The writing is on the plate

I went through a phase where I liked roosters and chickens.
Ok, I still like them somewhat. I have a few lingering in the kitchen; mind you there are no verbal 'cock a doodle do's or poop to step over.
(Lolo wants chickens in a bad way, but she also wants a baby bison)

 A few months ago I was clearing out some clutter and I looked up, saw this plate on top of a cabinet and declared it was the ugliest thing I've ever seen.
I said out loud: 

WHO BROUGHT THIS INTO MY BEAUTIFUL HOME?!?

And since I was home alone, only my inner voice answered. Guilty as charged. 

I put it in a box in the garage for donations.

A week later as I passed by the box, and I had a vision:
This could be a bigger version of my pig. 
(excuse messy garage counter)

So I grabbed a can of chalkboard paint and went to town.

It was a matter of days before someone 'adjusted' my mantra for the week.
Was anyone surprised?

Bee Kind + teenagers = BeHind

Have a great weekend and remember, to watch your behind 'cause this Mom rules.

XOXO

Imelda Who?

If you know me, you know I like order in my life.

So, when my shoe shelves started looking disheveled, I worried.

Suz, stacking shoes? 

That is NOT orderly. NOSIRREBOBCATTAIL.

Do I have TOO Many pairs of shoes?

Do I need to weed them out?

Then I smacked myself silly.

Of course, I don't have too many shoes.

I have too few shelves. 

Oh thank goodness....this disorderly conduct is not my fault. 

The one where everyone gets married

Who knew June 22nd was such a popular wedding day?

Linds and I drove an hour and 40 minutes to witness my Uncle getting married. We were only able to stay for an hour since we were committed to another wedding first. It was great visiting with my cousins and seeing my Uncle so happy. He's been a bachelor since his early twenties....and his bride was a school mate of his in middle school!

My cousins and I. 

Horrid angle, must I tutor everyone on camera use?

My Uncle and his bride; they were married in my Grandma's church. 

I'm so happy that he is happy....and that he has someone to take care of him. You know, some men just need that. 

Then the big ol' redneck wedding. Ok, it wasn't really redneck; it was quite nice.

Lots of mason jars

 Lolo and the bride got a lot of ideas from Pinterest. I didn't take pictures of the table set ups...but it was all really cute. 

 Yep, the bride wore boots. 

 A man in uniform is always a nice sight.
My sunflowers were not ready yet. They ordered some online and added in cuttings of flowers/plants from my yard the morning of. 

 Here she comes

 And now for the important people...HA HA!!

 I need to be adored. Daily.

 I am surrounded by silly people. 

 Lolo rocked as Maid of Honor. Her dress is navy blue and too cute. She had on yellow wedges during the ceremony and the boys had on pants and dress shirts. 

It was 94* and the a/c took a dive at the house where the festivities took place. 

Thank the good lord for deodorant. 

The coach and a good friend of ours cooked all day long.

(I'll spare you the photo of the 'whole pig' on the granite countertop for consumption)

There was gator tail, chicken, pork, 'taters, salads, greens (turnip & collard)

Lets just say there was a MESS of food.  

Come Sunday morning, we were all dead tired. 

Too much fun will do that to you!

How was your weekend? 

XOXO

In case of emergency....

Grab your ankles and breathe.

I'm kidding. We've not been inundated with emergencies...but we have been inundated with busyness.
The wedding is happening this Saturday.  Sadly,  our sunflowers are NOT ready. I need a week or two.....but the military won't allow for that.

The Coach is crazy busy with coaching, working and preparing the the feast that includes the wedding. I'm telling ya, that man is amazing. He jumps in and takes on a small task and makes it a major deal...all in the name of being helpful and giving.

LoLo has taken the task of Maid of Honor to a new level. She rocks. I have photos, but can't muster the energy to mix them with a post just yet. I know. Lame.
Her skills include sewing a ring pillow out of burlap and lace, crafting up an envelope box to match the venue and 50+ mason jar labels and ribbons.

In other news, my crotch orchid is going loco.  If you look back at the original, it was only ONE stem of flowers....now it is FOUR. And I likey!

I hope you are all doing well this third week of June. We have many plans for the summer.....just some small trips here and there. I'm most happy that we've got a wonderful house sitter that can take care of the house, the doggies and the cats at one time!
Booya.

XOXO

That BBQ issue and DISNEY

Thank you all for the funny comments on my last post regarding the loons I see on  HGTV.
So many of you left long and funny comments that cracked me up. I am hoping to respond to those via email when I have a minute or six.
Some wondered about my issue on how silly people use the term BBQ in reference to a grill.

You can GO to a BBQ.
You can EAT  BBQ.
You can BUY (or make) BBQ sauce.

But you can't cook on a BBQ....you CAN cook on a GRILL.

Makes perfect sense to me.
But then again, I am a southern lady gal who grew up knowing this from birth.

****

Anyhoo's. The girls and I took a quick trip to Disney on Tuesday. We had ONE day left on a THREE day Florida resident park pass.....it was set to expire on June 16th. 

Can you imagine how our hearts dropped after the three hour drive to hear: 

Your tickets are invalid. 

Yeah. They did. Apparently they have more blackout dates than I was able to locate (easily) on the website and our tickets were nil. zip. nada. 

Kudos to the chica at Animal Kingdom guest relations. She saw our despair and gave us passes for the day. 

Can you spot my girls on this ride? Not with the small camera I brought you can't. 

This was the face they used at guest relations, before the roller coaster and after. Just kidding. 

I promote dramatics though. 

We had a great time. It rained most of the day and that was a good thing...cause it cooled us from 95* to 87*. We enjoyed all the animals, shows and rides. It is always intersting seeing the kids having 'breakdowns' and how some parents react. 

Geeze Mom, is yelling at your crying kid really working? I think NO.

We made our way to the hotel and I asked for a proper 'breakdown' photo. 

Normally Lolo would not put her face on the carpet of a hotel, but it was the Hilton. Hilton is known to have better germs. 

We showered off all the germs and had a beautiful dinner at the hotel.

We were up the next morning for breakfast on the road and headed home to our people Coach and critters.
It was a great little 'girls' getaway.  I'm so lucky to have girls who love to hang out with me and  a husband who promotes us leaving.

Oh wait a minute....

We love to entertain.

If Our TV is turned on and the kids haven't stolen the remote, it is usually tuned to HGTV.
{A far cry from those prison shows the Coach and the girls enjoy. }

We enjoy watching house hunters, property virgins, Kitchen Cousins, selling NY and LA etc....Well, I guess you could say we are home voyeurs.  Doesn't everyone like to see inside other people's houses?

Frankly, I am usually dissing other peoples choices in stuff...furniture, flooring, counter top choices. If only they had consulted ME first, then they wouldn't have made all those bad choices.
Can you believe how harsh I am?

Anyhoo. Something I DO notice when others are shopping for a new place they always say:

We like to entertain, we want a large open kitchen.
We like to entertain. We like to entertain. We like to entertain.

Yadda yadda yadda.
I think SOME of them are lying.

Just once, I want someone to tell the truth:

We don't like to have people over...so, please find us a closed in, dark dreary kitchen where we can secretly devour boxes of little Debbie's in the middle of the day.

 

If I hear it just once, then I will be a happy camper.

Our kitchen IS bright and open.

{2009~before I learned how to use a camera-don't miss those floors one bit}

Clearly, I have to eat my little Debbie's in the privacy of my bathroom.

...speaking of me talking to the yahoos on TV...You should sit next to a cabinet manufacturer/granite/stone producer.... and hear what he has to say about some of the shoddy work he sees.

Thank goodness no one can hear us.

Oh, and I have a special name for people who refer to a grill as a BBQ.
That is an entire blog post in itself.

Do you view talk to  HGTV?

This, that and the other thing.

This

I'm sure you were wondering how my baby magnolia trees are doing.

They are doing great and they appreciate the fact that you were thinking about them.

That

Proof that I do not follow simple directions. (I DO however play nice with others)

After I finished a six pack of these little snackie-snacks (not all in the same day!) 

I discovered the 'peel corners' at the top. I suppose my hunger stopped me from fully using my brain? Yeah, lets go with that. 

 I finished this last one THEN I read that it was expired by 6 days.

If you don't hear from me, I've died from guacamole poisoning.....which might be a good way to go. 

Speaking of squashed up avocados...did you see the newest commercial from Subway regarding avocado love? Makes me laugh like a hyena. Which is never musical to the ears.

The other thing

These two are not in the least happy about Tropical storm Andrea. It's bad enough that it's been raining here daily since last Saturday....now a storm?

As I wrote that, I'm starting to wonder if the rain all week was because of Andrea? I would never know since I don't watch the news.

This past Saturday lightening hit our house, knocked out our house phone, our electric gate and parts of our wireless network/whole house DVR thingy. {First world problems!}

I'm not complaining one bit....our home is standing and we are as well.
We are fine. Soggy, but fine nonetheless.


Wishing you a lovely and DRY weekend....filled with good stuff like guacamole and hairy sissies.
XOXO

Moving on~Bring it on

Lindsay's last day of 11th grade. 

My little love child is officially a high school senior. 

{Your Mom My Daughter wears combat boots}

It was just yesterday that I struggled to get her potty trained. If I could go back....well, I suppose having her potty trained came in handy over the years.

{Ozzie does not appreciate the attitude given here.}

We have five colleges to visit this summer, six if you count air conditioning-refridgeration school.

I'm certainly not dissing a/c school. I sure wish someone in this family could repair ours on the annual basis it seems to fall apart. That and a dentist. I need a/c and dental work. 

But who doesn't?

Only slightly ashamed

I find myself enjoying things that I probably shouldn't.  Or perhaps I shouldn't admit.


*Hoda and Kathie Lee.
I used to flee the room when the real Today show was over and then it morphed into H and KL.
Lately, I've found myself laughing with them and not so much at them.
I know.
Even Linds said out loud a long time ago: They get paid do to this show? Really?
Perhaps I'm just enjoying more mindless fluff in my life.
There. I said it.
Bring on the fluff.
:::

*Friends
I can watch it every day and never get tired of it. Never. ever.
Sadly, I still quote the show. {Coach; he's my lobster!}
:::

*Sanitizing.
Stop laughing; I enjoy it!

Every Saturday morning, I sanitize our kitchen sink. Similar to how the Fly Lady does it.
It makes me all giddy inside.
Also, whenever someone around here has the sneezies and sniffles, I sanitize all the germ carriers. This weeks germ sharing perp is Lindsay. Some rubbing alcohol and cotton swabs take care of the remotes and phones.
Don't you love saying swabs? Say it with me: Swabs.

I find this works better than dousing my loved ones in lysol.
:::

*This commercial really gets me going.

Cut and paste:

http://www.ispot.tv/ad/7ZWz/whirlpool-duet-washer-teen-jeans

Are you wondering if it's the conversation that I love so much?
Nope. I can hardly hear the conversation because my eyes are in heaven.
Those dark floors, fresh walls and lack of clutter.
The part that really finishes it for me are the shiny appliances at the end of the hallway.
Orgazmic I tell ya.
Yep, that commercial does things for me that it shouldn't.


Surely, I'm not alone here.


XOXO