Fabulicious Fun

Hello! I finally had a few days off from my Fabulicious! book tour, and Joe and I took the girls to the shore. It was so great just being together in the beautiful sunshine. I hope you all had a wonderful weekend surrounded by your family and friends too. To all the military men and women and their families who sacrifice so much for all of us... Thank you! We love you! Happy Memorial Day! My thoughts and prayers are also with the Midwest tornado victims, survivors, and their families. 

It's always interesting to see what makes it into the episode. Just like all of you, we all have busy, busy lives full of friends and work and family that you don't always see. I'm so glad you got to see the food photo shoot for Fabulicious! It's my favorite day in the whole book process. After all the hard work, it's great to see your food in the studio looking all beautiful and delicious. And it is delicious! They have a whole team cook up your recipes to shoot, and then we all get to eat them. I'm so proud of Fabulicious! (fabulous + delicious) and want to again say thank you to everyone that helped make it such a wonderful, beautiful book. And thank you all for supporting it! I love, love, love to hear about all your cooking for your boyfriends and families. And I love meeting you all! You are gorgeous and fabulous!

Of course, there are many parts of our lives that you don't see. This episode you didn't see my girls at all! You don't see a lot of other people that are in all of our lives. You dont see Caroline's other brothers and sisters and their family dynamic, for better or worse. You don't see Jacqueline's brothers. You dont see all of our other friends. Some things just aren't part of our show, but that doesn't mean they're not part of our lives.

Everyone keeps asking about my friendship with Caroline and Jacqueline. There is no feud. We all love each other. But as Caroline pointed out this week, we aren't each other's only friends. Jacqueline and I are very close, Dina and I are too. Caroline, while I've known her for years, is their big sister. I love her and I respect her, but she was never part of our group outside of family functions. I mean no disrespect when I say I sometimes don't take her advice. A lot of the times I do! She's a very smart, very tough lady! This season is all about everyone being in my business, which is not something I'm used to. I don't mean to seem sad or crabby or ungrateful, but sometimes it's hard to just be on the receiving end of so much advice, when you don't like to give it yourself. And I'm getting advice from a million different places from a million different people. In the end, I make my own decisions based on what's in my heart. 

We all have different types of friends. We have the friends we go to for advice, and the friends we go to just have a drink to forget our problems. We have friends who love to give their opinion, friends who take everyone's side, friends who stick by you and only you no matter what, friends who don't care about your family problems, and friends that want to fix them. I'm not the type of person to tell you how to live your life, because who am I to judge? I'm not perfect, and if I gave you advice on how to fix your problem when I have the same problem I can't fix, it just doesn't seem right. I'm the girl who says, "It's OK, honey, it will get better. I love you. Let's go get something to eat!" I don't pry into details, I try not to judge, I don't take anyone's side but my friends'. I'm just loyal like that. If you need someone to help you beat a bitch down because they've offended you, I'm your girl. If you need someone to talk to you about how you might be wrong too, and how the other person you don't like feels, you should call one of your other friends! But that's just me. Just be my friend, be on my side, and love me for me. I am who I am. Dogs bark, cats meow... you can't get mad at a dog for not meowing. It is who it is. If you love the dog, you love that it barks. Period.

I'm still not going to say anything negative about my family, but I want to clear up a few rumors once and for all, specifically about nannies or au pairs. I don't see what the big deal is. Lots and lots of people have nannies and there's nothing wrong with that. Lots of my friends have wonderful nannies. Melissa has an au pair. It's a necessary way of life for a lot of working moms. And no job is harder than being a mom, whether you work or stay home or do both! But some of us don't, and there's nothing wrong with that either. Despite the nasty rumors online, neither Jacqueline nor I have a secret off-camera nanny because we can't stand to hold our own kids. Nothing could be farther from the truth! I dont think I should have to defend myself for not having a nanny, but as you know, I do not tolerate people attacking my parenting skills. Yes, I'm lucky enough to have my parents live nearby. (No, they don't live in my basement -- we don't have a basement!) And yes, I use babysitters when Joe and I go out. Do I wish I had a nanny to help me cook and clean and watch my kids? Sometimes, yes. Sometimes, no. I like to do it all myself. I like being Super T. Whatever anyone chooses to do with their kids is their choice. I just wanted you to know the truth about my choices. 

Everyone keeps asking about my relationship with Melissa and Kathy now. If you read Melissa's Twitter or her interviews about me, I think you know. I do not condone (and I never have) anyone ripping on my family members, my friends, or my cast members on Twitter or Facebook or the blogs -- not even Danielle! My fans are wonderful and classy and don't try and get into online wars. If you say something nasty to me about Melissa or my brother online, I won't repost it or draw attention to it. I won't privately DM you that I agree, I won't answer you at all. It's not what I want for anyone. 

OK, I've typed a novel here! Maybe I should get to work on my third cookbook, huh? Thank you all so much for supporting me and my family. I had a great week. Joe and I went to LA and San Diego for a book signing, and I got to meet Ellen! (The episode airs tomorrow -- my dress was by the amazing Marc Bouwer.) After sitting down with some not-so-nice hosts lately, it was such a relief to meet Ellen. If there is a class act out there, it's her. She is truly the nicest person ever. Heart of gold. I also met Portia -- so beautiful and so nice too. What an amazing couple! Thank you so much Ellen for making me feel so welcome on your show. If everyone could be like her, this world would be a much better place!

Follow me on Twitter @Teresa_Giudice, my Facebook page is here and my website with my appearance schedule is www.teresagiudice.com.

Fabulicious! is already in its second printing. If you can't find it in your local bookstore, it's still available on Amazon or Barnes & Noble.com. 

Tanti Baci,

Teresa