A party, a holiday and a national Holiday.

We hosted our Company party a few weeks ago and it was a great success! We had over 90 people attend this year; it was lovely to see so many people enjoying themselves.
Of course, a couple of the people are my favorites.

Wearing my wedding pearls; Mom would be proud!

Christmas was fun. Different, but it was fun. We celebrated on Christmas Eve with all our regular people (12), but not in our regular family room/kitchen since that might not be done until 2022!
This year? We were in the Craft room. (which is also the laundry room, the office, the dogs room, my makeup/vanity room, my workout room, our kitchen and our dining room)
We're not just multitasking people, we've not got a multitasking house!!!
We did a potluck and it was fabulous!

When you run out of chairs for dinner.....

Guess who turned 20 two days after Santa's arrival?
No, not me, but thanks for even letting that thought cross your (apparently senile) mind.
Our little Lindsay is no longer a teen.

She's always been one of my favorite children. She's doing great in school, stays busy with her sorority and hasn't been arrested ONE time.  (See why her day is a national holiday?)
She and her sister are actually moving in together late January. HOW DID THAT HAPPEN? 

I hope ALL Of you sweet people have had a nice Christmas. Wishing you a beautiful, healthy and joyful 2016.

XOXO

Hello~Hola

Do you remember me? I remember you. I don't always remember ME, but I remember you.
And Adelle. She's very memorable. But who isn't ready to say GOODBYE to that song already.

Lots of happenings at La Casa De' Busy Bee. In case you know actual spanish, I don't.

Lolo has recently moved back home. Temporarily. We're happy about this. Why? Cause we weren't happy with her choice in a partner....it took her some time, but she's come to the same conclusion as we did 5 minutes into the relationship. He's NOT worthy.

So, she's back home for now and with her comes her baggage.

Max.

She adopted him from the humane society a few months ago.

If you're a mathematician as I am, we're up to THREE dogs now in a matter of months.

He comes with his own battle wounds (burns) too; we have no idea what happened to him.

He's sweet and jumpy. Like Tigger.
He's also a cuddler. Like Suz.
He's 17lbs of love. We think he's part Basenji and perhaps chihuahua. Perhaps 3 years old.

He and Callie are the best of friends.
Cocoa is kinda like the third wheel....*sigh*

I feel like I need to tie a pork chop around Cocoa's neck so someone will play with her.
What? Well, according to my Dad, that was the only way I had anyone to play with as a kid.

See why I am the way I am?

We're making progress on our house renovation too. Not fast enough for our liking, but we're trying to be patient. We're SO thankful that we are even in the position to do this....so, we'll bide our time.

I've got men coming and going around here ALL day long.
Hopefully the neighbors will still respect me when this is all said and done.


Happy Humpday.

Bee thankful.
Bee grateful.
Bee someone's hero.

XOXO

All I want for Christmas is a squeegee.

We're finally able to SEE some of the progress on our renovation. 

So much time and money spent on things I can't see; like electrical, structural etc....who needs that when I want to see pretties?

BEFORE

We only added 100 square feet to the interior and it was taken from the covered lanai area. You can see on the upper photo where the breakfast nook bay window is? 

That wall has been brought out to the exterior column. We'll no longer be having breakfast. 

Now, we've got 40 feet of pivoting glass doors along the back. 

AFTER

Pivoting. Folding. As in To Pivot. Or to fold. 

A view from the interior. 

It's not that we're not neighborly, we just don't want construction dirt in the door tracks. 

Or neighbors.  

Kidding.

not.so.much

I know how smart all of you are and you're all about to purchase stock in glass cleaner.  

Right?

When you have a minute can you whip up a lasagna for me?

In my family the tale of tales is most of the fun. Or is it the telling of tales?

You know, when something funny happens, we love to relive it over and over.

We perpetuate it. Beat it like a dead horse. 

I know for a fact that not every family finds this behavior to be entertaining.

My side of the family? Yes. Oh, hell yes.

While I was in GA this summer helping my Mom get through her health issues we had a discussion regarding my Brother Mark when he was sick. I was around 19 and he was deathly ill; battling the effects of AIDS. He hardly had an appetite. ever. One day he wanted a slurpie; one from the genuine slurpie store 7-11.

I was in a town that I didn't live in, driving around looking for a 7-11 with no map, GPS or cell phone. It took me a few hours (I'm directionally challenged out of my comfort zone) and I finally found a slurpie and made it back to my Mom's place.

Mark on the other hand had now decided the slurpie wasn't as appetizing as it had been a few hours ago. 

*sigh*

While I was trying to entice my Mom with food, drinks, snacks etc....she was not having any of it. 

I retold this Slurpie story to her. She and I had a good laugh about it and she shared with me this little nugget:  

When HER mom was battling cancer, my Mom was trying to entice her with food, drinks, snacks etc....but her mom didn't like the sound of anything.

Finally she said to my Mom, "oh, you know what? Lasagna sounds good right now."

Well, have you ever made a lasagna appear quickly? Nope, that takes hours. Not a human on the planet has all the ingredients in their pantry/fridge at once. So, shopping, prepping, cooking.

Of course, you know how this story ends.

By the time my Mom "whipped" up the lasagna, her Mom didn't want it anymore.

So, that became part of our daily conversation. 

Me: Mom, what do you want to eat? I'd mention a few things and of course, lasagna was always one of them. She never did ask me whip up a lasagna, although I would have. 

I missed her terribly on Thanksgiving as this was the holiday we always celebrated together.

*Sigh*

This pic has nothing to do with this story, but it was on Thanksgiving morning. Lolo adopted Max recently. To be clear, Max is the dog, not the child. Callie was in the pic too, but decided she'd been photographed enough already and fled the scene. 

So, who is up for lasagna? I've got 5 hours to spare.......

Oh wait, I don't have an oven. Or a kitchen.

Could I offer you a cherry slurpie?