Tag: Holidays

Not Exactly A Heart Of Glass, VD Stuff & Loving Time With My People While Doing Good.

On By SuzIn As blogged by Suz30 Comments

Back in the day, I decorated for almost every holiday. The last few years I was SuziSlacksALot. But this year, I went all out with a tablescape for VD.

And by All Out, I mean one little tray on the dining room table and a few odds and ends. Sunday morning I saw Peanut chewing on something and I assumed it was one of the 327 toys that she has at her disposal, but then I noted it was shiny and NOT a chew toy. That B*TCH! She climbed up on a chair and helped herself to whatever her heart desired…and her heart desired my sparkly heart!

SPOILER ALERT: It turns out that the interior of my heart is just plastic. 🤣

This is a vintage piece of artwork (the heart spins) made by Lolo about…hmmm...I have no idea how many years ago, but she signed it in childlike chicken scratch, so I’ll guess it was 22 years ago?

My sweet Lindsay gifted me with these adorable kitchen towels. She didn’t even know that I often refer to Peanut as Peanut Butter! How sweet is that?

On Friday night I shared one of the best nights of my year with Lindsay and Coach; they volunteered with me for Tim Tebow’s Night To Shine. (this is my fifth year) I knew they would both love it; we had such a good time. We were in charge of organizing the guests into the Limo’s and party buses as they traveled from one area of the Church property where they were staged to where the actual prom was held. Coach was great as a Hype Man…getting the guests pumped up about their night as they patiently waited for their transportation turn.

It was a lovely way to spend our Friday night, made more so by dinner at a Mexican restaurant with a well deserved cocktail after our roles were finished.

How was your weekend? Do you decorate for Valentines Day? Are your surprised that my heart is actually plastic?

XOXO

Regrets, I’ll Have At Least One. Cows go Moo, SapSuckers Go Tap Tap Tap

On By SuzIn As blogged by Suz38 Comments

December 2023 me is going to cuss the living daylights out of January 2023 me. The way I took down the Christmas tree, with all the lights hanging/dangling/hiding/tangled between each section was a crime in the making. But I just didn’t have it in me to untangle, remove and sort the lights as a sane person would. I’m going to be so regretful of my impatience next Christmas.

*We generally go to GA for Thanksgiving and when we get back home, I stress about Christmas decorating because I’ve generally not done any shopping or planning and decorating just adds to my dread. (reading that again and it’s evident that I don’t have my shit together; I swear I used to) I declared to the Coach that this year, I will decorate the house entirely before we depart for Thanksgiving.

Hey, when November comes, can ya’ll remind me of this great idea and can someone come help with the light situation? Pretty please?

SHE’S SUCH A BABY, The DOLPHINS COWS MAKE HER CRY.

Peanut finally had her first visit to the Ranch just before we came back to Florida. The Coach wanted to document the property via his fancy-ass drone before more work on the land was done. The Cows were mooing and mooing as cows do and Peanut the Bad Ass was growling, from the safety of her SUV.

A bit later, when we were walking or in the UTV and a cow was close, The Bad Ass started shaking and hiding behind me. She’s such a baby.

As we were venturing around the property, I was really enjoying the Winter look to the place; I mean, it’s not as pretty as when everything is lush and green, but the winter perspective is to be appreciated. There were gobs of blue birds and downy woodpeckers flitting about; I’ve never seen a downy woodpecker (of course I got excited) and I rarely see bluebirds, so that was fun.

Our favorite tree
A still shot over part of the property that the Coach captured with his drone.

MORE PECKERS?!

Back at home, I spotted an unusual-to-me bird in the tree outside my office window. I knew it was a woodpecker, but what in the Baskin Robbins 31 Flavors is it? After squinting my eyes through the blinds at least twenty seven times and then looking through my handy dandy laminated bird guide for our area that arrived with my AARP card, I realized what I was seeing was a Yellow Bellied Sap Sucker. THEY DO EXIST!

Again, I might have gotten too excited about this and what has my life come to?

Did birds exist before I turned 50? Most likely, no.

Although, I still have this memory from when Lindsay was in kindergarten, explaining one morning to her teacher that she was So Tired because the birds woke her up early. I was probably too busy to notice them.

Please tell me I’m not alone in my enjoyment of The Birds and especially The New-to-me Birds.

Are you embarrassed at how I stored my tree for the next year?

XOXO

Welcoming 2023, Getting Close And Personal With The GA Healthcare System And Learning Something That’s Probably Common Knowledge.

On By SuzIn As blogged by Suz35 Comments
Peanut writing her first blog post for 2023.

The Coach and I rang in the new year at our place in GA. We’d arrived on the Wednesday prior along with my Brother In Law. We didn’t have much planned aside from relaxing for me, and *some projects for the husband.

{*My post later this week will cover what the projects pertain to–I’ve been holding out on you!}

We were supposed to fly out around 3pm, but we had some delays and finally took off shortly before sunset. This is the benefit of flying later:

A few weeks ago the Coach started having some stomach issues and was worried it might be a flare up of diverticulitis which has ailed him a few times. He ended up in major pain, but by the time he got to the emergency room it had slowed down a tad which was good because the ER was packed and it appeared he’d wait all day for care, so he came home and waited it out. The next day, he was a bit better and carried on like normal, ignoring the aches.

The 30th of December he again started not feeling great, and by Saturday the 31st, after conferring with Teledoc, he needed to visit the ER.

The Dr’s did an ultrasound to confirm either diverticulitis or a kidney stone and diverticulitis was the clear winner.

IV pain relief (fentanyl) and antibiotics were given. We arrived at the ER at 11:30 am and were back home by 5:15 pm; that included going to CVS and waiting 30 minutes for prescriptions and a forty minute drive each way.

The hospital staff were all so wonderful; it truly was an amazing hospital experience compared to what I’ve heard/seen from other places. The place was clean and every single person we encountered was friendly and helpful. (which is what we’ve found mostly of GA people; I’m not counting Atlanta people as GA people)

Saturday College basketball doesn’t care about your diverticulitis!

Aside from our successful visit to the ER, I’ve been enjoying myself with daily walks with Peanut, a challenging puzzle, reading, watching movies, missing Lillie and generally just enjoying the mountain views.

Oh, something fun that I learned this week. Peanut and I encountered a very large deer and she waved her tail at us like this:

When I got back to the house I told the Coach: NOW I KNOW WHY THEY CALL THEM WHITE TAILED DEER!

He looked at me like I was crazy. But really, it only took me 55 years to learn this about the white tailed deer because when the tail is down, it’s tan, not white.

Did anyone make it past midnight to ring in the new year? How about the white tailed deer…have you ever seen them waving the white flag at you?

XOXO

Another Heartbreak Before Celebrating All The Birthdays

On By SuzIn As blogged by Suz33 Comments

Our Christmas was lovely. I mean, I went into it begrudgingly, but we had an amazing Christmas Eve; four were not able to attend (some were sick, some have weird priorities) but my girlies were there and that’s the Best. We had 13 people in the house, along with SIX dogs. Four of those dogs are considered large beasts, so I’d like a trophy for not losing my shit.

Backing Up the Busy Bee Bus, the Friday before Christmas, I had to let our Lillie go. I’m crying again just writing this, well, it’s only been six days, so I’m still deep in the mourning process. She wasn’t doing well, and we knew the day was coming, but damn it to hell, it was the hardest thing I’ve had to do. I mean, I’ve put down four cats and three dogs, but Lillie was my heart dog and it hurt like hell making that call. When I adopted her, I thought I’d have at least 5-7 years with her. We had her less than two years and only one Christmas together.

Most of you walked (read) the Lillie Journey with me, so you know how obsessed I was with her.

Her last morning; enjoying some vitamin D with her new annoying sibling.

She was one of a kind and there will never be a replacement for her.

Happy Birthday Jesus

Please note that Peanut wore her Christmas PJ’s for over 24 hours as our temperature never got above 50 on the 25th and 26th. Finally on Sunday night I declared (to no one in particular) that I’m putting on the heater; it was 63* in the house. (yes, my husband still wore shorts the entire holiday)

Happy Birthday Lindsay

Linds celebrated her Golden Birthday; 27 on the 27th. We had a lovely Italian dinner with her bestie, her BF and my FIL and MIL.

My sweet, funny, has-the-biggest-heart Lindsay, she is such a special girl and she’s really thriving and doing well. When your kids are happy, well it’s the very best feeling in the world. I hope this year brings even more goodness into her life. And if I could share one thing of hers with all of you, it would be her big laugh; it’s my favorite.

Her bestie said that the last photo looks like The Last Supper, but Linds has zero Disciples; which is insane because I’d follow her anywhere!

I’ll spend the next few weeks days catching up with all of you. I hope everyone had a great holiday with all their favorite people. (My Feedly blog list shows I’ve missed 72 posts—ya’ll are so talky even when there’s a major holiday 😳)

XOXO