The Coach purchased a new boat. He's been waiting on it for about four months. He picked out everything from the paint color, the upholstery to the stitching in the upholstery. It's HIS baby.
Quite the Coachy catchy name, huh?
Every time I get on a friends boat or the Coach mentioned a new boat my first question is:
Does it have a potty?
Potty good.
NO POTTY, BAD.
Well, this has a potty.
I mean, it has a flip up lid with a bucket/toilet seat.
Although I'd prefer a nice enclosed space with a bidet.
Yesterday was my Mom's heavenly birthday. She would have been 76; like the bicentennial. Goodness, I still remember what a big year 1976 was. All the hoopla. All the red, white & blue.
Anyhoo, I'm still keeping up the tradition of celebrating her in the way she would like.
Two of my besties and I have a nice Mexican lunch with a margarita in Bev's honor.
I love that they also love this tradition. You can't beat great friends.
Well, you could. But then they wouldn't really like you so much, now would they?
Bada-Bada-Bump!
But something cute happened this week.
On Easter Lolo's dog, Mattis found my 'Suz's sitting on the couch necessities basket' under the coffee table.
Does everyone have this? It's all the important things I might need once I sit down for the night and don't want to get up again:
dental floss, foot and hand cream, lip balm & eye drops. (I'm dry I tell ya!)
Well, Mattis found my lip balm and proceeded to open it and eat the balm.
That's NOT the cute part.
Luckily, it was on the low side, but still, Mattis should have moisturized lips for a few days.
The cute part is two days later I get a package from Amazon that I didn't order.
Lolo replaced the lip balm X6.
I'll check with Mattis and see which flavor he prefers and save it for him.
My girls are the best.
Also on Easter, Linds brought me flowers and candy for us both.
Mama did well.
Have I mentioned how much I really love those girls? Like.A.LOT.
I hope all my peeps had a fabulous Easter weekend.
I'd planned on having some of my cousins/family from the East coast over to visit, but it seems it's just a struggle for some people to commit. *raises fists in the air*
Anyhoo...there are several people that I can always count on.
MY People.
Not sure why, but the only pics I got of our girls were when they were laying by the pool....after Easter lunch and prior to Easter dessert. It was a beautiful day; we were experiencing a cool front after a day or two of storms.
Mattis came to play for the day as well. And when I say play, I mean run around like he's never been allowed to run free before. MANIAC.
Some things that I never thought we'd discuss at the dinner table are (and we discuss everything!)
Credit scores.
My girls are on a mission to have excellent credit even though it's SO hard to get a good credit score when you DO NOT have credit. It's so funny to hear them talk about working on it, goals, etc....
I made some cute little chocolate tarts. That's about the extent of my baking capabilities.
And my first attempt at making Deviled eggs was a total success. (The Coach added bacon to them because....bacon) I learned that making hard boiled eggs in my Insta-pot/pressure cooker is the ONLY way to make them for now on. No worrying about watching a boiling pot and timing it perfectly and they peel like BUTTER!
My local inlaws came to join us as well as Lolo's boyfriend. It was a quiet, but very nice day spent with my people who I can always count on.
This was the first year that I didn't hide eggs for the kids. I know. I'm so disappointed in myself as well. But, they did get Easter treats, I'm not a complete monster.
I've been struggling with allergies. Or am I getting sick?
I've had this same conversation every day with myself for almost 2 weeks.
Many nights I took a 24 allergy pill before bed but didn't notice any improvement.
One day I realized I'd forgotten to take the allergy pill at night, and decided to take in the morning.
Big mistake.
HUGE.
I was falling asleep at noon. Which was unfortunate since I was driving at the time.
Then I was remembering to take the pill at night.
Good for you SuzyQ.
Except, I was still getting crazily tired during the day.
No.more.allergy.pills.
I'll just suffer from the sinus/throat/nose issues.
Sleep driving is frowned upon.
I think the Coach was jelly of my struggles and he decided to get a phantom cramp in the lower left side of his belly.
He lived with it for over 24 hours. Then he decided to drive himself to the hospital for a CT scan.
Hey, I offered to take him.
They quickly ruled out a blockage of his intestines and decided it must be diverticulitis.
I ended up having to catch a ride to the hospital and pick him up since they gave him some pain meds as well as IV antibiotics.
See, I did save the day.
He, of course, was up early the next morning and headed off to work...he's a worker bee.
He's currently on antibiotics and has pain meds if he needs them although it seems the (fingers crossed) worst pain has passed.
He IS on a liquid diet for a few days though. Lord, that doesn't even sound fun.
I've had to eat all my food in the closet.
Kidding.
I don't allow food in the closet.
Hoping that he's feeling dandy like candy for Easter Sunday.
Well, that's all my woes for this week. And YES, I feel lucky that this is the only issue we're having at all.
This: I'm having a grand month with the monarchs. I'm not working as hard at it as I had been this time last year, which was becoming a bit overwhelming with all the feeding/cleaning/maintaining.
But even so, I've released 15 so far this week without stressing myself.
I've also given some plants and caterpillars to Lolo and Lindsay's kindergarten teacher for the school. She said they're having a blast watching the caterpillars eat and are anticipating the arrival of monarch butterflies. See, I knew my obsession would pay off sometime, I'm gonna be richhhhhh.
Or maybe not so rich.
That: Lolo and Nathan came for a visit the weekend before last and brought along "Mad Dog-Mattis" for a visit.
He and Callie had a ball...it was nice to see Callie having some fun. She's been pretty low-key since Cocoa has left us and she seemed to really enjoy having a friend over for the evening.
Mattis has grown so much. And yes, SO MUCH HAIR.
I'll be very excited to share some great news about our Lolo soon; she's got some big changes coming and we couldn't be happier for her. For right now, she's still the cutest Popo in town.
Coach's dad turned 75 this past week.
He's a big fan of parties and pretty much planned his own this time. Of course, my sweet MIL was a busy girl too, but Gary found a band, purchased copious amounts of meat and asked Coach to bring over his big ole smoker.
It was a great day with lots of family and friends from near and far.
Coach (and our friend T.W) spent about 10 hours tending to the smoker and the plethora of meat to feed 70 people.
My MIL, FIL and Da' Band.
This is the (carrot) cake. I know-it doesn't look like a cake!
My Coach and my Linds.
Thankfully Lindsay was able to arrange for the day off to spend with us, but Lolo had to work.
My FIL had such a good day. Perhaps it was all the crown royal he ingested, or just all the love he was feeling. Either way, it was a good day.
I honestly never thought those words would come out of my mouth. Too much wine? What happened to our Suz?
Napa and Sonoma, until next time. I've got to clean up my liver and my arteries.
Six days of eating well, nibbling on excellent cheeses and tasting great wines...well, it was just.too.much.
One day we drove to Sonoma and visted three different vineyards.
It was two more than necessary for me.
I'm dumping some photos and a fabulous video in this post for my memory bank.
Recusci was a gorgeous winery with a long family history.
One of the after parties at the hotel
The Coach and I at Gargulio-one of the most breathtaking views all week.
One of the scheduled shows was at Alpha Omega winery. Sadly it was raining cats and dogs, so we were in a tent. The show was still awesome and the wine was tasty.
Our bedroom had a beautiful view. It also had a goose.
A peeping goose really. "hey lady, you got any snackies in there"?
Passalacqua winery may have been our favorite stop in Sonoma. The wines were great, the hosts excellent and the wine very good. Did I mention they had wine? If you go, make an appointment ahead of time, it will be worth your while to visit.
We stopped at Truett Hurst as well. The wine was enjoyable, but the picnic we had even more so.
Did you know I like to eat? And apparently I like to photograph my people with a full mouth.
I love my tribe.
Our friend Michelle is a frequent flyer at Sonoma. ;)
Our third tasting for this day and I could hardly focus on the wine when all I could think was: "who is going to wash all the glasses"?
All in all, it was a great trip. Fabulous music, great people, plenty of wine and good food.
I had many favorite music moments including "I'll be" by Edwin McCain on my last post.
But this very same night we were treated to Ashely Cambell, daughter of the legendary Glen Campbell. She spoke about growing up with him and how she accompanied him on his very last tour while he struggled with Alzheimers.
This was Ashely's first SIP event. Levi Lowery is playing the violin in the background and Kristian Bush grabbed a guitar to play alongside her. She'd was saying how she'd just met Kristian Bush and she didn't kow he was in Sugarland, and he said he didn't know she was Glen's daughter, but that they were now "best friends". Ashely learned to play the banjo by a fluke chance while in college; looks like it was meant to be.
It's amazing to see this is the first time the three of them played this song together.
I had tears in my eyes when she sang this gorgeous GC song that I grew up listening to.
The day after Cocoa left us, the Coach and I flew to San Francisco.
We had this trip planned, we didn't just flee the scene in the midst of our grief. Although, that sounds like a great reason.
Our final destination was Napa, but we got in late and spent the night in San Fran.
Kelly and Don flew with us and we had a leisurely morning doing whatever we wanted in the city knowing we didn't need to be in Napa until we arrived there. :)
It's been almost 28 years since the four of us were in San Fran together.
Coach & I planned a stop in San Fran as part of our honeymoon and Don and Kelly being co-dependent... they tagged along for part of our H.Moon.
We kind of love each other.
We visited Pier 39 and did some walking/shopping before heading off to see Coach's very favorite beer/brewery~Lagunitas on the way to Napa.
He was in beer heaven!! They had some good wine and great food too.
He tried to get me to try a beer called Hairy eyeball. Ummmm....I'll stick to my crushed grapes.thank.you.very.much.
Shortly after, our next two Florida peeps joined us. There will be 3 more the next day, what can I say, we travel in a pack.
I'm smiling up there because they had some good wine and I didn't have a hairy eyeball.
Driving into Napa we could see the Mustard growing in between the vines...such a lovely sight.
We arrived at our host hotel less than 2 hours later and we couldn't have been happier.
Another SIP event; four nights of great music sung by the writers held at different vineyards/venues. This was the inaugural year of SIP Napa and it was flawless-we loved every minute.
I'll share some highlights in another post.
But, this might have been my favorite moment. The very first night we were at Gargulio Vineyards...with an absolutely amazing view, perfect weather (and wine!) and Edwin McCain serenaded us. (along with others) This might be the most beautifully written song in the history of love songs.
Enjoy this little gem.
Right now, we're happy to be home and love on our Callie girl.
XO
