S is for….

Sky.

I was going to post today about the one thing that is a daily constant in my life: SILLINESS. But I am low on photos of silly. 2 snaps for silly.

But what I have a plethora of is: Skies.

High 5 for cool skies.

I have a bit of an obsession with skies lately and am capturing all sorts of sky pictures.

Florida Skies

Atlanta Skies

Skies over Colorado

Denver Skies

Isn’t it amazing how many colors the sky can have in a single day? *Someone* up there must have one ginormous box of crayons. :0

To see how some other folks used the letter S today go visit: Z - A Mondays.

I love this

How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.

Anne Frank

TGIF; Clothes, piercings and tattoos. Yeah, lots of goodies.

Thank goodness it’s Friday.

The girls made it through their first week of school with no scandals, tattoos, arrests, fights, problems. You get my gist, they had a good first week.

I can’t believe they are in the 8th and 11th grade. Especially since I feel like I just finished my hellhole high school days, much less like I dropped Lo off at kindergarten!

In case you never noticed before, my girls are polar opposites.

One is a bit on the preppy side of life and my other is walking a tightrope between British punk and I don’t know what. Eclectic I suppose. As long as it ends with the clothes, I am fine. Clothes are temporary and can be changed, unlike tattoos and rings hanging off your ears connected to your nose and then connected to your lip.

I was a bit progressive in my attire for a few years too, I had my own ‘thang’ going on. Eccentric. Eclectic. I refused to dress like everyone else. I am over that. Now, I dress just like…ME, which is totally awesome. Yeah, I admit it.

Speaking of holes in your head, have you seen the kids with the huge ‘gauge’ earring holes? Mostly guys do it. I am baffled about it, but whatever floats your boat Mr. Holey Head. I just remember how my Dad used to accuse ME of having a hole in my head and all…if he only knew what I could have done to make that statement true. I am all about expressing yourself. But sometimes I just wonder: Just what are you trying to express?????

Ok, so the weekend…hmmm..what to do, what to do. {blankly starring at my piles of photos needing to be put in albums, laundry crying to be washed, dried and folded, ironing, a good book needing to be finished and 6 crisp brand new magazines that are waiting to be fondled}

I am sure I will find something to keep me busy. I love when there really are NO plans, but I can plan on something coming up!

“Weekends don't count unless you spend them doing something completely pointless.” ~Bill Watterson

I wish for everyone an eccentric weekend, not to be confused with an eclectic weekend. Oh, wait I like that idea too.

I hope you don’t have too much on your ‘to do’ list and revel in some free time. Enjoy your family, they know you and still love you anyway.

What is on your agenda?

sailing? skydiving? cleaning the cat box? Dinner and a movie? Dish up.

I learned some stuff this week...

Not real important stuff, but stuff all the same.

We have all heard the saying “you are never too old to learn.” How true it is. I learn new things all the time. The unfortunate part of all my learning is, I usually forget what I have learned soon after I learned it. Pretty much the reason I stink at math…and then add in the fact that I loathe numbers, well this makes me the opposite of a mathematician. I am a naicitamehtam.

I am going to start documenting the stuff I am learning. Adding it to my 'list', so to say….

I learned this week:

Betsy samples the grapes in the produce dept and her husband George acts like he does not know her. I find this to be very comical.

My kids are two of my favorite(est) people on this planet. I already knew this…but sometimes I just sit back and take them in with my eyes, ears and heart. Sometimes, I just want to nibble on their faces. Ok, really I want to gobble them up. But then people would call me a cannibal and all sorts of rumors would get started. I don’t need that extra stress in my life right now.

Ozzie may be the most well tempered dog I have ever seen in my life. I could put 29 drops of burning liquid in his eyes and shove a few horse size pills down his throat daily and all I tell him is: “It’s ok Boy, Mama is almost done and I will get you a cookie” and the little boy, just wags his nub and stands still for me.

Dogs wearing lampshades have neither peripheral vision or decent hearing. Like having a really old person follow you around all day banging his lampshade into your thighs.

I bruise easily. (see above)

FYI: You should never, under any circumstances put lampshades on old people!

I have learned that everyone who thinks they are great drivers, really aren’t. However, I am an excellent driver .

Did you learn anything new or exiting this week?

If you did, I am pretty sure you did not learn it reading my thoughts here…just a wild guess!

If walls could talk, what would yours say?

That is a super awesome title isn't it? Thanks. It hurt my brain to come up with that baby.

I am sure at least two of you have not been able to get a good nights rest prior to this little nugget of information from me: While on our 13 day vacation, the girls and I visited 4 Target stores. Yep. Still on our quest to visit all the Target stores on this little planet of ours. And just for Sh*ts and Giggles, the day after we were home, we visited our local Target. You know, just to make sure it was still there and all. Good news, it survived our hiatus. phew.

*****

So, anyhoo....when we visited my Mom in Georgia, she had just moved into a new place. I took the liberty to help unpack some things for her and get my paws into some organizing too. You know how I live for that stuff right? Mom had a great idea for her dining room wall and together we did this little lettering project:

(Mom, now that I look at it again, I think the picture should be just a tad to the right…about an inch)

Is it cute or what???? And yes, the letters are not supposed to be perfectly straight. She bought it at Stein Mart, but I have seen them all over since then. It was pretty easy, the most agonizing hardest part was figuring out where to put it exactly on the wall.

And of course, while we were together, there was much laughter and joy around her cute as heck table too.

I am thinking of putting one on my kitchen wall too. I could draw from my Father’s wisdom from my childhood. His famous line at the dinner table:

"Eat it OR wear it!"

On second thought, maybe that would not be so welcoming to our guests.

Or maybe:

"NO singing at the table!"

Still not sure why singing was such a problem for him either. Fun Sucker.

I did see this one that I really liked:

"Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon."

Reckless abandon does sound rather messy though…not such a fan of messes. The love part is A+ for sure!

What would you put on your wall to sum up your family meals??

T is for….

Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving is my all time favorite holiday.

What is there NOT to love????

Food, family, food, fun, family, laughing, food, and there is NO present buying stress involved. How awesome is that????

I really enjoy hosting it at our house. It is so much fun having all of our family with us at one time.. you know, the in-laws, the out-laws & some straglers off the street.

November in Florida; the weather is usually perfect for us to have the entire house open. We use the dining room table, the kitchen table and the outside table too. If we invite even more people next year, we may need to use the pool table as well. :0

But no matter which table you sit at, you always feel special. So special that I may even offer the wishbone to YOU!

And if you know me, you know that there is usually not one dish left in the cupboard when dinner is served…no paper plates or plastic silverware either. ALL the good stuff gets used on special occasions. (ok, most days are a special occasion, right?)

I have so much to be thankful for…I hope you do as well.

gosh, it is already August 24th…suppose it is too early to start setting the tables????

Who is coming???? Dinner will be served at 3:00 sharp.

To see how others used the letter T today, visit: Z-A Mondays.

Fill in the _____.

Colleen posted this little meme and I thought it was cute. So here goes. Feel free to do it as well, ya know if you have nothing life altering to do in the next few minutes.

My roommate and I once: argued about listening to country music in the morning vs pop/techno music. It was 1986. I won.

Never in my life have I: opened food in the grocery store and ate it while shopping. see, I do have some restraint.

High school was: horrible. Please don’t make me ever do it again.

When I’m nervous: I feel like I am going to have diarrhea. :o

My hair: dark blonde.

When I was 5: I wanted to have a small convertible sports car. And join the circus. And be named Kelly. In that order.

When I turn my head left: I see things on my left side?

I should be: exercising.

By this time next year: I hope I am still here and exercising.

I have a hard time understanding: non-caring and cruel people.

You know I like you if: I laugh a LOT.

My ideal breakfast is: Leftover dinner.

If you visit my home town: You must visit the beach and the pier. And me.

If you spend the night at my house: You will have a nice guest bedroom and perhaps some animals sleeping with you.

The animal I would like to see flying besides birds: Elephants!

Last night I: I tried to get caught up on my tivo’d episodes of ‘Curb your Enthusiasm.’ ahhhh….I love Larry David. Funny people make this world go 'round.

A better name for me would be: Supreme Commander of domestic affairs. But 'Mrs Lottery winner' would be nice too.

I’ve been told I look like: Goldie Hawn (15 lbs ago)

If I could have any car, it would be: an Audi A8. (I don’t usually like foreign cars, but for this one, I would suffer)

But I would still need one of these to carry the all the kids and their stuff. I prefer both of them to be white. thankyouverymuch.

I don’t ask for much, do I ?

TGIF; Did someone misplace their lampshade?

Happy Friday ya’ll!

Ok, for the lampshade, here is your visual:

Our sweet little Ozzie made it through his expensive as heck much needed cornea surgery on Wednesday. Thank you for the well wishes. He is now a conehead. (remember that from SNL?) But each time I see him wandering around the yard, all I can think of is: why is that lampshade wandering around the back 40?

Is he eating? I can’t tell. Where is his bowl???

He has to wear this for a few weeks. His eye is actually stitched closed. (we were hoping for a pirate cute patch) The eye can be pulled open just enough on the corner for me to put in the 3 different eye drops he needs 4 different times daily. Oh, and I have to get a capsule (amox) down his throat 2x daily too. I should not complain, he takes all his abuse easily. The hardest part was paying the vet and RX bills.

It was quite funny watching him run into walls, cabinets, legs etc for the first 2 days. He is getting used to his cone now. I think he may even enjoy his new accessory. Who am I kidding? He is embarrassed as heck by it. still, I am tempted to bedazzle it or at least add flair of some sort. Feathers perhaps?

I am very thankful that we were able to do this for him, if he was still wandering the mean hot streets of Florida alone, eventually the ulcer in his eye would have burst. That would not be pretty. NoSireeBobCatTail.

********

This is our last weekend before school starts. I know most parents are happy to send their kids back to school, but I like them to be home with me. Less stress. Less running around. When they DO annoy me though, I simply let them know that I can still at any time home school them. That usually sets them straight. They are so HAPPY to go back to school. What is wrong with these kids?

I hope everyone has a nice weekend ahead of them.

Enjoy your loved ones, even if you don’t always like them. (could that be a new bumper sticker?) Hug the people in your life. Love your animals and remember to keep their water bowls full. The animals; not the people. If your people have water bowls, well, that would be weird and they may need more than just hugs.

Be careful of what you ask for people…

Some of you actually asked me to post our photos from Colorado. I was going to drop the subject and just move on, but then I would be a big fat meanie head. I may be many things, but I will never be a big fat meanie head. never.

Plus, my washer and dryer are crying mercy and I am not making eye contact with Rosie quite yet today.

One morning we ventured from Denver to the Boulder area. As we were getting closer I saw a sign: “Boulder Visitor’s center and Overlook.” I asked the Coach to pull over and he did. (should I mention that he said something to the fact of ‘you know you are getting old when you stop at visitor centers?) anyhoo. Have you ever seen a visitors center as elaborate as this?

Me neither. I wanted to go back to the sign and scratch out Visitors center and put in KIOSK. ;)

But the overlook? amazing. Worth the money spent. Oh, it was FREE.

Boulder was a great little college/artsy town. Full of ‘free thinkers’. Have you noticed that most free thinkers don’t brush their hair? Amazing, I know, way to ‘buck’ the system Sister. We were stopped by several Green Peace people on the streets. I was thinking: “Man, you are preaching to the choir. Get some freaking recycle bins in this town!”

Another day we ventured down to the Colorado Springs area. Just gorgeous.

We went to visit the Cave of The Winds. I am personally not a fan of wind or caves, but the rest of my troop were game. This first picture is at the beginning of the cave tour and just a few minutes before we realized someone in our family is Claustrophobic. I won’t mention any names but he had to cut the tour short.

Have I ever mentioned that I have a tendency to be a complete worry wart? My thoughts during this dark, cramped and freaky tour were only of this: “oh my gosh, we are so much closer to CA now and if an earthquake hits while we are in this cave, we are toast!” Yep. It is exhausting to live inside my head.

On our last day in Denver I took the girls to Elitch Gardens. Guess what? There really are NOT gardens at Elitch Gardens . I was tricked. It is a theme park full of rides, lines and people who don’t know how to dress in public.

The girls rode some large scary rides. Lindsay was a brave girl and rode a big roller coaster with her sister. (after much pleading)

Then they decided to ride this innocent looking ride. We should have known it would not end well when they name something: chaos!

They look happy here. In a few minutes one of my children will have a combination look of ‘complete terror’ and the ‘verge of vomit.’ Not a good look. Especially when the other one is laughing her head off!!!! Aren’t sisters the best?

Here is my Mastercard Commercial:

7$ for caramel/sprinkled covered apples at a theme park.

2 minutes into their $7.00 Caramel/sprinkled covered apples and they decide they are too sweet and rip off all the candy and eat the plain $7.00 apples: PRICELESS.

There's no place like home…

Vacations can be exhausting…right?

So glad to be back home today. We made it in last evening with very little issues; Thank you Baby Jesus. I thought for a few moments on the first leg of our flight yesterday that I was going to DIE, but I did not. Yes, I feel lucky. I still loathe flying, but it beats walking across the country, especially since I have terrible feet.

Home Sweet Home. The floors are filthy, thanks to the cats. The pool deck pavers are covered with weeds, thanks to all the rain. The fridge is empty. The laundry is piled up. The mail pile is large too. A few of my house and lanai plants look severely parched. Part of life..so I won’t complain any longer. promise.

We were thrilled to see the dogs…and they may have been happy to see us too. May have? I kid. Cocoa was doing flips. And they both got straight A’s from their vacation boarder. Not to mention baths as soon as they got home. I think after 8 days away from home, I may have to pry them off of the couch for the next few days.

I have such good kids dogs. Ok, my kids are pretty great too. Our sweet Ozzie has to have eye surgery on Wednesday. Did you know that there are actual dog Ophthalmologists???? There is, and I am forking over some cash to one this week. Darn sweet boxers and their big ol’ corneas that are prone to ulcers that don’t heal well!!! (say that 3x fast) He will be fine. If not, we will replace his eye with a pretty colored marble. At least that is what we told the kids we would do.

Pictures from vacation to come later. Maybe. I might be over that already. My a.d.d is alive and well. :0

Today I need to say a big happy birthday to my cuz Patrick!!!!

(ignore the girls in the background…not sure why they are making funny faces.)

Patrick has brought joy and laughter to our family since day one!!!

He is a huge fan of the movie: Back to the Future (he has copies of the scripts and can recite them verbatim)

He adores Michael J. Fox. He loves watching College marching bands! He exhausts me when I watch him dance. He loves his family and I am a HUGE fan of his!!!

Happy Birthday Cuz Patrick!

I wish for you a wonderful year to come!!

U is for….

Uncle!!!

In my case it is for Uncle Jim.

I love my UJ. My girls love UJ. He is really their ‘Great’ Uncle. But we don’t want to make him feel old now do we??? Never.

If I were at home today, I would have a zillion funny and cute pictures of UJ. But right now I only have two to share.

This one from The Georgia Aquarium gift shop.

Yes, he has on a scarf (ascot) and a snake around his neck…Just doing a little merchandising for fun. I don't think he has ever been embarassed to have fun in public...that is how he rolls.

Here he is with my Aunt Trisha, watching the laser show at Stone Mountain.

He and my aunt have been married as long as I have been alive. And no, that is not really long…:) I can’t express how much UJ and AT have meant to me, they are wonderful people and I am so thankful they are part of my family. They have always been a great example of what marriage and family is supposed to be.

Bonus information alert::::: UJ taught me how to put potato chips on my hot dogs as a kid and he has forgiven me for the 3 day road trip through the mountains just after I learned how to whistle. Yes, I whistled the entire trip!!!

He also taught me that when you are driving up a steep hill that you have to lean forward to help the car go UP!!!! Yep, he has given me some invaluable lessons in my lifetime.

Aren’t I the luckiest????

To see how others used the letter U this week visit: A-Z Mondays

Some questions are easily answered…

such as:

Is your child rebellious?

There always seems to be one in the family that ignores simple rules.

That would be my first born.

And yes, she is our 'work in progress'.... a great kid, with a bit of rebellion bedded deep inside. I am pretty sure the rebellion part comes from Coach's side, because as I have expressed before, I was PERFECT. . Really I am sure of sure of this.

just don't ask my Mom....

We have already determined that I am a tree hugger...

Would there be any doubt that I am also a 'Rock hugger'????

I am extremely disappointed to find that not all areas of our wonderful country are living by the moto: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. It has bothered me so much, that at night I am dreaming of landfills full of plastic and Styrofoam. I need to get back to the safety of my home and my beloved recycle bins.

:::shudder:::I actually threw out recyclables this week. I had no choice:::shudder:::

Yes, I will burn in hell for this horrible act; I am positive.

I need therapy badly.

Photo of the Day

A Father/Daughter teaching moment.

"Look Girls...it's our home planet!"

Denver Museum of Nature and Science

Greetings from Suz and Co.

The girls and I are having a great visit with family...by the way did I ever mention my family tree is full of nuts???? Good thing I love nutty stuff....

I have finally visted Trader Joes...

and my Mom's vegetable garden too...
The girls named him: Mr. Billy Eggplant. If we flipped him over, and that nose, well, it could have been something else and well, we just did not go there. yet. :)

We are having lovely weather....actually it could be called gorgeous. HOT, but gorgeous!

Cousins make the best of friends don't they? Even when there is an age gap and they are boys and girls. It is especially nice to visit with each other when one has been away in Afghanistan for much too long!!!

How old is too old for "monkey in the middle?"



We had an especially nice lunch with a very missed Friend.

Happy Wife, My Mom, Moi.

I miss you my friend!

Love from GA....hope everyone is doing great as well!!!