Humping Through My Busy Boring Life

Well it is boring! But hectic! I am about to say STOP! to this craziness that has become my lifestyle. But not yet, let's see what next week brings.
Last night we went to another ball game. This time our Jags beat Tallahassee Godby 4-3. We were losing and I got up to use the ladies room which was on the other side of the field. While I was walking over there, I ran into my friend, Lori, and her girls. They couldn't find room on our side so they were sitting on the visitor side. While I was talking to them, we scored three runs. Now being the superstitious person I am, I HAD to stay on that side til we won! Good thing my hubby understands my wierdness. He was fine tho, sitting with his "coachie" friends.
Now we meet the team we beat last Thursday night again for regional Championship on Friday night. I am disappointed that I will not be in town for Friday night's regional Championship. Why?
Tomorrow night I leave for Mobile, AL. There's a big crop there and I'm going with some friends. Mobile isn't far, only an hour, but it's a very long, boring drive that seems like it takes hours.....and hours...and hours....it has gotten better since they put Eastern Shore Mall in on this side of the bay. It makes that last 20 minutes easier to bear.
So I'm a bit anxious about this crop. I know no one but Mary & Karen, the girls I'm going with. But with them it will be fun. We have pre Party tomorrow night and then two days of cropping. I have alot to do, so I'll be busy!
Then there's all the stuff I've got scheduled before I leave tomorrow. Haircut & facial tonite (ah heaven!) I need to run to Office Depot, Unforgettable and HL. Then there's work. OH! AND I have to PACK! Gotta run!!!!!!!!!
I hope all my HT friends have fun at their crop this weekend! I'll miss you!
:J

Morning!

It's a morning post from me! I've been blogging at night, but last night I was busy making a card, so I didn't blog. Here I am!
Okay, so you know I made a card last night. It's a graduation card for a friend's nephew. He graduates Georgia Tech this weekend. I know, I should have a picture, but I don't.
Chilly morning here for the end of April. 55 degrees! Chillier tonite as we head into our regional tournament in Baseball. I'll be sure to take a sweatshirt and my woolie blanket as I cheer them on. I am sooooo loving this weather!
I did figure out that my conference in July ends a day earlier than I thought. VERY GOOD thing! Why? you may ask? That means I can go with hubby, FIL and my favorite niece to the Green Bay Packers Shareholder meeting!!!!! I've never been to one. They are held in Lambeau Field, since there are so many of us shareholders. It will be fun and a wonderful way to kick off our vacation. DH was going to fly up a day early to go without me, but now I can meet him in WI and go!! WOOHOOO!
Down side is, we probably won't come home til Aug 3rd, which means I will miss another great HT crop, Fried Green Tomatoes. But we haven't bought our plane tickets yet, soooo who knows, my fingers may slip and I may come home early, flying in somewhere close to Sebring. We'll see.
I'm off to my world of data. I'm making a huge dent in filing, so I hope that continues today!

:J

What a Weekend!

It has been quite a weekend. So many things packed into 3 short days. I will probably ramble, so pull up a chair, a mug of something and read on.

The Grad Bash - Every year I say it, because every year it's true. We have the most fantastic kids! To get on a bus at 5 a.m., travel to Orlando, get off the bus, party all night at Universal Studios til 2 a.m., get back on the bus and come home by 8:30 a.m. the next day is a true test of character. Our kids are always the best, least troublesome, most appreciative, awesome kids, Every year. A most awesome time and I am always thrilled to be a part of it!

We had the nicest buses and bus driver this trip too. Vision Tours from Ocean Springs MS. The line was founded by an Optometrist who had a bad experience on a bus, so he bought some! WE had the best experience! Smooth ride, greatest driver! Scott chatted the whole time about his wife and girls, his parents, happy life! He realizes how blessed he is and shares. I hope his parents are proud of him, he is such a nice guy!

Sleep - It's sometimes overrated. I slept a bit on the bus, a few hours at home, and was up cleaning house by 1 p.m. on Saturday. I had a few draggy moments. Once early Friday night, and once Saturday at dinner with the hubby. Caffiene is a wonderful thing!

You're Gonna Miss This Moments -
* Remembering past Senior trips, some of those kids, especially our first Senior class, wishing Patrick were there this week with me all over again!
* Kevin being home today if only for a few hours. We went through the spare closet, giving him more of his things to take back with him. We came across a box of old videotapes of him playing baseball. THAT made me way too emotional. Him saying he didn't want his old Michael Jordan posters anymore. I'm just not ready to get rid of them!!! So a part of his growing up, his inspiration.
* Kevin did take his Webelos activity pin plaque with him. I was surprised at what he did/did not take.
* Realizing that none of the boys will make the family reunion this year. Work and other committments, they are adults now.
* Realizing we've had Kota 6 years now. It seems like yesterday when we got him!

Busy, Busy, Busy this weekend, cleaning, catching up, throwing away. I bagged up a huge garbage bag of clothes that have "outgrown" me. I guess that's a good thing, as they are too big for me! That felt good!
Rick finally put the molding down on the floors and the job is done! Does it have anything to do with spring football beginning this week? Knocking off the honey do list before he has no time!
My work last week planting is already beginning to show great results. The flowers are blooming everywhere and it looks really good! Pictures to follow another day.

Creating, I'm working a few projects at once, started the beach book, ordered the stuff for the noteboards, almost finished a graduation card. I've even got a mini book going on in my head!

What else? WFHS won their district ball game! Brett, the pitcher, pitched the whole game and we won 6-0! We've known Brett since Tball. It's so fun to watch someone grow like he has. He's the youngest of 3 boys, a great kid, awesome pitcher!!! The boys play Tuesday night was we host regionals!

I used my reusable grocery bags today at WM. I like em! Put my juice and milk in one bag and slung it over my shoulder to carry it out. Can't do that with a WM bag! It wasn't even heavy that way! If you don't have any reusable bags, you need some!
I've been thinking alot about what we use and throw away. Wayyy too much stuff. I love my bottled water, but, that's alot of wasted plastic! So I'm going to try harder. Use less, redo more, get rid of excess, Simplify!
Well I've rambled enough, I guess you know I am alive!

:J

Thursday? Already?

Wow! This week has flown by! It will be Saturday before I blog again probably. I may blog tonite, I may not. Busy, Busy days ahead.
I would like to go to the baseball game tonite, our HS is in the district championship. But the thought of sitting on the bleachers til 10 p.m. is not appealing to me. But I want to go.
Then I have to be back at school at 4 a.m. for the senior trip to Universal Studios in Orlando. It's such fun and I am a glutton for punishment. I've gone every year the seniors have gone. We get on the bus at 4 a.m., ride to Universal, with stops to potty and to eat, get off the bus, go into Universal, ride rides, party all evening til like midnite/1 a.m., get back on the bus, come home, getting back at 10 a.m. Saturday. Doesn't that sound fun? Don't you want to go with us?
Sunday, DS2 and his GF will be here for the day. I'm so glad to see them. Maybe, just maybe if the planets all align, his brothers will be here too.
I'm off, I have to run by WW before work.
Such a boring life I lead,
:J

Long Day, Short Post

Some days I think I should just stay home in bed. This morning was one of those days, my head kinda hurt, I was drowsy, and it was a beautiful day. But I sucked it up and went to work. I'm glad I did, but everyone at work was complaining about their head hurting. Must be going around!
I did take a few hours at lunch to make a few cards at a lunchtime card making class. It was great midday therapy! I don't have the cards here at home with me, so I'll have to get pictures tomorrow.
After work, I went to the District Ball game, our team won! Thursday is the championship game. I hope I can go, but I have to be back at school at 4 a.m. for the senior trip, so I don't know if I will! It was good to see baseball people. Some I hadn't seen in ages. I sat with my friends Sue & Greg, and MaryAnn. Greg was the only person I know that was as brokenhearted about Favre retiring as I was, well besides my favorite niece, Sarah. So I kept Greg entertained between innings by telling him about the new Cub's player, Fukudome. No kidding, I'm not making it up. I even had to call my brother last night and ask,"who is this fuking player?" I guess he is a multimillion dollar player from Japan. Mr. Baseball everything. Maybe my friend Linda has heard of him. Or at least Taylor, her son, has. They chant his name at Wrigley. Can you imagine? So Fukie, as I call him, is my new Favre.
Can you tell I'm tired, rambling? So I leave you with this, my first project for the June Unforgettable Crop. Reminisce papers, Kaiser Craft boards, and odds and ends. Unforgettable's owners loved it! So now I'm searching for beachy scrappy odds and ends. I have a BEACH book to design. OY! The things I get myself into! There's still room at the crop, if you want to come. But if you are a HT girl, you probably won't come with me. HT has a crop that weekend too. I'm trying not to think about that!

 

Nite all,
:J

Monday, It's Monday!

Mondays can sometimes be hard days. Hard to wake up, hard to go to work, hard at work, well you understand. Today was not as hard as some Mondays, but after being gone half of last week, I didn't expect an easy day! Actually it was a good Monday, as Mondays go.
I won't bore you with the 4 new inches of paperwork waiting on my desk. It took me most of the day, with it's many interuptions, to get it done but I did! But I do have to tell you about this.

 

My trash digging has paid off! I found this in the trash, with no countertop, broken drawers and rotting kickboard (that's the bottom). I talked to a friend of mine and we worked out a deal. I'm making him a folding frame for his wife for mother's day, and he would fix it. Well let me say, I got the better end of the deal. He made a new countertop, laminated it, the sides and bottom, fixed the drawers and WOW! I have the coolest counterheight cabinet for my scrappin stuff! The drawers will be perfect for inkpads, stamps, tools, whatever I can fit in there. The drawers are huge width wise. Not very deep tho. But how deep do I really need???
More pictures of the herbs. Don't ask me what they are, I know that the little woolie looking plant is woolie thyme.

 

I know that this is.............Parsley!

 

I think this is sage & oregano. If you know, let me know. I have the little tab thingys, they will tell me.

 

So that was my day in a nutshell. It was a good day, was yours?

:J

Another Busy Day in Paradise

I was up before dawn, had coffee and read the paper on the deck all by 7:30. I knew it was going to be another gorgeous day, I wanted to savor and be thankful for every minute of it! That's exactly what I did!
There's something about planting and having my hands in dirt that just does it for me. Even more so than paper and glue do. I like to plant, I don't always like to take care of, so I start every spring with good intentions. I fill my planters with oodles of flowers and about July, when it starts to get hot, I give up! But this year is starting out cooler, so maybe I will stick with it longer.
Here a pictures of my plantings this year, well some of them. I can't blog more than four pictures at a time.
I was excited to find a bottlebrush bush yesterday at the nursery. But I forgot to get it. So this morning, off I went and now it has a home! I love our little nursery down the street. They get the neatest plants. The guys (all 3 of them) know me and know I like different stuff. So they made sure to point this out to me. It attracks hummingbirds and butterflies. That's Dakota in the background. He thinks I should put the camera down and get his ball to play with him. He thinks anytime someone comes outside that they should play with him, first and foremost. Silly dog.

 

I plant most everything in pots. We don't have very good soil because our oak trees deplete all the good nutrients and water from our yard. We gave up on growing grass, so now we just mow the weeds because they are at least green. A collection of my pots full of flowers soon to bloom.

 

A few years back when we put our pool in, we built another deck a third of the way around the pool. Since it's visible from the street and a half a block away, I try to make it nice for the neighborhood. This year in the rail planters I've decided to go pink and purple. Petunias that is. I also added some viney pink & purple & white flowers to hang over too. Do you think I know all the names of these flowers? I don't! My jasmine has really taken off this year also. I hope it covers all that wood!

 

Out front we have a small circle of lilies with a whiskey barrel planter. The lilies are just starting to bloom. The planter stayed very damp last year and most of the flowers died. So this year I stuck all the leftovers there and we'll see what happens.

 

I didn't show you the herbs, the window box or the planter by the front door. The herbs will be a whole nother post, and the others will have to wait till they grow. They just look like seedlings now. Hopefully everything will survive and in a few weeks I'll have a yard full of blooms! Till then, I'll water and pray!
I hope you had a wonderful day like I did! 89 more days like this to go!

What a Beautiful Day!

I definitely have to thank the good Lord for this one! It was absolutely gorgeous here today! I think my mood reflected it. I got up early, raring to get things done, and everything went my way!
First thing up, I ran to the nursery for plants. I couldn't believe how chilly it was, and almost wished I'd worn a sweat shirt. There were sure alot of pretty flowers in stock and it took me over an hour to choose the ones I wanted to plant. Three flats and several pots later, I was done!
I got a whole flat of just herbs. All the basic ones, and a few exotic ones. Then I found a flat of perennials, mostly daisies of different varieties. I picked out two Cajun Hibiscus' to replace the ones we lost in the cold winter. A Big pot of yellow daisies already blooming. And finally, a flat of impatients and a V flower, not verbena, that the name escapes me right now.
I came home drove through the yard in front to unload and looked back where I'd driven to discover that I cracked our water pipe coming into the house. Luckily the hubby pulled up right behind me and was able to fix it before we lost too much water. I don't think I will be driving through that part of the yard again!
I was just getting my tools together to start planting, when friend Linda called. She wanted to go to Earth Day in the park and since her hubby was out of town, wanted me to go with. Such a deal! I wanted to go as they were giving out free recycle bins, reusable shopping bags, and light bulbs. So off we went. It was alot of fun and we saw lots of neat animals. I liked these two owls. Isn't the first one just beautiful? He was so tiny and petite too! I know I was supposed to get what kind of owl he was, but I didn't.

 

This big old owl just kept closing his eyes, like he didn't want to be there, just wanted to sleep. Funny ole owl!

 

After Earth Day, we hit a yard sale where I picked up 10 Garfield Treasury books for hubby, and a baboon beanie baby just because. Linda dropped me off and I resumed my flower planting. I still have one more flat to go, but we got alot done in the back. I even blew off the upper deck and swept the lower deck. We pulled weeds and cleaned up quite a bit. It was such a gorgeous day for working in the yard, I didn't even want to come in tonite well after dark!
A few weeks ago, I ordered 100 days like today. We've been blessed since then with about ten of them. 90 more to go, I'm counting, blessings!

:J

Honey!!! I'm Home!

It was so good to get back home, to my house, my family, my dog. While the campus of Santa Fe Community College was beautiful, it wasn't home. Cabot Lodge, was a nice place to visit, but it wasn't home. I'm home, I'm happy.
I was even invited to a private crop tomorrow, but I'm not going. I just want to be home. I think I'm going to plant flowers. I started tonite, by cleaning out the flower pots. Even discovered that my big hibiscus isn't dead like I thought it was. When I cleaned out all the leaves from around the base, there was a baby hibiscus! But I still lost 2 of my cajun hibiscus. I'm going to see about replacing them tomorrow at the nursery. Sounds like a busy day, and I even hope to get some scrapping in. We are getting some rain tonite, I hope it's gone tomorrow.
I hope everyone has a sunny day!

:J

Adventures in the Swamp and other Bear Stories

One's mind can only input information for so long before it overloads. Especially when the information is not clear and every time a question is asked, the informants answer "we don't know" or "we'll have to ask and get back to you". But we will move ahead towards the deadlines we gave you.
So have I learned anything? Yes, a few things. One being the department that leads me, makes me look VERY intelligent! And two, It doesn't matter your degree, if you are being fed garbage, you still can't sort it out to smell good. Bureaucracy. I LOVE IT!
So after a long day of meetings, we had an adventure. We had to find Ben Hill Griffin. Stadium that is. In our possession was a kidnapped Beanie Baby belonging to a Bama fan. (say that 3 times fast) None of the 4 of us were UF grads, only I had ever been to the stadium. I knew that at the stadium we would find a gator with his mouth open. A gator mouth big enough for a Beannie owned by a Bama fan. So off we went. We toured UF campus. It was a gorgeous afternoon. Finally, I, being the only female, said, STOP! I'll ask directions! At a Krispy Kreme, on the edge of campus, we stopped. I got directions, we found the stadium, found the gator, took the picture and even bought the Beannie bear his own UF beannie (UF baseball hat, just his size) by then we needed a nap!

 

Such an adventure, for us and the bear!
They are saying something about a horse tomorrow!
:J

Whizzing by Wednesday

Just a quick post, I'm off to Gainesville today for meetings. I'm taking the laptop along, so most posting tonite! I have exciting news!!!
Speaking of exciting, the May kit is up at KNK. I am so in love with it! Soft colors, yummy wood swirls. Stock up on those add ons too! OH MY! OH MY! Can't wait to play with this one!
See you from the Swamp!

:J

Just in Case

I may be frozen in the morning. Our temps are supposed to hit the 30's. Unheard of for this time of year in Florida. SO, I'm going to blog tonite. Just in case I am frozen.
I'm thankful for friends who let me vent. Who understand I want to be petty but I won't, because it's not the right thing to do. Friends who just listen and understand, I know what I should do, I know what I will do, it's just sometimes, I want to be petty too. I'm so thankful for friends, and people who see through pettiness for what it is. Thanks for reminding me I am better than that. Not that they read my blog, but I needed to thank them.
It must be meetings week in my world. A meeting today, a meeting tomorrow, and then 3 days of all day meetings. It will be good to come home, I will have all this stored up creative energy from being in meetings! Do you think I can scrap all weekend?
Okay, I have to get ready for tomorrow, pack up my scrap project to show the girls at Unforgettable, pack up my friend, Karen's lost shaker of salt from Grand Cayman. I'll see her tomorrow at the meeting. Sometime I need to pack for the 3 day meeting trip. I guess that's a Tuesday night job.
Have a warm Tuesday!
:J

Do I Really Live in Florida?

Brrrrr! It's chilly here! The temps dipped into the 40's last night. Need I remind you it is mid April. By now I am usually tan having been at the beach already, running around in Capris and sandals. Yesterday I was in jeans, sweats, socks and shoes. It's only going to get colder!
Al Gore, can I talk to you about this global warming idea you have? Have you been to Florida this week? I feel more like I am in Wisconsin than in Florida. Tonite they are talking 30's!
Don't get me wrong, I would rather be chilly, than hot! My theory is you can always put more clothes on, you can't take more clothes off. Only to a certain point, then you become the crazy lady who went to WM in your underwear or an outfit you shouldn't have been seen in public in. Face it, we've seen enough of those, I don't need to contribute to that! So the cooler temps can continue on, if the wind dies down.
Not much else going on in my life, my arthritis is flaring up. It's been years since I have had a flair up this bad. I hurt all over in my joints, am stiff and sore. It's been so long I forgot how bad it feels! I'll put a call in to my doctor in a bit and see what I can do. I'm much to young to feel this damn old!

:J

The Best Laid Plans

I set off this morning, Saturday, to go to a crop. Packed my bags, loaded the car, ran by Starbucks, and got to the church at 7:50. I thought the crop started at 8. It didn't, but I didn't know that. I waited 45 minutes, which for me is an exceptional time to wait. I'm not a waiter. So when no one showed well after 8:30, I left.
The weather looked yucky, stormy yucky, and I was having mama guilt for leaving my baby dog outside. I headed home. I unloaded the car, I started laundry, I cleaned the scraproom enough to be able to scrap. My baby dog didn't want to come in and keep me company, no, he wanted to stay outside. It was cloudy, cool, he wanted to lay out and watch the world. So I scrapped, he watched the world.
Mary called, "where are you?" So I told her about my morning and agreed to meet her for lunch. So I went to the crop and ate lunch. It was nice, they only had about 7 croppers, one had her Cricut Design Studio up on her laptop. So she showed me a few things on it. I think I am going to order it. I got out of there only spending $3.75.
I came home and worked on a class for our 3 day crop in June. I finished it tonite and am really pleased. I'll post a picture later this week, after I show the LSS owners. It's only fair they see it first! I only have 3 more projects to make for the two crops in June. I want to get the samples in the stores so they can start getting sign ups. Plus I have 4 projects for May I am doing. A graduation present, Mother's day cards for school, a Georgia Tech mini album for a Georgia Tech grad and a Mother's day project for one of the guys at school.
The Mother's day project is a trade out. I'm doing a LOVE frame for him to give his wife, with their family pictures, and he is redoing a cabinet for me. New laminate countertop and all. I think I am getting the better end of the bargain. The cabinet will go in the new scraproom to hold my inks and stamps.
This will also go in the new scraproom. My IKEA boxes.

 

I built them all myself! Every nail, every screw, all done by my little hands. DH said he was proud of me. He said he knew I could do it all by myself, he just didn't think I would. The next step will be painting/staining the outsides and deciding what to do with the front of the drawers. Alot of people have covered them with scrap paper, I'm not sure that's what I want to do. Any suggestions?
:J

Saturday!

I thought I'd better blog a bit before I take off for the day. I know, I know, I promised pictures of the shelves. I haven't taken them yet. No excuses.
I'm off today for some scrappin' NO pages. I'm going to finish up the class projects I started on the cruise. I lost focus in class there. Like I will have focus today, HA! But I'm hoping! I should stay home and clean house, Nah! What fun is that?
okay, so nuthin to say, I'm off!

:J

TGIF!

Just a quick blurb, today is an early day. But it's all good because it means early off too!
I finished my shelves last night while watching American Idol and Antiques Roadshow. WOOHOOO! I will post a picture of them later. Now I need to figure out how I am painting/staining them. I'm thinking about using a colored stain. I still haven't ruled out using Crackle Paint on the drawer parts.

American Idol. Okay, I was okay with seeing Michael Johns go home. Dreamweaver just didn't do it for me. I thought he sounded just like the record. Trust me I know the record, I played it over and over and over.
I really thought Carly was going, but I didn't want her to. Not sure who I would chose to go home next week.

Another day, another dime, I have to get earning. Have a wondermous day!

:J

It's Thursday Already!

A week ago right now, I was just finishing my cruise. Where did time go? Is it time to go again? I have the itch already. One week from today I will be sitting in the first day of a two day meeting. What fun is that?
Til then, I am playing with my cabinets. I put another together last night and was not having fun at all. I kept bending nails, and bending nails. I'm blaming it on the weather. Why not? Two days of perfect hammering and then I can nail anything straight? Only two more cabinets to go.
Maybe it was watching Idol gives back that made me hammer badly. That show made me angry. I dislike blatant begging. Lining up all the children and having them all give the sad look. Lying with statistics. People who talk about how poor they are while wearing gold chain out the yingyang. Please don't think I think we shouldn't contribute and help those who need help. I do, and I do contribute. I just don't like the purposeful heart tugging. Nuff said on that.
So tonite I'll watch AI and see who goes home. I can't pick this week. Some people had bad weeks, but are great entertainers. I think Brooke will go just because she isn't marketable. I really wish David Archulata would go. He has a great voice, but it's like watching Barry Manilow, no entertainment value for me at all.
I'm off to eat my cornflakes.

:J

If I Were a Carpenter

In one hour last night I finished two more of my cabinets! I didn't even bend one nail last night. The night before I bent two. Both times I did I heard my dad in my head, "Don't pound it in bent, take it out." That must be were I get my carpenter gene, from my dad. I'm having fun putting these together. Pics tomorrow!

I haven't decided what I will use to decorate them. I'm going to paint/stain the cabinets and then cover the fronts with paper or maybe crackle paint. I love the crackle paint!

I found another good find in the pitch pile at work. It's a cabinet with 8 slim drawers. The cabinet is about 4 feet wide by 2 1/2 feet deep, counter height. The drawers would be perfect for storing stamps & inks. I'll bring it home one night this week. All I need to do is put a top on it, as the top was part of a counter. I'm going to explore countertop prices for it. A good countertop would be a nice investment so I could use it for stamping and hammering and stuff.

I don't know what's gotten into me, I was up at 6 a.m. which isn't unusual, but I was up and cleaning house! I must be ill. Someone stop me!

Check out my new quote widget on the sidebar. I wish I new how to size these widgets, as this one is too big. You may have to click on the quote to read it all. I get a daily email from Foundation for a Better Living with a quote, but it's nice to get it here too. I hope you enjoy them and if you know how to solve the size thing, let me know!

I'm off to the showers and school. Busy, busy day, I hope yours is a good one!

:J

We had to pass through Orlando to get home from our cruise. Okay, we didn't have to, we WANTED to. We wanted to visit Susie's friend, Dottie, scour some scrap shops, and visit here.

 

I have wanted to visit IKEA ever since my sister came home from Germany 20 years ago with this huge shrunk that I thought was totally awesome. She always has cool stuff and I have yet to talk her out of that shrunk. But it's all good, as it's not something I really need, I just like it.
But we wanted to check out IKEA and see what goodies they had to offer. I decided I need a trip back there. I saw a dresser I want, a bed, and kitchen cabinets that would just make my life complete. But I settled this trip for these.

 

I got 3 more sets of different type drawers and three or four sets of these. So last night I sat down, plugged in last week's American Idol and all by self, in an hour, made these.

 

I'm so proud of myself! I think I'm going to sign up for Carpentry class!
Have a good day!

:J

Okay So Check THIS Out!

I'm trying to catch up on emails and blog reading and what better way to distract you from my nonblogging than T!M ! He has a great technique up using some of my all time favorite papers, Cosmo Cricket's Wanted! I've always loved these papers, even wish I could paper a room in them. But he's giving them away if you are lucky! Check it out!

:J

Back in MY House!

It too me a few days, but I finally made it back home. A successful shopping trip to IKEA and more than a few scrapstores delayed my immediate arrival back home, but that made the arrival all that much more sweeter. It feels so good to be here.
A few more pictures of the cruise, my lovable roomie, Val, during our lifesaving drill. Aren't the lifejackets becoming? I sure did feel safe in it tho, it had extras I hadn't seen on a lifevest. Val models hers so well.

 

Just a dish of fruit, devinely presented. After eating cruise food with all it's presentation, I don't think Macky D's will cut it any more for me. I was glad to hear my friend Kip, lost a pound while cruising! I don't think I gained any, all the walking we did helped with that! I do think I ate better! There were a few desserts I just couldn't resist, so I can't say I was totally good!

 

Cahoyoga Gardens was the most beautiful place we visited. Alot of their plants are the same as what we have here in Florida, but alot bigger. I loved this orchid and had never seen one like it. Another thought. Their cotton grows in tree form. A huge tree grows in 20 years. Why aren't we planting more of them? Their cotton tree was taller than many of the hundred year old oaks and 50 year old pines I see here. The cotton tree was enormous, provided much shade, and COTTON! What a beneficial tree!

 

Finally a picture of the Mardi Gras parade the last night at sea. This was taken over the promenade from the elevator balcony near our room. The parade was very colorful and alot of fun! I snapped picture after picture it was soooo pretty with all the dancers and entertainers. Very festive!

 

Going outside the US makes me really appreciate what we have here. We should take more pride in what we really take for granted. This really hit home for me when, in the middle of nowhere, men and women with machetes were clearing brush and weeds from the sides of the road in Jamaica. The mess could have been left to grow up and become unsightly, but it didn't. People took enough time to clear brush and weeds to make the roadsides look better. In my area of Florida, people don't do that, government doesn't even do it. Our roadsides look trashy with weed growth. I guess people are just too busy pursuing material gain, or "fun" stuff to take civic pride. I admire the "poor" Jamiacans for taking care of what they do have and being guardians of our earth.
I am glad to be home in the US, I have unpacked my suitcases, put things away and now am ready for a nap. I'll sleep well back on US soil, thanks to those who protect it for me.
:J

I'm Out of the Box!

Just a brief message and a few pictures. I am back on solid ground again after 5 days at sea. I'm still working on getting my land legs. I feel like I'm moving. But I did want to let everyone know I'm home safe and sound and back in my box.
I really did step out of me a few times. I tried a new dish. Can you guess what?

 

Escargot! And it was really, really good!
In Jamaica we trusted Hudson, our cabbie, with our lives and he took us to places not everyone gets to see. He took very good care of us and he took a few of us brave souls to the top of a mountain where I captured this picture of our ship. It was absolutely gorgeous up there. Jamaica is so different than anywhere I have ever been. Very much more 3rd world.

 

And finally, I crossed something off my "bucket list". Parasailing! Yes me, afraid of heights, I went parasailing. I LOVED IT! So peaceful, relaxing and exciting all at once! I felt so totally safe tho and not at all afraid of the 400+ feet I was up in the air, hanging by a knot in a rope!

 

I'm back in Florida, although not all the way home. I'm in Lakeland and in the morning I'm headed to Orlando to the IKEA store! We stopped here at one of our favorite scrapstores and I contributed much to the Lakeland economy. I'll post more tomorrow, but for now I'm beat!
It's good to be back in the USA!

:J