Tag: On Blogging

Suz & Coach Are Hot and Dirty & One Answer

On By SuzIn As blogged by Suz24 Comments

You guys. It’s been a week. Our floor demo guys were supposed to show up Thursday morning with the possibility of coming a day early, but we never heard from them until they were in the driveway at 8:15 on Wednesday morning. A DAY EARLY. The Coach and I scrambled to move items out of the laundry/craft room since I thought I had another day.

The noise. The mess. The noise.

The noise went on for 8 hours and that little piece of plastic didn’t keep the dirt out from the front of the house. I could write in the dirt on the kitchen countertop and you know I did: “this place is a dump”

And for fun because it’s July in Florida, the a/c in the front of the house went out Tuesday and my a/c guy has been here 5 times with no luck. I’m really Not here to complain and I kept telling myself: “This is only temporary, this is only temporary” as I wipe sweat from my brow while doing absolutely nothing to bring on the sweat.

The a/c works in the back of the house, but the back of the house looks like a bomb went off. The irony.

The good news is our tile installer started bright and early on Thursday morning, is making headway and we’re thrilled with our tile choice/transition from what we had. We wanted the same tile that we installed in the front of the house when we did our HUGE Reno 6 years ago, but they stopped making that color/style when I started searching TWO years ago. (of course they did!) Why didn’t we have the forethought to order all the tile for the back of the house six years ago? Probably because we were overwhelmed with the six month long Reno and just wanted it to be over.

This is only temporary. This is only temporary. *wiping dirty sweat from my brow*

I was working on answering some questions before things heated up here.

Gigi Rambles–How did you and Coach meet? Love at first sight? I’m fairly certain it was love at first sight for him.

Nicole also asked: Okay, here is my question: how did you and Coach meet and start dating? I know you were both at the same Santa when you were kids…but when did the MAGIC start?

Scene set: 1985, Suz just graduated from HS and was a mere 17. The Coach and I were living in the same town just a few blocks away from each other; I had just moved from GA and in with my Dad a little more than a year when we met. His best friend Don (the same one we see ALL the time who is married to my bestie Kelly) was dating Melissa who was a good friend of mine from HS; they dated all through high school. Anyhoo, Melissa said to me on one fateful afternoon: “Hey, do you want to go to a concert with us tonight? Coach has an extra ticket and no date? Two other good friends were also going.

Sure.

At the time, I didn’t have a clue who he was and when they showed up, I was all, OK, this might be fun, he’s cute. Ya’ll I didn’t even know what concert we were going to, but no big deal we went to concerts all the time. {Robert Plant} We had a great time that night, we sucked face, enjoyed the tunes, he got my number. Also, a few days later I remembered that I HAD seen him twice before; recently at a party at the beach and he had a girl with him and I remembered I had been to a party at his apartment a while back. Yes, I was proficient at having blonde moments early on.

He didn’t call.

Me: That’s the last time I’ll kiss a boy on a first date! {Lies, all lies!}

About three weeks later I was hanging out with Don and Melissa and they wanted to stop by Coach’s house; he was having a party. I was reluctant, they insisted. There I was, at his house and his freaking girlfriend was also there. Apparently when we had our blind date, They Were On A Break. She must have smelled him on me because she was giving me side eye and couldn’t keep her hands off him. The minute she wasn’t around he was flirting with me, a few hours later they got into a fight, she left and I went in for the KILL with my cuteness.

I wants, what I wants.

So, essentially we met on a blind date 36 years ago. We dated for six years before we got married. There you have it. Serendipity. Being at the right place at the right time, kissing well and biding my time. Isn’t he a lucky guy?

Happy Friday

XOXO

I Asked If You Wanted To *Ask Me Anything* And You Did NOT disappoint. {part 1}

Housekeeping:

Thank you all for the well wishes for AT & UJ and their new home.

Yesterday we went to our friend Jeff’s Mass service. My dear friend Stacy get up in front of everyone and spoke about her husband. Honestly, I could not have gotten up there to speak about HER husband, much less my own. She is incredibly strong. I’m going to try and spend as much time with her and her kids in the coming days as things settle down and they try to acclimate a new normal.

Questions:

I’ll answer a few today and get to the rest soon. We are in the process of ripping out about 1,000 square feet of tile flooring and baseboards with new flooring going in. New full sized washer and dryer on the docket. *cough cough* Already anticipating all the dust. We’ve had to empty a guest room, my office/laundry and I think a toilet will be moved to our pool lanai later today; it’ll all be lovely when it’s finished. We’ve discussed doing this project for a few years, so I’m happy to get it going.

Martha asked where I’ve traveled in my life and what was my best, most memorable trip. Let me start by saying I am a LUCKY girl. Growing up we didn’t have a lot of vacations. A few times my Mom was able to take us to Disney World since it was so close and my sweet Aunt and Uncle took us camping several times up in the mountains of NC. My Dad was quite frugal, so he wouldn’t spring for Disney, he took us to GatorLand Zoo or to the KOA down the street. Which is fine, really, but with his temperament, nothing was ever that enjoyable. But in the past 15 years or so, the Coach and I have been able to travel. Our first BIG trip was to Venice Italy. It was actually a FREE trip that Coach won through one of our cabinet vendors back in the day. It was a magical time for both of us and we met some really fun people, enjoyed amazing food and saw a lot of history; it really felt like walking into a story book. We piggybacked a quick stop in London on our way home, but we were so exhausted and we were on such a limited time that I hardly enjoyed London and I only wanted to sleep.

Some of our other memorable vacations:

Good lawd. I started to link the trips when I realized I am REALLY fortunate. Not too bad for a girl who spent most of her childhood in a trailer park or a bowling alley.

Venice, 2004

I’m reluctant to say what my favorite is, because the Coach wasn’t even with me. But IF you put a gun to my head (why the violence Suz?) I would have to say the trip that Kelly and I took to New Zealand in 2018 was the bomb diggity. We went for 13 days and did a self-driving tour. Talk about an adventure; Suz driving on the wrong side of the road in the wrong side of the car and in an unexpected day-long snow storm. “We’re NOT in Florida anymore.” I really thought we might die and that was only our second or third day there. We saw a good portion of the South Island and ended our tour on the North Island. Glaciers, Kiwi Birds, whales, dolphins, pumpkin soup, wine tours, boat rides, sheep everywhere, gorgeous countryside and delightful people. *sigh* I would love to go back again with the Coach; it was truly an amazing place to visit.

Bijoux asked what has been my worst vacation. Is there such a thing? Well, I suppose if we took a cruise and *someone* accidentally threw me over, well that would be a big suck. I suppose my fiftieth birthday trip to Costa Rica could be considered ‘not perfect’ since hurricane Erma was heading directly towards our house. We were 4 couples all from Florida; the four guys were able to get flights home to prep the houses and the four girls were stuck in an awesome resort for more days than expected. Yeah, it was horrible.

Before Erma tried to steal all my fun

Debra asked What’s your favourite movie? And what movie do you hate? By the way, I love my Canadian friends and their fancy U in favoUrite. I honestly can not pick one movie. But if Deb pointed a gun in my direction and told me to pick ONE it would be: FerrisBuellerUrbanCowbowMrDeedsGreaseSixteenCandlesForrestGumpDirtyDancingWalkTheLineNapoleonDynomiteELFSayAnythingGoodWillHunting.

WHEW, that was a mouthful. I’m NOT a fan of horror movies. If I see something terrible happening, I can NOT forget it. This is why I don’t watch the news. I accidentally watched The Blair Witch Project a long time ago and I can not get it out of my head, especially when I’m taking out the garbage at night. I watched scary movies as a child and it’s probably why I’m slightly demented.

River asked About available guest rooms at our GA house. We actually had 3 guest rooms when we purchased it, as of our last visit we have four; we converted a workout room and workshop into a guest suite. Does it look like we need an exercise room? I mean, does it look like we WANT an exercise room? I’ve been meaning to post about how sweet the rooms are, but I’m not 100% done with them yet. But for River, you can visit before I’m finished, just leave the garden-eating wood chucks at home. Here are two of them.

  • The Double Room AKA The Deer Room
  • The second Master AKA The Bear Room

Nance asked What is your favourite children’s book? Is it one you loved as a child, or is it one you loved sharing with your own children? I only remember a few that I loved myself; one being Charlottes Web and I still have it. a few favorites that I read to the girls are: Is Your Mama A Llama? The Runaway Bunny, (still brings tears to my eyes) The Adventures of Frog And Toad, Little Bear and all the Dr. Seuss books. The Coach and I still quote some of the Dr. Seuss one-liners. I’ve saved ALL Of these to read to my future grandchildren. *Hint Hint* In case anyone wants to accidentally get pregnant after October 23rd of this year.

I’ll finish the rest of the questions in a few days. This was fun; thanks for motivating me!

XO

On By SuzIn As blogged by Suz28 Comments

The Good News & Questions?

On By SuzIn As blogged by Suz34 Comments

I alluded a while ago that I had some good news to share and then poof, the proverbial shit hit the fan and I lost my blogging mojo.

The good news is that my Aunt and Uncle, (AT & UJ) after looking for almost a year found and were able to actually purchase a home in our ‘hood in Nawtth Jawjaa. They had put in offers on several homes, only to lose them because the market is brutal.

While I was up there with Kelly in April, we went and looked at this particular home a few hours after it was listed. The four of us LOVED it immediately. I mean, it had all the elements that they wanted: VIEWS, master bedroom, laundry and office on the main level, a flat and navigatable driveway and not too far from the gates of our ‘hood. Plus, it’s only eight minutes from our home. EIGHT.

It’s an older home and needs a few things to spruce it up, but nothing too crazy.

{Real furniture will be added after the floors are refinished}

It was just one year ago this week that the Coach and I even had the idea to buy a home up there and when we called my Aunt and Uncle (AT is a realtor) to discuss it, they said THEY TOO wanted to move there. They currently live an hour and a half away in the ‘burbs.

SEREN-FRICKIN-DIPITY.

I’m sure I’ve expressed this before, but AT & UJ have always been my stable parental figures. I adored my Mom Bev and I loved my Dad even with all his demons, but AT & UJ have been a constant positive force in my life. And to have a home EIGHT minutes from them, this is kind of a dream that I didn’t know I wanted or knew could ever happen.

{They have spectacular views but will be MUCH improved with the upcoming Vista Pruning}

I have several other things that I really want to share, but I’m having a time getting my thoughts together. My sweet blog friend Martha had a post recently where she opened it up to her friends to Ask Me Anything. I thought this was so cute and fun to read, so why not do it myself while I muddle through things.

Go ahead, Ask Me Anything.

I mean, not who I voted for or how much $ I have under my mattress. But just about anything else. I DO wonder though, since I’ve been an open book on this old blog, is there anything that you don’t know about me? Hmmmm…..I should probably be more secretive in the future.

I’ll compose a post to answer any questions you might have.

XOXO

Pocketful Of Sunshine & What Ever Happened to So and So?

On By SuzIn As blogged by Suz26 Comments

The following is a little post I shared way back in 2010 and it still comes to mind because:

1) I continue to hear this song on the radio and 2) I have this slip of paper sitting on a shelf in my office in a tiny little frame.

Current pic of the shelf above my desk. Are we surprised that I have a plethora of butterfly and bee paraphernalia?

I picked Linds up from school one day last week, she hopped in the front seat and pulled a slip of paper out of her pocket. She smiled, showed me what she had and said:

“Look, I’ve got a pocketful of sunshine” 

I just don’t know if this girl could be anymore clever, cute or funny. If we did not share the same DNA, I would try to kidnap her. 

Middle school wasn’t the easiest for her, so this memory was a bright spot and also, shortly after this she started high school and that wasn’t easy for either of us. Thank the good Lord we both survived and she’s one of my favorite people.

I love you Linds!

When I went back to look at that post and I read through the comments it hit me again how many people used to read/comment on my blog and also write their own blog, then *poof* they’re GONE.

One commenter, (who I didn’t even remember) I looked at her profile and she started eight personal blogs. EIGHT. And she’s gone, only lasted a few years. First of all, there should be a limit on blogs that you can write. One is enough.

Don’t you love how I declare things like how many blogs a person CAN have? How else do you earn a nickname like Bossy McBossy Pants?

Anyhoo, I’m having a hard time finding the time to write a post lately so this will have to suffice.

XO