Summer's Coming: Fragments de Friday Free for All

~ Whew, am I glad it's FRIDAY!  This week at work kicked my behind.

~ A friend posted this on his Facebook wall last week, and I found it SO inspiring:

"They can't kill your dreams, so they assassinate your character. Remember, those you don't love you can't hurt you. It feels good to be surrounded by loving friends and family. Everyone isn't so fortunate. #Grateful" 

My dreams will NOT be killed!

~ My girls only have three more days of school left.  I am very much looking forward to summer!  Although, I am slightly in denial that Shelbie will be a SENIOR next year.

~ Is it any wonder that I think my son, Tim,  is the coolest kid guy ever?  How many 20 year old guys do you know who have tea parties with one-year-olds?

I love their expressions.  =)

~ From the "Ya can't make this crap up" files:
I got this email the other day that I just had to share with you all.  I didn't respond at first, so she even re-sent it to follow up.  Can they possibly be serious?

"Cyndy,
We write articles for KennyMyers.com. I came across your site, and thought your readers might be interested in a new article that we wrote. It's called “10 FAMOUS LAWYERS NAMED KEN YOU MAY DEBATE”, and you can find it here:http://www.kennymyers.com/blah/10-famous-lawyers-named-ken-you-may-debate/. If it is something you find interesting and think your readers would as well, you can possibly consider mentioning it on your site. Please let me know if you have any questions. Thank you for your time and I hope you enjoy the article." 


 ....They didn't even offer compensation for this weirdness.
After the follow up email, I replied very simply.

~ The other day my Mom posted a couple of pictures on Facebook from our wedding "reception" party and I wanted to share them with y'all.

Sigh....I adore him.

Such good memories.

Cake Smash!
I love him like a Fat Mama loves wedding cake.
I still love him just as much as I did on our wedding day!
Which was 2.5 months ago.
Hee hee!

~ Check these out ....

On Sunday I am making my first blackberry cobbler of the season.
We are LOADED with blackberries 'round here!  YUM!

Alrighty, my friends!   

Keep calm and Frag On, 
and have a fantastic weekend!

P.S. Those of you who have had some problems with seeing my photos,
could you please let me know if you can see these?
There are 5 photos total, not including the Frag & Free for All Buttons.
Thanks!

Keepin' It Weird ~SIMC

I worked last night and slept until 4pm today.  It is now 8:15 and let me tell you about what I have packed into the last 4 hours.

~ Byron and I went to dinner with my parents.  On the way there, on a busy street near UF and the big hospital, Shands, we saw several police cars on the side of the road near an apartment complex.  No big deal, they were just rounding up a HUGE, 8-10 foot alligator that was sitting on the sidewalk.  Go Gators!

~ We went to Cracker Barrel and I filled my belly with country fried steak, mashed potatoes and gravy, hash brown casserole and green beans.  Ok, about 1/3 of a serving of all of it, and the rest is in my refrigerator.  PLUS, a few bites of my Mama's dessert: blackberry cobbler and ice cream. OH MAHHH GAWWD.

~ Then we went to The Walmart.  We all know that's an adventure any time, but today really topped any prior visit.  All we bought was light bulbs and Rain-X, people!  This was like a 15 minute trip.  And this is what transpired.....

~First we went to the hunting section and saw this:

It was a Redneck Convention.  They were waiting for the Ammo shipment to come in.  I swear I'm not even kidding.  (In their defense, ammo is in very short supply around here. Because obviously, the zombies are coming. Duh.)

~ Then as we're getting into the truck, there was an old lady standing by her car across from us with what appeared to be her grandson.  He was kind of douchey, in a pants-on-the-ground kind of way.
The old lady started SOBBING, and we realized her hand was SHUT IN HER DOOR.  Before we could react, Douchey Grandson unlocked the door and got her hand out, and then said calmly WITH A SMILE ON HIS FACE: "I think we need to go to the hospital, I can see your bone."

YA THINK?!

~ THEN - because it wasn't over yet - we were leaving and saw this guy standing at the intersection:

Skin-tight shorts and pink shoes.  He danced and waved and blew kisses.  Free entertainment!  Gotta love it.

~ And I haven't even mentioned hubby ALMOST getting a nother seatbelt ticket.
Click it or Ticket, friends, they ain't joking.

Never a dull moment!

Family, Friends and Frags

~ I worked a weird schedule this week.  A co-worker asked me to switch a day with her.  She is the same one who switched with me in March, enabling me and Byron to run off and get married last-minute, so I was happy to help her out.  I worked Monday and Tuesday, was off Wednesday and Thursday, and I work Friday night, then I'm off Saturday and Sunday.  It's like having two weekends in one week.  Kinda cool!

~ Dusty is Shelbie's boyfriend.  He has cancer.  His mom is Heather, my friend from high school.  I LOVE her.  She also drives me crazy.  BUT...when she calls and asks me if I can do her a favor and take Dusty to his chemo appointment?  I can't say no to that.
It is so surreal to hear her explaining that the length of the appointment depends on his blood counts and whether or not he needs a transfusion....sigh.
He's strong. He can fight this.  That's what I keep telling myself.

~ Tonight (Thursday night) we went to my parents' house for dinner.  Hayleigh was there and OMG.  She is at my FAVORITE AGE (between one and two).  She is SO funny, cute, adorable, etc......I just wanna freeze her!  She sings, dances, talks, plays,  And my kids adore her.

~ This weekend we're going to the Springs to celebrate a friend's birthday and Memorial Day.
I can't wait!  I love this time of year.


~ More and more every day, I realize that my husband is the perfect man FOR ME.

Hope y'all have a great weekend!! 

Ophidiophobia

Warning: Bad Words.  Sorry.

I have a phobia.  I've had it since I was very young.  I am deathly afraid of snakes.
I think that, as phobias go, it's a pretty reasonable one.  It's not, for example, a fear of aluminum foil. (no really, it's a thing.  I saw it on Maury.)
Aluminum foil cannot kill you.  As far as I know.
Snakes, however, can.
They can also try to kill your dogs.  But that is foreshadowing.

I can trace my phobia to its roots.  When I was very young, I stepped on a snake.  I was innocently walking into my house, minding my own business.  And in the brick pad in front of our door, a snake was hiding in the cracks.  I stepped on something squishy, looked down, and lost my shit.  Instead of running inside, I ran away.  I climbed a fence for the first time in my life, perched at the top and screamed for my daddy.  Bye-bye, snake.

Nightmares about snakes are a very common occurrence in my life.  I don't even like to see a picture of a snake.  They just terrify me.

Now, in case you're new here....I live in the woods.  I'm talking DEEP in the woods.  Very swampy woods.  I've lived here since December and until today, I had only seen one snake and it was dead.  Fine by me.  The only good snake is a dead snake.  (I'm truly sorry to any snake lovers.  I never asked for this phobia, nor do I control it.)

Even though we live in the middle of nowhere, we walk our dogs, they don't run loose.  One of those reasons is because of snakes.  So today, I was walking our two big dogs.  One on a leash, the other without a leash because he's usually very good about staying close and coming when called.

We had two storms this weekend so the woods are nice and wet and swampy.

So as we're walking down the long, muddy driveway, we encounter a snake.  I'm not sure what kind; I'm not a snake expert and I was not exactly in a detached, observational state.  I was in more of a FREAKING THE FUCK OUT state.  But there's a good chance it was a water moccasin.  Very poisonous snakes.  (I just bit the bullet and Wikipedia'd it.  IT WAS A MOCCASIN.  Shoot me now.)

The biggest dog, Patchy, walked RIGHT UP ON IT.  I pulled on him and his COLLAR SLID RIGHT OFF OF HIS NECK.  And the snake raised its head up in what I assume is an "I'm about to bite you" pose.
I had to get closer to the snake in order to pull Patchy away from it.  He finally backed away but Bo was on the OTHER side of the snake, exploring God-knows-what, and totally not listening to my cries for him to COME.  Finally, he came and thankfully, didn't notice the snake or get to close to it.  He's still a puppy and surely would have explored the neat moving thing in the road.

I raced inside, told Byron what happened, and then absolutely lost my shit.  Crying, snot everywhere, a little hyperventilating thrown in for good measure.

I knew it was only a matter of time before I encountered a snake here.  In fact, I stupidly thought that maybe after I finally saw one, I would calm down a bit.  Maybe the fear of seeing one was the worst part.  But what I didn't anticipate was that combined with seeing my first snake here, I would be desperately trying to save my beloved dogs from the snake.  It was a horrible combination.

So basically, I told you all of that to ask you this.

1. Do you know of any apartments for rent in the top floor of the highest building on the planet?

2. Is it true that there are no snakes in Ireland? How much is a one-way ticket there?

3. Do you have any phobias? Please share and make me feel a little better.

Sunday Funday ~~ SIMC

We had a super fun weekend.  

We went to my Mother-in-Law's house,
and went to church with her on Sunday,
and my Mama came over for a visit on Saturday.
It was a very productive weekend;
we got a lot done BUT had a lot of fun too.

I had my first fire in my new fire pit.  Loved it!

It is so relaxing to me to sit by a fire.

My MIL has flowers blooming all over her yard,
in pots and planted in the ground.
It's so pretty.

And these, of course, just pop up wherever they want.

Watch out for Gators!

Elayna has always been scared to go down the slide.
In this picture, she was contemplating the situation.....

And in this one....she finally did it!

This is Elayna with her friend, who spent the night with us Saturday night.
This is the only pic I took of them together.
Lovely shot, no?

I also didn't get any pics of the other kids, who were all there today.
Woops.

And this is our Bo.
I think he's awake but ignoring me.
We washed all of the dogs this weekend,
 so they're all fresh and sassy now.

Hope you enjoyed your weekend!

Super Silly Sleepy Fragments

~~ I had a really great week at work.  The icing on the cake was, I got my first official written positive feedback from a patient.  She is a former ICU nurse from another local hospital.  I also happened to walk in and overhear her on the phone telling her husband how awesome I was (in fact, she threatened to fire him as her caretaker and replace him with ME).  Sometimes, I love my job!

~~ I worked Wednesday night and stayed up all day today (Thursday).  We had errands to run, then I just hung out with the hubby, MIL and the girls.  I got silly-tired in the evening.  We were all cracking up.  I even had my totally NON-giggly husband giggling.
{In fact, I have laughed a LOT this week.  I guess I'm just easily amused......}
On the way home, I was just bleary-eyed exhausted.
However, I am currently at the point of Past Tired.  I've been up for 31 hours now, and am sitting in my bed on the computer.  Please send Mr. Sandman my way.

~~ I am incredibly blessed, and was reminded of that today.  I had two people I love dearly, do something for me that showed me how very much they love ME.  It was overwhelming.  And wonderful.

~~ Y'all, this is dead-on accurate.

~~ And I just plain LOVE this.

~~ My Mama posted this on my Facebook.  It reminds me so much of our home.  I love it.

~~ My friend is pregnant with her first baby and this is how they announced it to her Mother-in-Law.  I LOVE it!!!

Wishing y'all a wonderful weekend!  

Mother's Day SIMC

We all gathered at my Mother-in-law's house 

to celebrate Mother's Day.

I made lasagna, and we had salad, texas toast 

and three yummy desserts; 

pineapple upside down cake and 

chocolate delight from my mom,

and Shelbie made monkey bread.

Heather & Hayleigh

Heather and Hayleigh,
and behind them,
my mom and sister.
4 generations!

My mom & me

After dinner was eaten and gifts were opened, 

we all headed out to the pool.

Hayleigh loved splashing in the water!

Elayna taking a break
(yes, those are my toes.
I mostly soaked up the sun.
The water is still a LITTLE chilly for me!)

Elayna cheesin'

Tim trickling water over Hay-bug's head.
It made her giggle!

The Mamas: mine on the left and Byron's on the right.

MIL has two armadillos living under her deck.
They came out to play today.

MIL's dogs let them know
that they were NOT welcome there.

We all had a lovely Mother's Day.  

The card my son gave me got me all choked up.  

The gift from my girls will be here later this month.
OH and my wonderful Mother-in-Law
 gave me a firepit like hers for my birthday!  I LOVE IT.
I was asking where she got hers
 and mentioned that I'd always wanted one,
and BAM now I have one!

I'm feeling very blessed!

Hope you all had a wonderful day too.

Rockin' 40

Y'all.  I turned 40 today.

Okay, technically not until 10:21pm tonight, as my Mama likes to remind me.

But, today is my 40th birthday.
And I'm having a blast!

30 kicked my ass.  I've mentioned that here before.  It was a very hard time in my life, and turning 30 in the middle of it was like kicking me while I was down.  And then punching me.  And then setting me on fire.

But 40?  Piece of cake.  (literally, my mom is making me a pineapple upside down cake.  Yum!)

I think it's primarily because I am happier now.  And as most of you know, it's NOT because my life is perfect.  There are, without a doubt, things I would love to change about my life.
But happiness does not mean your life is perfect.

This is what happiness is to me -

And by accepting, I personally do not mean accepting that things will be the way they are now, forever.  What I mean is accepting things as they are NOW, and working hard to change the things that I want changed.

I am an innately happy person, and I am grateful for the things that I have, instead of always lamenting over the things that I want and DO NOT have.  That's just me.

And that will be me, whether I am 30, 40, 80, etc.....

But right now, I am FORTY.  And I am ROCKIN' 40!

Happy Mother's Day to all of my Mamasita friends!! xoxo

Pretty Much

** Thank you all for your comments on Shelbie's artwork!  I showed them to her and she loved it.  =)


** My sweet hubby is taking me away to the beach for my birthday!  Y'all - I turn 40 on Saturday!  WOOT WOOT It honestly doesn't bother me AT ALL.  We have a lot of fun plans and I'm excited!  St Augustine - my favorite place on the planet - I can't wait!

** I am so blessed with an AWESOME Mother-in-Law this time around.  Not only that, but my parents actually have a relationship with her- so much so, that we are all celebrating Mothers' Day at  MIL's house.  I'm cooking! This is so much nicer than dividing time or alternating years.  It's all one big, happy family!

** Also, I pretty much have the best son on the planet.  He is 20 years old but he still tells me he loves me every time we talk on the phone - even when he's at work, surrounded by guys.  And he says it FIRST.  He is also taking care of our pets while we're away this weekend.  He pretty much is awesome.  Proud Mama right here!

** So, that's pretty much all I've got.  I'm out for the weekend.  Wishing you all the best, and a wonderful Mother's Day!

Shelbie's Art

As I mentioned on Friday,

my oldest daughter Shelbie is a talented artist.

She had four of her creations displayed 

at her school's art show on Thursday night.

I am in awe of her work.

Watercolors, pastels, stipple art, collages....

they're all amazing.

She has a thing for anchors.
Finally, she created something for HERSELF;
she usually makes things to give other people.

She made this adorable owl for her baby cousin Hayleigh.

I think she's actually going to keep this one!
This is stipple art.  It's a rose.

Cutest giraffe EVER.

This one wasn't displayed this year;
she made it for me last year and as you can see,
I had it framed.
It hangs on my bedroom wall.
I love turtles.  

This one is also from a previous year.
She made it for her cousin,
who is a US Marine.

Next year she's going to take AP Art.  That will be her senior year in high school (gulp! how did THAT happen?).  I told her that I hope she always continues with her art.  I took art all through school and loved it and did very well.  But since school, I haven't done any kind of art, and I really wish I had kept up with it.  It's so therapeutic.  I hope to get back into it one day.  And I hope she never stops!

Linking up with Dude Mom and Seven Clown Circus for WordFUL Wednesdays!

Pop Culture - Old School Blogging

I am loving the Old School Blogging memes.   Fun stuff for this Old School Mama! Here's this month's edition...


1.  What was one of your favorite shows as a kid?  Why?

I would have to say Growing Pains, because Kirk Cameron, that's why.  I loooooved him.

2. Which actress(es) do you see on the red carpet and kinda wish you could be for a day (or three)?

I don't watch awards shows.  I compare them to watching paint dry; they just don't interest me at all.  But I have a total girl crush on Sofia Vergara, and if I couldn't be her, I would have to choose Catherine Zeta-Jones.  Brunettes rock!!

drop dead gorgeous.

 

beautiful.

3.  Which actor do you wish you could, um... hang out with? ;)

Bradley Cooper.  It's rare that I like the same celebrity that everyone else likes (I am not at all impressed with George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Johnny Depp, nor 90% of the other men y'all ladies swoon over) but I love me some Coop.  Oh and I just saw that Hangover 3 will be out soon!  I cannot wait!

4. What is one (or two or some) of your favorite movies that you have seen in the last few years?

Well, the Hangover movies, obviously.  I love love love Straw Dogs.  I also loved the Paranormal Activity movies.  (can you tell I don't see movies a lot?)  

The last movie I saw was on my first date with Byron.  I just asked him and neither of us can remember what movie it was!  hahaha

5. Who is one celebrity out there now that you could totally do without? That you wish would just disappear?

Other than the obvious, Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan?  I'd have to say Ryan Lochte.  Dumb as a box of rocks, he is pretty much an embarrassment to humanity, and more importantly, to the University of Florida. (he is a former Gator.  Sad, but true.)  And I just could not care less what he would 'do'.  I think his best bet is to keep quiet and swim.


6. Have you ever met a celebrity? If so, who? What did you say/do when you met them?

I have.  I met Tim Tebow when he was still in training for the Florida Gators (where he played college football).  My then-husband John is a huge Gator fan and recognized him, even though he'd never played a game with the Gators.  He was with three other Gator players.  I went up and started talking to them (the ex was too chicken).  I chatted with Tebow for a while and then got his autograph, and he took pictures with my ex and two of my kids.  We had no idea how famous he would eventually become.  One of these days I need to scan those pictures.  
I have nothing but respect for Tim Tebow; he is an amazing person.  Not to mention SMOKING HOT.  

Also, once the season started I went to a game and when he was running into the tunnel, he high-fived me.  I haven't washed that hand YET.

I also met Joakim Noah, Al Horford, and some other former UF Basketball player whose name I don't recall. Maybe Taurean Green?  They  are all now pro players.  Horford's mother lived in the same apartment complex I used to live in, and I saw them one day while walking my dog.  Noah was petting my dog and I asked him if I could run home and get something for them to autograph.  I grabbed one of the ex's hats and ran back. They invited me in and they all signed it for me.  I knew right away it was Noah because not only is he literally almost 7 foot tall, he looks like this: 

He's hard to miss.

7.  Which shows do you look forward to watching every week?

I rarely get to watch shows when they come on because I work nights.  But I love Duck Dynasty and I am addicted to most TLC shows.  I especially love My Crazy Obsession!  And I watch Welcome to Myrtle Manor, too.  I have never made a secret of my love for craptastic reality TV!  I can't wait for Honey Boo Boo to return.

Her mom reminds me of someone I know.  

I can't quite put a finger on who though....

Smexy Mama.

{Join in, it's fun!}  

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