RIP

Rest in Peace

Davy Jones



If you knew how much I loved you when I was a kid, you would be EMBARRASSED!  I knew every song and had every album the Monkees ever made.....


Way too young!!! 



Out of the loop...

I'm in college prep mode, prom season mode and cheerleading competition season (all for my daughter), so I have been out of the loop and out of the blog-o-sphere lately.  (and I am trying to practice for a new Zumba session)!  Life is full, that is for sure!

Update:  Hope went to visit Towson University in MD - she loved it!  We called the next day to ask a question regarding her major and they told her that the major has been discontinued!!!  WTF!   We are still trying to process that one.  She can go with another major (similar) but seriously....WTF!

I just made reservations to go to Campbell University in NC to visit that school.  We will flly in to Raleigh very early in the morning and fly out the same night - should be an interesting event!

Waiting for the colleges to decide whether they will give her financial aid is another farce....and we still never heard from one college - even though her high school has repeatedly called them to make sure they have everything.......

Prom shopping was interesting - we only had to go to three stores and she got one.  The dress that she will wear for the second prom, she will borrow!  Yeah!  

Her team came in third out of twelve teams in the first competition.  We have our next competition this Friday night, then another on Saturday afternoon.  And then another next Saturday afternoon......she keeps me on my toes....

I'll be back once we get through the next couple of weeks......

Pruning the Pear Tree

I'm not sure if I ever told the story about the Pear Tree, but about four years ago, my dad pruned the pear tree so that you couldn't even tell what it was....it was very bare.  It took three more years for it to produce well.  And last year was a great year for our pears!

However, it needed to be pruned again this year!

My son used a saw and some clippers and he and I worked on it on Sunday afternoon into the evening.  I did the grunt work with the wheelbarrow and he did all the trimming on the ladder.  Two wheelbarrows full, plus lots of larger branches that I had to individually carry up!

We had to channel that inner farmer again, because neither one of us had ever pruned anything before!

The tree looks pretty good - although hubby seems to feel, we pruned a little too much (:

We won't know until the buds/leaves and blossoms appear so I will keep you informed as the year goes on.

The linen closet

Let me start by telling you that I WISHED I had taken a before and after picture!  If you had seen my linen closet, you would have been mortified (unless you know me well enough to know that I have no time for cleaning!). 

So last night after Zumba at 9:00 pm, I had a hankering to just clean the linen closet - truly, it was a disaster.  I had so much stuff in there, that I didn't know what I had in there. 


I have now wittled it down to five sets up twin bed sheets and two sets of queen sheets.  There are a few throws and a few blankets on the top shelf that we hardly ever use.  I found about 20 facecloths and about 10 hand towels and only about six regular towels.  I also keep gift bags and pictures and the vacuum in there.....

I got rid of about 5 sheets that were old, holey and just bad.  About five pillow cases that were match-less to any sheets that I had.  I had full sheets in there and I don't even have a full bed in the house???  I had old mattress pad covers and old sheets from my first marriage (pretty pathetic).  Needless to say, I got rid of two bags of linens (to go towards a fundraiser next month).  The closet is now beautiful and clean.

I had gotten an idea from Money Saving Mom, one of the blogs that I read that you should organize your linens, by keeping them all together.  Growing up at my mom's house, the sheets were in one pile (all different sizes) and the pillow cases were in a drawer below.  You always had to search to find what you need (but my mom's linen closet is a story for another day!) HOWEVER, if you fold up the flat sheet and the fitted sheet and slip it into the pillow case (to make it look like a pillow), you will always have your sheets organized and ready and no one has to go through tons of different sheets to find what they need!  (Maybe, you all already do this, but honestly, I was floored by this simplistic approach!). 

This is the pillow case with the sheets in it and folded in half.  The next time my son needs to change his sheets he just takes a twin bed set.  So easy!

However, I do realize that a trip to either Bed, Bath and Beyond or Walmart is in order.  Because I need some good towels.!

Senior Night

It was my daughter's Senior Night at SHA last night.  This was the last high school that she will cheer at......Bittersweet to say the least!

Love you Hope!  I hope you cheer in college, but if it isn't meant to be, then this moment will be a great memory for me!

 Elizabeth and Cristina above!

Elizabeth with the trips and my mom below!

 Elizabeth with Tom and I!

This is her coach who will be leaving the squad after this year.

Happy Valentine's Day!

I wish all my reader's the Happiest of Valentine's Days.

I really don't celebrate the day but for those that do, enjoy the love!!!

Do I have to get up????

Does anyone else feel like pulling the covers up over their head and declaring that Monday isn't coming this week???

It's a very slow morning for me.....I feel like a petulant child.

But I will get up!

:)

Key West - Part Three

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BARBARA!!

The reason for our trip to Key West was a destination birthday for our friend Barbara.  She turned 50 and wanted (needed) to get away.  These pictures were taken at the hotel pool, the day of her birthday for our afternoon siesta.

Two of her friends had her room decorated and a cake delivered!

Freebies

John Freida Precision Foam Colour - Free Box
BeneFiber Powder to add to drink
AmLactin Body Lotion (2 Samples) - again!
2012 Calendar for my pocketbook
Kleenex Tissues
Neo Strata Skin Support with SPF
Meox Mix Pate Toppers

Not a bad haul this month!

New chicks

I talked with Lauren at the Livingston Ripley Waterfowl Conservancy this week.  Besides doing conservation and research on Waterfowl, they also work with chickens. 

My sister, who is the recreation director at a local nursing/rehab home, is having fertilized eggs delivered (from the Conservancy) to the residents at the nursing home.  The residents will watch the eggs under heat lamps and then watch them hatch.  Once the eggs hatch and the baby chicks are here, I am getting some of the chicks!  They should hatch around March 27th or so, so I should have my new babies by Easter! 


To anyone who would like to try raising hens this spring, let me know if you would like some chicks.  Lauren has told me that she thinks I will get barred rock, sumatra, brown and white leghorn, Rhode Island Red and americauna chicks.  I told her that I don't want the sumatra or brown leghorns (they aren't the best layers), but I'll take the others.  White Leghorns lay white eggs - I've never raised hens that have white eggs!  


Very exciting and something to plan for!

PS - HAPPY BIRTHDAY, to my wonderful hubby!  (and NO, Thomas, you are not 39 again today!)

Iguanas

At out hotel, we had a family of Iguanas.  These can be mighty big animals.  The daddy of them all was about 3-1/2 feet from tip of tail to tip of head.  The mom was about 2 feet or so, and the three babies were 1 foot.

These are not the kind of animals I am used to being around.  They were fun to watch, but a little scary too!

The babies lived in a bush right near the pool.  The male watched his domain from a high palm tree vantage point.

 The above two picture are the babies.

 This is the big daddy!

 This green one is the mommy!

 This is the daddy trying to sneak up on the mommy....

 This is the daddy doing the mommy....right on the bushes near the pool......

And here they are going their separate ways.......

Smathers Beach - Key West

Smathers Beach is located right across the street from our hotel on Key West.  It is on the quiet side of the island (as compared to Duval Street - where all the action is!).

It is a man made beach and I'm really not a fan of the water here.  There was a lot of seaweed this year.  However, the temperature was perfect (about 78 degrees) for laying in the sun and relaxing.  They import (literally) the sand from somewhere else to form this beach which is about a mile long.  We rented chairs and walked.

 Hubby on the Jetty.

 Hubby and Paul relaxing.

 The view of our hotel from the beach. 

Next up some misc. pictures, dinners and Duval!

Key West - Part One

Our latest trip was to Key West.  We decided to knock something off my bucket list and to take the Overseas Highway from the mainland to Key West.

It was a beautiful trip, but I have to say that I was surprised at what Route 1A looks like - it looks just like the Boston Post Road!  If you need a Home Depot - there is is!  A Lowe's, McDonalds, CVS, whatever you want - there it is!  The highway connects all the islands and sometimes you can't even tell you are leaving one island and going onto another.  There are trees and you can't see the water - you just see the sign telling you what island you are now on.......

The seven mile bridge is just spectacular though.  It is between Marathon Key and Little Duck Key and the views are spectacular.  The water colors range from deep green to beautiful blue!

Unfortunately, the pictures don't do the bridge any justice.

Next up is Smathers Beach......