Smellyann Strikes Again

Saturday 9: Tunnel Of Love

Link up here if you want. I'm mad now; I already typed up this whole post once, and Typepad or Google Chrome ate it. Forgive me if the redeux is grouchy. Also, apologies for the comment verification; I've been getting so much spam lately, I could open a Hormel plant.

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Saturday 9: Tunnel of Love

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1) Do you enjoy amusement park rides?

Of course, but I'm kind of a big weenie when it comes to roller coasters and stuff like that. I'm working on growing my cajones, though: when I was a kid, I used to be terrified of rides like the Scrambler or others that spun around fast, and now they're favorites. So there's hope for me, yet!

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2) In this song, Bruce likens romance to riding through the tunnel of love. The Red Hot Chili Peppers sing about a "Love Rollercoaster." What amusement park ride reminds you of your relationships?

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If walking on hot coals were a ride, I'd say that. There's an element of danger, sometimes someone gets burned, and yet it's exciting and exhilarating. Oh, and very intense. Life with me is not a picnic.

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3) Bruce's nickname is The Boss. Who was your best boss? What made him/her a good supervisor?
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That would be me. I'm my own boss now, and I like it that way. I am hard on myself when I deserve it, but I can also be patient and kinder to myself when I need that, too. I pay myself what I'm worth - although I need a raise, Self! - and listen to my instincts. I push myself, I create challenges and goals, and I work hard to achieve them. 

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4) Bruce's father was a bus driver and his mother was a legal secretary. What professions did/do your parents work in?
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Hey, I was once a legal secretary, too. I had a good boss then, as well. (RIP, Jim.)

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Mom did a little bit of everything, and I'm sure she did lots I didn't know about. She was a secretary when she died. I have a newspaper article on her from when Stacey and I were toddlers; she had started a babysitting co-op in our town and they praised it for it. Now, those are commonplace. As for Dad, he's a bit of a Jack of All Trades, Master of None. To sum up his talents, he's a salesman. He could sell water to a fish.

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5) Bruce met his wife Patti at a bar in Asbury Park. Do you believe you can pick up lasting love in a bar? 
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Of course. I know a couple that met that way. As for Hubs and me, we met online, and that works, so why not a bar. Incidentally, my parents met though a dating service, too.

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6) Springsteen was unable to work for years because he was embroiled in a lawsuit with his management company. Have you ever been sued, or sued someone else?
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Five barks for you. Heh.

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7) Bruce won an Oscar for writing the title song for the Tom Hanks movie Philadelphia. Do you have a favorite Tom Hanks movie?
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It has to be Splash, my first Tom Hanks movie. He, Daryl Hannah, John Candy, and the rest of the cast were awesome in that. I could watch it again and again. I wonder if it's on Amazon Prime?

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8) Bruce's official Twitter account (@springsteen) has more than 389,000 followers. Do you tweet? If so, how many people follow you?
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I tweet updates and check-ins from my iPhone and reward sites like Crowdtap and Swagbucks, but I'll rarely go straight to Twitter and post Facebook-like status updates. I couldn't care much less about that. I'm @Smellyann if you want lots of stupid information about where I am, though. ;) I have no idea how many followers I have. Three or 400, maybe?

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9) Bruce's drummer, Mighty Max Weinberg, led the band on The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien. Who do you think is funnier -- Conan or Jay Leno? Or are you looking forward to Jimmy Fallon?

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Fallon's okay - he's gotten better since the beginning - but I'm a huge fan of Conan. We have a similar sense of humor; I 'get' him and think he's hysterical. I never liked Leno as a talk show host at all. He's unoriginal and unfunny, IMHO. I was horrified by that whole Leno/Conan shake-up on NBC. Really? That was ridiculously unfair. I felt so badly for the O'Brien family, to be honest.

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I'll be back tomorrow for Sunday Stealing, if not before then with some family updates. See ya back here, hm?

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Fin.

Sea World, Orlando, & Downtown Disney

Over the past two days (Monday and Tuesday), Team Odette traveled 4½ hours away to Orlando for a mini-vacation. Thanks to Anheuser-Busch for supporting our troops, because with their Here's to the Heroes 2013, Rob and three of his dependents could get in for free. We just had to buy a ticket for Jack. We also bought the eat-all-day deals for everyone but me, which is totally worth it, because you can literally go through the participating restaurants again and again and again and get way too much food for a normal person to consume. We are normally not wasteful people, so it was a little painful to throw away perfectly good food, but otherwise it was a really good value; do it!

To prepare for the trip, I packed tons of snacks (no-frosting strawberry Pop-Tarts, trail mix, a little chocolate, cereal, etc.) in snack-size Ziploc baggies for all three kids in their new bags (from Publix) with their names on them. I gave each child a clipboard filled with paper and enough writing and drawing implements, new sticker books, glitter and glue, and more to keep them busy. Finally, I ran to the Toys 'R Us outlet store at a mall about 5 minutes away and picked up these glow sticks, together with smelly-good bubbles and more cyalume light-up bracelets and necklaces, for use on Monday night after we left the park.

I let them open up their new goody bags on Sunday night before bed, giving them instructions on when and where each item was to be used. We had to leave at about 0400 to get to Sea World by the time it opened at 0900 Monday morning, or else I would have left them in their car seats and let them find them then. They were super-excited to find out what was in those bags!

We arrived at Sea World more than a half-hour early, thanks to only having to stop for potty breaks and drinks at the Florida Turnpike travel plazas once or twice. I'm definitely going to do this pre-planning packing for the kids' car trip needs when we road trip in the future. It worked out perfectly: there was no "I'm hungry," "Are we there yet?" or "I'm bored" whining whatsoever. Awesome!

One really nice thing about Anheuser-Busch parks - and Sea World was no different - was that, right after the park opened for business and while we were standing in line to redeem our vouchers for tickets, they stopped to play the National Anthem. Rob stood at attention respectfully, and as usual, tears welled up in his eyes. I love that my guy is such a true patriot. I really admire that. Sophia started talking about what a dumb song it was, but I hushed her up and explained to her what the song was and what it meant, and that shut her complaints up immediately. She stood quietly and respectfully throughout the song after that.

Entering the park was really easy, smooth and fast. The folks at Sea World have got it together. The first thing we found inside was a flock of flamingos, stinky and squawking like crazy. They have a distinctive smell, which isn't very pleasant, but they're absolutely beautiful. Sophia, our bird lover, was particularly captivated.

Near the flamingos, also-banded pelicans waited to be admired. Or as a Facebook friend called them, "the crows of Florida." Still, as aggressive and unpleasant as these fowl can be, I think they are pretty cool.

We moved along to the stingray tank (although there were other rays including this cownose), and of course my thoughts immediately went to the untimely death of Crocodile Hunger Steve Irwin, right? Apparently, though, the stingrays are de-barbed or something, to make them not dangerous to park guests. I don't know how I feel about that, but I guess liability would be a huge issue if a similar thing happened in the park.

There were oodles and oodles of penny press machines inside Sea World. They were everywhere! We spent about $25 on collecting these souvies everywhere we found them, which makes me cringe a little. However, they're really cool, a great thing to collect, and the kids have fun doing them. It's a take-away and a project in one experience, so I think it's worth it in the end. We have collections from here, now, along with Disney World and Epcot, and everywhere else we've been able to find them. I love 'em.

It took us less than two hours to fill our Sea World pressed penny book! The machines were so ubiquitous, it wasn't hard to do. We have about 10 more that don't fit in the book, plus there are another 10 or 12 on the back of this book, so we have plenty. We probably even missed a bunch of machines, since we didn't do everything there was to do in the park. It'll give us something to do on a future visit to Sea World, y'know? 

After we pressed our first set of pennies, the first thing we found was the dolphin feeding tank. It cost $7 per kid and was on Chloë's bucket list, so Rob and I talked it over and decided to do it. $21 for an experience like that was pretty cheap compared to other behind-the-scenes adventures Sea World offered, and we had zero fundage for souvenirs other than the requisite pennies and my shot glass collection (I got a shark one, natch), so this was the thing to do. I'd rather give the kids an amazing memory than more stuff we don't need any day of the week, too. Here, we were waiting at the dolphin tank for our turn to pet and feed them.

Soon, it was the kids' turn to step up and feed the bottlenose dolphins. It was an incredible, memorable experience for all five of us. I'm actually surprised Chloë didn't cry a little bit. We all got to touch them, and the girls and Rob (who stepped in for the too-nervous Jack) each fed them two fish after doing the instructed rub under the jaw. It was amazing; words can't do it justice.

We walked through the aquarium that goes over one's head after feeding the dolphins, and I pointed out the different fish we saw to the kids. Parrotfish, like this Stoplight one here, are among my favorite of the reef fish. 

We visited Turtle Trek, which was a breathtaking surround cinema, like the inside of a planetarium. Another Facebook friend highly recommended it, and she was right; I loved every second of this short 3D adventure through a turtle's life. Afterward, there was a staffer giving out trivia questions and discussing the lives and habits of turtles and other sea creatures. I answered one question correctly before anyone else did, so she handed me a baseball card-like information sheet on the Leafy Sea Dragon for a prize. Later, she talked all about conservation efforts in which Sea World participates and gave the kids a chance to earn their own cards. We walked away with prizes for the Bottlenose Dolphin, Florida Manatee, and California Sea Lion, too.

Speaking of manatees, I love that the iPhone 5 has such a great camera; I took this picture, which Steph snagged off Facebook for a background on her iPad, with it. It turned out beautifully, IMNSHO.

The kids played a little turtle game, "Race for the Beach," against other kiddos. There were lots of little educational and interactive exhibits around Sea World like this one. I think it's great the way the park is so focused on edutainment and conservation; they really make the effort to preserve our natural marine resources. That impressed me throughout the day.

A Florida gator adolescent taking a swim 

We found some upside-down jellies, Cassopeia frondosa, near the alligator holding pen. I learned about these animals long ago as an undergrad at the University of Miami's Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmopsheric Science (RSMAS), during my Invertebrate Zoology class with the wonderful Dr. Peter Glynn. I wonder if he's still teaching; he was an inspiration for me as a budding marine biologist.

I'm not sure what kind of Cnidarian this one is, but my question to you is: artistically beautiful species, or just ick?

We then visited some leopard sharks, and Rob asked me to drop some knowledge about them. You know what? I didn't want to; I just wanted to have a fun, great day without so much pressure to be the authority on anything. So I refrained and just enjoyed being in the moment.

By that point in the day, it was hot, we were sweaty, and the kids were red in the face. Sea World isn't too heavy on rides and play so much as shows and experiencing the natural beauty of the marine environment, so we didn't have a lot of that. Fine by me, but the children wanted more of it. We headed over to the little kiddie area on the far end of the park to let them play in the small waterpark area for a bit. It was just the cool-down they needed, so I'm glad we took the time out to do that.

Sophia as Queen of the World! 

Chloë and Sophia took a ride in Swishy Fishies, which is like Sea World's equivalent of Disney World's Teacups. Jack, who had been the most vociferous complainer about the lack of rides, chose not to go on any rides. Really? That's so Jack, but whatever, he still had a great time and thanked us for taking them on the trip, so it's all good. If you're a Teacup fan, by the way, they also had a similar ride that went high up in the air. We didn't do that one, though, because the kids have a bit of a fear of heights; they come by it honestly!

Chloë had to pose for a photo-op with a Shamu replica; she happily obliged my request. It's never hard to get this one to do so; it's always hard to get Jack to pose unless he's thoroughly pleased at the moment!

Oh, I lied. Jack DID go on one ride, the kiddie train. This was more his speed, literally and figuratively speaking. 

We opted to rent a double stroller for several reasons: Jack, who has taut Achilles' tendons, has trouble walking for long distances. Plus, we knew we'd have lots to carry and thought it would be easier to take them around with us than pay for a locker we might visit but once during the day. And also, it would provide some sun protection for the kids, who took turns riding during our visit. An unexpected bonus was that it provided some tush respite for Rob, who occasionally took a brief siesta when he could sneak the opportunity!

My friend from Portsmouth, Miss Lisa, requested a family picture in the park, so I stopped a woman to take one in front of the sea creature-themed carousel we all rode immediately after that. Sophia started to pull a stranger-child off a purple seahorse that she wanted to ride; the nerve of her! After a scolding from me, we went on the other side and found one for her. But talk about embarrassing...

Just for good measure, I had Rob snap another shot of me on my carousel ride for Miss Lisa. You know, we all wore bathing suits all day long, but I was the only one who wasn't asked to cover up with a shirt or shorts. If you ever visit Sea World, be prepared to have a cover-up of some sort for males and females alike, because they will say something to you if you're not 'properly' dressed.

A fun moment between Jack and Chloë that I was thrilled to capture

We walked through the Arctic exhibit and found ourselves there at just the right time for a short training session for the beluga whales. The trainer had the belugas spin, jump and play for fishy treats. What fun to watch!

This polar bear was lounging near the beluga whales. I'm sure there were more, but we didn't see any, and she didn't want to come closer for me to get a better picture. Brat. I jest.

Both Rob's and my phone died after that, so this is a shot of Shamu that I stole off Google Images. Hee. We walked around the beautiful Sea Garden - a replica of the undersea environment made out of land plants - while we waited for the Shamu show to start at 1730. It was completely worth the wait. I had gone to Sea World with my grandparents when I was five years old, but the only things I remembered were seeing the flamingos and having an alligator come toward us while we ate dinner. 

Shamu - probably the n^th generation - and other orca friends put on a great display of tricks with their trainers. We had a lot of fun sitting in the Soak Zone and watching all the people in the rows in front of us get up, pissed, to leave after they got completely wet from the killer whales' antics (they're really dolphins, though, you know). Um, duh? You sat there knowing you'd get splashed and then you get upset when you do? What kind of sense does that make? None. Plus it's hilarious to have a whale do a humongous belly flop in front of you that leaves you dripping from head to toe. Make sure to put away those electronics and purses if you go; "soak" is definitely the key word!

Shortly after watching Shamu, we headed to our nearby hotel for the night.  The Seralago has mixed reviews from friends and strangers alike who have stayed in the same place, but we had a really nice stay there. There is a big cafeteria-slash-convenience store near the main lobby; we were able to get pizza, burgers and gyros for dinner, and everything tasted great. We picked up breakfast in the morning from there, too, even though Expedia said there was supposed to be a free continental one. (That was the only let-down.) There was a tiki bar and playground in the pool area, and the room was spacious and comfortable. For less than $60 a night in a high-traffic resort area, we were not disappointed. Your mileage may vary. 

The kids played with their glow sticks and bubbles, went swimming with Rob and warmed up in the hot tub at Seralago. Meanwhile, Rob and I got drinks from the bar that we left mostly untouched. Oh, that was another thing - my piña colada? They must have thought I was fourteen, because I swear it was a virgin; if there was alcohol in it, it was undetectable by my highly sensitive system. And that's sayin' something. I'm actually kind of glad, though, because I no longer enough the buzz of alcohol and have pretty much decided I'm done with the stuff after this. I might have something now and again in the future, but for the most part, I see no need to imbibe.

For lunch on Tuesday, we headed back East to Orlando (we stayed just West in Kissimmee, which is pronounced "Kiss-IH-me," but which my silly grandpa always pronounced "KISS-amee" to be funny) for a mystery shop. The place was dead, so we were able to get in and out of there fairly quickly before heading to our next destination.

We didn't have any real plans for Downtown Disney other than something fun for Jack and possibly renting a paddleboat, so I asked Rob's dad if he wanted us to visit them instead at their place in Boynton Beach on our way back to Homestead. Only, Rob's dad was not actually IN Boynton Beach yet, so that didn't pan out. A weather check Monday night didn't look promising for Downtown Disney, either, but fortunately the rain held out and we had a beautiful couple hours of sun during our trip to the Marketplace.

After getting squirted with water by the giant Stitch (from Lilo and Stitch) at World Of Disney, we stopped to listen to the orchestra play some tunes from movies and TV shows everyone recognized. I really enjoyed that and was grateful we didn't miss it.

There's a big LEGO store - one of Jack's few obsessions - at Downtown Disney, but instead he wanted go to Ridemakerz to build his own radio-controlled car. We spent a lot more there than I planned, but it turned out to be really worth it. The cars, accessories and chargers come with a lifetime warranty, which is good because later we discovered he had a bent axle and needed a new undercarriage. They swapped it out for him, no questions asked.

At the store, which is at the back of Team Disney if you want to find it, there was a huge selection of rims and wheels. Some are included in the price of the chassis, and some are extra. Jack happened to pick a set that were free-with-purchase, to my relief.

After he selected his rims, wheels and sound, Chris helped Jack assemble his new yellow Corvette. That was fun, to put it concisely. Jack could have been timed to see how long it put together the vehicle, just for fun, but he chose to take his time and not rush through the experience. I wasn't suprised at that; he's a pretty methodical kid when it comes to mechanics.

I wanted the girls to have an equitable experience compared to Jack's, and we didn't want to do the Bibbity Bobbity Boutique, so we walked around to see what they could do. First, they chose to have their faces painted. Artist Emily was really talented; Sophia looks adorable in her "Princess Kitty" make-up, doesn't she?

Chloë chose to have the "Music Mania" paint. They each opted to get the glitter lipstick after Emily verified with me that it was okay. Why not? Full package, baby.

After their faces were done, we went to the Ghirardelli store near the entrance and got a strawberry shake for Sophia and a chocolate one for Chloë. I didn't taste Sophie's, but Chlo's was really rich and delicious. They were a bit pricey, but since neither girl could finish hers and passed them to the boys less than halfway through, it was okay by me. We got chocolate samples when we walked in the door, too, which satisfied my sweet tooth!

Just like my dad, Chloë usually chooses to eat the stems of her maraschino cherries. I do it, too.

Stim (Steph and Tim, back in Virginia) are big fans of Sulley from Monsters Inc., so now that the new movie is coming out, she was hoping to have me pick her up some Sulley merch to send her way. We didn't find anything for her or the boys, though I had fun looking around and texting her pictures of all the latest offerings!

Even though he'd spent a small fortune at Ridemakerz and knew he wasn't getting anything else, Jack wanted to look around at the LEGO store. I figured I'd see if they had anything new in the LEGO Friends section (the girls collect those sets) for my lady-babies, because their shakes and facepaintings cost nowhere near as much as Jack's Corvette. Not that I wanted to spend money just to spend money, not at all, but I wanted both to be fair and also give them something to DO and something to HAVE, just like Jack.

Sophia, who's been gunning for the LF House for over a year now, surprised me by changing her mind and opting for the Stable instead. She loves horses, as well as the afore-mentioned birds (bugs, too, though all the kids love animals in general), so maybe it wasn't so surprising. Chloë went with a smaller set, the Café I think. When we got home that evening, they started building their sets out front on the patio, since their room is still crowded with unpacked boxes. Must remedy that situation soon!

There are many LEGO structures around the store in Downtown Disney, including a serpent in the water nearby and this family and their dogs. On our way back to our van, Penelope, Jack wanted to pose with this structure for me. Oh, see his gappy grin? He lost a tooth at Sea World the day before! Apparently I forgot to tell my progeny that they weren't supposed to leave body parts in the park.

After stopping for another potty break during the ride home, we spotted this fresh Florida oranges and grapefuit shop that I wanted to visit. We were out of oranges, after all, and I knew we'd find more local goodies from right there in Fort Pierce and surrounding areas. I was right. I spent more than I wanted to, but shopping locally is important to me, so it was worth it.

Along with my ¼-bushel of Valencia oranges, I bought some real Florida honey (mmm...), some orange honey, and jellies and preserves: Guava Jelly, Jalepeño Pepper Jelly for Rob (ew, but he'll love it), Tangerine Marmalade (omg, that sounds so good right now), Orange Pineapple Cherry Marmalade, and also Mango Chutney. I also picked up some Vidalia Onion Mustard for Rob, and some Habanero Beef Jerky that he gobbled down as soon as I got back to Penelope and handed it to him. I snagged a bag of saltwater taffy that the propietor described as "so good, it's addictive" to ship to NY for my BFF, Dr. Lisa. She loves the stuff.

When we finally got home after a quick stop at the Walmart Vision Center to pick up Chloë and Rob's new prescription sunglasses (theirs took longer than Jack and Sophie's because they're so blind), Jack rushed out to test out the new wheels. He drove it all the way around the block and had to be convinced to come in when it got dark. I'm glad he was so happy, but he seems to think we'll be going back every year to get him another one. Ha! I don't know where he got that idea, but it wasn't from me!

So now that it's May, it's time to really get serious and down to business. April was a full month of fun for Team Odette, but it's time to rein it in just a little bit. Oh, there will still be plenty of fun, but we have work to do. There's lots of homeschooling on which to catch up, jobs to get, unpacking to finish, VA paperwork to get done, a house in Virginia to sell, and college to get into (for Rob). Much to do, though like I said, we'll still be having fun in between the more serious stuff. Stay tuned for another post tomorrow, as I have fun mystery shops planned for today!

Fin.

Key Largo, Montego, Baby Why Don't We Go...

On Wednesday, I had to do a fun mystery shop in Key West, so we decided to take the 7-hour round-trip down there as a family to show Rob and the kids around the keys a bit. Admittedly, the shop did not pay for itself, what with the gas and all we did there, but we wanted to go down there anyway, and that was a good excuse to go.

This was me before our trip, at the doctor's office. I have a new, irregularly-outlined, black spot on the side of my chin that looks bad, bad, bad, so I needed to get it checked out. I sat in the office from 1300 through 1500 before getting frustrated and irritated and rescheduling the appointment. Halfway down to Key West, the receptionist (or someone) called me from the office and apologized profusely, so I forgive them a little bit, but that's beginning to become par for the course at doctors' offices here in Miami, and I do not want to have to get used to it. Bugger.

In Marathon, in the Keys, there is a small airport that Jack wanted to visit. It was time to get out and let them stretch their legs, so we decided to have a look around and poke into the museum a bit.

I'd seen that they did helicopter tours on the sign, and that's been on my bucket list for a long time, so I inquired within, as they say. It was very affordable, but I needed at least one other person to go with me to make it worth their while. We couldn't leave the kids alone, obviously, so Rob was out, and Jack and Chloë didn't have the bravery. Sophia was all for it, though, so we signed up for a trip! Only, when we got in the chopper, she freaked out a little bit about their being no doors. And then, Kevin, the awesome and understanding pilot, started 'er up, and she freaked out a LOT. I mean, shaking, tears, screaming, the whole bit. You'd think she was getting a shot or something, the way she was carrying on. I tried to calm her down, soothe her, and talk her back into it, but she was having none of it. So Kevin had to stop the engine, ride us back into the terminal, and give us our money back. I was disappointed, but ah, well. Another time.

On Long Key, there's a marine science lab I used to frequent as both an undergrad and a graduate student, for studies and training. And there was a restaurant next door we always visited, too. So it was with great apprehension that I looked for the lab during the drive, having seen far too many unlikeable changes in the upper keys (too many chains, not enough kitsch). Thankfully, the lab was still there - though we didn't have time to stop this time - but the restaurant, sadly, was gone. It's not too sad, though; they did serve veal, after all. So after a long, long, long drive (thanks to many silly stops along the way), we finally arrived in Key West. At last! I did my mystery shop while Rob and Company went to the beach.

After my shop, we decided to walk around and find a seafood restaurant. I mean, you're in the Keys; you might as well have some crab or something, right? My kids were dressed in their new tropical finery I'd picked up on the mystery shop, but I can't find the picture now of the three of them decked out. This one will have to suffice, of Sophia looking pretty, along with these two of Chloë and Jack:

Curly Girl, looking gorgeous as always

Jacky, doing the two-straw sip

This was the first seafood restaurant we happened upon, so we went in. Remember the name, so you can avoid the place if you want decent seafood. Trust me on this.

On the other hand, if you're just going to drink (and who doesn't drink in Key West? It's not unusual to see people staggering from bar to bar until the wee hours of the morning, all over the streets downtown), the Margaritas are fantastic. so there's that.

Rob and I decided to get the lobster/scallops/shrimp combo. I didn't try the shrimp, but he said they were fine. Conversely, as I told our server (whose demeanor went from awesome to The Suck after this), the lobster tasted like dirt, and the scallops tasted like nothing at all. Horrible. The worst seafood I ever experienced. Do NOT waste your money on seafood here; they apparently don't care enough about the lack of repeat business to cook it well. Ugh, I was sorely disappointed. And I even puked, it was so bad. Three times. And not just because I was sloshed. Heh. (I only drank about ¼ off my Margarita before passing it off to Rob; it was wicked strong.)

Rob gets conch fritters every chance he gets, so of course he had to get these. He said they were fine, too, but I didn't try them - never have, never will - so I can't verify.

Of course,  neither Rob nor I was fit to drive after dinner, so we had to walk around some more and see what was what. We found a souvenir shop - more like a souvenir mall - and Sophia exhibited more of her quintessential Sophie style, trying on hats and boas and all sorts of things. Love that kid!

I tried on a rastafarian hat with dreds, but the only thing Rob said was, "NO." Okay, fine, but I still think I rocked it. No? Maybe not. I did end up getting a sari/wrap dress thing that can be tied multiple ways. I forgot about it until I went through all the bags yesterday, so I think I'll wear it today. I might even take a picture to show you; it's so pretty!

Rob wanted a picture of the Conch Republic Key West flag, and his iPhone was dead, so here ya go, honeybuns!

The girls managed to talk me into these scarves that went with their new dresses. I liked them, too, and I may have to steal them from them once or twice!

Rob was thrilled to find himself next to Sloppy Joe's, a famous Hemingway hangout back in the day. We didn't make it over to the Hemingway estate to find the six-toed cats the kids were eager to see, though. Maybe next week, when we go down again, we'll get the chance.

The sign for "Smack Your Mom in the Mouth" meatloaf cracked me up, so I decided to get something to eat at this deli. Not the meatloaf, of course, but a bagel and cream cheese hit the spot. I was ravenous after the big Dinner Fail earlier.

We had walked a long time and a longer still ways from Penelope by that point, so we decided to hitch a ride on a bike-driven Pedicab (cyclecab?) with a nice Russian dude who agreed to carry all five of us in one trip. Here's my mini-me posing with her mama...

... and that was our short jag down to the keys. I was hoping to stop by some local road stands and get some fresh produce and local seafood on the way back, but they're hard to find at 3 in the morning, ya know? I wonder why.

Fin.

Not-So-Wordless Wednesday: Earth Day 2013

It's super-annoying that Typepad doesn't seem to wanna auto-save anymore, and I lose almost an entire kick-ass post when the screen freezes. But anyways...

While I was going about my business preparing for our Earth Day picnic on Monday, Rob came out wearing this Navy-issue peacoat, with the Meerschaum pipe in his mouth, saying, "Picture me on the bridge of our boat, steering across the Atlantic..." and I totally could. Can you? Course you can. It's still our dream, y'know. In a heartbeat, we would...

I had been searching on the old innernet for Earth Day activities and crafts when I came across The Nature Conservancy's All Hands on Earth picnic website. The idea, in a nutshell, is to foster sustainable food-eating practices by buying local and in-season to reduce, you know, gas and energy consumption from the production and distribution of worlds-away, out-of-season, uh... I said that way better the first time, but you get the gist, right? Right.

I had no fundage available at the time to run out to the Farmer's Market and pick up some deliciousness, so I figured I'd just use what we already had on hand to reduce waste, live frugally, and other great things we try to practice on a daily basis. I had cooked a bunch of chicken tits in the Crock-Pot the night before and still had half a -Pot left, so I tore that up and added some gorgonzola cheese crumbles leftover after our salad fixin's were used up, along with some apples I diced to add some sweetness and crunch. Along with some seasonings and Miracle Whip (Rob's fave), it was aces all around. Total yummo.

We chose Biscayne National Park as the nearby destination for our picnic because, despite the fact that it's too far to walk or ride a bike for us, the idea of Earth Day connotes (to me, anyway) surrounding oneself in the beautiful precious natural resources of our planet, and so it seemed a fitting locale. The last time we were there, I'd gotten a wicked bad sunburn from being too stupid to put on SPF before lying down on a towel with my library book. I just discovered what appears to be a melanoma - for which I'm going to the doc in about 7½ hours - on my chinny-chin-chin Monday morning, so I wasn't taking any chances with those harmful UV rays. We took along everything from SPF 30 all the way up to 85+. Although, really? Is that fo'real?

 

Aside from our afore-mentioned chicken salad on both spinach and sun-dried tomato wraps (also already on hand), we had mango cubes (I'd searched for a YouTube video on cutting them perfectly:

 

and it was spot-freakin'-on. Worked like a charm, after many failed attempts on my part.)

Plus, I threw in a bunch of bagged cereal for snacks, and Sophia snuck in half a pound cake for good measure. We served everything on reusable napkins and wrappers, and a pitcher of fruit punch was served in regular ol' plastic kids' cups. Leave no trace, leave the place better than when you found it, and all that.

When Jack dropped a piece of his cereal, this duck walked boldly up to him and looked askance. Not in the "how dare you?!" sense of the word, but "how dare you not feed me?" sense. He stayed there, quacked a few times, and made Jack squirm and squeal a whole bunch. It was hilarious.

We really laughed out loud a moment later when the two ducks on the bottom and left waddled up in perfect unison, speeding zip-zip along the sand to get their pieces of the proverbial pie. They didn't get any from us, although I noticed Sophia "accidentally" dropped one or two their way. Soon a fourth joined the flock, and by then we were surrounded by Muscovies looking to join our Earth Day picnic. Fun times.

After lunch, I sent the kids off on a Nature Treasure Hunt geared for kids aged 8-11, which, hey, is perfect since that's what range my kids all fall into, hey? The first one (of ten) was: "Find a place where an animal made a home," so off they went toward the mangroves to find nests or burrows. The three quickly spotted deep, wide holes in the ground and decided something had dug its way in, and I couldn't argue with that, so I gave them credit.

The second one directed them to make fairy homes out of natural objects, so Sophie had the idea to make teepees out of dried-out palm leaves. Chloë and Jack quickly followed suit; all but Chloë got them to stand without being held.

3. Find a seed - Easy! They just had to look up at the big palm trees everywhere to find them hanging out like so many, um, testicles. (What can I say? It's where the mind automatically goes.)

4. Make a tool, like a hammer or drawing stick. Jack, not being terribly imaginative, picked up a stick and started drawing. Okay, fine. Sophia, surprisingly equally unimaginative, picked up a stick and started hammering the top of her fairy teepee. Okaaaay, Chloë? She picked up a stick and pretended it was a screwdriver, driving, er, screws into the dirt. Better, but totally uninspired. Still, we moved on.

5. Find or name two things that all living things need to survive. The kids shouted out things like, "A home!" "Air!" "Food!" "Water!" etc. This one was too easy for this age group, IMO.

6. Listen for five sounds, including both human ones and otherwise. They listened to birds singing, people shuffling their feet on a nearby path, folks talking, boats' engines starting up at the marina next to us, and the wind whispering through the trees. That last one was my favorite.

7. Find a place where a plant-eater would be happy. Again, in a national park, way too easy.

The eighth one was super-cute. They had to spy on a bug. Jack crouched down first and watched an ant go ten ways to Sunday, all over the sand. Sophia and Chloë traced their own insects, and soon they all met up, head-to-head, with their daddy. I was thinking he probably wished he had a magnifying glass to light 'em on fire, because that's just the kind of Bob he is, but maybe I'm wrong. Maybe.

9. Find a pattern in nature. They all came up with A-B-A-B-A-B patterns, so I challenged them to find something other than that. Jack was the first to do so; he found spirals projecting out from the center vein of a leaf, and I was proud.

10. Find something other than an animal that can live in water. First, they named about 3400 different animals before noticing us crossing our arms over our chest, tapping our feet and rolling our eyes all over the place. "Ohhhhh! Like seagrass?" Yeah. Duhhh.

We were done with that, and rather than do sunprints, they decided to go swimming again. Fine and good, but I was freezing and wasn't joining in. The lifeguard came over to speak at us about letting them go too far out without a parent right there (in zero waves, with a lifeguard spitting distance away, but whatevs), so Rob went in while I lay in the sun and fried a little more. My SPF 85+ was failing me, y'all! I reapplied.

Then, Rob rigged up his fishing poles and took us to go fishing. Well, took the kids, while I followed along for some Instagramography of whatever they caught (big fat nothin', it turned out). But check this sign - crocodiles?! In Florida? Gators, sure - we'd seen an 8-footer the last time out, in the canal near our house - but crocs? Who knew? Not I, not me, not us. Jack was determined to find one, but we didn't.

Also, I'm pretty sure they stole that croc drawing from Peter Pan.

 

Rob didn't have any bait, so he used a Sabiki Rig to try and catch some. He cast waaay far out, and then near, and then far again... but not even the pinfish were biting. So the kids and I went exploring while he kept trying.

We went up to the end of the walk, which culminated in, like, a pier, and looked out at the water. Another fisherman was next to us, so they meandered over to him to see what he was doing. "Fishing." What do you have on your hook? "Bait." He amused me. The kids kept pressing. My kids are pressers. So we learned this about him: He was originally from Ithaca, New York, now lived in Texas, and was here in Miami on temporary extra duty. He had never fished here before and insisted that pinfish couldn't be used to catch snapper, grouper, or larger fish, but Rob taught him how to rig the baitfish for better success (not that he was having any, but he had on previous outings, after all). He was fishing with live shrimp. I had about seventy-nine more facts about him on the tip of my brain, but they all just scattered because of course, I need them right now. Oh, and he gave Rob a beer. That was nice. Maybe it was a consolation prize, since neither man was having any luck with the fishies that day.

 

Rob gave up for a while, and just then, a manatee came into view, swimming toward the harbor. Another, smaller (I'm guessing female) sea cow swam toward him, and they met nose-to-nose for a few moments before the female turned, and they both swam away in the direction of the marina. It all happened too fast, just like with alligator the other day, for me to get a good picture, so all I have is this one of the four of them looking and pointing. It was SO breathtaking, Chloë was near tears, Sophia couldn't stop exclaiming, and my heart was racing. What wondrous things we've seen in our month here so far!

 

And then, if that weren't enough, a pelican flew in and landed near us. The kids thought that was just fantastic; they walked over and got in the big bird's face, not knowing how aggressive those things can be. They want fish, and they want it now. The pelican squawked, flapped its wings, and moved toward them. They yelped and jumped back, while I laughed. A third fishergent caught a pinfish - at last! - and threw it in the center of the pier. The kids gawked while the pelican stormed over there and gobbled it up. Only, the fish was spreading its rays, and the bird couldn't swallow it. We all watched, helpless, as it gagged and regurgitated the fish repeatedly, struggling to get it down its gullet with no success. What to do, what to do? Call a park ranger? Finally, with one loud gulp, the fish was choked down and bulging in the pelican's neck. Whew! What a relief.

We went home, exultant in our beautiful day, reliving all the amazing sights we'd seen.

Hope you all had a happy Earth Day, recycling and reusing and reducing. Remember to link up here if you're wordless - or not - today, too!

Fin.

Sophia Lorelei Turns The Big "8"!

On Saturday, our wee baby girl turned EIGHT freakin' YEARS OLD, guys. Can you believe it?! I can't. My baby. Is old. Which means I'm old. Gosh!

By the way, blue, because her favorite color is now blue. Gone are the days of all pink-and-purple  all the time. Le sigh.

Also by the way, because I'm thinking of it, she's the youngest kid, yet she's the biggest by quite a bit. Chloë is the size of a 6½-year-old and has the maturity to match, whilst Sophia's maturity matches her chronological age. It's quite an interesting dynamic, and by that I mean... frustrating entirely too often.

Anyway. Saturday, Sophia's birthday, was a beautiful day. Just gorgeous. And we had a blast. But first, there were the presents:

Grandma (Rob's mom) sent a jumprope, headbands, puzzles that got put together immediately by all three kiddos, and a doodling book that she's been working in for hours on end each day since it came;

Aunt Gail (Rob's sister), a new Scentsy consultant, sent her a Scentsy kitty which, as you can see, was met with much excitement; and, 

on Friday night, she not only got a card with money from her Grandpa (Rob's dad, along with his stepmom), but our realtor stopped by to take the lockbox off our front door and, upon learning it was Sophie's birthday, whipped a $20 bill out of her wallet and gave it to the extremely delighted child, amidst our protests! So we took her to Wally-World and let her have a little shopping spree. What fun that was! 

But back to Saturday, her special day... We were headed out to do a plethora of mystery shops that I'd lined up for the weekend, but the first one didn't pan out (and none of the rest 'cept one did, in the end), so we ended up in Miami's Bayside Marketplace. In all my years living in Miami the first time around, I'd never made it to Bayside, which turned out to be a feast for the eyes and ears. What a bizarre bazaar! I instantly loved it.

The kids meandered around for a while, looking at this and that, before they happened upon the family bikes for rent. We didn't get a chance to ride that day, but we've done it before and I'm sure we'll do it again one day. Or have we? I can't remember, now that I think of it, when we actually did, so maybe I just made that part up.

After that, Sophia got to ride in the carousel, choosing of course to sit in the spinny-thingy that she loves so much, for the mystery shop portion of our visit to Bayside. I'd have let the other kids go, too, but fundage is at a premium right now and I could only let one kid go. Being the birthday kid, choosing Sophie was a no-brainer.

She also got to ride the train, as part of my evaluation, but she didn't sit here for long, oh no, she didn't!

Instead, she climbed into the caboose (after determining that she wasn't allowed to ride in the engine car) and pretended she was a caged lion at the circus. Silly girl!!

The ticket seller gave me a free punching balloon for her birthday. I don't know about you, but I love a punching balloon, and I'm pretty damn good at it, too. Much better than these goons kids of mine, but Jack is getting to be the best of the bunch at it. Sophia and Chloë, er, not so good...

That ^^^ is what I had to do after the mystery shop portion of our visit. And so, I did. 

Since we were at the Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. restaurant for me to GO, the kids were posing outside in Forrest's photo-op bench and shoes for Rob. Silliness.

Across from the restaurant was this enormous banyan tree, which is my second favorite kind of tree, I think, after palm trees. This one was about 100 years old, though they can live to be about 1,000 years. Did you know that when the branches reach down all the way into the ground, they grow into new roots of the tree? Isn't that amazing?!

Chloë had fun climbing up into the tree, and then Rob joined her. He climbed quite a bit higher, but not as high as he'd wanted to go before he got stuck with slick branches from the thunderstorm we'd gotten earlier that day. Indeed, the flooded roads are what stopped me from being able to get to my first mystery shop on time.

After climbing the banyan tree, we stopped at Häagen-Dazs to get ice cream for Sophia. Again, I couldn't afford to get treats for all three kids and still do my mystery shops (which I later ended up abandoning anyway), and I had a coupon for one small kid's cone, so Sophia got it. She did share with her brother and sister, but Jack ended up crying about the ice cream and made me feel like complete crap. He knows we don't have a ton of money and that the birthday kid is the one who gets somewhat spoiled on their day, just like he did, but it's still hard to understand and accept at 10 years old... so I told him and Chloë they could each spend a dollar or two on something at the market. Again, ::sigh::

Chloë was simpler, as usual, as she's relatively easy to please and Jack is impossible. She wanted her fortune told, so we spent her dollar on that. Sophia ended up getting her fortune read, too. Except it was funny, because Chloë hit the button for Spanish, and the fortune teller switched to Spanish for all of his mumbo-jumbo, of which I undertood not a word this time. Bah. 

Jack's tastes aren't cheap - everything he wants has wheels or is some mode of transportation or another, and he pointed out things that cost anywhere from ten bucks to $200! Um, no. I said a dollar, Jacky darling...

The girls were in heaven when we found this corner of a toy store decked out in Hello Kitty, well, everything! Sophia urged me to get the HK steering wheel, but I passed. Hee. I could just see me driving Penelope around with that on it, right?

In a shell shop, Sophia put a dried-out sea star on her ear and pretended to be a mermaid. That's another thing she loves - mermaids. She did look pretty with it there, I have to say.

Across the hall, we headed into the Brookstone store to see if there was anything (bahahaa) Jack wanted and could afford. I knew we wouldn't, but I humored the lad. We all found various massaging apparati that we all desperately wanted - and needed, you see, because we still don't have our household goods from the move and have been sleeping on tile floors for almost 2 weeks now. Talk about your aching bones!

Finally, we found a candy store - which is seriously the last thing Jack really needs - and he got some Pop Rocks and a push-up thingamajig to spend his buck-fitty on. Ah, well. Remind me to call a dentist tomorrow, m'kay?

Right after that, the kids were begging to go to the beach, which we'd promised this weekend, but first, Sophia had to dance to the salsa and merengue music playing outside by (I'm guessing) a local band. She stopped after I took this picture, came over to me, and whispered, "I'm kind of embarrassed, Mom. I don't know how to dance in public." So cute!

And then, there was a fountain as we made our way over to the merengue band, so of course I had to fish three pennies out of my satchel to let them each make a wish. Rob and I abstained for once, though we usually join in and toss a coin or two.

At the bandstand, there were plenty of listeners up front and center dancing to the music. Good times, good times, and no, I'm not near brave enough to have joined them. Not in a million years, though I like to listen and watch!

On our way over to the parking garage, Sophia spotted a man twisting up balloon animals. She ran over and told him it was her birthday, so he asked her to pick a color and tell him what she wanted. He didn't speak much English, so she just dove into his bucket of balloons and fished out a blue one, asking for a dog. He whipped it up in no time flat, then made the sign of the cross and wished her many blessings for her birthday. Nice.

A pretty smile and a blue poodle. A bloodle?

At last, we made it out to Key Biscayne. First stop was Diver's Paradise, the dive shop where I used to work back in the day, to visit "the Omars" who own it. Only, Omar Jr. wasn't there because his wife had just had a baby boy, and Omar Sr. wasn't there because of the awful diving weather earlier in the day. Bummer; it's a looooong, long drive out to Key Biscayne from Homestead, so I don't know when I'll get out there to see them again. I will, though - count on that - but probably not before we get a dive in on the other end of the Florida Keys.

Y por fin, we made it to la playa.  Those are my buried feet at the bottom of the picture; I'd have shown you my piggie toes, but my toenails aren't painted, and once, in college, a guy told me that girls' feet are ugly if the toenails aren't painted. Hee!

Sophia was the only one who'd kept her bathing suit on after (we thought) the thunderstorms altered our plans to go to the beach, so she plunged RIGHT in the water and had herself a birthday ball. That, right there, is a happy, happy 8-year-old.

Somewhere between the Sophie picture and this one, I'd dropped my iPhone and my keys into the water. Only, I didn't realize at the time about the keys, since I was so intent on rescuing my phone to get the next great picture. Hm. We'll revisit that later. See the muck behind Chloë, where Jack is? It was gooey and goopy, and she ran through it shouting, "EW! EW! EW! EW! EW!" in a very Chloë-like way.

Rob found this whorling shell - a mini conch, mayhaps? - in the low tidal zone, and thus began a collection between him and Sophia. They found many a cool shell that day.

And then, someone found a crab in the water, and all the Latinos ran screaming away, yelling (in Spanish) that it was poisonous and would kill them. I laughed and said it wouldn't, so my girl Sophia was the first one to dive back in and check out the crab. The Latino children kept running over, screaming, and running away, in a most amusing - albeit histrionic - way.

A while later, I managed to find this itty-bitty hermit crab walking in the shallows, so I gave the kids an on-the-spot lesson about the crabs, their unique anatomy, and how they make their living.

After that, Sophia hollered to me, "Look, Mom! I'm a water skipper!" and then she proceeded to run, splashing, across the top of the water like a little beetle. She's great fun, that kid.

Finally, Jack decided to brave the muck. He rolled up his pant legs, with Daddy's help, and made his way over to me. In this picture, he was telling me there was no WAY he could manage to stay in the muck and water...

...but pretty soon, realizing the fun that was to be had in the calm waters of Hobie Beach, he got over himself. I love, love, looove to see this boy have a good time.

And there's me, freckling up like a freckly frecklepuss. Check it out, I have hair again!

True to form, Sophia made a new friend. She does this absolutely everywhere she goes. The thing I loved most about this instance, though, was that Ana didn't speak a lick of Spanish, and yet Sophia still managed to pal around with her. They talked through me. Chloë and Soph asked a billion questions of Ana, and we learned that her favorite color is red, her favorite food is fried rice with eggs, she's 8 years old, and she has a pet bird.

Meanwhile, Rob was walking around, solo for the most part, on the far end of Hobie Beach. I loved watching him connect with nature and enjoy himself. I think he's home. At last, it's his turn to shine, and he will do it well, I know.

After a while, an ice cream truck sung out its offerings on the shore, and Ana dashed immediately over to her mother to ask for some helado. Naturally, so did my trio of hooligans. Remembering that Sophia had already had Häagen-Dazs that day, I threw sense to the wind and decided to make it right with Jack. So they all got ice cream. Though wouldn't you know it, three bites into his Spongebob sherbet, Jack decided his was too cold, and he didn't want it anymore. The little shit!

Sophia and her new amiguita, Ana, enjoying ice cream together wordlessly

After ice cream, Sophia apparently channeled Brookstone to give her sister and brother foot massages in the water. Jack was too squeamish to let her rub sand on his feet, though, so he ran squealing away as soon as I snapped this Instamography.

Not long after that, the sun was setting for the day, and, knowing our shark friends like to come closer to shore at that time of day, we rounded up our little'uns and started to head toward the sand. Satisfied, we were, that a full day was had, so no complaints ensued.

Sophia and Ana hugged good-bye, promising to see each other soon (though we have no way of reaching Ana). Somehow, these flowers materialized out of nowhere, and Ana gave them to Sophie, wishing her a very happy 8^th birthday. Despite the ice cream stains and sand on her chin, I still think she looks beautiful here.

Immediately, Sophia decided to play "bride" and, turning around, threw the bouquet to her sister to catch. The flowers went all over the place, the girls went under water to catch them, and I had myself a good belly laugh. Hence the blur.

We got up to the arena, and Sophia dropped down to make sand angels. Of course! Who wouldn't want their wet and sand-covered birthday girl in their nice Honda Odyssey, ya know? I didn't care. It's such a messy Penelope right now, and I need to clean it out anyway...

Once we got back to Penny, I realized that I didn't have my keys. What? The doors were unlocked, too, so I scoured the front seat for them, to no avail. I sent Sophia back to where we'd left our shoes, but soon I realized that I had never put my keys down there in the first place. That's when I remembered dropping my phone. Just as a couple holding hands strolled by, I dashed down to the shallow water, and there were my keys, half-buried. I shouted, "I FOUND THEM!" to Sophia, and the male half of the couple exclaimed, "Wow! You were so lucky!" Indeed.

Sophia mentioned something about her birthday cake being the last thing she needed to make her day complete, and that's when I remembered that, oh yeah, I'd made no plans for a cake! Oops. We stopped halfway home at the Publix where I worked in college, and I chatted up Little Richard in the produce department while Sophia picked out some strawberries. My girl loves her some strawberries like nothin' else. She always tries to find the biggest one. Look at her! She's such a goose.

It was so big, she pretended she was a pig with an apple in her mouth. Jack wanted to cook her, but that's where I drew the line.  I know, I'm such a good mom.

The berries were super juicy, and I had absolutely NOTHING of my cake-making schtuff to work with, so I did the best I could. Sophia didn't care a wit. She said it was the most beautiful cake ever, and she loved it. Who could argue with that?

I had a bite, but it was one bite too many. On the other hand, Sophia has managed to sneak about 2/3 of the cake since last night, so I guess the chocolate cake-and-strawberry frosting combo (which Jack said tasted like Mentos gum) was too her liking. 

And that, my friends, is how you do a birthday 'round these parts.

Thanks for stopping by our little corner of the blahgisphere. Hope you'll stick around.

Fin.

Sundays In My City: Neighborhood Walks

For a long time now, I've been reading Sundays in My City posts by Mrs. 4444 over at Half Past Kissin' Time. I love them; they're a great way to be introduced to a town I've never visited. I've never posted before, but now that I'm in a new-again city (Miami, for those of you who haven't hung on every word I've written in the past four or five months - what what what?!), I plan to participate on a regular basis. Thanks, Unknown Mami, for hosting us! {And if you want to read more SiMC posts, click on the badge at the top of this post.}

This post will be about our walks exploring around our new neighborhood, since I don't know much about Homestead and since we're trying to conserve gas right now, too. This is Chloë, 11½ - our oldest hija. I love her pool get-up, since the ultimate goal for yesterday was to find the neighborhood clubhouse and pool/playground. The hat is from my new close friend, Miss Lisa (not to be confused with my BFF, Dr. Lisa), and the rest of the outfit is from her own collection, aka her closet. ;P

Since we left snow and cold weather back in Virginia (I have to stop myself from continually saying "back home," since this is home now) and have sun and mid-80º weather here, the flowers are everywhere and really striking. Especially the hibiscus. I'll show several more in this post, but these bright orange blooms are my favorite. After the color of the sea, orange and green are my favorite colors, too. Love.

Sophia, who will be 8 on Saturday and our younger hija, loves to tuck them behind her ear. 

I call these "palm carcasses," and they're everywhere. You really have to watch out for them; they're not a soft landing spot if you trip over one.

The kids were really bummed out to learn that the pool and playground were unavailable during renovations over the next couple of weeks, but I tried to lift their spirits by telling them that at least it had been closed since Wednesday, meaning both the fortnight was already a quarter over and that we hadn't wasted four days not going to the pool when it wasn't open anyway, but guess what? That didn't help. Not a bit. So we hung out in the gazebo and planned future picnics in what some graffito had described  as "the chill spot."

Afterward, we headed across the street to one of many lakes in the area. The kids wanted to look for gators, but really, I'm about 99% certain they won't find them in this lake. You can never be too careful, though, so we didn't take our eyes off them for a second! That's Jack, 10, on the right, with his hermanas.

Just before I took this picture of Rob and Jack, they were sitting exactly the same way. Then, of course, Jack moved. I still like the picture, though, maybe because Jack rarely lets me photograph him. He's pretty camera-shy.

Sophia having fun with sunscreen! She's such a goose. I love her pudgy little still-babyish legs...

When we headed back home, we encountered this ol' girl wandering around unclaimed. I got ahold of her and found a collar but no tags. We named her Cousin Itt, because we weren't sure if she were a he at first, and she was quite hairy. She was sweet and docile, blind (at least partially) in both eyes, and unkempt. We couldn't find an owner in sight, so Rob whipped his drawstring out of his shorts for a makeshift leash, and we took her home to call Animal Control. (He's a handy one, that guy.)

Cousin Itt paced around our backyard for a while, drank a lot of water and ate a little food, and then she settled in for what we thought was the weekend. Rob put up a tarp for her in case it rained (our six cats and our lease all said we couldn't keep her inside), since Animal Control doesn't work weekends. Alas, she started barking and wouldn't stop no matter how much I tried to calm her. We had to cut her loose before we got in trouble. She loped off in the direction in which she came, and we surmised that maybe an owner was missing her after all. We hoped. She didn't have many days left, we thought.

I can count on one hand the number of times I cooked dinner at the crappy Portsmouth house, because we had barely any cookware and the kitchen suuuucked. Well, to give Rob a break, to prove to the kids that Mommy really can cook, and because I actually do enjoy it, I plan to change that now that we have a decent place in which to do it! Chloë is so amazed, she's keeping a chart of who cooks when. So far it's Mom 3, Dad 1 (tonight, when I still suggested the breakfast-for-dinner menu of eggs, waffles, and sausage); little does Chloë know, I plan to use it to teach her many things about charting, mean/median/mode, and so forth! Anyway, last night's dinner was Shrimp Scampi a la Farfallini for Rob and me, plain farfalle for Jack, and farfalle with sauce for the girls. I don't like to cater like that normally, but we had the ingredients to please everyone and I really don't like to battle over food.

And for dessert, we had Granny Smith slices with peanut butter. Sophia tends toward the chubby side, and after several weeks with junky food and lack of activity, it had started to show enough to concern me. We're switching back to eating healthfully much more of the time. And guess what? No complaints about it at all. Whew.

After dinner, while I was cleaning up the kitchen, Sophie surprised me with a pretty bouquet of flowers. We don't have all our household goods yet, so I had to use Jack's Cars cup. Suits me just fine!

Today, while Rob stayed home with Sophia while she bathed, the Bigs and I took a walk around the more immediate neighborhood of ours. This is the view to the left, as we stepped outside our door. Steph requested more pictures of the scenery, so I obliged her today with my constant Instagramming iphoneography.

Today's hibiscus is brought to you by the color pink!

Behind the next set of buildings is another lake, and all around the apartments there were oodles of clutches of duck eggs. So cool. The kids loved finding those!

We even found a mama Muscovy protecting her unhatched brood. What a neat find that was! (I'm sure she loved me peering in so closely at her, but, y'know. I'm a scientist, so it's okay, and I told her that.)

We even found a weeks-old duckling wandering about, unparented. He didn't like me chasing him down for the picture, either, and some drakes in the area got pretty nervous about it, too. They didn't listen to my whole scientist spiel, so we left 'em alone after that.

Just before I took this picture of the kids, Chloë breathed, "It's beautiful here." I agree. I mean, how could you not be happy? I'm enthralled with it all.

On the sunny side of the complex, we find gigantical hibiscus blooms, as big as my hand! Holy moly! (I mean, I do have small hands and all, but those are some big fleurs. Yeah, some French, too. What? We have Haitians too, y'know.)

Earlier on a walk, Rob and the kids spotted an ibis. (UM's mascot; hello, Sebastian) I missed out on that and got doves instead. Glorified pigeons. Harumph. Oh, well. All God's creatures.

See that little structure, way in the back, there? That's Mailbox Central. We don't use it. We don't get our mail yet. We have a box, and we have a PO Box, too, but so far they're just for show. Le sigh. I'm expecting an enormous parcel of mail whenever it eventually catches up with us!

Some more hibiscus. I like the pretty color, but I don't like the shrively varietal as much as the flatter kind.

Five kittens were under one staircase, looking for food, on the non-lake side of the complex. They were so adorable, Chloë actually cried. She emotes well; no wonder she's an actress. And no, we're not taking any more cats into this house!

So that's our neighborhood. Welcome, y'all! I mean, you guys. I need to stop that y'all business now that I'm out of Virginia, right? (I probably won't. I mean, it is pretty useful for those lazy typing and speech times...)

Oh, Sophia didn't want you to forget about her, so one last appearance from her. Wait, something nicer, please, huh?

Such silliness. I guess not! Hee.

Thanks for stopping by, and have a great week, y'all. Er, uh, yeah.

Fin.

P.S. Lest you think we're on a permanent break from homeschooling, just because we don't have all our school stuff, doesn't mean we're not doing it. I've gotten in lots of unconventional teaching, including the aforementioned math lessons, cooking lessons, lessons about plants (parts of a flower not the least of them), lots of reading, and so on. It's happening. Trust.

This Week In Pictures

Sunday

When last we left off here, it was Easter Sunday, so that's where I'll pick up. The kitty pictures in the last post were from then, too.  In the top of the pool picture, here, is Sophia swimming.  Whenever she has gotten in the pool here in Florida, she starts doing what we've termed the "Sophie Paddle" right away. She can do strokes that are more akin to real swimming, too, but she much prefers the Sophie Paddle. I was the same way, doggie paddlin' to and fro until I was forced into doing real strokes.

In the top pic, I was on our 4th floor balcony looking down, on my way to visit the kiddos and Rob at the pool. He'd been doing that, whilst I pounded the internetty pavements looking for a place for us to live. Jacky was freezing when I arrived, so I collected him and headed back to our hotel room. We stopped at the fountain near the elevator for him to take a closer look; all three of my kids are suckers for fountains, like their mama!

Monday

On Monday, sick of eating whatever we could get nearby in the way of fast food, we decided to go get groceries and do some more looking around. We headed up north to Coral Gables and South Miami, where I did a restaurant mystery shop and then to Publix in the 'Gables, where I used to work in my college days. Anyway, before we left, I gave Sophia her birthday present: a pair of "Chameleon" Crocs (they change color when wet) and a bunch of Hello Kitty Jibbitz. They had Hello Kitty Crocs, too, but none small enough for her feet. It's just as well; the Jibbitz are more visible on these!

The edges of the Chameleons are what change color, so when we encountered a post-rainshower puddle later at the hotel, she walked on the outside edges of her feet to get them to change colors! It was so funny, and terribly Sophia-y of her. I had a photo of it, but it seems to have disappeared, and I'm too lazy to go copy it from Facebook at the moment. (I'm Instagramming all my photos like crazy now, since I have no camera and just the iPhone 5. Woohoo for iPhone 5's awesome camera focus!)

Before we headed into Publix, we ventured into the park to play while there was still sunlight. It's directly across from the store. New since I worked there are these exercise equipment pieces like bikes, bars, and more. Awesome additions, IMO! Chloë tried the bike first.

This picture makes me giggle. After Chloë dismounted, Jack climbed up, but lo and behold, he's too short for the pedals. Heehee! Nothing stops my boy from doing what he wants!

I wish I could've gotten a picture of Sophia climbing up on this thing in her usual gymnastic way, but no, she was too fast. She swung upside down, hooked her legs around, and only then pulled up the rest of her body. Typical.

Just as the sun was going down, sans flash, I snapped this shot of Sophia squatting on a nearby machine. She's not wearing the Crocs, though. Weird. I know it was the same day...? She must have had them in the car and switched. Goof.

My kids always gravitate toward the lobster tank in whatever grocery store they visit. Each time is like the first time; they're always so amazed. Future marine biologists??

What amazed me: I looked around to see if any of my old coworkers were there. Lo and behold, Richy Rich was still there, working in the Produce department. And he remembered me! He remembered my old traits, too, as he laughed with Rob about how fast I jibber-jabber away... he helped me pick out some fresh produce and even some cheese, when I couldn't decide what to pair with our loaf of Cuban bread. He wanted me to take a round of Brie, but I went for a cheaper ball of fresh mozz, in case you're interested. And it was delish!

In the end, we feasted on fresh fruits, including apples, oranges, mango, and more, and veggies, including the teensiest "baby" carrots I've ever seen. We had shrimp with spicy cocktail sauce, Babybel and mozzarella cheeses with our Cuban bread, and strawberries and watermelon. The kids drank milk, while we sipped Asti Spumante. There's still some in the refrigerator; I wonder if it's any good... And we garnished it all with this giant aloe, uh, sprig. What do you call a piece of aloe, anyway?

Tuesday

Having discovered sometime on Monday that there was no way we could afford to pay both for a hotel room and a security deposit on a place to live, and having just forked over a week's worth of hotel rent for a second place closer to where I was sure we'd end up, I really started scouring the 'net in earnest for a place. I posted an ad myself on Craigslist, and then started being very selective in the ads to which I responded with a message stating that we were a military family - guaranteed income! and the terms we needed. Only a couple people responded, and I made an appointment for 5:00 PM that evening for the one I liked best. The realtor met us there at 5 on the dot, and let us in. Rob liked it okay, and for me it was love at first sight. She strung us along as she filled out the application for us, and then she turned around, with the keys in her hand, and said she was going to trust us with "her" house and just had a good feeling about us. Then she handed me the keys, and I paid her the first month's rent. WE WERE IN LIKE FLYNN! WOOHOO!!!! A place to live, at last. It's in Homestead, Florida, in a beautiful neighborhood, close to US 1 and the Florida Turnpike and a host of great shops and stores. Awesome!

Here are the kids celebrating in our gorgeous black-and-white kitchen!

♪ ♫ Celebrate good times, come on! ♫ ♪

Our new master bedroom, ...

...and the master bath.

When Rob came back from the hotel room where he was recollecting our paid monies, he celebrated first with Chloë whilst I snapped this picture. I LOVE this photo! I look at it all the time. Even though my current laptop screen distorts the picture, it looks beautiful to me. ♥

The kiddos standing in front of our new home

And the view of the neighbors' building across the parking lot from ours, which looks just the same except more yellow.

Wednesday

No pictures from this day. I woke up at 0200 and started working on a grocery list, as we had very little left to eat and I did not want to spend our dollars on junk. I was able to get SOOOO much food at the Publix down the road, for not terribly much moolah, using deals and coupons. I love that store. And that one store in particular. It was clean and spacious, and every single person there that I encountered smiled, greeted at me, and generally passed my 'mystery shopper extraordinaire' tests. They all really seemed to enjoy their jobs. I think I'll put an application in there, having realized we're both going to have to work if we're going to be able to afford to live here!

After groceries, I took a nap. It was noon by then, and I was tired. Afterward, we went to Wags and CVS to get some more deals, since I'd worked on coupons for there, too. And we went waaaaay the hell out to the realtor's office to finish our HOA application. They required so much, and since we had already moved in the night before, the only reason I can think of was to get an extra $100 application fee out of us. Ah, well. Everywhere around here requires it, so there's no use trying to get out of that.

Thursday

I had taken three or four mystery shops for this day, so we set off in the afternoon to take care of those. We aren't allowed to use the pool or playground until the HOA approves us, so when home, we've just been hanging out and putting what little we have away. And cleaning. We have been cleaning pretty much nonstop, since it rains every day and we have tile floors. After I finished two of the mystery shops, it looked like rain, so we headed to an indoor-outdoor mall just to walk around. It ended up only raining three small droplets, but on the plus side, we discovered we were in exactly the right place for my last shop of the day! The first shop we came across was It's Sugar, a mega-huge candy store.

Rob picked up this huge 5-lb jawbreaker. Can you imagine? How would you eat that?!

Sophia found this mondo wall of Peeps and stuffed Peeps toys. This picture only shows a small fraction of what was there. It was cray-cray!

We found so many humongo things in this store. It was ridick! This picture made an impression on my Facebook friends, too. It got tons of 'likes' and comments throughout the evening. Can you see why? Look at that stuff! It was a real-life Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs in there!

After we finished up at the sugar shack, we headed across the way to the Disney Store. I asked the guy about pricing for military families, since we plan to head up there and do that thang sometime during our existence here, but he had no clue. Then he gave the girls some coloring pages and crayons to color with, while I watched and the boys browsed. We had no intentions of buying things, and we didn't, since I'd barely brought enough money to do my shops.

Jack was so cute with these Wreck-It Ralph gloves. We'd just gotten the DVD in the mail before we left Virginia, from Amazon or something, so the kids watched it several times on the way down here and are now in love with the flick. He was all over the WIR display there. I love this face on him!

After the Disney Store, we meandered into Barnes & Noble to poke around. I remembered we needed to get Rob a study guide for the SAT, which he needs to get into his planned nursing course of study here at Florida International University. I found one and hoped they would give me my teacher's discount, but of course I didn't have any kind of ID they would use, and my ID in their system had expired several years ago. So... they refused. Bummer! But I was still able to get Rob the book, and now mah boy is gittin' ready for college!

I had a few quarters in my satchel, so we walked over to this carousel to let the kiddos take a spin. Only, when I put the quarters in and pressed "Start," the music started but the ride did not. I pressed "Start" a million times to no avail. Finally, I gave the ride a push in the right direction, and it went. Boom! Ta-da!

One fish for each kid - how convenient!

It's hard to see in this picture, but underneath the fish, behind that wall, was a sheer wall of water that the kids wanted to plunge into right away. Sophia would have if we'd blinked, too, I bet.

Daddy spinning Chloë, after spinning her younger brother and sister... we were all pretty wound up by that point!

I simply adore this photo of Sophia dipping her hand in yet another fountain, after the sun had gone down for the night.

Posing with my mini-me

I have absolutely nothing to say about this picture, other than we liked the structure behind them and we found another Johnny Rockets right next to it. Our new favorite restaurant... well, for that night. One of many, really.

Finally, Rob and the Bigs sat in the van in the parking garage watching another DVD - this time Frankenweenie, which we had also just gotten delivered from Amazon to the hotel room before we left it - while Sophia and I did the last mystery shop of the night. After buying Rob's SAT study guide, I didn't have enough money for all of us to do the shop, so I took Sophie since (a) she wanted it most, and (b) this is her birthday month. Made her happy!

After that, we headed home - home!! - and I got wicked dizzy, not for the first time. I realized it stopped when we were at a light, and at the gas station filling up - and started up again when I drove. It worsened when I accelerated. So now we need to figure that out and take care of yet another Melanie issue.

Friday

No pictures again from this day. I spent Thursday night through Saturday morning in "bed," such as it is (which consists of sleeping bags on the hard tile floor, yech), suffering from caffeine-withdrawal headaches and over-tiredness. So was Friday. Rob and the kids didn't do much other than finally go get the electric and water turned on in our name, now that we had the lease in our hands. We prayed and prayed, since we didn't have the money until payday, and God answered our prayers: they waived the security deposit since he was in the military, and put the $40-some connection fee toward the first bill. Hallelujah! Now if we could just find a ladder to borrow to put the new batteries we bought in the forever-chirping smoke detectors!

Well, I'm going to cut off here, 'cause I'm getting kinda tired and that means you're probably getting tired of reading! I'll post more later or tomorrow. Cheers to all!

Fin.

Fun Family Splurging - On The Cheap

I've been doing a lot of mystery shops again lately, so we have been out and about as a family frequently. On Thursday, I had stacked about seven shops back-to-back, and I did not relish the idea of going back home, tired and worn out, to a messy, half-packed, midst-of-moving house. So I broached the idea of getting a hotel room for the night to Rob, and he was all in! So I went on the Hotels.com app on my iPhone and booked us a room at The Aloft in Chesapeake for a heavily discounted price.

We had actually never heard of The Aloft, so we had no idea what to expect, but all five of us were delighted and impressed! It was a really neat hotel, with great service (say hi to Justin for us if you go - the night clerk at the Front Desk) and awesome details. We liked it so much, and the off-season rate was so great, we ended up staying for two nights!

While I rested, and then worked on mystery shop reports, Rob took the kids to the hotel pool two or three times. Sophia is swimming like a little fishy now - okay, like a puppy, since she still doggy-paddles for the most part - and does wonderfully in the water.

Meanwhile, even Jack has finally decided to start swimming! Yay, Buddy! He can't go too far, or for too long, but it's a start. On the other hand, Chloë is still quite timid in the water and barely manages to jump in from the side... but I know she'll get there.

On the second night, I stopped by the bar to get drinks for Rob and me. However, the bartender (hey, Lisa!) was closing, so I got him a bottle of beer to go and ordered this Bahama Mama for myself. It was delish. And strong. I got so plastered by the third sip! Thankfully alcohol hits me hard and fast, and gets processed by my new system just as quickly, so it had worn off almost by the time I got back to our loft and needed to work on reports!

After my buzz wore off, I was quite thirsty, so I asked "my favorite child" to get my Coke out of the fridge. Naturally, all three of them decided they were that child (and they were right!), so they went, giggling, together to the fridge and fetched it, delivered it, and presented it with smiles as a team. Love my funny gang! ♥

On Saturday morning, before we had breakfast and checked out, I went to the pool to see the latest swimming exploits and knit (and, okay, snooze some more) while the kids swam with Rob. I loved the atmosphere in there... definitely want to return to another The Aloft in the future. Sometime.

On Monday, Steph and Tim babysat for us while we went out for a date/mystery shop at a restaurant bar. We went to the Walmart around the corner from the restaurant afterward, ostensibly to pick up a load of cat food, but we were looking around and came across a whole bunch of super-duper clearanced toys that we knew the kids would love. When we went to pick them up from Stim, we left their new toys in their car seats and let them discover them upon returning to the van. What joy! What glee! What fun! Here is Sophia's newly updated Lalaloopsy collection, with April Showers (the newest one) in the center.

On Tuesday, en route to lots more shops and other errands, we all found ourselves very hungry for dinner. So, we took advantage of the Kids Eat Free special that day at Chili's and had a really inexpensive dinner, with Rob and I getting the combo dinner and all three kids eating for nada. The chips and spicy corn guamacole were SO good!!

And yesterday (Wednesday), we had LOADS of fun. While Rob and Jack went to Lynnhaven Mall in Virginia Beach to get Rob a haircut, I took the girls to Sunshine Smiles, A Kids' Spa around the corner. I had given Sophie a gift certificate to spend $20 there (which I'd actually gotten for FREE on LivingSocial!) for Christmas, and it's just taken this long to get time to get her in there. The girls were so hilarious during the visit.

For her money, Sophia was able to get a manicure and make two lip glosses (an experience she shared with her big sis), and the first thing she did after the way-awesome Michelle set her up was soak her nails and hands. She sighed dreamily during this experience. Goof!

Michelle quickly realized that Sophia was going to be quite a little wiggle worm during her mani - as she ALWAYS is, but even more so because she was so excited to be there - and she and I kept bursting into laughter about Sophia's hilarious antics and attempts to stay still. Such a goose. Here, she was having some kid crap (glue, maybe?) removed from her hands.

Sophia happily looked on as Michelle painted her nails a lovely shade of sea blue-green (my favorite color!) that Chloë helped her pick out. Poor Michelle had to touch up her nails about five or six times, because she would NOT STOP MOVING!

I love her cute little pudgy baby hands - the only thing about Soap that's still wee, I'm afraid - and her pretty nails. 

Sophia was dying to lie down on the spa lounges and let her nails dry, so she inveigled her way into that with Michelle after promising not to smudge her nails. She was sooo happy, even if she didn't also get the cucumber slices on her eyes that she also requested!

Chloë chillaxed next to Sophie and did her usual model pose when I asked to take her picture. Always preening for the camera, that one!

Finally, when the nails were sufficiently dry (and after more touch-ups), it was time to go to the lipgloss-making station. They were able to pick their own colors to add to the balm bases and put lots of glitter in there, too. Of course, both of my girly girls wanted to use shades of pink.

Glitter time!  Sophie added the pink and the silver to hers for some major sparkle.

Then, the girls were given sticks to apply their new lipglosses to their puckers. Chloë did a pretty good little job not getting it all over the place.

Sophia, meanwhile, had quite a bit of trouble getting hers just so and not glopping it all over the lower third of her face, so Mama had to step in and help her out after she wiped off the first attempt. It actually looked pretty good on her!

So that was that fun-ness, and all for the cost of just a tip to Michelle! Thanks, Sunshine Smiles!

After that, it was Jack's turn for some fun, since this is his tenth birthday month, and we are celebrating him all month long! I had $20 in gift certificates to Build-A-Bear Workshop, (five for his birthday present and the other $15 from rewards for the Christmas gifts I'd gotten from there), so I instructed Jack on from which three least pricey stuffies he could choose - after all, the goal was to go cheap or go home - and he picked a pooch!

The store employee helped him stuff his dog, and he was sooo excited to fluff him up. He worked that pedal pretty quickly!

The employee then had Jack pick out a heart for his dog, and rub it on his face for smarts, cheek for cute, etc. Jack had a ball doing this and was giggling his little peanut head off! It's so great to see him genuinely smiling, since he's kind of a grump usually!

Next it was time for an air bath to keep the newly fluffed and minted puppy clean. More real smiles from the boy!

After a bath, Puppy needed some new clothes. Jack chose the camouflage outfit, which he seems to be into lately. Like his Dad!

Daddy helped dress the easily-frustrated Jack's dog. The two of them are so cute together and have really been male-bonding a lot lately. I love to see it!

Lastly, it was time to adopt Roger, the dog, into Jack's growing BAB family. He was thrilled, and I peeked in on him a couple times during last night and found him clutching Roger tightly in his sleep.

After that, I had to do some more mystery shopping in the mall, but once again, everyone had gotten hungry. I told the kids we could grab just a little something to eat in the Food Court first, so we headed upstairs to snack on samples (hey, free belly filler) and then pick what we wanted to eat. Jack actually wanted to ride the escalator upstairs, which is unusual because he's terrified of it. And he still balked when he got over there, but then, he did it! He got on and rode up on his own (usually one of us has to carry him)! Yay, Jacky!!

Well, call us pushovers, because when we got to the top of the escalator, Cold Stone Creamery was right there, and Sophie shouted out, "Ice Cream!" Rob and I quickly conferred and decided to have an upside-down meal: dessert at the mall, then dinner later at home. The kids LOVE when we do that, of course!

We only got small (still going for cheap) kid-size ice creams for then, with one mix-in each, but they didn't seem to care. Or notice, I'm not sure which. Ice cream is ice cream, right?

After the kids had their ice creams, I wandered around the Food Court (leaving Rob with the children) to figure out what I wanted to eat. Usually, it only takes a few sample bites to fill me up these days, so I wasn't really expecting to buy anything. However, I came across Cupcake Central - and, lo and behold, it was their Happy Hour Wednesday special! Amazing cupcakes for a buck each! Sweet. (heh, no pun intended) I bought six, because I couldn't bear the thought of having an empty hole in the box. When I walked back with the box, I told the kids they were for later, but I let them have this sneak peek!

However, after a few minutes, Sophie wanted to look at hers up close, so I let her. Isn't she funny?! She kills me. And even though these were supposed to be "for later," the next thing I knew, she had peeled off the wrapper and shoved almost the whole thing in her face at once! I dropped my jaw and then died laughing, which made her laugh and spit cupcake out of her mouth all over the place. Oh, man. I was in total hysterics.  Sophie is just as nutty as I am!

I did my last shop at the mall after that, and then we headed home. Rob fed the kids some mac & cheese for dinner, while I took yet-another much-needed cat nap. 

When I woke up, the kids were getting ready to go to bed. However, Sophia got into her lip gloss again and came jokingly stomping in to the room, blurting out, "Still can't get the hang of it, Mom!" I took one look and begged her to let me take this picture. 

Ahhh... good times, good times... and y'all know I love a great deal!

Fin.

Wordy Wednesday Times Two - A Look Back On February

Just because, y'know, I barely posted, and I know how much all three of you (if I even have THAT many readers left; holla if you're still here!) want to keep up with us! ;)

In the beginning, Sophie got up in the middle of the night to play with a new set of LEGO Friends

We went out for that Japanese hibachi dinner I mentioned... and I had scallops. I'm going to return to vegetarianism when we move back to Miami, if not sooner, so this was a penultimate hurrah.

I snagged a bunch of cool K'nex toys (and similar) from a friend for Jack, and the boys have spent HOURS playing and building.

We visited my buddy Saritah and had a fantabuloso time - hope to do it again soon, too!

I started "collecting" vanity plates again - this one makes me snicker.

The kiddies and I had a delishimus lunch at Panera, a longtime fave of ours.

The kiddos took their last month of instrument lessons - well, Chloë (piccolo/flute) and Jack (keyboard) did. Sophie gave up (guitar) several months ago. :\

Sophie played with the make-up set I gave her and Chloë; afterward, she ran up to me doing this, and said, "Mommy, I'm a zombie clown!" I died laughing.

Pepper-the-adorablest-cat-ever and Chloë continued their mutual admiration.

We brought Rob lunch at work and spent some lovey-dovey time together.

The girls picked out my outfit, and I actually really liked it. So we skipped to my Lou, my darlin'.

Donuts were enjoyed.

One of several visits to Sweet Frog for froyo, a NEW fave of ours

We went to Chuck E. Cheese's a couple times, a kind of guilty pleasure for me.

These boys: two peas in a pod.

This was before The Brawl That Started It All.

The girls, hanging out with their boots, as Sophia put it

Rob and I both had to do a double-take for this one! Really??!

This isn't a great picture - from another mystery shop - but Jacky looks so cute in it, I wanted to share.

And finally, I discovered a new app: Tadaa!

So. What's new with YOU?

Fin.

Aloha Friday

Link up here if you're playing along today!

My question for you this week is:

Which browser do you use? What do you like about it or hate about the others?

I've used IE, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, and on my iPhone, Safari... The iPhone wins, but does Safari work well on PCs? There are lots of things I can't stand about the first three!

So help me, please! Thanks for stopping by, as always.

Fin.

Sunday Stealing: This Bud's For You Meme

This is the last Sunday Stealing with Bud as host, with a new host taking over. Best wishes to both of you!! Link up here if you're playing along this week!

Sunday Stealing: Stealing's Last Meme with Bud

41. WHAT ARE YOUR NICKNAMES?

Smellyann, der!

 

42. WHAT CAR DO YOU DRIVE?

2010 Honda Odyssey, but if I could I'd have a Smart For Two and/or a Miata convertible! ;)

 

43. BEST DATE YOU'VE EVER BEEN ON? (IF MARRIED, before your present spouse)

Gosh...I really have to think back. Okay, picture it. I'm 20 years old, just out of college (yes, I graduated without being "legal," suck) and out with my male roommate and three other guys - just the five of us! Back then they stamped your hand to get into clubs if you were of age, so they would turn around and rub their stamps on my hand to get me in with them. We went out to about 3-4 bars and clubs, and the two hot guys in the group hit on me the whole time. When we got back to the house we were renting for the summer, they were fighting over who... well, let's just say I had a good night. ;)

 

44. WHAT HAPPENED THE LAST TIME YOU CRIED?

It was just a few hours ago, actually, and I cried my eyes out over something Hubs did. I don't really want to say more than that.

 

45. LONGEST SHIFT YOU HAVE WORKED AT A JOB? WHAT WAS THE JOB?

12-hour shift, running the front end (cashiers and baggers) of the Publix in Coral Gables, FL, where I worked through college. Probably after another night of clubbing. I had toooooo much fun in Miami!

 

46. FAVORITE MOVIE?

I'll be your typical girly-girl and say it's a toss-up between Dirty Dancing and the original Grease. Two of the very few things to which I know all the lines - including the songs!

 

47. WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU SANG IN PUBLIC? WHAT DID YOU SING?

Does singing at church count? I sang at our baptism last weekend! (Or was that two weeks ago, now? Time's racing!)

 

48. WHAT WAS YOUR LAST FIGHT ABOUT?

I shall refer you to #44, if you please.

 

49. WHAT STUFF DO YOU NEVER LEAVE THE HOUSE WITHOUT?

My "satchel," as dubbed by a friend of my over-one-shoulder purselet, my iPhone, some sort of lip balm, keys, and usually a wad of coupons and 1-3 kids, these days! Oh, and my giant 7-11 keg o' Diet Coke.

 

50. FAVORITE ITEM OF TECHNOLOGY?

Gotta be my iPhone. Lub lub lub lub lubbit!

 

51. FAVORITE WEB SITE?

Hip2Save! Saves me beaucoup bucks.

 

52. DO YOU SMOKE?

Not only no, but HELL NO. Ick, puke, blech.

 

53. IN YOUR EXPERIENCE, HAVE LONG DISTANCE RELATIONSHIPS WORKED?

Yes, actually.

 

54. DO YOU BELIEVE IN ASTROLOGY?

Not really, although I am a Virgo and I epitomize it, so who knows. Not I, said the fly.

 

55. WHO WAS THE LAST PERSON WHO CALLED YOU?

My hubs

 

56. WHAT WAS THE LAST TEXT MESSAGE YOU RECEIVED?

Yet again, Hubs, and absolutely FILTHY! I cannot share it here, sorreh! ;)

 

57. WHAT ARE YOU WEARING RIGHT NOW?
 
Head to toe: glasses, nose ring, scarf, shrug, tank top (yes, I am dressed rather oddly at the mo'), brassiere, PJ pants, and Crocs flip-flops. Yeah, I'm going Commando. TMI?

 

58. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE SEASON?

Summer! No contest there. Some like it hot.

 

59. BEST THING ABOUT WINTER?

When it ends :\

 

60. DO YOU THINK WTIT IS COOL OR OVERRATED?

To be perfectly frank, I haven't spent enough time there to make that call.

 

61. WHAT ARE YOU DOING THIS WEEKEND?

I was supposed to go to a LASIK consult and then church tonight, but we did neither because 5/5 of us weren't feeling well. Tomorrow, we are all going to a big co-ed baby shower, and the kiddos are so stankin' excited to be included!

 

62. WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE?

At peace with myself. Happy. Content.

 

63. WHAT'S YOUR BIGGEST REGRET?

The one thing in my life I really regret is not getting up out of my hospital bed and demanding that ultrasound when I knew my twins were in trouble. I'll never stop believing that it could have saved my son's life. :(

 

64. ARE YOU SMILING? WHY?

Right now, no, because I have a headache from crying. Aside from migraines, those are the worst.

 

65. IF YOU COULD GO ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD WHERE WOULD IT BE?

I'd go dive the Great Barrier Reef in an instant if I could.

 

66. DO YOU PLAY AN INSTRUMENT?

My mom played the organ, so I took lessons on it after she died, to keep it up. I never got very good at it. I'm trying to learn to play flute along with my 11yo, Chloë, but her talent already far surpasses mine. And I had a few dirty jokes in there, but nah, too easy.

 

67. DO YOU WISH YOU COULD SEE ANYONE IN PARTICULAR RIGHT NOW?

I do, yes.

 

68. LAST THING YOU WATCHED ON YOUTUBE?

 

The song "Not So Bad a Dad After All" from Phineas and Ferb. Hee.

 

69. WHY DIDN'T YOU DECIDE TO TAKE OVER STEALING?

 

I attempted to take over Saturday 9, but the position was already filled. I felt Stealing would be more demanding of my time, which I don't have enough of to give it justice.

 

Cheers, y'all! Bud, good luck with the book! I'm outie.

 

Fin.

Me And My Mini-Me

The girls and me posing for a 'girls only' pic, during Jack's piano lesson Tuesday - Chloë is SO her father, and Sophia is SO her mother!

All month, I've been calling this one employee of the music store where they take their lessons "Dave Chappelle," because he looks a bit like him and has a similarly comedic character. He's been trying to come up with a nickname for me since then. When I came in like this today, he snapped his fingers and pointed at me: "Punky Brewster!" And so, I've been anointed.

(And no, that is not a cassette tape; it's my iPhone cover at the moment! Generates lots of conversation, it does.)

I'll have to find a kidoodle picture of me and post a side-by-side with Sophia - you may be blown away when you see the striking similarities!

☼

Fin.

You Say It's Your Birthday? It's My Birthday Too, Yeah!

It's my birthday (36!!) today, and Chloë's (11th!!!) yesterday, which are not really milestone dates at all, so just a brief post from me about this. Briefer still because I was already 2/3 done with the post and, yet again, Typepad ate the damn thing. ARGH, that is getting SO OLD. She got what she wanted for her birthday most of all, a day early on Thursday, having gone from this:

to this:

She keeps commenting how weird it feels without them, but she loves it at the same time. We'll get her retainer on Monday. Yeesh, I can't believe I'm old enough to have a kid who needs one of those!

We're having a (non-birthday, just coincidental) party later today at a local park, so we went over there this evening to scope out the best location for the party and have some fun as a family. So fun! Here are Chloë and her daddy on a (new-fangled??) teeter-totter, having a blast despite the weight difference. Once we'd been eaten alive by skeeters, we headed to the grocery to pick up the meat and drinks for the next day's party.

You'll notice there aren't any pics of the Littles; my beloved Nikon was stolen, so I'm solely reliant upon my iPhone for pics at the moment, dadblast it!

At the store, we'd picked up a six-pack of cupcakes for singing "Happy Birthday" to her after dinner, but we ended up short on cash and having to take them off our order. Birthday Girl was disappointed and instantly in tears, so the poor/sweet/nice cashier took pity on her and just gave them to her outright. Twinge of guilt, but it was a lovely gesture, and this expression was the result.

The birthday cupcake is presented by Daddy.

My darling Chloë, I hope this and all your wishes come true! ♥

☼

So here are a few recent pictures of me... I've been losing weight again as I've been terribly sick this week, and today I managed to fit into my size 2 jeans for the first time EVER, so that's my silver lining along with the illness:

Chloë snapped this photo of me on Monday (Labor Day).

A self-portrait on Wednesday, pre-hair and make-up...

... and post. I look a LOT like my mommy in the bottom picture. ♥

And one last Instagram self-portrait before I go... What can I say? Now that I like what I see in the mirror, I'm no longer camera-shy! :P

I'll be back shortly with some product reviews; stay tuned for those if you so choose. Thanks for stopping by!

Fin.

Friday Fragments

It's that time again, when all the bits and pieces floating around in the ol' noggin get gathered together and shared with Mrs.4444 at Half Past Kissin' Time. Join us here, won't you?

☼

First things first. My keyboard is driving me crazy. I don't know what's going on with it, but it's skipping letters and symbols I'm typing, like, every four characters. How do I fix it, other than replacing it? I'm afraid I don't know. And since I've just had to replace BOTH my fried hard drive and, a week later, my monitor, I'm thrilled to death at the prospect. :\

☼

Secondarily, I've been on a major mystery shopping spree lately. I go through fits and starts where I'll go nuts doing tons of shops and then get burned out and refuse all but the most plum assignments. This is the 'nuts' part, which it seems I always do in the summertime. It's fine, because we get to have lots of fun, travel, and lots of paychecks come in to boot! Once September comes 'round, I'll slow down and get back into the school groove with the kids full-time, so it's now or never next year.

☼

One such shop was last Thursday, a trip with me and five kids 7-11 years, to our local waterpark. Oy vey. I paired everyone up: Chloë with her little beau, Jack with his bestie (the beau's younger brother), and Sophia with - Mama didn't raise no fool - ME. Guess who behaved the best out of all of them? If you know anything about my kids, you'll be shocked to hear it was Sophie. Chloë and Beau disappeared without checking back in for HOURS, Jack and Bestie kept splitting up, and Sophia stuck by my side and did everything she was told to do. Now that's crazytown. Like a parallel universe.

☼

Last night's series of shops found us driving all over the Hampton Roads area - well, the Southside, anyway, not the Peninsula - and all the way up the Eastern Shore of Virginia, almost to Maryland.  Yes, it pays well, or else I wouldn't put that much gas into it! This picture is cruising along on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel (CBBT), before we hit the Eastern Shore. I like Virginia's ES okay, but it's not very beachy-kitschy, which I tend to prefer. I like the scene in North Carolina's Outer Banks better - and the Florida Keys best. Wonder what I'll think of the San Diego area??

☼

Of course, mystery shopping involves lots of dining out, so we found ourselves at a popular steakhouse on kids' night Tuesday, where the kiddos had a great time getting these balloon animals and such. Sorry for the poor photo quality; guess I need to clean my iPhone lens!

☼

Aside from shops, there's this latest excitement in the house: I'm signing the kids up for lessons on their respective instruments, starting in September. Chloë's had her flute, and Sophia her guitar, for a while now with no action, so it's time we got into it. Jack settled on keyboarding, so we went to the music lesson shop tonight and picked him out the starter model. Can you believe this thing? When I was his age, a similarly-priced Casio was given to me, and it was about 1/100th as cool, with way fewer bells and whistles. He's absolutely giddy over it, which I love to see.

I can't wait to see how they do, learning music professionally. There's a slight chance I might give up my role as their voice teacher and get lessons in that as well, but I'm not sure the budget will allow for it. Besides, I've been classically trained, and despite the fact that it's been 18 years since I sang in an ensemble, I still know a thing or two about singing. So we'll see.

☼

I have a billion other things going on, but I should get some rest. I'm taking the older two and myself to the doctors' offices for various ailments tomorrow afternoon, and then Rob and I have a mystery shop date at a bar. So I'll leave you with these latest personalized plates spotted around town:

AWESEEM!!! I don't know why I like this one very much, but I do. It tickles my fancy.

What the what?! Someone explain it to me. For the longest time, I thought it was somethin like "SEX PIMP," (hee) until it dawned on me that it might be "PMS EXPERT" or something. But why in Heaven's name would you want to advertise that?!

And finally, an "aww" one: This parent is proud of her/his "TWO LITTLE PEAS." Cute stuff.

☼

Anyway, I hope you all have a weekend of fabulosity, and I'll fill you in on the fun stuff we're doing next week. Same place, same time. 'K?

Fin.

Sunday Stealing: Too Tired To Think Meme, Part The First

 

1. You have 10 dollars and need to buy snacks at a gas station. What do you get?

A piece of fruit or two, some peanut butter M&Ms, maybe a cheese stick, and a small bag of Cool Ranch Doritos. Oh, and a Diet Coke. That should cover it.

2. If you were reincarnated as a sea creature, what would you want to be?

A shark, definitely. Either a Wobbegong or a Port Jackson.

3.  Who's your favorite redhead?

That would be my neice, Hanna Leigh! She's got flaming hair, for sure!

4. What do you order at IHOP?

Usually a cheese, egg, and spinach omelet or something similar, of which I eat about 1/8.

5. Last book you read?

All or just part of? If just part, The Bible. If all... probably The Kiterunner, like three years ago! So much to do, so little time for leisure reading... :(

6. Describe your mood.

I'm dealing with a migraine; nonetheless, I just finished a fun knitting project I loved, so I'm a little giddy from finishitis at the moment.

7.  Describe the last time you were injured.

I cut myself shaving. Seriously. Meanwhile, I just showed my almost-11-year-old how to shave her legs, and she did it without a booboo. Go figure.

8. Of all your friends, with whom would you want to be stuck in a well?

Well (heh), since Hubs is my true best friend, I'm counting him in - he's resourceful, somewhat of a survival expert, and well-versed in First Aid. He's the one.

9.  Rock concert or symphony?

Oooh, that's a tough one for me! If it's someone I haven't seen in concert before, than I pick the concert, since I have been to the symphony many times. Now if you'd said the opera...

10.  What is the wallpaper of your cell phone? And your phone number?

Pfft. I'm an airhead, but I'm not that dumb. Although y'all would be welcome to text me, I don't want the trolls I know are out there with my digits. Wallpaper: at the moment, the one the iPhone came with, because I had to reset it recently. I'll have to remedy that; how boring.

11.  Favorite soda?

It's a tie between Diet Coke & Diet Mt. Dew. I switch back and forth regularly.

12. What type of shirt are you wearing?

A tank top that really needs something under it aside from the sports bra I'm wearing, because it droops really low, and I keep having to fix it. It's muy comfy, though.

13.  What if you could only use one form of transportation?

I love to fly, but I would travel by boat/ship. Nothing beats being asea; the ocean is where it's at for me.

14.  Most recent movie seen at the theater?

I saw that Pirates movie, something or other starring Hugh Grant's voice. I took my afore-mentioned daughter to see it as a reward for something I no longer remember...

15.  Name a celeb for whom you've had the hots.

C'mon. You know it's Matt Damon. Damn.

16.  What's your favorite kind of cake?

Cheesecake!  (I'm a New Yawka, what can I say?)

17.  What did you have for dinner last night?

Nothing. I went to bed early, feeling sick and migrainy.

18.  Look to your left. What do you see?

The pattern and finished knitting project I mentioned above. Totes cute!

19.  Do you untie your shoes when you remove them?

I'm all about the Crocs flip-flops right now, so not applicable. I rarely wear shoes that tie, but I tend to think I just kick them off without untying.

20.  Favorite childhood toy?

I had many favorites at different ages, but I loved this dumb little stuffed red-and-white puppy, Snowflake. I wish I knew what happened to him.

21.  Do you buy your own groceries?

Do I look like Jennifer Aniston?

22.  Do you think people talk about you behind your back?

Oh, I know full well they do. And that's not just my paranoia talking. I give 'em plenty to yak about!

23.  When was the last time you had gummy worms?

Probably within the last 2-3 months, having stolen one of my kids'!

24.  What's your favorite fruit?

I like my melons. Ah, what I mean is, um, canteloupe.

25.  Do you have a picture of yourself doing a cartwheel?

No, but I have a picture of myself... ugh. I got nothin' funny. No.

Have a grea week, y'all!

Fin.

Four Feline Friends, Or, A Pussy Posse

The kitties, of which we have a quartet, have been a little clingy to their mama since we started packing and moving over to the new place. (They're still at the Va Beach house.) So I've been photographing each one, in turn, as they come and sit by me for a scritch and a belly rub. Here's our mama (probably a grandmama or more by now) kitty, Tinkerbell. She'll be 8 next month!

This is Star, the next oldest. We guess her age at about six. She's the most aloof of the bunch, usually hanging out upstairs in the master bedroom, but even she has been downstairs frequently lately.

Cupcake, aka Cuppy, is one of our twin kittens. They've just turned a year old. She's the teenier of the twins. Jack told her the other day, "You're like me, you don't grow!" It was an "aww" moment for me. ♥

And finally, we have the other twin, Muffin (aka Muffy), who jumped up on the office "window" (a pass-through from the kitchen) just in time for me to snag her photo, too.  I had to hurry; she's an active one, like Sophia, and often on the go. And indeed, she did run right after I grabbed this pic!

Muffy and Cuppy canoodling, as they often do... ♥

And speaking of moving, we still have a LONG, long way to go (I'm taking a packing break at the moment, since I'm currently out of boxes), but here's a sneak peek of our new digs. The kids were supping excitedly in the living room. I say "excitedly," because they're delighted to be moving and love our new "dump," as Rob calls it. It's really not that bad... in fact, I rather like it myself. Except for the driveway, which sucks bollocks.

Anyway, more to come, as I plan on playing blahggy catch-up tonight!

Fin.

Wordless Wednesday: Seen Around Town

Again, link up at 5mfm if you're wordless (or not!) today. I've been photographing license plates we're driving (or stopping, as it were) behind; here are a bunch that I've managed to snag:

You're With Us - who is, I wonder?

Just Sew - all right, then. I'll get right on it!

Harder to see, but it has a cat on the left and says, "MEOOOW." I wonder how many she has...

Akita For You - Obviously, judging from all the other décor on this one, this person is very much into rescuing the breed. Well, good for them!

Weighed - what, exactly? This one leaves me quite confused.

Too Legit - Really? We're still saying that?

This person LOOOOOOOVES the Outer Banks (of NC): I agree; it's great to visit. I don't know that I'd put it on my plate, though...

Tippin' Toe, here, has me thinking there's a dancer inside the Jeep, but who knows?

All is Well - and I'm glad to hear it!

Never Again, insists this driver. What's s/he refusing to do? Maybe s/he got the car in the divorce. :| Oh, or maybe it's meaningful on a grander scale. Whatcha think?



Euphemism - But what is? Where? Please, I can't be left hanging like that.

ARRRRR, Matey! I've shown this one before, but it bears repeating. Or not, whatevs.

To Insure You - Are you my agent?

My GS3 - Such overt pride in one's vehicles is... lamesauce, IMHO. But then, I don't drive a Lexus!

We Surf - but where are the boards? Guess there were no waves that day.

Beach Boy is my kinda dude. I'm right there with ya, pal!

Superior is, hopefully, their company name and not their general attitude.

And last, but not least, a little something different:

Alf! On the back of this big, honkin'... thingamabob. I love it.

Happy Wednesday!

Fin.

Wordless Wednesday: Tent City In My Living Room, & More

Link up here if you're Wordless (or, not so much) today!

It's hot in Southeastern Virginia, and we don't have functional central A/C at the moment. Fortunately, friends who moved to Alaska blessed us with the portable unit seen at the back of this photo, so the kidoodles have been allowed to camp out in front of it in our living room tonight. This was their result. Can you tell which tent houses the boy-child? ;)

Sophia, 7, knocked out her two front teeth when she was three. It's been a long time coming, but finally an adult tooth has just popped out, with the other one sure to follow soon. Hooray!

Same child as above often brings me a weed or two, usually a dandelion, to serve as gifts of flowers which, to her, are beautiful. I have made the mistake of explaining to her that they were weeds, and that they belonged outside - this does nothing to brighten her spirit. So when she brought me this bouquet, which she herself envased in this green bottle, I accepted the gift with genuine delight. After all, this will only last for so long, and one day it will be the last weed-bouquet I get from her.

 

My silly kids, who went ShopKicking (a Smartphone app) with me around Target in exchange for spending some of our SK points on free Target gift cards to buy their little trinkets, here, posed in front of the store to show them off. Well, the picture was for a ShopKick contest to win a bunch of points, which we didn't - or did we?!

And finally, a first-thing-in-the-morning self-portrait, for no other reason than to show my messy office matching my bedhead hair. No, I wasn't naked; my spaghetti straps were just out of view on my tank.

I may be back with another WW post; stay tuned! ;D

Fin.

Wordless Wednesday: Yes. This.

Saw this at the doctor's office while I was scheduling my endoscopy, and loved it. Had to snap a picture with the ol' iPhone. It's good stuff, here.

Link up with 5 Minutes For Mom if you're any degree of wordless today!

Fin.

Wordless Wednesday - More Easter Faves

Here are some more shots from this past Easter Sunday that didn't make it into my new header (which, by the way, do you like?!):

So which is your favorite?

Link up here if you're Wordless today! Thanks for hosting, 5MFM! And thanks for looking!

Fin.