Like Weeds.

It was just the other day that we celebrated my fourth year of blogging. 

And by *WE*..... I mean ME.

*Clearing throat*

So anyhoo....when I started this little blog thingy this was my youngest baby. 

Um...time flies when you are living life.

Guess who started 11th grade last week.

Guess.

Guess!

She had to wake me up to take her photo. This is the first time ever that I don't have to transport any bodies kids to school.

I honestly never thought I would see that day.

Here is my first born baby LoLo when she started 10th grade back in 2008!
I know she is going to hate this picture. 

Lolo started her 2nd year of college last week.
Some changes this year...
*she is living back at home and not on campus.
*She retired from softball. {I know} She has been playing since she was 5 years old.
*She is very much looking forward to being a student and not a student-athelete.

I didn't get a photo of her on her first morning back to school....but I did get a photo of her on her first day of WORK!

Yep. She is a working girl!!

**work it girrrlllll**

Isnt' it funny howgirls nowadays become teens they learn how to 'pose'?
I am slow...I just learned last week how to do it.
{Shift to the side a bit, bend one knee, Posture!}

And perhaps some of you long time readers will remember my Cuz Chris.
{Chris and Linds at Chris's West Point Graduation in 2006}

Chris is a captain...ummm wait, he is also a battalion commander in the army. He is now stationed in Germany and has seen more of Afghanistan that anyone should.

BooYahhhh!!!!

Well....my sweet, smart, cute and funny as heck Cuz can also now be called Daddy!

He and his wife just had their first little baby...and by little,  I mean large. {Just shy of 10 lbs}
A new little boy in our family...and I am so happy for them!

{2010}
So that means....my Cuz Patrick is now and Uncle!!!

So much good stuff to share.
Aren't you happy you stopped by? I knew you would be!

XOXOXO

Windlessness and a blog-o-versary

Thank you all for thinking about us concerning rain + slight wind hurricane Isaac.

More prep work than was necessary.
The girls and I could have spent a few hours watching netflix baking for the homeless.
Oh well. The girl scout in me kicked it into high gear and we were prepared.

For your kindness, I am going to put all of you in my diary will.

I lifted that from Facebook. You know I don't have plastic furniture.

Ok, I do have some plastic furniture....and this is what WE did to it to keep it from becoming a projectile.

Turns out, this is a great way to clean them too!

Jim Cantore didn't even need to leave the comfort of his home. Funny though, Sam Champion from Good Morning America was on one of our beaches on Monday morning.
I didn't venture out to see him.
I don't trust men who highlight their hair. Ever.

 I almost forgot, we actually DID have some damage.

A palm frond fell. 

The brown one way back there is from our neighbors tree. If we hadn't had our palms trimmed a few weeks ago, it would have taken us a day to clean up brown fronds.
Dodged that bullet.

Our peeps on the East Coast did get a lot of rain and flooding...which is bizarre since Isaac was over on this side. Oh well, I'm NOT a meteorologist.
I'm a mixologist. 

I DO pray that those who will be visited by Isaac are as lucky as me....the good people in his path deserve to be spared!

In case you didn't know it, today is my blog-o-versary. 
Four years.
842 posts.
{4 of those posts were actually about something}
20,694 comments.

I expect shiny objects to be showing up at my door any minute.

*peeking out front door*

Um, you guys must be wrapping them up right now.

You know that YOUR comments are a gift to me. No wrapping required. 

I mean really, could YOU crack me up any more than you do?

A little bone I need to pick though, some people actually read my blog but don't bother to leave a comment. 

I don't accept that type of behavior. 

Lazy. 

Some of the bloggers that started out with me have gotten so lazy that they just quit.

Do you know how many times I've thought of doing that? About 240 times. This year.

 Quitting is for quitters.

Does that last line look like Quilting is for Quilters?
Well, that is a true statement as well. 

And If I don't write at least a few times a week, then my Mom will actually CALL.ME.ON.THE.Phone. 
{I KNOW!}

C'mon now. DON'T BEE lazy!

XOXO

It's windy in HERE.

Earlier this week I learned {from Face Book} that we had a cone of uncertainty heading our way. 

Me: What? 

A hurricane?

This cone, 

NOT this cone:

I had no idea .....I avoid almost all news media...so, this was NEWS to me.

Yep. I get my news from face book.

Please don't worry though....I DON'T get my political  info from face book.... I wait for the recorded phone calls.

I approve this message. 

\

I will be checking in with this site for my weather information.

We don't really freak out about hurricanes. I usually only freak out about someone being oblivious to recycling
or {gasp} talking with food in their mouth!

We will wait to freak out until it is time to freak out.

No need to waste energy freaking out before a freak out is necessary.

I won't freak out until I see Jim Cantore at my front door. Then the freaking out will begin. 

Then again, Jim won't show up here because:
 (a) I don't live ON the beach and 

(b) I don't live IN a trailer park. {anymore}

So. In more important news:
Do you ever wonder if you might be a candidate for botox or some other type of poisonous filler?

Me too:

Yep, I am a candidate, but I won't be going there.
This year.

 Is that scary or what?
No makeup....and I shared with you my angry face. Not to be confused with my constipated face, although they are pretty much the same.

 But I did have my first ever chemical peel this week.
Actually, I had my acid trip chems a few hours prior to this hideous photo.
*tapping inner elbow*

If I were able to have a do-over...I'd like someone else's neck.

And then the next day, I got a lot of my hair cut off.
Seriously, I am feeling lighter already what with all the dead skin falling off as well as snipped follicles.

Raise your hand if you can guess how many people noticed that I had several inches of my hair cut off as well as highlights.

If you guessed ONE. You'd be right.
And SHE didn't even notice until 5 hours after we were together. 

Does anyone around here even LOOK at me? HELLO??
I was under the impression that I was just eye candy around these parts, but apparently I am morphing into someone who has values.
And by values, I mean cooking and cleaning.

p.s. I hate that last photo of me...I look like Pinocchio.
And if Gepeto were to be my padre, I'd have better legs!

See how I made this post all about me? Yeah, thats what THEY get for not noticing me anymore. Next thing you know, I'll be getting a tramp stamp tattoo and buying a corvette. gag. 

Happy Friday!
Hopefully Florida won't fly off the map this week.  Cause if it does...you'll lose all of this free entertainment!

XOXOOX

Crouching and Crabbing

Remember this lovely photo from last week?

Well, do you have any idea what my sweet girl was messing with?
Only one of her favorite things ever.

I came down to the beach and she said:
Mama! Quick come here!
You've got to see this!
Me: ????
Lo: DON'T STEP ON ANY SHELLS OR ANY HOLES...they are all hermit crabs!

{can you see the video? I can on ONE of my computers, but not the other}
Yes, there were at least a bajillion of them. All cute and special...all lacking free will.
Right?
Right.

Did you know that if you drop a piece of lettuce on the ground, you can start a hermit crab civil war?

You can.

Then I forced her to stop messing with them so I could get some good silhouette photos.
I'm a mean one~~~~Mr. Grinch.
 

Lolo starts her 2nd year of college today; surprisingly she is not majoring in Marine Biology OR posing. 

xoxo

Birthdays and Hooter's

Happy birthday to my sweet, funny, talented and CUTE as heck cousin Patrick!

Cuz, I can't believe you are 30 years old today....

I also can't believe you are going to Hooter's for lunch!!!!

{Patrick is my most faithful reader....well, aside from my Mom}

Love you Cuz...can't wait to see you at Thanksgiving.

xoxoxo

Flashback; The Croucher

January 2000
 Naples Beach.

Lolo loves dirt, sand and critters.

August 2012

 Costa Rica, Providence of Guanacaste.

Lolo doing what she loves to do.

Luckily, some things {and people} never change.

Thank you to my smart and attractive friend Mark for teaching how me to make my photos ginormous.
And I thought he was only a pretty face.

If you can see the above photos...you can thank us both. 

XO

Under the Sea with Me

I promise, I am almost done talking about Costa Rica.
What? Did you just make a face? Listen....you go on and on about your stuff and I listen...so when I want to talk I expect you to listen as well. We have a commitment here to each other. Right?
Oh, wait, never mind....

Every day we were treated to a glorious sunset.

  We spent two different days on two different boats.
I'm not a huge fan of boats ever since I watched Jaws.
You would think Titanic or Gilligan's Island would have had more of an impact on me, but it didn't.

 Did I ever mention I am not a fan of the ocean either? 

I mean, I'm not a fan of swimming in the ocean because I am not a fan of being touched by fish. I'm a good swimmer, not by olympic standards, but I can doggie paddle better than both our dogs. 

{NOT me}

 Sometimes, even when I am swimming in my very own chlorinated pool, I will shriek when my bathing suit ties touch me or are viewed in my peripheral. I swear it is a fish trying to attack me  or an octopus. I never worry it is the Octo-mom though. I'd see her coming with all those kids.
[Not me again}

I purchased an underwater camera and it worked pretty good. {not me.}

We did witness several mating pacific turtles from the boat. For the sake of their privacy, I did not take a photograph. Do you know sometimes the mating process takes a couple THREE days to complete.
Ocean Viagara? Poor girl turtles.
{Not Me}

In case you don't have the discovery channel, I'll let you in on a secret: The ocean is full of critters and fish.  We saw a few Eagle Rays, which are different than the sting rays we have in Florida.

{Not Me}

Do you know they have whales in Costa Rica? We could actually hear them underwater!

I would have been pickled pink if I had been able to spot a whale from the boat.

I would have been all sorts of other colors had I spotted a whale while IN the water.

{Not me}

 Living critters were everywhere. And for the sake of fun again...I sucked it up and joined my peeps. {Not me}

 I'm not good at the snorkel part. I tend to hyperventilate trying to breathe through that hose like apparatus.
I opted for just a mask and a noodle to float on.

I'm all bad-ass when I have a noodle to protect me.

I'm sorry to say, this IS me.

 I look like aqua man gone bad.
Someone had too much salt last night. Me and this guy.

Raise your hand if fish freak you out too.
I mean, not when they are on my dinner plate, just before-hand.


XOXO

{Almost} Everybody's Gone Surfin'

Growing up on the East Coast of Florida, I knew several kids that surfed. I called them the "rich kids". Because they were. Therefore I never surfed. 

I bet you've never heard that woe is me tale: "I was too poor to surf." I can spin anything to my needs.

My sweet girls have grown up on the west coast of Florida and there ain't no waves to surf here....but there are plenty of "rich kids." They must do something else...like play virtual surfing games in their glass houses. 

Another item on our "Must Do" list for Costa Rica was to take surf lessons. Well, that was NOT my list, but it was on some other people's lists. 

We drove an hour and a half to a famous surfing area; Tamarindo Beach. 

Can I just tell you that all five four girls started drooling as soon as they saw the surf instructor Jonathon? 

He was young....I could have been his Mother!
Although, he is way tanner than I could ever be, so he really could not be my son. 

Unless I adopted him....but he said no way Chica! 

 You grab your own board and carry it a few blocks down and then one block over to the beach area...while Mom {the paparazzi} rides in an air conditioned van to the beach area. 

This was the only day I brought my "BIG" camera....but I did not have my zoom lens....the water shots would have been so much better. I think we'll go back next week for a do-over. 

 Surf instructions on dry land first. Makes sense...less of a drowning hazard that way. 

 The girls were all EYES at the instructor. The Coach could drown him with his pinky toe...but he paid attention too. 

 Posers.

I'm proud to say that everyone 'got up' and surfed. The waves on this day were not huge. Some were minuscule and some were large...but you work with what you've got. 

The Coach~If you are super talented, you only need ONE foot to surf with. 

Linds~I was so proud of all the new things she tried on this trip. She inherited a bit of the sissiness in me....but it was not evident last week. 

 Lolo was a pro. On large waves and on the littles...she made it to the shore almost every time. 

 Like a boss....Of course, it is not the size of the wave, but how well you can maneuver it. Right?

 Two of our peeps were hit in the head by their own boards half way through this little expedition and discussed important topics on the beach. The important topic today was Johnathon's abs.

 Here he poses with the girls. He was actually taller....but bent down for the photo. Must be a Costa Rican custom of some sort. 

Another day of making memories with my peeps...and making memories never gets old with me.

So tell me: 

Have you surfed? 

Would you love to try it?

Would you only love to try and surf if Johnathon was your personal instructor?

If you answered yes to the third question, you are a perv. And my friend.