BUSTING OUT THE BULLETS...

So much has been going on.... thoughts, travel....

Hence, the bullets. (I love them... doing them and reading them)

• I decided on a whim to head to Florida for a few days... I was in need of a sun tan (bad me) and a little RR with the family. My sister lives in Tampa area. She has a nice house with pool, theatre room, and a convertible BMW. She also was not home. In her place was my dad, the pool boy, taking care of things for three weeks. My nephew is in Germany and will heading to Iran in a few weeks. Thankfully he will be in a safe place- no worries. Off I flew with my mom and Twinkle Toes in tow. We had a blast at Clearwater beach, Tampa Aquarium and Anna Maria Island. I just love Anna Maria Island for the true beachy feel it has. Although very beautiful, Clearwater was way tooooooo commercial for my taste. Our day at Anna Maria Island involved just me and Twinkle Toes. She and I are a lot a like in personality as so we had a scream together. We bobbed and played in the ocean forever. At the end of the day, while cruising in the convertible BMW, she gave me the biggest complement ever.... "My mom would never do the ocean like you did"..... Tinkle Toes mom is awesome, but getting wet and salty NON STOP is not for her. I decided to include pictures, it seems you can add pictures once bullets are done, so sorry for the randomness of the photos on this post. The picture of the dog is of my 19 year old Florida niece, Amanda, Twinkle Toes and Libby the pup. In my sister's master bath room she has had hanging for the longest time a long EMPTY picture frame.... as a thank you and a funny thing to do, Twinkle Toes and I placed funny pictures in the frame..... included was the funny face picture of the two of us.




• The trip was also a trial for my new duffel bag and back pack. After just a few seconds worth of traveling with the duffel, I could assess I LOVE IT!!! I also had a carry on back pack (not pictured). I plan of using this back pack as my carry on with lap top and a whole lot of "stuff" needed for Tate. Back pack was also a thumbs up and huge heart. As requested, I put pictures of the duffel at the end of bullets.




• This sounds like a broken record, but I have got a TON of projects in the making and ALL in various stages of completion. One of the "said projects" is my teakish umbrella patio table. This table has been open to all elements in the summer.... rain and sun. This year I vowed to get that thing sanded and re stained and this time sealed really well. So yesterday, with sweat dripping off of me, I sanded the whole blasted thing. This morning, in calm sunny weather, I stained the table. Within minutes, a blustery wind gets started and all this yellowy pollen starts blowing from the trees onto my sticky-wet stained table. Crap... in I pull the table into the sun room (also Mesa's room) and grab the staining cloth, wiping the table trying to get rid of the pollen. While wiping out fly this stain saturated rag right into Mesa's water dish. Why OH why did the rag have to land in the water dish when there is a whole other area..... these are the days I wonder if I should put projects on hold and blog.




• I still have the insomnia thing going on. I remember other bloggers have sleep issues when they start getting closer to their referrals. While in Florida, I was able to mooch 4 Ambien tablets from my brother. Slept like a rock. Not so much after getting back. I do plan on expanding my thoughts and the "whys" in another post when I can fully put my thoughts, concerns, etc out there for your input.




• I witnessed the other day a situation that made me think about stereotyping people. I was just parking at the dog park when in comes a car that was all decked out like a gang banger car.... you know the kind that could bounce at the stop light decked out with total chrome and all that glitz. Out of the drivers seat comes this guy.... stereotyping here, this guy reminded me of someone who they would be looking for featured on the evening news. My first thought was, I better get away from this park. Into the back seat he climbed and out popped a three-ish year old boy. Around to the other side this guy goes, and after a few minutes, HE IS WEARING IN A SNUGLY a baby. I was shocked! How tender this guy played "baseball" with his son, while wearing the baby. How wrong of me to stereotype this guy as someone to fear.... expecting him to behave a certain way. He was just a regular old family man, hanging with his kiddos.

Here is the duffel bag... you can buy it at C*stco for $39... I think it is at any Co*stco because we did buy two of these in Cabo Mexico, last June. The top has the zipper laundry bag which I filled with other stuff for the trip out (clean clothes) and later home with dirty clothes. The bottom has a zipper area which I put my shoes. I figured the heavier shoes would weigh the bag so it did not get top heavy. the duffel is zipped in half so you can place some stuff on top and bottom, making it easier to get to. I love the front cause it has like two zipper compartments and an elastic thing to cinch up to carry a jacket or stuffed animal/blanket (for Tate). The back has a compartment that zips out revealing straps so you can carry it on your back. Something I opted not to do.