Thursday, April 30, 2009

New pet ownership...



Turtle ramp-$11.99
Floating water plants-$8.99
Basking lamp and bulb-$24.99
Recognizing bliss on a turtle's face-priceless!

Kayla moved Squeeks the Turtle over to the house a few weeks ago and I have been fretting that the turtle just looked sad and lonely in his bare tank. I asked K if we needed to get Squeeks a friend and after doing some research on the care of the semi-aquatic, Red Eared Slider I discovered that a lot goes into the care of a pet turtle! I couldn't wait anymore 'cause that sucker just looked so sad. A trip to Big Lots for a big enough table then off to PetSmart for the rest! I had a blast adding big rocks, this cool floating basking ramp, plants and more. Once I had the turtle back in his/her tank (I had to use tongs 'cause for some reason touching Squeeks creeps me out!) it was only a few moments before he/she was up that ramp and basking under the new lamp. Squeeks extended his/her neck a few times, blinked at the light, looked at me and just closed his/her eyes and was in turtle heaven! Three cats, two dogs and now a turtle...welcome to crazy town!!

Eddie Izzard - Being Bilingual

Stacey and I were talking about this just the other day.
Stay groovy, y'all!

Monday, April 27, 2009

Kiwi is home!



Over Spring Break Charles had to bring Kiwi back to Florida to stay here until we move-office allergies or something like that. Anyway, besides being a pain in the rump, she is really cute! At feeding time, she jumps as high as she can trying to grab a bit of food from the counter. She hasn't quite made it as high as the counter, but as you can tell from this photo, she is not far from it!

Friday, April 24, 2009

A shower for Kayla

Last weekend the Doodle Divas threw a "shower" for Kayla and it was fantastic! Kayla knew all about it and we had both been looking forward to the day that all our family and friends would be on hand to welcome her into our circle and show her just how much love is waiting for her! I cannot say 'thank-you' enough to all of you who participated. The Doodle Divas went all out with food and treats-lots of yummies and all in pinks and pastels. Kim Brett organized it and did a fantastic job right down to the ice-breaker game that we really needed to help poor Kayla shake off some shyness. My family came from near and far and it was heartwarming to see that Kayla is making strong bonds with them especially her new cousins, Lydia and Becky. Thanks girls for opening your hearts! Tons of friends, new and old, were on hand to wish us well and even some fantastic Doodle customers dropped by. Everyone worked on a 6x6 page to fill up an album of advice for Kayla and that was just amazing! The creativity is beautiful and the advice is funny, quirky and sentimental. The book is full, but I think that people are still bringing pages to the Doodle to add in! Kayla received so many cute and useful items-pink was the color du jour! She got bedding, purses, totes, gift cards, make up, scrapbooking supplies and TONS of High School Musical stuff to decorate with! If all that wasn't enough, on Tuesday night the members of the QuicKutz Klub surprised me with a second shower complete with "church lady punch" and the most beautiful cupcake-cake! Tonight Kayla comes home for the weekend and I get to let her open those gifts too!
This journey that our family is on is fantastic, scary, wondrous...and the showering of love and support that we got on those two special days is amazing and I love you all for participating in our journey!


































Sunday, April 19, 2009

The incredibly true adventures of the OGBFF

You may have heard the saying that friends come into your life for either a reason, a season or a lifetime. For me this saying is a true one and my "OGBFF", Michele Suarez, is proof of that! She is undoubtedly here for a lifetime. I do not have a current photo of Michele because she is allergic to having her photo taken. I do, however, have many of us as teenagers but because of time restraints and the threat of death, I will keep those in the shoe boxes they are in!
Michele and I are total opposites. I am morning she is night. I'm more of a homebody she prefers a dance club. I will stop and chat with almost anyone while she gives off the "keep on moving" vibe. My closet contains clothes in every color of the rainbow, Michele's is predominately black. What we do have in common is our strong work ethic, deep love and connection to our parents and family, a healthy sense of self and devotion to friends. It doesn't matter if a week, a month or a year has passed since we last talked I know that if I called her up in the middle of the night and said, "I need you here" she would be here and I'd be on the next plane to Chicago if she said the same.
I met Michele when I transfered from Everglades Middle into Fort Lauderdale Christian in the 7th grade. I was a walking classic nerd. I wore floral print dresses and white knee socks while the other girls wore corduroys and Candies. Our class was a tiny class in a small school-we graduated 16 students in the class of '83! So our class was it's own clique filled with jocks, brains, alternatives, pretty girls, popular boys and yes, nerds! It was weird by today's norm, but we were all nice to each other. It was common to see the jocks and the brains together after school or the pretty girls with the stoners eating lunch together. This thinking is what put a nerd and an alternative girl together to form that lifelong friendship.
Growing up Michele and I were able to spend lots of time together in and out of school. Our parents were great about letting us hang out and hey, it WAS the 70's, so we were allowed to have slumber parities, hang out without worrying about homework overload or teenager "to do" lists. We would talk about cute boys-Michele would roll her eyes when I talked about Leif Garrett and I had no idea who Syd Vicious was. We listened to music-Michele would gag when I put on my Bay City Rollers record and I wished she would turn down the volume on the Ramones. (We did watch the Moon Man landing on the first live broadcast of MTV together though) We went shopping, to the movies, our parents took us to fun destinations together. After high school we still hung out when we could but Michele took her adventures abroad and spent lots of time seeing the world. I could only keep up when she called or wrote. Michele was there when I got my divorce and was in the wedding party when Charles and I got married. We talk all the time and not much has changed-she gagged the other night when I said I liked Adam Lambert from Idol!
I got off the phone with Michele the other night and after she reminded me that she is the original BFF, I decided to share a few stories about our adventures together. Over the years there have been many adventures and many of them are in my everyday storytelling repertoire and if you've hung out with me you may have heard one or two. In thinking of what I wanted the first "incredibly true adventure" to be I sat and wracked my brain. Some were not appropriate to share in a public forum...the garage door, the pinup, a knife at a concert, the late night school gym visit...the list goes on and on! I did come up with a great one to share...(PS-Michele if you are reading this and you see any mistakes or literary liberty feel free to correct me!! lol)

One afternoon Michele's mom asked if we would walk up to the grocery store and pick her up a few things she needed. This is South Florida in the summer. Needless to say it was hot outside and neither of us really wanted to go. But back in the day, neither of us would have given it a second thought about telling her mom this! We just took the list and the cash and off we went. We walked the neighborhood streets of Palm Aire Village up to the main road and then to the store. We got everything on the list which included a gallon of milk. After a few minutes that milk got heavy and Michele asked if I would carry it. I did and after a few more minutes that milk got heavy for me and I said that I didn't want to carry it either. We started fighting about carrying the milk. My major point being that it was milk for her mom, not mine and thus her responsibility to carry it. She said it was milk for dinner and since I was eating dinner at their house I needed to pitch in. No way! Neither of us wanted to carry that blasted milk plus all the other grocery bags too! The only reasonable thing we could see was to leave it. I cannot remember which one of us had the milk last but it went something like, "Well if you wont carry it, I'm just going to leave it here." "Fine. Leave it. I don't care." Away from that gallon of milk sitting in the middle of the sidewalk we walked. We walked away in stubborn silence. Walked back through the neighborhood streets back to their house. The house where Mrs. Suarez was waiting for that milk. The first thing she noticed was that we had forgotten the milk. I just stood there and looked at Michele waiting for her to fess up and tell her about the milk. She looked at me waiting for me to say something. Finally, Mrs. Suarez said (loudly) that she needed milk and we had to go back out. Silently we headed out the door, back to that milk, sitting on the sidewalk. The milk was sitting right were we left it. Without any thought as to the sun vs. milk safety issue we retrieved the milk and back home we headed. Only this time neither of us had to carry it 'cause on the way out of the house Michele had grabbed her little cousin, Scott, and asked if he wanted to take a walk with us!

Friday, April 17, 2009

UTEE class last night




A few years ago the amazing Suze Weinberg came to The Doodle to teach her famous UTEE (Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel) technique and I was hooked. I bought all the supplies and have made a couple of personal projects since then. Well, last year when we were all headed to the MS Crop 4 Hope in Sebring my Sisterdear asked if I would teach that class since she had been wanting to take it. I found the frame I made in Suze's class and taught it. That was November 2008. Since I had some product leftover, I put the class on the calendar at WSD. I have taught this class every month since then and have had 6-14 students at EACH class! That makes my teacher-heart sing! If you have not heard about UTEE, scrapbooker or not, you really need to check it out. It is a fun project that is very popular and easy to do. Here is a sample from one of my newbies last night! She added nothing to the powder (charms, beads, stickers...) this is just the paper she picked. So cool! One of my very favorites so far.
If you have a few extra minutes and you want to be amazed and inspired, click the link above and visit Suze's blog. You will not be disappointed!
Happy Crafting, my friends!

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Adam Lambert - Dancing Through Life

For my good friend, Ginni! Adam AND Wicked? Oohhh.....!

Friday, April 10, 2009

Shots of Savannah

Someplace in Savannah...



Karen, Kim and the girls waiting for our drag show to begin. It was wonderful fun!



Kim and me outside the Tarrot Card reader! She was fantastic!



Cropping buddies, Dianne and Miss Barbara.



Drinking buddies, Dianne and Miss Barbara.



Shopping buddies, Dianne and Miss Barbara. Cropping, shopping & drinking...I love the buddy system!



Shirley and Stacey on some steep stairs on Riverfront.



Kristen was the one sleeping at the station this year!



Stacey totally ready for our Creepy Crawl.



Kim shopping at the Paris store.



The group gathering around the computer checking out photos from the drag show! It was totally fun and I wish my photos had turned out better!



Jackie and me on the Riverfront. Hey! Look! I'm taller than someone!



Candies from the Candy Kitchen...ummmm...I could go for a praline right about now.



Chocolate Orange Martini from the uber-cool Lulu's.



Kim and the best Bloody Mary ever...sorry Dee, but it's true!



Jill (owner of Whim So Doodle) and Jan.



Miss Barbara and Jo on the train.




Irish Pirate at the Pirate House.




Our luggage!! 87 pieces of CHECKED luggage for 29 womenn!

I just need one more day

I was just talking to Shirley at The Doodle and she said, "How are you doing?" to which I replied, "I just need one more day." My list of things to do is so long right now that my eye is starting to twitch. And of course they are all things that need to be done quickly. When I think of one thing, I remember another that really isn't on my list, but needs to be done too.
I have wanted to tell you all about our Doodle Caboose Train Trip to Savannah, our fun day at the Magic Kingdom with Kayla, about Spring Break and Charles' visit. I have lots of stories to tell about Kayla, Kiwi, the Divas and much more. I just need one more day to fit it all in!
So, please stay tuned and say a little prayer that I don't have a mini melt down in a few minutes!

Saturday, April 4, 2009

Savannah is wonderful!

We are having such a fantastic time in Savannah that none of us want to leave! Whim So Doodle organizes a train trip and this year we are in such a beautiful city. It is a real walking city with lots of pretty places to visit, lots of sites to learn about, ghost tours, fun places to eat and interesting things to do.
We've had a private trolley to take us places and with 29 of us, that is so fun! In fact, the trolley that picked us up from the train station had to make 2 trips, 'cause there wasn't enough room to fit in the 87 pieces of checked luggage!! Holy cow!
So far we have:
-Taken the trolley tour around the city
-Lunch at The Pirate House (built in the 1700's, the inspiration for Treasure Island and totally haunted!!)
-Eaten at Vic's on the River
-Eaten at One Eyed Lizzy's
-Walked up the Riverfront and shopped at a bunch of stores
-Worked on our trip album
-Taken a Paula Deene tour
-Taken a Midnight in the Garden tour
-Went to a fantastic drag show

Today we have on the agenda:
-A palm reading
-A Haunted pub crawl
-Eating at The Pink House (another haunted restaurant)
=A visit to a shop called Paris that everyone is raving about

Oh! And did I mention that we are trying to squeeze in some scrapbooking too? It is turning out so good that lots of our ladies are asking what city we are going to next year!

As much fun as we are having in Savannah, I still cannot wait to get home to spend Spring Break with Charles and Kayla!

Watch for photos soon!