i am very blessed.  i know this and i am thankful every day for everything in my life (even when i’m griping about my job).  some of the things that i am especially thankful for today:

• the men and women who fight and put their lives on the line to protect my way of life
• a wonderful and loving husband
• family and friends who i can always count on
• a home that is filled with happiness
• the good health of most of my friends and family
• the mending health of the few others

i hope that you have many wonderful things in your life to be thankful for today as well!

well, not quite yet.  it’ll be this afternoon before they leave orlando.  which means that i got a little lax last night about getting things done.  instead of getting the floors mopped and some dishes prepped for the big feast, i went to bed at 21:00 last night.  believe me when i tell you it was necessary.  i did feel more rested this morning with the exception of a headache that made me not want to get up.  as soon as i’m able (medicine conflict) i’ll take some motrin and, hopefully, knock it out so that i can get things finished this afternoon and be happy and pain-free while greeting guests.  although it seems like it’s going to be a shorter visit than usual, i’m excited about it.  i love having company in my home.  and my sissy’s family is big enough to create flag football teams.  turkey ham bowl ’08 – bring it on!!!

we broke out the kayaks yesterday afternoon and braved the cold waters (well, i braved the cold waters; hubby has a wetsuit).  the gulf was fairly calm but hubby found an area that had some small waves for him to surf.  i wasn’t interested in getting splashed by the cold water any more than necessary so i paddled out past all wave activity.  i spent a little time piddling around and then i decided to see if i could make it all the way to the pier and back.  i kept a fairly comfortable pace getting to the pier, stopping a couple of times to rest and enjoy the view.  floating around out there is truly peaceful.  i was very proud when i reached the pier but quickly turned around because the sun was getting pretty low.  in an effort to beat the sunset, i paddled HARD all the way back, non-stop.  it really took everything i had to keep going.  my arms were eager to give up but i was losing light.  the sun set about a quarter mile from home.  so i dug in even deeper to make it before the residual light was gone.  by the time i made it back to the beach, hubby had already taken his ‘yak out and was waiting to help pull me in.  which was a very good thing because, after 2.5 miles of paddling (half of it very hard and continuous), i was DONE.  i couldn’t even pick up my ‘yak to carry it back to the elevator.  my wonderful hubby dragged both ‘yaks to the walkway, carried one to the elevator for me to accompany up and carry the fifteen feet from the elevator to our storage, and then went back and got the other one.  he’s so great!  and let me tell you, it was all i could do to muster the strength to get it out of the elevator and over to the storage closet.  i’ve got to say, i really enjoyed that paddle and i was so proud to make it to the pier.  i was even more proud at how hard i paddled all the way back — i was actually creating a wake in the water behind me.  while hubby was getting the ‘yaks put up, i headed back down to the pool.  i had planned on just getting into the hot tub to thaw out (my feet and legs were frozen after all that time in the cold water and wind) but i decided to get into the nice heated pool first.  i’m glad i did because that warm water stung against my frozen skin and i’m certain the hot tub would have just burned.  i swam twelve laps in the pool and then soaked in the hot tub for about fifteen minutes.  my toes were still cold when i got out but it sure did help.  today, i hurt.  my shoulders are tired and my hands are sore.  that’s a small price to pay though for enjoying some non-gym activity in my fabulous backyard.

sissy’s family and dad and his wife all arrive wednesday. that means it’s time to stop being lazy and get stuff done. last night we made the big shopping trip. i think we managed to get everything needed for the big feast. this morning, i cleaned both bathrooms (with the exception of my shower since i’ll do that when i shower). the kitchen gets cleaned semi-daily so nothing for me to do there (dishes are hubby’s job and i love that about him!). the guest beds are already made. there’s a bit of laundry left to be folded and put away so i’ll get to that in a few minutes. then all that will be left to get done between now and wednesday afternoon is general picking up, straightening, and floors. i won’t bother with floors until tuesday night. oh, and cleaning the balcony windows/doors. they’re good and salt coated again so they will need a good washing. so, really, even though we’ve been tremendously absorbed in other projects lately, we’re not in too bad shape. yay for that. and getting the bathrooms done was huge. i hate bathrooms because i’m ocd about them and, therefore, spend several hours on them. generally i put them off and then i’m displeased to have to be rushing to get them done. i’m glad that i got them out of the way this morning. that makes everything else seem much, much more manageable. if i go ahead and get the laundry all put away, i might even reward me with a trip to the hot tub. 🙂

i could have sworn that i had ranted about this previously and promised pix but i can’t seem to find it anywhere.  strange.  anyhow, just before we left on our cruise back in september, there was a sand sculpting contest down the beach.  having never personally seen sand sculpting in person, i had to go check it out.  we didn’t stay long because it was bloody hot and sunny but we walked around and enjoyed the artistry.  also somebody didn’t think to bring her camera so we had to use the iphone for pix, which would be why it has taken so long to get the pix to post them.  this also means that we didn’t get as many pix as i generally would have.

this was the big professional sculpture. it was a three-in-one (might have been more after we left). this was the front of it.

surf and turf

this was the side of it.

flowers

this was the back of it.

bar-lobster

this was pretty darn good for an “amateur”. the pic doesn’t do it justice but the arches in the little feet things were impressive.

señor lobster

also not bad for an amateur. heck, everything there was better than i could have done. shame that i don’t have a pic of the big snoopy sculpture. i like snoopy.

lobster king

as promised, here are the few pix we have from the sidewalk painting festival:

i’m not sure what kind of statement this one was trying to make.

zero

this is for one of the local schools.

shark!

this one was pretty cool looking when it was finished but by then both my camera and hubby’s iphone were dead.

in progress

jack and the beanstalk in progress

jack and the beanstalk

this was like the central exhibit. it had a semi-3d feel to it but nothing like the photos that she had of others that she’s done.

white rabbits go away!

this was styled after the fisherman and the siren.

xxx

an archaeological find in the middle of our favorite shopping plaza!

digging up bones

tropical in progress

this was my favorite.

poe

comic

they even had an area for kids to grab some chalk and create their own artwork. there were many, many brightly colored bricks but this is the only one we were able to capture before the iphone died. which is a shame because there was a penguin portrait that i thought was fabulous.

chloe, 4th grade

i added a new spam-blocking plugin to my rants.  if you have problems leaving comments, send me an email to let me know.  jlynn at reflectionsofme dot com.

i know i’ve been pretty neglectful in my rants lately.  i’ve been working pretty hard on another project so until i get that to a presentation point, i’m likely to be fairly quiet here.  we did have a nice weekend.  we spent saturday working on our respective projects.  i took a break to go swimming, hot-tubbing, and sunning.  yesterday we headed to our favorite shopping plaza to check out the sidewalk chalk painting that was going on.  i checked my camera batteries before we left the house, carried the camera all the way down there, took two pix of the first artwork we came up on, and the camera died.  ticked was i.  we then walked to the very back of the plaza to buy some batteries at target and then headed back to the front where all the sidewalk art was.  i took two pix of a chalk painting and my camera died.  yes, i did have a hissy fit but what can you do?  hubby tried to take some pix with his iphone for me but his phone died after a few pix too.  just one of those days i guess.  anyhow, i’ll try to get the few pix we did manage to get gathered and posted in the next day or two.  this morning i woke up feeling lousy so i just don’t much feel like going to all the trouble.

unlike the movies, i didn’t try to run off with the bride or groom.  although, she looked so gorgeous, the thought crossed my mind!  anyhow, lots of pix below the fold… Read the rest of this entry »

on this day each year, america honors its veterans.  being just a week removed from a historical presidential election, we should give special recognition this year to these men and women.  no matter which candidate we supported, it is our soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen who protect our right to speak freely and vote.  i want to thank all who have served, who are serving, or who have family members in the military.  thank you for standing watch in a dangerous world so that the rest of us may live in peace!

in the meantime, enjoy these prickly pix of my cousin‘s ferocious hedgehog, pinelope.

i think i can i think i can i think i can

a little help here?

you’d think that i’d be posting more since we’ve had all kinds of fun and socializing here.  what can i say, i’m really just not that interesting.  so what are some of the highlights of our visit since the halloween parties?  my husband got to have a boys night out at the ucf game sunday night.  i had a girls night out that was slightly less thrilling but the niece had a blast so that’s what mattered.  we had dinner with my dad and his wife last night.  i’ve gotten to spend a lot of quality time with my cousin and i’ve gotten to do plenty of weddinging with my best friend.  tonight is the rehearsal dinner and tomorrow is her big, big day.  she is very excited and i’m thrilled for her. 

note to self: 

• get video tape, dvd, and gift
• charge camcorder batteries
• make room on camera cards
• gather all primping supplies to take to salon/house tomorrow
• lose ten pounds by tomorrow so that my dress zips all the way – dangit!

*UPDATE:  SIL says that the surgery went well.  the cancer had not spread so the double mastectomy should be the end of it. 

please keep my SIL’s mother in your thoughts today as she undergoes a mastectomy and finds out how much damage the cancer has caused.