Amazing Mother

See ya later. We're loading up the car and heading
to Tulsa to celebrate my Mom's 80th Birthday!
God bless her, she mowed her front and back yard
yesterday and is trimming trees today.
I dare you to try to keep up with her.
She is one AMAZINGLY young 80 year old!

I've been birthday shopping for her 3 days.
Not only is she amazingly strong and vigorous,
she's amazingly particular.

Definitely can't buy her-

Candles.
"You think her house smells?"

Perfume/Lotion/Shower Gel.
"You think SHE smells?"

Chotzsky for the house.
"They are dust grabbers."

Plants/Flowers
She has too many to take care of already.

Books.
I've overdone this one.

Gift Cards.
She doesn't have time to shop & can't find what she likes anyway.

CAN BUY - CLOTHES, providing

they are PINK

BLUE

or Lavender.
Must be pastel shades.

Must be long sleeved (she think her arms are ugly.
Must be high necked (she thinks her neck is ugly.

"Still looking. . ."

I have bought the partyware and will buy
the ice cream when I get to town.
My sister has ordered the cake.

It's gonna be a FANTASTIC time of celebration,
even if I don't figure out the perfect gift.

I'll have photos to post on Monday!!

Annual Crawfish Boil

Yesterday was the long anticipated Crawfish Boil
thrown by our church each year on the Sunday
of Memorial Day Weekend.
*Check out the link to meet Mr. Boudreaux.
If you've never been to a Crawfish Boil
then read on and I'll show you what you've been missing.

First the tents are set up,
cause' come rain or shine
people have come to eat!

Almost a ton of these stinky, disgusting
mud bugs/crawfish are catered to the site.
The crawfish are boiled up with corn on the cob
and tiny new potatoes. When it comes to
crawfish it's a love or hate thang.
Can you guess how I feel about this?

If crawfish just doesn't do it for you then you can choose from Burgers

Or, Hotdogs?

**Guess which I ate?**

There were LOTS of bouncies set up all across the church lawn, most had a water feature with them. The kids (big & little) wear swimsuits and take to these like "crawfish to water". They usually all go home sunburnt (despite the sunblock)and exhausted from all the fun.

AND

Great down-home fun on the Bayou!

BTW,
I ate a hotdog, cause I'm a germaphoeb
and I figure hotdogs do well in the
Louisiana sunshine.

Some of my friends even spread the vicious rumor that I was seen eating Cotton Candy.
Imagine that!
Me, the sophisticated person I am, eating that gooey, sticky, yummy, HIGH calorie Cotton Candy with the kids.
HUMPH!
(it was really good!)

We All Scream for Ice Cream!

Do you remember the rush that came when you heard the music from the Ice Cream Truck?
When I was new to the "Ice Cream Truck" experience I would always order a Red Popsicle...Then my taste grew a bit more sophisticated and I ALWAYS ordered the "Orange Push-up" (and I don't mean bra), basically it was orange sherbert on a stick. And. I. Loved. It.
Funny how ice cream from the Ice Cream Man always tasted better than what Mom kept in the fridge.

And is there anyone who has not had the "job" of sitting on the ice cream freezer as the adults turned the handle to churn the Homemade ice cream? The ice cream freezer was engulfed with ice, then sprinkled with rock salt, a quilt placed on top of it all and a child always recruited to sit a top it all.

My family always made Homemade Vanilla ice cream.
It was good.
Then, when I married my husband I was introduced into the world of Homemade "flavored" ice creams. Their family favorite was Homemade Banana Ice cream which was always served with Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Frosting and topped with Hershey Chocolate Syrup. . .
Later we had a personal friend who was the Homemade ice cream expert and he proved it by winning first place in the Tulsa Homemade Ice Cream Contest one summer. It was his concoction of "Milky Way Ice Cream" which secured his claim to fame. My mouth still waters just to think about it.

Please don't be too jealous, but I must tell you that once we went to the Mecca of ice cream goodness, when we managed to take a tour through the infamous "Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream Factory" in Vermont. Almost as much fun as Disneyland!

Now, I try not to eat ice cream very often, cause I like to be able to snap my jeans. *sigh
But, when I do partake it's usually "Pralines & Cream" at the local Baskin Robbins.


Got any ice cream memories?
What's your flavor of choice?

Attention KMart Shoppers

I'm sure this gal "unknowingly" gave many people a smile today.
Ya think?

Kelly's Korner/"Look-see"

I love the Friday "Go-See" sponsored by Kelly's Korner!
This week we are touring Dining Rooms.

This is the room where we eat our Cheerios, dip our chips. and swig our Sweet Tay
every day of the week.

This would be the Formal Dining Room, IF we ever did anything formal,
which we don't! I love all things casual, so we call this the "Over Flow" Dining Room and use it when we have friends and family visiting.

Thanks for stopping by.
"Ya'll come back now, Ya hear?"

I Love this!

First Garden Bouquets of the Season






What's blooming in your yard now?

***AND, I have a techy question***
When my new post is listed in the Dashboard
no photo/graphic shows. What setting do I
need to change to allow it to show????

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Bucket Garden

My Bucket Garden
July 2008

This was my little garden last summer.
"Eat your heart out Martha Stewart!"
Yes, it was strange a bit unorthodox and perhaps
(Shh! I'm whispering) "a little bit tacky,"
but nonetheless it was my experiment
and given daily doses of water from
ye old water hose, it in return gave
me these. . .

Beautiful, vine ripe, red tomatoes,
which looked like this.
Half of my yield looked like this.

Darn birds!

They were consistent, sneaking into my
Bucket domain and literally "enjoying
the fruit of m y labor". Not to be
outdone I tied streamers to the fence
so they would blow in the wind and
frighten the feathery bandits away.
The streamers blew,
but the pesky birds continued
their heist.

Not to be outdone I dug deep into
my Fall storage and brought out a
Halloween Scarecrow and placed
it in the middle of the group of
buckets. . .But the birds perserverd
as the Scarecrow looked on.

Then. . .
One evening as I peered from my window,
this is what I saw -

I had been
out-witted, out-played, and out-lasted
by a "wascally wabbit"!

It's All about ME!

I have been tagged....
Chocolate Drop
did this dirty deed.  LOL



Rules:
1. Link to your original tagger and list these
    rules in your post.

2. Share 7 facts about yourself in the post.

3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post,
    leave their names & links to their blogs.

4. Let them know they’ve been tagged

Seven things  about ME.
Things you've been"wanting to know but were afraid to ask".

1.  GREEN is my favorite color.

2.  I have absolutely no sense of direction;
     it's a wonder I can even find my way home.

3.  "Sugarbabe", my Dad's nickname for me.

4.  I am terrified of "flying", but I do it.

5.  YUK!  I hate the taste of all water.

6.  Love to see what people buy at the grocery store.

7.  (Usually) faint at the sight of medical needles.

*I'm not gonna tag anyone,
but, why not copy this and tell us
"Seven Things About You"?!

    

OUCH!!

I did it.
I fell.
And, I fell hard when I did.
Where is my shame?
Where is my remorse?
Truthfully, I had none, until this morning,
in the light of day, but it lasted for just a
moment. It's a hard HIT when you
take a fall from a
"Four Week Diet Wagon".

The beginning of the fall came last night
around 9:00. First it was the tiniest twinge of
"I want a little something".
I ignored it.

Then, about 9:30 the twinge increased and
spoke a little louder.
"I NEED something!"
"I can't hear you" was my reply.

This intensified and by 11:00 I succumbed to my growling gut, and while the rest of the house was alseep I prowled the kitchen looking for a fix for my sweet tooth. Everything was a possibility and there was no turning back at this point.

I was soooooo HUNGRY!!
I needed "something", but just what that something was,
I wasn't sure of. . .
Being well-disciplined and totally in control,
I ignored these impulses.

I tried this -

Nooooo. Not quite what I was wanting.

Next I tried -


No. That's wasn't it either.



Maybe this.

A bite of this usually calms my sweet tooth.
Nope. No magic in this tonight.

*This is where Kenny G music begins to play
and a satisfying calm envelopes the room.

Sweet satisfaction at last.
I ate one of these (just one, I promise)
then went to bed and slept dreamily.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Yes, I know it was a binge and I fell hard.
But I'm back on that darn wagon today.
(only 20 days til I'm on the beach!)

Be My Guest/Kelly's Corner

Oh how we love "Kelly's Korner"
and the fun home tour we get to
participate in on Friday's.


Since we are independently wealthy we have an
entire Guest House for our guests to enjoy.
Funny, they never stay very long.
Hmmmm.

Ok. Ok. I know you know I'm messing with you.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

This our Guest Room.
It is a work in progress, but you're certainly
welcome to take a look around.

Yes, the room is quite small and I've filled most
of the space with this King sized bed.
I've found that guests rather have a BIG, comfortable bed
and less foot room, than lots of foot room and a small bed.

This is my current project.
I was given this headboard and I am painting
it black. When I'm finished it will go into
the Guest Room.



Since there is not room for a bedside table on this side of the bed, I hung a small shelf (which is large enough to hold a Kleenex box and a glass), and placed a clip-on light at the edge of the shelf. The light can be used for reading. On the floor (which doesn't show in this photo) I have a round decorative hat box filled with current magazines for our guests use. Space is prime in this room since there is so little of it.



This little dresser is literally a God-send as I found it in the trash at the curb waiting for pick up. It had a "boo boo" on one leg which was easily fixed. Yea! Notice the Mardi Gras beads draped on the lamp. I want this room to have a New Orleans feel about it, since we live in Louisiana.




This is on one wall.



Darn! You can't tell from the photo but in the framed piece it says
"Room Service".



This is on the back of the Guest Room door.
It allows for hanging clothes, robes, etc.
We use the closet in the room for our personal storage, so it's not an option for our guests.




These are a couple of very simple to do things that I like to do when we have guests. I place both of these in the guest bathroom when we have guests. The washcloths are only used by guests so they stay "new-looking" for quite a while. The toiletries are items I've brought home from hotel rooms OR have ordered off of Ebay. That way if the guests have forgotten anything or just want to try something new they have access to this.

Thanks for stopping by.
I'll be cruising by to see your Guest Room soon.

Princess and the PJ Party

Last night during casual dinner chatter Princess said,
with a straight face -
"Zach and I want to have a pajama party at his house
next Sat. We'll just wear our pajamas, watch a movie,
and hang-out."

After my husband was able to catch his breath he
ordered us to RUN-not-walk,
to the nearest store to make an emergency purchase:

I was barely able to speak, I was actually quite calm
as scarey visions danced through my head:



Princess seemed quite surprised at our reaction.
So it was off to the bedroom for another "talk".



Perhaps Princess needs a class in remedial "Sex education".

Being the Mom of a 14 yr. old girl is constantly full of surprises
a piece of cake when you've raised three other children.

Rewrite/do-over

This movie is about a guy whose life didn't quite turn out how he wanted it to and wishes he could go back to high school and change it. He wakes up one day and is seventeen again and gets the chance to rewrite his life.

I've seen this movie,
and it's given me something to think about.

Rewrite your life at 17 ?
1.  If you could do this, would you?
2.  What were you like at 17?
3.  What would you change?

Is there ONE among us who wouldn't want a "do-over" for at least a tiny portion of their life at 17?

Life on the Bayou

Today is Living Room Friday on Kelly's Korner.
What fun!. *note: I had to "scrunch my photos
because of the layout on my blog."

Life on the Bayou -

Please come in and have a seat
while I pour us up a big cold
glass of Sweet Tay. 'kay?

This is our living room, all decked out for Summer.
The walls are Sage Green, tho it doesn't show up in the photo.

,


This little area is across from the sofa and next to our giant blackhole TV (which I love almost as much as my husband and children), but I'm not gonna show it to you. No one sits in these chairs unless we have guests, as you can't view the blackhole well from this vantage point...Notice the photos above the chairs -




"Way back, when I was a kid. . ."
I grew up learning to read from the infamous "Dick and Jane" readers. I have fond memories of that time so I took photos from the reader and framed them. I love them, but Princess finds it embarassing to have the word, "Dick" on the living room wall.
I tell her to "get over it".




This is my Curio cabinet,
at the front end of the living room.
I love the Curio but have always found it difficult
to arrange the items in it. . .You get a little peek of the entryway in this photo.




This is the opposite end of the room.
When we moved in the fireplace was white,
like all the molding in the house.
I refinished it to this black color.
It was a fun, easy project.
I was pleased with the result...
The chair and footstool are referred to in our house
as "Mom's Nest". This is where I hang, when I'm
not doing important things like Blogging, eating,
shopping, etc. Note my Leopard throw I bought for myself,
and the placement of the "remote".





Now I am showing you the sacred, somewhat hidden area we call "no man's land", cause this is "Kramer's bed/pillow". Kramer is my 14 yr old co-dependent Cockapoo. This is where he hangs when he is not doing other important things like, eating treats, peeing in the flower beds, or pestering Princess.

Thanks for stopping by.
Ya'll come back now.
Ya' hear?!