Just drifting around

I've always had a thing for driftwood. It's pretty. It's old, dead, used, dried. And still pretty.
I have several small pieces that I would bring home from the beach or from a walk near the beach.

A while ago while out on a boating day, the Coach stopped at an (almost) deserted stretch of beach that was covered in driftwood. My heart almost stopped-so much pretty driftwood in one place.
Most of it was still connected to the roots and huge, but we did find a few smaller pieces.

This one is right at home on our upper lanai area.
Will you look at all the lizard poop there? They think this is a public restroom-the NERVE!

This piece is really pretty and it actually belongs to my friend Kelly. She forgot to take it home last time and I'm keeping it safe and sound in front of my giant milkweed plant...there's a lot of butterfly and bee activity in this little garden area.

I can't wait to go back and get some more interesting pieces. Isn't nature pretty?

How to celebrate 28 years of wedded bliss without committing murder

May 25th, 1991 was the day the heavens opened up, the angels swooped down and we said our vows in front of our family, friends, Minister and perhaps some future ex-cons.

It's been a really fun ride with some ups and downs, but mostly ups. I'm not a big fan of heights, but I'm persevering the high highs.
People sometimes ask how we've got along so well for SO long (34 years) and I always say, "it takes a lot of patience." (for the Coach) I'm a piece of work and he's simple.

We were discussing something the other day and it was along the lines of me being a bit high maintenance. (I'm really NOT that bad, but we both have $$ taste in some ways)
I said: "you didn't know what you were getting into."
His response: "Yeah, I didn't know you'd need to go from the Trailer park to The Four Seasons."

Whatevs. I once saw a trailer park named The Four Seasons.

So what did we do to commemorate 28 years?
Well, we were both pretty excited to make our first batch of homemade dog food. For Callie. 
(in case you thought it was for us)
And yes, she loved it!

Then we went to a graduation party for four of Coach's softball players. We had a pretty low-key weekend as Coach is recovering from some sort of bizarre infection in the dermis layer of his knee. He's supposed to take it easy.

Suz's first party selfie. 

How CUTE IS THIS SHORTS ROMPER? 

I never find cute stuff like this that fits my shape. 

I took that pic in the bathroom of the party to share with Lolo and Lindsay as all three of us are obsessed with rompers and jumpsuits.
I asked the Coach before we left the house: "Can I wear this and get away with it with my almost 52-year-old legs?"
His response was stellar:

"Yes, you look fine."

Honestly, he's lucky to be alive today.

Happy Tuesday Y'all.

XO

The time I wanted to take down a nurse.

Well, I'd put off my colonoscopy as long as I possibly could. My Dr. was not having any more of my shenanigans, so I finally went to see a suggested gastrologist. I chose a female Dr; I always choose a woman if the circumstances are involving any (or near) my lady parts. Call me crazy, but I'm more comfortable with someone who has similar parts as I do

The pre-op exam was good, the Dr. was pleasant. I was able to schedule my appointment within a week and there was no turning back now. I was given a RX for the prep part. This is a newer one that is being used and I was kind of the guinea pig for my Dr.
Clenpiq
It was all straight forward. I was scheduled for Tuesday morning, so I began my fasting on Monday morning and had the clenpiq at 2pm and 8pm along with tons of water, juice, tea, flavored water, ginger ale, jello and ice pops. The jello and Ice pops were lifesavers and I almost felt like I was having food. Almost.

I stayed home all day. (you'll be very friendly with your commode!) I did a lot of busy stuff to keep my mind off food for most of the day and then I watched some TV later on. At one point I saw a dog food commercial and I thought: "wow, I bet that tastes good"

I did survive. It wasn't as bad as I thought it might be. I'm the type of person whose personality changes (and not for the better) when I'm hungry. I become cranky and lash out at anyone and everyone.
I'd never make it as a homeless person.

The morning of Coach drove me to the appointment. I'd already placed my order with him for an egg sandwich and coffee from Einsteins when he picked me up.

While in the reception area, I used the ladies room one more time to empty my bladder,  even though I'd not had any liquids since 11 the night before.

Then, the nurse/assistant calls me into the pre-op area. Carlos looks over my chart and asks if I'm still having my menstrual cycle or if I'm in menopause. Sadly, I'm still dealing with it. He then said, "Oh, you'll have to give me some urine for a pregnancy test." 
I kind of made a face and said, I might NOT be able to since I just emptied my bladder.
He said he needed only a few drops and for me to just try.
As I'm shutting the door to the restroom I hear another nurse say to him: "Well if someone is having anesthesia, they should ALWAYS know to have a pregnancy test, it goes without saying!" 

I was PISSED!!
HOW DARE SHE? Doesn't she know I'm hangry! 
I'm tired and I'm not thinking about possibly being pregnant at 51!

I was able to produce a small amount, I walked out and handed it to my nurse Carlos and was ready to let the other lady have it, but she was with a patient and I held it in.

As Carlos is taking my blood pressure and my pulse, he asks if I'm nervous because the darn machine was losing it's mind. I told him, I wasn't nervous, but I was PISSED at the other nurse because I heard what she said while I was in the bathroom.
He assured me that she wasn't complaining about me, but she was angry with the receptionist who checked me in, it was her responsibility to let me know I'd need to have a pregnancy test.

Oh.
Gotcha.

Within a minute my heart rate and blood pressure went down and the machine didn't sound like a carnival on Saturday night.

Carlos finished all his questions and next was the Nurse anesthetist; he had a hundred questions for me as well, then he told me to open my mouth as wide as I could.
Me: "This is my first time but I don't think this is how you do it"
I thought he was going to wet his pants.
He then proceeded to tell me I have the biggest set of tonsils he's seen in a long time. He said I had a really nice pair.

Me: "Well, thank you."

You gotta take compliments wherever you can get them. 

I felt fine the rest of the day and everything I ate tasted just a little bit better after not eating for 36 hours. That was a record for me.

Quite possibly the best-tasting Sammy ever. 

I don't have to do this again until I'm 60, but you know I'll try to put it off as long as possible.

Another milestone for me and WTF Blogger?

I noticed a huge drop in comments on my blog recently and it kind of perplexed me, made me sad, and a little angry. Yeah, I get angry sometimes. ;)

I've been visiting and commenting on a lot of blogs and then I realized that my comments really weren't being published, saved or read.
Why?
Blogger and Google are trying to break up and we're in the middle of this messiness.

I didn't even know I was using google while blogging, but apparently, most of us are.
I went back and adjusted my settings to only use my Blogger profile but was still having issues.
I've read and tried a thousand different ways to change my settings, but found out that it's just NOT my settings. It's YOUR settings too.

If your Blogger settings are set for ONLY GOOGLE comments to be added, a lot of people can't leave a comment. I have mine set to ANYONE can leave comments. (Blogger weeds out the spam for me)

If your blog only accepts GOOGLE accounts for comments, I wasn't able to leave a comment.
Zip, None, Nada.

I did find that adjusting my settings in Safari did help though. I had to weed through a LOT of information to find this and *crossing my fingers* it will work forever.

On my Mac Laptop, I had to go into
Safari- Preferences- Privacy, then UNCLICK Prevent Cross-Site tracking

Don't ask me what that means, but it seems to be working at the moment. Or maybe Google decided to stay in the marriage.


As for the milestone, I had my first colonoscopy this week. I have a really funny story to tell and NO, I didn't shart in a public place. This time.

Ta Ta for now!

All the good stuff: dolphins, ducks, zebras, rugs and an eagle.

Last Saturday was an epic day for me. Nothing big or crazy happened, but the small things that happened were ALL positive. I had some good mojo flowing.


It started with my cup of coffee. I was drinking it and looking out onto the bay. (When our little condo isn't rented, we use it when we have time) I saw a porpoise frolicking around our dock and I'm just a tad bit obsessed with dolphins.

What a way to start my morning! I was thinking of joining him in the water, but then I remembered I was still sipping my coffee....what kind of person can have physical activity before they've finished a cup of joe? 


Shortly thereafter I had to head home to release some butterflies. 

On the way home I watched as several cars in front of me stopped to let a mama duck cross with her 6-7 babies. I just love it when people care. It was a very busy street, so otherwise, they might not have made it. 

I had two healthy monarchs and then I checked my gardens. I planted passion vine a long time ago and I always have a lot of Gulf Fritillary larvae on them. I had been reading about Zebra longwings lately as I see them in our yard too, but I've never seen the larvae before....until Saturday! I found one and I thought I might pee my yoga pants.

It doesn't take much to get me excited lately or pee my yoga pants for that matter.
Also, if you plant it, they will come.

On my way back to the condo, I hit green light heaven. If you live in my town and you know of the street I had to take for the 8-9 miles...it's riddled with traffic and stop lights.
I had every GREEN LIGHT. I couldn't believe my luck!

Then there was a Pottery Barn Rug sale event that landed in my lap. (laptop) I got the most beautiful wool rugs for SUPER CHEAP and I couldn't believe how happy that made me. Cocoa had many accidents on our dining room rug and we threw it out months ago, so I've been on the hunt for one there and a matching one for our sitting area. booyah!

Later Coach and I went out to dinner at the Marina. After eating we were walking around and looking at all the BIG boats and just chit chatting, working off some of our dinners when out of the blue a huge bald eagle flies right over us only about 15 feet in the air.
I was giddy with joy! And maybe giddy with that glass of wine too.

I don't recall having a day like that or perhaps I was just more in tune with all the positive things. I'm going to try and relish the little good things daily and see if maybe it's happening more than I think.

Has anything awesome happened to you lately? Sharing is caring.

The one with the perfect Mother's day.

Mother's day 2019 was just marvelous.
Both of the girls took the day off from work to spend with us; we had plans to take the boat out into the Gulf of Mexico and down to Marco Island, then lunch at the Marina. But the weather had different plans; the gulf was MUCH too windy and it was beating us up trying to move south.
Instead, we headed back into the protected bay for some sightseeing.

Lolo and Nathan enjoyed the views from the Tarpon tower

Linds and Da' Coach

Coach ordered this custom Dover cover for the front of the boat for when we have grandkids and they need shade....or for when Lolo and Nathan need shade. 

We spent an hour or two just riding around and enjoying ourselves, watching the dolphins and judging peoples houses/boat names. :)

Then headed to our little condo to cool off in the pool, then cleaned up and headed down the street to our favorite little pub on the water for a nice lunch.

Later on, after the kids left the Coach and I had a nap, then ordered in dinner and watched a movie.
It was such an easy going, laid back day with my favorite people.
The kind of day that I love.

I'm cherishing these days together even more because Lolo has made a big decision and is going to leave law enforcement and go back to school and get her masters degree in Forensic Psychology. She'll be leaving in August and it will take her two years to earn her degree. We're not sure if she'll be coming back to Florida (other than Summer/winter breaks) or staying in the Virginia/D.C area; it all depends on her opportunities there as she works through internships. 
We're SO very proud and happy for her as this is a big change and a new challenge for her. 

I hope everyone had a great weekend!
XO

If my mouth doesn't get me into trouble, my high cholesterol will.

The Coach and I were discussing a large purchase the other night and he said: "let's just do it, we don't know how much time we have left."
Me: "Oh, I know exactly how much time YOU have left."
Coach: "wow, that sounds menacing."

I was kidding because I know for sure he'll outlive me. Unless he continues to drive as he does, then we'll most likely die together with him at the wheel.

Did I tell you I just lowered my cholesterol by 27 points?
Did I tell you I had high cholesterol? 
I don't think I did. I used to be so good at sharing important things, but lately, I'm so involved in myself.
I'm proud to say that my good cholesterol is really good. But my bad one was really bad.
I really was always a bit miffed about having high numbers, to begin with. I eat well. No processed foods and limited fast food. (I'm weak for Chic fil A)


Back in October my sweet and very thin Dr. told me to lower my numbers and my weight.
I was a bit offended. People, truthful words DO hurt.
She did agree with my thought that if I were 3 inches taller, my weight would be great.

Even though I strength train 3x a week and do cardio at least 2, my weight (waist size) has been slowly been going UP. I blame peri-menopause. I even blame it for the thinning ozone layer.

I wish I knew how exactly I lowered my numbers. (my weight was down only a few pounds, but it fluctuates 3-4 lbs depending on the day)
For my cholesterol, though I did a few things.  I avoided the daily piece of bacon that the Coach makes. He's a bacon connoisseur; even making his very own cured bacon. He would still offer it to me after I said I needed to lower my numbers and I'd say:

DO YOU WANT ME TO HAVE A STROKE? 

I suppose if you talk to someone like that, the answer might be YES.

A vegan burger and NOT a bacon burger

Anyhoo....less bacon in my life and I was taking two Plant Sterol gel caps daily. I get them at the Vitamin Shoppe.  I had read about them somewhere and figured I didn't have anything to lose aside from bad numbers. I have one in the morning and one at night along with my daily joint pills.
You'd never know I was such a pill popper by looking at me, but I have an innocent face and a horrible mouth.
For a while there I limited my cheese intake too, but that didn't last long. Rats love cheese.
I'm still a work in progress, hoping that my numbers go down more before my next appointment in six months.
Also I hope Dr. Thin gains a few of my pounds....that's what you get when you hurt my feelings. :)

Have a great day.
XO

Hank and the Beach

On Friday night the Coach forced treated me to a Hank Williams Jr. concert. :) 

I'm a country fan and I do enjoy some of Hank's music, but I wasn't SUPER excited about seeing him in person; the radio is just fine. 

Hey, it's not like he's Dave Matthews or Adam Ant. 

Anyhoo, we had great seats and the show was good. He's almost 70 and is still kicking. Which is probably a miracle considering the life he's lead.

This was probably out 497th concert together. 

At one point I sat down to give my feet a rest, but it was all good-I could watch the entire show via the guy in front of me who recorded it on his phone. :) 

It was a sea of Rednecks in the arena. While I do enjoy a good redneck, this might have been too many at once. *giggle giggle* 

On Saturday we spent the night at our little condo on the bay and took a walk to the beach to see the sunset. 

It was a bit overcast and the sun was hiding behind the clouds. But, still beautiful!

Another fabulous weekend in the books. 

XOXO