Raising Arizona......GRITS Style

I don't mind taking my kids shopping. Now that they are older, I don't have to look for them inside the clothes racks and they typically behave well for a longer period of time.

Take last Saturday, for example. We had to finish up some pre-Easter shopping and found ourselves at a local shoe store. The hubby was in the man shoe area and I had the kids with me.

As we walked around, I heard the kids talking and laughing. However, at some point I became completely oblivious to my kid's behavior, until I noticed one of the sales girls looking behind me and giggling.

How, ummm, marvelous is it to turn around and find your children looking like this:


Seriously. I can't make this stuff up.

How fortunate for me, I lived in the 80's and the first thing that popped into my head was this from Raising Arizona, a favorite movie of mine.

Son, you got a panty on your head. sound bite Raising Arizona sound bites

Just in case you wondered (because I DID), they took the socks fresh out of the box, so no nasty foot germs were transferred to their sweet faces in the making of their fun.

heh-LO

The warm weather has finally made an appearance in Alabama and everything outdoors is blooming and turning green! Thank you, Lord!

The change in weather has brought out another Springtime guest.....the ice cream truck! I'm sure we all can share a childhood memory of getting a ice cold treat from the ice cream man on a HOT Southern day. A few of my ice cream favorites were the Orange PushUp, the Rocket Pop, and there was one with a gum ball at the bottom of the plastic cone cup.

I am ashamed to say that I don't think my kids have actually had the pleasure of ordering from the ice cream truck. I know, I know....why not let them?!

First, listen to this....pay no attention to the video part, for it is completely unrelated.



How creepy is that song?! THAT is the exact song "our" ice cream truck plays, over and over and over again. However, slow the speed down a third. It freaks me out!


And then there's the person driving the truck. My mind races with thoughts of

1. have they had a background check
   
2. are they a child predator looking for houses where kids live
   
3. how do I know that's not some freak who bought an ice cream truck and peruses neighborhoods

Irrational? Probably.

I think I saw "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" one too many times in the 70's. Who remembers the CREEPY child catcher holding the lollipops screaming, "free ice cream today"??






Every time I hear the ice cream truck near our neighborhood, I cringe.

Until I change my mind, my kids will have to remember THIS ice cream treat:

We Can Haz Mud?

Hello, humans.....it's Sophie and Allie, the Alpha-Dog may have mentioned us.

We've had a great two weeks here with our new family. We love our new fenced in back yard filled with sticks and rocks to chew on. We go on walks almost every day around the neighborhood. Down the street is a cute little dog named Buster. We love to chase him in circles until he pants like he's about to pass out.

Squirrels!! They are all over the place. The word on the street is our neighbors have noticed more squirrels in their yards since our arrival. The Alpha-Dog doesn't have to worry about those pesky chipmunks either, we did them all a favor by digging up their little hole. We haven't seen Chip or Dale since. It didn't take us long to figure out the best place to get a mid-day snack is right under the bird feeders. The seed is so tasty and very crunchy; however, it sure can mess with your bowels!

THIS PLACE IS GREAT!!


Our family has two humans that are just about our size. One of them talks to us in a squeaky high-pitched voice and repeats her commands over and over .....but she's pretty cute so we can over look it. The boy is very tall and loves for us to chase him around our yard. His Legos and socks are delicious!

Today was our most fun day ever! As usual, our family left us in the backyard while they went to church. They put these dog house things in the yard, but who wants to get in there when you can stand out in the open during a passing rain storm?! Not us....no way.

Guess what?! When the rain falls and it mixes with the dirt in our hole, it makes this super fun brown stuff. We had a ball......until the humans got home.

The Alpha-Dog began speaking incoherently and the boy was laughing at us. Suddenly we saw the hose being rolled out and our shampoo made an appearance! *gasp* We.Had.To.Get.A.Bath.

The water was FREEZING?! We whined, cried, and tried to get away, but the humans are pretty smart and quick.

You tell us, is there anything wrong with looking like this????




We don't think so either! Don't tell the Alpha-Dog, but next time we get the chance, we're picking back up where we left off.

Flashback Friday-- Anchor's Away

This week's Flashback Friday is dedicated to someone that is very special to me, who lives on the other side of the world. Literally.


Meet my little brother, Constantine:






We should have recognized early that he would end up in the military:





See Constantine. See Constantine as a "plebe" (freshman) at the Naval Academy in 1996:







See Constantine meet Walter Cronkite on the USS Constitution:





See Constantine graduate from the Naval Academy in 2000:




Constantine has been stationed in Japan and South Korea approximately 7 of the last 10 years. During that time he married a wonderful Japanese girl, Aki.

This week we got the news that he will be coming back stateside for his next tour. He will be stationed in the Washington, D.C. area! I can't tell you how excited my family is. We certainly look forward to having them a little closer to "home".

I sure hope they like visitors!




If you have a Flashback Friday post you would like to share, add your link here:

Wordless Wednesday-- Double Bubble

For more Wordless Wednesday posts, visit 5 Minutes for Mom HERE.

Flashback Friday-- March Madness

I've decided that Friday will be the day I flashback to the past. If you feel inclined to join in the fun, I hope to have a cute button and Mr. Linky up for next week. If not, I'm not ashamed to party alone.


In honor of March Madness, this week I bring to you some photos from my high school days. May I interject here the 80's were certainly the best decade....like totally.

Many of you are probably not aware that I was a basketball super star player back in the day. I began my basketball career in 9th grade and actually played on scholarship my freshman year of college. There was no WNBA in the mid 80's so I decided to retired my high tops and have a little fun playing intramural ball.

True story: The one and ONLY time I scored a basket in the wrong goal was at my college's Parent's Day celebration. The President of the college referred to me as "Wrong Way" in front of the entire crowd. Ummm, yea.


Oh yes, back to why we are here. I'm not sure words are needed for these.....

Yep, that's me front and center, #12.
This was either '83 or '84

Senior year, 1985, sporting the basketball mullet.

I attended Christian high schools, and we had the privilege of wearing tents culottes. Ya' know, so the nice boys wouldn't be distracted by my hot legs. Or maybe there was a verse in the Bible that says, "Ye shall cover thine basketball legs with excessive fabric, which shall be called culottes."

Nerfin' It Up!

Kristen of We Are THAT Family recently posted about a precious boy named Mason who has been fighting cancer since he was 2. He is now 7. Mason recently completed his last round of oral chemotherapy. How else would a 7 year old boy want to celebrate than with the World's Largest Nerf Party!!

(Photo from Mason's mom's website)

Kristen is helping Mason's dream come true by hosting a virtual Nerf party. She asked her reader's to each have their own Nerf party in honor of Mason defeating cancer and write a blog post about it. We at the GRITS household were more than happy to participate.


Have Nerf guns, will par-tay:




Always remember, safety first:




And wear proper Nerf attire:



Those are the makings for an excellent Nerf party! See:









What's wrong with THIS picture:

Yep, looks like yours truly got stuck with the World's Smallest Nerf gun!


Mason, CONGRATULATIONS on beating cancer!! We were more than proud to participate in your Nerf Party.

Spring? Break?

I have to apologize for the lack of fun going on here. It's Spring Break week and, unfortunately, the only excitement going on here is, well, the kids have a week out of school while Mom and Dad have to work. Boo!

The weather has been overcast and cool......which has been our recurrent weather theme for the last several months. I'm certain we all have a big fat case of Seasonal Affective Disorder (S.A.D.), also known as the "Winter Blues". *sigh*

There seems to be a slight greening of the grass and our neighbor's tulip tree has bloomed, so we know warmer weather must be on the way. It just has to be, for crying out loud!

There's rumor of sunshine at 70's tomorrow....whatever. And how about that forecast for rain and cooler temperatures on Sunday. Oh joy.




To lighten up the mood around here, tomorrow I am going to have a Flashback Friday post celebrating March Madness!! Y'all come back now, ya' here.

Double Blessings

Last month we said goodbye to our dear 14 year old Lab, Bailey. I had many people advise me to go ahead and get another dog, but I said, "no". We planned on waiting until this summer to welcome a new pet.

I didn't want my kids to think that one life is replaceable with another. I wanted us to go through the grief process for Bailey......and we have.

This past week something happened, unexpectedly. God literally dropped these two right into our lap:

Meet Sophie and Allie!

Who could say no to those two faces??? I couldn't.

They are 5 month old Lab sisters who are house trained and have passed Puppy Kindergarten. They came to us from a friend who could not keep them. It was a blessing for us to take them and a blessing for her to know they were going to someone who would take such good care of them.

It's been a LONG four weeks at our house. We've certainly missed having furry friends around and we look forward to bonding with our newest family members.


We are smitten:





I think the "girls" are getting settled in their new home:





How fortunate for us, we have an in house Dog Whisperer:

I'm bringing IT back!

Some of you may have been here long enough to remember all of my Sincerely 'Fro Me to You posts. If not, click HERE and you will see what I am talking about.


Those retro picture posts originated with Kristen of We Are THAT Family and, eventually, was passed on to Marcy of The Glamorous Life. I cannot tell you how sad I was the day this particular blog "party" ended. I am almost certain I went through the grief process for several weeks afterward.

I love retro pictures dearly and want to do a weekly blog post called "Throw Back Thursday", or maybe "Flashback Friday". Perhaps, I can come up with something a little more creative...then again, maybe not. I have missed throwing myself and whomever else under the retro-picture bus.

With all that said.......I'm bringing RETRO BACK!!

This week's photo is from my college days. Just for a point of reference, I will be celebrating my 20th college reunion in April of this year.

I went to a Baptist women's college in a small Southern town. Thirty minutes away was a slightly larger town, and an hour away was the city in which I live now. Needless to say, there was no Internet or Facebook back in the day and we lacked a little in the entertainment department. Unless you call cruising the square or hanging out at the local Hardee's over-the-top fun. And, seriously, one can only watch "Top Gun" and "Dirty Dancing" so many times.

Have no fear, "girls" that attend a small women's college are VERY creative and didn't have to leave the dorm for a good time. As evidenced by this photo of yours truly:






Dear blog readers, I present to you what we called the "Tide Slide". Tide meaning the soap we put on the floor, and Slide meaning, well, how we got from one end of the dorm hallway to the other.

At the nursing home, we shall call this "instant trip to the hospital", the "hip breaker" or maybe we will just call it, "maw-maw's last slide".

Looking at this photo brings back so many great memories of a day gone by. And also thankful, that my body still looks that great after 20 years, two children and the death of my thyroid.....*cough* *cough*






(BLOGGERS, if you'd like to join me in a weekly retro-picture post, let me know in the comments section and I might add a Mister Linky feature. If not, I'll be the flashback queen of the Internet.)