Well it’s been fun and busy this week end.

Friday we went to a Hail and Farewell. Some folks that I really like leave today. Headed in ThisIsBullDookie’s direction. Make sure you have Neil cook you some Jerk chicken and some of his famous potatoes… they are excellent!

It was a great day Friday. The picnic was at a beach park we all really like, and thanks to hurricane Daniel we had some nice swells. We played in the surf — body surfing in overhead sized waves — actually I was not in the mood to have 3 tons of sand in my suit so I just bobbed with Jill while hubby and some of the others body surfed. They had a great time and so did we. Squirt brought a friend and they played in the large grassy area, running, flying kites and climbing trees. They ate tons of food and generally had a blast. Silver_Fangz read and listened to music — a friend of hers showed up, but she had relatives with her so it was kinda of awkward, but SF was happy reading one of the new books she received for her birthday.

Her birthday was 4 — 5 including Squirt — teenage girls. Eating everything in sight and being wild. They made the birthday cake in teams, having a race… it was something else! She got books, gift cards for Borders, Jamba, and Ben Franklins, a handmade Eskimo doll from an online friend who lives in Alaska, a new bathrobe she’s been wanting, a pair of converse slippah (flip flops for you mainlanders) and a couple of shirts from Hot Topix. Pretty good for a “small” birthday!

I’m thinking of selling my jeep (sigh) just because there are more practical vehicles and we are looking at on now. An older Ford Escape. It carries more people, more stuff and has better gas mileage as well as costing less… ie… lower payment.

I love my Jeep though.

But….it’s just a car, and I can always buy another one in a few years if I really want one.

Right? —- RIGHT!

The other bad thing…the Escape is school bus yellow ~ I am not kidding! We were just making fun of those las month!! OOOPS!! Guess someone will making fun of me from now on!

What color do you like on cars?

Yesterday was a protected post. I’ve added all my subscribers and those I sub to. There is pictures involved soo.. can’t have those floating around!

Have a great day and a great weekend!

I’m home! At last!

I had a great time in New Mexico. I enjoyed every minute with my mom, dad, sister, nephew and niece. I spent a great day hanging with one of my all time best friends in Tucson. But man……, who left on the bloody heater out there??? Yikes! Tucson was running 111-114 degrees. Even at night when the sun was down and there was a breeze — it still felt like the inside of an oven. I have no desire to ever again live in those kinds of environments. NM was nice — high 80′s occasional low 90 with fairly constant cool breezes. It was nice to get back to the green and see the ocean and feel the cool ocean breezes though.

I think when we leave here, I’m going to miss it more than I planned. I’ve even considered the possibility that I might want to stay here permanently. I know SF would agree, and hubby would sign right up for that. Squirt would be a problem however. Getting land and horses is something that only the wealthy do here, and although we play wealthy people on TV — we’re just your average working class joes.

I guess I’ll adjust to being without the ocean.

And the green.

And the flowers.

And the gorgeous skies — last night it felt like the stars were close enough to touch. (after I woke up from my early slumber — I fell asleep on the couch at 8:30 after a long day traveling. My clock is still out of whack, I’m getting tired now although it’s only 5:00 pm here (it’s 9:00 pm in NM).

Well, I gotta go do some other stuff….tons to do! You know what it’s like after being gone for 2 weeks. Tomorrow is SF birthday… I can’t believe she’s 15! Wow, where does the time go?

I hope to catch up with subs and stuff tonight, if not then tomorrow. I have lots of great stories and adventures to share, and maybe, I’ll even remember some of them. Until then…

Hasta la vista!

Whew.

It’s been really busy around here, but in a good way. As a surprise and a gift of appreciation, my hubby and I decided to order my folks a new computer and have it delivered while I was here so I could set it up. They have been operating on a system my hubby built for them in the late 90′s… needless to say it was past time for an upgrade.

So, all day friday I waited for UPS to deliver my “package”. I had tracked it and knew it went out for delivery at 8:42 that morning. I contacted UPS around 5:00 to make sure it would get delivered that day. They assured me that they delivered until 7:00 PM. My parents tried to close the gate to their property about 6:00 and I had to stop them. I told them I was waiting for a “package” to be delivered. I had already made a card explaining why we had done this. About 7:15…there comes the magic brown van…but wait! Where the heck was it going?? It rolled right on by. Needless to say, I was crushed. I asked my mom if UPS delivered on Sat. to which she replied “nope”. OH NO! I would be out of town on Monday and Tuesday with my mom, and I really wanted to be there when the computer got there!

I decided to not give up hope and see if came back. I had about given up all hope when the magic van came rolling up the street. I grabbed my camera (woke up my dad who had fallen asleep in front of the TV) and went outside to sign for the box. They were still standing inside looking out the window when he unloaded the big DELL box. They were open mouth and muttering…. she didn’t…I’ll kill her! I motioned them out and snapped some pics of the delivery. They were so excited! Mom cried, dad was speechless. They found their voices when they threatened several times to kill me. We called hubby and lucky him, they offered to kill him too! It was a great night. They were overwhelmed and it felt so good to be able to do this for them. They both claimed no one had ever done anything like this for them before.

We did this because my parents have helped us out soooo many times. They are always there for us, we want to give them something back. They were planning to buy a new computer, but on fixed income, after taking an expensive trip to Hawaii to see us, we felt like we should handle this. It’s not just the cost though. It’s something they have wanted for years and haven’t done. We decided it was time for them to have something nice that they would really enjoy.

The next day we moved the computer desk, 4 drawer filing cabinet from the office and switched it with the bed, bookcase and dresser from the spare bedroom. I also made backups of all their files off their old computer. This was a ton of work but the results are well worth it.

I spent today setting up their new computer, getting a new ISP, installing their programs. We are all exhausted from the work. My dad also dug a 2 foot hole in almost solid rock and planted a 19 foot flag pole in it. He’s not quite done with that, but he will be soon.

Did I mention my dad is 72? He’s an amazing guy. He still hikes, rides his motor scooter all over town, and works like a dog. He’s also a cancer survivor. He used to ride a bicycle like 40 miles a day. Before that he was a jogger. When he was 50 he was running marathons. He’s quite a guy. My mom is no slouch either. She’s 63 now. She keeps busy gardening and keep her house beautiful and enjoying all her birds. She has finches, woodpeckers, and swarms of hummingbirds. She also watches the grand kids (the ones that live here) almost every day. They are both amazing. They deserved this, and more.

Well, I have to go, have more software installation to get done and we leave early tomorrow for a trip to Las Cruces. I’ll try to get on on Tuesday to update and comment. Have a great weekend!

What’s the biggest or most meaningful gift you’ve given?

Alright… here we go again! The latest writing challenge from the Kween_of_the_Queens:

The 12 BEST

Be fair to yourselves, be kind to yourselves and be honest with yourselves. . . you certainly have AT THE VERY LEAST 12 WONDERFUL ATTRIBUTES!

This may be more difficult for me as I tend to look at myself with a fairly critical eye, but we’ll see what we can come up with. I know the first couple, 12 may be a stretch!

1. Sense of Humor: I love to laugh, and love to make other laugh. Laughter is the flowers in my garden of life.

2. Confidence: I am a fairly confident person. If I can’t do something, I’ll let you know, if I can…ditto.

3. Self Knowledge: I know who I am, good and bad. I am comfortable with who I am, even if I continue to work on my “flaws”. This helps with my confidence as well.

4. I am friendly: I like to meet people and get to know them.

5. Creative: Not only in artistic ways, but in problem solving and looking for things to do.

6. Smart: Ok, I know this sounds conceited, but I have a fairly good intelligence level, I catch on quickly and can perform well in academic areas especially.

7. Good reader: Not in terms of literacy, but in terms of performance. I love to read out loud to my family and have done so since the girls were born. Now, even my hubby comes and joins or story-time. We have read tons of great novels, including all of the Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, and The Belgariad, The Mallorean and a ton of classics like Where the Red Fern Grows, out loud. My family loves to listen to me read — even my mom one summer listened as I read out loud to my dds.

8. Artistic: I paint, scrapbook, sculpt and generally just enjoy all avenues of art. Although I haven’t had much time for that lately…

9. Honest: for those of you who read my annoying habits of others… lying was on there! I’m honest, and I expect the same from others.

10. Good Daughter: I love my folks and I do what I can to help them, but in addition, I just love talking to them and spending time with them.

11. Good Wife: My best friend in the whole world is my hubby. He is my soul mate, Now I know Kween said no family, but this is about my being a good wife. I listen to him, allow him time to pursue his hobbies, and work diligently at maintaining a quality relationship with him. It’s not always easy, but I look at what I could do better in order to enhance our marriage. Fortunately, he does the same and I’m just as in love as I was 20+ years ago.

12. Good Mother: Since I started on this path, I can’t leave out the light of my life, my daughters. I listen to my girls. I try to understand what they are going through. At times my SF has accused me of knowing more about her life than any mother every should. This allows me to help her and guide her. I know their friends, I know their strengths, their weakness and their interests. I value them and their opinions and thoughts.

Ok: so the last three may have been a reach (we ventured into the family thing) but I feel like they really are good qualities of mine.

Alright, this is a challenge from DoWhaChaDo89:

Interesting questions about nicknames….. hmm…. More revealing than I might have thought! Yikes!

Question #1:
I wonder what nicknames you all have or gave to other people… how and why did you pick their nickname or get your nickname?

Hmmm… ok first things first. I’ve had tons of nicknames in my time, not all of them good. For example, my high school English teacher (whom I loved and inspired me) called me “The Parking Lot Queen” – not good. In addition, my band mates named me “baby” for Baby Freak (but my sister already had that one). Again…. Not good. Obviously I spent too much time in the parking lot, and not enough pursuing other more beneficial attributes. Other childhood nicknames were – Baby smurf (getting the idea I’m a little on the short side?), Modie (because I was moody), and sunshine from my dad – because I used to get up every morning to watch the sun rise. Now I have the nicknames of A squared (my friend and I have the same name), and most frequently, Trouble. Hmmmm……. Guess I haven’t left all my troubled past behind.

Nicknames I gave to others: this is more difficult: I nicknamed my youngest dd: Squirt (again the small issue) and my oldest dd somehow ended up being called Pumpkin. In addition, I call my husband “hubby” (self-explanatory) and my friend Zingy, which is version of her last name. My father is called “poppers” – always has been it seems like. And both my daughters also get called “mejia or mejita” – as I was called growing up, this, of course, speaks of our Spanish heritage.

Now my daughter… she has true skills in giving nicknames…. And making them stick! She named her little sister “bug” and it stuck for about 3 years, and at times even her father and I and the grandparents have called her by that name! She has also given nicknames to all her friends. She is the nickname queen.

Question #2:
Proverbs 22:1 says “A good name is more desired than great riches.” Do you think that God has a special nickname for you… what would it be?

I think God’s nickname for me would be “my beloved rebel child” because even though I try, my rebellious nature sometimes gets the best of me. I continue to come back to the path….. but I often stray in rebellion. Even though I stray, I am still his child…. Always.

In addition to this challenge, the Kween_of_the_Queens has issued another challenge to take place on the 13th and 14th. The challenge is:

The 12 BEST

Be fair to yourselves, be kind to yourselves and be honest with yourselves. . . you certainly have AT THE VERY LEAST 12 WONDERFUL ATTRIBUTES!

As always, have fun!

Use your own styles!

Please stop by her site to find out the particulars!

I love writing challenges! Gives me something to think about! Please come and join us… it’s too fun, and the more the merrier!

So you know the drill…… question of the day..What’s your nickname?

Well the girls are finally home safe and sound. It so nice having them back! It was nice having some “quiet” time with just me and the hubby. But boy…. it was really “quiet”! Already the status of my house has changed. I find it much more difficult to maintain the clean and orderly status with the children here. I do miss that already.

But hey, I figure I can becoming a shrieking shrew for the next 5 years or I can not worry about it so much and just enjoy the time the children have left at home. After all once they are grown and gone I can keep an immaculate house with just a little effort. <grin>

Not that I have to worry about it for too much longer, as I am heading out in just a few days for NM. I’m kind of sad to be leaving so soon after the girls returned home, but then again, I’m really looking forward to visiting my folks. I haven’t been online much lately. I think I’m burnt out on computer stuff due to school. I’m planning to do some picture posts for the next couple of days. I enjoy them and goodness knows I have plenty of pictures.

I was wondering if anyone had dial-up and if so what effect, if any, does the amount of pictures on the page have ont he page loading speed. I have some codes, but not too many, I was just wondering how quickly the page loads — anyone?? I’ll be around in the next couple of days to catch up with everyone.

As a final note:

Went to see Pirates of the Caribbean: Deadman’s Chest tonight. The movie was outstanding, great effects, stunts and filmography. The ending sucked. One of the subplots also totally is ticking me off. The ending is a total cliffhanger that will segue into a Pirates III. Aside from that, the movie theater we went to was horrible! I hate this theater anyways… but tonight it was exceptionally bad. They have lousy service (usually 1 person on tickets, 1 on popcorn and 1 at the register), they are unfriendly, the theater is old (sound system, no stadium seating etc.) to top that off they didn’t bother to turn the air on in the theater and all the shows for today were completely sold out. It was so HOT!! Arrgh. But, being as we have limited choices, it was that or an even worse theater! My only consolation is that the rest of the island locations more than make up for the lousy theaters.

Question of the day:

Favorite movie and does environment matter for level of enjoyment of entertainment?

Hello everyone!! Did you miss me??

We went to Lanai’ for the week-end. My husband had planned to go with some golf buddies and play the two courses on the island. We decided since we just celebrated our Twentieth, we would go for the week end and make a real second honeymoon type of adventure.

IT WAS AMAZING!!

First: due to our being kamaina (local) and our anniversary, they upgraded us from partial ocean view to Ocean Deluxe view. All I can say is…. wow. I could definetly get used to living in the lap off luxury. The room was HUGE and gorgeous. The bed was so big that when hubby stole the covers at night, I just moved over two feet or so and slept where there was still covers. I had to pack a lunch just to snuggle with him.

The views from the room were amazing, and with a wrap around lanai (porch) with 3 sliding doors, it was pretty much gorgeous wherever we looked. The room had a sitting area, and the lanai had a couch and a table with 2 chairs.

A part of the room and one of the views from one of the windows.

The Pineapple festival was being held on Sat. so we went, ate, caught some musical groups including one of our favorite Hawaiin bands: Hapa. Then we watched fireworks surrounded by Norfolk pines.

We got up early on Sunday, ate a breakfast of fruit that was leftover from the platter of fresh fruit and champagne they sent for our Anniversary. We headed down to the beach where the beach boy (ahem) put out chairs towels and umbrellas for us. Then we snorkeled….. with dolphins!! Several pods of spinner dolphins played around us for almost an hour. I counted about 50 at one time. Some were almost close enough to touch. It was unbelievable!

Later the beach boys came around offering us chilled evian, pineapple and other amenities. Geez…. I need to be rich.

Later that day we went to Lanai’ City, wandered around then went to Koele lodge at the top of the mountain. There we played putt putt on a real grass greens with sand bunkers and water hazadards, the works. They also had lawn croquet and other fun stuff.

  Here’s the putt putt course.

That night we dined in the lounge where a local singer was performing. We played shuffle board, although we could have also played darts, pool, foosball or board games. The resort had a teen center, a library, a state of the art fitness center, a spa and little cafe’s and lounges throughout, along with about 6 gardens, 2 jacuzzis and a huge pool. Our room had 42 inch HD flat screen TV. and DVD player, with complimentary DVDs available from the concierge.

That night we sat on the lanai’ watching the stars and listening to the ocean waves pound on the shore. We laughed and talked until late at night. It was amazing.

The view from the Lanai

The next morning my hubby got up early and went golfing. They played 36 holes. I lounged around the hotel all day and met them at the ferry. The ride back was rough and I often thought it was a thrill ride at an amusement park, one of the water ones! We survived however, returned to Maui and stopped for dinner in Lahaina before calling it a night.

Sunset from the ferry.

 It was an awesome trip, and not just because of the luxury. The scenery, the experiences and the company made it truly magical. It’s going right up there with the top 10 experiences of my life.