Lazy Sunday afternoons

Just finished a class of Cabernet Sauvignon, some cheese and crackers and a glimpse through two of my favorite (scrapbooking) magazines out on our lanai. It is cooler this evening because it is cloudy out...so I lit a candle that my friend Cori bought for me and had some chill time. Hub and little guy were watching Discovery Channel and I was so excited to carve out a little time to decompress before the activity of our week begins again. Hope that where ever you are you are enjoying some time for yourself, chilling, and resting and re-charging on this Sunday evening. I'm off to finish my "gravy" (the word we use in my Italian family for home made spaghetti sauce), boil up some pasta and feed my family. There's nothing like the smell of an Italian home on a Sunday afternoon...

Happy Birthday, dear friend! And good luck!

Okay, so not the greatest picture (my camera shutter wouldn't open at the time and we had to prop it with a fork...) but wanted to send out a happy bday wish to my great friend, "Auntie Tray". And I wanted to brag about her a bit. Coz she'll never give herself any credit for all that she does and for all that she means to others. This gal is so amazing. She is a mother of two young children, a wife, a physician who works full time+ (full time plus = her days start at 5:30 or 6am and she doesn't get home in the evenings until after 7pm, she is on her feet all day and has the compression hose to prove it, and then she works every other weekend to pay off the family van) she cleans her own house, doesn't own a dishwasher (what's up with that, anyway) because she prefers to wash her own dishes. She makes chocolate chip cookies from scratch every weekend with her oldest daughter so that they'll have fresh cookies to eat all week. She has been the homeroom mom at her daughter's school. Okay, her hub helps out with the school stuff, but still, she volunteers to help despite not having much time to spare! She is medical director of her practice, and has been or is presently chair/president of several professional organizations. She is a caring, loving and interesting friend who always makes time for others. She is studying for her boards (in her spare time) and making some time to travel with her family this week. There isn't another person I know who has the schedule that this lady has. And she honors all of her commitments. She is not a canceller. She is there when she says she will be there and follows through on everything she commits to. I am proud to know her and she has been a role model to me in many ways. She is a great lady and I love her with all of my heart. So...Happy Bday, Trace. I'm thinking of you as you approach your "birthday and boards" week. And thanking God this morning for the gift of your friendship.

Loving all this stuff...

Okay, so what do you think? The boys rooms are brown, very rich and suede-ish looking. A great neutral color. Very of the moment. But not a color I would have selected without Renee's help. She gets the props. Check her out at: http://www.oabydesign.com/ (And my friend, Afflack, helped, too! Thanks, Kim.) And "Dan the Painter Man" did a fabulous job. No tape. He cut in. Not one bit of taping-off. So awesome. He is my painting idol. Anyway, I love it! Thanks Renee and Dan! And I love the way the front door and shutters turned out. We had a black front door at our old house and we love the sophisticated look of black. And, just for fun, I had to included a photo of the new zebra rug from Pottery Barn. How much do I love this rug? Mucho. Grande mucho. Beaucoup mucho (a little mix of French and Spanish there!). The zebra rug makes me smile. A lot. So...how many more times can I say "love" in this post? Must find another word. More pics to come, stay tuned. PS: spent more money on furniture than I could possibly ever imagine. Most of it won't arrive until the end of October. Total buzz-kill, but it's all gonna rock when it's finished. Can't wait. Loving (whoops, there we go again) our new casa.

The Painter is "in da house"

So excited that our painter is here. (Our decorator) chose a brownish-tan for the boys rooms, a color called "peanut shell" for the sink bath area and a muted grey-blue (to appease Jack who wanted turquoise on his bedroom walls-gasp!) for the shower area. This guy is Speedy Gonzalez. He had one room done, first coat, in one and a half hours. He should have everything finished today! Too excited and had to share. I'll post pics when he's done. And the piece-de-resistance...the new black glossy front door. Can't wait. It's a surprise for my hub, he doesn't know that we are changing the shutters and front door. Although mostly everything was fabu when we moved in, I'm loving the chance to make my own choices on some of the items in my new home. Yay! I'm off to hang some shelves.

Which are more wild...these animals or our boys???

Our buddies came for a visit and we took them to the zoo. Jacksonville has a fabulous zoo. If you ever have the opportunity to visit, I suggest making the Jax Zoo a top priority. One of the highlights of this visit was feeding the birds. We purchased nectar in little plastic cups and then entered the aviary where these Lorikeets (?) and Lories were. The birds will drink from the cup and lick the sides of it. They come right up to your hand! So fun to be so close to these otherwise timid birds. Our boys really got a kick out of it. And how amazing are these giraffes? Love these gentle giants. We had a great time with our friends. Packed a lot into our visit. Our boys drove us absolutely crazy, but they had fun and got along well. The water photos were also taken at the zoo. There is a water "park" where the kids can play and run around in the water. Nice treat when it's 90+ degrees. Look at our little guys: riding the carousel, hanging out in the splash park, feeding the birds...looks like they are so happy and relaxed, doesn't it? You would never know how much we had to yell at them for being so wild and crazy. And whiney. And loud. Truly. We almost put them in one of the cages at the zoo and left them there! They would have fit right in!!!

Sweet Pea

Michael is my 17 year old step-son. I nicknamed him "sweet pea" when he was just a toddler because he was the most gentle, sweet, easy going kid you could ever hope to meet. Over the years his nick name was cut short and now I just call him "pea". He is coming over to spend another week with us for summer visitation. He is basically a really good kid, but we have had a tough year with him. It is true that once your kids get their driver's liscences you never see them at all anymore. They sort of drop in and out of your house at meal times and bed time. It has been tough on all of us as we adjust to his freedom and he adjusts to our rules. We never really had to worry about "house rules" before because he was always either with us or at school. But there is a certain freedom that comes with driving. I remember it well. A feeling of independence and of being in charge of your own schedule and how you spend your time. Then throw a girlfriend or boyfriend into the mix, a part time job into the mix, an after-school sport into the mix and HOCUS POCUS, your kid disappears. We have some fun plans for his visit. Hoping to get to the beach one day, cook out on the fourth and then the big boys will play golf one day. He's giving us attitude about coming over because he wanted to bring a friend and we said no. It's not because we don't like his friend or because we are opposed to him bringing someone over. It's just because we don't get to see him as much since we moved and we just wanted some family time to hang out together. Plus, having a friend = disappearing act. We'd never see them. And we miss him when he's not here. So, my little pea, you are stuck with us for the week. Get over it. We can't help it if we love you.

So this is where we hang...

We are having too much fun in our new 'hood. We can swim at either the front pool or the back pool which has the two rocking water slides you see above. One of them is a tunnel-like slide that is so fast it takes my breath away! And I'm always afraid of getting a water-wedgie or loosing my bathing suit top (a scary, scary prospect for those who might catch a glimpse) on the tunnel one. Jack opts for the safety of the other one, as well, so it's usually our guests who brave the "tunnel of terror" as we have now named it. The pools are managed by the YMCA so they provide the lifeguards. There are some rules, which I'm okay with because I'm all about the rules when it comes to water, and the life guards swim-test every child who comes through the gates. Then, depending on how well you did on the test, they give you neck band to wear; green for complete access, yellow for partial access and red for must be with a parent at all times. That is the system that the life guards use to keep track of the kids when they are in the water. Love it. Love the safety aspect of managing such a large group of children whose parents may or may not be as responsible as they should be. You know the ones I'm talking about...the mom has like, three kids all under the age of five and she's sitting in a lounge chair reading the latest issue of Cosmo and talking on her cell phone while her kids are (potentially) drowning in the pool so you end up watching them because you don't want her kids to drown. And she's usually skinny and has had some sort of cosmetic surgery that allows her to lounge at the pool in a BIKINI (gasp!). Yeah, that makes me crazy. Hate her. So anyway, that's why I'm all about the rules at the pool. If you come visit, maybe we'll take you there! And maybe, just maybe, you'll be brave enough to take on the tunnel of terror. Once. We'll see...