No Fooling with Mother Nature

Mother Nature hasn't been kind to us in this area.  She has been exciting, but not kind.

Since we've lived here there have been:

tornadoes

ice storms

mega snow storms

blazing heat

hail storms (which gave us new siding, windows and a roof)

tropical storms

earthquake

 and yes, the latest, an actual bonifide hurricane. 

 Recently I've heard people mention that they are wondering when the locusts will appear.

  It's about all we have left! 

(hopefully)

When we moved here we were told that it was a pretty temperate area. 

tem·per·ate -- adjective -- Not excessive in degree, as things, qualities, etc.

Totally NOT what this area is

We thought it was so temperate that when we moved here we actually

left our snow shovels behind in Utah

Ha, Ha, Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. . . . . . . too funny!

We actually got away easy with our recent hurricane. 

Not as much damage as other tropical storms,

and not near the damage of the hail storm. . . . . .

This greeted us when we opened our front door.

This also greeted us . . . . he survived and seemed happy, though I have a love/hate affair with this rat with a furry tail.

Our deck. . . . . thankfully the table got corralled before it got a chance to fly away.

We've got the front yard cleaned up,

with the back yard still to go . . . . YIKES!

Mother Nature always gets her way . . . . . 

Flashback Friday

My mom has a very distinctive laugh.

and she laughs a lot!

As a kid, if I ever got lost,

I knew I could find my mom by stopping and

listening.

Before long . . . . . without fail, she would laugh

and like a homing beacon, she would unintentionally lead me to her,

and I was found.

On our recent trip to Myrtle Beach,

my husband needed to go use the facilities . . . . if you know what I mean.

We were at Brookgreen gardens,

which is a maze . . . . and is full of little "secret gardens."

He told us to move on along and he would find us.

after a little while,

I began to get worried,

thinking he would not possibly be able to locate us.



McKay in one of the "secret gardens" the children's garden

Amazingly enough

he was able to find us.

I asked him how he was able to do it,

as I thought we had wandered to far for him to make it possible.

His reply:

I followed your mom's laugh!

I completely understood . . . . . .

but it felt odd that my husband used the same tactic

I had used as a kid!

Some things never change!

Now I'm wondering why (at the garden) we didn't just use our cell phones . . .

OH WELL . . . it makes a good story.

Can you hear me now??? :)

A day for the record books

Yesterday was quite exciting.  You could say it was earthshaking . . . . . . .

I wasn't going to blog it, but why not?  Here is a message I sent via Facebook to my son Justin who is working in the wilds of Wyoming at Yellowstone National Park . . . . . he would have loved to be here.

Justin, We had an earthquake here yesterday! It was so cool! it lasted for about 45 seconds and at first I thought McKay was pressing really hard and fast on his xbox controller and I has about to tell him to "cool it dude" when I realized the bookshelf beside me was about to fall over and I put my arm out to steady it.


McKay thought that the wash machine was off balance and shaking the whole house. We met each other out in the hall and tried to decide where we would go to ride it out . . . . in the shower?, in the bathtub? under a doorway? under the table? then we decided maybe we should just go outside. ha! ha!

One of my first thoughts was, "we aren't supposed to have earthquakes here!" What is this?

We ran outside to see if the neighbors had felt it too, and no one was home. We were by ourselves!

Oh! it was 5.9 and was centered about 100 miles from here in VA.

Pretty freaky!

Love, Mom

What I forgot to tell him was that shortly after the earthquake the cell phone system jammed up and didn't really open back up for a good two hours after.  Our Internet service went down for a while, so other than text messaging that needed to be sent and resent, we were cut off from the world for a while. 

I couldn't see any damage here other than a few things shaken off shelves that I would randomly pick up through the day, and my file cabinet doors shook open, but they hardly like to stay closed in the first place.

Now we brace ourselves for possible aftershocks.

Definitely a day to go down in history. 

A lesson that keeps on giving

You've heard the definition of "assume"?  right?  It's when you make an ass out of you and me?  ass--u--me??

This is a lesson I keep having to learn over and over and over again!

I got another lesson today.  Here's how.

My house butts up to the neighborhood pool (meaning I have a great view of it) which is open from Memorial day weekend to Labor day weekend.  I've been over there very little this year which is making me sad.  I love to swim.

Well, last week, the pool started what looked to be it's end-of-the-year cleanup and I've started to simmer.  I've been saying things like "Can you believe they've taken the chairs off the pool deck where we usually sit?"  "Look at that, more chairs have been taken away!!!"  To this morning, (when I was out raking leaves that have already begun to fall) I noticed that ALL the chairs had been taken off the pool deck. 

I started fuming!

I tromped into the house and e-mailed the pool company asking for an explanation of why they were closing the pool WELL before the Labor day weekend telling them that we paid dues to keep it open yada yada yada. 

The explanation:  "We are receiving new pool furniture today and if you would like to swim your needs will be met."

And since I haven't been over there for over a month, I felt about as big as the dust bunny gathering in the corner of my kitchen. 

A light bulb came on . . . . I'd done it again  . . . . . ass--u---me. . . . . . . but seriously, what conclusion could a person have drawn?  We've been sitting on junky pool furniture for so long, who would have thunk it?  and at the end of the season???  I guess I could complain about that but I've taken the high road and decided to keep quiet about it.

On the other hand, recently I've become familiar with this saying . . . . . "Well behaved women seldom make history."  Does that make me feel better . . . . . .maybe I feel sassier . . . . but better . . . . . no ;)

A Wicked Good Time

One thing I love about living in DC is the close proximity of The Kennedy Center and the ability to go see Broadway quality productions.  A group of us have been anticipating the play "Wicked" and have been planning to go for almost a year.  We've had the tickets since March, if I'm remembering right.

We started the evening by going to Ruth's Chris Steak House, a usually too expensive restaurant for Lincoln's and my taste.  We were lucky that "Restaurant Week" was in progress.  A bunch of DC restaurants give you a three or four course meal for $35.11 each, which is a deal at these restaurants. 

Good food and good friends. 

From left - Lincoln, me, Terri, Linda, Blaine, Nanette, LeeAnn, Alyssa, Kiersten and Mike.

I usually DON'T order steak . . . in fact I never order steak, but I did it order it here.  The "Petite Filet."  OH MY GOODNESS . . . . cutting into that steak was like cutting into butter.  THE best steak I've ever had, and if all steak was like that I'd order it all the time!


Lincoln and I

 Outside Ruth's Chris . . . . . . . waiting for our cars.

I snapped this fuzzy picture of the Kennedy head in the foyer of the Theatre.

Note to self:  Listen to the soundtrack of future musicals that you go to. 

I loved the play but had a hard time following the story because I didn't know the songs at all and for some reason I was having a hard time understanding the younger actors.  The older ones seemed to enunciate more, I guess that is experience talking. 

It was a fun story . . . . . . . which is the story of the wicked witch of the west told in her perspective.  It was definitely a twist from what I thought the story line may be.  The good witch, not being so good, and the bad witch being not understood and being the victim of bad propaganda. . . . the whole good being evil and evil being good thing.  The wicked witch only cackled once the entire play . . . . and it was oh so delightful!!! lol.

No good intention goes unpunished . . . . . .

Yes! It was a wicked good time and I can't wait for our next play, we've just got to figure out what it will be!

What a week!

The last few days have been filled with spiritual highs, a death, my niece, a trip, and getting in touch with my roots.  My mother and I have shared it all.  I took a 2 hour nap yesterday trying to recover and am still in bed at 9 am this morning which is SO NOT LIKE ME!!!

Mom did such a good job of blogging it all that I'm going to refer you to her blog.  Take a look if you feel so inclined.

WHAT A WEEK!

Now, I'll get up and join life again, and won't soon forget these last few days.

Little things

All my life I've wondered about fried ice cream . . . . . is it real?  Is it really fried?  When I saw fried ice cream on the menu of a "tex-mex" place in Myrtle Beach I just couldn't resist it . . . .

A dream come true in such a small package . . . . . fried ice cream . . . . . it is fried . . . . the ice cream is still frozen . . . . . . and it is oh so yummy . . . . . especially when shared with loved ones!

Wordy Wednesday

I stole this from my mom's stash of pictures from Myrtle Beach.  I was going to do a "Wordless Wednesday" but need to use my words, so . . . . . . why do I love this picture?  This is me and my dad . . . . he's teaching me to fly a kite . . . . . I'm teaching him how to use my camera so he can take a picture of me flying the kite . . . . . and mom is taking a picture of him teaching me how to fly a kite and so on and so on and so on . . . . . . . LOL!!!!

On second thought, wordless may have been the best way to post the picture . . . . . I love the moment shared with my dad . . . . . .

Myrtle Gardens

We were told by some veteran Myrtle Beach goers that we MUST go to the Brookgreen Gardens.  We decided to go on Sunday and enjoy nature.  I was surprised that Hope chose to go with us to the garden, as my sister and her family went to see an Alligator reserve.  We were happy to have her!

McKay . . . . . .

One thing I love about the south is the majestic live oak trees and the spanish moss that grows on them.  It is so romantic looking . . . . and hard to catch what it is really like on camera.  The garden had a lane of these huge mystical looking trees.

 

I thought these lily pads and their flowers were pretty.

The garden was chock full of sculptures, mostly nude!!  I kept wondering what McKay was thinking.  I really liked this sculpture and the with the way it is shaped I was able to spare you the nudeness!

These were real, not sculptures!

I liked to bottom half of this one!  Top half was nice too, but I'm not sharing :) 

It wasn't really nude . . . . I just liked the sunflowers ;)

This was The Muse Garden, which I think was my favorite.  It was so whimsical.  I wish there were some expertly placed leaves, but OH WELL . . . . tis not so!

In the children's garden . . . . McKay, Dad and Hope.

Lincoln, with a member of his family . . . . . ;)

McKay, being a bear cub . . . . . .

One big grasshopper . . . . . or maybe a locust???

Oh boy!  I don't know if I could live in a place that needs signs like these!

This was probably the best place we ate . . . . healthy, tasteful, fresh, yummy!  and it helped that it was air conditioned . . . . it was HOT, hot, hot, outside.

There was a "zoo" portion of the garden, where they had native South Carolina animals.  I think the lady said this alligator had been in the garden for 30 years.  There is a law in South Carolina that humans can't feed alligators unless they are in a zoo like this one, and then only the zookeeper can feed them.  She explained that it wouldn't be a good idea for alligators to associate "food" with people . . . . . . . I think that is a very good thing!  She says the alligator knows that when it hears the zookeeper's golf cart coming he knows food is coming . . .  . . The alligator swam right up to us and thankfully there was a wall, or I'd have been in a panic. 

Lincoln . . . . . .

In England fox hunting is a popular sport.  When the hunters came and hunted in the states they were astonished that the foxes could climb trees (I was astonished also! who knew?) so they decided that they would import foxes from England that WOULDN'T climb trees.  Guess what?  The foxes here in the states taught the English foxes to climb trees also.  I don't think I would have believed it unless I'd seen this fox in a tree.  He was pretty high up in there too!!!

The garden also sported a butterfly conservatory for a fee of 3 dollars . . . . . what a deal!  We were really overheated by the time we got to the conservatory, but the gods were with us and a storm blew in and cooled things down and we were able to enjoy our time there.  We were very thankful and were able to enjoy the peace and tranquility and beauty of the butterflies.

If you enjoy this type of thing . . . . . I would say it is a MUST to do.  I would do it again, if I had the chance.

Myrtle fun

At first the kids were really disappointed with the resort.  The lazy river was only a fraction of the size of some of them they have been in.  It didn't take them long to start having fun and make the river not so lazy!

Trudy . . . .

Miniature golf is always fun to do . . . to do . . . . to do . . . . to do . . . . .

Love Stevie's face!

And I always love this face!

The boys . . . . .

Fetching a ball out of the stream . . . . . it held every one's interest . . . . .

Trudy watching her hole-in-one sink . . . . . . . . .

Gotta hand the camera to someone else if you want a picture . . . . . most of my tan has already faded!

More to come . . . . .

Myrtle on the sand

Our resort was near the beach but not ON the beach.  When we wanted to go to the beach we either drove and tried to find parking or mostly we stood and waited for a shuttle bus.  Here we are waiting . .  . . . It is almost funny how much we carried along with us to make us happy and comfortable while on the beach.

Here is an idea of what we carried with us . . . . . a umbrella city, complete with chairs, towels, sunscreen, food, drinks, boogie boards, skim boards, books, snacks and a multitude of other stuff to keep us busy!

This is our first visit to Myrtle Beach (actually we were 3 miles south at Surfside Beach).  I really love it there.  It is amazing how much warmer the water is than in Virginia or Maryland.  Most of my time and others were spend up close to the water because it was so nice.  We just put on our 50 sunscreen and hoped it would work.  We didn't get any bad sunburns!  Yes!

I even spent time in the water . . . . . here are me and McKay riding a wave.

Here is Hope and Noah.  This beach is very shallow for quite a ways out . . . . . (helped us feel a little better about the tiny baby sharks we'd seen).  Maybe the big-uns' wouldn't some in close?????  ;)

Lincoln . . . . . .

Noah. . . . . . .

Dad and mom.  Dad is quite the information finder with his Android.  You have to watch what you say, or he'll go on a fact finding mission!

Stevie, with Uncle Lincoln in the background.  This is Steve's first year that she has felt comfortable in the water.  She spent most of the time boogie boarding, and after she tried the "slick" board, really rode those waves.  I almost killed her enthusiasm with my pictures of the sharks!!

Ceci . . . . the fashionista!!!!  We found the sunglasses on the beach.  When we walked the beach, almost every morning we found a treasure or two . . . . we found several pairs of sunglasses that were soon put to good use. 

Dad and mom brought their kite. . . . . always a fun thing to do at the beach.

Hope . . . . .

McKay and Lincoln . . . . .

Me, flying the kite . . . . . It's all the way out to the end of it's string!!

McKay, helping to pull in the kite.

More to come!