Dustin's Vacation . . .

Is he the most handsome child? Love him!

Harrison's Vacation . . .

Flying kites with Papa on the beach.

McCartney's vacation . . .

John's Pass . . .

The Condo complex . . .

We rented a condo in the complex my mom and step-dad own in. Such a good plan. It is a gorgeous complex!

This is my step-dad's favorite view. It is the complex as you can see it coming over the drawbridge from the mainland. He loved this view for many years and he is so pleased they finally own a place here.

The complex is a yacht club so there are boats everywhere on the inter-coastal waterway.








This was the view directly outside of our condo.


Does this not look like a postcard? The place is immaculate and wonderful!

St. Pete's Pier. . .

Getting ready to feed the pelicans, or in McCartney's case, getting ready to freak out when they begin flapping!



A pelican with no fear of humans. This was with no zoom, I was that close.



Taken by Harrison, hence the angle.


The Pier is right by the airport.


Tell me this is not GORGeous! Looks like a Corona Beer commercial eh?

The Beach . . .

Harrison took this one, he is becoming quite the photographer. He has a good eye.

McCartney and Harrison in the water. She was quite the water bug! Last time we were in Florida, she preferred the sand.


My surfer boy.


Dustin spent most days trying to catch fish on the beach. Either with these buckets or with a butterfly net. He looked foolish, but it kept him busy!


Everyone got buried one day . . . except me . . . I did not want sand everywhere!

Cute Project . . .

I know I have yet to upload some Florida pictures, but my computer (Doris) has been feeling a little under the weather. She had a problem while on vaacation and she just returned from the spa today. Oh, how I missed her!

I have offered help with my kid's elementary school's staff appreciation week. After talking to the PTA president last night, I found that there is very little budget. I am used to working with little budget working in childcare for the last 20 years and I put my little mind to work.

I have a bunch of cool arts and crafts projects stored in my Google Reader under the starred function. I pulled out a post from Obsessively Stitching that I knew would be easy peasy lemon squeezy and best of all CHEAP! Her idea was to use pool noodles from the dollar store to make little straw floaters for her daughter's birthday party. I adapted it to make cutesy pencils for the teachers. Check them out!

Pool noodles from the dollar store. I bought pink, blue and yellow. You have to buy the wavy ones.

McCartney helped me cut them. We just used a steak knife and a little sawing motion. Won't say it cut like butter, but it wasn't hard.


Cute little flowers.

Whole mess of flowers from 3 noodles.


Then you stick the knife through the top of one petal and just pierce the bottom of the middle hole.


Poke the pencil through the flower and VOILA! Cutesy flower pencils!

I made 80 pencils and spent $7 and I still have enough flowers cut outs to use for something else. Hmmmm, what to do, what to do. I may make Obsessively Stitching's flower garland. . .

Privilege . . .

Day 2 of our Spring Break vacation found us still in Stone Mountain Georgia with new friends. On Thursday evening we got the privilege of meeting Lisa and J. They had a rough time getting to us with all the traffic, and they were tired! We all piled in my car (all except Robert who had driven all night and was napping) and headed to dinner at a nearby Applebees.

It was not what I expected. It was not like meeting someone new, it was like coming home to family. It was comfortable and peaceful. J was a perfect angel. My kids? Not so much. They had been in a car for 10 hours the previous night and then spent a day in the sun at Stone Mountain park. I was embarassed, but knew that above all Lisa was not judging us. Priceless.

J is used to an early bedtime and we headed back to the hotel. We chatted outside in the beautiful Georgia sunshine while the kids ran and played together for a short time. McCartney followed J around like a puppy and J was so kind to her, it was sweet. They headed off to bed and we headed to the pool.


The next morning we made plans to get up early and play in the pool. The breakfast spread at the hotel was great and the kids were starving. They were in the pool by 6:30 and Lisa, Robert and I sat and chatted , commiserated and cackled for hours. It was wonderful to connect with someone like that. Knowing all we knew about each other from blogs was great and we just hung out like old friends. Robert really enjoyed her and the kids played so well together.

I miss them already. . .

I feel like I have an new sister.

Florida Fun . . .

Florida has been awesome! Meeting Lisa and J in Stone Mountain was great! My laptop, Doris, croaked. Actually she is just fine, the network adapter is bad and I cannot get on any service provider. It might have been a blessing as we have been forced to find other things to do! I am on a computer at the library right across form our condo complex. My kids are enjoying their time with Nonnie and Papa and are loving the beach! Our condo is fabulous and is about a 2 minute walk to my parent's place in the same complex.

I will bury you with pictures when we get back! Have a good week!

Day 1 . . .

Day one has been a success. We left last night about 8:00pm and headed east and south toward Cincinnati. I expected the kids to crash since I was using their normal drugs . . . Clozapine for Dustin and Melatonin for the littles. The littles went out with little difficulty but Dustin was still going strong at 2:00am. I had Robert pull over and I put him in the front while I squished my booty in the little part that was left of the back seat. He went right out. We made great time and I got a little sleep. We stopped for breakfast in Atlanta and then headed to Stone Mountain.

The last time I was in Stone Mountain was coming home from our honeymoon in 1997. It has grown so much! There is a wonderful little village with a HUGE "sky hike" and games and a 4D movie theatre experience, mini golf, amphibious vehicles rides and much more. We got there early in the morning so there were very few people there. The kids had so much fun! Harrison fearlessly did the Sky Hike and of course had to do the upper level. Robert is afraid of heights so it was a struggle, but he did really well. Harrison breezed through the course like a champ.

Dustin was awesome today at Stone Mountain. He loved seeing the view from atop the mountain. He has been cooperative and pleasant. We increased his lithium last Monday and perhaps we are seeing some benefits. I will keep my fingers crossed. While leaving the park, he exclaimed "This is the best vacation ever!" It has barely started and it is the best ever!

Right now I am sitting in a hotel waiting for Lisa and J to get here. We are resting and going to shower soon to wash the day's stink off. We will then go out to eat and swim in the hotel pool. I am so looking forward to it. I am really struggling with a foot issue. Last week I wore some cute shoes from Aeropostale. They were the cutest ballerina tennis shoes with eyelets and laces on the side of the front. Yeah. They mercilessly tore into my poor pinky toes! I wore them to the grocery and by the time I was done I had two nicely opened blisters, one on each foot. The right one has been more painful and I wore flip flops to work this week to give it some room. One of the little kids at work stepped on it while running across the room on Tuesday. It tore open and was smashed. It was bruised and painful, but not too bad. On the drive last night, it took on a alife of it's own. Oh. My. Lord. I can barely walk on it. It is swollen, red, unmoveable and angry. The toe is numb and there are red streaks coming from the sore to the rest of my foot. Ya think it's infected?? Um, yeah. I am spending time soaking it in Epsom salts as we speak. I may be visiting an urgent care facility in Florida. Fun.

Some obligatory pics of day one . . .