The Crape Update

I'm absolutely positive that your'e all wondering how my baby crapes are doing.
Remember when I planted 20 of them back in 2009 hoping to block my messy neighbor?

What? You don't remember? What? You have your own life to lead? The nerve.

Anyhoo.....my good blog friend Mildred blogged about the blooming crapes in her area and I commented that mine were doing so good. She suggested that I share some photos. Now, don't go thinking that I will always heed the ideas or suggestions of others; this is a rare case. ; )

They were a mere 12 inches when I planted them. 

Needless to say, they like the climate and my yard. Ok, lets be real. They like ME!

 Most of them are about 9-12 feet tall. It's hard to get the perspective with so much green. 

I should have photographed them about a month ago when they were in full bloom. 

What can I say? I'm behind a bit. Just last week I realized my wall calendar was still on March. 

March for heavens sakes and here it is June. 

Ok. It's almost August. I can't deny it. 

This past fall the Coach and I decided to plant more (10) on the south side of our property knowing that someone would eventually purchase this wooded area and plop a shack on it. 

We really don't want to see anyone. Ok, we really don't want anyone to SEE us. 

What do we have to hide? Not much really....aside from the fact that I like to work in my garden wearing a two piece. THAT does not need to end up on Facebook or TMZ! *Shiver*

Have you got anything good growing in your yard? 

If you live in Colorado, lets keep your garden on the down low. 

Hanging out with winners.

I disappeared again last week. 

Not even one of you put out a missing persons report!

The Coach had a week long tournament at Disney for the USSSA world series and he practically begged me to join him. I'm a sucker for begging and I'm a sucker for him.

His girls brought home the world series hardware. Again. 

Two years in a row he's coached his girls to the championship. The funny thing is, this is a different team than last year.  

Only two of the same young ladies were with him last year; he's great at what he does. 

What a fun week we had; even Cocoa was able to join us.

Here she is enjoying the rental house couch and some HGTV.

Life is good for Cocoa. We should all be Cocoa in our next life!

On Saturday Cocoa and I drove home (in almost 4 hours of torrential rain!) and the Coach and his team headed up to Virginia for a national tournament.

If you're decent at math that makes two straight weeks of softball for those girls, their parents and the coaches. 

Talk about dedication. 

I'm so thankful for an awesome partner in life.

Cocoa is so thankful for her people, couches and vacations. 

Frothing and my very close encounter with a laser.

We've lots of pricey items that we've coveted, needed, loved in our life. 

But this inexpensive item is one of my daily favorites now; our $7.95 milk frother.
Why didn't all of you tell me that I needed this before? 

Why hold out on me? I thought we were friends. 

The Coach and I are trying to limit our dairy and sugar; frothing a little bit of low fat milk makes it seem like MORE milk; and it's magical in my coffee. 

Oh, how I love my morning cup of joe.

***

I had some work done last week. You know I'm pretty forthcoming with my vanity issues. Some of this work was for medical reasons, some was for vanity. 

 The Coach thinks I'm crazy, but he knew what he was getting into way back in 1985 when I had my lip gloss collection organized by flavor and season. 

I had my varicose (veryclose) veins treated; I had some large ones on my left leg that were actually hindering circulation. I know. I felt as though I was moving at half speed. HA.

 That contraption on the stove? I'll have to blog about that one day....one of Coach's $$ kitchen gadgets. It looks a bit obscene to me. 

I opted to have the extra large veins on my hands done at the same time. That's the vanity part. I'm glad I did. I had the hands of an 80 year old woman. I'm not exaggerating. I never exaggerate.

Ok, well I did one time, but that might be an exaggeration.

I had my spider veins treated back in 2010.  There was some improvement, but they came back. This newer treatment is more invasive; will hopefully keep the larger/varicose veins at bay.
 They poke a hole in the vein, then shove a tubelike laser inside and blast them.
You'll notice I'm not a licensed Dr. with that type of verbiage.

I don't want to point fingers, but my Mom had more visible veins on her legs than any human on the planet. This is hereditary; just like our shining personalities.

I won't share the photos of my hands yet because I'm still bruised; but I can already see improvement. I believe I'll have the hands of a 60year soon; which is ok, since I'm almost 48. I call that progress. 

 Speaking of lasers; I'm getting my eyeballs lasered on August 7th.

I'm going with the old fashioned (Advanced Surface Ablation ) laser surgery as opposed to the lasik flavor. 

The Dr. thought that would be better for my situation; my eyes are dry people.
This procedure will require a bit more of a recovery time. A few days as opposed to an actual day. My vision should be fabulous within a week or two.

I'm really hoping that this laser surgery will give me the super powers to start fires with my eyes. That would come in handy when I encounter A-holes. 

I'm kidding. I won't actually burn people with my eyes. 

Or will I?

Have a great weekend my friends!

#22

Do you remember when this # meant the POUND sign? Now it's a hashtag. *sigh*

We have an electric gate at our house and on occasion I have to give out the gate code. 

If the person getting the code is under 30, I tell them to hit the hashtag and then the digits. 

If the person is over 30, I tell them to hit the pound key and then the digits. 

If I don't like the person, I tell them to pound sand.

#Idontcareforhastags.

So, guess who turned 22 this week?

My firstborn. My lovechild. My sweet cheeks. My sugar britches.

My Lolo

You'll not believe how cute she was as a toddler AND at the same time she was driving me bonkers with her energy.
I actually declared that she would be an only child. Thank goodness my declarations mean nothing. 

Did you know that cats LOVE wearing hats? Cats still don't know this. 

I might have been a bit protective....she's lucky she didn't have bubble wrap from head to toe!

We had a lovely dinner at one of those overpriced Japanese places where they cook your food right in front of your face so that you're concerned all night about your hair catching on fire.

Good stuff. 

G'pa, G'ma, SugarDaddy, Suz, Lolo and Lolo's beau. 

 Linds wasn't able to join us for dinner....and that right there was blogworthy. You should always make sure you confirm the LOCATION of the dining establishment when there are more than one within a 30 mile radius. *sigh*

So, the next day the original four had a lovely lunch together. I love my people so much!!!

I love it when they pose for me; such good little posers. 

Coach and I are so proud of the young woman that she has become. 

She's compassionate, witty, loving and more intelligent than we can intellectually comprehend. 

Lolo will finish up her last year of college with a dual degree this coming spring; then the world is her oyster.
Sadly she doesn't care for oysters, so she'll have to deal with that.

XOXO