A Smashing Good Time!

Well, Zack has had a weekend full of birthday celebrations! I didn't want to spoil the post about his birthday yesterday by posting what happened yesterday afternoon, so here goes...

He was at a friend's house after lunch yesterday and they were going to meet some more of their friends for his birthday celebration dinner last night. He had been at his friend's house for about two hours when I got a phone call, "uh, mom...I'm okay, but my car is crashed!" WHAT??? You've got to be kidding me?!

So, I rushed over there, surveyed the damage and then we called the police. Apparently, someone hit his car (which was parked curbside in front of his friend's house) and they didn't stop or leave a note or anything. The boys were inside playing video games and never heard a crash or noise or anything. When they went outside to leave is when they noticed his car had been hit.

Interestingly enough, the neighbor's driveway across the street lined up right where someone could have hit Zack's car backing out of the driveway. There was no colored paint on Zack's car. There was a big white truck in the neighbor's driveway across the street. Hmmmm.

No neighbors admitted to seeing or hearing anything.





Nice police officer says, "don't mean to discourage you, ma'am, but we rarely catch hit and runs". Well, thank you very much Mr. Sunshine!

Hubby spent the day getting estimates and talking to the insurance company. $1800 worth of damage---smashing good news.

Happy Birthday, Zack!

At exactly 10:46 p.m. Eastern Time on July 1st, 1990, you entered this world and breathed new life into mine. I never knew a love so deep. My heart was so full of love and adoration--it was a feeling of completeness, but yet I had never realized there was a void before you filled it. You have given me the greatest gift of motherhood. Anything I ever aspired to be before I gave birth to you, was of little significance. The tiny treasure looking up at me with the biggest deep blue eyes revealed what was most important in my life and that was being a mom to you. You were always so full of wonder, constant curiosity, questions, mischief, overly dramatic in your expressions and always a camera hog. Not much has changed about that in 17 years!

I remember how you loved all the baby Mickey's and Minnie's that were in your nursery; how you used to scoot your walker over to the Christmas tree and single-handidly "un-decorate" the bottom two feet of the tree; how you used to hum along with Nana when she rocked you; how it seems you were born loving baseball and continue to 'till this day; how you adored your cousin, Taylor, and were always trying to take care of her, entertain her and make her laugh (again, not much has changed there!); how you used to open your mouth real big when you sang and really enunciated each and every syllable; your first day of school, what a big guy you were, while I fought back tears long enough to get back in the car; how you were and have always been such a grateful child; how you used to always want to be right in the middle of things (like when Dianne and I would be talking and you would try to wiggle your way inbetween the front seats of the car so you could hear better!)...there are so many memories of your childhood that have shaped you into the wonderful guy you are today...I could go on and on.

You are smart, responsible, tender-hearted, honest, polite, handsome, a hard worker, and still a very grateful child. I am so proud of the man you are becoming, but a part of me wants that little snuggle bug back to do it all over again. You have been such a joy to raise and I'm finding it hard to watch you fly. Mama wants to keep you in the nest as long as I can...but I know that I can't clip your wings, because watching you fly and soar higher and higher will be my greatest accomplishment and I look forward to what the Lord has in store for your future. You are my heart. I love you Zack---Happy Birthday!

(Below are a few photos. My scanner is not working, so I had to take pictures of pictures. Some are blurry and some have the flash spot on them, but it's the only way I could get them posted!)

first Christmas...

first haircut...

Helping Ed Mangan rake the Braves pitcher's mound before our first World Series game.

First day of Preschool at New Hope and graduation from preschool...

Fun with the bubble gun...

Taking the "catcher's stance" and showing off a big, bad tattoo!

Pretending to shave...

First day of school at Landmark and kindergarten graduation (pretending to talk on the cell phone)

part of photo shoot for "Kiddin' Around" Modeling Agency in Atlanta

One of many trips to Disney World, but the first for our new family

The whole crew...

Vacation in West Palm Beach...

Southbeach in Miami...

In the mountains of Gatlinburg...

Beach in Turks and Caicos Islands...

16th Birthday at the Spaghetti Factory (Atlanta)

New car for 16th birthday...

Drum Major award...

At a friend's house in Atlanta...

17th birthday, Georgia Aquarium...

After dinner at ESPN Zone we went to Cheesecake Factory for dessert!

Happy 17th Birthday Zack!

Headed to Atlanta...

This handsome fella, whom I proudly call my son (Zack), is turning 17 this Sunday, July 1st. We're headed to Atlanta in the morning to celebrate his birthday with our extended family. We're going to the Georgia Aquarium and then to ESPN Zone for dinner.

I'll be sure to post pictures when we return.

Well, I'll see your 'Rockin Girl' and raise you...

...a waddling mama?!

Hmmm, I've been nominated by my sweet friend, Beachkat, for the "Rockin Girl" blogger award. She said some pretty sweet things about me and I feel honored that I was included in her list of nominees, although the title of "waddling mama" sounds more appropriate! So, thank you, Kat! I think you rock!

So, I'm to choose 5 more "Rockin Girls" to bestow this title upon. Since we "run in the same circles", Kat and Tonja both chose some of the girls I would have nominated (Dianne and Jean), so I will nominate the others I was going to include and just know my sistas that you were on my list too!

My first nominee is Melodye at Morning Song. This girl is funny, transparent, and loves her kids so much sometimes I think she's gonna burst! She makes me remember how much fun it has been raising Zack and how quickly the time passes. Her kids are precious and she is adorable. However, I will have to say that her one flaw is that she is an LSU alum and fan. So y'all, let's just try to overlook that and love her anyway! Oh well, we can choose our friends, but we can't choose their ball teams, can we?! Geaux DAWGS!

My second nominee is Sandy at Reluctant Entertainer. I have been lurking and commenting occasionally on her blog. This girl is amazing! Once you stop in for a visit, you won't want to leave. You'll find yourself searching through previous blogs and awe-struck at the gift of hospitality she has, shares, and passes on to others, including her adorable daughter. She leaves me wanting to get to know all my neighbors and host block parties!

My final nominee is Lynne at Lynne's Little Corner of the World. This chic (a hip grandma chic!) can read a book faster than anyone I know! Her list of books she has read, is reading, or is going to read is unbelievable! I'm doing good to get through one or two a year! She does all that reading on top of caring for a granddaughter, a hubby with an ailing back, cooking up a whole month's worth of meals, keeping a clean house, and blogging. This woman can multi-task like nobody's business!

My list go could on and on with my bloggy girlfriends that rock! If you read this blog, consider yourself tagged and pay it forward, sistas!

I just can't pass up a good deal!

After a busy morning with sales meeting and Realtor caravan, I met hubby and son for lunch and then decided to run over to Kohl's cause both me and son needed new tennis shoes. Plus, I wanted to get some candles for some things I picked up at the beach. {If you can't live at the beach, bring the beach home with you!...that's my motto anyway!}

I happened to wander by the clearance aisle and check out what I found! My kitchen is cobalt blue and bright green and I could not pass these up!

When I took the tags off the bottom to take the picture, I inadvertently switched them, the big vase was $4.99 originally $24.99, the small one was $2.99 originally $14.99. I bought some candles to put in them along with some sand. The long tea-light holder was only $5.99! The other light blue vase with seashells I purchased at the beach and bought a candle to put in it too.

I just can't pass up a good deal!

Time stands still at the beach...well, sort of...and a wonderful, good time with a beachy blogger friend!

I'm back! Ya'll, it warms my heart that you missed me and let me tell ya, I missed ya'll too! Before we left, I said to Gary, "I wonder if the condo has high speed internet access?" to which he replied, "you are NOT taking your laptop!" Oh well, I tried.

We spent a week at Perdido Key in the Gulf and it was absolutely gorgeous! We've been to several beaches in the Gulf area, but not this specific one and we were so delightfully surprised at what a gorgeous beach it was! We rented a 3 bedroom condo at Indigo and it was exquisite. We took along my mom (from Atlanta) and just had a good time of sunning, swimming, eating too much, and playing endless hours of Phase 10.

By the way, both mine and my mom's watches stopped when we got there. Isn't that weird?! I wish time really did stand still at the beach, cause it went by way too fast! (My watch is working fine now since I got home--strange).

It would take to long to upload pictures to the blog, so I'm going to just post the link here to my photo album on Shutterfly. You should be able to view the pictures with no problem. (The pictures include the condo, the beach, the view from the other side of the condo towards the bay, the Blue Angels practice session, eating at Lamberts (home of the throwed rolls), Lulu's (Jimmy Buffet's sister's restaurant), Destin Commons, visit with Kat, Miss Daisy and Zack, etc. Also, there's one where I'm turning pancakes with a long outdoor grill utensil for flipping burgers--it was all we could find! Needless to say, my mom bought a spatula and left it in the condo for the next guests who may be in need of something to flip pancakes!)

To top off a wonderful week, I got to meet my dear blogger friend Beachkat (Kathy).

I was so giddy with excitement just anticipating our meeting. The first time I called her, I got the answering machine and babbled on for probably 5 minutes. When I hung up the phone I thought to myself, "what did I even say? I feel like I blacked out! Oh no! What if I sounded like a crazy person or a redneck?! I wonder if she'll call back?! Geez, she sounded a lot more like a Southern Belle than I expected. Oh my! Should I call back and apologize for rambling? No! Then she will think I'm nuts!" After several times of playing phone tag, we finally were able to make plans to meet. As we got closer to her house, my stomach was filled with butterflies, but I was so! stinkin! excited! George and Miss Daisy met us on the golf cart at the entrance and led us to the house.

The door opened and after hugs and laughter, we just talked and talked and talked...and talked some more like old schoolgirls that had been friends forever. I agree with Kat that we had instant connection and I have felt that few times in my life with friends. Kat is everything you see and read about on her blog. She is a genuine person--genuinely friendly, genuinely loving, beautiful, she oozes hospitality from every pore and she is always smiling! We felt right at home from the first moment to the very last. As you can see in the pictures, I looked like I had been crying but it was from laughter and I was grinning from ear to ear. Let me add a DISCLAIMER: the Florida water. Oh my! How it did some dreadfully wrong things to my hair!!! My usual, "big" bouncy, wispy hairdo did not show itself in Florida. I was constantly grasping at every clip and hair barrett I could find.

Anyway, it was too short a visit and we agreed that we MUST have a blogger friend beach weekend! It would be so much fun to have the girls all get together, wouldn't it?! I'm sure there would be much laughter, lots of food, and little sleep! What more could a girl ask for?!

Glad to be back. No, I'm not. I want to live at the beach. What I should have said is, I'm glad to be back blogging with my sistas! Now...off to catch up on what ya'll have been up to!

Edited to add: I'm having trouble with the Shutterfly link. I will try to get it corrected ASAP!

Hot Flashes, Night Sweats and the "Guhvenah"

Ya'll, Tuesday night I went with 4 other girlfriends to see "Menopause, the Musical" at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival. If ya'll haven't seen it yet, get online, see where it's playing in your area and get tickets. It was hilarious!

They parody songs from the 60's and 70's like...

The Beach Boys song, "California Girls" becomes "I wish we all could be sane and normal girls"

"The Lion Sleeps Tonight" (in the jungle, the mighty jungle...) becomes "In the guest room or on the sofa, my husband sleeps tonight"

"My Guy" becomes "My Thighs"

...and on and on it goes!

They talk about hot flashes, mood swings, insomnia, food cravings, etc. I was laughing so hard, tears were streaming down my cheeks! Every once in a while I would glance over a couple of rows and see the "Guhvenah" who (begrudgingly, I'm sure) accompanied his wife and first lady, Patsy Riley, to the performance---slumping further and further down in his seat while he had the Playbill rolled into a tight tube tapping his mouth with it. Then I glanced back and saw his security guys standing in the back of the auditorium, jaws still clenched from drawing the short straw!

It doesn't get any better than that!

This show is a must see!

Ahoy, maties! Don't call the fire department... it's just me thighs!

Smell something burning? It's my thighs. No, this is not a post about how much I've been working out and using my brand new treadmill. It's about panty hose.

Ya'll, I hate panty hose. I don't know what idiot invented panty hose but I'd like to put them in a fat suit and make them put on supposed "Queen size" panty hose while breaking into such a sweat they get stuck just above the knee and refuse to go up any further! I try to limit my panty hose use, especially in the dreadfully hot summertime, but there are a few occasions that I try to look a little more presentable (such as a closing, wedding, etc.). By the time I twist, turn, roll back on the bed and get them up past my knees, it seems there is far less panty hose material left than will reach up around my waist, which usually leaves the crotch hovering somewhere around mid-thigh.

Now, the friction going on in my inner thigh area is dangerous enough without having highly flammable material rubbing back and forth causing sparks when I walk. Yes siree! I could start a fire faster than any Boy Scout around!

And to top it off, just for fun, in honor of recently seeing the 3rd Pirates of the Caribbean movie, I decided to see what my "Pirate Name" would be...

Your Pirate Name Is...

Captain Firecrotch

What's Your Pirate Name?

Uh, yeah. Pretty fitting I would say.

What happens in Vegas, should STAY in Vegas!

Oh my heavens! Every time I get a call from my son, my heart skips another beat! He is in Las Vegas for a few days with his Aunt (my sister) and his cousin (her daughter). My niece is a little dare-devil and she is not afraid of anything! She and Zack are 18 months apart and they are both an "only" child, so they are very close, and where she goes, he goes!

(Here's a picture of the two rugrats! )

They are staying at the Stratosphere hotel and after a late breakfast this morning, they went and rode this... (It's called "Big Shot" at the top of the Stratosphere)

then they rode this...(It's called "X-Scream" and dangles off the side of the Stratosphere)

and then, oh my, they rode this...(appropriately named "Insanity")

Zack sent me photos via text messages and it made my heart sink!

I am deathly afraid of heights. Ya'll, I'm serious...one time when I was about 14 years old, our family went to Rock City in Chattanooga and I couldn't even go across the bridge (not the swinging one, the big fat wide rock one) at the very beginning. So I sat there and waited on the rest of my family to come back.

Another time Zack made me ride the Ferris Wheel at the big National fair we have every year in October and I almost CRIED!

Didn't the Lord say, "LOW I am with you always"?! That's my interpretation, at least.

Blast from the past!

My mom's cousin just emailed me this photo she took of us at my Uncle and Aunt's anniversary celebration in October of 2000. This was about 5 months after Gary and I were married. Look at little Zack, he had just turned ten! I had been throwing up the entire night before with a terrible case of food poisoning, looking a little tired, huh?!

I got so much done with the "boys" away last night. I fixed myself some dinner (Ramen noodles---ya'll I LOVE Ramen noodles! I'll even eat them uncooked out of the bag!) then turned on the music and went straight to work cleaning, organizing cabinets, etc. in the master bathroom. Can ya'll believe I threw away medicine from 2003? That's pitiful!

Happy Friday!

Ya'll, I'm just here to serve...

Well, I didn't realize I have been absent from my bloggy circle for as long as I have! You're right, Dianne, I can never again get on to you for not enough posts. I have been so busy and plus my internet has been moving as slow as molasses these past couple of days I would just get frustrated and quit.

Here's a little run-down of what I've been up to...

I'm still working at the school. I thought I would be done by now, but we're switching systems and we're behind on scheduling, blah, blah, blah...I'm ready for summer! I guess it's good though, I'm trying to get in as many hours as possible before we go on vacation the 16th.

I've been working with a high-maintenance client and have a closing on the 21st. The Builder wanted to bump it up from the 28th, so yeah, I'll be on vacation and won't be in town for the walk-thru or the closing, but they're just gonna have to deal with it. However, it's put me under the gun to get everything done before we leave!

Zack has just finished up his baseball league. We were having games on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursday evenings and each game lasts almost two hours. I'm glad that's over with...it was starting to get too hot...although it's so much fun to watch him play.

My house is a wreck and I don't have enough time to really deep clean like I want to. The boys (Zack and Gary) left for Atlanta earlier today. They are going to the Braves game tonight and tomorrow night and Gary is coming back Saturday. Zack is going to Las Vegas with my sister and her daughter on Saturday and staying until next Thursday. They are going to have a blast, I'm sure! My sister's daughter is 15 and she is an only child too, so she and Zack are very close. But one downer, since mama wasn't here to help him pack...he forgot the camera! We're hoping he can borrow Nana's and get some good pictures.

I've been working on a memory box to give my mom on what would have been my parents 50th anniversary on Friday, June 15th. That has taken up so much time. I'll post more about that later with pictures...just in case she looks at this.

I've been in a "funk" these past few days (can you relate, Kat?!). The bottom line is that I am like a wild bucking bronco that can't be tamed. Even if I've been wandering in the desert without food or water for weeks, if you're trying to lead me to the food and water for my own good, and "corral" me at the same time, I'm gonna wanna run like wildfire the other way. Why am I like that? Why is my rebellious nature so strong? The Holy Spirit has been working on me in a certain area of my life and I have felt His loving nudge and conviction drawing me in the right direction. But then something will happen that makes me feel like I'm being forced and I retreat. I know it's the devil because he knows how to "push my buttons". He would love nothing better than to keep me from doing the right thing. But I've been mulling over this situation for days...chewing on it, swallowing and bringing it back up...like a cow chews the cud. I can't seem to lay it to rest. I know it's the right thing to do, but I've never been one for "rules". Ya'll pray for me, that I would allow the Lord to rule over my selfish and rebellious nature.

Finally, I'm so looking forward to vacation. We're going to Perdido Key on the 16th and staying for a week. Somehow, it slipped up on me and I haven't lost the oh...60 pounds, that I would have liked to lose! Oh well---this tired mind and body is in dire need of a break! Fat or not, my heels will be dug in the sand, toes brightly painted, while I "veg out" and listen to the waves.

Until then...miles to go before I sleep.

T-I-R-E-D!

Yard sale went well...rain held off...I'm


...so off to bed I go!

Better than doing a rain dance

I've decided that scheduling a yard sale and running an ad in the paper for two days in a row is better than doing a rain dance. We haven't had rain in what seems like 400 years and now that we've finally decided to have our yard sale, the forecast is rain.

My live-in meteorologist says the showers won't come until late afternoon...we'll see.

By the way, a lady on down the street that we don't know called hubby today (by the number in the paper) and she said, "I'm having a yard sale too and my ad was miniscule compared to yours and I think ya'll will get alot more people than me, do you mind if I come put a sign in your yard to direct people to come on down to my yard sale?"

Ummm...excuse me? Now, we do know a thing or two about Southern Hospitality and try to practice it often, but come on lady! We PAID for that big 'ole ad and you want to piggy-back on our yard sale?!

I don't think so.

We'll see how we make out tomorrow. Lots of junk and hopefully lots of junk-seekers.