leta joy

Yes, I know. I have four thousand vacation photos and I’m blogging about a friggin’ orange. This was my snack this afternoon. OK, one of my snacks this afternoon if you have to be so technical about it. I’m making an effort to eat better and I plan on training for a half marathon that will be in October. I’m not sure how I feel about this. Usually I make all of these big announcements about my new “diet” and how I’m going to walk all the time, etc. and it eventually all comes crashing down. So, this time I’m not going to jinx it, not going to shout it from the rooftops, just whisper about it quietly. My first training session is supposed to be tonight, but it is currently raining so I’m not really sure what will happen.

These are the only souvenirs I have from our trip to Gulf Shores. On the way home we stopped at Peach Park in Clanton, Alabama and I bought a basket of peaches. I gave some to my MIL and Arwyn and I have been snacking on the rest. They are very good, but don’t seem to be keeping very well, so I might need to make some peach bread or something soon. The turtle cup is from a Starbucks in Athens, Alabama. I ran out of goodies to keep Arwyn entertained, so I bought this cup and a sticker book. She loved the sticker book and played with it the rest of the way home. I gave her some water in the cup, which she proceeded to “drink” (i.e. dump all over herself) but had a grand time doing it and kept asking for more. I just kept giving her small doses and then changed her clothes a couple of times.

I’ll post some vacation shots and then put the rest on flickr.

We’re leaving for our first vacation in 4 years! We are so very excited. Bubby and I have never been to the beach together and Arwyn has never been at all.

Forward my mail to the beach, ’cause that’s where I’ll be for the next week. I don’t even care if there’s no internet connection! All I want to do is relax and feel the breeze with a drink in my hand.

I took these pictures earlier in the week when Arwyn chose a rather interesting outfit for the afternoon. Here she is modeling the crayon-stained t-shirt she’d had on all day, no pants, her swimshoes and beach hat. She likes to play with the old boombox and play “mu-zack”. When Bubby saw the photos he said she looked like a little hip-hop rapper. She’s just missing the big gold necklace. We also made a trip to Grandma’s house later that evening in the same outfit, although I did make her put on shorts first.

What’s the worst way to spend a Thursday morning? Why, shopping for a new swimsuit at JC Penney’s! I haven’t bought a new suit in 5 years, and now I remember why! But we are going on vacation next week and I really need a new one. This was the third place I’d been, they were having a sale, and I was determined to leave the store with SOMETHING. So I have officially purchased my first old lady suit. The 70+ year old lady at the checkout (who was fixated on me opening a charge account and would not take NO for an answer. I think she thought she could guilt me into it!) thought it was a “beautiful suit”. That confirms the fact that it is indeed an old lady suit. Black with hot pink stitching, no back (woo-hoo!), halter neck.

Did you think I was going to model it? Puh-leeze. I did redeem the visit by also purchasing a lovely white flowy, beachy skirt.

I also found these great shoes for Arwyn at Marshall’s. I have no problem finding shoes I love for her (just problems with fitting her cute little fat feet) but never find shoes I love for me. I want kids shoes in adult sizes.
These were $9.99

and these were only $5.99!!!! I am going to be so sad if they don’t fit.

Edited to add: They didn’t fit. I already returned them. boo hoo.

Friday is my big sister’s birthday. She is ten years older than me and we’ve always had a pretty great relationship. When I was little, I thought she hung the moon, of course. Then she up and gets married (how gross!) when I was 8, moving away and leaving me high and dry. But I got to go for lots of visits and she moved back four years later. When I was a teenager and couldn’t stand for my mom to even look in my general direction, I could always go hang out at my sister’s, and I did A LOT. I honed my excellent babysitting skills at her house, practicing my technique (or complete lack thereof) on her kids. Now that we’re both all grown up, things are a little different. We are very different. Even though she might not always understand me, she still loves me. I still call her to ask her stuff about the kid and to gripe about our mom. She calls me to gripe about her teenagers. We have wildly different perspectives and viewpoints, but have still managed to meld together a unique and loving relationship over the years. Happy B-day, Sis! I love ya!

When we were at The Wiggles concert, at one point they did some song that involved a lot of flags and Greg Wiggle said to cheer really loudly when your favorite flag came out. There was an Italian flag, an Australian flag, maybe Mexican, I can’t remember them all, there were like 6. He keeps saying to cheer loudly when you see your favorite flag. Then, of course, some dude dressed like Uncle Sam runs out on the stage waving an American flag and everyone cheers. I say to Bubby, “Where’s the UK (British, not basketball) flag? Or Canadian? I’m not cheering for THAT.” Bubs kind of laughs, that kind of laugh that usually means “Would you shut up before that redneck sitting behind you beats MY ass!”

Not a Bush fan, if you couldn’t tell.

This was the card I sent (belatedly, but I wrote something very nice and sent pictures of Arwyn) to my mom. These were made in a mad rush on Saturday night before Mother’s Day, as Arwyn was running around the house like a banshee because she was up late BECAUSE my art stuff is in her room (used to be MY room before she was born, not that I’m bitter). This one is crafted from card stock, two kinds of paper (1 sheet was reversable), ribbon, brads, and ink. I used some “Happy Mother’s Day” lines I printed out last year and actually saved them FOR A YEAR so I could use them this year. Problem throwing things out? Nope, not me. I’m out of my favorite adhesive, which is really kind of a pain in the ass.

This one is made from card stock, printed paper, same recycled “Happy Mother’s Day” as above, paint swatches, ink and silver brads onto which I glued flowers I cut from the paper. This card was for my third (fourth?) mama, MB. MB was a lady I met in college when I was a student worker. We became fast friends and still keep in touch, even though she’s moved to two different states since we met. She’s never met Arwyn, but deemed herself Grammy. She was never able to have children, but now has two step-daughters. I considered her a great stablizing factor during my tumultuous college years, always someone I could go to for advice.

I didn’t get a picture of the card I made for Bubby’s mom, but here she is holding it at IHOP on Mother’s Day.

We took Arwyn to see The Wiggles yesterday evening. The stadium is right down the street from our house, however we still had to get there an hour early for some reason. So Bubby walked up and down the many, many steps with Arwyn until it was show time. I tried not to look at how high up they were and people watched.

Arwyn and Bubby checked out the stage before the show started. When The Wiggles came out onto the stage in their Big Red Car, she screamed, “WIGGLES!!!”

She started out excited and dancing to the songs …

and then mostly observed the remainder of the show. But she didn’t take her eyes off of the stage. I always think she has more of my personality than her dad’s: stubborn, emotional, funny. But I guess she really is a combination of the two of us. I’m the excitable one and Bubby is the observer. I’m not sure what that is she’s doing with her fingers in that last picture. She does that a lot, and it really cracks me up because it reminds me of something I’d do.

I was impressed with how much The Wiggles came out into the audience and interacted with the kids. Jeff and Murray both walked right past us (we lucked into great seats, but they weren’t on the floor) and several of the dancers also came out to collect roses for Dorothy and bones for Wags. In all, I’d say it was a fun way to spend a Sunday evening. There is even a slight possibility that I had as much fun as Arwyn did.

This is a birthday card I made recently for a friend of mine. I was pretty pleased with it, which is rare. I used card stock, eyelets, a sticker, ribbon (two layers, don’t know if you can tell from the scan), distressing ink and rub-ons. Happy Birthday last week Barbara!

I decided to try something new with this one. This is a store-bought card which I embellished. I added stickers, eyelets, letter stickers, and that big 2 (hand-drawn with marker and matted with card stock). I’m not sure I’ll do this again. I wasn’t completely happy with the way it turned out. Happy Birthday in a couple of months Rafe! (No, I’m not THAT on the ball. They are moving away and we celebrated early.)

Tomorrow: The Wiggles!

This is my Mother’s Day gift!

Its a Sony Cyber Shot, along with an extra battery and memory stick, cause the Bubster knows all about that, whereas I know as much as I need to know to get by. THANK YOU, BABY!!!