Signs (pt. 1)

This was a sign posted at the pool we used during our stay at Seagrove, FL.  Leave it to MacGuyver Darrell to notice it.

Looks fairly standard right?

Look closer....

Never in a million years would I have thought I'd see the word "Diarrhea" on a sign.

Niiiiiice......

Much love and many laughs,

A

Vacation run-down

We were blessed to spend last week in Seagrove Florida.  My sister, her husband, my two nephews, my kids and my husband and I made the long trek to the shores of northwestern Florida.


This trip was wonderful in too many ways to count.  It goes without saying that many of the events of the trip will be fodder for my blog.


I will go into greater detail about the trip in the next blog.  I just thought I'd give you a bullet point highlight list.


You can let your imagination fill in the blanks...


Humidity
Sand
June seagrass
Kelp
Beach access
Publix
Mermaid
Chaffing
Lemon tart
Walnut oil
MacGuyvering
Frozen grapes
Runescape
Movies
Bicyclists
Architecture
Dishes
Unsightly beach towels
Seafood
Masters of the Grill
Home made sunscreen
Garmin
440
No shoes
Chloe & Lizzy


More details will be revealed in the next blog.  For the time being, I thought I'd throw this out there to see if any of the subjects piqued anyone's curiosity.


Hope you're having a good....whatever it is you're having:)


Much love and many laughs,


A

Last camp post this year- I promise

I forgot about my job as a parent.  That is to lovingly embarrass your children whenever you get the chance.  So with that I thought I'd tell you about what l learned from last year's camp.

1.  Send your kid with only the junkiest clothes they have.
2.  You're good!

Last year, I sent B with his cutest, most put together/without being matchy- matchy clothes.  When we picked him up his bag was a whole lot lighter than when we sent it.

What I didn't know, was that in all the hub bub of last day, the kids gathered all their stuff and set it in an area for parents to pick up.  Ben's laundry bag did not get in his suitcase and I did not notice it on the other side of the luggage mountain.

Remembering that I had a motto about packing for camp this year.  It was "only send the grossest stuff for camp".  But if you're like me, you throw your children's really gross stuff away.  We selected and packed and marked everything off our list.

However, even though I knew I was sending practically disposable clothing, I felt the need to take photos of the items.  I have to say it drives me crazy to be looking for something and never find it.  I didn't want to wonder if we had sent it to camp or not.  (And yes I know, that's incredibly anal retentive.  I can't help it and neither can trained professionals either, so we just go with it:)

Well, I'm pleased to say that B was much more aware (or his counselor was more on top of things than the one last year), and he got back with everything (or most everything I believe-I'm not THAT anal retentive:)

As I was going through his bag, I was reminded of what he DID get back with last year.

When I unzipped his bag last year, the only undisturbed thing I found within was a stack of nice and neatly folded boxers. They looked as if they hadn't been touched.  I just laughed and asked him about it and he got a big grin on his face.  Apparently, in his mind at camp it was "underwear optional".  What a funny kid!



Much love and many laughs,

A

Banned list addendum

Recently, I posted a blog about my daughter's "ban list".  In writing some other blogs, I remembered two other things she has been banned from.

As I mentioned in A hairy dog and a good fellow, Teddy has a shock collar.  It was purchased with his safety in mind.  However, we discovered that you can use indoor "zappers" to keep some rooms off limits as well.  Teddy doesn't know there are only 4.  When he has some really bad behaviors (pooping on my playroom rug) I'll move for a short while so he'll hopefully get that behavior corrected.

One day I noticed that Teddy was skittish and wouldn't follow me in from the playroom area to the main part of the house.  Later that day, we discovered the reason.  My daughter moved the zapper to the bookshelves right at the opening that led to the main part of the house.  Poor Teddy.  It took several days of TLC to get over that one.

Hence ban #6-no touching/moving the zappers.

Also, sweet cheeks likes to take showers now.  She can spend so much time in the shower singing the Spongebob Squarepants song, or anything like that.

One morning, I hopped in the shower and found evidence of several chunks of hair.  One small cluster was conspicuously entangled in my razor.  The hair was medium length.  It was strawberry blond.  It didn't take much to deduce that someone had played with my razor and cut off some of her hair.

                                  (sorry to those of you who might be grossed out by this:)




She vehemently denied having done it and I finally told her "I know the truth," followed by "I want you to tell me the truth!!!"

I envisioned her telling me "you can't handle the truth!"  However, after much cajoling, I got a confession out of her.

Hence ban #7- no touching mommy's or daddy's razors.

Needless to say, she keeps things interesting around here!






Much love and many laughs,

A

What is it? (pt. 2)

Okay, so I'm finally getting some interaction on my blog.  Thanks Lease and Dare.  It was fun!!!  

So with that in mind, I'm doing the number two installment of .......

"What is it?"

 (cue cheesy game show music)

Winner will receive a lovely lunch of turkey & gravy, cranberry sauce, green beans, crescent rolls, sweet potato casserole, and pumpkin pie.

Black out dates: June 6, 2011 thru November 23, 2011 and

November 25, 2011 thru December 31, 2011.

Prize must be claimed in the 2011 calendar year.

Good Luck!


Are you ready?


Here it is!

(This photo brought to you by Hobby Lobby)

Much love and many laughs,

A

Oddities part 3

  

In the "out lot" of our local Home Depot store, a new Chick-fil-a is being built.  They started construction last week and will be opening tomorrow.  No, not really, but it seems that fast.  

B and I drove by there today and we noticed something strange.  Apparently, Chick-fil-a is initiating a "back to the basics/family oriented" style of restaurant.  

They're encouraging families to spend time together camping out.  To promote this, they're providing their restaurant parking lots as a campground area.  Take a look........

I've always admired them for their practices.

Way to go Chick-fil-a!!!

I told J about this and he told me those folks were there for the opening of the building.  Apparently, he thinks there is an incentive for the first 100 or so people who are customers there.  

I told him it simply can't be.  If that were the case, then we would see folks line up at 4:30am the day after Thanksgiving to receive a free Mickey Mouse ornament from JC Penney.  HA!!!  

Also, it's not as if these are rare events.  We have several other Chick-fil-a's in town, and anyone can buy a Mickey Mouse ornament any day of the year.

"They do line up at 4:30 the day after Thanksgiving," he told me. 

"Why don't I ever see them?"  I asked him.  

"Because you're asleep."

"Oh, you could be right" I said.

But still, it was awfully nice of Chick-fil-a to have a camp out in their parking lot.  

The only hiccup is-where do you go to the bathroom?

Much love and many laughs,

A

Birthdays!

It's been a busy weekend for us.  We had two birthday parties to host.  Neither of which were actually on my kids birthdays.  In fact, they were not on the weekends before or after their birthdays.  

My son turned 9 over the winter.  He wanted to have his party at a box in the Travs baseball stadium.  Obviously they can't play with snow on the ground, so we waited.  And waited.  Then we got busy.  Really busy.  We discovered we waited almost too long and home game dates were getting scarce.  That was why we had both kids parties with in 48 hours of each other.  

My daughter's birthday is next month, but we have vacation plans and VBS plans, not to mention the start of school.  (She'll be going to a school with an extended school year).  So we had her party early.  The party was at her Shay's pool.  She explained to me that if we had it there it would be "free".  Why is it that the "free" parties sure do end up costing a lot:)  

She has every other party at Shay's.  She had #3, #5, and now #7 at her pool.  By this point I can recycle some of the decor.  However, I never seem to remember what I have, and the pressure of "better get it now or they'll run out" or "this may only be seasonal" gets me every time.  So if any of you need pool party/luau/surf party themed stuff, just call me.

Side note:  My least favorite phrase from a chain store employee is "sorrrrrrry, that's seasonal".  Never try to buy a fan in December.  Never try to buy rain boots in August.  These things are seasonal.  Just don't go there.  Even if you really need these items, like you're painting a room and need a fan to help dry it, or if you're going lizard hunting in a shallow creek in August, and you need boots impervious to water so you can wade in said water, just save yourself the dashed hope and save the employee the necessity of  the long drawn out "sorrrrrry" reply.  It's just embarrassing when employees have to feel sorry for you.  Then you want to tell them why you need these items, and you start looking desperate and sad trying to convince them that you're not as much of a goofball as they must think.  Just save yourself the trouble.

Back to my daughter.....

I think she just loves to have her parties at her grandmother's pool to show off her Shay.  She thinks Shay is like a rock star.  She flips out every time she sees her.  It has a way of endearing her to people.  Who wouldn't love their own enthusiastic 6-year-old fan following them around?

We had the parties and they were really fun. Now we can relax and breath easily. In the meantime, please enjoy some photos from both events.

Much love and many laughs,

A