A Very Smelly Weekend

This weekend was filled with extra smelliness because Smelly Senior and Mama K- the original Smellys- were visiting. This was their first time seeing our place and in 5 weeks they will be helping us pack it up, but at least they got to see it once while it was all pretty and put together.

They arrived Friday night and we went to The Mongolian Grill.

A restaurant where you make your own stir-fry. It's fun and tasty, you put all your ingredients in a bowl and then you take it to these guys and they cook it up for you. This may be the one time, I thought it was nice to only be allowed to eat gluten free food- Mama K didn't have to wait in the long line and got a personal cook.

Saturday was a b-e-a-u-tiful day, 80s and sunny. The perfect way to kick off the spring season. I hope it lasts! Mr. B had to take a test in the morning, so Smelly Sr., Mama K and I went out for breakfast at Mimi's Cafe. Then we walked through the shops and Mama K surprised me and let me pick out a shirt, she brought me to Loft- a store that for some reason had never been into and now I am in love with. Mr. B returned and he and Smelly Sr. went to a few stores while Mama K and I talked and soaked up some rays.

Mr. B had to go to a tennis match- a requirement for his Tennis Class, yes, that really is a class he is taking...and paying for, since the weather was so gorgeous we all went and watched. After that we had a late lunch at Sonny's BBQ before we headed to see the Jeremy Camp concert. I forgot to take pictures at the restaurants we went to, but you'll have to trust that we went, we looked good and it was delicious.

Ready for the concert with my totally-adorable-perfect-size-matches-with-everything-faux-Prada purse they bought me while vacationing in the Bahamas. (Awesome pick, Mama K!)

Waiting for the concert to start.

Jeremy Camp's wife, Adie, opened up for him. She has an amazing voice and she is from South Africa and has an accent that makes you jealous.

There he is- Jeremy Camp, woot woot. He is so talented and sounds exactly like he does on his CDs. His life is living proof of God's faithfulness, he has such an amazing testimony.

He brought his adorable little girls on stage to dance to one of his songs. It was so precious.

I have seen Jeremy in concert a few times before, but never with his wife. They are the Christian version of Tim McGraw and Faith Hill (I've been to their concert too), you feel like you could watch them sing together all night. Although Tim and Faith's concert are completely opposite of this one, it was such a blessing to see the two of them worshiping Jesus together. Talk about a testimony these two share- wow! This is clip of their version of Jesus Loves Me, so fun!

After the concert, we had a late dinner at 10:30- way past all of our bedtimes which may explain why the pigment in my eyes are no longer there. Of course we ate at no other place, but the one and only GrillSmith and ordered the best filet ever.

Today we went to a church in Tampa that Mr. B and his family used to go to many years ago. This church is HUGE.

This is the foyer that was pretty much like the entrance to a really nice resort.

They even have a special room where you line up and..you won't even believe this...YOU get to meet, if you're lucky maybe even get to talk, with the Pastor!! How thoughtful is that?! We found it quite comical, I felt like you might even be able to get your picture taken, sit on his lap and tell him your prayer request.

They also had a fountain in there, Mr. B was embarrassed to be taking a picture in front of it, but hey it's there, it's pretty and might as well be used for something, right?

This is the sanctuary. Our home church is the size of the left side with the blue seats for the choir. Not kidding. (Shout out to BCC peeps- we miss you!) Notice the additional advertising for the opportunity to actually meet the pastor.

This did seem like a great church though.... just a few thousand too many people for my liking.

Today's weather is not nearly as nice as yesterdays.

We took our flip flops off and ran to the car, Mr. B was going to drive around and pick us up...along with the other thousand serving, Christian, wonderful husbands, so we ran and met him halfway instead.

Take 1. Wet hair stuck across face

Take 2. Wet hair stuck in mouth

Take 3. Mama K and I (sporting the new Loft shirt btw) wet with our barefeet. A picture that was totally worth 3 shots for the sole purpose of being on this blog. Mission complete. I am feeling pretty confident you are appreciative of us for capturing this moment so you could find as much excitement in this adventure as we did.

The weekend went by so fast. so. so. fast. It was certainly a quick trip, but it was a pleasure. Mr. B and I are so blessed to have such awesome parents and we love having them visit.

Thanks Smelly Sr. and Mama K for a great weekend!! We miss you and love you!

I think it's pretty obvious, a 35 day Shred is what I will be needing in order to work off all of the tasty food I consumed this weekend. Awesome.

It's Alright By Me

I love having family in town for many reasons, but one reason in particular is because it gives me something to blog about. It relieves some of the stress that goes into this whole blog, yes, this fun little hobby can be a little stressful when it comes to the minor details such as writing a post. When family is visiting I don't have to pull a post out of my butt decide on which one of the every day exciting (the sunset, grocery shopping, overeating...) adventures to post about. Such a sense of freedom. This particular event I'm posting about took place last weekend (another added bonus of family visiting- it may create enough material for more than one post, in my case 3 post!). I would hate to bore you make you jealous with Mr. B and I's Saturday extravaganza that consisted of sitting around all day. a-l-l. d-a-y. Not to brag but, minus moving two feet to move our butt to the breakfast bar for lunch and an occasional bathroom trip, we sat on the couch from approximately 10:30 AM to 12:00AM (pre-time change). An exciting Saturday at it's finest. Are you understanding the dilemma in trying to choose which adventure I would like to expound upon in my next post??

Clearly, that's about as much as I can post about our Saturday so I will take you back to last weekend.

We spent the beautiful sunny day by the pool. The weather has been perfect, it's warm with a slight breeze and no humidity so it's never too hot.

This can create some mental/skin confusion due to the fact that the sun is still hot, and can in fact burn your skin regardless of the cool breeze and your lack of sweat. Mama Grace and Auntie Liz had to learn this the hard way therefore Mama Grace spent the next day fully covered with her back to the sun. She is a little camera shy so you will not be given the privilege to see just how burnt she was, but to give you an idea she was this red. Lesson learned: Even when it's not hot out...wear sunblock. Obviously had she been wearing our 4spf oil it would never have been this bad.

I learned my own lesson: Take sun glasses off right away. Apparently that first hour of sun was really strong, enough so to give me raccoon eyes. Awesome. It's a little hard to tell in this picture, but trust me, it was very apparent. Lesson number two: When tanning keep head up at all times in order to allow the sun to reach your neck.

We had enough sun lessons for the weekend and we made our way over to the 75th Annual Strawberry Festival.

What? Something wrong with the exposure?

Mr. B said it was fine even without a flash? What??

The highlight:

De.lish.

Darius Rucker.

"It's alright by me" are lyrics to one of the four songs that we knew of his, hence the title of this post. I couldn't think of anything creative and it's alright by me, I hope it's alright by you too. He put on a good show, we were a little concerned that we only knew a few of his songs, turns out he only has a few songs and likes to sing other people's songs, "songs I wish I wrote" as he put it. I wonder how it made him feel when everyone sang those songs louder than his own....Oh well, it was a good idea and a lot of fun.

Next weekend Mr. B's parents are visiting so this week so I hope you won't be too disappointed to find out there will only be 5 days of posting misc. happenings of my new housewife life. Or maybe that is a relief. It might be an understatement to say my days are not the most exciting, so consider this a warning--there may be posts about Regis and Kelly, Melissa Rycroft, Ellen America's Next Top Model, my new healthy lifestyle and my dry heels that are driving me nuts. Anything is possible.

Ornithophobia

It was as if he was an Olympic athlete striving to just cross that finish line. Keeping his eye on the prize, he persevered using everything in his strength to reach his destination. Unfortunately, this youthful creature did not practice hard enough for the goal set before him. Just feet from that victorious arrival, weakness prevailed. The finish line that was once the tree quickly became my head!

That was am excerpt from a narrative essay I wrote in one of my writing classes, I was going to just copy and paste the whole thing (yes, it's that good of a story it qualified as a college paper), but it's a bit too formal for this little blog of mine. Not sure if that's a good thing or not, but we will pretend it is. Anyways, this "youthful creature" was a baby bird, more specifically it appeared to be a baby owl. I don't know if that is true or even possible because it was in the day, I always thought it looked like it and in order to make the story that much more exciting we will stick to the fact that this was indeed a baby owl.

I was about 7 years old and I had just come out of the lake. My hair may have looked something like this, but add in the wet look.

This was taken on our honeymoon, in the bird's defense this particular "hairstyle" does give the appearance of a rat's bird's nest. I am very thankful I never experienced this again because clearly, as seen in this picture, I didn't learn my lesson on the importance of maintaining beautiful hair in the presence of birds.

Anyways, I got out of the lake, wrapped myself up in my towel and sat next to my mom and her friend. Everyone sitting by the lake saw this helpful little bird fly from one side of the lake to the other. As he was approaching land he seemed to be flying a little on the low side, low enough that we all had to duck our heads. Turns out I didn't duck my head low enough and there was some bird confusion between a nest and crazy wet hair. Everyone lifted their head and laughed at how close the bird was, lo and behold I am screaming trying to swat the bird off my head. As the tears were coming and I was beyond freaked, I wouldn't have expected anyone to do anything other than what they were doing to help the situation....point and laugh. Can you say scarred for life? Talk about a tragic childhood, right? As time goes on, and my memory fades becomes stronger, this story seems to get more dramatic. In fact, it may have been a vulture that landed on my head that day, only God knows.

So I share this very personal, life changing event with you to bring you to the second part of this post. I give you permission to laugh at the story above (if you haven't already, thank you for being so kind). I can laugh about it now, but that doesn't change my Ornithophobia- just discovered this word and feeling pretty cool right now.

Two years ago, when I was a live-in nanny, I took the kids to go feed the ducks. It was a beautiful, sunny day and I had some bread that was getting old, so I packed the kids up in the car (Mr. B came along too- thank you Lord!) and we headed over to the lake. Where I come from ducks found at the pond look like this:

Well, welcome to Florida, through migration they morph into these big guys:

They must change in bird types too because these are actually geese not ducks so it's a complete morph package. These birds are nothing like the sweet little ducks I fed in my childhood. These birds attack. These birds are huge. Apparently these birds are starving. Besides the fact that the kids (and possibly me) were crying because we kept getting bit due to the fact that we were standing on a bunch of fire ant hills (another thing we don't have up north), we were getting attacked by these geese. We were running around the parking lot (safety first) and I dropped the bag of bread, grabbed the kids and bolted to the car. Remember, birds scare me. Why did I think this would be a good idea?? It played out way different in my head. Sorry kids, Ms J is having an anxiety attack because she's scared of birds, get in the car, we are going home. Because.

These geese became a special attraction for my visitors. My friend was visiting for my birthday and knowing she is not too fond of birds herself, I knew exactly where to take her. After all, it was my birthday so she had very little say on what we did that day. To us, this video is priceless and will always make us laugh. To you, it will most likely not be the same experience, but feel free to give it a shot just in case. I would hate for you to miss out. Disclosure: I think a baby could video tape better than I did, although please note I was running away. If you get motion sickness, I apologize, you may want to take some Dramamine or just close your eyes and make up your own illustration based on the sound effects. You may want to try and tune out my laugh as well. As mentioned, I now like to bring people here (the experience is different when you know what to expect), I am still petrified of the birds, but their reaction trumps my fear. Kind of.

When my mom and sister visited in October, I was so excited to bring them and see how my sister would react. We only had a few pieces of bread, but they would still be able to experience the attack of the geese.This was quickly destroyed when Mr. B gave each geese a whole piece of bread. Someone needs lessons on how to feed the birds, not to point fingers, but it's not me. He completely killed this experience. The bread was gone. I'm still trying to get over this disappointment.

Mr. B learned his lesson and didn't touch the bread this time around with our new visitors. This past weekend my grammie was the innocent victim.

This is how our friends greet us when they catch a glimpse of the bread bag.

Again, excuse my obnoxious hyena laugh, I didn't learn from the first video.

Note to self: Restrain laugh for as long as possible.

My grammie loves birds so she was the perfect candidate for the comedic attack of the geese experience. She was totally oblivious to what we set her up for. We were prepared for some laughs...

She didn't let us down.

Today is actually her 65th birthday! Happy Birthday Grammie!! So glad you were able to visit this past weekend; you were such a good sport when feeding those vicious creatures! She doesn't read this (she's not the most internet savvy), it's the thought that counts, right? :)

I am aware that these are most likely "you had to be there" stories, similar to when you are telling someone about a crazy dream you had and it only makes sense to you and no one else cares. So I am sorry I wasted moments of your life, but I appreciate your time.

Happy Friday!!!!!!!

Welcome new followers =)

Celebration

I realize this is almost a week late, but I have been way too busy stuffing my face at restaurants and soaking in the sun that I have had absolutely no time to write about my days. Now no one is here to keep me company, it's pouring outside, it's 10:30 in the morning, I am eating cheese and crackers, watching Regis and Kelly and I might still be in bed, so I think I can find some time to update.

Friday night was my last day of work. Yip-EEE! I was kind of stressing because I wasn't sure if we were going to hug good-bye or if I was just going to leave like normal. This thought was kind of taking over my day. Do you hug when it's a mutual dislike?? When she doesn't even day "hi" or "bye" to me?? The answer is yes. I went with the flow, followed her body language and went for it. Not only was there a hug, there were tears. From her, not me. Which makes the whole situation quite comical, I think. Clearly it was not because she will miss me, she will miss everything I do for her. This is the second employer I've had that has done this to me. Newsflash: If you treated me better I wouldn't be leaving- it's your own fault. As she was shedding tears, we were out celebrating. I know, that sounds really mean, but there's freedom in being released from a bad position, sorry. We went to a delicious restaurant right across from our place called The Grill Smith.

"Cheers to no more work while in Florida!"

My wonderful visitors, Grammie, Auntie Liz and Mama Grace

The melt in your mouth filet mignon (note: Mama Grace was paying it would be wrong to choose a cheap meal. She might think differently.)

Smiles of pure happiness.

I'm beyond happy to be done.

He is beyond happy that he won't have to hear me complain every.single.day.

Although I am quite confident it won't take long for me to find something else to complain about.

We will pretend all complaints were left behind with the job.

The next day we drove to Winter Haven to visit the snow birds, Rudy (my great-grandfather) and his girlfriend. Yes, he has a girlfriend. Yes, they met online. Yes, that qualifies them as being "hip". They both lost their spouses and found each other through the internet, they have been great for each other and have been "dating" for years.

This past Christmas while watching Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer, I realized for the very first time, that Rudolph's girlfriend's name is Clarice....ummm..that's Rudy's girlfriend's name! How funny is that?? That discovery pretty much made my Christmas season.

As I mentioned in this post, Rudy enjoys going to Hooters with "the guys". Proof that I was not lying--not that you wanted any proof because personally it is a tad disturbing to think about--here is the sign up list. We were given a tour of his retirement community and in the clubhouse there was a sign up sheet for various activities. A van filled with elderly men on a field trip to Hooters= "Delightfully Tacky". Hmm good choice of words.

Please take note of the last signature on the list. Lee really looks forward to this outing.

I really need to figure out how to put arrows and text, can someone comment and teach me please??

We went out for lunch at a new little diner down the street. Little did we know "Chat-A-Whyle" was not only the name of the diner, but a huge hint of what we had to look forward to.

We waited for our food for at least an hour. Thanks for the simple suggestion and apparently fair warning to chat awhile.

Apparently it takes a long time to make a ridiculously-tall-entirely-too-big-to-fit-in-any-normal-size-mouth sandwich. Customers love waiting that long for their food only to find they need to disassemble their sandwich so they can at least get one part of their mouth over the top.

We went back to Rudy's house and celebrated my Grammie's 65th birthday a little early while she was in town. He made his famous apple pie and it was delicious.

The end of our day consisted of Grammie, some bread, this big guy and a bunch of his friends.

I am going to pull a LOST moment on you and leave you hanging.

This story involves a video and deserves it very own post.

Don't be too overwhelmed with the suspense, feel free to use your imagination and stay tuned.

First {Unofficial} Official Day

Today is my first official day of being a housewife. Technically I have been off since Monday, but with Mama Grace here it seemed like I was supposed to be staying home and laying by the pool with her, why it would be any other way?? I am still not sure if today would count as my official first day because we had to wake up at 6:20 AM to bring her to the airport. Waking up when it's still dark outside wasn't exactly on my my list of things to do as a housewife. Although I am amazed at how much longer my day is, how much more I get done, how much more energy I have and how much of the beautiful quiet morning I miss when I sleep in. Of course this has a completely different effect when I need to wake this early and work, in that case I am pretty much drained the entire day. For some reason it's a lot easier to get through the day knowing you have nothing to do but enjoy the day. Amazing how it works out at that.

Another reason I don't really count today is because I am lonely. I go through this every time (every time meaning the two times she has visited) Mama Grace visits. I finally adjust get used to stop complaining about deal with the fact that my family is far away and then she visits. I love having her around and we have so much fun, then she leaves and I am back to square one. The sad-lonely-I-hate-being-so-far-away-how-many-more-days-til-we-move-back square. Not sure

what adjective I would use to describe my mood when she leaves ...pathetic ...sappy ...childish ...silly. Probably all of those things and more combined. At least I realize how pathetic I can be, that's the first step, right? Is it bad that I get sad looking out the window because I see where we had dinner, I get sad when I open the fridge and see her Diet Coke, I get sad when it's super quiet in here, I get sad when I go to the pool and see where we spent our days, when I go to shower and I see her shampoo and her razor or when I get out of the shower and realize I can no longer use her Chi straightener and I am back to my cheap one that rips my hair out (tears may have been flowing after this realization). I know, I know, the way I am acting you would think she died or something hence why I realize this is a bit on the pathetic side. Last time she left I cried all day (don't know why I just admitted that...), whenever I saw something that reminded me of her visit my eyes would fill up and the tears would come, this time I notice things that remind me of her and it makes me sad, but no tears. If that's not growing up I don't know what is.

So my day isn't completely normal yet, I am adjusting to being back by myself today. Soon enough I will get back on track and into the swing of things. I could not be more thankful we have 54 more days until we move back close to family. Nothing is better than being home and knowing where you belong. I can't wait to have the best of both worlds--be close to family AND have my own place and life with Mr. B. Can. Not. Wait. But I have no choice, so I will wait.

Instead of wallowing in my boo-hoo-Mama-Grace-is-gone-what-will-I-do-with-myself attitude my day has consisted of:

A healthy dose of caramel, chocolate, and coconut for breakfast.

20 minutes of determination and horrible depth perception. This down comforter IS going to fit in there. I might not be able to put the lid on, and it might not be close to fitting in there, but it is in there, I am too lazy to find another place for it and it does fit....just not all the way.

40 minutes of deflating the air mattress, rolling it up, more depth perception problems, de-rolling, deflating extra air that was stubborn and not coming out, rolling again, more depth perception problems, de-rolling, rolling again, sweating, stuffing, determination, stuffing, finally got it, leaving it for Mr. B to do from now until...forever.

Today also doesn't count as my first because Mr. B is home early. He brought home a gorgeous bouquet of flowers (ridiculous that he feeds into this "depression" of mine? possibly. But all the more reason why he is perfect for ME), it's a b-e-a-u-tiful day outside, 80 and sunny with the perfect breeze. So I've got my sun block oil on, bathing suit on and ready to enjoy the day by the pool, without Mama Grace, but with my man. I guess it won't be that hard to enjoy this day.