Santas Helper

If you could see the look we got when the bow went on... Crusty loves to be in the middle of what ever is going on and this time of the year it is wrapping. We think her grumpy personality is because she was not a holiday pet. Tulip and Pearl both were Christmas gifts, Crusty on the other hand was not. What a joyful face. Such a nice kitty.

Thanksgiving pets

Tulip is our sweet cat she is the oldest pet in our house. Tulip was a Christmas gift for Paige from my mom around 13 years ago. Her fur is the softest fur I have ever felt on a cat.


Crusty is another story she is not sweet, her favorite thing to do is hiss and open doors and try to escape. We now have to lock our door to our garage because she lets herself out along with the air conditioning.


Pearl, wonderful, sweet Pearl is the nicest dog you will ever meet. Only wants love, food, naps, her nails painted and to sit in the sun.

We are thankful for our pets who welcome us home everyday, greet us in the morning, cuddle up to us when we sit still for a moment and accept us just as we are.

I live in a Swamp...

There are times when I think to myself I live in a swamp. Florida to me is little more than a Swamp.


We went to Tallahassee this past weekend to look at FSU for Paige, it is one of the colleges on her short list so we made our second trip over there to see the area and on the way back we thought we would see how far the beach was and we ended up at a national park, St. Marks Florida is 25 miles below Tallahassee. It was not the beach I had thought we would see it was more like a swamp, okay it was a swamp with gators and all. Not the park I would be taking a stroll through. Nope I stayed in the truck except for a quick adventure to the lighthouse to snap a few shots and then back into the truck.



I don't like the thought of snakes and creepy things lurking around in the tall grasses, not good.



We also had to go to a football game, I got to try out my replacement lens that I bought last week that is the replacement for the lens Stacy broke. (I just had to let you know I was not being greedy thinking I had to have a new lens for no reason, Sorry to toss you under the bus Stacy)

Sheri Berry in Macy's

I went down to our big Macy's to take some photos of the trees with the ornaments designed by Sheri, her Macy's is not carrying the line so she is not able to see how they displayed them. Of all the Macy's to not have them, poor Sheri.


I had an interesting time taking photos of her ornaments, I asked the girl at the counter if I could snap a few photos and she said that was fine. So I was snapping away then out of nowhere, the store security swarmed and informed me that photography was not allowed in Macy's so I had to stop. I guess my giant flash and zoom lens was a little much. But I look so unassuming.


Cute, cute, cute! You can see the whole lot of I think 64 designs at Sheri's blog Sheri Berry Studio. Hope your Macy's has them they are so fun to see. I really want to stand by them and say look how cute these are, my friend designed them she is so talented....

Hanging around the house

Mmm... candy... The ghosts are up again this year they were almost replaced with new ones but I ran out of time to make them and the old ghosts went up again. I think they are running on 9 years old and holding up pretty good. This year I talked Mr. Hygiene into rigging up a pulley system so we could raise and lower them with out the usual tossing of the tennis ball over the high branch that could take over a hour some years. I have to have them spaced just right you know, cant have them hanging just anywhere. Now I have nice rings to clip them onto and maybe this Christmas we might find something to hang there as well. Thanks Mr. Hygiene for climbing the tall tall ladder when you don't like heights.

Great Music Month

What a month for music. First we had Michael Buble put out a new album Crazy Love, can I say I love Michael Buble. I know I am not the first on to say he could sing the phonebook and it would be wonderful. I do have to say that this is not my favorite album of his I would have liked a little more Rat Pack and a lot more Big Band, but that is just me.


Second, Pink Martini's new album Splendor in the Grass came out yesterday, what amazing talent. They are so good. I know Pink Martini is not for everyone, usually something that isn't sugar coated crap doesn't fit well into mainstream but they have talent and boy that China Forbes can sing. There is a bonus appearance on this album by Ari Shapiro, I know who is that? If you don't know I did not post that info for you.



Lastly but not least Sting came out with an album yesterday as well. I have not listened to the album yet, I think it will be a good one to light up around the holidays. On another note I don't know where the photo from the album cover was taken but that is where I want to live.

*update~ Don't like the new Sting album at all and that is all I have to say about that!

Swell Noel at Macy's

Macy's is now stocking the Christmas department and as most of you know I am really not a ornament shopper or regular Christmas consumer. I am picky and don't want to fill up my tree just for the sake of filling. I have to love something to part with my cash, so this year is an exciting year because I found something new to add to the tree.

Sheri has a line in Macy's this year and I can not be more excited. Paige and I spent some time in the home/holiday department Friday looking at all the wonderful holiday trim designed for Macy's by our friend Sheri Seibold. We know that The people at Macy's made a great choice this year selecting Sheri's designs and cant wait until the whole line is out. This is just a sample of what they will be offering.


The line is called Swell Noel. The colors are wonderful, not your typical red and green, a nice change. If you want to see more of Sheri's designs head over to her blog. We are not sure what Macy's stores will carry the line, I guess from what I hear is that they stock their stores differently throughout the country so I hope yours has it. I would love to hear if you have it in your Macy's so post if you have seen it. My apology for the poor quality of photos my short lens is broken and it is not easy to take photos inside with a zoom.

Mermaid Paige

We had a nice day today not doing much. Puttered around the house getting a few things done and just enjoying the day together. Paige went to the pool to study and get some sun at the same time. Then when she came back I decided to see how good some photos would be if I used my Nikon in the Dicapac under water camera bag.


It worked well for the most part when the sun was out and not hiding behind a few stray clouds. I think the key to under water photography is lots of sun light to make up for the lack of color under water.


This made for a fun afternoon. I was surprised how well my camera bag worked. We will have to do this again soon. Weeki Wachee here we come!

Who stole my rims?

Okay you all know this is not my truck. It is our neighbors across the street. We woke up Sunday to see his ride hold up on some garden blocks. Glad I did not get my truck pimped out. We are still in shock at how someone could do this with out getting anyone to notice and how it has not fallen over.

Thanks Mr. Hygiene

Stacy upgraded my shelving space this weekend. I have had this little wardrobe for a few years now and it has gone through some changes. It was bright yellow when I found it on the side of the road waiting for the trash man, I painted it and made it into storage for craft supplies.


The latest change was to add shelves in the closet side to make it more functional. Stacy did a great job now I need to paint the inside and fill it up.

Big Sur Power bars

I made these again last week. I thought Paige would like them for her school lunch. this time I made them with out the espresso powder and added dried cherries and Goji berries. Thought I would make them with a little more added nutritional bang. Did a little digging on the little berry that seems to be the new super food and it is impressive. Oh well if it is all hype at least it adds nice color and texture to the bars. I also added a handful of chocolate chips to balance out all the good thing I added. Things don't usually taste great when they only have healthy things in them. If you feel like making these the recipe is somewhere in my blog just look for the food tag and it should pop up.

Finally

After years of taking such good care of his girls, Mr. Hygiene gets his truck.

Pearl one ~ Jill zero

Why did I think I could get a bone from Pearl while she was running full speed? Pearl kept her bone, I got a cast. Torn ligaments and tendons in my thumb. Got black to match what I usually have on. Wish they had leopard.

Day at the beach

What a beautiful day at the beach, Cocoa beach never disappoints.


Nothing like standing in the ocean with a sub.

Carousel

Magic Kingdom

Paige and Connor went to the Magic Kingdom today, this is one of the few photos I got to take because I did not go with them.


I have to give credit to Connor for some nice photos, thank you Connor. This is Paige on the tea cup ride, Love this photo! I think I will frame it and put it up in the house.


Big Thunder Mountain Railway is a place for photos too. I would have liked some more of Disney but I guess the subject matter was limited to photos of Paige and photos of Connor. Hummmm....

Afternoon at the beach

We almost did not go to the beach the forecast looked gloomy but we went after the rain and hoped that it was only a short storm and would be great at the beach. It was.


Stacy did his best to look great as usual. Thank you Mr. Hygiene.


It was handy to have Conner with us. Less for us to carry... and for some reason Paige smiles a lot when he is around. Whats that all about?

*I will be backdating some posts shortly. I have been not keeping up with my blog but will catch up soon....

Fun, Sun & New Friends

It has been a busy few weeks. This week we took off to Naples, Fl to see my friend Leisa's sister and kids. We knew that we would have fun with them even though we only have seen them a few times when we lived in Michigan, they are related to Leisa so they have to be fun...Right?


We left home at 6:30 Sunday morning and drove down early to meet Laurie and her family for a day of sun, sand and para sailing. Yep, you heard right para-sailing.


We were surprised that Paige wanted to go,I thought she would be afraid but she was game. Emileigh and Paige went up together. It was pretty cool.


Hi Mom! Laurie asked Paige what was the best part of para-sailing and Paige said "Not vomiting." Nice.


A quick photo on the pier.


Emileigh, Conner, Paige & Ian


A little retail therapy. Wish we could have stayed a little longer but it was a fun filled 24 hours. I was glad to see Naples it is a beautiful place and we will go again.

Photos... My Photos...

Our neighbor had a very unfortunate day. Her house got broken into some time after she left for work and before she got home. They took the usual items, jewelery, computer, TVs, i-pod and things like that. They went through everything and took their time to unplug everything and take the cables and cords as well. We were home most of the day. We left for a short time to drop something off for Stacy at his work and then to stock up on grillers then came right home. Maybe we were gone an hour and a half or two at the most. We wonder if it happened while we were home sleeping in or while we were awake doing laundry. The thing that hit home was when she said "all my photos were on my computer." I cringed knowing I would lose it if I lost my computer with the last 4 years of photos on it. We have our computer backed up but I think they would grab that too because it is sitting right next to the computer, then what good would a separate drive to back up my photos be?

Well I starred to upload my photos to flicker. I got a pro account that has not restrictions on file size and quantity of photos. Under 25.00 a year. I don't know how long it will take me to up load everything I want to save but I will sleep better at night knowing that I will at least have my photos saved someplace.

If anyone knows a better way to back up your photos online let me know and if not think about your photos...

Clearwater with my brother Floyd

Floyd had a convention here in Florida Friday and we were lucky to be able to spend the evening with him. We drove over to Tampa, went out to eat with him and then off to Clearwater to see the sunset on the beach.


You always get more than the sunset at the beach. This guy/alien was quite interesting... I wonder what his day job is?


We walked out to the end of the pier, watched some fishermen and the sunset. There were a lot of fish being caught, but they were small. Nothing too interesting but a great place to spend an hour.


Mr. Hygiene looking as handsome as ever.


It was a nice end to the week. I love the Gulf side. The sand is so nice and you get the sunset to top it off. Glad to see my brother even if it was for only a few hours. Wish he could have stayed the weekend and that Lisa could have come along with him, next time right!?

Crew Banquet

Tonight was the end of the year Crew banquet for Paige and the rest of the team. It is a marker for the end of the season and a farewell to the Seniors who are leaving.


Que the tears... Paige was sad thinking about her boys that are leaving. Most of her boat this year was Seniors and she was having a hard time holding it together.


She is also saying farewell to KC a fellow coxin for the men's team. It was nice to have another girl on the team.


Matt.


Mark.


Troy.


Kyle & Preston. The boys will be missed by Paige and I will even miss a few of them, crew boys are good kids to have around.


Jordan is not leaving but I loved his enthusiasm for getting his photo taken so I added him to the post. Thanks Jordan!