friends, worth their weight in gold...always

I have the best friends on planet earth...or any other planet for that matter.  And friends should NOT be taken for granted.  A few things I have learned.  Friendship takes time.....but good friends don't take LOTS of work...because that's what makes a friend...grace....you just love them...and they just love you...

Having just spent 5 days in Ashevegas and getting to see almost everyone...had the best week EVERRRRRRRRRR!!!!!

I love these people...they opened their homes, put their families on hold and went out of their way to make me and Whitney feel loved and wanted...but that's what friends do...and boy do I miss that ease of life.

I want to say I am creating friendships here and nurturing them along ever so slowly...but there is NOTHING on the PLANET as great as a week with old friends.

Fab Tan and Computer Fun at Bella Sole'

Opens her home and frig as hostest with the Mostest!

T R O U B L E in the making!

sweetest women alive (minus me)

my favorite place on earth...by this gal's side!!

Favorite Neighbor Award....great great people!

Mentors and good good people! Love them!!

my favorite date for the wedding!

Sweetest Wedding Couple Alive!!

wild thangs

a collection of love

my fran Kat and her crazy man Ken

one of my favorite men

cheers from the Sondly Estate Vineyard!

So, here's to you, Cyndi, Kahroll, Kat, Dottie, Beth, Leslie, Jimmie-Lynn, Jeannette, Lynn, Ursula, Kenny, Mike, Andy & Bill.....LOVED my time with you!! And that's just those in these pics....had a WONDERFUL time with the whole Ashevegas Gang, as well as Cyndi's Central Florida fam.... I thank God He made sure YOU would be in my life!!  Delight!!

more Mistah stories

Week 1 of Empty Nesting

What I have learned....it IS enough to be excited about what your kid is doing...you REALLY don't have to be there..it would be nice BUT..it is enough. (as long as you get a FULL update at the end of the day...which, of course, I do, via Adrianne...Whit simply says, "I'm overstimulated, can I talk to you later?"  Of course you can...I've heard that line before (Mr. millah)

Whitney is doing RUSH this week...she is having a ball...she is learned that it is ok to be pretty in Tallahassee...it was NOT ok in Ocala..for whatever reason....it was bad here...so she tried her best NOT to look presentable...1 week with Adrianne...and now she IS Adrianne's twin...they went out on Sat shopping and she came home amazed at all the comments they received...how terrible it is for a kid to be amazed that people will actually be nice to her and compliment her???  Shame on Ocala!!

Ok, back to the original idea for the post.

I went out of town....again...guess who's baaa-aaaccckkk??  Yep, Mr. Shear Happy.  I'm including before and after pics AgAIN.....I do NOT understand this guy....our yard is inch by inch being turned into a dumpster lot...and he is so proud...different pages....again!!!

before

He has decided to make individual bushes out of our shrub-line.  Isn't the goal ALWAYS to make bushes INTO shrubs?  guess not....

after...grrrr

Also, note the STILL brown, no growth ground cover...I've convinced him we should just put down some "kills-all" and mulch over the top... it's not growing back...surprise!!

no regrowth here....except grass

Snackville, America

Also, he went shopping while I was gone...I discovered this while "online banking"...saw that "someone" spent $279 at Publix...what??  Surely there would be items like salmon fillets', filet mignon, champagne, etc., etc.,...so I went thru the cabinets....no meat, no wonderful drinks....so I asked...he couldn't really come up with anything out of the ordinary...he did buy his lovely wife roses....but that doesn't bump up that avg weekly bill by $150????.....So I look further..and there it was...Snackville, America...staring boldly back at me in the pantry....the only thing missing from this pic are the clondyke bars and 3 boxes of cereal, organic of course.....Why, you ask?  .....because they have already been eaten...never mind NOTHING inside the frig was touched in the entire 5 days I was missing.....Nothing on this counter have I ever purchased...and here, sitting, resting, resting, for his evening arrival is REAL food...steak, pasta, asparagus....food he is used to...but OBVIOUSLY NOT on his high list of preferred foods.   hmm!

real dinner...waiting on arrival of a certain Handsome Bread Winner...waitingwaitingwaiting....

Oh, Lord help me love Mr. on the other page Mistah!  He loves me more than oxygen...I find him extrememly curious! 

mad at the President

Alrighty...pretty upset with Mr. President...again...surprise!!  He's off to "Mathuz Vinyud" on a vacay....well, Mr. P...have a good time...you see my "Mistah" hasn't had a vacay day in 3 years...yep...because of the booming economy that you so carefully have crafted with all the socialistic nonsensical blah blah blah....the housing market is STILLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLlll in the dumps.  Yep, Mr. P....we sell our vacay days to pay for that 2nd mortgage, 2nd HOA fee, 2nd set of electric/water/gas bill, 2nd set of groundskeepers (oh wait, we only have 1 set bc I am the groundskeeper here...well, if and when the Mistah leaves stuff for me to keep, haha).

This has not been a good term for you Mr. P...and certainly hasn't been good for the Millahs'...However, our God is still on the throne...keeping a watchful eye on His own...and He supplies all our needs. ...like money that appears out of no where...it always comes in...I wish I could learn to be quiet and wait instead of whining....because He has been 100% faithful.

I wish

Ok, I wish I could write a "self help" book of "tips"....because I just came up with the greatest one.

It's raining....ok, like it does everyday....and Florida is hot hot hot...so much so that you almost have to water everyday...I know...even tho' it rains everyday...trust me, you have to becuase some of the plants are under the roofline.....BUT...if you time it right...you can move your plants OUT into the rain...and you won't have to water them.

But, when you water it's sooooooooooo hot you get all sweaty...so you can only water when you don't mind getting your clothes sweaty.

So here's the tip....take a shower...then, while still in your towel and wet hair...go outside and move the plants out from under the overhang into the rain...

VOILA, you still get wet...but you are not sweaty....and, you are in a towel...

Now, go inside and get dressed...AND, you are all soft becuase of the rain water.

Now I guess you can't really write a self help book of tips if you only have 1 tip...so, note to self...think up more tips....

The Mistah

I know we marry because of attraction...and we are attracted to someone who is strong where we are weak...but sometimes..well, that can be annoying at best...your brains live on different pages...at least ours do!

Today is my first day of "the rest of my life" without children in the home. I've been a little weepy and wondering out loud what life would be like without my girls in the house???....... I had been awake for about..mmm? 15 seconds...eyes still shut but alert...when Mistah Millah says, "Ok (keep in mind this is very businesslike and energetic), I know you must be really excited about going back to School and getting your degree so that you can go to work and help out in 2 years with the family finances"......what?  What?  We had tossed around the idea that I could get a job....then I reminded him I have no job skills (I dropped out of college to move near him because I was in love)....he suggested college...I was dreaming of extended visits in NC, Tally and IN....oh, and Charleston....

At first I was upset...then I thought to myself...hmmm?  School?  That will mean "back to School shopping"...Yes, I will need new School Clothes.  And, since I am old and going to School with youngsters...I will need a facial...oh, wait, no, I will need botox...and that trainer I've been meaning to sign back up with, oh and a full time cook ...the housekeeper will have to come more often and the pool lady will have to stay on....yes, this going back to School to earn an income will be a good thing indeed...I've got to get busy!!

Next,.....I've been gone for 5 days...this is very dangerous in our household....for whatever reason...and I cannot think of one....Mistah gets gardening shear-happy.  Yep, he was back at it...chopped DOWN some more hedges....to the GROUND....AGAIN. 

the former hedges were as tall as the ones remaining....

and this area??....from the last shear happy day....it's been several weeks now...still NO sign of regrowth...just brown...oh, and lots and lots of new weeds....that I HAVE TO SPRAY........

The Ramble....perfection...of course...but we can't live there.....of course!

I do not claim to be an expert on gardening or pruning practices...but in all my "observing" years...I've yet to see groundskeeper cut shrubs or anything for that matter...to the GROUND!!!!!  The last time he did that was in Biltmore Park...over 5 years ago....and I went by there on Sunday while in NC...and those things are still struggling...yep, the Ramble house's yard is in mint condition...here...we look like, well, trailor trash......argh!!!

handy dandy helpful Hal

I believe that was the name of a favored childhood story book...yep it was. 
Well, The Mistah, is a different sort of guy.  When he wants to get a job done...he does it 1000% bc in order to be efficient...you only want to do the job once...when he "edges"....he edges down the the dirt....

Recently he involved himself in 2 home "projects"....one he is very proud of..the other...well, we pretend it didn't happen, we don't bring it up and we never, ever, notice it.
                                          

#1  Before and after pics of the "ground cover" that 100% of the homes in our neighborhood have.  They vary in sizes because it NEVER stops growing taller.  At some homes it's 5 feet high...ours was 2 feet...now it is 0...and brown.....?? ok :/  I'm SURE it will grow back...in 2015....maybe....

                 Before...

                                                        

  After..

so embarrassed.... 

#2 ...since we moved into this FL house there has been a "stubborn stain" in our bedroom.  Shaped like an L...it was orange...like a piece of stained furniture that got wet had set there for years....so the Mistah got out his handy "bleach wrag"...and EVERY DAY he worked on "lifting the color" out...slowly the orange lifted lighter and lighter....then, he decided to "dye" it with RIT...didn't pick it up at Michael's nope, he ordered it online and paid $4 shipping......it came, he dyed it...not happy with the color...so back to bleaching, rubbing,  bleaching, rubbing,....now...as you can see ...it's very VERY white, no longer orange at all...but what is also obvious is that the carpet melted away and there is now a hole.  My question is this..."At what point do you start to notice that the carpet is disappearing before your eyes and you STOP the rubbing, rubbing, rubbing?"

I'm just so curious. But, I am not allowed to ask...we just walk over "the spot"

the "spot"