Yucky Sunday

I am in bed feeling like I got ran over. My throat was bothering me yesterday, but I attributed that to sleeping with the window open the night. By midnight, as I helped Rick continue painting, I felt awful. I climbed into bed, paint still dried upon my fingers, and fell fast asleep. This morning my throat is one fire, my ear hurts, my head aches, my body aches, etc. I am in bed until further notice. :[

A Soggy Saturday

It is after 11am on Saturday morning. Rick and I had a special treat yesterday in that Isabella and Fiona decided that Isabella would spent the night AT FIONA' HOUSE last night. Woohoo! However, when I rode my bike over there to drop off Isabella's bag... she clung to my leg and cried that she would miss me. After about 20 minutes of cling-factor, she finally decided she wanted to stay at Fiona's.

All the while, Rick was working on HIS project in the garage. Our garage went from this...



To Mid-Project...

To peg board organization and all!

I LOVE IT! And this last photo shows Rick hard at work on his very first project at his work bench: putting a new handle on the shaft-less rake.

I did make some progress in the home office... but at some point I decided to simply vegitate with Rick. We watched some History channel and ate a dinner of Grouper on the grill with fresh dill from the garden, sauteed asparagus from Winn Dixie (we had asparagus growing at our old home at one point, but haven't started any here yet... it takes a couple of years to get it to eating size), a brown rice with a piece of Texas Toast. Heavenly.

We have been watching Heroes via Netflix. We started last week on the very first episode and have been getting in couple episodes each night. I must confess, I had a major sugar craving last night. It started with a piece of Banana flavored Laffy Taffy... then some jelly beans and Runts... however, I did not have the Ice Cream Drumstick as Rick did.

We cracked the window last night and opened the blinds to enjoy the sights and sounds of an amazing storm. We stood in the back doorway and watched the lightning some, too. It was a powerful storm. At some point in the middle of the night, I had to have Rick close the window as it started to hail and blow strongly. One of our bean poles fell last night... and one of the ribs in the green house had pulled loosed... and it was flooded this morning,..

but the sun is now out shinging... and we are PAINTING THE KITCHEN.

Til tonight...

Friday!

PICTURE: Our Horse Princess last Saturday, March 21st, at a barrel racing competition we passed by on our way home from Horseback Lessons. This mommy LOVES BARREL RACING (kudos to Camp Mac), and so does her little cowgirl!

I enjoyed an 8am wake-up call to Isabella and Fiona crawling over top of me explaining that they had fixed themselves cereal for breakfast. You see, I had told them the night before that Fiona's mom was planning to take them to see Nim's Garden at 10am. (The put on FREE showings during Spring Break and the Summer at the local Ridge theater). They had already dressed, brushed their hair AND teeth, and were ready to GO!

This began the first moment TRULY TO MYSELF during this Break. Rick at work; Bella at play; and me at WHATEVER I WANT TO.

I began by lighting some candles, heating up a cup of tea, and commencing clean-up from two wild young-uns in my living room the night before. I made a banana, raspberry, pineapple smoothie to follow my tea, and enjoyed a little bit of The View in the background of my morning. I mopped, put away a load of clothes, started a finale load in the dishwasher (for there are NO DISHES currently to be found in my sink or on the counter), and scrubbed the stovetop.

Now that the garage and master bedroom have been marked off "The List"... I now have the Home Office Paperwork/Catch-all Pile to work upon this afternoon. Rick got off early this afternoon and is already at Home Depot to work on his very own project: a work bench/tall table on our other garage wall with a peg board above. Woohoo! He asked for my help... but he can't have me until tomorrow. I have to give him A LOT OF CREDIT... for he has been working extremely hard in our yard the last few weekends: planting irises, installing a sprinkler system, working on our stone path, planting veggies, mowing the grass (which I am allergic to), and much more... most of which involved him working with his shirt-off. Nothing like a handsome man, glistening with 'hard work'... and those Greek-God-Blonde-Curls... uumm.

Sprinkler System 101, March 21st & 22nd, 2009

After I conquer the home office... I will be available for any/all assistance to Rick on whatever he and Bella want to do. But first... cleaning the master bath... followed by a long soak and my latest SELF magazine.

PS - We saw our first hummingbird of the season this morning! We quickly cleaned and filled our front and back patio feeders.

Day Two of Break Fun

After our adventure at the Library, I threw on my "play clothes", turned on "All My Children", lit a number of fragrant candles, and started tackling some projects. The Master Bedroom had been on my list-o-things-to-do for Thursday. Confession: I had a couple days worth of clean laundry piled up and begging to be put away.

At some point Isabella called Fiona to come over to play. Fiona couldn't at the time, but later Fiona called back and asked if she could come over to play... which later turned into her asking if she could spend the night. A Slumper Party over Spring Break! (Fiona is the six-year-old 1st grader who lives on the other side of our horseshoe-shaped street. She has two older brothers and thus has learned to/had to share... whereas Isabella has a somewhat difficult time sharing being an only child.) They have fun together (well, most of the time).


Upon Fiona's arrival we made hot tea with honey, cinnamon toast, set out grapes and peeled an orange. The girls then made, yet again, Jello. Fiona got to stir for one minute with the addition of the hot water, and Isabella got to stir for one minute with the cold water. Flavor of the Day: Sugarfree Strawberry Banana with bits of minced strawberry from our garden, banana slices, and grapes again. Divine! (Plus I threw in a couple marshmallows on top when I enjoyed this after dinner). Speaking of dinner, we had PIZZA NIGHT... rather Red Baron good ole store-bought pizza night.


Fiona and Isabella painted for some time, played Guess Who, walked through the backyard in the rain with umbrellas, rode bikes, watched the movie "Happily Never After", watched Disney channel, played Barbies, colored, read the library books, drew upon the chalk/dry erase boards, and drank hot cocoa with marshmallows before crashing on the couches. What a day!


This afternoon I have gotten back to some much needed sewing and movie-watching. I first restacked the pile-o-jeans that I plan to use in my first ever JEAN QUILT, although I have yet to cut any of them. I then repaired seams on four decorative pillows; mended one shirt of Isabella's, three pair of my britches in which I had a "burst butt" seam, and a sweater and jacket of mine; repaired two of Chandler's Froggie toys (they now make toys in which you can replace the squeaker toy... these frogs have been the longest lasting toy Chandler has ever had in his ten years). But what I am most proud of... is creating some "skirts" for the underside of the fish tank and underneath our TV in our bedroom. Now I can hide some of my piles; this will greatly please my honey. During the course of this sew-fest... I managed to watch "Must Love Dogs" with Diane Lang & John Cusack, "Wedding Date" with Debra Messing and some stud, and "Ulee's Gold" (which I borrowed from my mom on our last PC adventure). I couldn't have done as much of this if it weren't for Fiona enamoring Isabella for the evening. Thank Heaven for Little Girls!


I am now sitting in my bedroom, listening to classical music via Direct TV and the fish tank bubbling behind me, one last candle lit in my room, and admiring all my day's work. I am thinking of all of you, too. Grateful to have such wonderful familly and friends! Grateful for this life.


Good night.


Rick's photography of some flowers in our yard. Can you guess what these blooms are?

Picture Below: Rick (and me) working on our boat engine at "the shop" recently. Look at that curly hair! And special thanks to our photographer, Miss Isabella Kellen Hardy.




I climbed onto the couch this morning for a couple more Zzzz's. I woke up with a High School Musical tattoo (or "Hi-too" as Bella says) on my forearm.





I was up until 1:30am working in the garage. I am getting close to completion; I need to get my "attic" stack into the attic... and am waiting for Rick to get home this evening to move my Hope Chest into my bedroom.





We started this morning off with WAFFLES! Bella and I picked up a waffle iron at a yard sale last Saturday and have put it to use. They were yummy!





It rained a good bit of the morning. Although it is not raining now, it is still overcast... and more rain in on the way.





We just got back from the library where Isabella picked out books on... you guessed it.... horses. I think of the 30 items we came home with, approximately 20 of the books/videos have to do with horses.





I am hoping to do some reading, sewing, and resting today.

Evening Update

We just finished dinner. Rick made ham, pasta shells with cheese sauce, green beans, and some wonderful Pillsbury bread. Isabella them dispensed the Jello to everyone. She is now sitting on the couch with Rick, eating candy, and watching Rick play "Metroid" on the Wii.

I am making progress on the garage. I am finding all kinds of treasures! I will have before and after pictures in the morning.

Isabella spent a good part of the afternoon painting. She put on her oversized smock (special thanks to Robyn who brought it back from Spain for Rick)... picked out her paint... and was content for a whole hour or more (see Rachel and Heather... there will come a time when they will be able to occupy themselves for some time... but you still have the clean-up afterwards). I had brought some some old 36" x 24" drawings from work; they are GREAT for painting upon. And what's even cooler is that once you are done for the day, you simply rip off the top sheet and still have a bunch more below. Isabella was concentrating on using her fingers/thumb to make faces and such.

GREAT NEWS TODAY: My best buddy, Heather, outbid some competitors for a NEW HOME in South Florida! It is a perfect home for them! I am so happy for her and her family.

SAD NEWS:
-Heaven was in need of some cool puppies. Yesterday Rick's little brother, Sam, lost his four-legged-friend, Duke. Duke was hit by a car. We'll see you at the Rainbow Bridge, Duke!!
-Rick's maternal grandmother, Esther, was by her brother's side today when he passed away.

On tomorrow's agenda = a trip to the Pace Library, sowing some seeds in our soil, work in the home office and/or master bedroon, a bike ride, setting up the tent in preparation for our "camping adventure" in the back yard, and more.

Til tomorrow... more pictures from the Lumberjack Festival...

LOVE YOU BUNCHES!

Go down

You need to go skip this next one and read the one below it first... for it is a continuation. XOXO

More on Today

(PICTURE ABOVE: Isabella at the Lumberjack Festival last month. Rick, me, Bella, and Grand --aka my mom, aka Virginia Dixon--all went over to the PJC Milton Campus and watched folks saw logs, throw axes, carve wood, make baskets, sell their wares, give away trees, and much more. Our most exciting part of the day was talking to a local beekeeper... something Rick and I have wanted to add to our garden for the pollination benefits first and foremost. I also enjoyed the bird feather game we all played together put on by FL Fish & Wildlife; I think we correctly guessed 14 bird feathers out of 20; the three owl types and the snipe... yes there is such a thing... were the few that stumped us. It was a great day.)

So I just enjoyed a bowl of homeade chicken soup. Over the weekend I threw the following in a pot and whipped up some cheese toast for a yummy dinner: carrots from the neighbor's garden, onion, garlic, chicken broth, chicken pulled from the bones from the leftover bbq meal that Rick had grilled up the night before for Isabella and Fiona, and noodles. Rick added some red meat from some leftover ribs as well.


Back to this morning's Spring Break fun:

Isabella had turned on the animated movie "The Reef" (with the voice of actors Freddie Prinze Jr., Evan Rachel Wood, Fran Drescher, Andy Dick & Rob Schneider). We cut up an apple... and come to find out that Isabella had popped a bag of popcorn prior to my 8am waking. We knocked the bag of popcorn off the counter at some point. Bella helped sweep and then held the dustpan; while holding the dustpan, she says, "This is a fun day of our life." One of those things a kid says that immediately puts a quiet smile upon your face. We then made JELLO! Raspberry (sugar free)... and we cut up some green grapes and added those too... well, Bella added them. That will be my after-dinner-sugarfree-desert tonight!



Then the "Blue Nana" smoothie adventure occurred. I put the following ingredients on the counter for Bella: a tupperware container of ice, the bag of frozen blueberries, some "smoothie bananas" that we got on sale last night at Winn Dixie for $0.63 for 6 perfect nanners, and blueberry Winn Dixie yogurt. Isbella added the ice first, the bananas, and yogurt using a spatula; I threw in the frozen berries and added some milk. Bella loves pushing the blender buttons (like most five-and-a-half year olds would). She started at one and worked up to seven. I decided we needed more ice. As I put the lid back on, Bella announced, "Ready?" and then mashed number seven (just like her daddy would). As we were getting ready to taste our creation, the yogurt-covered-spatula hit the floor. "What a mess we are making," Bella chimed.





Aside - I have turned on a CD... "Ivory Thunder"... Dollar Tree special... with Piano and Thunderstorms. It rained this morning, but I missed it. So now I get my peaceful rain. :) Isabella is now playing a horse-riding game on the computer.





My project for today (after blogging): GARAGE ORGANIZATION. I am spending some of my Break on some Spring Cleaning.





The wind is blowing outside!... and piano and thuderstorm in the background... aaahhh.....





Isabella's 1st RTS Horse Show is Saturday, April 18th starting at 8:30am (I think). You can visit http://rustictrailstable.com/ and see where Isabella rides and more. You are all welcome tp come and watch! Isabella is going to be decked out in her Western Gear for this show; the RTS Owner, Julie, thinks that she will be so cute in her jeans, belt buckle, cowgirl boots, a little brown jacket, and her hair in two braids (special thanks to Debi Gilbert, aka Noni, aka Rick's mom). We will be sure to send pictures of the event.



Well... I am off to start on the garage. I will not sleep until it's done. Plus I half to find the tent: Isabella and I plan to camp in the backyard one night this week. We even found a inflatable mattress at a yard sale last weekend (I asked the lady if the full-sized air mattress would make it through the night... she said that yes it was leaky, but that it should make it through the night and then some... I asked her how much she wanted for her slightly-leaky-full-sized air mattress... $1.00... Woohoo).

I plan to keep this updated over our Spring Break. And the garden pics are coming... I PROMISE!

Love to you all!!!!!

Catching Up & Break FUN

Hello all and welcome back. I have to get better at this. Mostly, other than sharing about Bella and our little family, is that I want to share our growing gardens with you. More on that this evening. So....

Yesterday Isabella had her 1st cavity filling! Mommy & Daddy were both present and she did very well (they don't even numb kids these days... he explained that as long as he didn't get deep enough down to the nerve). Rick and Dr. Daniel (who has been my dentist since I was Isabella's size) talked politics and Dr. Ed and I talked Gator Sports. From the time we left out of the dentist, I was on cloud nine, for I have taken the rest of the week off to spend with Isabella on her very 1st ever SPRING BREAK. Thus, I am enjoying a Spring Break as well. A much needed one I might add.

We started off last night with Movie Night! We watched Sleeping Beauty! (Aside - Isabella is leaning against the dining room table as I am writing... reading along as I type... she says "I Love You"). I promised Isabella that I would sleep in her room last night. Thus, after I woke up to my cell phone alarm that I had not shut down for the week (to get me up at 445am)... I finally crawled into her bed and we nuggled until about 8am when I crawled out of her bed. I had rigged the alarm clock and doors so that Rick could get off to work without us hearing him. Aaahhh... to sleep in... it felt good.

As I started my coffee (black I might add, for my little sister has me following a low/no sugar regiment)... I found Isabella in the computer room. She has found a site that allows her to dress up a doll and a horse and then print out a picture of the two on a rustic background. She was at it again, for last night she brought me a stack of about twenty different styles she had created and printed. Needless to say, my printer is reading "LOW INK"... thus she only was able to print three this morning before I had to ask her to take a break from printing. We jumped in the shower together to start our day off clean. I have spent most of this morning cleaning up the kitchen and living room so that I can enjoy a partially clean home while I am going to be home the next few days (Aside - Rick just pulled up from work for lunch--I have the blinds open and have been watching the wind blow on this overcast morning--I am going to visit with him for a moment).