Yea...right...about that...

While we were on vacation on Anna Maria Island, we did this "eco-tour boat charter" thing where you give a small fortune (i promised the capt she could keep whatever kid threw up over the side first) and they take you around the bay to fish and sand bar hop for half a day.

This is how it went.

Walker: THAT'S our boat??!?

Nate: It has a dent in the side.

Walker: Our captain's a GIRL??

Nate: How old IS she? She looks REALLY young. Are you sure she's old enough?

Vance: Get in the god-$%#& boat.

Me: Can i drink on this boat?

So, we all pile in and motor towards the sandbar. We get there, the capt throws anchor over the side and says we can all hop into the water.

Nate: It looks too deep.

Walker: It does. How deep is it? How do you KNOW?

The teenager captain rolls her eyes, and jumps in to prove the water is shallow enough not to drown the little buggers.

Walker: Sharks. I'm pretty sure sharks come into the bay.

Me, shaking me head violently to the captain, fingers crossed behind my back, imploring her to back me up in my lie.

Captain: Nope. NO sharks. See?

Vance: Get off the god-#$%@ boat for chrissake.

Me: Where is that koozie?

Once in the water, nice captain lady points out all the sand dollars under our feet and the tons of sea urchins every few feet. She even goes underwater and picks one up to show the boys.

Nate: AAAUUUUUUGGHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! GET IT AWAY FROM ME - NOW - PUTITDOWNPUTITDOWNPUTITDOWN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

In a flash Nate has walked on water and is now on Vance's back, no limb touching the water.

Walker, however, is underwater trying to find what Nate has knocked out of the captain's hand.

Would you like to see what sent my 8 year old Jacque Cousteau into orbit?


This. Not the sand dollar. Nope. See that TINY speck of beige orange on the top? That's a crab. The size of my little pinky fingernail. Not even the whole nail. The size of my nailbed. There were about 10 of them on the underside of the sand dollar.


So pretty much the entire time we were in the water, he was on Vance's back. Poor Vance. It was a long day. And then, we piled back into boat. And promptly ran over a shark. No kidding. Yes, my boys now know that honesty isn't a policy here as much as it's a suggestion.

Then, when we got back to the beach house, the first thing out of Nate's mouth is a direct order to put the TV on Deadliest Catch. That's not the funny part.

The funny part is that he looked me dead in the eye and said "That's what I'm going to do when i grow up."

Reach for the stars babe.

Friend Makin' Monday - 6 degrees removed...or something like that.

I haven't had the urge to write lately - but Natalie over at The Brocks Rock did this and tagged Mamarazzi at Dandelion Wishes who was subbing for Kasey at All That is Good who originated the thought and i thought, well let's see if i can really get all those hyper links in the first sentence of one post....and i think i did it successfully....so in honor of all of those cyber chickies - here is my first Friend Makin Monday Post.


The rules were to list 5-10 of your favorite things....so here goes.


This is absolutely my all time favorite store. I know, I'm kind of boring that way. What's even more sad is that i really don't like to shop at all - i think i missed that gene - so I go about 3x a year and buy in bulk. I'm not kidding. I will go in and drop $500 to $1500 in one fell swoop on everything from jeans, to dresses to skirts to a trench coat, to accessories. Then i don't shop again for 6-8 months. I hate trying on clothes but i love the way i always feel pulled together because i've had the girls there pull several different things together and make several outfits out of the same 6 pieces with a turn of the accessory. I am lazy. But I am vain.

And more on the vain point....THIS IS THE BEST STUFF TO CALM DOWN THE FLY-AWAY HAIR. This is the only stuff that i have ever put on my hair that makes it extremely shiny and look model perfect - I AM NOT KIDDING - ABSOLUTELY NO FLY-AWAY HAIR OR BROKEN ENDS SHOW. It really lives up the hype and makes your hair look like silk.


yeah, there's a theme here. This really takes away from the lines on your face. Light diffusing, reflecting, i don't know, i just know it works and i've tried Chanel, MAC, you name it and i have gone back and exchanged them every time for this stuff.



The old ipod broke and i broke down and got this mainly for video and then i found out 2 days ago that not only can i load my work email on it (yea, the mac store didn't tell me that - iphone my ass.) BUT I CAN ALSO SKYPE ON IT, and for $2 extra dollars a month I CAN USE MY MOBILE NUMBER. bye bye two devices and i didn't have to buy the iphone OR subscribe to Verizon - LIFE IS GOOD.


My all time favorite cocktail. I know at least one person reading this agrees.... ;-) (you know who you are)

The business of life.

I'm experiencing a creativity deficit of sorts. This week isn't helping. What started out as a week of possibilities with one solid week of vacation at the beach has been turning out rather odd.

I haven't been inspired to write, even by some of the antics of the 8 and 9 year old. I was hoping that within a few days of relaxation and just playing in general - that bug would come back - that some story that i thought was really funny a few days ago would pop into my brain and i would be inspired to jot it down, put an evil spin on it and spew it back to you so that we could laugh, together. But.I.got.nothin'.

I think a lot of it has to do with a significant loss in our community that i can't put explanation to or examine for reasoning and make any good out of it. My son's playmate and classmate, our neighbor and little leaugue coach died a few days ago, saving his son from drowning. There's no way to pretty that up.

And i keep replaying the conversation that my ex and i had when he called to tell me - the day we intended to start our vacation in earnest.

I am having a really difficult time with this.

We chose not to tell the boys until we are in the car on the way home. I want their vacation to be one where sadness doesn't affect their fun and being around water the entire time, i thought maybe we should hold on the news until we were away from the water so that my worry wart of a son didn't decide not to go swimming the entire time. But me, I think about it at least once an hour.

I think, how much horror that family had to live through on what was supposed to be their vacation, and how much the wife and boys will have to endure in the weeks and months to come, and it rips me apart. I think about the boys and their team sports that their dad was always involved in and i pray that they still will want to go back to the field. Boys need sports. But i know that when, if, they do go back, they will ache from the loss of not having their dad there. And i crumble inside a little bit just thinking about it.

My son will ask a million questions that i will not be able to answer. He will go home and pull up the Sentinel and search for his friend's last name until he finds the articles detailing the accident and arrangements. He will dwell. He gets that from me. He will probably get out of bed a million times for the next few weeks to make sure that his dad, or me, is still there, still in bed, still breathing.

I know life and death happens. I get it. I'm just never prepared for the death part.