Designer's Challenge

The problem: Two flower dirt beds in my backyard. Enjoyed by no one, except the family dog, who finds the dirt very cooling on warm days. We've lived in the house a little over a year now and this is what we've been looking at, and I can't take it anymore!




The designer: My step-dad, also knowns as Papa.



The work crew: Yaya, me, Papa.



(Before criticism begins, the dear hubby is heading up a mission trip to Brazil this summer and he had "training" scheduled for this day. Co-incidence? I don't think so?!) *shrug*

Making Progress:







See, the hubby did show up, just in time to help with the 2nd bed. Of course, I never work without my special GRITS hat!



Results:




Winner of the day: The Greek GRITS family and everyone we share our backyard with.

Loser of the day: Sorry Bailey, looks like you'll have to find somewhere else to cool off.



Hardest worker of the day:

M-O-M

No, that does not stand for Milk Of Magnesia. And if that's the first thing that came to your mind, you need more help than I do.

I just thought this Mother's Day I would share photos of all the "moms" in my life. I had the privilege of having my mom and stepdad down for the weekend, which I will blog about tomorrow. So, I got to spend Mother's Day with my mom. I have also been blessed during my lifetime to not only have two, but three grandmothers. They have each meant so much in different ways.


This is my momma. Mother of four and chocolate-chip cookie maker extraordinare! She is a wonderful Christian woman who serves the Lord in so many ways. All her grandkids call her Yaya, which is Greek for grandmother.


This is my mother's side of the family, four generations strong. From left to right is my daughter, me, my mom and Grandmother who is 80 something years young. Grandmother can crochet anything from slippers to blankets. She tried passing on the crocheting talent to me when I was younger but this left-handed girl could NOT get the hang of it.


This is the wonderful matriarch of my Greek family, better known as Yaya. She is who my daughter is named after. Believe it or not, this beautiful woman will be 93 this year! One of my favorite Greek dishes she makes is spinach and rice, and her Greek pastries would melt in your mouth! Baklava, of course, would be my favorite.


This is my late Grandmother Matthews who passed away in May 2004. My mom and stepdad have been married 30 years and from day one she loved us like her very own. Her specialty was down home country cooking and gardening. I can still hear her laugh and remember the smell of her kitchen on a Saturday morning. I miss her dearly.


Well, now on the lighter side I must share with you a couple of my favorite things I received on this Mother's Day. Well, I still have never had breakfast in bed on Mother's Day, which is fine because I'm sure it would be quite expensive to get the Cracker Barrel crew to fix Uncle Herschel’s Favorite in my kitchen.

Both kids made me a special message in a bottle at church today. They were so nice, and the sticky glue on the bottle was a nice touch. My son, who has a hard time with his creative side, wished me a generic "Happy Mother's Day". The princess shared a message of her own:



Last week, while at school, my son did get in touch with his creative side. Today he presented me with a journal about me and him. Each page had a title and something related to the topic. Here are a couple of my favorite pages:


His acrostic is quite clever don't you think. And I'll take Tidy as my favorite. Perhaps it will rub off on my kids someday. Maybe.


In his eyes, this is the only difference between me and him. He left the second one blank because he couldn't think of anything else. Hilarious.

They also presented me with funny cards and few of my favorite movies, which included Bill Cosby "Himself" and the first complete season of The Brady Bunch. I mean who better to receive on Mother's Day than Carol Brady!


So, from me to you, I hope everybody had Mother's Day that was as "speshle" as mine! The only thing that would have made my day any more "speshle" would have been a Mother's Day nap! Oh well.

'Fro me to you

No, of course that is not me. I stumbled upon this blog fun from bloggy pal Jennifer. The idea originates at We are THAT Family and is repeated each Thursday. So if you are bored and looking for some Thursday fun, give it a whirl, or just go follow the links posted. Some of them are quite funny.

Before I get on with the fun, I want to make sure everyone knows what the main premise for this posting is:

The purpose of Sincerely 'Fro Me to You (every Thursday) is to link up a post about something from your past. You can reach back all the way to your childhood and bravely post pictures of your 'fro or post something from last year and tell us about it. I'm not picky. We just want to read about something that will never see the inside of a scrapbook either because it's not worthy or because you can't find your fancy crinkle cut scissors.

Sooooo..... "Fro me to you" I would like to share with you a little expose of my life. They shall forever be known as "The Plaid Years".

Evidence shows that this period of my life probably began sometime around kindergarten:

Exhibit A. I am sporting a lovely blue and white plaid jumper matched so eloquently with a quaint elastic short-sleeved shirt. Thank you Ms. Mayhall for combing my beautiful bangs so perfectly in the front. (the something on my chin must have been on the scanner glass)

Thankfully, due to school uniform requirements, I suppressed my feelings for plaid. That is, until 6th grade.

Exhibit B. The red plaid dress. I remember it so well. I'd bet you $20 that the shoe of choice was today's fashionable Sperry Top-Sider. Ahem, with white knee socks. Really. I mean, while I'm confessing let's just get it all out.

Middle school must have been when the love of plaid (plaidophilia) came over me in full force. Notice my 7th grade photo:

Exhibit C. Fine. I had an affinity for red plaid. In case you are wondering, I probably had this little red jewel tucked into a khaki or navy blue skirt with the same above mentioned shoes.

There must have been some sort of A&E Intervention that occurred in the summer before 8th grade. I have no memory of it, but it must have happened because there is no more plaid in my school photos after 7th grade.


Well, until 10th grade. I guess I fell off the wagon. A plaidophilia relapse even. The evidence is quite clear:

Exhibit D. That's a pretty snazzy way of sneaking some plaid in, don't you think? Hey, and it's not red!

So the saga continued all the way into 11th grade.

Exhibit E.The blue plaid button down combined with the ever so soft navy sweater vest. Accented by the gorgeous add-a-bead necklace.
Ahhhh, the preppy years. Where did they go??

Don't think for a second that I have turned plaid-o-phobic. No siree. And please don't sick TLC's Stacy and Clinton on me. Now that I am older and way wiser I have been able to control my LOVE for the plaid cloth....until I saw these:




HELP!!!! I may need another intervention

AI Rocks

Well I am making an attempt to blog from work which involves typing on my smartphone's small keyboard. Don't worry no patient's lives are in jeopardy; today my job is to provide laboring women with a pain free experience.

Tonight we are rocking and David Cook is up first with Hungry Like a Wolf. Of all the rockin' songs written he chose his one?? Dude?!

Syesha...I can't remember what she sang by Tina Turner because her shiny dress had my attention.

Jason "Dread" Castro shot the sherriff and just shot himself in the foot! ByeBye.

Little Archuletta chose "Stand by Me". Ok, the little boy can sing. Fine. Umm, one question, are those doves on his shirt.  Just wondering.

Round Two. *ding*

David Cook sang The Who. Yea, dawg! That's da' man!! WOOT.

Syesha's 2nd song.  Ummm, I thought it was a night to rock and roll?  Oh well.  And she tried to play to my emotional side.  Bleck.

 

Jason's next attempt was a slightly karaoke version of Mr. Tambourine Man.  So long dreads!

 

Little David's sloooowww ballad version of Love Me Tender.  Yes, the boy can sing.  The little tweens will be texting like mad tonight.

 

 

Nothing new with the judges.  Randy's still sporting the friendship bracelet collection.  Paula, bless her heart.  And Simon, why won't he wear a shirt with some color?

 

I am still pulling for Super-Dave Cook.  Bottom two:  Jason and Syesha.  Leaving:  Jason.

 

 

*DING*  Round Three:  Me going back to "work" for the next 10 hours.

Back to life, back to reality

Before going completely back to my mundane life at home and work, I thought I would post a few more photos from our trip to the beach.

Saturday was dampened by a line of storms that hit around noon and completely washed out the scheduled afternoon "Beach Party". The party was moved indoors and despite the lack of sun and sand we all had fun, especially the kids!'

The Princess and Jackson

Sweet Emma:








Of course, the weather cleared up after the indoor beach party, so we all headed to Baytowne for dinner at the ACME Oyster House. Three words for you: Sweet Potato Fries! If I can't have my sweet potato's covered and smothered by brown sugar and pecans, I want them fried!



Check out the Princess' grand finale in Sandestin:



Both kids begged to do this the first night we were there, but being the not-so-allowing medically employed parents, we said "maybe later". But the persistent princess did not forget and we signed the waiver and let her go. The more cautious son decided he would forgo the rubber-band fun and stay close to the Earth's gravitational pull. Check out her face:



And every gymnast knows it's all about the dismount:



Well, the technologically advanced husband tried to get one last photo of the kids. Good thing he had the digital camera on the ghost setting, because the photo came out just perfectly!

Education 101

While I have been attending some pretty riveting anesthesia lectures, the rest of my family has been having fun at the beach. They have spent a lot of time at both the outdoor and indoor swimming pools.




Finally after a morning of stimulating lectures, I was able to join the family for a little relaxation.




Last night my anesthesia alma mater, Samford University, sponsored a reception for their alumni and students. Some of my closest friends from school are here, so we all got together for some current photos. After spending 27 long and grueling months together studying anesthesia, they are still like family.








Here's a couple photos of the kids on the beach:

Sun, sand and WIND....

Aloha! No, we are not in Hawaii, so I guess in the South we would say “greetings from the beach y'all”.

Our first 24 hours in Destin were filled with the sun, surf and sand. And I mean a lot of sand, and it's all over the place. That would be my one dislike of the beach. We will be digging sand out of everything for weeks to come.

We arrived at Sandestin around 10:15pm Wednesday night and happily found ourselves staying in a “Junior Suite” at the Sandestin Hilton, complete with a set of bunk beds for the kids. After ooohhh-ing and ahhh-ing over their deluxe bed accommodations, they both made their way out to the balcony which overlooks the beach! Before we knew it, the kids had both comforters and pillows on the balcony and begging to sleep out there. We finally got everyone in bed around 11:15pm!





Thursday morning we woke up to a beautiful view of the beach:


Unfortunately, we were looking at the beach around 6:45 AM. Yes, goodness, no matter what time the son gets in the bed he is up before the sun. Why, oh why?

So we made the best of our early rising by joining the geriatric breakfast club at the Donut Hole. It's one of our favorite local restaurants. The coffee is always hot and the food and service are great. It is definitely a must if you are ever in the Destin area. I went out on a limb this time and got the Eggs Benedict with crab meat. It was too yummy for words.



After endless questions of “when are we going to swim”, “can we go to the pool now”, “why do we have to let the sunscreen dry” we finally headed out to the beach. The water was a bit chilly for the grown ups, but the under 9 crowd seemed oblivious to the fact that hypothermia could play a factor in today's activities.

Despite the red flags being out for gale force winds, we all had a sun filled good time. I guess all the beach glory caused me to have an ADD moment with the sunscreen, which led to this lovely sight:



For dinner we headed to Sandestin's Baytowne Wharf, which is loaded with shops and restaurants. We had our usual, seafood pizza at Robert's. After wandering around the village shops and making a few photos, we ended the day with a trip to the candy store. The kids got a bag full of mixed gummy treats and I got the usual caramel-pecan apple which I can never resist.










Bedtime ensued with two little people crashing and burning hard. But not before asking, “can we swim again tomorrow”. That will be all left up to dad, because I will be on official business beginning Friday morning at 7am. Let the educating/refreshing begin!