Whats going on out there?

Tonight I took pics of this gorgeous family:

And these little guys came out to see what was going on! See all those spots in the picture - yeah lots of little guys came out!

Weekend Fun

No pics this week but we had a great weekend. Spent Saturday morning shopping as Tori had a ton of gift cards to spend and she literally spent every dime. She had a blast picking out new clothes for middle school. It's fun to see her style develop!

Meanwhile Todd and Tristan were at Celebration station celebrating Aedan's tenth birthday with pizza, arcade games and laser tag.

That night the kids spent the night with my parents who took them to dinner and a movie (they all said Mr.Popper's Penguins was awesome!). Todd and I went with Jonathan and Taylor to see Cirque de Soleil's Alegria. It was amazing. Thanks Taylor for the tickets!!! Afterwards we went to a neat place that I think was called Brick House and with the exception of a bad waitress it was really nice.

Sunday we went to Kobe to celebrate dad's birthday and called it a night!

Great weekend. Now on to a long week. I am working Mon-Fri which is unusual in the summer so the kids are off to Art Camp!

Age old.

It's an age old question...why do bad things happen to good people? Why do nice guys finish last? Why do the things we want the most seem to slip away?

If you are the praying type please pray tonight.

- If you have been following Bryan and Laurie's story, or maybe it's Danil's story at www.addingtothemaddness.blogspot.com you know what a journey this has been for all of them. Tonight they got some bad news that there is probably a huge delay in getting a court date.

- If you know what I do for a living you know that I meet some seriously sick people. Right now I have a patient I know. I mean, I KNOW. And it breaks my heart to see this person falling apart.

- A close friend of mine, single mom, was diagnosed this week with breast cancer. It's been a rough couple years for their family and it seemed as they were on the home stretch. And now this. And cancer, well its scary, even when the prognosis is good the road ain't easy and it's just scary.

So lift up these people. And then give the ones you a love a hug that is a little tighter, a little longer, a little bigger.

Summer Love.

Summer in Florida is brutally hot and the humidity makes you forget the meaning of the word dry. You can breathe the air in the water, you can feel it on your skin, and quite frankly most people hate it. And while I could do without feeling sticky moments after your morning shower I consider it small sacrifice for the part of Florida I love. Days when the clouds are like cotton candy in painted skies, the water is warm and the boat is gassed up!

Days when a corn hole game battles on, cold drinks emerge from coolers and even little friends come out to see what we are celebrating.

And I love sharing it with the people who make your life better. Sometimes family by blood, sometimes the friends that feel like family.

I love those days when you head to the beach and soak up the sun and the sand and the waves...the kids dig and they skim board and boogie board and swim...and the dinner hour rolls around and instead of going home you find whatever clothes happen to be in your car and less sandy than the ones you are wearing. You throw them on, try not to care about the wind whipped hair you are currently sporting and continue good conversation over BBQ!

What I do not love is saying goodbye. And while one last long day together was simply wonderful, the idea of them being an entire country away is not so wonderful. So instead of goodbye as you say...Au Revoir... or until we meet again. You will be truly missed!

Fun & Fail.

I realize that most people in the world work. Or at least hope to work. And I am thankful everyday for my job that let's me use my degree while maintaining the most flexible hours in the universe. Even when I am sorry I do what I do I am thankful for this gift. That being said when my kids are home for the summer and all my stay home mom friends are, well staying home, I am jealous. And I have a seriously hard time going to work.

But I love my days off. And I work really hard to make sure they are fun for the kids.

So armed with a coupon and a plan to squeeze in some errands and some fun we headed out yesterday. Got some lunch, some gas, picked up a father's day gift for my dad, and then time for fun.

So off we went to mini-golf, on the beach. Oh did I mentioned it was a zillion degrees out? I might have failed to notice until we were firmly planted in the middle of this ridiculous course in desperate need of repairs and updating, absolutely melting. But we were having fun darn it!

Okay so it was still fun. And I got a great Tori-ism out of it which are few and far between. So as she hits the ball nowhere near the whole I say to her "Let me show you how to do it". She replies, "Okay but every time you say that, an epic fail follows." Which of course it did. And she repeats very slowly. "Yep, epic. fail."
At least she has a good vocabulary.

Sometimes having my camera along all the time is annoying but sometimes I get some great pictures. Sometimes I get hot kids that makes stupid faces

The irony of this is that it is meant to stop me and I actually find it hilarious. I get some of the greatest photos from there efforts. You know the ones you dig out to show the boyfriend/girlfriend some day just to humiliate them.

Summer Randomness

I LOVE summer. Always have, always will. We spent the weekend outside, hitting the beach Saturday with Todd's brother's family. Honeymoon Island was gorgeous, not too packed and the kids (including the adult Maddex boys) had a great time digging up some "treasure" they found in the water, which ended up just being some random wood planks but it entertained them for a long time. Long enough for my tan to improve anyway. We followed the beach up with a late lunch at the Island Outpost and then headed home for showers and naps! After church Sunday we headed out for a picnic/boating at Phillipe Park. Had a great time tubing and playing in the water! I left my camera at home all weekend so all my pics (hello I had to take them) are on Todd's phone which is not here so I will photo dump later!

Other randomness...

- VBS at our church is this week and it never fails to amaze me how awesome it is. 277 kids the first night!

- stupid grasshoppers are huge, seriously, HUGE!

- Tori went to middle school prep camp Mon and Tues to learn where classrooms were, meet teachers, etc

- we made fun summer cupcakes that look ridiculous but are actually yummy spice cake

- we got an estimate to have the inside of our house painted, and then we decided we could probably do it ourselves. oy vey life is expensive.

- day off means errands, cleaning and fun with the kiddos so I am off! have a great day all!

Schools Out for the Summer!!!

My little girl with the chunky cheeks and curly pigtails was hard to remember as I looked at this gorgeous daughter of mine "graduating" from elementary school today. As parents it is our job to think our kids are the best. The brightest. It is our job to celebrate the small victories and the big ones.

But today, today she was celebrated by others. Lots of students were honored today, but it was fun to hear her name called for multiple awards. It was fun to see others recognize her hard work and especially her creativity! It was kind of sad to say goodbye to her teachers and this school we have spent 6 years at...Mrs. Fleeman and Mr. Feyerband ended her elementary career with a bang though. We could not have asked for better teachers this year!

So what was celebrated? Well she passed of course. She also got a certificate for always having Principal's List. She was chosen as one of a trio of girls that kicked off the proceeding with the Star Spangled Banner. She was honored with a medal for excellence in art. She was chosen as the outstanding chorus female student of the year. She was honored for singing in the all county chorus performance. And she was honored for her part on the Bobcat Broadcasting Team where she gave current events on the morning news program.

My girl is in middle school. And I think her and her friends, I think they are ready for a new adventure!

Tristan too had a fabulous year in the 2nd grade. He started gifted, he was honored as a "Prestigious Paw" kid 3 times - for honesty, responsibility, and kindness! Today he wore crazy hair and did everything backwards (reading first instead of last, etc) and had a great last day!

And then we celebrated. Todd had the day off so we loaded up the bikes and roller blades and went for a ride down the Pinellas Trail. And then in keeping with Maddex family last day of school tradition we got ice cream. We stopped at this podunk little place in Crystal Beach that had the coolest tables and Working Cow ice cream - a big fav in our house. The kids picked Superman which kills me but they LOVED it. And now it is officially summer!!!

Allergist

I finally got to see an allergist today. I learned that they are expensive...oh yeah and that my hives are considered chronic since they are 6+ weeks old now. Awesome.

I got new meds, basically attempt to treat the symptoms without knowing the cause. Blood tests in August if not under control.

Nice guy, not a lot of information. Sounds like this might be a trial and error process. Sigh.

No More Downer Debbie

Man I have been NEGATIVE in the last couple of posts. Medical problems, failed running attempts, etc. Okay so here's some positive!

- I got an "emergency" appointment with the allergist for tomorrow!

- I got to have lunch with my dad AND my bro today @ my fav - Moes!

- I went shopping for myself and got a couple tank tops, capris and even a cute summer dress!

- Today, I feel great!

- Came up with the perfect Father's Day gift for my dad and have a great idea for my mom's birthday!

- Got this new soap that I bought using sales/coupons for c.h.e.a.p. and it rocks. Dove VisibleCare it's called. And it actually lives up to the hype. Not sure about the whole photo thing but way better than my last soap (and no I changed after the hive mess started - its not causing them!)

- Taken lots of pictures, of other people, lately. Aka business is decent.

- School ends Wednesday!! Woohoo!!

- Heard this great new quote from a graduation speech - "Some people let thing's happen, some people MAKE things happen, and some people say What Happened? What kind of person are you going to be?" No idea who said it first or if that is word for word but you get the gist.

- And lastly the crazy jungle house two houses down from us finally got cleaned up by the city! The house is in some kind of legal mess like many houses are these days
and the lawn and literally grown 3+ feet tall. I am guess that many of my frog and grasshopper friends are using it as a breeding ground. So it looks better and hopefully will prevent further plagues of creatures!

Hide and Seek

Remember when you played hide and seek as a kid, a little kid. And you went with the whole "I can't see you so you can't see me" theory.

I've been trying that with this whole hives thing. If I cover them up and don't itch them then they are not really there right? If I run and go to work and take photos and hang with my family and go about my merry way then they are not really there right?

I have no idea why it's not working.

Or why one cannot get a dr's appointment in this town less than 2 weeks out.

Sigh. Okay vent over. Returning to normally scheduled programming.

Motivated.

Sometimes we set goals and we reach them. Sometimes we fail. Sometimes repeatedly. Sometimes we just need the right motivation.

I want to be a runner. I have set out to be a runner. And I have crashed and burned. But now I have a treadmill (well I have an indefinite loaner!). I have extra time (sort of.) And I have the proper motivation.

This shirt will be mine. As soon as I can wear a size small. And run a 5K with a good time (and still breathing at the end of it!)



June 1st - logged 2 miles already - aiming for 30 in 30 days.

Proper motivation I tell you.