Category: As blogged by Suz

The End Of The Questions {Part four}

On By SuzIn As blogged by Suz21 Comments

I’m at the end of your interrogation questions. This really was fun and I would advise for you to also pose an open question and answer if you feel so obliged. NOT one person asked an inappropriate question which does make me wonder: are we even friends?

My friend Dawn sent this to me the other day and said I really needed to have it; it had my name all over it.

Not sure if any of you remember but in one of my posts several years ago I quoted my youngest child when she said to me: “Are you ever appropriate?”

To know me is to love me.

Anyhoo, I have two unanswered questions:

Mark (Swinged Cat) asked: What is the best concert you ever attended? Why? And is there one artist or band, living or dead, you wish you could (or could have) seen?

This is such an awesome question; Mark and I are both big fans of live music. Well, if I had to pick ONE concert that was the best, it would have to be that one I saw on a blind date with a certain someone in August of 1985. That was a LIFE Changing concert to say the least. But I honestly didn’t remember the music as much as my date. We’ve seen some amazing artists in various places all of the country, but one that stands out as Super is when the Coach surprised me (and several friends) by booking a trip to NYC for my 40th birthday and while there we had VIP tickets to Farm Aid. Ya’ll know I’m obsessed with Dave Matthews, right? We’ve seen him at least 20 times, but this time there was also John Mellencamp, Willie Nelson, The Counting Crows, Neil Young, Mere Haggard, The Allman Brothers, Montgomery Gentry and many more. It was an all day affair with some of my dearest friends. *sigh* to be Forty again.

One person I would have LOVED to have seen in concert is Prince. I was always a big fan; he was an amazing artist.

Ernie screamed asked: DO AUNT AND UNCLE HAVE CHILDREN? IF NOT, DO YOU HAVE OTHER COUSINS? IF YOU DO, DO YOU SEE THEM MUCH?

I can HEAR YOU! Kidding. I really can’t, this damn tinnitus….

AT and UJ have two sons; Patrick and Christopher. {Aunt Trisha is one of my Mom’s younger sisters} I believe Patrick reads my blog, or at least he tells me he reads my blog.

I have seven cousins in total between both sides, some of them live within a few hours of us, but I rarely see them which makes me sad. My paternal Grandma told me that when she was gone I would have to be the Matriarch and keep everyone in touch, but damn, it’s been hard with these guys; I finally threw in the towel after so many failed attempts.

But, I do see Patrick as he lives in GA; we always get together for Thanksgiving and sometimes we would see each other during the summer in either FL or GA. But, now that we have a place in GA we will see him more. He just came up and spent a week with Coach in I back in May in GA.

UJ, AT and Patrick at our house a few Thanksgiving’s ago. Patrick is a fan of any holiday that is ‘food centered’, so I know we don’t need a DNA test to prove we’re blood related.

Since Patrick is the only one I see and he *reads* my blog, he is my absolute favorite cousin.

So that’s all I know about that.

*Suz takes a bow and thanks the audience for their applause*

What artist you like to see alive or dead? I mean, I don’t want to see a DEAD artist, you know what I mean.

XOXO

We Interrupt This Blog Because Design Advice Is Needed

On By SuzIn As blogged by Suz22 Comments

I know ya’ll want to be involved in my life decisions. Right?

Do you like what we’ve done with the place? I especially love that I can’t get to my washer/dryer right now.

I’ve shared about my laundry/craft/office {way back in 2013} before when it actually looked like it should. For the past few years we’ve discussed updating this room when we update the flooring throughout the back of the house.

………Y’all, I just did a ‘backing up the bus’ (thanks Ernie) and went into a long ass tirade explaining all our flooring woes, which went into discussing our addition and then full renovation. I think it’s more information than anyone wants to read. Delete.Delete.

So, this room. You can see the progress on the new tile flooring. We’re going to have the cabinets painted white. The countertops along the back and desk area are going to be a light/white quartz. I’m going to have a tile backsplash (first time for that in here!) I’m getting a full sized washer/dryer set and the walls will be painted.(color to be determined)

Here is a better pic of the craft room in it’s glory with my desk area tucked in between two large windows.

My dilemma. My craft table top. The base will stay the brown color that I painted it many moons ago. But the wood top is too red now. It’s a simple plywood top that we stained. My new choices are 1) walnut top (nice deep brown) or 2) a quartz top. It can be the same as the new countertop color or I can choose a different color.

What a nice dilemma I have, right?

The Coach has already ordered the walnut for the top because that is what I thought I wanted right off the bat, but now I’m wondering.

I’m not worried about scratching a wood top as this table IS to be used and abused, so don’t factor in upkeep. Just think aesthetics.

Inside pic of our kitchen cabinets; Coach says the walnut will be just like the inside of our cabinets; same color.

Below is a pic of the quartz (Calcutta gold, it’s white with faint tan veining) to be used on countertops and the backsplash tiles are going to be at sink/fridge area to the end of laundry area. (not to be used at desk/office area) These are the partially finished floors (not grouted yet) And remember ALL those cabinets will be painted white. Not beige. White.

Thoughts on a table top? Wood or Quartz? I welcome your opinions.

XO

Ask Me Anything Answers {part 3}

On By SuzIn As blogged by Suz28 Comments

Kari asked a very easy and LIGHT question: What books have you read that changed your life? If you don’t have any, what movies or tv shows? I love a life-altering something or other. 

LIFE ALTERING? I honestly don’t know of anything that I’ve read or watched that altered my life. Perhaps back in the day I watched a documentary about recycling and it struck a chord with me as I’ve been a stringent recycler since the early 90’s. Of course, now you can watch a documentary of HOW recycling isn’t doing anything and that will just crush my soul, so I’m not going there. One of my favorite books is The Red Tent. I read it perhaps three times. Not sure if it altered my life, but it certainly made me ponder the days long before my ancestors. Also when I read Jeanette Walls The Glass Castle, it made me realize my messed up family life as a child was pretty idyllic in comparison.

Christine asked: Who do you look up to the most, and what qualities do you love about that person?!

Goodness gracious, way to make me dig deep. This will sound very cheesy, but if I had to choose one person I admire the most, it would be my husband. Did someone just gag? I also don’t want people to think I’m some sort of kept woman who idolizes her husband because He Is Man, I Am Little No Brain Woman. You didn’t think that, did you? He is the epitome of self made, he’s just so incredibly smart and intuitive. But the qualities that I wish I had as he does is his selflessness, his giving spirit and the fact that he doesn’t let anyone get to him. He takes nothing personally and isn’t worried about what anyone thinks of him, well, aside from me. He’s always put family first in everything and I’m so thankful for that.

Maddie-My question (if you don’t mind sharing) – do you have a favorite “name story”? Like how did you pick your kids’ names? Or if that’s too personal (I totally understand), is there a story behind one of your dogs’ names?

The girls were born back when you only got a sonogram if they thought there was something wrong. But, I knew in my heart each time that they were going to be girls. I did have some boys names as a backup just in case my intuition was trying to deceive me. When Lolo was born, I was in love with the name Lindsay. I’d only known of a handful of Lindsays and I thought the name was SO pretty. But, the only other family we knew where we were living in TX at the time, had a daughter named Lindsay. And the Mom of that Lindsay was going to watch our new baby when I went back to work. So, the Coach nixed the name. My next favorite name was Lauren; I’d ONLY known ONE Lauren and that was when I was in 7th grade. I also toyed with the name Laurel, because, trees. When she arrived we decided on Lauren. Fast forward to the playground a few years later and there were eleventy hundred Laurens. *sigh* When Linds was born, we were now living in Arizona and had no babysitter planned with a child named Lindsay. btw: we laugh at people who spell Lindsay any other way than the correct way. 😉

The Coach and baby Lolo. Those cheeks!

Ally Bean: My question is: why do you live where you live? Deets please. Hmmmm…how to answer this without being too wordy?

We’re both Florida natives. When were got married the Coach had a great job as a Tech Representative for a particular type of airplane engine and I was a hair stylist. His job had him traveling all.over.the place at a moments notice. He loved it and the company loved him. Not too long after he started, they moved us to the Dallas area in 1992; we left our hometown and everyone we knew. We loved the Dallas area, we built a house, had a baby and life was good. A few years later the Company wanted Coach to run his own turbine engine repair shop which was awesome because: Less world traveling at a moments notice. He had a few choices of where to set up the shop west of Dallas; we settled on Scottsdale, AZ. Again, we sold the house and moved to the Phoenix area in 1995; I was 8 months pregnant with Linds. LIFE was good. We LOVED it there too. We didn’t know a soul, but we had a nice life. A year and a half into our AZ life Coach’s dad came for a visit and was saying how he wanted to retire and sell his cabinet business as It was a lot of work for him. Suz pipes up: “Hey, we can move back to Florida, buy your business and you can retire.” As much as we loved AZ, we had NO family ties and we had two young girls who only saw grandparents a few times a year. So, in 1997 Coach said goodbye to his awesome job, we sold the house and made our way to SW Florida. (we grew up on the East coast) He knew nothing about making or selling cabinets, but he’s an entrepreneur at heart. The company has grown exponentially over the past 24 years and has afforded us a great life and that of our 70 employees. And here we are, living a dream life in hot as heck Florida.

A pic of the day we pulled out of Coach’s Moms house headed to TX in 1992. We had my Saturn on a trailer behind his truck and two drugged cats in the front seat with us.

I have two more questions to answer. *whew, wipes brow from exhaustion*

KIDDING.

XOXO