'Tis the season

Getting my house ready for Christmas!!

Helped my Momma with her tree over thanksgiving.

Chagrin Falls....

chagrin - A keen feeling of mental unease, as of annoyance or embarrassment, caused by failure, disappointment, or a disconcerting event


Yeah...

so...

I couldn't do it....

I couldn't stay off....

um...

I couldn't stay off.....

FACEBOOK.

If you're grinning and laughing at me go right ahead. I'll wait. I deserve it....

 ...

...ok, that's enough.

The story goes, I wanted to send Happy Birthday greetings to a friend from high school a few weeks ago. I realized I didn't have an email for them. But I really wanted to communicate with them and let them know that even now - over 10 years later - I remembered their special day. And I realized the main way I communicated with them before. I realized the reason I probably was able to remember the birthday in the first place. Facebook.

(I remembered their birthday not because Facebook told me to, but because seeing person's name pop-up on your feed keeps them in your mind so you put dates and memories together much quicker.)

So I logged back on.

And Facebook sent me a very smarmy, passive aggressive polite email welcoming me back. Letting me know that my account was reactivated and if it wasn't me I needed to check on that (of course it was me - and they knew it too...).

I was glad I did. I found out about baby blessings that are on the way, new jobs, health accomplishments and other big news. I also found out about more mundane stuff, but it felt good to connect on some level again.

I dropped off the facespace because sometimes it was hard for me to see other's lives and compare my current life situation with other folks. It was good to be disconnected. I was not jealous or envious of other people's jobs, houses, children, diets, traveling, etc. I was happier on a certain level.

The contrast of that is I was lonely on another level. I was left out of the loop with certain events and jokes even within the friends I have in Tampa who I see almost every week. I had a cousin move to Maryland and I had no idea he and his family were even thinking about leaving Alabama. All of these are normally things I'd know because I was on Facebook.

I'm going to have to work to find a medium. I'm going to continue to use Facebook to share in my friend's happy and triumphant moments, but I'm also going to have to work to not compare my life with others. No one is exactly like me and no one else has it as great as they pretend to on Facebook.

Any advice for this would be greatly appreciated. Is there a way to have my cake and eat it too? (side note: where did that statement come from? Who in the world would have cake with the intention NOT to eat it. I mean, why does it have to be so special to both have and to eat?)

I think the self imposed break helped me break the Facebook checking habit I was developing. I'm getting a phone upgrade this week and I may not even activate my Facebook app - just to keep the temptation to constantly check it at bay.

Continue chuckling with your smug feelings of superiority. ;-) I am definitely eating crow over this one. Oh well, we'll chalk it up to a research experiment for my Master's in navigating social networking as an adult. My thesis will be entitled, "She Thought She Knew Best - But Boy, She Proved Herself Wrong: A Study of a Failed Experiment".

I'm thinking of applying to have it published....

(and if you're on Facebook - feel free to drop by my page to say "Hello".)

Christmas Shoes....

Ugh, the "Christmas Shoes" song.

My Christmas nemesis.

I started listening the the Christmas music radio station this morning on my drive to work. I just found the station yesterday.

I've only been listening for about 10 minutes....

And there it was, the chimey start to the cheesiest song in Christmas history...(Which is saying a lot...have you heard "I Wanna Hippopotamus for Christmas"? Cheesy? Yes. Awesome? TOTALLY!)

Why is this boy alone in a store when his mother is gravely ill? What do these shoes look like? For some reason I imagine a red suede pump (watch When Harry Met Sally).

Ugh - the Christmas Shoes song.

On a good day I turn it off or change the channel.

On a bad day I cry like a baby over that poor sweet wittle boy who wants to buys shoes for his momma, but doesn't quite have enough money.

Let's hope it's not high on the rotation at the radio station.

Memories are made of this...

Me and My Aunt Nancy at her wedding in 1985. I was 4 years old and the best flower girl that ever there was.

I'm heading home to Alabammer for Thanksgiving this week. It's got me all sentimental. 

I "scanned" (scan = took photos of old photos with my phone) these photos while I was home over Labor Day weekend.

Enjoy the awesomeness of the 80's.

Once a Brave's fan, always a Brave's fan. Sorry TB Rays....I believe these were souvenirs brought to me by Daddy. But we went to Atlanta a lot when I was little so they could be my own choosing. I also think this photo was taken pretty late at night which explains my face. I promise I really liked the Braves.

This was the Christmas I woke up to find a playhouse in my living room. A FREAKIN' PLAYHOUSE!! Well played Santa. I was estatic over the "office" that was already set up for me. A phone, a mickey mouse chalk board, a strawberry shortcake table and chairs set and a typewriter. Yes, that's right, a typewriter.

 

 

 

 

 

Photographic evidence of my sweet typewriter. When I was little I wanted an office SO SO bad. My 3 year old sefl would be very impressed with my current set up at USF. Also, note my sweet footed Alabama PJs.

 

Ain't never been nothin' but a Bama Fan. Roll Tide. Christmas 1984 - I am 3 years old. About to turn 4 in March and gain a baby sister in May.

This was my "baby" that I carried everywhere. She has a safe spot in my house in Tampa even now.

Andrea an I apparently got a kick out of the Llamas.

This is me attending to another one of my "babies".

Me at a Brave's game in the 80's

Me and Daddy surveying the snow damage around my Grandparent's house.

Me and Bradly - This was when we visited the hospital when Andrea was born.

Me with my Alabama pom poms. I look worn out - probably from cheering too hard.

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Election Day!

Have you voted today? 

I did! 

Don't forget!

More Mexican

 

Sunshine behind the clouds.  

None of these photos are in any sort of chronological order - but I don't feel like changing them around. It IS a Monday after all.

We went out on a catamaran on Thursday. It was a wonderful way to spend the morning. Tropical Storm Sandy was churning past the Bahamas at that time so she had kicked up some of the currents and silt in the Caribbean. Visibility wasn't great - but there were TONS of fish. More than I had seen in the area before. I think the combination of currents and low visibility helped us see more fish than normal.

 

You can see the little dots of stuff in the water that clouded up all my underwater photos. 

 

 My clearest photo of the day.

The Monday after we arrived we headed to Xplor, an outdoor amusement park set in the Mexican jungles. You can zip line across the trees, swim or raft through underground rivers and ride ATVs along paths and through caves. It was a blast. Our friends - who came along to Mexico for the first part of the week - were there with us and we had an awesome time. 

This was a great activity to do off-season as the lines and crowds were much smaller than normal.

The park has several cameras that automatically take your photo in spots throughout the park. You can purchase a USB with all your photos at the end of the day. We had a blast with the automatic cameras.

Zip-lining across the jungle. You can see Matt in the background zipping along behind me.

 

Me and Jon on front of Explor's heart. This was at the center of the park. They played a constant beating noise which was annoying but it helped you find your way back to the center of the park (and the food).

 Me, Jon, Matt and Bob in one of the caves on our way to swim in the underground rivers.

Me and Matt - (and you can see Jon in the background)

 

Swimming in the caves.

 

Heading to the rafts.

 

Driving under a waterfall and getting soaked.

 

Rafting through the caves - my arms were tired.

 

Sunrise on the first day we were there. The glow on these iridescent clouds was beautiful.

 

Sunset from the plane ride home.

 

Farewell Mexico - See you next year!

Halloween Decorations

Halloween in our neighborhood was absolutely amazing. We had 100's of trick or treaters and could have had 100's more - had I not run out of candy at 7:30 p.m. We had kids lining up on the porch. Some poor kids got fortune cookies in the Halloween bags because we couldn't get our house lights turned off fast enough - and that was all I could find in the pantry that could pass for a treat (I don't think they wanted an old can of baked beans or some sweetened condensed milk).

We took the dogs on a walk around the neighborhood after we closed up our candy shop. There were huge groups of kids and adults walking in packs along the sidewalks. Apparently our neighborhood is THE PLACE to get candy in the Tampa area. Folks would just drive up and park at the end of one street and kids in costumes would just pour out of the cars.

There were houses with smoke machines, strobe lights, elaborate characters you could have your picture made with and lots and lots of decorations. We saw funny tombstones in yards, ghosts, pumpkins, spiders, purple and orange lights, gargoyles and bats. As we walked around the neighborhood the folks sitting on their porches would wave and greet you with a "Happy Halloween!". It was like being in a movie.

We were visited by an adorable Spiderman who was obviously on his first trick or treating expedition. He carefully approached our porch and said "Tick or teat!". I wanted to pour my entire bucket of candy into his pumpkin. We had babies who were terribly cute in pumpkin outfits and skeleton onesies. I gave candy to a Lucy Ricardo, several princesses, pirates, several Ironmen, a bride, a bee, a flower, 2 nerds with pocket protectors, a female Finn from Adventure Time, Bumblebee the Transformer, a dinosaur, vampires, robots, zombies, and some kids just in jeans and t shirts - and there were more than that I just can't remember them all. The weather was perfect: chilly enough in FL to feel like fall - but you were fine in short sleeves and thin layers.

I'm going to have to get a LOT more candy for next year - but I look forward to it. It was so fun to see the kiddos run from house to house. I got a lot of "Thank you"s and the kids were very polite. We overheard lots of nice comments on our Halloween decorations. Even some of the kids were impressed with our spiders and pumpkins. It was a very fun day and I was even more glad to be a part of my fun neighborhood.

I am late getting these photos posted - but my mom has requested them and I must comply. Here's the house with the Halloween decorations. I usually decorate for fall in September - add in some spooky Halloween stuff in October - and then go back to just leaves and plain pumpkins for November. So here's our first Halloween in our new house:

 

We hung spiderwebs on the porch, plants, porch lamp and the wreath on the door. They swayed in the breeze in a very spooky way.

 Front Door

Walking up the front walk.

 

I hung Jack O'Lanterns and black, orange, purple and white ribbon streamers in the tree in our front yard. The streamers flowed in the breezes and wrapped around the branches. 

 

I cut out pieces of felt to make my "fake" pumpkins on the porch have scary faces. I didn't want to carve them so this was a great substitute. Plus now I can change my patterns each year.

 

A witch, a rock star and Stevie surrounded by bats.

 Boo, a standard jack o'lantern face and Wil surrounded by bats.

 

The mantle inside was lit up by orange twinkle lights. I covered the entire thing in spider webs. It looks very cool in the dark.

 

More spiderwebs and pumpkins on the hutch in the dining room.

Punkins in the TV room.

I bought this little "Day of the Dead" puppy in Mexico when we were there last week. I loved his bucket full of candy and his candy corn top hat. 

Now I'm looking forward to being home for Thanksgiving and getting our house ready for Christmas!