It's {mostly} all butterflies and sunsets.

A few weeks ago I was in TJ Maxx looking for a gift and I found something for myself. It's kind of sad how often that happens. I saw this sterling silver butterfly ring and it practically FLEW out of the case and into my paws. 

 And in real butterfly news, I had a few more Easter Black Swallowtails eclose from their chrysalis this week. And, they matched my nail color. Well, isn't that special? 

We've been getting out on the boat and enjoying it as much as possible. The Coach has had a standing 'fishing date' each week and he's really loving it. Summer in Florida is HOT, but it's also wet. We have daily showers that usually include lightening so you have to plan accordingly. 

(Clockwise) Sunset from the boat, sunset at the beach, going out on the boat to see the fireworks, Fireworks from the boat. 

We had a great few days around the July 4th holiday. I hope you enjoyed yours as well. 

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Lolo is getting ready for her big move to start graduate school full time. She has officially left her job as the cutest POPO on the planet and I'm sleeping better already. Now I just have to worry about Nathan(her BF). And all the other good police officers.

Speaking of good people.
A few weeks ago we had our employee/company picnic and both of the girls were able to attend.
It was nice to have the four of us together even for a few hours. Right now Linds is in New Zealand (SO far away!) for a few more weeks and then Lolo and I will be heading to VA to set her up in her new life. We've never lived that far apart and I just hope I don't die.

Please tell me I won't die.

XOXO

Bee safe.
Bee sweet.
Bee a person who survives change.

UnBelizable {round two} The one where I swam with sharks

How about an impromptu trip to Central America to rile up your week?
We've been there before and it was so good, we went back. The owners of the private Island had a last minute cancellation and contacted the Coach to see if we wanted it at a discounted rate.
We had 2 days to decide on a trip out of the country just 9 days away.
We've been trying to live in the moment and do as much as we can these days, so it was a YES.

A mere 2-hour flight from Miami to Belize City, then a 40-minute helicopter ride to the island itself.
Feeling a bit like James Bond minus the martini and Hallie Berry on the helicopter ride over the Belize barrier reef.

The water is like nothing else I've ever seen, and I've seen some water.

 The island itself is only 1/2 an acre. This pelican pretty much lived in these two trees an ate like a pelican king day and night on little fish.

Our friends T.W and Melissa joined us this time and I think they had a great time. The staff pretty much had to evict them on the day of our departure. :)

We stayed for four nights and let's talk about relaxation. All of our meals were prepared for us. The beds were made. The laundry was done. There were massages. There was chilling. There was paddleboarding around the island. The boys went fishing for a few hours and caught around 100 fish. I read an entire book. There was Jenga, checkers, and corn-hole.

Cocktails in the pool.

Coach. AKA, the Jenga King

 One day we were taken on a boat ride about 6 miles away to a national park. I didn't even know you could have a national park IN THE OCEAN. Blew my mind.
Anyhoo....as soon as we anchored the boat and prepared to snorkel this huge Hawks Bill turtle came up and greeted us. He hung out for quite a while and then circled back later on. Apparently, he was looking for a scoobie snack.

If you know me at all, you know I'm a nervous ninny when it comes to swimming in the ocean. 

Did you know there are lots of fish in there? They freak me out. I honestly get freaked out in the pool if my suit ties hit my back or leg, just know a fish is going to eat me. 

But, I sucked up my fears and donned the snorkel gear. The water was just too darn crystal clear. The coral and colorful fish that I saw were well worth overcoming my fears. Just breathtaking.

Then, I saw my first of (many) nurse sharks. 

Have you ever seen a nurse shark while swimming? I only knew it was the nurse kind because of the little white hat with the red cross on it.  

Even though I was told they only NIBBLE you, I thought my snorkeling time had been well spent PRIOR to getting a nibble from a nurse. So, after my 20 minutes in the water, I doggie paddled all the way back to the boat. 

Once in the boat, the turtle came back to see if we'd changed our mind on giving him a snack. Ummm NO. 

As did 3 nurse sharks who hung out near/under our boat for quite a while. They were not huge, maybe 4-5 feet each. That's 4-5 feet more than I'm comfortable with. 

But, I was glad that I did this. I'm a big girl, give me a big girl gold star!!

When we were back home in the reality that no one was going to prepare us a gourmet meal and I actually HAD to walk to my washing machine to clean the clothes, we were both a bit pouty about it . 

So sad. But so happy to have had the time to make some more fabulous memories and not to have been eating by a shark. It was an UnBelizable experience.

Beach wedding, Butterflies & Jenga

My Brother in law got married this past weekend. It was a super simple and sweet ceremony on Captiva beach with drinks before and dinner after. It was only immediate family so it was a great time to catch up with my niece/nephews and all my inlaws and outlaws. 

Lindsay was the only one not in attendance because she flew to New Zealand this past Thursday for a little vacation; she was missed.

Nathan and Lolo

It was SO freaking hot. I think the heat index was 108*. Yes, I melted and then had to put myself back together again. I'm the Humpty Dumpty of Florida. 

My great-niece was able to spend the night with us and it was a treat having a person shorter than I in the house. She is just as much in love with my butterflies as I am.  We released one of my Eastern Black Swallowtails; she was just beautiful. The butterfly and Layla. 

The Coach is the self-professed Jenga King. And Layla delcared herself the Jenga Queen. 

I am the self professed Jenga photographer. 

It was a toss- up; they're both awesome at Jenga and Layla certainly loved having a worthy challenger. 

That made for an awesome family weekend. The Coach and I are taking off for another adventure later this week. God willing that we make it back so I can blog about it. :) 

Have a great day.

Bee sweet. Bee in love. Bee fun!

My favorite things in the kitchen

Sometimes I wish I lived in Canada so I could spell favorite as favourite. Also, I would be much nicer, if that is even a possibility.

The kitchen is the heart of the home. Nevermind it's NOT where the magic happens...well, at least in my case. I'm not sure how everyone else lives. But, I/we do spend a LOT of time in the kitchen mostly clothed.

Some of my favourite favorite everyday useful things. Aside from the Coach.


Our cast iron skillets. We ditched the old (and unhealthy) nonstick pans a few years ago, even before we had our gas range. The darn things are so hardy and heavy....we don't even bother putting them away in the drawer. Although, that would give me more of a daily workout. We just leave them on the stove, oiled up and ready to go.

BTW: the gas range is actually clean. For the life of me, it never looks as good as the day it was installed. Apparently, I don't have a 'show' kitchen, it is a full-fledged working kitchen. You'd think I was a better cook with the way it appears.



Method stone cleaner. Do we have some stone in our kitchen...lawd YES.
This is my favorite cleaner for all the hard surfaces; smells good and it does the job. I'm able to purchase a gallon of it and refill my bottle and I reuse the same cloth/rag until it can walk around on its own.
Win. Win.

Scrub Daddy.  I'm not sure what kind of hocus-pocus magic is in this scrubber, but it is my go-to cleaner for all things difficult. 

Mrs. Meyers everything. I'm so in love with her soaps. I love that the scents change with the seasons and it brings a little bit of joy to my dishwashing. I still keep a bottle of Dawn under the sink for the greasy/heavy duty stuff, but for most everything Mrs. Meyers dish soap is good enough. And how about my little bubbler? There's soap & water in there and you press it down to add it to your little scrubber. It's the best. I purchase most of my cleaning products from Grove Collaborative and this set was one of my first buys. With the little stoneware dish underneath; it keeps my sink area both tidy and pretty. And really, pretty is the way to go.

My turquoise kitchen pig. I don't usually allow critters on the my clean counters, but this guy is too cute not to allow it. I found him years ago at Home Goods. Ya know that place, where dreams come true for a fraction of the cost.

This is two of my favorites in one. Drawers and my Snapware. I used to only use Tupperware and I still have some pieces, but I found snapware at Costco a few years ago and really built up a good collection of both glass and plastic. No more cussing  searching for matching lids. And I LOVE drawers. I like my drawers like I like my men;  big, strong and organized. If you ever have the chance to update your kitchen, drawers are so much better than cabinets.

Well, that's all my favorites for today. 

Anyone have something in the kitchen that they can't live without aside from the actual food? 

I was not compensated for any of my pics or links. That was just me trying to be a friendly Canadian on a Wednesday. 

XOXO