sea cow

my cousin will find this especially interesting in light of her facebook gift to me today... we just had our first manatee sighting! at first, she was just a very large dark figure in the water, not all sleek and angular like the shark i saw. i guessed it might be a manatee because i didn't know of anything else with such a... ahem... rotund body shape but it seems like a strange time of year/day to see a manatee swimming along the beach. hubby broke out the binoculars and i watched her until she came up for a breath - confirmed manatee sighting! i saw her cute little ugly face take a deep breath and then her body arched over the water until her rounded tail waved goodbye. how exciting. that's one i never even expected to see. unfortunately, even though hubby did bring my camera to me, there was just no way to get a good pic of her. it's really tough to focus through the moving water that far out. maybe she'll come around again and be more photogenic next time.

"Barbara Manatee! You are the one for me! Sent from up above, you are the one I love."

bug bites

the bunk room looks great. there's a minor paint correction i want to make. i say minor but since it involves painting back over the red on a small piece of wall, it won't be fun. my wonderful hubby found a great way to overcome the shoe-molding so the bed and other furnishing is in place now. we have both climbed up to the top bunk and it seems stable. this weekend we'll need to get sheets and a futon mattress. other than wall decor, the room will be done. woohooo! i need to get the guest bath painted this weekend too. the shame about that is that it is not spaced out long enough to have forgotten how not fun painting was the other night. in other news, i took some antihistamines last night and went to bed a little after 20:00. other than a bit of tossing and turning around midnight, i slept straight through this morning (and still would have liked several more snoozes before dragging my tired rear out of bed). while i did need the sleep, the antihistamines did not produce their desired results. see, last week i had a bite right below my left knee. it was a very different bite reaction (i won't detail it because it was gross but it was very painful instead of itchy, very hot to the touch, and the pain spread into my knee joints) than i've ever had so i figured it must have been a spider or something that i don't normally get bit by. at the same time, i was overcoming a multitude of mosquito bites on both legs and arms. there was one on my right leg that was remarkably swollen but i see that a lot with mosquito bites. anyhoo, the strange bite on my knee seemed to be healing after a few days so i had no further need for concern. well, after our paint marathon the other night, i noticed that i am biteful again. once again, i have a remarkably swollen mosquito bite on my right calf that is the full size of the calf but it has a really strange looking center. and once again, i have that really strange bite reaction on the side of my left knee. i don't remember getting bit by anything this week but i guess i must have. i've been slathering both sites with antihistamine cream and took two doses of oral antihistamine last night. the one on my right calf is still itchy as all getout, the one on my left knee is still painful and ugly. it is the ones around my knee that concern me. hubby wants me to go to the dr because he thinks it's some sort of infection in my knee causing these reactions, not bug bites. at two, i'm marking it up to coincidence but if i get another one, i'll be getting it checked out.

redrum!

what a night. on the bright side (and i do mean bright), we now have a red room (redrum?). the color is called rum runner - hee hee. i also like that hubby is the one who insisted on red so if he ends up not liking the way the room turns out, i'm not to blame. what i don't like is that red is an extremely crappy color to paint. i painted for 7.5 hours last night; and, folks, this is a tiny, tiny room. the only break i took was 19 minutes to cook and eat dinner. my feet, back, shoulder, neck, and hands were killing me by 00:30 when we finally were able to get a shower. we put three coats on and it probably could have used one or two more to get rid of some of the streakiness but we were out of paint and time and patience. we have very little paint left for touch-ups which makes me a bit uncomfortable since it is a kid's room and will get beat and banged up. such is life. i like the color a lot. i'm not sure if it's too overpowering in such a small room. i think that will be decided after everything is in there and decorated. there are two strange men back there as i type assembling the bed. the bed which we measured several times to verify that it was going to just barely fit but apparently we did not measure the shoe-molding so it does not fit. they are assembling it in the middle of the room and we'll have to figure out the best way to overcome the molding problem to get it in the right place. nothing in this new house has been easy. nothing.

lots of pink does not equal red

last night was supposed to be a productive paint night. furniture to be delivered in forty-eight hours. unfortunately, after a long shopping endeavor that ended in me fighting with the people who mixed the paint that it was not the color on the card and then telling me that it would look right after two or three coats and drying... we got home and immediately (yes, before even putting up the milk and eggs) painted five coats on a small strip of wall and it was PINK. i, for one, was livid. i knew that it was not the right color in the store but even hubby said it would be fine after a couple coats. i called the store to ask about returning it because i know that paint is not an easy thing to return. they said i would be able to but, unfortunately, it was too late last night to return or go somewhere else for paint. long story not-so-short, i'll be returning paint and buying new paint (from a better store) on my lunch break today. woohoo! and then we'll be painting all night to make sure the room is painted and dry-as-possible before the furniture is delivered tomorrow. whooohoooo!

thems not fishes floatin' out thar

HAPPY BIRTHDAY! to the one who denies me. we had a wonderfully relaxing long weekend at home. i cannot even tell you how nice it is to be back. sadly, it was also a very deadly weekend in our backyard. randal was out running last night when he ran up on the police pulling in the first guy mentioned. luckily, they already had him covered so my hubby did not have to see the body but he said it was a ghastly scene, just a ten minute walk down the beach. the second mentioned guy, found sunday, was an army paratrooper who went in to rescue another swimmer. that seems so tragic to me. here's a military kid in presumably great shape who did manage to save another man's life but lost his own in the process. i have not found anything that details how he managed to get the other guy to safety and still get himself pulled out to sea. we were out walking saturday night while the helicopters and boats were doing a grid search for them. very sad. one more reason i don't like to swim in the gulf/ocean. there's dead people out there. and we all know what happens to our bodies after death. yep, that's all out in that water. ick! i'll stick with my pool and hot tub, thankyouverymuch. anyhow, on the less gruesome side of things, we had a great weekend and got rested up. fortunately/unfortunately we did not get any painting done. we decided to wait for the bedding to come in so that we could really decide on color. since i was watching the tracking, i'm almost certain the bedding was there sunday since it was "in transit to store" from a town less than three hours away but i called the store sunday and yesterday and they insisted that the order number was not checked in. my guess is that it was there but they didn't bother to scan the shipment until this morning. so we'll be going to pick the bedding up this afternoon and buy paint. there will very likely be paint on the walls tonight but you can never tell these things for sure. although i would like for the walls to be dry when the furniture gets delivered and set up thursday. call me kooky like that. really, there was no excuse for me not masking and painting the bathroom over the weekend. it's emptied out and the paint is sitting there. i guess i just didn't want to ruin the quality time with my hubby who i have missed oh so much this past month.

headed home

yay, i get to see my hubby again today and he's taking me home! i've missed him so much this month. this week he's been at a conference at disney. it's been very sad for me to know that he's so close but not with me. i've gotten to do some extra visiting with my cousin, which has been very nice. and i finally got to see katie for the first time in the four weeks i've been here. but i'm ready for my hubby to take me home. it's really just time to go home. and i really hope he'll stay with me for a while.

almost home

i've got to say, as much as i enjoy visiting with friends and family and miss having people around to socialize with on a daily basis, i am so excited that we are going home tomorrow. i cannot wait to take a walk around my backyard! and sleep in my great, big, latex foam bed. it's going to be a wonderful three-day weekend.

disney and kids and us, oh my!

we decided to give my sissy and bro-n-law a day off so we asked my dad and his wife to get us and the chilluns into disney yesterday. we packed up the kids and left the house right before 10:00, met up with my dad, and were in the park by 11:00. we did the muppets at mgm (it will forever be mgm, i don't care what they say) with the grandparents and that was enough for them so we parted ways back at the park exit and we five headed over to animal kingdom, which has become my favorite park. we immediately headed over to expedition everest to get our fast passes and were pleased to discover that the girl child is tall enough to ride. we did the asian jungle trail, ate lunch, watched the bug show (which was some welcome a/c and misting effects on such a bloody hot day), and then went to ride everest. the kids had a blast on it. next was the african safari and a parade before we left to go back to mgm. at mgm, we got our fast passes to tower of terror. while waiting for our time, we watched about half of the beauty and the beast stage show. when it was time for terror, the younger nephew was disinclined to do any dropping so hubby took him for a nap on the great movie ride while i took the oldest and youngest to the tower. though the girl child squeezed my hand ferociously throughout the line and during the ride, she proclaimed afterward that it was not even scary. we grabbed five fast passes for rockin' rollercoaster before going to meet up with the other boys. we walked around a bit, did the backlot tour, and made our way back for our scheduled aerosmith limo ride. the was the first time for both younger children and they were both a bit dubious about wanting to ride something that went upside down. when it was all over, they both loved it. they didn't even notice the upside down loop. *sob* my chilluns is all grown up *sob*. we had a snack outside the coaster and decided on the animation class to kill time before the big fantasmic show. we were only able to do the first little movie before making our way to the show to ensure we got seats so we figured we'd go back and do the actual drawing class after the show. fantasmic was fun and we headed back to draw as planned when a cast member stopped us and told us to go try out the not-yet-opened toy story ride. we did as told and i am so glad because it was the perfect end to the day. it is like the buzz lightyear ride/game at mk but much more fun, imho. of course, it does help that i totally whooped the kids and randal. both times through (since it's not "open" yet, there was no line at all). the second time, i heard randal proudly proclaiming his score of 147,500 from his car, which was a significant increase over my first score (132,200) when i beat them all. however, he was not happy to hear that my score the second time around was 158,700. yep, i creamed them. i may have even gloated... just a smidgen, of course. throughout the day we took iphone pix of the kids in front of their various conquests and emailed them to the parents and gparents so that they knew could be jealous of what a fantastic time we were having. after toy story, we left the park and went in search of a quick, light dinner (yes, at 22:30 - the parents would kill us). we successfully made it home, ordered showers, allowed each child a two-minute visitation with the dog, and had them in bed by 23:30. it was a long, tiring day but worth it. i think the kids had a great time too. and they were absolutely wonderful the whole day, no attitude or sniping at each other. which i found impressive because as hot as it was, it could have been ugly; i can't be the only person who's temper increases with the temperature. in the meantime, my sissy didn't get home until after 01:00. they had a nice day sans les enfants. and they used the blue man tickets we got them for Christmas. naturally, today is going to be a very lazy day for all of us.

homesick

my most fabulous husband surprised me with a trip to the beach last night for our anniversary (apparently him coming home early wasn't enough). we dined, we walked, we reminisced, we enjoyed each other. it was very nice. although, while cocoa is "our beach", it made me more homesick. i can't wait to get back to my home with my stuff and my backyard. i miss my backyard tremendously. i'm looking forward to us having some good quality us time over the long weekend. of course, unfortunately, some of that "us" time is going to include paint brushes and rollers.

love my husband!

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY, HUSBAND!!!! he gave me the most fabulous gift, too. he called last night and said he was at the airport on his way home to me! that's a whole forty-eight hours sooner than i expected him!! i was so excited, i completely drove past the mall i was headed to and had to u-turn several miles later when i realized that i wasn't paying any attention to where i was going. when i asked if something was going wrong with work he said no, he just told the customer that he wanted to be with his wife on our anniversary. what a wondereful boy i've got! after getting this terrific news, i finished my shopping and headed over to my cousin's for friendly poker and guitar hero night. i then less-than-patiently waited around for my hubby to call requesting his airport pickup. he called just after midnight and he was in my arms by 00:30. it is so, so nice to have my hubby back. he snuggles so much better than a pillow.

aggravation, they name is IT

the only thing more aggravating than having to work is not being able to. yesterday was one of those days. on the bright side, i wasn't on the phones (have i mentioned how much i abhor the phones?!) because my phone software was playing dead all day. unfortunately, instead of enjoying the respite from the phones, i was stressed and frustrated all day trying to troubleshoot my computer and software. after working almost all night on it, i finally uninstalled and reinstalled just about every program i use for work and finally got my phones working again. whoo. hoo. clearly, no fun visiting last night. sunday was nice though. i went to church with my sissy's family to see the kids do their special mom's day celebration. i spent the afternoon with jenny and did end up ordering my dress. i was then invited to my cousin's for dinner and spent the night having quality time with her. a good, busy day to distract me from thoughts of extreme sadness. and tonight i'm getting together with jenny and some of her friends for a free dinner. yummy!

happy mother's day!

even if you don't want to be a mother anymore.

driving across greater orlando

mental note: do not plan to visit dad and brudder in the same day. i was already sleepy when i left my dad's this afternoon so the hour and fifteen minute drive across central florida to see my brother was a bad call. it was an exhausting day, although i did have great visits with both family members. last night i had dinner with an old friend i haven't seen in a couple years. funny thing about her is that we met playing softball for one season when we were nine years old, we never went to the same schools, and yet we're still friends all these years later. isn't that nice? tomorrow i'll be spending most of the day with jenny and hopefully purchase my moh dress.

no comforting me

why do i always put things off until it's too late? we finally found a comforter set for the bunk room that we can agree on and we both like very much. i gave it a few days to look back a few times and make sure that i still liked it. this morning, i went to buy it and they only have twin and king sizes now. aaargh! any chance that i'll look back in the next few days and the full size will be back again? yeh, i doubt it. stupid, stupid, stupid me. such is life, right? on a brighter note, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JENNY! i'm looking forward to celebrating with her and her friends/family tonight.

i am iron man

i miss my hubby so much already. i got up at 0400 to take him to the airport this morning. that was painful, especially after not being able to sleep much last night. i want him back and am very bummed that he's going to be gone for two weeks straight. the weekend was spent mostly spending all the time i could with him. my dad and his wife came over saturday for grilling and swimming but that was the only visiting that went on outside my sissy's family. yesterday we went to church with them and then made a day of shopping and movie. one of my bro-n-law's relatives told him that iron man would be good for the kids so we went to see that yesterday. the previews were bad enough but it was probably twenty minutes into the not-kid-friendly movie when they left the theatre. my hubby and i stayed to watch it while they exchanged their ticket for a more appropriate movie. it was a good movie... for adults. i am appalled that his relative thought it was one for the kids. he also checked a movie review website for kids (i don't recall which one) that made it sound like it wasn't bad. i really couldn't believe all of the little kids that were watching it with parents that didn't seem to care what they were being exposed to. my parents never restricted what we watched. i watched cujo when i was four, child's play when i was eight. i remember seeing s3xu@l situations in movies before i was in gradeschool. and i think it was all extremely inappropriate for me to have been exposed to so early. i remember twisting my teddy bear up and stabbing it with a pencil before bed every night to make sure that chucky was not in there. not a positive behavior for a kid. i'm not saying that iron man was that bad but it did have several moments that were not suitable for chilluns. /tangent. have i mentioned i miss my hubby?

moving in...

last night was another late night jam session on rock band. maybe one of these days we'll be good enough to play with the kids! so, of course, i'm dead tired again today. and it's just been a very tiring work day anyhow. we found out yesterday that my boy is actually going to be leaving me for two weeks instead of one and then he's got a conference at disney the week after that so, basically, that boils down to me being here for may. i feel a little like the baby in the basket on the doorstep. i really hope that my sissy and bro-n-law honestly don't mind and aren't just saying that. i know that it's one of those situations where, really, what else are you gonna say? you can't really say "no, go find a hotel." oh well. in any case, though i don't like being gone from my new home so long, i will get to do lots of visiting that i have been desperately missing. i should also be able to do plenty of weddinging with jenny, which i've felt bad about not being able to do. i already called and rescheduled our furniture delivery for the end of the month (making sure to give myself plenty of time to get home and get the room painted before it comes) and i need to call and reschedule our dental appointments. i guess going to the dentist with my hubby on our anniversary was a better plan than him being two thousand miles away on our anniversary. that'll teach me to sarcastically complain. so who wants to take me out for my anniversary?