Mindy-ness

On Saturday, coming home from vacation, Mindy realized that she had forgotten to leave Margarita a key for her bi-monthly cleaning. She had to call and cancel---which was bad because she had to cancel her the last time too---since she had out-of-town company. I asked her if she was going to be "bummed" after being out-of-town for 2 weeks and coming home to dirty apartment. She said "no" because she had DEEP CLEANED before her friend, Drew came from New Orleans. I'm thinking, "what the heck is she talking about? Margarita does the deep cleaning." So I asked her what DEEP CLEANING meant to her. She said that she had "wiped out" the bath tub and sink!! What a hoot. Truly, she has no clue.

In all fairness, the girl has never had to clean in her life. By the time she was born, I already had a cleaning lady. When she went off to college, she thought Windex wipes could handle it all. She used the Pledge as pest control---using half a can on each gargantuan roach that can only be found in New Orleans. Those suckers can carry off a newborn---I've seen them. Aside from the roaches I rarely stayed with her because I couldn't take such low cleaning standards. I did clean her apartment once when she first moved in, but I'm not the type of mom that's going to "bust my butt" cleaning when I don't even do my own! I love my girls, but there are limits. That's why, when Mindy moved back to Nashville, Butch and I made Margarita mandatory---the best 100 bucks she spends each month. And any time we go over, it's nice---you don't feel like you have to have the hand sanitizer in your hands the whole time.

Here she is after coming home from Curves, getting ready for work and having breakfast---pancakes with a Diet Coke. The girl definitely is one of a kind. We're glad she's our one of a kind.

The Holy Grail

Here it is---the Holy Grail---mom's Scrabble game---the one I learned on at 5 years old---when I could only spell 2 and 3 letter words. After mom died, I didn't really give anybody a choice---I snatched it right away. It has a lot of sentimental value and memories for me. I played Scrabble with my grandma Zimmermann too. I love the game.

Mom had this original word guide in her game. We've used it hundreds of times. But, alas, playing with the family on our vacation, we discovered, that this guide is hopelessly outdated. I'll be keeping it for the memories, but I do need to get another more up-to-date version.

On our vacation, the grandkids really got "in" to Scrabble. When we would sit down to play, Mitchell would say, "okay, we're playing for second place." Meaning that they knew they couldn't beat me. Still, they liked playing and played many games with me. I taught them my "tricks" and secret moves. I wowed them by playing the word "d-a-r-k-e-n-s" for a total of 98 points. Then I told them the story of playing a 7 letter word with Jeanne recently, but I couldn't remember the word or how many points it was worth.

I look forward to the day when the kids start beating me. I don't think I beat mom for the first time until I was about 22 years old. After that, she still beat me most of the time---of course, she had the advantage of her crossword puzzle vocabulary---but I won once in awhile too. I love that we're now on generation #4 with Scrabble. Mindy loves it too. Steph is a sore loser, so she doesn't like to play with me---nor does Butch. Sandy plays, but since only 4 can play, she didn't get a game this trip. August when they are here, she'll definitely get a chance.

A couple vacation shots. I thought I had a good one of Greg and Sandy, but that must be on Greg's camera.

How Time Does Fly

I can't believe that Elizabeth will turn six in September. Where has the time gone? It's always so much fun to have a baby in the family, but she's not one anymore. Still, she provides us with quite a bit of entertainment. One afternoon this week, she and I were playing Sequence. She won the first game, I won the second. I said we'd play a third to see who was the champion. She said, "no thanks, grammy, I'm kind of "boed." She still has trouble with her "r's," but it sounds so darn cute.

Tonight, we went to dinner at Bayou Bill's Crab Shack. I asked her, "if you could pick anything in the whole wide world to eat, what would it be?" She said "ribs." I told her she could get them.When the waitress came around, she ordered cheese pizza. I asked her why she didn't order the ribs. She said, "because I'm wearing my new shirt and I don't want to ruin it with ribs." And here I thought I was the only one (well, except for Connie) that had to worry about slopping on my shirt!!! Anyway, we convinced her that she would be okay with the ribs and she was. Near the end of the meal, she said, "I didn't even have to use my napkin once!" Like that was a special feat! I'm going to miss these cute little things she says. We are so lucky that she's such an easy-going kid and so much fun to have around.

I HATE the Beach!!!

So, as I'm sitting on the beach this morning, I asked the fam what it is about the beach that they love. I'll agree with beauty---you can't find a more beautiful spot---snowy white sand and turquoise waters. But as far as I'm concerned, that's about it. If I never bury my tootsies in the sand for the rest of my life, that would be okay with me. In fact, the gorgeous views below are from our porch---a nice, breezy, relaxing spot. 

 Back to what the family loves---the smell---are you kidding me---smells like dead fish with a little tanning oil thrown in. Not a great combination.

They like the  sounds--- to me, the ocean itself is so loud, that the kids can't hear you yelling at them---and with our family, there's a lot of that going on. Butch rented a kayak for the day today. Right away, I said this was going to be something that caused nothing but fighting ("I want to go first, I didn't get a turn, why do I have to wear a life jacket, etc."). I wasn't far off. Steph and Mindy went first as the teens were still sleeping. They were supposed to be trying it out to see if you could "fall in" and still be able to get back on the kayak. They paddled pretty far out---farther than Butch expected they would just to test the "rockability" of the craft. He started freaking a little about the fact that they did not have the life jackets with them. When we vacation these days, he still thinks of them as little girls. Actually, they're okay with that as he fills the cooler and hauls everything for them---anything for his girls. They love him for it and so do I. Anyway, they made it back okay. The teens arrived and immediately wanted to "go." From the adults: "put on sunscreen, you have to wear the life jackets, take off those expensive sunglasses, only two people can row, etc." I'm just sitting back laughing. Too darn much trouble if you ask me. Just let 'em go. They'll figure it out.

Another thing Mindy says she loves about the beach---playing games. She gets Butch to play this paddle ball thing they brought. I was laughing so hard---one hits it, maybe the other returns it and then it's chase after the ball and pick it up to start all over---truly, never more than two hits at a time. ridiculously NOT fun. Mindy was getting mad at me for laughing, but I couldn't help it. I was rolling in the sand, laughing hysterically. There is no way that was fun---just hot and sweaty. When they quit---it was less than 2 minutes---Mindy said it was because I was laughing.

Another fun thing per the family is hunting for stuff. Hunting for these tiny little sand dollars was fun for about 5 minutes. You had to watch for them as the waves roll in and try to grab them before the wave went back out. It's pretty hard, but they sure are cute---about a half inch wide. Other than that, there's not much I want to find on the beach. Butch brought a metal detector, but I've never known anyone to actually find anything worth finding with one.

They say they like to read on the beach. Not me. Ruins your book. I only bring magazines and consider them trashed after.

I do my obligatory hour and a half, then head for the pool. The beach is just plain too hot. Give me my float in the pool, now that's heaven! Today, I had it to myself for about an hour. Then Victoria and Elizabeth joined me. We still had it to ourselves until the teens decided to get in---with a bunch of other teens they met. It was about time for me to make lunch anyway.

After lunch, we were cleaning up. After 3 days, the recycling is piling up. I've about had it with that. There are no recycling bins here. I had the girls call the office to find out where to take it---3 miles down the road. Butch and I loaded it up and took it there. I really respect that he's so committed. There's one thing you can say for Butch, he definitely lives his principles! As a matter of fact, we hauled all our recycling home from our trip to Alaska since he found out the ship didn't recycle. I told him that I was drawing the line if our luggage was overweight. No way was I paying 50 bucks to haul trash home! I don't know anyone that has "flown" their recycling home. Kudos to Butch.

Happy 4th of July!

For this I am grateful! Warning, it will make you cry!

Family Minute to Win It

Whenever the family is together, they always want to know the itinerary. I usually post it on the refrigerator. It includes all activities, food and sometimes the job list. This time, I listed one of the activities as "grammy and grandpa's surprise." I planned a family "Minute to Win it" game. I knew they would get a kick out of it. We usually play all kinds of games from charades to kareoke, cards, poker, dice games, domino games, you name it. I knew that they would like this since it was something different than we've ever done before. It took quite a lot of pre-planning and organization to pull it all together, but they are loving it. I have 10 rounds planned. We did 3 tonight.

The first thing we did was draw for teams---5 with two people on each. I'm the MC. Everyone gets to do each challenge and you don't lose a life unless both team members fail.

 The first challenge was called "Be a Baby." You have to strap pedometers on your feet, lay on your back and then kick like a squalling baby to rack up 250 steps on the pedometers. It is so much harder than you think. Kicking your legs for 60 seconds is really tough---and painful. I told Victoria and Elizabeth that they would get an extra minute on all challenges. About half way in to this one, Victoria said she didn't want the extra minute! She watched everyone struggling in pain and didn't want to endure it any longer than necessary. Everyone managed to pass round one.

 The second challenge was to toss cards and make them land on other cards. Everyone succeeded here too.

 This one was hard. You had to knock down six empty cans by shooting them with rubberbands. Elizabeth went first. With her extra time, she was able to knock them all down. Butch also succeeded, but that was about it. Elizabeth said that she has taken gymnastics for 3 years, so she's good at everything. We can't figure out how that relates to shooting rubber bands. That girl does not lack confidence!

We called it a night after 3 rounds. We were all tired and it's already 10 p.m. Actually pretty early for us.

I spent 5 hours on the beach and in the pool today. I came in to take a nap at 2. The kids weren't far behind me. We ended up playing Racko and then scrabble until 5:30. I'm tired now. I love my naps. I get up early and naps get me through. All I need is an hour---30 minutes reading and then 30 minutes actually napping. Works for me. Rejuvenates me. Starting tomorrow, I'm going to make sure it happens. After all, it is vacation.

I'm ready to relax for a bit with my book. Another fun and busy day tomorrow---shopping, then more beach/pool time. Personally, I hate the beach---all that sand makes me nuts. I suffer for a couple hours to hang with the fam and then hit the pool. I'm okay with that. So are they. Usually the kids are back and forth, so I have plenty of company. In my perfect world, I take my nap in the pool. I did bring my float.

Relaxing at the Beach

We got off by 6 a.m. without a hitch. Once we got here, my hair frizzed up in like 5 minutes. We haven't had much humidity at home yet this year, so it really hit me. My goal was to be unpacked,  settled and having drinks on the balcony by 4 p.m. We did!

And, I'm very happy to report that we do have internet access after all. Glad about that. I'll be able to keep my blog up-to-date.

Our battle with nature continues. In fact, I've joked about the fact that we didn't see much in the way of wildlife in Alaska---no bears, no whales (although Butch saw one while fishing), no moose, no elk, no dog sled dogs, no eskimoes (I know they aren't animals) and we didn't see Russia either. We did see lots of bald eagles, but after about the 4th sighting, it was like, "oh, another eagle." The bottom line is that we have more wildlife in our backyard than we saw in Alaska. And, we are still fighting with them.

I brought a couple of the "noodles" with us on our vacation for the pool, only to discover, the squirrels have chewed the heck out of them. Another discouraging thing---I have one tomato plant with absolutely no tomatoes on it. Butch said that he's seen the cardinals eating the flowers off of that particular plant. WTF?? I don't think I'm going to bother next year.

We had tacos for dinner. I made Connie's Coca Cola cake yesterday to bring. It was horrible. I don't know what I did wrong. I did substitute Pepsi, so maybe that's the problem. It didn't rise. Anyway, that was disappointing. I love cake.

We played Liar's Poker after dinner. That's always fun for a large group. We plan to hit the beach by 9 a.m. in the morning. The water is beautiful and the beach is sandy white. I'll post some pictures tomorrow night.