The one where I fell off the face of the blogosphere

Despite what you've read on the internet or on the bathroom wall, I am still very much alive.
How does one who loves to write in her blog and read other blogs as well just run out of time to do it?
If you figure out the answer, please clue me in.
Lots of stuff has been happening since I last blogged in March.
All good stuff.  I'm lucky and very thankful for that.


The Coach and I celebrated our 26th wedding anniversary; no grand gestures this year. We could never top last year, so why even try? We had a nice dinner out and time together is always a great time.

Popo Lolo, Suzanne & da' Coach

Lolo has been training full time with the Sherriff's dept. She likes her job, but guess what.
I knew this might happen and I'm kinda happy.
Oh, I forgot to let you guess.
She's bored.
Well, kinda bored.
Arresting people isn't as fun as it looks.
In her words: "People are stupid."
Well, in my words, "if people weren't stupid, we wouldn't need police."
But anyhoo. She's training until 6/24, then she's on her own. She already has her issued car.
She's already looking into getting her masters degree so she can move into something a bit more .....a bit more.....hmmmm...what's the word? Challenging? yeah, that's it.
She's such an intellectual, she will need something else to keep that mind working. But, she has to stick with what she's doing for at least 2 years though; prayers for her safety will be appreciated.

Linds is doing very well also.  She's trucking along at school, working on her degrees and is looking into grad school already: I love her tenacity to "get it done."
She loves her job at the juice bar and is practically living alone since Lolo spends a lot of her time working. I couldn't be prouder! And the fact that they still want to visit with us whenever they can is just a blessing.

Linds and Suz

I don't see them a lot, but I see them enough to NOT cry about it.
How's that sound?

Anyhoo. Not sure that anyone will actually read this nonsensical stuff, but I'm gonna try and keep up so my great grandkids will have something to read. I'm thinking they can pull up my blog via the back of their retinas and see what a loon their great grandma Suz was.

XOXO

Tortuga 2.0

We attended the Tortuga festival in 2015 and decided to make it again for 2017.

What a fun filled weekend; three days of nonstop music ON the beach in Fort Lauderdale.

We went again with our friends Don and Kelly, but also our good friends Marcia and Pat joined us this year. We booked a nice three bedroom suite within walking distance to the venue.

We had a lovely dinner on Thursday night; the festival would start on Friday at 11:30 am.

The lineup was incredible. Sometimes we were in front of the stage and sometimes we were 'next to' the stage.....the sound was better in front, but the shade was great when 'next to'.

The four amigos; Coach, Suz, Don and Kelly. BFF's for life.

Of course, we adore Pat and Marcia too. They had different tickets than we did and we didn't see them much during the performances; they don't mind being in the sand with the crowds. They're better people than we are.

Does anyone remember Nelly? We did and he was amazing! He was kind of a departure since this was 'mostly' country music....but he had the beach rocking with his old songs and some new covers of country.

Dustin Lynch....such a cute 'small hometown boy.

Maren Morris is one of my favorite newer country singers.

The headliners this year were Chris Stapleton, Luke Bryan and Kenny Chesney. I was most excited to see Chris Stapleton and he did not disappoint.

Some others that were great to see: Alan Jackson, Darius Rucker, Old Dominion, Daya,  (not country)
and Kane Brown.

One morning while we were contemplating even leaving the hotel.

But, the venue had really good food; we didn't go hungry all weekend and there were NO hotdogs or overcooked burgers for this group.

I did have to eat theses with my bare hands though....phsssshhh....

All in all it was a lovely weekend with great music and even better people.

Friday Letters~~ Bugs, Butts and Giving back.

Dear Friday,

Thank you for being almost the best day of the week. Really, it's so hard to top Saturday.

Saturday, you're in agreement with me, are you not?

Usually Friday in our house means date night: Dinner out for the two of us where ever we'd like to dine....or wherever we have a gift card that's unused.

We might play the 'gift card roulette' game, or we'll go to one of our favorites.
But NOT last week NOR this week either as we have a full house.

Woo. hoo. It's been a busy few weeks.

Some highlights:

*someone's bedroom is infested with bedbugs*
SHIVER.
I'll keep that person anonymous, but I'll tell you that it was traumatic for many of our family members.
SHIVER
A bed was disposed of.
Bedding thrown out.
Skin was itched.
The exterminator made two visits.
Psyches were bothered with the thoughts of skin biting bugs.

I'll forever check bedding at hotels now.

***


Naples was on fire!
7500 acres of land burned within a few days; but I believe there was NO loss of life. A few homes were destroyed though. God bless our firemen who worked tirelessly to limit the damage.
This was the view from our home one afternoon. Really though, we were never in danger.

***
The Coach volunteered to do a fundraiser to purchase two disabled veterans beach wheelchairs. (In memory of a good friend who passed away this past year; he was a veteran Army Ranger and just a wonderful person)

His idea of raising money involves a large (pull behind smoker, that was custom made in TX) and about 85 "Boston butts" to be smoked and sold. It was an eventful weekend.
They were able to raise the almost 12K for the two chairs and our weekend involved a lot of house guests (Some I've never met) and a lot of good fellowship, laughter and appreciation.
We had 14 for dinner on Friday night and 11 sleeping over.
10 for dinner on Saturday night and 9 sleeping over.

I was tending to the house stuff (3 meals a day) while he was in the driveway tending to the smoking.
Everyone left by 12 on Sunday and the coach and I proceeded to nap.

But, wait, there's MORE.

This coming weekend? TODAY!
He's doing it all again, but this time to raise funds for his softball team so they can travel this summer.
This time almost 300 butts will be smoked and they'll do that on Friday as well as Saturday.
He's dedicated to his people. Why else would he wake up around 5 am and spend the next 14-16 hours in the driveway tending to the smoker?

The purveyor left their truck in our yard two weekends in a row. The neighbors think we're insane. 

He's a giver and he inspires a lot of people including myself.

Wishing everyone a lovely weekend doing whatever it is you like to do!

XOXO

The Po-Po is in the house.

I have an announcement to make.

Lolo is a full time, full fledged Law enforcement officer.

*sigh*

Had you told me two years ago that this would be a 'thing' I would've laughed hard and taken your glass of liquor away from you because YOU must be inebriated.

She's 23. Extremely educated, compassionate and intelligent.

She has two major degrees and turned down a superior grad school for Law enforcement.

When I started this blog I think she was in 9th grade; a softball player and was contemplating volleyball as a hobby.
Seriously. SHE blows my mind.
I only wish there were a million people like her, and millions LESS of the mean/angry people in the world that she will come into contact with.

*sigh*

Anyhoo.

Her graduation. It was something special. ALL of the people alongside of her are special people. They have the same common goal.

TO SERVE.
TO PROTECT.

And in my opinion....anyone that has an issue with the police is an a-hole.

She called this academy outfit her "zoo keeper" outfit. 

She'll always be my baby doll. 

She was completely miffed that she came in 2nd for her class in academics.
Just call her Miss 97.7%.
The top guy had a 98.2% GPA. And I consider him a showoff. *giggle giggle*

To answer all the common questions I've been getting:

Yes, she will be riding along side a mentor for a few months, then she'll have her own patrol car.

No, her longterm goal is not in general law enforcement. She wants to specialize in detective work.

Yes, she is really smart at reading people. (That psychology degree comes in handy.)

Yes, if you call 911 in her area, most likely SHE will show up to help you out.

Yes, we did have a party.

Yes, I served donuts as a dessert.

Yes, Lolo thought the dessert was perfect and she happily ate two.

Life is good.

The day she was sworn in The Coach was able to be there and (I was home with a service tech!) he was able to pin her badge on her. I can't show those pics for obvious reasons. What a moment for them both.

We couldn't be more proud of her.

Remember when you see an officer out there doing their job, they have mama's, Dad's, siblings and kids who love them and want them to come home at the end of the day.


XOXO