Finding my giddy

I think I forgot to tell you that when we were coming home from Nashville a few weeks ago, we spent some time in the Delta lounge at the airport. Guess who was in there with us?

You'll never guess, but please try.

Really? 

You won't even try?

It was Kathie Lee Gifford. 

She was sweet, friendly and as cute as a button. I have to admit, I wasn't always a fan of hers, but she's grown on me over the years. In a good way, not like bad moles or barnacles. And, she's SUPER tiny. I had no idea. 

Anyhoo....

Since I was in such a tizzy yesterday over mundane social media.... let's talk about something that makes me REALLY giddy. 

The butters in my garden. *Sigh* they do make me smile. 

If you'd told me 10 years ago that I'd be a happy camper and smile just seeing butterflies, then I'd tell you "I ain't got time to think about butterflies"!

I've evolved. 

It took a while after hurricane Irma to get things going again; no butterflies to be seen for a while, but we're back in butterfly business now. 

Of course, I've got monarch caterpillars a plenty....I have to be careful where I walk in and around the garden because sometimes they get crazy and stray far away. They really need boundaries, but they're against that. 

A fifth instar monarch cat; he's close to being 'full' and then wandering off to make his chrysalis. 

I'm not sure if I mentioned that another native butterfly to our area is the Gulf Fritillary; I would see them feeding in our garden on my nectar plants. Finally, I planted some Passion Vine (which is what the butters lay their eggs on and then the larva/cats feed on) It was soon after I planted the passion vine that I started seeing their larva. 

Not quite as cute as the monarch larva....actually, they look kinda scary. Surely this is to keep predators from eating them. 

 But, they become beautiful butterflies. They're harder to photograph because they don't feed as long or stay still as much as my monarchs. They really should slow down and smell the roses. :) 

Wishing you all a great day doing whatever makes you giddy. 

XOXO

The Bookface

I officially want to change LOL to LSH.

My favorite sport is to Laugh SO Hard, so there you go.


And here is where I have a little venting session:

I used to love Facebook. It brought me some joy, some smiles and some LSH'ing.
Lately, though, it only brings me AF (annoyed face),  BF (bored face)  and RABF (really annoyed bored face).

It's bothered me so much, that I finally deleted it off of my smartphone....and suddenly, my smartphone became much smarter.

No more notifications of someone updating their status (A) or someone adding a photo (B).

Because A) The status update is one of a few things.
               1) It's the sharing of an OLD status update. (memories)
               2) It's them sharing a picture/photo/meme that isn't actually theirs either.

In other words: nothing is being posted that is actually original, new or fresh.


Because B) Their update is actually a photo/meme/article stating.....

               1)  PRO gun control.
               2) ANTI gun control.
               3) A recipe for crack chicken. Or some other meal.


I recall when I enjoyed opening up my FB and seeing my friends posting cute pictures of their kids, grandkids, a new garden, or a miniature donkey doing flips on the trampoline in their backyard.

Nope. Gone. No more fun to see here.

So, when I started becoming more annoyed than joyed, I started to limit myself.

Guess what. I only check it on occasion when I'm on my laptop and I usually have a lot of built up notifications. (35 or more?)

And guess what else, people are still annoying me a little bit, but it's my own fault for checking it at all.
And then I dig deep inside myself and I wonder, is it THEM, or is it ME? Maybe I'm just easily annoyed lately?
Damn whoremoans.   
Maybe I'm the ISSUE?

I really need to LSH, so apparently, I need some time with my girls and luckily, I'll see them both on Easter.

Have a great day and I hope you get to LSH and not get all AF or RABF.

XOXO

This, That and the Other Thing-I'm a hand washing, bunny loving, plant nerd.

1) Whenever I see the "Employees must wash their hands" signs, it always conjures up images of me telling my girls to do the same. When.they.were.five.

Who doesn't know this? Well, apparently not everyone knows and therefore has to be told over and over. 

So, this sign in a public restroom cracked me up.


2) I've had this rabbit in and around my yard since 2010; Maribel. 
A few weeks ago, I walked out and she was in this state.

Her ear was removed fell off and she's now holding it.  I asked her how it happened, but apparently, she couldn't hear me.



3) A few weeks ago my MIL and I were visiting our favorite place; my local plant nursery. This is where I find cute garden things and unusual plants and of course, my NON pesticide sprayed milkweed for my monarchs. We were both enthralled by these shamrock plants. We had to have one each. How cute is it? And how nerdy am I that I get excited about plants? 









































Happy weekend!
XOXO

The one where we went to Nashville

It seems like it was a minute after we arrived home from the Bahamas that we were packing for Nashville; switched out the flip-flops for boots.

We were a part of a very large group; 22 people going to celebrate our friend Stephanie's 40th birthday. (They're so cute at that age)

The six of us  (Coach, Moi, Kelly, Don, Pat and Marcia) rented a loft on Union Street. It was super cute and the location allowed us to walk just about everywhere.

It was a fairly quick trip; Thursday- Sunday. Honestly, I could have done another day or two since there is so much to see and do.

Friday morning 8 of us took a food and sightseeing tour; I highly recommend this....it was very informative and enjoyable for us all.

The rest of the weekend was kinda loose.....we stopped in a honkey tonk or two and listened to some music. Although, I could only hang in those places for so long because hello; NO GOOD WINE is offered in those kinda of places. I have standards ya know.

We really enjoyed the Gulch area; lots of good shopping and nice pubs/restaraunts.

 Nashville is known for its Hot chicken; I'm more of a mild chicken kind of girl.

All the usual suspects.

On Saturday night we went to The Grand Ole' Opry. It was awesome; a great venue and fantastic music.

We had a great time. The weather was awesome; a little bit chilly and nice for all the walking we did.
I can't wait to go back.

Paradise for songwriters and music lovers (the photo final)

On our island hopping tour we stopped and fed the pigs on Pig Beach. They actually see you coming and swim out to you so they can be the first to get some apples; they're literally pigs living on an island with more pigs and chickens. 

 They are protected now because, well, you know how humans are when it comes to bacon. 

I was in sea glass heaven!

We had some great meals in our rental compound house.

Da girls with the 'rock star'. 

Since it was Kelly's birthday week. We arranged to get a signed guitar for her; signed by all the artists of the week. She was SO surprised! She's currently taking lessons and will be touring next year with Miranda Lambert. 

What a fun filled week with friends who are like family; but not the annoying kind of family. 

XOXO

Paradise for songwriters and music lovers (part deux)

One of our favorite parts of our week in Hoptown was the nightly shows with the songwriters.

Coming into this, we really didn't know what to expect. I think, that was a good thing because we were so surprised with the talent and the entertainment. EVERY.SINGLE.NIGHT.

A few of our favorites.

Channing Wilson

Man, can this guy sing a tune.... man, can this guy WRITE A SONG? YES. He's an amazing talent....and surprise, he was in our presence a few weeks later in Nashville. (that was our next destination) 

Another sweetheart and fantabulous songwriter: Django Walker. He's a former pro basketball player and songwriter....also son of Jerry Jeff Walker; the gentleman who wrote Mr. Bojangles. You know that song, right? Well, hopefully that SONG is in your head for today as it is in mine. :)

I honestly could go on and on about the great music we enjoyed the entire week. 

Mark Bryan from Hootie and the Blowfish was there playing every single night; so talented. 

And do you remember that small band REM from Atlanta?  The lead guitarist and writer Mike Mills showed up one evening. Well...he was staying on a yacht near the venue, so what else did he have to do? The next time I'm on a yacht....I'm gonna hit up the local pub with my rendition of anything Yabba. 

Anyhoo. All of these talented peeps (there were so many I didn't get pics of) are all accomplished songwriters. Wyatt Durrett was there; he's written every song with Zac Brown. And yes, we had our toes in the water,  Azz in the sand....

Since the songwriters didnt perform until 7 pm; we had all day to laze around or have little adventures. 

One day we took Don's boat island hopping.

We stopped at Green Turtle cay. 

We had a fabulous lunch at the Green Turtle Yacht club; we left some $$ on the ceiling so we could go back one day and NOT find it. 

We did some walking around the cute little island too. One thing I loved about all the Bahamian Islands is how friendly the people are. SO stinking nice and they all had big ole smiles on their faces. So many days we were out and we saw all the kiddos leaving school in their cute plaid uniforms....happy people. There's something to be said for living on a small island where there is virtually no crime.

I'm gonna do one more post to finish this trip up; I've got some pictures I want to share so I won't forget about this trip when the old age hits me in a few weeks years.


XOXO

Paradise for songwriters and music lovers (Part 1)

There's no moss growing under our feet....nosirreebobcattail.
And since we've not stopped going, I'm having a hard time documenting it all. But I must because the brain forgets things quickly these days.

We had a lovely trip with 7 other friends to the Abaco's islands of the Bahamas; Elbow Cay specifically.

Prior to this trip, when someone mentioned going to the Bahamas, my mind went to that one trip I had with my family when I was about 6. (or pics from peeps Cruise's)  It was all touristy, t-shirt shops and cheesy Casinos.

This island couldn't be further from that. We flew into Marsh Harbour airport and took a boat ferry to Elbow Cay. From there we had golf carts to take us to our rental house. The island is very small; less than 6 miles long and most people don't have vehicles.

 The steps leading to the beach from our rental home. The water was MAGNIFICENT! The beach area where our home was located was quite rocky....but this made for lovely beach combing.
SEA GLASS!!

The first few days of our trip there were just five of us; Michelle, Don, Kelly, Suz and Coach.

And why did we choose to go to Elbow Cay/Hopetown for this particular week, which just happened to fall on Kelly's Valentine birthday?  Songwriters in Paradise We've been big into travelling for music festivals for many years now, but this was something totally different. Smaller, more intimate and it included a great vacation.

This was a few weeks ago, but I'm reliving it all going through my photos. *sigh* I must get back to laundry and bills because neither care about my vacation.

I hope all my blog peeps are well and I'm gonna catch up real soon.

XOXO