Tag: Holidays

Christmas Crunch, Lack Of Evidence, Making Big Commitments On A Whim.

On By SuzIn As blogged by Suz25 Comments

Christmas. Every.single.year it sneaks up on me. I should confer with my calendar more often. We arrived home after almost 3 weeks in Georgia last Wednesday with a to-do list that was more than I wanted to do.

Honestly, if we didn’t host the whole family on Christmas Eve, I might not have decorated at all. I’m not feeling Scrooge-ish, as I’m currently listening to Christmas Tunes and I watched the last half of It’s A Wonderful Life the other night. It’s just so much work, the decorating part. Linds was kind enough to come over Saturday night and get me going with the tree’s and really, that was all I needed get my azz in gear.

I was waiting to order Christmas cards because we generally take Family Pics around Thanksgiving, but we were missing Lolo and Nathan. We just had that BEAUTIFUL wedding with family photos, which would be lovely to share on our cards, sadly, the photographer hasn’t gotten all the pics back to us. I only have a handful of snapshots from the night; with only 3 choices that include Coach. So I made a collage type card out of some snapshots. This year, I opted to go with Costco as they are much cheaper and I’m guessing they’ll be faster than Shutterfly who took forever last year.

The only pics I have of the Coach from the wedding. And none to be seen with he and I together.

Gary Busey cleaned up as the Father Of The Bride

FALLING

I need to work on the FALLING post that 77% of you want to see, {sadists!} but I’m having a hard time making a post with actual meaning and not off the cuff.

QUICK, CHOOSE A PAINT COLOR THAT YOU WILL LOOK AT EVERYDAY AND HAVE TO LIVE WITH!

I was walking into Publix the other day and they had lovely fresh wreaths for sale.

Oh, I should get two of those for our front doors!

Then I remembered what our front doors currently look like:

Our house is being painted. *sigh* I’m happy about that, but goodness, the pool work isn’t finished and then we started this. Everything is an absolute mess outside.

A few months ago Coach asked me to make some color choices for the house after we realized the new decking made our house color look super old and outdated. I chose 3 and the painters put up some small samples.

{Our old, beige, gold-ish color next to the three samples that I chose off the internet}

We didn’t think much about the painting part, life happened, we left for GA and then had to make a commitment on paint color because paint was becoming scarce and our painters had an opening. It’s not just the house; it’s Coach’s two outbuildings-garages, the retaining walls, front entrance gate wall.

Y’all I chose a color while NOT actually seeing the color in a large area. I might need to have my head examined.

How are you guys doing Christmas-wise. Are you sending out cards and do you like it when people share family photos?

XOXO

Your friend Suz who could use a therapist recommendation.

It’s Not A Holiday Until Someone Becomes {slightly} Injured

On By SuzIn As blogged by Suz20 Comments

We had a small, but lovely Thanksgiving. Linds flew to GA on Wednesday and we enjoyed quality time together. Before she had arrived she did some trail research; our neighborhood has a plethora of trails; primitive, paved, easy, moderate, strenuous.

Fifteen minutes after we arrived at the house, Linds: Mama, can we go on a short hike? I found one that looks good and it will be easy; maybe forty five minutes.

I checked my watch and realized I had NOTHING planned, so off we went.

I’ve not been proficient at finding the starting points of trails other than the one that I drive by every time we come or go from the house. The one she found was further away, surely I could find it.

Since this was to be a short hike, we decided to bring Lillie. We hopped in the car and headed to where we thought the starting point was for this particular hike with the end destination being a smallish waterfall.

It took us about 40 minutes to realize, that we started too far away.

Living and learning.

It was chilly and a bit overcast, but not terrible weather, even for a couple of Florida girls.

We walked. And walked. And walked. We realized we really didn’t know what we were doing when we started this hike. The “falls” that we were in search of, were alluding us. But, an hour and half INTO our walk, finally we saw signs for the falls. Of course, we passed a PARKING LOT very near where the falls* were located.

*sigh*

It was pretty funny actually, and we were giggling at our not knowing what the heck we were doing. {I had no actual fears of being lost, we were in the ‘hood, with directional signs and cell service}

We found several sweet spots for a rest if we cared to. Linds took a breather here and I snapped a photo. Isn’t she a doll?

Lillie. Oh, Lillie LOVED walking and forged ahead of us the entire time, never slowing down. So, as I was snapping a pic of my adorable daughter with my cell phone, Lillie decided she was tired of standing around and took off, while I was holding her leash with one hand, my cell phone with the other. Picture me trying to step OVER tree roots, wet leaves, a little mud and keep up with my little doggie.

I lost my footing and did a, well, it was quite a spectacular maneuver. Have you ever made a Three Point Turn in your car?

I completed a Three Point Fall.

Knee.

{laughter}

Hand.

{laughter}

Hip.

{laughter}

It was hilarious. My cellphone survived. My parts survived. I could not stop laughing. Linds could not stop laughing once she realized I was ok.

Honestly, I wish there had been video evidence of my not.so.graceful.triple.axel.crash onto the wet earth, just so I can see if it looked as crazy as it felt.

About 10 minutes later we found the Falls*.

We were having such a good time, we thought about going further, but by this point we only had an hour and a half until sunset and it took us that long to make it this far.

On our way back, my daughter Grace managed to roll not one, but both ankles about 15 minutes apart. The second one, had there not been a tree for her to grab onto, might have seen her careening down a steep decline that wound’t have been pretty. Not sure that Lillie and I could have carried her back.

Two and a half hours.

Five miles.

Not such a quick jaunt in the woods.

Oh, and when we were back at the house, Linds was looking at trail/waterfall photos online and realized that what we THOUGHT was the fall that we found, indeed was NOT the fall that we were looking for.

We need a re-do.

So, that was our first adventure over Thanksgiving.

There is another FALL that happened and it was a bit more severe. And it was caught on video. Should I share? Does it amuse you to see your friends fall?

I’ve be a busy bee and hoping to catch up with you all soon.

XOXO

HallowWho?

On By SuzIn As blogged by Suz33 Comments

Kari wrote an entire blog post dedicated to Halloween candy and this made me think of her.

WHAT MONTH IS IT?

Like most everything, Halloween snuck up on me this. I didn’t bring out any decorations like I normally would. I don’t decorate for anyone other than the people in this household as we’ve never (in 25 years) had a Trick Or Treater here. I suppose the acreage, long driveway and security gate deters most. When our girls were little we either did Truck Or Treat with Girl Scouts or Coach’s Step Mom Judy took them to the church for a Fall Festival.

Here are some old pics that Judy took over the years.

Please note that Judy had a clown costume that she liked to wear. Years later, Lindsay told me how it terrified her; you can see it in Elmo’s face in ’97. I’m not a costume designer like my friend Ernie but I did create The Peter Pan, Miss America and Army guy/girl.

I HITCHED A RIDE ON THE SLUTTY HALLOWEEN BUS

When the Coach and I were dating we had a couple of friends who threw a Halloween party every year. We had so much fun and I know we both had some great costumes over the years, but I can not locate the evidence.

I do however have a photo of our very first Halloween and shall I mention this might be one of the first (or second) times I met his Mother.

Welcome to the family, ya whore!

At this time my father was dating this really nice lady, Terri who had grown daughters; she had made them some amazing costumes and I borrowed this whore-ish one. Hey, if you don’t have a checkered slutty past, what will you talk about in the future?

Honestly, if I could get away with that outfit right now, I’d wear it to Publix while picking up some sliced turkey from the deli counter.

Are you or were you a Halloween type of person?

Were you ever the receiver of FULL sized candy?

XOXO

Signed,

Suz who never was slutty, but played one on That One Halloween.