Vacation 2014!!!

For the first time in a few years I went on an actual vacation.  For the past couple of summers I have either had a wedding to plan and prepare for or a baby to plan and prepare for or a newborn that has a mommy that needs me.  So this year I had no weddings, no newborns to help with and a baby on the way for later this fall.  Beach ... here we come!!!  Sure, we only went down to Myrtle Beach, SC but it is only a few hours away and my daughters and I love the beach.  I mean we really love it.  We hit the sand early in the morning and come in late.  For fun we people watch.  Oh and did we see some funny people.  I have lots of pictures but first the highlights.

 If you get your body all marked up with tattoos please so not be offended when people try to read your novels you have inscribed on you entire waistline.  And stop giving other the evil-eye when they are trying to figure out what in the world you have drawn all over you.  Seriously, what in the world is a devil head eating a tiger supposed to mean????  Super-creepy....I'm just sayin'.

The weather was gorgeous.  Really nice.  Days not super hot and the winds did not carry sand everywhere to cut your skin all to pieces.  I just know that there are beautiful beaches in heaven.  Just standing there and watching the waves is so peaceful and so awesome that the God I love created such a wonderment.  And as a huge bonus I saw my first rainbow over the ocean!!!

Parents...listen UP!!!!  Put your phone down.  Down.  DOWN!!!  I saw the most parents scrolling through their phones while their sweet children were playing all by themselves or saying over and over and over, "Mommy, Daddy...Watch"  To parents staring at a rectangle that holds their minds, heart and soul.  Please...put the phones down.  Facebook, pinterest, instagram can all wait.  Your children on the other hand cannot.  Also, I could have kidnapped 95 toddlers this week because mommy and daddy were not watching them!

Take your kids to the local Aquariums.  they love it!  Piper and Savannah had an awesome time at the one at the beach and they had real live mermaids!!!  I knew they were real all along!

Note to all the men out there who think workouts on the beach are attractive....they're not.  They're gross!  So are speedos on old men.  Young men too.  They should be outlawed because, well....ummm...eeewwww!

On Thursday of the week I looked up and saw Erica's sweet husband walking towards his little girls.  They were so excited to see him and so was his sweet wife.  Blake said, "Peace and quiet are overrated".  That warms this mama's old heart right up.  We had a really good and relaxing time and it makes me look forward to some really fun and special family vacations in the future.  Here are some photo highlights.

Ice cream is the best treat!

Savannah ate hers all gone!

Future women drivers!  Look out!

Savannah is not sure of Piper's experience behind the wheel....

My two sweet girls!!!

Me and my little Savannah.  I just love her!

A trip to the sweet shop for gummi sharks....of course.

Savannah ate hers all up!

These two have a sweet tooth too!  Caught ya!!

The girls swim skills improved 1000% this week.  At night we did some pool time to work on them.

Savannah looks like a super hero!

Piper jumped about a zillion times.

What a beautiful rainbow over the ocean.

Pelicans in flight....going somewhere over the rainbow!

Savannah picked 2 million teeny tiny shells this week.  2 million!

So sweet stomping through the water.  I love baby backs.

Piper in her hippy flowerchild swimsuit!  She saw a big boat!

Piper jumped about 3 zillion times in the ocean.  I am so glad they love the water.

Why not put my teeny tiny shells in a shovel Mimi and carry them around....all day.

We ate Japanese one night and Savannah ate the whole time.  One rice at a time.

Chatty Cathy here never stopped talking hence the to go box!

See!!!  Mermaids are real.

Piper wanted to swim with the mermaids but settled for a quick pic instead.  Savannah was a little scared of her in person.

I just thank the Lord for the chance to spend so much time with my daughters and my grandchildren.  I cannot imagine my life without these precious people!

Out and about and why I just need to stay home

I went to do errands today.  In words of people from the country.  I went to town.  My first stop was Home Goods.  I love, love, love this store.  So many dishes!!!!!!  Anyway I was just looking for some end of the season summer stuff that is already going on sale.  But I found a sweet little piggy bank for my new grandson coming and some great sand toys for my little grandgirls for when we go to the beach.  I went to the checkout and the cashier was a sweet little old lady of about 65 or so.  She smiled and asked me if I would like the Tuesday senior Discount?  What????????  I stuttered and stammered and cried a little but then i asked , "Well, how old do I have to be to get this discount?"  55 she says.  Fifty-Five.  The speed limit.  Well I cried a little harder and said no, that I don't quite qualify yet.  She just smiled.  To say I was crushed was an understatement.  So I hobbled to my car and went two stores up to Ross.  There I bought myself a new bathing suit....no skirt involved...and a sweet maxi dress.  None of this had any polyester or long jacket involved.  The cashier there though I was young and hip.  Well, maybe not young but definitely hip or hippish??  Then I went to Costco.  I bought some odds and ends and I went to put my stuff in the car when there I saw my number one pet peeve in the free world.  A woman who qualified for the discount shoving a shopping cart into an area about 25 yards from the corral where the carts go.  I despise this so much because it takes zero effort to trek these carts to the cart corral or back to the storefront.  I felt compelled to inform her, "Ma'am that is not where carts go."  Then I gave her a really mean glare.  She just smiled and kept walking.  this is how cars get dinged in parking lots not to mention just screams of the laziness of our society.  If you do not want to walk to put the cart away properly then for Pete's sake park next to a cart corral!!!!!  A young girl rescued the sad cart and took it into to the store before I had a complete breakdown right there in the parking lot.  So I drove on to the third realm of you know where......Walmart.  I can honestly say that I had no issues there at all.  I got my few items and left.  then I went to a cute store called Five Below.  there i got some neat "Frozen" paper plates for Piper's birthday party and the girls some nice coloring books and two super sweet boogie boards for the beach.  All for....5.00 or below...get it??  Then I went to Walgreens to get my estrogen/progesterone refills that I have gotten 874 calls about in the last week.  Needless to say only one was ready and for the fourth time I had to wait for the other one to be filled.  I flat out refused to come back or move from the drive through.  the pharmacist came to the window and apologized and I was really nice but very firm about how this has happened several times.  Needless to say I will be moving my prescriptions to another pharmacy.  This is in mine and Walgreens best interest.  I have a very much needed vacation coming up in the next few weeks and I cannot wait.  It is obvious that I need to stay home and not go out into public places because I am old, crotchety and out of estrogen.  Sitting on the beach will change my perspective.......I hope!

Where is this summer going????

So far on my super long list of home projects I have actually completed some.  I have finished repainting Megan's old bedroom from "Barney Purple" to a soft blue and moved Erica's old bedroom suite back into that room for a real guest room.  It looks very nice if i say so myself.  I am about halfway done ripping the straight from the pit of hell wallpaper border down from the bathroom walls.  Can I just say I HATE WALLPAPER!!!  I have said that about 287403359 times this summer in the span of just a few short weeks.  When I get that room done I will sing the Hallelujah Chorus from my rooftop so that the whole world will know that this has been a major accomplishment for the women who rocked home improvements in the 80's and thought they were really doing something classy.....  Wallpaper is not classy.  Not.  I have also painted a bookshelf with some really nice gray chalk paint.  It turned out well and I am currently working on two old wooden highchairs in a "poppy" colored chalk paint.  I am taking some before and after pictures of some of these projects.  I am really just so busy that I hardly have time to do much of anything though.  I have been able to spend oodles of time with my little sweetie pie grand girls and with my own two girls and I am loving that.  I also have spent quite a bit of time with Brittany and that has been fun too.  I can't wait for her little baby Kyra to get here...being a great aunt will be super fun too!  I also have taken my mama twice for cataract surgery.  that, friends and neighbors, is not a lot of fun.  My mama is great and has done really well but both times the waiting room has been slammed with all these really, really old people with tremendous health problems.  I just look at my sweet mama and say, "When did you get old???"  I am so glad that my mama does not go into the surgical eye center on a walker or in a wheelchair or with a Wal-mart bag full of different prescription bottles for the nurses to write down her medications.  she doesn't take any.  Well except for her "stomach" pill which she insists I call it instead of it's professional medical name of Zantac.  She whispers it like it is bought on the street from a drug lord.  She just had her second eye done this past Wednesday and is doing just fine.  She is so funny though.  Both my parents are really, really funny.  I look at them and I promise you that they do not look old nor do they act old.  They are very active and hip and independent and well have more to talk about than their health problems.  That is something that bugs the tarnation out of both of my parents.  there is more to life than your personal health problems.  I mean let's face it....no one really wants to hear about your last bout of diarrhea or how your teeth don't fit or how your feet swell or how doc so-and-so done changed yer medicine again and now you need an extry hole in yer dial-a pill.....  Anyway, the summer is flying by and I still have lots to do.  Painting, cleaning,a beach trip (I am foaming at the mouth over this) and a pile of other hobbies I got a cookin' too.

Little Firecrackers!

This is such a gorgeous 4th of July.  Breezy, blue skies and lots of sun!  The overnight temperatures are supposed to be in the lower sixties though...brrrr!!  My little sweeties spent the night with me last night and i dressed them patriotic and took their pictures this morning before they went home.


Sweet Piper giving a reluctant Savannah a little hug!

Savannah loves to slide.  And slide.  And slide.  And slide.......

Piper is going through a "posing" stage.  I hope she grows out of this one fast!

Super fast sliders going back to back.

My sweet girls.  I love my little "firecrackers"

Even when they slide backwards!

I just hope and pray that they will realize what a wonderful country this still is and can be in the future.  Even with all of our downfalls, and there are plenty, we are still a strong nation with many Godly people.  If only we will hit our knees and humble ourselves and call on the one true God....Jehovah God....He reigns