the rounds on Facebook as well! Haha! To make my night a little sweeter, check out this tweet…

Donnie saw it! And he loved it! What a perfect way to end the night! THANK YOU to everyone who helped RT & send my pic around!

Love you all,

Gwen xoxo

Here’s a pic of us outside of the theatre waiting for Johnny to let us in! We got to meet some of our sister Blockheads and put faces to the Twitter names!

From left to right…

• Back: Kasey (@dreamlover817), Jen (@Kjen21), Gwen (@gwenra), Nikki (@DDubs_Girl_Nikki), & Marianne (@Scari723)                                                                                                                          
• Front: Nicole (@IDreamofDdub247) & Janell (@DDUBsJANELL4eva)

Here are a few videos we wanted to share with you all. Every time we watch these (especially Donnie’s intro) we want to fly out to the next JTV stat!!!

We hope each and every one of you has the opportunity to attend a JTV party. SO MUCH FUN!!!

LONG LIVE JTV!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

~Gwen xoxo

On the twelve days of Christmas, Twitter gave to D… 

• TWELVE girls he’s blocking
• ELEVEN stalkers stalking
• TEN Blockheads whining
• NINE requests for follows
• EIGHT backrub invites
• SEVEN Shamwow panties
• SIX Blue Bloods updates
• FIIIIIIVVVEEE Dramaaa Queeeeeens!
• FOUR manpart tweets
• THREE Lumpy humps
• TWO freakin’ TWUGS
• And a psycho who won’t stop DMinggggg!

 
Ho Ho Ho!!!

Donnie Wahlberg Manhattan Scavenger Hunt from DDubGGW on Vimeo.

After much brainstorming with @jaaykerr we came up with the perfect (yet mildly insane) plan! I’d just hop on a plane after #JTV was done and I’d get to Az in perfect time. So the plan was in place. But where were the tickets? Monday comes and goes with out so much a mention of #JTV tickets. Tuesday did faire much better. Then Wednesday hits and just when it is late enough (9:20pm PST) for me to think it was going to happen @WorldofJohnny pops on twitter and announces the best news ever! #JTV is coming to LA!!! @jaaykerr and I man our stations and wait for tickets to go on sale, then time stops moving. 10pm hits and SCORE!!! WE GOT TICKETS! I kid you not that waiting and wondering if we’d get a ticket was almost as bad as the cruise wait and wonder!

So Friday night I will be in LA watching Blue Bloods with @WorldofJohnny and Donnie, can you freaking believe that?! I can’t. Its going to make for a long weekend with little sleep but it will be well worth it!

Jen & I are officially two days away from our trip to NYC! We are soooo excited & kinda nervous too! We’re from Chicago, so it’s not the big city we’re nervous about…we’re used to that. We are honestly nervous about meeting Donnie for the 1st time! We keep saying, “What the hell are we going to say to him?! What if we freeze? What if we say something STUPID & make asses of ourselves?!?!” LOL This has been our conversation for the last week. Who am I kidding…this is been our conversation since we bought the damn airline tickets a month ago! But we keep telling ourselves Donnie is a pro and has met a billion people, especially girls like us, so we are quite sure he will put us at ease in seconds!

As if planning this trip to visit the set of “Blue Bloods” wasn’t exciting enough, we had a blessing in disguise! The World Series went to Game 7…so last week’s WorldofJohnny Friday Night TV Viewing Party got postponed to this Friday! The Friday we will be in NYC!!! The second Johnny tweeted about it, the scrambling began! Unfortunately, I have the worst timing ever…I was out to lunch & then got called into a meeting at work. I had NO IDEA Johnny had tweeted or that the JTV party had been moved. Mama Bear Jen was flying solo and started trying for tickets. Everything was SOLD OUT, but our Twitter BH sisters were offering to sell her 2 tix and help us find a 3rd ticket for Jen’s cousin who is coming with us. Nothing was set in stone and there was a lot of going back and forth in a quest for 3 tickets to the JTV party! I finally hopped online and everyone filled me in on what was going on. We just had to be patient and see what we could do!

A couple hours later I get a phone call from Jen who is GIDDY! Johnny had tweeted that more tickets were available, so she pulled her freaking car over, got on the Brown Paper Tickets site thru her damn phone & got us 3 tickets for the party! WOOOO!!!!!

So, this is it!!! In just 2 days we will be in NYC…on a mission to meet the man himself, Donnie Wahlberg! And to top it all off, we’re going to Johnny’s party! AND now we hear EMoney is being peer-pressured by Donnie & Johnny to be there. Will we meet all 3 Amigos?????

Wish us luck! We’ll be tweeting like cray cray so STAY TUNED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

~Gwen

What’s better than being followed by Donnie Wahlberg??? Being followed by Donnie, Johnny & E-Money, that’s what!!! As you know, Donnie introduced his pilot friend Eric ”E-Money” Murray to the world of Blockheads earlier this month. E-Money instantly became a popular guy and he quickly started building his fleet of “Murray’s Marines”. That reminds me, I had suggested that he call his followers “Fly Girls” (an Air Force nickname) since it made more sense (& it was cuter! LOL)  Word eventually got back to him and voila, E-Money’s Fly Girls were born! Am I taking credit? Maybe a lil. Haha! So guess who were a few of his very first Fly Girls?????

If that weren’t enough to brighten up our busy month, tonight our group received yet another coveted follower… Donnie’s partner-in-crime, Johnny!!!

The best part about Johnny’s follow was the “see ya soon”. Our tweets to him tonight didn’t mention us visiting…so it became clear to us that he must have seen our tweets over the past couple weeks where we discussed our upcoming trip to the “Blue Bloods” set. I tweeted like a giddy 12-yr-old girl with #jellofingers, “OMG!!! He knows we’re coming!!! He sees us!!! LOL” It’s so funny when they sneak up out of nowhere and let you know that they do see your tweets…and they pay attention. I LOVE IT!!!

So, with a little bit of teamwork & #noquit, we successfully completed the trifecta…we got the 3 Amigos to follow all 5 of us!

As for our very 1st  ”Blue Bloods” visit, only 2 of the 5 #ddubgirlsgonewild will make the trip…Jen & me! The BFFs from Chicago are coming for ya,  Donnie…you too Johnny! TV party next week??? And E-Money, we hope you’re in town! You promoted us both to “Generals”, but we’ll still salute ya!  

Check back SOON, sisters! We’ll be sure to blog all about our “Blue Bloods” adventures! Don’t forget to follow our group Twitter account (@ddubggw) for live updates! WISH US LUCK…and STAY TUNED!!!!!!!!

~Gwen

P.S. We’d like to WELCOME to our new readers!!!  If you’re confused by our lingo, please be sure to check out our DDUB DICTIONARY: http://ddubggw.com/?page_id=163 

Turkey, Bean and Vegetable Chili

Ingredients

Instructions

• Coat a 12-inch sauté pan with cooking spray; set over medium-high heat. Brown turkey, breaking up meat with a wooden spoon as it cooks, about 10 minutes; drain and set aside.
• Coat a large pot with cooking spray; set over medium heat. Cook onion, stirring occasionally, until soft but not browned, about 5 minutes. Add garlic; cook, stirring, 1 minute. Add carrots, celery and peppers; cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes. Add chili powder, paprika, cumin, oregano, salt and cayenne; stir for 1 minute.
• Stir in broth, tomatoes, both types of beans and turkey; bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer, uncovered, stirring every 5 minutes, about 35 minutes total. Yields about 1 1/2 cups chili per serving.

Notes

• If you like your chili spicy, make sure to add the cayenne pepper. If you prefer your chili on the milder side, leave out the cayenne pepper and use plain diced tomatoes, instead of ones with green chilies.