Five Years Since Hurricane Charley?

It seems like it's been a while, but not that long since Hurricane Charley came through Orlando. I have a few "before" and "after pictures of the house & yard, and will scan them to post later this weekend. Some of them are almost unbelievable, and it was so much worse in person. I think of how long we went without electricity that first time, and how the inconvenience and stress of that hardship and so many things took a serious toll on everybody who lived here. The other two storms didn't seem nearly as bad since we'd improved our rugged camping-at-home skills. We learned a lot, though. A generator and a window unit AC are a good combination. Flashlights that only cost a dollar aren't that great. Cold showers are underrated!

This weekend we have two different birthday parties to go to, plus an art event (details later). All this means we'll have lots of photo opportunities and you know how happy that makes me.

P.S.

Please note the new links here on the blog (Two Peas in a Bucket, Facebook and Twitter). Click them from here and you'll be directly linked to the websites :)

I hope to get permission to add some others later.

Thanks for lookin' -

For Kismet

When I Grow Old With My Dogs
(Author Unknown)

When I grow old with my dogs,
I shall wear turquoise and soft gray sweatshirts
and a bandanna over my silver hair,
and I shall spend my retirement checks on
sweet wine and my dogs.
I will sit in my house on my well-worn chair
and listen to my dogs breathing.

I will sneak out in the middle of a warm summer night
and take my dogs for a run, if my old bones will allow.
And when people come to call,
I will smile and nod as I show them my dogs,
and talk of them and about them,
The ones so beloved of the past,
The ones so beloved of today.

I still will work hard cleaning after them
and mopping and feeding them and
whispering their names in a soft, loving way.
I will wear the gleaming sweat on my throat like a jewel,
and I will be an embarrassment to all -- and my family.

Some people have not yet found the peace
in being free to have dogs as your best friends . . .
These friends who always wait, at any hour, for your footfall
and eagerly jump to their feet out of a sound sleep
to greet you as if you were a god
with their warms eyes full of adoring love and hope
that you will stay and
hug their big strong necks and
kiss their dear sweet heads and
whisper to their very special company.

I look in the mirror
and see I am getting old.
This is the kind of woman I am
and have always been.
Loving dogs is easy—
They are part of me, accept me for who I am.
My dogs appreciate my presence in their lives.
When I am old, this will be important to me.

You will understand when you are old,
if you have dogs to love, too.


This was sent to me by my Uncle Mark about four years ago. He was a dog person, too. :) I don't know the poet/author's name, and the version above is paraphrased a little bit for length.

Colleen's Birthday

Happy Birthday to my dear friend Colleen! Wishing you the best and many happy returns! In your honor, I'll have you know that I hand-hemmed a pair of pants tonight! There might even be ironing involved! ;-0

You are loved, my friend! xoxo



[Bazzill cardstock; Creative Memories cardstock; Stamp by 7gypsies; Ribbon by Offray]

Highlights from Pretend Birthday Weekend

The cutest picture all weekend:

No photo available:

The Oreo ice cream cake. Once it thawed out, it was a goner. I felt dizzy from all the sugar, but in the good way, lol. I believe the word of the day was "devour."

The cutest daredevil you'll ever see on the Internet:

Best of the most recent nightmarish dress-up photo session (staged by Tia). The funniest part was how surprised the kids were when I threw my down my camera to prevent a Baumgardner sibling tragedy:

We all enjoyed the weekend at Granny's and Aunt Waura's. xoxo

Pretend Birthday

We're visiting Aunt Waura and letting the ice cream cake warm up so we can chow down!!! Granny is supervising five - count 'em, FIVE - grandchildren so I can sneak in a blog post before the party starts.

Intentionally left blank due to annoyance

Going to bed irritated since the Warden is stressing out everyone in the tank.

The trouble is, I keep forgetting no matter what time it is, it's all about him.

**end of vent** (is that the shortest one in about 40 years?! LOL)

From the back seat

I hear the funniest snippets of conversations from the kids when they're in the back seat of the car. No matter where we're going or the time of day, there's usually something funny, mischievious, or naughty going on back there.

Today Caroline was trying to talk John Sam into something, Lord only knows what. I didn't hear the beginning of it, but the part I heard went like this:

Caroline: Please?
John Sam: No, because you're just gonna be mean to me later.
Caroline: No, I won't.
John Sam: Are you going to be mean to me?
Caroline: Not TODAY...

I wasn't bluffing!

I'm sure there were a couple of naysayers who thought I was just bluffing about getting ready to scrap. I'll have you know that I've gotten the papers organized for twenty - that would be 20 - layouts.

The proof is in the pix 'cause the kids ate the pudding, of course. :)

Yes, the time really IS 11:43 p.m. *gasp*

xoxo

So many posts.....so little time

Yesterday I planned to take before & after pictures of my, ahem, piles. I wanted to show how I was getting ready to SCRAPBOOK! But by the time I got finished with all the required tasks, alas, outta time.

I've gotten out of the habit of blogging every day. I want to make time to start doing it every day again.