My Delightful Offspring

Friendship Longevity, Wedding Disremembering, And We Put That Off Long Enough

I’ve written about my friends so much on my blog, ya’ll might be sick of it, but my people are a huge part of my life. Friends are the family you make, right? I mean, I love my family, and my friends are an extension of that love.

I met Angee in 1990. I was working as a cosmetologist at a boutique salon owned by a young woman: The Hair Magician. She was so talented and I learned so much from her! I think I found out about this job because my Dad met the Hair Magican’s sister (salon receptionist) at happy hour. I was been working at a Chop Shop, which is where a lot of ‘just out of beauty school’ people start, but like The Jeffersons, I was ready to move on up.

THE MAGICIAN DEPARTS & ANGEE TO THE RESCUE.

Call me naive, call me silly, but don’t call me late for dinner, (*Suz, slapping her own knee*) I didn’t realize that The Hair Magician had an addiction issue. I thought she had health problems as she started missing days of work. Fast forward four months or so into my position here and The Hair Magician needed to go into a Rehab Facility; she called me one morning: You’re gonna need to hire someone else to help at the salon, you won’t see me for thirty days. In 1990 fashion, an ad was placed in the paper and Angee showed up. She was newly out of school, but I loved her immediately.

Angee was getting married in February; the Coach and I would be married in May. Shortly before Angee’s wedding, one of her bridesmaids flaked out on her and she needed a replacement: Enter Suzanne, Bridesmaid extraordinaire!

I’d honestly forgotten about even being in her wedding until recently.

Angee: Hey, did I make you pay for that dress? I’ll be horrified if I did.

Me: Oh crap. I forgot I was in your wedding! What color was the dress? Black and white? I don’t think I paid for it and I’m pretty sure I gave it back to you. I hope you wear it on special occasions!

The reason for this post is that we just had an incredible vacation with Angee and Rob; I asked her: Are you sure I was in your wedding? I don’t have photo evidence.

Not black and white; black and green! Do you think Angee is getting ready to fly off and we’re holding her back with the veil?

We didn’t see each other’s faces from 1994-2010!

Coach and I moved away from Florida in 1992, so seeing Angee was limited to visits home. Eventually Angee and Rob moved away from our home town, so we didn’t see them at all; but we finally got together one evening in 2010 when Lolo was looking at colleges in their part of Florida, then we saw them again for dinner in 2013 when Linds was looking at schools in that area. If I had more kids, we would certainly have seen them more!

Angee and I would talk on the phone maybe once a year, catching up and laughing the entire time, plus exchanging Christmas cards. There was a running joke for quite a few years about how much dowry I would need to come up with to marry my girls off to her boys, but I never did come up with enough chickens, cows or goats!

For years, we’ve been saying we needed a getaway together and we finally made it happen in 2024!

Here we are: older, grayer, softer, and even more fun if that could be possible!

We spent four lovely days together, which I will share a bit with you, but Lordy, it’s like a day never passed! We had such a blast together; I’m so blessed to have such wonderful friends.

Next week, I’ll share about our trip and how I witnessed the BIGGEST coincidence of life.

Anyone else have an Angee in their life, where you can pick up no matter how many years have passed?

XOXO

Is Hot Water Essential? Real Estate Nonsense, Word Trickery & Biscuit Wants Top Billing

I’ve been pretty consistent in getting out at least one post a week, but still, not much to say. That is NOT to say there isn’t anything going on, but nothing interesting.

I’ve been biting my tongue ~~typing fingers~~ about the fact that I’d like to commit a hate crime on a few plumbers that can not show up (canceling day after day, with lame excuses) this past week to even give us an estimate on finishing the install of TWO new tankless gas water heaters that another plumber started working on in December of 2022 and never finished. (they worked for two days pulling gas lines through the house to the garages, then never came back, the permit has now expired) I could fill quite a few posts about that frustration. *sigh* *Breathe in, Breathe out* Ok, I gotta get my blood pressure down…. I shouldn’t complain, because at least ONE of our old tanks still works, but we have to manually drain it every few weeks or else our water smells like rusty metal; the other one completely died two weeks ago and now all my laundry is washed in cold water.

Moving on…

We’re still looking at houses, and last Sunday we visited FIVE open houses. FIVE. I was as drained as our dead hot water heater.

There is one house that we really do like; it’s still under construction and we’ve looked at it three times, had a meeting with the builders superintendent to get more information because the realtor was lacking a lot of details. Still, we don’t have ALL the information on this house, which is such a weird situation. Their realtor keeps telling us to put in an offer, but what the house HAS and WILL HAVE is still up for debate. So we should put in an offer NOT KNOWING how the house will be finished? Do we look stupid? Our realtor is also baffled about this and has been trying to get to the bottom of it all. This house has the perfect layout for us, a fantastic location and the yard suits our next phase.

Meanwhile, the market is being saturated with more houses for sale, which only benefits us, so we will see how it all pans out.

Suz stop complaining and Share Fun Stuff.

My girls and I have been playing and sharing Worldle and Connections daily.

I have some brilliant moments, and also some Suzanne, you’re dumber than a box of rocks moments.

I’m new to Connections; like Worldle, there is only one game per day; which is good, but there are times that I am so flipping baffled.

You have to connect four words to one single phrase/meaning/common thread.

That was one I figured out, but damn it if they aren’t trying to be sly! SPONGE BOB SQUARE PANTS were four different choices and you know my brain wanted to put them together. TRICKERY!

one more fun thing.

Do you remember how mean Peanut could be to Biscuit? Well, the tides have turned slightly….Biscuit isn’t mean to Peanut, but she is annoying and I’m here for it!

The sweet thing and also weird thing about Biscuit is she really likes to be CLOSE to you. She sleeps next to us each night and there are times that she literally climbs ONTO our heads and wants to sleep there. Is she trying to get into my head? Maybe. But she really loves sitting on top of Peanut who if you could read her mind, is cussing profusely. Karma is a charma!

XOXO

Do you play Wordle or Connections? Would you be annoyed if Biscuit wanted to be up in your business?

The Makes Me Happy List: Three Congratulations, My Friends Are The Best, Books For My Ears

I’ve been having ‘Thank You Lord For Everything’ moments lately. So many terrible things happening to friends and the world in general; it’s good to reflect and pay tribute to the good stuff.

Before the holidays, Lolo was offered a new position; this is what she’s been striving for: DETECTIVE. And even better than your standard Detective-ing 🫣 She’s investigating her peers as an Internal Affairs Detective. Ya’ll, this is RIGHT up her ‘follows and enforces all laws’ alley. She started her position in January, but received her business cards last week, which makes her fully Legit.
Coach (and his team) were awarded *Fabricator Of The Year for North America last week. He had to make kind of last minute, quick 36 hour jaunt to Mexico to receive the award. We’ve been joking about it all week. He asked: have you ever laid down with A Fabricator Of The Year? Um, not this week! I’m thinking I need to have some Merch ordered with FOTYONA on it, with an arrow pointing to his face. *Fabricator as is Stone; countertops, walls, surfaces, etc…
My friends. I know I speak about them all the time, but I hold them in the highest regard because they are My People, and My People are always just as happy and proud of my children, my family as I am.
Coach and I met Don and Kelly (on a school night!) to see Tim McGraw and we had so much fun. Tim did not disappoint and he had a lovely tribute to Toby Keith. Tim is my age, and it’s only showing because he actually started his show at 8pm (the scheduled time; this never happens) and was finished by 9:40pm. WHAT?
Coach’s Mom and Stepdad had their 50th wedding anniversary this past week. I KNOW! It feels like we just celebrated their 25th; let me double-check my calendar. Oh, yes, that was twenty five years ago! Look at me with The Math!They are so amazing and I love them dearly. Coach and I had a quick visit with them on their big day and it was nice to put my arms around them both.
I’ve been reading more books lately, but mostly I’m on an Audio Book spree. Why did it take me so long to find Ann Patchett? (Thanks Nicole!) I finished Tom Lake, (LOVED) The Dutch House (LOVED) & Bel Canto. (Liked Immensely) This led me to her book of Essays: These Precious Days. I’ve never read a book of essays before, but it might be my new favorite thing. I’d enjoyed The Dutch House so much and part of that might have been the narration by Tom Hanks. (who doesn’t love Tom?) Anyhoo, listening to her book of essay’s where she describes how the Tom Hanks thing came about and the story of her friendship with Tom’s assistant is nothing short of amazing. It’s what my friend Michelle describes as the Spider Web Affect; how you meet one person and it can evolve into so many other relationships. Anyhoo, I recommend ALL the books.

My week in a nutshell:

Lolo The Detective, I sleep with The Fabricator Of The Year, my Friends give me life, Tim McGraw is ageless and prompt, My In-laws are inspiring & My ears are full of books!

Care to share one thing that made last week special for you?

TGIF~ A Real Estate Win & Wondering If I Missed The Lesson

The Girls’ Condo renovation is finished, and (almost) SOLD.

I talked about it briefly, months ago, when Linds moved out of the condo that the Coach and I purchased back in 2016 while they were in college. It’s sole purpose was to house our girls while they were in college (and beyond if needed) as we were tired of moving them in and out of dorm rooms; this was a good investment for our money and our sanity.

Once the ~~offspring~~ renters had vacated, it was up to us, the Landlords to renovate and get this baby off list; the HOA fees were painful.

Unlike the beach condos the Coach just renovated after the hurricane, he handed this to a good friend/Handyman to oversee. When you know you are stretched thin, you Hire Out. For me, this was the easiest job. I chose all the finishes: tile, paint, cabinetry, countertops, appliances, light fixtures, etc, and someone else DID all the work!

It came out so lovely. We had our good friend/realtor (he initially helped us purchase it in 2016) list it on Tuesday, we had an offer on Wednesday. We declined the offer, which was lower than asking and within hours they upped their offer well over asking price, with zero contingencies, closing in 30 days. They didn’t want to lose it. I thought they were kind of silly as we would have taken our listing price, but if someone wants to give us extra money, we will take it. Hells bells, would you look at that, I’m due for an eyebrow touchup!

The Coach attributed this good fortune to our continued Clean Living. There’s several other units in the building that have been sitting on the market, but they’ve not have the complete transformation. Who doesn’t want to move into a place, only having to bring a toothbrush, and not a paintbrush?

It’s nice to have another thing checked off our To Do List.

BTW: We used SW Alabaster in a satin finish on the walls and it’s lovely.

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Did anyone read Lessons In Chemistry? {Bonnie Garmus}

I’m not a writer, so it feels weird to critique an Authors writing, but it was bizarre to me. I was so torn because I’d read that this was a highly rated book.

At times while following the story, out of the blue it felt like the Author just pulled something bizarre out of thin air, and popped it into the story; like it was thrown in at the last minute without any real connection. I DID finish it and there were some very tender moments, but mostly the characters were not easy to connect with, and the dog learning vocabulary words really threw me for a loop, and I’m not a fan of Man Bashing, which this had plenty of.

Apparently I didn’t dislike the book enough to skip the screen version.

Unlike most Books To Movies, I’d say the streaming version (Apple TV) of this for me was an upgrade. Maybe because they changed the characters and most of the storyline? I didn’t LOVE It, but it was far superior to the book.

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I’m readying myself to head to Georgia with one of my girlfriends. Don’t you love one on one time with a good friend? The Coach and her husband will join us later, because we also like them. Stay warm, ya’ll!

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Thoughts on Lessons In Chemistry?

Have you been gifted extra money lately? If so, would you plan a getaway trip with a friend, love interest or solo?

XOXO