The News isn't always so joyful.

I hate to share 'not fun' news, but sometimes that is what we have.
Last week my Mom was finally given an answer to her health issues; ovarian cancer.

Yeah. That pretty much sucks rotten clams.

She has a great attitude. 

The kicker is that she had a hysterectomy at age 40 and the (%$#$!!!) Dr. only took one of her ovaries; she was under the impression that both were to be taken....she was mad at him at the time. Imagine how she feels about him now.
My mom is sweet as heck southern woman with lovely manners....but I'd hate to hear what she would say to that man right now.  

We're only thinking positive thoughts. ONLY.

She's in the hospital now and will start chemo today.
Not exactly sure of the protocol; there was also mention of surgery.
I'm flying up there today.

In case you didn't know this, my Mom is the bomb.com. 

I declared earlier this week that I'm going to have my ovaries removed.
They're taking up prime real estate and I've NO need for them anymore. THEN, I saw on the news that Angelina Jolie is having hers removed. 
Trend Setter WHO?? Trend setter Suz.

If you recall, I had that BRCA test last June and it was negative, but I'm still going to seriously talk with my Dr. about this.

Anyhoo....positive thoughts, prayers, good mojo and whatever else you can come up with would be great.
Anyone proficient at Indian healing dances? If so, please record that for my viewing pleasure.

XOXOXO

Nature is pretty and pretty interesting when it's not trying to devour you.

Thank you all for the well wishes to my mom-she reads my blog AND all the comments.    

She was released from the hospital on Friday night and she rested all weekend; hopefully she'll have some answers soon. 

I secretly hope she's pregnant; I'd love a sibling!

I meant to post this a few weeks ago, but I was distracted by something. Mostly likely by something sparkly or tasty. 

It happens. 

A few weekends ago our good friends from Jupiter spent the weekend with us. On Saturday morning I wanted to share with them Dawn's nature trail. Ok, it isn't just for Dawn, but it's so close to her house; she goes there quite a bit AND her son Camden completed his Eagle scout project there. 

In my book, that makes it hers. 

 Camden made fabulous trail markers for the entire 12 miles of this incredible trail. 

One day, I hope to make it to mile marker one. No, I'm not a slacker Mc Suzy....you'll see why we didn't make it that far in about 3 photos. 

Oh, that guy? That's just a little {sissy} baby. 

We saw a few of those as well as a day care center for raccoons. 

Ok, maybe it was just a few raccoon youngnin's in one spot and I assumed they were in daycare. 

You'd be surprised by how many calories I burn assuming things. 

Looky looky whose trying to block our trail. (including Lolo and Cocoa)

Yes, I sent my child and my dog ahead of me. HA. Actually quite a few people walked next to/past this very large gator without a thought.

Me? 

I had lots of thoughts and most of them ended with me struggling to free myself from her jaws while shatting my shorts. 

See Dawn's brave son Camden over there in the yellow shorts? Just a few feet to his right was a water moccasin....so, we were to finagle between the gator and the water moc!

I finally did it; thank goodness some really nice teenagers came by and said they would walk between ME and the gator. 

AND I LET THEM. 

I know...can you imagine if something happened and I had to explain to their parents that I let them sacrifice their lives for me. 

I was not in my right mind. 

Thank goodness there were a lot of pretty views when you looked up. 

Ibis and egrets everywhere...they were so lovely and I don't believe they've ever eaten anyone; although that one was 'eyeballing' me. 

You should know that walking while looking up can be dangerous....because we ran into another one of these unattractive parts of nature. 

Why do snakes just sneak up on you like that? kinda rude. 

To exit the trail, you have to go out the exact way you came in. We HAD to walk past the gator to leave the trail. Can you believe she hadn't moved an inch? Lazy pants.

YES,  of course we'll do it again; this is why we have life insurance. 

Anyone have any close encounters with nature lately?

XOXOXO

Willy Nilly Friday~The "I don't know which way I'm going" version

Joining Tanya and friends to share 5 willy nilly thoughts.

1) Bee Irish.

See, I'm so bossy that I'll tell people what ethnicity to BEE. 

And I expect you to follow suit.

2) Mi Madre'

My Mom is having some health issues. She's in the hospital (in ATL) and is undergoing a lot of tests. She already feels better than when she was admitted....but there are uncertainties.
(Hi Mom- I hope you have WIFI there!) 

Yesterday I was all over the place with information. I went from packing a bag and planning my departure to laughing on the phone with her!
My Mom: "You shouldn't drive up here, unless you're a gastroenterologist!" 

That's my Mom.
Waiting and praying for some good news; no matter what, we will get through it together. 

If you are a praying person, she is most worthy of them. 

3)

Do you think I'm distracted? I found something odd in our junk drawer last night. Do you see it?

4)

I might be crackers. 

5) Again, sending love, health and well wishes to my {bee} Irish mom; I know she dresses weird, but weird people need love too. 

Love you Bev!

Happy Friday my people...and call your Mom, she'd love to hear from you. 

XOXO

Sleeping Single....

...in a double bed.

Raise your hand if you remember that song.

So a few weeks ago I washed all the covers for our dogs' beds.

They have two in the family room and two in the living room.

{See how I said they up there?!}

For some reason, I only put the covers back on three....and then on Monday, I finally broke down and put the cover on the fourth one in the living room.

Man, oh man...I had myself a good old fashioned {30 second}cry. 

*sigh*

Cocoa is doing better. A little less mopey....although, you can't tell from THAT face. 

I've been taking her on walks every morning; something we've not done in a long time.

We're all getting used to our new normal. Life goes on my friends.

Meanwhile, lets spread this ear worm.

Enjoy your day.... I''m off to plug in my hot rollers!

  

Orange is the new bad?

I found some cute little orange ladybugs on my eggplant bush last week.
Well, at first I thought they were cute...then I thought they might be malicious. 

I googled and I searched.
And by searched, I can only google because who actually does anything other than google when it comes to searching? Lazy who?

I found mixed messages.

Yes, it is a specific ladybug common in Florida.

~~~OR~~~

Yes, it is a specific PLANT EATING ladybug lookalike that will wreak havoc in your garden. Nothing in between. Dramatic who?

I still don't know for sure, but I'm not going to worry too much since they've NOT touched the actual eggplants themselves. 

So, are the little orange creatures eating the leaves or are they trying to eat whatever is eating my leaves?
Superhero OR Super-villian.

Time will tell. 

In 'for sure positive' orange news, my bird of paradise is going bonkers in a good way. 

Get your tickets, It's a double-header. 

Orange you glad I shared all this with you?

Happy Monday.
And by 'happy' I mean, we've all made it to see another week!
XOXOXO

Willy Nilly Friday~The "lets get back into a positive groove" version.

Joining Tanya and friends to share 5 willy nilly thoughts, photos or whatevers.
I'm a fan of the whatevers. 

1)
The reason we put up with the horrid, humid, melt your face off kind of summers is to enjoy the 2-3 months in the winter where our faces don't melt off.
Ok, we also put up with it because it's where we live, work and play.

*My face is fully intact right now...but I feel as thought it's going downhill quickly.
Summer is 5 minutes away!!*

2)
I refer to my gardening time as Therapy. And boy....was I need of some therapy after the few weeks that we've had.

I have both gardens filled up. 

This one I just finished yesterday.
{aside from the rosemary plant on crack that I butchered so I could walk into the garden}

 NOW GROW.
I mean, grow, please.
I really need to work on my demanding nature. 

I mean, my demanding OF nature.

This one is a bit more mature; I finished it on Sunday. {aside from the eggplant bush on steroids}

3)
We all miss Ozzie; but I didn't realize that Cocoa would miss him SO much. That's not to say she didn't love him; she did. BUT, they didn't really play...because Ozzie was not a player.
He was an eater, a sleeper and a pee-er. But, while doing all those things, he did them with Cocoa. She's been really mopey since he's been gone. 

I requested a play date this week with her friend Maya. 

I lovingly refer to Maya as The Sausage roll.

Sausage Roll who?

Who knew that I'd be worried about my dog's mental health?

4)
Lolo's Walter is doing well. She lets him get some climbing time in my house plant.

I use the word 'climbing' loosley. He's more of a I'm just hanging out kind of chameleon.
Yikes, my corn plant isn't looking so healthy. 

Oh joy...something else that is ailing???

5)
100% relatable

But if you call me moody, I'll put a hurtin' on you and your coffee filters. 

Have a fabulous weekend my people. 

XOXO

The upside of the {bad, dirty, no good} downside

Thank you all for your kind comments, emails and Facebook messages regarding our Ozzie. Making that decision was one of the hardest things I've had to do, but I know it was the right thing to do. 

Although our hearts were hurting, we were so thankful for the almost 7 years of him being a part of our family.  That was Monday.

Maisy and Ozzie napping on our leather sectional pet bed. Circa 2014 

On Tuesday I took Maisy {I refer to her as the 'crotchety' one}  to the vet because she wasn't looking so great and the Dr. confirmed my fears; she was in kidney failure.

Again, I had to make that oh-so-difficult decision to let her go. The vet thought we could 'try' some things that all required her being poked and prodded. 

The cat was not happy about it and since I know her well, I knew she'd rather NOT do any of that. 

The upside? She came to us via the humane society and she had a great life for almost 17 years. 

 Wednesday, my eyes were still swollen from all the tears, but the Coach and I decided to go and watch the college basketball game at the girls' school. As we were walking into the game, we got a call from Linds; she was off campus and had been in a car accident. She was fine, but her car was not. Being 19 and alone, she was hysterical too. 

The upside? No one was hurt, we have car insurance and we were so close by. 

 But the other downside of this? Since she is only 19, we were not able to rent a car for her while her car is being repaired. Back up plan: Coach's big Blue truck that he is going to restore in the future. 

It was comical checking to see if Linds could actually drive this; she's never driven a car that didn't have the drive/park shift on the console. 

She looked at the gear on the dash and asked: What's this??

She turned into a retro-redneck girl in a matter of minutes. 

The Wednesday prior, Lolo's beloved chameleon Zim passed away. Talking about being sad....she and I were both a mess. I fell in love with that cute little 'grouchy cat' looking lizard. 

Taking care of chameleons isn't easy, and females are even more difficult because they need to lay eggs. {even without a beau}

A few days after that though, a good friend of ours contacted us to say he had 'rescued' a chameleon. 

Lolo thought about it for a day {a big commitment} and decided to take him in. Meet Walter:

 See, another upside. Walter is a cutie pie...well, you know, if you're into that sort of thing. 

 We had a lovely weekend with friends who visited and I had a nice long therapy session on Sunday in my garden. 

I hope you are all doing well, feeling healthy and finding the upside in everything.