Pet Peeves list

Here is a sampling of my pet peeves.  It is not all-inclusive and I reserve the right to add to it at any time of my choosing.  Please know that I am not in a bad mood:) Also, it should be known that while it is a pet peeves list, it in no way affects my life.  It is simply a list of the quirky things in life that strike me as odd.  Maybe I should have listed it as a "quirky things in life that strike me as odd" list.  Never the less, here it is.....


1.  Catty gossip talk.


2.  Inappropriate information that is passed along as a "prayer request".


3.  Drama and the people who create and thrive on it  (I don't dislike the actual people, just the drama).


4.  Overzealous cosmetic sales people (again, please note that the issue is not with the people, just the aggressive use of cosmetics).


5.  Reproducing celebrities (especially the ones that have one child per relationship to solidify that relationship and show the world their love for each other).


6.  Fussy adults. 


7.  When men don't help with their children.


8.  When people speed up when you're passing them.


9.  How "celeb-utantes"  have to make films, music, clothing lines, and even fragrances (what ever happened to celebs with actual talent and what about the concept less is more?).


10.  How the general public sees anyone who randomly ad libs (usually out of tune) as a truly gifted singer.


11. Cliquey-ness 


12.  When your favorite author gets only releases one book a year and won't even blog about the subject matter.  I mean really, could you please show the fans some love?


12. When people I don't know call me "girl"-especially grown men-it's just weird!  




Well, that's all I can think of for now.  Let me know your list of irksome behaviors  (yes, you can say the use of the work "irksome" is a pet peeve-I won't be offended).  And it bears repeating for my mother that I am not in a bad mood:)


Much love and many laughs,


A

Which way did he go?

Inspired by the last two posts, and thinking about my sweet husband, I thought I might post another cute story about him.


Years ago, my husband's parents had a house on the lake.  It was lovely.  For many years, they let my family use it to gather together and celebrate Christmas.  


It was on a return trip from one of these visits that I noticed a turtle in the road.


I have a soft spot for turtles.  I like their disposition.  Never in a hurry.  Never stressed or anxious.  I even get a kick out of when they hide their faces, but don't close the other end of the shell.  You can see their booties.  They are wrinkled and cute.  They're endearing little buggers.  


Needless to say, when I see one in the road, I'll stop and move it safely to the side.  


That day, my sweetheart and I were traveling a twisty and hilly little section of road that lead back to his parents lake house.  In the middle of the crazy section of the road, I spotted a turtle right in the middle of my lane.  After I gasped, held my breath and passed safely over the turtle, I quickly stopped my vehicle and hustled back out to the road. I picked up the turtle and in that moment had a momentous choice to make.


Where do I deposit the little fella?  You see, on my side side of the road were trailer homes with lots of cars and people, and pebble gravel covering the ground.  On the other side was a lush green area with a shallow lake inlet.  In my mind, the choice was obvious.  I hustled to the other side of the road and deposited the turtle in the patchy grass area right next to the inlet.  


When I got back to the car, my husband said in an extremely frustrated tone, "why did you put him over there"?  "He was almost across the road!"  


You see, the turtle was facing the trailer park with the pebbly gravel.  He had crossed the left lane and was halfway through safely the right lane.  In that moment, my sweet husband sympathized with the poor little guy.  I believe he mumbled under his breath "now he's just going to have to start back over."  


To this day, I wonder what became of that little turtle.  Did he rejoice when he saw the grass and water thinking "sweet!  This is what I was looking for!" "Did his turtle family happily exclaim "Oh good!  I'm so glad you made it.  We were so worried about you.  We thought you might have gotten lost!"  


I like to think the turtle led a nice long life and didn't choose to cross the dangerous road.  I like to think he looks like this today:

 and is thinking, "ahhhhh..... this water feels soooo good!"

But my husband feared that not long after we left him he probably looked like this.....

and then this....

"WOW that HURT!!!"  "That's gonna leave a mark!"

Poor little turtle, too bad J wasn't the one on rescue duty that day.

Much love and many laughs,

A

Oops-I forgot to mention I got these photos off the web.  I don't want anyone to think I took these lovelies myself:)

Happy 41st my sweetie!

Tomorrow is my husband's birthday.  Last year he turned 40. It was a milestone.  I invited several close friends to play golf with him to celebrate.  I sent out invitations.  We got a great response.  40 is a big deal.

J and the kids at the driving range

The guys getting ready to tee off

B rode with Jim Jones

J and the kids

J, B and Denver at dinner

This year, he turns 41 (obviously) and for some reason "those" birthdays are not milestones.  Do you go all out for 11?  Many do for 21, but not "good" Baptists-Har Har.  What about 31?....No?  So needless to say, I didn't know how to make 41 special.  


I don't have a present yet  We got him a Garmin GPS system for Father's Day.  He already has every gadget known to man.  What's a "girl" (and I use that term very loosely) to do?


Then I discovered that our kids have their first day off from school on his birthday.  (They go to a school that has an extended year, so they returned to school in July-ugh!)  Yippee I thought.  We can hang out with my multi-purpose/go-to folks and hit the lake for tubing and skiing.


(For a frame of reference- the multi purpose people are Marc and Billie and the girls.  Marc is J's brother.  His wife is our sister-in-law.  So that covers the family part.  Billie was my friend before we met our husbands.  She is my go-to person.  We talk a lot, car pool, trade kids and rely on each other quite a bit.  She even is a good part of the catalyst that got our kids connected with their "extended school year" school.  Don't tell my son this.  He has considered asking me to home school him in the past:)  Family, friends, first call people = multi purpose people).


Uh oh. J has a busy day that day.  He makes some calls.  Reschedules some stuff.  Works some magic and Ta Da.... it's Happy Birthday Daddy.


Unfortunately, the "Ta Da' was short lived.  It seems some folks don't consider other people's schedules and the afternoon conference call is back on. You would think no one was aware it was his birthday and that we have birthday plans at the lake.  Does no one check the school calendar to see if our kids have a day off from school?  


I guess it was not to be.  Even the forecast calls for rain. 


So Happy Birthday honey!   We love you very much and 41 is special to us!  


By the way, in case I don't have a present in hand, I'm gonna recall the golf excursion of last year and coast off the fumes of that:)  At this point, it's either that or a mani-pedi gift card.  It is the gift that keeps on giving.


Love you!




Much love and many laughs from your beloved:)


A

For the Jane Austen fans....

"The fallout"  

a scene from P & P.

Context:  Darcy botched the marriage proposal to Lizzy.  Truly astonished that she would not jump at the chance to marry him, he inquires as to why she would refuse him.    

Scene:

Darcy:  (stunned and angry)  "And this is your opinion of me!  Thank you for explaining so fully.  But, perhaps these offences might have been overlooked had not your pride been hurt by my honest confession of the scruples that had long prevented my forming any serious design ...........Could you expect me to rejoice in the inferiority of your connections?  To congratulate myself on the hope of relations, whose condition in life is so decidedly below my own?"

(internet photo)

Lizzy:  (hopping mad)  "You mistake me Mr. Darcy.  The mode of your declaration merely spared me any concern I might have felt in refusing you, had you behaved in a more gentleman-like manner."  


"You could not have made me the offer of your hand in any possible way that would have tempted me to accept it." 


"From the beginning, your manners impressed me with the fullest belief of your arrogance, your conceit, and your selfish disdain for the feelings of others.  "I had not know you a month before I felt you were the last man I could ever marry."

(internet photo)

How is that for a come back?  Now that's what I'm talking about!

Much love and many laughs,


A

A hairy dog and a good fellow!

My husband is a good guy.  The very best.  A softy to the core.  


One example was a time early on in our marriage.  We had acquired two labrador mixed breed dogs.  They were truly the best dogs ever.  Sometimes, he would look into their sleepy eyes and ask me "do you think they're happy?"






Another time was more recently when we moved back into our house after a 10 month (let me pause to collect myself.....) remodel absence. We live on a golf course and therefore can't have a privacy fence.  The only fence we can have is one of those iron ones that doesn't occlude the view. Our other dogs, Molly and Trey, were too big to fit through the fence.  However, Teddy, being a mini goldendoodle, is very small (approximately 30 pounds) and can fit through with no problem at all.  


The fence situation required that we get an invisible fence installed.  While we were at it, we bought four indoor "zappers" for the newly decorated rooms in the house.  They kept him out of the off limits areas.  


Later, never having had limitations put on him before, we did see some passive aggressive behaviors manifest themselves.  When those happened, I simply moved the zappers to those areas so Teddy couldn't take his anger out on the rug:)  


After sequestering him to only about half of the house, my husband looked at him with a distraught heart and said to me, "I just don't want him feeling like he can't go anywhere in the house."  






Which brings me to the most perfect example of all.  Teddy has a wealth of hair. That hair does not shed-yippee.  However, that hair gets matted badly.  One day, I made myself send him to the groomer.  She had to shave him because the mattes were out of control.  I have never liked his haircuts.  It is probably the reason why I put off the grooming in the first place.  However, it had to be done and when we took him home, what once looked like this.......

Now looked like this...................

And when my husband got home from work that day, he saw Teddy and said "Teddy, I like your haircut."


And I looked at him with astonishment and said "you really do"?


And my sweetheart said out of the side of his mouth, "well... what was I supposed to say?"


And that more than anything gives you a true picture of my husband.  Like I said, he is "a softy to the core"  and I'm so glad he's mine:)




Much love and many laughs,


A 

"MacGuyvering"

I discovered something about my brother in law on our recent family vacation.  He is a problem-solver.  I think his aptitude for that must be off the charts.  I got to where I was calling him "MacGuyver".  If we didn't have it-no problem, Darrell would find a way.

Darrell is also into all things natural and/or organic.  I knew this to be the case, but I had never seen it in so many applications as I did on our vacation.

Here are some examples of the "MacGuyvering" that Darrell did:

1.  Problem:  Darrell doesn't like chemicals in sunscreen.  

Solution:  He lugged around a plastic water bottle with home made sunscreen.  He used it, and by the end of the day he was very, very, brown.  Why?  Because some of the key ingredients were not available to him.  He "made do" with what he had and ironically, instead of acting as a sunscreen, the oil in the concoction acted as a tan accelerant.  We had a good chuckle at that!

2.  Problem:  The charcoal we had required lighter fluid to burn.  

Solution:  Darrell tried walnut oil.  We had a lovely grilled meal.

3.  Problem:  We wanted Darrell to make make his famous oatmeal chocolate chip cookies.  We couldn't find a cookie sheet or mixer in the rental house.    

Solution:  Rig some foil together and voila-cookie sheet.  Also, use a blender for mixing.  In a pinch it will suffice.

4.  Problem:  The toaster from the rental burned one side and did not toast the other, and just for kicks liked to blow a fuse when we used it.  

Solution:  Butter the toast and use a frying pan on the stove top.  Surprisingly good toast.

5.  Problem:  Deflating the boats and tubes we had in order to pack them for the return trip.

Solution:  He discovered that to suck the air out of the inflatables, you had to move the hose around somehow.  This actually falls under "discovery" but still is a problem solver.  J didn't feel so good that last night.  When he woke the next morning,  he was happy to learn that the job was taken care of.

So my sister and I dubbed him "MacGuyver".  When he finds a new application for some item, or finds a way to fix a problem, we say he is "MacGuyvering".  

 He could write a column for Real Simple Magazine.  He could be featured in the "new ways to use household items" category.  At the very least, I think he needs to enter "Survivor".  He'd clean up.

Much love and many laughs,

A

And the moral of the story is..... Vacation run-down pt. 2

 On our recent vacation, which included my sister, her husband, their boys, and the four of us, we traveled to Seagrove, FL.

It was a wonderful trip.  The beach is always my favorite type of vacation.

Though I have spent a great deal of time over the years with my sister and her family, I don't recall having such a good stretch of time with just them.  We really enjoyed being together.

Our week was filled with repeated efforts to locate the best beach access points.  We had the gear (chairs, umbrellas, boogie boards, towels, sunscreen, and of course books). It was quite a load to haul.  

Moral:  Next time-plan ahead to get a beach front property.

The first day at the beach, I noticed something in the water that was not normal.  It was June Seagrass.  It was only moderately annoying to me, but the younger boys experienced chaffing in their "unknown region" (to quote the neighbor kid), and that was baaaaad.

This seagrass (with added "kelp") was so thick it actually colored the water a beautiful shade of blue-green.  Wonderful to look at.  Not so wonderful for playing in the waves.  Two days before the end of our trip was the worst day for seagrass.  The young guys and my husband went in the water and shortly thereafter returned to the beach with patties of seagrass in their pockets.  It was wild.  

I felt helpless to do anything about it.  I didn't have the swimsuit problem that they did-no pockets and all.

The patties were so bizarre.  So nice and damp and firm.  I couldn't help myself.  I didn't see the point in wasting them so I took the patties and pummeled my son with them.  

Moral: When life gives you lemons, throw those lemons at someone.  It is an instant pick-me-up.

"Sea Patties"

I wanted to cook this trip.  I knew that it would be crowded in that highly popular vacation area, and the kids always do better when they can play and relax in a home instead of the torturous wait at restaurants.

Because of that, we made many trips to Publix.  Soooo many.  One day I said to my brother-in-law, "At least we don't have to go to the grocery store today!"  Guess what, we did need to go to the grocery store.  

Moral: Never assume you have enough milk in the refrigerator. Also, do not spell refrigerator with a "d".  You will get slammed by spell check.

The first day, I discovered that I had not packed something.  That always happens right?  The things I had not packed were beach towels-HA!  While my sister and I were getting kids sunscreened, we sent the guys on a towel recon. mission.  Hesitant as always, I questioned my judgement on that, but we all were so anxious to get to the beach, I relented to save time.

J came back with two towels.  They looked worn.  I immediately assumed that he had rented or borrowed them from the realty place we used to book the rental house.  (They had to make a side trip there as well.)

J informed me that he had purchased the towels.  "You bought used towels?" I cried!  No, they're new.  Incredulous, I couldn't believe him.  I thought it must have been a joke.  These towels looked well-worn.  

I kept waiting for the punchline.  And waiting, and waiting......

Then, he proceeded to put on his beach shoes.  The shoes were the slip-on type that he was to busy to try on before he left the store.  You see, my husband doesn't buy his clothes or anything like that.  In my heart of hearts, I question whether or not he even knows any of his clothing sizes or his shoe size.  Without my supervision, he chose to guess his general size and then proceeded to chose the closest size DOWN from that.

That's when it all broke loose.  You would have thought I had insulted him personally.  We had an animated private discussion, had our required "head-butting" episode for the trip,  and moved on.

Moral:  If your husband brings you worn towels, when you get home, add them to the "dog" towel collection.  They're great for that!




Our last day on the beach we took a bunch of photos with the kids.  Darrell had on his new yellow shirt.  He picked that color because if he spilled mustard on it, it would not show.  


Having previously been burned by a mustard stain, Darrell remained cautious in all clothing choices.  Fool me once shame on you.  Fool me twice and you're not gonna be fooling me again:)  You can read about it at houseof1000dreams.blogspot.com.


Also, my kids were dressed for beach photos but my husband did not give much thought to what to wear in case I wanted to take his picture.  He told me " at least I can spill food on this and it won't show-especially ketchup!"


Hmmmm..... that rings a bell.  Oh yeah, Darrell said the same thing about mustard and his shirt.  


So for what remained of the trip we referred to them as "Ketchup" and "Mustard".  It's not quite as catchy as PB & J, but it would have to do.

Ketchup and Mustard

We had a wonderful time!  Come and go with us next time!

Much love and many laughs,

A