A shoppin' we did go

Last Saturday me and Bridgett Bridgett and I went shoppin fer a spell. We started at Ross and usually I rack up in there. Not so much last week. Found one dress. Kohl's had some essentials I needed (ya know, camis and what not). Bridge talked me into leggings to go under the dress from Ross. I told her I was too old for em. She said I wasn't. I gave in. Target is always a gold mine. Not last Saturday. It just wasn't lookin like it was meant tu be fer us. Chick-Fil-A for lunch is a girls day out must. Mmm. I'm gonna grow feathers one day, I just know it. Victoria's Secret had some nicety nices but I didn't buy anything (not a great sale). I bought my BF a belated birthday gifty of a VS gift card and two necklaces in Icing. Then we stopped off at Rugged Wearhouse (even though the young un was pretty pooped, hmm I can outshop a 23 yr old? w-o-w). Found some Express jeans for $12.99. SCORE!

That night bout 10 we decided to head south fer some doughnuts. We are so bad! Anthony and I made Bridgett CUHRACK UP when we were ordering. I wanted a lemon filled but Anth was tryin to keep it simple and just get a dozen. Then me and Bridge were sayin we ain't feelin the love for the chocolate glazed, but that's what he wanted. Well, I was tellin him I wanted a crueller and a lemon and Bridge was sayin get half glazed and half chocolate and the poor guy in the speaker was sayin sir, I'm waitin on yoouuuuu... Anthony told him "these women are drivin me crazy." Well as it turned out, they gave me the wrong stinkin lemon doughnut. I'm serious. I had to go in the place and swap it. Geez! I know you have three different lemon doughnuts right now Krispy, but I'm really gonna need you to get it right! Oh, and Anth called my crueller a cruller (like dull) which caused fits of laughter from me and Bridgett. I know he was ready to strangle us right in the car.

We had a similar predicament in Fort Walton and I still don't see what the big dealio is. The dang box says happy all around and happy for me is always LEMON. End of STOOOOOREEEEEE.

A late post...weekend happenings

Last weekend we celebrated with our good friends... it was my friend Lisa's birthday and we went to one of those places where ya eat and play... a new place in our area. It was cool. Riley had himself a big ole time playin' and playin' for sure!

<--------- Here he's plantin' a big ole   birthday kiss on his mom! I'll pause

whilest you say awww.

We headed to Maggie Moo's for dessert. he he he

I love it!

Alan (Lisa's hubby) and Anthony (my #1) were also there,

as well as a couple Lisa & Alan are good friends with, and their two kiddos....

Glad Lisa had a boithday... cuz I got ice cream outta the deal (and QT with Riley)

The night before, me and Anth celebrated the end of a work week (our first week back from vacation groan) at the local Steak 'n Shake. Lyndy got a kids meal so she could indulge in a shake...I'm on a bit of an ice cream kick of late. I got the orange dreamsicle flavuh and it was good, lemme tell ya.

On Tuesday night it's cheap night at the local theater so we went and saw Captain America. We wanted to see it on vacay but never did. It was good!

One day at work we were talking about marathons and two of my coworkers said something about those stickers on people's cars that have 13.1 on em. They both thought that was a reference to some scripture in the Bible they should probably know. I laughed and laughed. They didn't know it was a bragging rights sticker for those (crazies) who have run half marathons.  

That's about it I reckon. I'll post some stuff about this past weekend in the next few days. I went shopping with Bridge and did some other super fun stuff... won't spoil the surprise for ya.

The last vacation post (maybe)

I'm sure you're sick of my vacay pics. Sorry!

We made these in the sand...

Anthony helped, but it was mostly McKenzie and me doin' all the grunt work.

The kiddos got buried in the sand. That was fun for the grown ups. Hee hee
They were easy to keep up with...cuz they couldn't move!

I can't leave the vacation posts without tellin' ya a couple funnies on the kiddos. Lemme preface this with one disclaimer - usually the youngest kid has the most funnies. I'm not trying to highlight one more than the other. All the kiddos in our fam are presh, sweet and funny and we love em!

One night we went crab hunting (that happens in the dark, little did I know) and there was this huge crab we caught. It was so big it hopped right outta our bucket. Dawson got a lil excited and whacked it with his net trying to keep him from getting away. Killed him. D.e.a.d. Bryson said he's not dead, look, he's still moving. McKenzie said no Bryson, that's pre-death twitching. Ahh the insight of a 13 year old and innocence of a 6 year old. :-P

Anthony called Bryson spider monkey all week which would signal Bry to immediately jump down onto the floor (or ground as the case may be) and assume "the position" and crawl around. Funny stuff.

Anthony also put Dawson up to somethin... when he (Dawsoon) says certain phrases he sounds EXACTLY LIKE his daddy. It was hilarious. He did it all week. Anth is such an instigator.

If Anthony ever wanted to crack Bryson up, he imitated the funny talkin' French driver dude in Talladega Nights. "I will defeat you Ricky Bobby." Later in the week, Bry started tryin' it. It was really funny when he did it.

We learned (on the trip) that Christy can't swim. That deterred me from pushing her into the pool one day. That mean streak in me almost came out. 

You might be a redneck if you feed pork rinds to the seagulls off the balcony of your condo. Just sayin' And ya might be a dummy if ya jump in the pool with your cell phone in your pocket... Anthony.... we did not get insurance! A trip to Verizon was NOT on my vacay agenda. (sigh)

Bryson called the patty melt at Whataburger a PARTY melt. It's okay buddy, a burger like that deserves a party!

Bryson, McKenzie and I all got stung by jelly fish. There was one day they were really bad. The fellas caught a bucket plumfullofem. Ick! Me no like the creepy crawlies, nu uh!

One day out in the ocean water I had skidded up to the shallow part on my boogie board a few dozen times and I said shew, I have got sand EVERYwhere. Bryson (who's 6 remember) looked at me with a straight face and said matter of factly, you're just gonna hafta deal with it.

Anthony called his mom a banana because of her yellow bathing suit. I can't remember if it was Bryson or McKenzie who spilled the beans. She didn't wear it after that. He was just jokin!

Bryson had an "incident" in the elevator. Dawson, Kenz & I were in the pool but Bry wanted to eat a bite before swimming. When he came down, Joey stayed on the ledge watching as he walked down to the elevator (all by himself cuz he's a big boy). It was taking FOREVER. What had happened, a person had pushed all the buttons in the elevator so when Bry got in the little guy had to stop on every floor. By the time he got out, he was TOE up from the FLOE up. Came to the pool lookin' distraught, do you hear me? Even after we had been swimmin' a while he was still talkin' about it. Well that night he and Dawson rode with us to dinner. On the way home (this would be like 5 hours after the elevator incident) I noticed Bry was quiet...well I made a funny in the car about the "party" melt and Bry didn't say a thing. I said Bry, did you hear me? I made a joke... He said shew, I'm thinkin' about that stupid elevator. I laughed. I said buddy, it's okay! He said I'm takin' the stairs!

One day the boys were with us in the car and there was a restaurant we passed called Ciao Bella Pizza. Dawson said look Bryson, Chicago Pizza. They don't teach Italian in his elementary school. LOL

 Us on da beach

 Us on the deck uh the condo

 Us at the shrimp house

And us at Fudpuckers

One of our most memorable and fun trips for sure. Had a real good time and wanna go back ASAP!

Love ya beach. We'll see ya again real soon! If you wanna relocate to our place, we have room in the back yard!!!!

The ocean, big waves and boogie boards pretty much rock!

Toward the end of the week the WAVES were REALLY BIG.

The lifeguard said it was the biggest he had seen in a couple years.

They were big enough some fellas were surfing.

A lady who lived in the area said she hadn't seen them this big in 20+ years.

Either way, they were BIG! And fun to ride...

The grown ups may have wiped out more than the kiddos. But we weren't keepin' count. We loved it when Terry got out there...he'll be 65 next week but he ain't afraid uh no wave.

Lyndy's wipe out story: one afternoon it was just me, McKenzie and Joey out in the water. If you know me, I ain't one to hop in the water without holdin' my nose. Well as I said, the waves were humongo and they weren't even letting us go past waist high water. Well Lyndy got out a wee bit too far and I saw it, I saw the wave comin' and I barely had time to hold my nose. That wave flipped me and my face hit the ocean floor. Yeah. I was scared for what seemed like an eternity. I thought I could die out here, am I gonna come back up, I could break my neck, my spine...a hunnerd thoughts run through my poor little mind. While I was pondering life as I knew it something whacked me pretty hard. I bobbled up and shook myself like a dog after a bath. Thankful to be alive. Ok, so maybe I'm bein' a bit dramatic, but it did scare me. I had a red mark across my arm for the next 24 hours from the strap of my boogie board. Whew. Joey said he saw my feet fly up outta the water. Said a wave had knocked him down (his back hit bottom) but he kept going after seashells. Found a hermit crab and a snail. It died a couple days after we got home. Must not have liked Tennessee...

Oh and about 10 minutes later a wave slung me sideways (think ragdoll) up to shore...after that I was done with Mr. Fierce Ocean (for the day). I brought home a few good scrapes on the side of my leg.

Take my food tour

Yep, more vacay pics. You know you're not tired of em yet. Admit it.
And let's just be honest people...part of the fun of vacation is eating out, right?
Well buckle up cuz I'm about to take you on a food tour.

They say to check out local dives...I don't know if you've ever heard of the Donut Hole, but it's open 24 hours and they serve a mean breakfast and some dandy doughnuts donuts. We had ourselves some eggs, hashbrowns and gravy 'n bickets (biscuits for you proper folk) and then we took our friends some donuts. I bought one just special for me though. Blueberry cake donuts are the bestest. But I did share with Jen & Christy. They said they love em too. See? I can be nice. But before I leave this section, I hafta tell ya about the Donut Hole's famous key lime pie. Oh, my bad. I can't do that cuz the two nights we stopped for some they were out. Remember, they're open 24 hours. I'm thinkin' ok you tell me you have to come earlier (in the night) but yet you're open 24 hours. That means you never close. That means you should ALWAYS have the stinkin' key lime pie you claim to be famous for on your doggone sign. People - use your brain!

Oh, and you may not believe this but Anthony and I had never EVER been to IHOP. Well, we can't say that no mo. Cuz we went. And it was good. I had stuffed french toast (bottom left corner in above collage pic) and Anthony had himself an omelette. With bacon. And cheese. And happiness was apparently stuffed in there somewheres cuz he sure was a-smilin.

Anthony and I were in Destin in 2009 for my niece's wedding. That was the summer we discovered Whataburger (and fell in love). So ever since this trip was planned, we been talkin' bout some Whataburger. It's really good fast food. Think Sonic burger, but way more tasty. And their fries are thebomb.com fo sho. Anyhoo... We left Sunday for Fort Walton and came home Sairdee (that's Saturday)...Anthony and I might have eaten Whataburger 4 times. Maybe. Once was for breakfast. Not sure if that makes it any better. They have a honey butter chicken bisket that'll make ya smack ya momma. I seriously think Joey wanted to eat there every day.  

Are you hungry yet?! I had shrimp pretty much everywhere we went til the end of the week when I kinda was ready to surprise my palette. :-P We did Hog's Breath Cafe and did the bbq thang. It was right!!! Anthony's gnawin' on ribs from there in this here collage. We (just me and the sweetie) also went to Pompano Joe's on the beach. Cool place, great food and love sittin' on the beach. The bottom left corner is my plate from there - island shrimp with a mango andouille sausage chutney to beat the band do you hear me? Seemed like everybody wanted to serve new potatoes and corn on the cob with the seafood. I liked it. Just sayin.

Fudpuckers should be DUDpuckers. None of us were impressed. The only neat thing is they let you write on the wall...and the chairs... and the tables... and even the light fixtures... my name is on a table there. When I'm dead and gone, yall can go see my name. Isn't that special?

My inlaws took the kids for pizza and arcade fun one night so we could go out without the squirts sweet children. We went to the Crab Trap (also on the beach although we didn't sit out there poo) and had great food. Then we went to hear a Bon Jovi cover band. They sounded like em and even looked like em. Pretty cool, but we didn't stay for their whole set. Went to Walmart. Geez, that sounds lame even as I type it. Oh well.

Anthony and I saw Forrest Gump on our first date. So the restaurant is kinda cool to us. At the table, they ask you movie trivia and Anthony knew nearly every question our server threw at us. And our fish and chips were killer. McKenzie got a piece of key lime pie to go so I stole a couple bites when we got back to the condo. It was good, but I was still sore I didn't get a piece from the stupid Donut Hole.  

Ya know you're on vacation when you're in Krispy Kreme's drive thru at midnight. LOL

I think I'm gonna buy me a sign like this

and post it near my desk at work...

There was this place called Shake's. Always people there. Must be good, right? Yeah, it was. So good that we went TWICE... 1st time I got a cake batter shake and boring Anthony got a chocolate shake. Kenz got butterscotch. She was the only one with us that night. Not sure how that happened, but when we got back to the condo, two little boys were not happy. So we had to go later on in the week to even things out... what a heartbreaker... That time I got a concrete (like a Blizzard but bettuh) that was key lime pie flavuh. Campbell's ain't the only one who can say mmm, mmm good. Shake's is the place to go for a milkshake babay!

And when you're waiting for a table, what better to do than take a pic?! Never let a Kodak moment pass ya by. I love this shot of the kiddos. Gonna put it on Janice's calendar ...

Kayak on the ocean memories...

The fellas decided to rent a kayak...

for merely one Andrew Jackson, you can rent

this here kayak for an hour.

That's 60 minutes. That's a lot of rowin' for a long time ...

The fellas didn't fare so well. They flipped it twice before they ever got outta the knee deep water. LOL They were providing entertainment for all of us on the shoreline. Then they got waaay out there with Dawson and flipped a third time (thank Heaven for life jackets).

We watched. Dawson hopped right back up in the boat.

We watched. Joey and Anthony stayed in the water. And stayed. And stayed.

The guy that rented the kayaks asked if we thought he should go help em and we said nah. Eventually Anthony got back in, but Joey never did.

They said it was hard to get back up in the boat when your feet can't touch bottom. excuses

Christy and I decided to give it a try...

and we didn't flip. Not once.

The fellas tried to use an excuse or two, but the real truth is, they just couldn't handle the fierce waves and were jealous of how AWESOME us girls were at the rowing. And the balancing. And the supreme turning and navigating. We pretty much looked like pros.

Better luck next time guys.

Memories at the beach (part II)

Sooo not finished sharing about vacay with ya.
One day we got up and it was a wee bit overcast so we went to the Gulfarium.
It's kinda like a mini Sea World... pretty nifty 

Probably my favorite part of our visit to Gulfarium was the show Zach put on. He's a dolphin...

And he can jump, surf, and play ball... he's 17 yrs old I'm not sure if that's old in dolphin years

And who can resist a cutout... love Anthony's expression
he said he wasn't ready, but when Lyndy's got the cam aireebody better be ready at any time for a pic
and I've decided they always make the holes for your face too big...I mean, really... are they cutting them for like GIANTS or what?! They're always always too big!

The Sea lions were pretty entertaining. . .
I think the boys petted some sting rays, but seein' as how I can barely squish a spider, I am not tryin' to get that friendly with somethin slimy. They were river otters and sharks too (no worries, not for petting) and a big ole humongo sea turtle guy.

The kiddos... aren't they cute? 

So this dude caught our eye bein' as we're big Office fans... he's a dead ringer for a TAN version of Steve Carell, right? You see it? After we stared a few minutes, he happened to join us at a table in between shows. I, being the un-shy person I am, said so has anyone ever told you you look like Steve Carell? He smiles and says yeah, I get that a lot, it's kinda a running joke any time we go on a trip to see how many people will ask. I was the first to ask this trip. He's from North Carolina, but he should go on out to Hollywood and see if he could be a stunt double for S-C. Lol

Charlie the bird likes to sit on people's shoulders...

he nibbled Dawson's ear :-P

We made MEMORIES at the beach-yo!

  VACATIONS ROCK!!!!

And lemme tell ya BEEEEAUTIFUL it was...Fort Walton Beach is my kinda place, oh yeeeah.

I love fences along the sand dunes. Maybe I should've scooped up summathat sand and smuggled it back to the hills o' Tennessee, slung it in my back yard and put me up a fence... it's just a thought...
.

This here is the whole crazy crew. Anthony's parents, the sis and her 8 yr old, the stepbro and his fam-uh-lee. . .
they were pretty good company for the trip.
Mental notes: Ocean breeze interferes with hairdos and dresses... my dress kept gettin' poofy on me and made me look larger than life. Not cool. Next time will def pack tripod cuz if you know me, you know I HATE givin' my cam to anyone, especially an untrained stranger, and you never get the pic you want unless you take it yourself...but at least we memorialized the occasion and got a decent group pic.
Please know more pics and stories to come...you will get tired of hearin' bout our vacay. I will proly annoy ya with my hilarious tales and colorful anecdotes, but if you enjoy 'em, post me a comment.

A rare occasion...

Had a crappy week... husband came through with flowers just cuz he loves me...

Sure feels good to be loved...
smells good, too (the flowers that is...)