On Thurs., after taking Lexi to the vet, we decided to stop by and pick up Matthew's favorite shampoo. He is as picky as I am about shampoo and he only likes one particular kind. The problem is, the salon that sold it near our house changed dealers and so they no longer carry it. So, we have to drive further into Nashville to pick it up. That isn't a big deal, since we drive into town all the time but there is one little problem with this salon that is common to a lot of the retailers we seem to visit these days.

Does it drive anyone else absolutely crazy that no matter where you shop, no matter what you buy, no matter if you pay with cash or with a debit/credit card that someone is always asking you for your phone number? It is one of my biggest pet peeves (Matthew's too). We are on the National Do Not Call Registry and so we don't give out our phone numbers to retailers. It makes me cringe when I hear people just blurt out their phone numbers without thinking about what it means. By giving these people your number you are giving them permission to add you to their marketing lists, even if you are on the Do Not Call Registry. My mom, for one, didn't know this. She said, "But, I'm on the Do Not Call List." And, I said, "But, mom, you just gave them your phone number so now you have exempted them from the rules." This might not be a big deal to get one call from one retailer, but we get asked at nearly every store we visit. Also, what if they sell your information to other companies? I know most of the time they say that they don't "sell or share" your information, but what if those policies change? It will be too late for you and your phone number if you are already on their list. Besides, why in the world do you want my phone number? I'm talking to you fancy candle store and you fancy bath products store. You know who you are! They usually say it is "for coupons" and that no one will call you. Uh huh, right, if it is for coupons, you'd ask me for my address or zip code, not my telephone number.

Anyway, I'm getting off track a bit, but this does still relate to my story. Every time we go to this particular salon, they always, always want your phone number. We have tried explaining to them that we don't give out our phone numbers and this may work for your normal retail store. No, not here. They give you this song and dance that if you don't give them your info. then they can't sell you the shampoo. So...every...single...time...we go through the same thing. There is always someone different working there, so it isn't like they remember you when you come in the next time. What do we do? We usually say, "O.k. fine, thank you, you can keep the shampoo." Then, we walk off. About 2 seconds later they always say, "Oh no, that's o.k. we can still sell it to you without your phone number." Uh huh, that's what I thought.

So, as we're pulling into the parking lot, I start joking with Matthew that he'd better have his social security card, blood type, retinal scan, finger prints, and secret code ready to go in and buy shampoo. Thankfully, I get to stay in the car since we have Lexi with us. Right before he gets out of the car he says, "I'm going to fix them this time." So, I say, "What are you going to do?" And, he proceeds to tell me......I say, "There is no way you'll do that. Actually, I DARE you to do it!" So, he says, "Fine. I'll be right back." If there is one thing I learned from this is you never dare your husband to do anything that you don't really want them to do.

I see him get the shampoo and walk up to the counter, but his back is to me and I can't see him nor the lady that is checking him out. About 3 seconds later though, these 2 ladies come bursting through the doors of the salon absolutely rolling with laughter. They are nearly crying they are laughing so hard. By this time, I'm sinking lower into my seat thinking, "Oh...My...Gosh...he actually did it." A couple minutes later, he comes back to the car looking mighty pleased with himself, a smug smirk on his face and holding a brand new bottle of shampoo.

This is the story as told to me by Matthew. So, as I'm walking up to the door I practice in my head what I am going to do, that way I'll be able to keep a straight face when I do it. I get my bottle of shampoo and walk up to the counter. There are two ladies standing up there. One of them is checking people out. The other is just standing there talking to the other lady. So, right on cue the lady says, "May I have your phone number please?" I keep an absolute straight face and say with the most seriousness I can, "That is so nice of you, but I'm married. That's my wife in the car there." So, the lady that was just hanging out just walks off because she is about to die laughing. The rest of the ladies in the salon are laughing and the lady running the cash register is so flustered and is just stuttering "I, I, I". Finally, she sputters out something about "needing it for the system". I just stand there playing dumb like I have no idea what she is talking about and don't say another word. So, she rings up my shampoo (without a phone number) and I'm out the door.

Can you say die of embarrassment right then and there?! I didn't think he'd actually do it. We laughed about it all the way home and still wonder if the cash register lady figured out he was messing with her or if she thought he was serious. I'm sure the rest of the ladies in there knew he was joking as the two that came out the door shot me a, "Oh you must be his wife. That was hilarious, I can't believe he had the guts to say that" look. I too feel it was a small triumph in the fight to save our phone numbers from the phone spam lists. I'm just glad it will be a month or two before we have to go back!

If you would like to add your land line or cell phone to the Do Not Call list, it is very easy. Just go online and do it at their website. We do not get ANY calls since we added our numbers to the list. Just remember, every time you give out your number to a retail store or you do business with a company online and give them your number, you are exempting them from the rules even if you have signed up for the Do Not Call list. The same goes for all the shopper cards that everyone carries around on their key chains. Yes, we have the shoppers cards (I call them the "avoid getting ripped off at the grocery store cards"). But no, we didn't update our numbers on them when we got new cell phones this time. And, yes, we used to get called all the time on our old cell phones so I think they may have been the culprits. So, if you are tired of dinner time being interrupted by sales calls, sign up on the list and think twice before just blurting out your phone number at the check out counter! Don't let them bully you into giving it out. Just kindly say, "O.k., thank you, I'm not interested then." and walk away. I can guarantee they will call you back and say they can sell it to you after all, without your phone number.

One more thing and I'll get off my soap box. I think it could be potentially dangerous to give out your phone number to strangers. You may say, "I just gave it out to the store clerk, not to anyone else." Did you think about the person who may be eaves dropping behind you in line or lurking around the corner in the store? What if some psycho looks your phone number up online in a reverse phone directory? Then, they have your name. Then, if they have your name, they can find your home address. Just something to think about next time.

Lexi went in for her check-up at Grassmere Animal Hospital in Nashville last Thurs. She sees the world's best greyhound vet, Dr. Carol Macherey. We just love Dr. Macherey and she makes Lexi feel special while she is there. Lexi is never afraid in Dr. Macherey's company and doesn't even flinch when she gets her shots. Lexi snuggles up to her and even tries to follow her when she leaves the room. So, if my hound is happy, I'm happy! Dr. Macherey is very honest and kind and has helped us out of more than one jam with Lexi, even helping us find a qualified greyhound vet when we were out of town once. I would highly recommend her if you have a greyhound (or any other kind of dog for that matter). She truly cares for animals and it shows in her work and how the dogs respond to her.

Lexi was originally just going in for a check-up and her Distemper booster shot. However, she developed a nasty wound on her foot in the mean time. Her foot wound started out as just a small scab (smaller than a pinky finger nail) but she wouldn't stop messing with it and instead nearly chewed one of the black pads on the bottom of her paw off! So, it got really gross. I have a photo below of her foot, so if you are squeamish you might want to avert your eyes after reading this! Lexi ended up on antibiotics and anti-inflamatory medication. She's an easy dog to give medicine. You can usually hide it in her food and if all else fails put it inside a spoon full of peanut butter. I haven't had to break out the peanut butter this time though. I also have to soak her foot for 5 minutes a day in Epsom Salt. She doesn't like this very much and is totally non-cooperative. It is pretty hard to wrangle a 67 pound dog into standing with their foot in a bowl of water. She tries to hold her foot up in the air so it won't touch the water and if that doesn't work does a mean back kick, trying to spill it. I'm sure you guess who wins out in the end though (me). Her foot is actually looking a bit better, since last Thurs. when she went to the vet. I'll keep you all posted on her progress.

The first 2 photos are just some close-ups I took of Lexi. It was kind of fun to take pictures of her in a way that I've never tried before. She is a very cooperative dog when it comes to photos. I'll save the gross picture for last, in case you want to see the others but don't want to see the foot photo.


We spent all afternoon on Sunday just sitting on our front porch. It was wonderful! This first photo is a close-up of Lexi's nose, of course. The green you see in the background is her Coolaroo Dog Bed. That pink spot on her nose is not a new wound. She's had it for a few years now and we don't know what caused the loss of pigment in that area. It may be where she chased my parent's cat into a chain link fence a few years back. The cat when over the fence and Lexi crashed right into the fence and got a nice nose bleed in the process.
Doesn't she have the sweetest brown eyes? If you look closely at her eye, you can see Matthew and I reflected in it. Yeah, I know, she does have an eye booger. I should have cleaned that out before I took the photo. Oh well. ha.ha.

Last chance to look away......O.k., if you are still with us, this is her foot. It's one of her back paws and this actually looks better than it did to start. As you can see, a couple of her toes are really red but the one at the bottom is just disgusting. See where it is missing the black padding? Dr. Macherey said we'll give her 2 weeks on the medication and if it isn't better I have to bring her in to see what our new course of action will be. Let's keep our fingers crossed that the medicine helps!

Hi there! This will be my last post from our trip to Atlanta, and I've saved the best for last. You are about to be treated to a fun filled playhouse photo shoot. These playhouses are one of a kind, kid-sized dream homes built by home builders in the Atlanta area. These aren't your typical playhouses. They are really fancy with granite counter tops and hardwood floors! I'll let you in on a little secret too....You can buy one for your very own! They are having an auction on Oct. 4th at an Atlanta area hotel (more info. on their website below) and there is even a drawing to win one of the playhouses by purchasing raffle tickets.

Home Aid Atlanta has partnered with area builders to raise money to provide homes for the temporarily homeless. So, not only can you get a great playhouse for your children or grandchildren, but you can help out other less fortunate families in the process! You can see these playhouses in person before the auction as they will be on display for the public in the parking lot of Lenox Square Mall in Atlanta. Admission to view the playhouses is free so even if you don't plan on buying one, stop by the mall just to take a look at them and take your children with you as they will love touring these little homes! The address for Lenox Square Mall is 3393 Peachtree Rd NE, Atlanta, GA 30326 if you'd like to stop by. The playhouses are only open Fri-Sun so be sure to plan accordingly. Hours are posted on their website listed below.

If you are interested in purchasing tickets to the auction or would like more information, visit their website at
https://www.homeaidatlanta.org/eventsprojectplayhouse.php. Enjoy the photos!


This 1st photo is of the house that you can win via the raffle. It is called "The Shanty" and was built to look like a child had built it, with everything being non-symmetrical.
I just love this playhouse. It looks so stately and expensive! It is called "The Oxford" and was one of two favorites of ours.
This one is called "The Sconset" and is the other of our 2 favorites.
Here is another view of "The Sconset". Don't you just love all the details?
This is the "Three Bears Cottage" and it comes complete with a thatch roof!
I'm not sure what this little house was called and I do apologize for the poor quality of the photo. I must have moved a little while trying to take it. But, you can still see how cute the house is.
An overview of all the houses. I wasn't able to get an individual photo of all the houses since they were technically not open for viewing while we were there. But, you get the idea. They are so much cuter in person. You should really check them out if you live in or will be visiting the Atlanta area before Oct. 4th.

Hello there! I hope everyone is having a good day today. We are really enjoying the beautiful weather here in Nashville and are all so thankful that gas has finally arrived. We've been without gas for about 4 days now in this area. Luckily, Matthew and I figured there would be a shortage, so we have always kept our tank full. Plus, for the last 4 days, we haven't went further than 2-3 miles from our house to make sure we kept as much gas in our car as possible in case of emergencies. But, last night we passed by the BP and I said, "Oh my gosh! Gas!" So, we whipped in and bought a 1/4 tankful which was all we'd used up. Not all the gas stations have gas yet, but there are at least some that have it.

Anyway, you guys didn't want to hear about that! You wanted to hear about Lenox Mall! This is the best mall in Atlanta, in my opinion. It has all the "fancy" stores you don't get at your run of the mill mall. They have Louis Vuitton, True Religion Blue Jeans, Burberry, Lacoste, and a bunch of other high end shopping places. Now this may not be a big deal to those who live in NYC, Chicago, San Francisco, or Los Angeles but to us in the Southeast you don't have many options for these kinds of stores. True, we do have the Green Hills Mall in Nashville and it has a lot of the same stores I mentioned above, but if you are in Atlanta, Lenox Square Mall is the place to be.

I was so pumped up about my full day of shopping, since I was literally staying across the street in the Westin. There are other hotels within easy walking distance of here including The Sheraton, Ritz Carlton, and JW Marriott, plus the W (coming soon). We've stayed in The Sheraton and The Westin and I like the Westin better. First off, I visited the food court and got a slice of pizza at Sabarro. I usually get Chick-Fil-A when in Atlanta, as it is the "birthplace of the chicken sandwich" and has the best Chick-Fil-A around but I just was feeling pizza the day I was there. Atlanta also has the BEST sweet tea. Sweet tea is an art form. You can only make good sweet tea if you add the sugar to it when it is hot. No, sweet tea is not raspberry flavored or mango flavored tea. Those are FLAVORED teas, not sweet tea. Sweet tea is brewed hot, enough sugar added to make you an instant diabetic, and then put on ice. Most restaurants outside of the south do not have sweet tea. They will say, "There is sweetner on the table" if you ask, and believe me that just isn't the same thing. The sugar doesn't melt like it should and it just doesn't taste right. If you want some real sweet tea, go to Atlanta. It is awesome!

After fueling up on pizza, I was ready to make a day out of spending some dough. I don't generally like to buy things for myself. I end up buying things for Matthew, my mom, and my 14 month old nephew, Dalton. So, I ended up in Baby Gap, Gymboree, Macys, and Bloomingdales. I was at the mall a grand total of 1 1/2 hours and then I got the headache from *ell. I think it was smelling all the perfume in Macys and Bloomingdales. They were giving out "samples" and it was just so stinky and strong, I couldn't take it anymore. I was so mad that I wasn't feeling well, but I had to whimp out and head back to the hotel. I just sat around drinking Sprite and snacking on crackers until Matthew got there. I was feeling a little better by then, so we decided to go to The Cheesecake Factory at Perimeter Mall, about 30-40 minutes away. This is where we got our Bliss Foaming Face Wash. Can you believe it that the face wash was the ONLY thing I bought on the whole trip? Yeah, I know, I am disappointed in myself too. But, I do plan on making up for it soon by starting my Christmas shopping!

If you would like to find out more about either of the Atlanta malls I mentioned, visit their websites. The Lenox Square Mall at http://www.lenoxsquare.com and The Perimeter Mall at http://www.perimetermall.com. If you are visiting the Nashville area and would like a high end retail experience, go to Green Hills Mall or visit http://www.themallatgreenhills.com.

Here is a photo taken outside the Lenox Square Mall.

I know you're on pins and needles waiting to find out if Netflix did indeed deliver today as promised and the answer is YES!! So, you all know what I'll be doing tonight. I'd love to be watching them right now, but since Matthew is still working for another 3 hours I have to wait. It would be serious grounds for divorce if I watched them alone. ha.ha. Just kidding, but seriously, he'd be super pissed off. ha.ha. So, CSI:Miami will have to wait for a little bit longer.

Today's photos were all taken from our room in the Westin Atlanta-Buckhead. Buckhead is a pretty easy drive to downtown Atlanta or you can always take MARTA if traffic is bad. Matthew was attending a trade show downtown and he took MARTA there. One night, we had to go down to his company office in downtown, so I did get to go to "the city". I didn't take any photos downtown but we did enjoy a nice dinner at The Old Spaghetti Factory. It is a very good, yet inexpensive place to eat. You also find the best service in the country when visiting Atlanta. The people who work in the restaurants are top notch. Must be the Southern Hospitality thing kicking in. People in Nashville are nice, but people in Atlanta are exceptional. We did make it to another part of Atlanta on this trip, to the Perimeter Center Mall (which is almost as nice as Lenox Mall) to pick up some of our favorite Bliss Foaming Face Wash. We had actually went to the W Hotel across the street from the P.C. Mall but we found out that they don't have a store in that particular hotel, so they told us to try Nordstrom and we were in luck. We ate at The Cheesecake Factory while there and it was mighty tasty too.

I wish I'd had the camera outside earlier to capture Matthew chasing a rather large stinging bug around with a bottle of bug spray. I think it was some sort of hornet and when I went to get the mail out of the box, it chased me back up the sidewalk. So, war was officially declared and Matthew defended my honor with a bottle of generic Raid. He said he "got in at least 7 or 8 squirts and one time right in the face, so it will definitely die." That's my man!


Pics 1 & 2 are of downtown Atlanta, as seen from our room.
The buildings surrounding our hotel, the Westin Atlanta-Buckhead.
A really snazzy residential building across the street from our hotel. We thought it was so very New York City. I love it!
The new W Hotel, going in next door to The Westin. It should be opening in a few months.

It is finally on its way! The highlight of my week so far! The biggest news to hit our neighborhood in like...well...ever! After having a stand off with Netflix, CSI Miami: Season 6 is due to arrive in our mailbox tomorrow! Yeah!!! I love, love, love that show and when we get our CSI: Miami dvd's we always have a straight up marathon watching them. I'm positive we'll watch all the dvd's in less than 2 evenings. We are on the 3 at a time plan, so I only have the first 3 discs coming, but hey, it is a start. So, you may be wondering what I mean when I say a stand off with Netflix. I've learned that if there is a movie that you really, really want, you should leave it and only it in your movie line up. For instance, there are at least 5 or 6 other movies that were released on the same day as CSI: Miami that we haven't seen yet. But, I knew if I left those movies in my line up, Netflix would send me those less popular movies instead of giving me the ones I really, really wanted. So, yes, I've been without any movies for a week while Netflix kept saying, "You should add more movies. There is a long wait." Not on your life buddy or else I'll be stuck with some filler crap that I don't really want to watch! Give me the good stuff!

So, my persistance has finally paid off and tomorrow I'll be watching Horatio, Callie, Delco, and the rest of gang solve all the mysteries that Miami has to offer! Guess what movies are in my line up now? Did I add all those other movies back into my list? Nope, the only dvd's I have listed are discs 4-6 of CSI: Miami! I'm not taking any chances. I'll watch the dregs after I'm finished with this glorious series! Yes, I know that CSI: Miami Season 7 is on t.v. now, but I must refrain from watching even a single episode. If I do, I know somewhere down the line, I'll miss an episode or two and since it is like a soap opera, I'll end up being behind or spoil the plot somehow. I just thought I'd share the happy news with you guys! Have a great rest of the day!

On our latest adventure, this time to Atlanta, GA, we stayed at the Westin in the Buckhead neighborhood. We've stayed in Buckhead nearly every time we've been to Atlanta. A lot of Atlanta can be pretty rough and this neighborhood is one of the few that I feel completely safe walking around in by myself. It's a very expensive, sought after place to live for the area. It's best feature, in my opinion, is the Lenox Mall which conveniently was right across the street from the Westin. I'll talk more about the mall at a later date. This post will mainly feature photos from the hotel. We got upgraded to a parlor room which was very nice. We had a full living room with 3 chairs and a couch. Plus we had a mini fridge and a wet bar area (complete with sink and granite counter top). The bathroom was nice and large with plenty of soft, fluffy towels. There was a glass and silver scale (like the one we have at home) and a shower room with dual shower heads. I'm not a big fan of the Westin's bath products. I find them a bit harsh and prefer the ones at their sister property, The W Hotel. I think my mom put it best one time when describing the Westin products when she said, "Now, I know what it is like to wash my hair in Pine-Sol." She's hilarious.

Because of the proximity to the Lenox Mall, restaurant choices are abundant. Plus, there are a lot of stand alone choices not in the mall. There is a Ruth's Chris Steak House and a Maggianos Italian Restaurant within easy walking distance. You can see both from the hotel. They do have both self and valet parking at the hotel. The self parking is in a garage underneath the hotel. If you want to catch MARTA (Atlanta's public transit train system) it is an easy 2 minute walk from the hotel. I found the whole hotel to have a very transitional feel to it, meaning it wasn't too modern or too traditional. It was very nice and classy, like most Westin's are. We usually stay at The Sheraton, which is just on the other side of Lenox Mall, but it was sold out. The Sheraton isn't nearly as nice, but they take Lexi and don't charge for her stay and there is a very large grassy area in the back of the hotel to walk her around. We enjoyed our stay at the Westin so much though that I think Lexi will be staying home more often when we go to Atlanta. I think this Westin may take dogs, but they have a small dog only policy. If I wanted to bring my pet, I'd do some more research into it first, since I'm not really sure.

They are building a W Hotel right next door to the Westin. I really like the W's bath products but the vibe at the W is a little "spoiled, rich kid that thinks he's cool" as Matthew put it. ha.ha. The way I'd describe it is think the Paris Hilton set meets business traveler that wants to pretend he's hip even though he has kids in high schoool. ha.ha. The Westin is more grown up and classy. I would recommend the W over the Westin for the younger, club going set. I'm just about too "old" for the W and its thumping music in the lobby, even though it is fun to stay there in places like Chicago and NYC, where the all around vibe of the city is hip and cool. I did notice a sign in the lobby at the Westin that said "We respect the privacy of all our guests. We ask that you refrain from asking for autographs or taking photos." Hummmm, wonder who usually stays there? Like I said, it is the nicest part of town, so I bet they get a lot of celebrities.

For the most part, the photos speak for themselves and show just how nice this property is. I'd definitely stay here again and wouldn't hesitate to recommend it. I'll get back with you soon on the rest of our trip to Atlanta.


The sign on the hotel building, as seen from the street on a walk our first night there.
The Westin, as seen from the Lenox Mall parking lot.
The grand stair case, leading up to the check-in area. I really love the colors they used, as they are the colors we used in our house. :)
The elevators to the rooms.
The lobby/check-in area.
The escalator off the lobby, leading up to the meeting and conference rooms.
Some cool grass in planters, in the lobby area.
The front door to our room, as seen from inside the room. I was pretty impressed with the double door entry and large entry way. You know when you see the double doors from outside that you are going to get a good room. :) That's a closet to the left of the photo.
I took this photo of Matthew from the entry area of our room. I really liked that we got a living room!
I apologize for the sickly colors. They really are nice colors, the lighting was just wrong. They are muted greens, yellows, and browns but came out this ugly color in a lot of the following photos. These are 2 of our 3 arm chairs and see those trees? They are real!
Another view of the living room, from the bed room area. Notice the stationary bike in the corner? It was a nice touch, but no, I didn't use it. ha.ha.
Our comfy bed and work desk area. The bed was pretty low to the ground because it is a Murphy Bed that folds up into the wall. This was because it is a parlor room and can be used for entertaining and you can "hide" the bed if you want to if you have guests over. Non-parlor rooms have regular beds, but I thought this was kind of cool. The mattress was still the same Westin Heavenly Bed mattress, so other than it being low to the ground, you couldn't tell a difference.
Our 2nd television and wet bar area. We did use the mini-fridge to store soft drinks and water that we scored from the Club Lounge. They have breakfast, evening snacks and desserts plus round the clock juice, soft drinks and water for Club Lounge floor guests or Platinum Members. They had Starbucks Coffee in the room, but we didn't brew any.
Our cool glass scale in the bathroom. No, I didn't use it. I didn't want to know. ha.ha. Again, the walls are really not the pea soup color that is shown here. It's a very light yellowish green and looks nice but it was dark when I took these photos so it makes it look weird.
This was a pretty funny addition to the room. That's an intercom so you can listen to the t.v. while you are in the bathroom.
I really liked this. It's a little metal storage basket for the extra roll of toilet tissue.
The shower room. I love their dual shower heads, which have adjustable sprays. This is standard in all Westin Hotels (the dual heads). The towels were really nice here. Very soft, fluffy, and clean looking.
The sink and vanity area. I liked all the storage cubbies. They gave us a place to put our toiletry bags. That's my black bag beside the wash clothes.
Check back later for photos of: The Atlanta skyline, The W Hotel under construction, The Lenox Mall, and some very cool children's play houses we saw while there.

O.k., for those of you who know me, you know that a car trip with me is less than pleasurable (for myself and those in the car with me). I'm always in need of a rest stop, so we never pass one up. This brings us to a rest stop half way between Chattanooga, TN and Atlanta, GA, somewhere in GA. The rest stop was pretty crowded, so Matthew parked quite a few parking spaces away from the front door. He said he'd just stay in the car and keep the air conditioning running if I wanted to go on in. I'm about 2 parking spaces away from the sidewalk that leads to the front door of the rest area and this is where the real fun begins.

I hear, "Excuse me." I turn around and there is this guy in a minivan. I stop and say, "Yes?" He says, "How are you today?" and I say, "Fine." By this time he's walking towards me and I'm slowly backing towards the door, getting ready to run if he tries anything. He just keeps making small talk and walking towards me and doesn't get to the point as to what he wants. By this time, I'm kicking myself for telling Matthew its o.k. to stay in the car. Matthew can't see any of this going on because he's parked too far away. You know when you get that creepy vibe like something is just wrong? Well, everything in me was telling me not to get close to this guy. I figure, he's wanting money. Thankfully, I had left my purse in the car so I didn't have anything on me for him to steal if that was what he was going to try so I said, "I'm sorry sir, I don't have any money." Well, he goes absolutely ballastic! He says, "WHAT?! YOU AREN'T EVEN GOING TO LET ME GET MY QUESTION OUT WITHOUT ACCUSING ME OF ASKING YOU FOR MONEY?" So, I said, "Well, what is it that you want then? I've been talking to you and given you the opportunity to tell me what you want and you haven't yet, so now I'm leaving. I have places to go and can't spend all my time out here talking to you." I still keep looking at the guy, but back up as quickly as I can towards the doors without tripping and falling. This makes him even madder and he keeps advancing towards me yelling at me. This time he says, "OH SO JUST BECAUSE I'M __________ (insert his racial group here) YOU THINK ALL I AM AFTER IS MONEY?!" This made me so mad I could have punched him in the face. I get accused of being a racist because I don't want to give money to some man that is basically chasing me in the parking lot of a rest area and cursing me out?! What the *&^%!? Are you kidding me?

So, this time I turn around and flat out run towards the door and get inside and find the workers there. I say, "There is a man in the parking lot, yelling at me and saying I won't talk to him because he's ______ (again, insert racial group)." The lady says, "Where? Can you show him to me?" So, we walk towards the doors and I point him out through the window. The lady says, "Hey guys, come look at this, its that same guy! The one that was here yesterday harassing people for money!" So, BINGO! He was wanting money! Then, he has the nerve to curse me out because I call him out on it? I was as nice as can be until he started yelling and cursing at me. Then, I was done talking to him.

Now, I'm not cold and heartless. We give money to charity and no more than an hour before we stopped at the rest area, Matthew had given money to a man that had ran out of gas. So, we're not against helping people who are down on their luck. But, I'll be darn if I'm going to give cash to someone who tries to bully me by chasing me through a parking lot and yelling and cursing at me and accusing me of being prejudice. I'm trying to figure out why he pulled "the race card". Did he think by doing that, I'd be so apologetic, I'd pay him all the money I had in my purse in the car or something? Or had he figured that since I said I didn't have any money that it would be great fun to insult me instead? I have no idea which it is.

So, how does this story end? After I'm done at the rest area, I go back outside and his van is gone but the workers are still standing there. I ask, "So, is he gone?" And, they said, "Yeah, as soon as he saw us come out the door he's like I'm leaving, I'm leaving. Don't call the cops." So, he knew he was in the wrong. They said, they'd keep an eye on him since he'd been there twice in two days in case he started bothering other people again. My dad has always warned me about stopping at rest areas alone and has always said there are crazy people out there that wouldn't think twice about hurting someone. I've never had a problem until now. But, I bet you next time, I'll make sure Matthew doesn't stay in the car! In case you are wondering, no, he was totally oblivious to the whole thing and when I got back into the car mad and shaking he's like, "What is the matter?" Looking back, it is a good thing he didn't see it, or else that guy really would have went nuts on Matthew, I'm sure. I'm just glad we made it safe and sound to Atlanta after that, even though I was boiling mad the rest of the drive. More to come on our actual trip later.

On Sept. 14, 1999, a racing greyhound named T. Zeke's treasure gave birth to a litter of puppies. One of these puppies, a black and white ticked female, was named Lazer Comet. For the next 2 years, she trained as a racer and even raced a few times on the track in Tri-State West Virginia. When she didn't do as well as her owners/trainers would have liked, she was retired and went to live at the adoption kennel with Greyhound Pets of America. She lived in the kennel for about 6 months until she was adopted on Jan. 23rd 2003. On that day, Lazer Comet became Alexandria L.C. Rorex or Lexi for short! Our doggie!

For 5 1/2 years now, we have been a happy family of 3. I won't say that owning a retired racer (or any dog for that matter) is always an easy endeavor. But, her quirky, silly personality makes up for any mischief she creates. When we first started thinking of adopting a retired racer and filled out the application we asked for a female, brindle colored dog. We were also asked about personality traits we'd like to have in a dog. The dogs are carefully matched by the workers at the adoption kennel with prospective families. When we got a call asking if coat color really mattered or if personality was more important, of course we said personality and with that, they told us they had just the dog for us. Matthew had told the adoption team that we wanted a dog with "some spunk left" and 2 1/2 year old Lexi fit the bill just fine. I can't imagine if we had turned Lexi down, just because she wasn't the color we had expected. We would have missed out on the best dog that was the perfect match for our family. It makes me sad to think we were even the least bit concerned with her coat color in the first place. Oh well, at least we are all together now and you wouldn't believe the compliments we get on Lexi's coloring. I agree that she is a very beautiful dog but I am a bit biased!

At 9 years old, Lexi is almost as spunky was she was when we first adopted her. She is a little slower getting off her bed these days and her once dark black face is salt and pepper gray, but she's still an energetic, loving dog that adores playing with her toys and sunning herself in the backyard. Happy 9th Birthday Lexi! Mama loves you to pieces!

Matthew and I went to a late movie last night (we saw Burn After Reading). When we got back home, we decided to turn on The Weather Channel and watch the coverage of Hurricane Ike. It was around 12:45 a.m. and we're watching the live reports from all the meteorologists in the field in Texas and all of a sudden I see this guy run by in the background behind the reporter. I said, "Matthew, did you see that? There is some crazy guy (besides the reporter) out in the storm!" He said, "Yeah, I saw him." Well, about 5 seconds later, he runs by again, this time up close to the reporter. And, guess what? He is absolutely NAKED! I started dying laughing and so did Matthew. I was soooo hoping he'd seen the guy too. It was the funniest thing I've seen in a long time. We were discussing it with one of our neighbors this evening and she said, "I bet they were having a Hurricane Party and had 1 too many drinks and his friends dared him to do it." I'm sure she's right. The funniest part was that the poor reporter was totally oblivious to it all. I'm sure the camera man saw it though because they immediately switched to coverage from another reporter. The Weather Channel didn't even let on like they knew something had happened. You can find the video all over YouTube if you'd like to see the streaker for yourself!

We went to one of our favorite restaurants tonight Mikado's Japanese Steakhouse. It is sooo good! I ate way too much. I ordered "extra rice" and ate so much rice that I now regret it. It is a hibachi style place where they cook the food in front of you. They have the best chicken and filet mignon. I saw the most pathetic thing I've ever saw though. At the hibachi grill across from us (not at our table) was a grown man (probably in his mid 40's to early 50's) and his wife eating dinner. Now they weren't the only ones at their table. The tables seat 10 people and I know that they weren't there with a group. It was just the guy and his wife. Guess what he was doing at the table? Watching a football game on a portable t.v. he'd brought with him! I would have not been happy had it been at our table. I was mad for the rest of the people at his table. Many people come to Mikado's for special occassions (birthdays, anniversarys, etc.) since it is a little pricey for just your average dinner out. So, I'm sure he ruined the atmosphere for the whole table. I would have told him to turn it off or go sit in the car with it, had I been his table mate or at least told the waitress to tell him to take it away. He wasn't wearing headphones either. It was playing aloud. I know his wife had to have been humiliated. That is something you'd do for a 3 year old (bring in a DVD player for them to watch a movie) not a grown man. He should have just stayed home. I'm sure his wife wasn't enjoying his company (I felt sorry for her). He didn't say a word to her the entire night because he was glued to his t.v. Plus, the chefs do a little presentation for you of sorts when they are cooking in front of you. It's like a mini live show and you don't watch t.v. during a live show.

I also have a bone to pick with people who talk on their cell phone at my table. When there are 10 different people at a table trying to enjoy a presentation and meal (and most of them didn't come with you), it is so rude to be talking on the phone. Two different people answered their phone during the hibachi presentation and actually were yelling over the guy doing the little show so they could be heard on their phone calls. You should excuse yourself from the table if you have to use the phone. Plus, I promise, the world can live without your insightful thoughts for 1 hour while you eat. Ridiculous!

Well, I told you I'd report back in on how dinner went last night, so here goes. I think that the broccoli was most successful. My Velvetta broccoli was the yummiest I've had in ages. Matthew's Boursin cheese broccoli with mozzarella cheese on top turned out well, according to him. He also tried making broccoli with Havarti cheese and said it was too bland and that the Boursin/Mozzarella combo was much tastier. The potatoes and pork chops were another matter. I should have listened to Matthew and put them (potatoes) in the glass Pyrex dish instead of on the cookie sheet I put them on. It called for a "baking pan" and the pan it showed was metal. We don't have any metal baking pans, only glass ones and metal cookie sheets and muffin tins so I figured the metal was the key. So, they burned pretty badly but some were salvagable. They were pretty easy to make though and I think we'll try them again. I quartered red, new potatoes (1 pound) and put them in a gallon zipper style bag. Then I added 1/4 cup of vegetable oil and zipped the bag shut and shook it up. Then, I added 1 packet of the Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing mix and mixed it again. Then, poured all that onto the cookie sheet and baked it for 35 minutes on 450. I think the timing was right, it was just the wrong kind of pan. We'll go with the glass one next time. Now during the potatoe fiasco, Matthew is trying to make his broccoli and help me out with the potatoes and all of a sudden says, "Oh No! The Pork Chops!" Well, they had been on the grill the entire time we were doing all of this and needless to say, they were a little crispy too. So, we had burned pork chops and burned potatoes and really good broccoli. And yes, the Cinnamon Rolls were mighty tasty too! But, it was a good meal that we'll try again, we'll just try not to burn it next time. ha.ha.

When Matthew first put the pork chops on, he called me outside to see something. Turns out the "something" was an adorable little bunny that was in the back yard fence. I was just glad that Lexi was inside and didn't see it. I knew we had rabbits around after the near disaster with the lawn mower, but that is 2 within a week, or it could be the same rabbit both times. But, I did get his photo this time! I've also added some random photos of our backyard and the bird dining area there. Talk to you all again soon! Yes, I am still planning on doing the Bahamas photos, maybe this weekend....


This is Matthew's pride and joy. He loves this grill and he picked it out as a must-have item about a week after we moved in. I wouldn't even know how to turn it on. He does all the grilling around here.
Our teeny-tiny visitor! A bunny!
This is the bird dining area I was telling you about. Many of you have seen photos of the feeder before, but I'm not sure if I've posted about the waterer (on the right). The birds love it and we've seen so many more birds since we got it. And, will you look at those marigolds?! They are finally looking nice. The flower shaped sprinkler is a new addition and our tree is doing much better with this than with the old sprinkler. A wider-angle shot of the backyard. I just love our maple tree and those cedar trees you see in back are a result of a full on battle with the developer to have them do something to the weed infested, horrible looking common area behind our houses. Matthew and I organized a community meeting at our house and about 20 people showed up and we took our case to the developer and they finally agreed to get rid of the weeds and plant grass and trees. The birds love the cedar trees and spend a lot of time sitting in them and chirping. I'm a big bird fan, in case you hadn't noticed. ha.ha.

O.k., well, I may be a bit biased, but isn't this the cutest doggie you've seen today?! I always think my girl looks adorable, but as I was walking past the living room with an arm load of laundry, I happened to catch a sneak peak of Lexi all curled up. She usually does this when she's cold. She thinks if it isn't 80 degrees inside the house, then its cold. In case you're wondering, the thermostat is set on 72. I was hoping she'd keep her current position until I could run and get the camera and she didn't disappoint. She gave me her best grumble voice after I'd snapped these two pics and promptly hid her face under her paws. She doesn't like being paparazzied. ha.ha.

I'm super pumped about dinner tonight. Matthew and I eat out a lot, but tonight we decided to eat in. We ate in last night and had lasagna and cheese bread and it was really good. So, tonight, we decided to go all out. We're having grilled pork chops, broccoli with cheese, and ranch potatoes. I'm most pumped about the ranch potatoes, because we haven't tried those before, so I hope they turn out o.k. We've both eaten them in the past, just not made them ourselves. Matthew likes his broccoli with Boursin cheese and with mozarella slices on top of that. I like mine with cheddar, usually. Tonight, I'm going with Velvetta. Matthew says Velvetta is nasty. I say the same about his cheese combo, so to each his own. With the ranch potatoes, we're using a Hidden Valley Ranch dressing packet (going with the recipe on the back of the packet) with red new potatoes. We're also pretty bad in that we're having Cinnamon Rolls for dessert. We've been good about laying off the dessert here lately, but we decided to treat ourselves tonight. We used to be really bad about eating TONS of Cinnamon Rolls, but we haven't had them since we moved into our house (over a year ago) so I figured one night can't hurt us. Plus, we walked 2 1/2 miles last night (trying to exercise) so I think we deserve it!

Well, I'm off to get prepped for cooking. I'll let you know how it all turns out. I'm sure you were all soooo interrested in what we are having for dinner, but hey, that is all I have to talk about today, besides my doggie!

Hey guys, I can't believe I've been back from the Bahamas for weeks now and am just now getting around to posting. I had actually forgotten about it. I was downstairs talking to Matthew and he was working on his blog and I was lamenting that I didn't really have anything to talk about on mine and then it hit me and I said, "I still haven't posted about the Bahamas!" And, he's like, "Are you serious?! You still haven't done that?!" Oops, better late than never, I guess. So, I guess I'll start with just a general overview of the trip.

We LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the Bahamas (particularly Grand Bahama Island). We've also been to Nassau/New Providence Island, but it just wasn't for us. Nassau was too crowded and city-like. Grand Bahama has the perfect mix of relaxation and amenities. It's just a more laid back place. We'd been to Grand Bahama several times before we went to Nassau and when we got to Nassau, I was amazed.

Until that trip, I'd never heard a Bahamian person curse. ha.ha. Seriously, I know that is a strange thing to mention, but it is true. I was in the Outback restaurant restroom in Nassau and there was a lady in the stall next to me that was just letting someone have it on her cell phone. She used words I've rarely heard any lady use in public. ha.ha. I was really surprised because I can't imagine any of the young folk on Grand Bahama saying stuff like that because the grandma-type ladies would knock them into next week if they did. ha.ha. I say "grandma-type" because it wouldn't matter if they were related to them or not, they'd still whack em. ha.ha. All of the young people on Grand Bahama are overly polite to visitors. I was being called "ma'am" when I was in my very early 20's, even though I assured them it wasn't necessary. They'd say, "Oh yes, ma'am, it is." When one of the bus boys at our favorite restaurant asked us our names, I gave him my first name and he asked what our last name was and said, "Nice to meet you, Mrs.______." That's just the way it is on the island. Gentlemen are gentleman at a very young age. It is actually quite refreshing, even if it does make me feel old. ha.ha. But, then again, I guess I am "old" to a high school kid with me being 29 and all. ha.ha.

We always stay at the same place on the island, but I'm not going to say where that is. Yes, I know, I hate leaving you in suspense but when we go here we go to get away from it all. I know most of you don't know us and so you wouldn't have any reason to try to get a hold of us during vacation and try to call us at our place of lodging. But, since this is the one time during the year that we can truly be alone and unplugged from the world, I can't say where we are during that one glorious week each August for our anniversary. This is our one "sacred trip" and I hold it very near and dear to my heart and we always promise that we won't let anything mess this trip up.

I know you've read in the previous few weeks my whining rambles about Tropical Storm Fay messing up our trip. Well, it pretty much did for the 2nd half of the trip. The 1st half was amazing. We had calm seas and beautiful weather. We were there 7 nights total and 4 of those were good, 3 were bad. So, I don't guess I can complain too much. We had a beautiful ocean front view and we spent many hours just sitting outside listening to the ocean. Usually, you can't hear much ocean sound because the waves are non-existent. But during the stormy nights, it was very loud and soothing.

I don't know how many photos I'll be able to share from this trip as a lot of them show our accommodations in the photos. So, I'll show what I can. We have another trip coming up next week to Atlanta, GA and I'll be able to share all of that trip with you. Yes, I know, Atlanta isn't nearly as exciting as the Bahamas, but it will have to do. ha.ha.


The day before Fay showed up. You can see the tiniest of waves lapping at the shore. This is as big as I've ever seen Grand Bahama waves before. Also, the water isn't looking nearly as clear in this photo as usual because of the approaching storm.
Fay is on her way. You can see the waves starting to pick up in this photo.Above & Below: Fay is definitely here! Check out how big that wave is in the bottom photo! Yikes! Also, as you can tell from the water it is choppy, murky and just plain un-Bahamas like!

My favorite night there Pre-Fay, when we had an exceptionally beautiful full moon. It was like it was daylight outside and I've never seen another moon quite as big and full as this one.
Since you have been denied the best of our photos since they reveal our location, I'll go back through all our Bahamas trip photos over the past several years and share the best of the best with you. This was our 6th (or maybe 7th) trip there together so we have many, many good ones to share that don't show our lodgings---just not from this particular trip. So, give me a few days to get them together and then check back with me. We leave for Atlanta on Monday, so I'll definitely get back with you before then.

O.k., since I completely blasted the sub par Video Music Awards a couple days ago, I figured I owe it to a show that was actually worth watching to talk about it on my blog. The Fashion Rocks 5 (as in 5th anniversary) was fantastic! Now, I only got to see the last hour of it (I didn't know it was coming on) but the hour that I saw was soooo much better than the VMA's! So, if anything scandalous, happened during the first hour I don' t know about it. But, this post will pertain to what I did see (the 2nd half).

To start, Fashion Rocks is only 5 years old, so they aren't old pros at this like the VMA's are supposed to be. This past VMA's was the 25th year that it had been shown. You'd think they would have worked all the kinks out by then with making sure they had a decent host, people had microphones before they were supposed to step up to speak instead of having to ask for a mic, and that everyone knew which way to look to find the teleprompter. It was just unorganized. It was worse than many a high school productions I've watched. Fashion Rocks was seamless and flowed very well.

Secondly, the venue was MUCH better suited for Fashion Rocks. It was held at Radio City Music Hall in NYC. There were SO many people there, you actually thought, "Wow, this show must be important because there is a crowd." I heard people say (about the VMA's) that their venue was barely larger than your average movie theater. ha.ha. That's the truth.

Lastly, the music was a thousand times better on Fashion Rocks. Kid Rock sang with Lynard Skinnard. Some of the greatest women in music today sang together in an effort to get people to donate money for cancer research. There was Carrie Underwood, Beyonce, Rhianna, Miley Cyrus, Natasha Beddingfield, Leonna Lewis, Mary J Blige, Mariah Carey, and I'm sure I'm forgetting tons more of the gals. Also, please forgive me if I have spelled their names incorrectly. Yes, I could look it up and see how they are all spelled, but I'm in a pretty big hurry and I wanted to get this post out before I leave.

Also, I wanted to point out that at least in the 2nd half of the show (remember I didn't see what happened in the beginning) that there was no shameless plugging for Presidential candidates. I did see one sign being held up during Solange's act (Beyonce's little sister) and all it said was "Vote 08". See, I can respect that. The show is trying to get people to realize that voting is important without trying to tell you who to vote for.

All in all, it was a great show. I will definitley be watching it again next year, as opposed to the VMA's, which I hope never to have to be tortued with again! Have a good one guys and I'll talk to you again soon!

Hello there! I see that many of you are first time visitors to my blog. I can tell where everyone is "coming from" to get to my blog and today most all my visitors are arriving from Google. I believe everyone is typing in "The VMA's Were Horrible" into Google and are finding my blog from there. To you all, I say Welcome! I'm sorry you had to "meet me" during my tirade about the lackluster VMA's, but I do hope you'll bookmark this site to come back to. Most of the time, my blog is a fun place to be! I am just a typical TN girl, married to my wonderful hubby of 6 years (Matthew) and we love to travel and go to the movies. We are fortunate to get to do a TON of traveling and most of the time my blog is all about our adventures. If you like to travel or would just like to take a trip via looking at my blog and its photos, by all means, go ahead! I love hearing from people, so feel free to leave a comment on the blog. I also love to hear about fun places you've been that you'd like to recommend for us to see! If there is some place I have mentioned on my blog that you are curious to learn more about, go ahead and ask! If there is some place that you are wondering if we have been and you don't see anything about it, go ahead and ask that too! We did a lot of traveling before I started the blog so there are many cool places we've been that I have never had the priviledge of talking about on this site. So, happy travels to all and I hope you have a great day! Feel free to nose around on the blog and see if there is something that interests you!

Did anyone else watch the VMA's (Video Music Awards) last night? I was super pumped about having something to watch other than the now constant coverage of Obama/Biden and Mc Cain/Palin. So, much to my dismay the first thing out of the mouth of host Russell Brand was to start telling everyone who they should vote for. He blatantly stumped for Obama and implied that those who choose not to vote for him are "racist". He also called Bush names (I believe the term was retarted cowboy), attacked Palin's family, and even called the British Royal Family "inbred". I usually applaud MTV for their "Get Out The Vote" coverage. I think it is important that everyone vote, but it isn't MTV's place to tell them WHO to vote for. I was appalled. I was looking forward to an evening of entertainment, instead we get a few hours worth of extremely unfunny commentary from a guy that has only been in one movie that anyone has ever heard of "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" and he wasn't one bit funny and entertaining as a host. It is bad enough to listen to the other candidates attack each other but MTV is supposed to be a MUSIC channel, dedicated to entertainment. They just came across as a wanna be CNN, with trashier talk, last night. I started to say, Brand has a right as an American citizen to free speech, but actually he is BRITISH. I think he was a horrible host and if an American citizen mocked British Royalty or their Prime Minister on British telivision, they would be branded an "ugly American".

The worst part of the night though was him (Russell Brand) being downright rude to other people on the show. He interrupted the cast of the show "Twilight" when they were trying to introduce an upcoming performer. He seemed to try to steal the show and just kept butting in rudely. Then, his comments about the poor Jonas Brother's were just plain mean. He made fun of them constantly for their choice to wear "purity rings". Come on folks, they are high school boys. If they don't want to be in sexual relationships, they shouldn't be made to feel badly because of it. I was very proud of Jordin Sparks for taking up for them. The Jonas Brother's obviously didn't find his comments funny, as one time the camera panned over to them while he was going ON and ON about their abstinence and they were stoned faced, not smiling, and actually looked mad as you-know-what. I was proud of them for not losing their temper. Maybe if he'd made one little comment about it in jest, it would have been all right. But, the audience wasn't even laughing about it because he just wouldn't let it die the entire night. He seemed to be fixated on it. I found it very creepy that a grown man was that interested in the sex lives of some teenagers. Gross! Actually, if you read into why the Jonas Brothers believe the way they do, their father is a pastor of the Christian faith. So, this is why they choose to abstain from sex before marriage. I don't believe it is proper to make fun of someone because of their religious beliefs. Brand doesn't believe it is o.k. to judge someone because of their race (which its not), so why is religion fair game to him? It seems two-faced. Also, the use of the word "retarted" is a huge no-no with disability groups, as it is a derogatory term. So very inappropriate.

One bright spot in the night was the comeback of Britney Spears. She seemed genuinely surprised and humbled that she won 3 awards. I think she deserves a break. She's been through so much in her 26 years that she could use a little good news. I don't agree with all the choices she's made, but everyone deserves a break now and then. I hope she uses her newly regained sucess wisely and makes good choices from now on. Good for her!

We actually turned the show off a few times because it was getting that bad and then we said, "You know, this is all everyone is going to be talking about tomorrow" so let's watch it and see what happens. I hope that MTV learns their lesson this year and that next year is all about the music as it should be instead of political pandering and making fun of teenagers who have actually made good decisions. I mean, in the same night the host made fun of Sarah Palin's 17 year old daughter because she is pregnant and also bashed the Jonas Brother's for their choice in abstaining from teen sex. So, it doesn't look like you can win for losing with this guy. I know people shouldn't take much stock in anything he said, but MTV should be ashamed of themselves for letting 2 hours of that crap roll on without putting a stop to it.

Happy Sunday everyone! I hope you've had a good weekend. Ours has been slow and sleepy, a nice change of pace! We went out to eat last night with our good friends Mitch & Wanda and then today we slept in till 2 p.m.! Yes, I am serious! Well, we did stay up watching CNN till 1:30 a.m. (yes, we are an exciting pair. ha.ha.). Anyway, back to my original reason for posting today. I've saved the best Sunny Isles Beach, FL story for last. I've posted all our pics and Matthew has asked me several times if I've shared this story or not yet, so I figured I'd go ahead and do it today. I wish so badly I had photos of this, but there is no way I could have been prepared for what happened.

All week mom and I had been going out to a sand bar, about 100 yards off the beach in front of our hotel (maybe a little less than that). It was pretty neat because you could walk all the way out there and the water never got over shoulder deep. Then, when you got to the sandbar, it was maybe knee deep. Matthew was able to swim with us the last day we were there, as he had gotten back to the hotel before dark this time. So, since he'd heard so much about this sand bar, he wanted to go try it out. Well, for some reason the tide was really up and it was not an easy feat. We couldn't touch bottom anywhere along the way and had to hang onto our boogie boards. I got about half way there and freaked out. I don't know why, but I just didn't like being out there that deep, not being able to see the bottom and having nothing between me and the blue beyond besides a cheap piece of styrofoam! To top it all off, Matthew and I were hanging onto the same board, because we only had 2 boards between the 3 of us. Mom kept on saying, "It's not much further out. Just keep swimming." Well, we never did make it to the sand bar and were WAY off shore and finally I said, "I want to go back NOW!" So, we start swimming for it. It seemed like we were moving backward. The harder we kicked, it seemed as though we weren't moving at all. To say I was mad and scared is an understatement. Now, I usually don't get that freaked out in the ocean. You'll see why I had reason to be freaked out later in the story.

We finally make it back to shore and I am so mad by this point that I don't even want to speak to mom and Matthew. So, we just sort of bob about in chest deep water and I give them both the most dirty looks I can muster up for the next 10 min. or so. Finally, I can't take it anymore and say, "What in the world is that SMELL?!" Mom's like, "MaLeah, this is the ocean. That smell is fish." Yeah, I understand we were at the beach and the beach usually does smell like fish, but this was very powerful, almost overwhelming. Matthew even agreed that it stunk more than usual. Then, I notice that we are pretty much surrounded by pelicans. Odd, I've never seen pelicans do that. They were sort of lined up, evenly space, in a circle all around us. They usually don't get that close to people and they were all so still and quiet, we should have known something was up.

We're hanging on our boggie boards and all of a sudden, a couple small fish jump up out of the water and I say, "Oh, how cute, look at the fishies!" I barely get that sentence out and then it starts to rain. No, not water from the sky, but fish from the sea! The water all around us begins churning with fish! There are fish for 200 yards to our left, right, and straight out in front of us! The water was black with them! It was so LOUD! They were jumping and flapping about and hitting us in the face, neck, head, shoulders, you name it. They were jumping onto our boggie boards and swimming frantically every which way. You could feel them hitting your legs under the water. I was swiping them out of my hair and off my swimsuit. I just knew one of them was going to go down my swimsuit top. I would have ripped the sucker off right there and shown everyone my business had that have happened. ha.ha. The pelicans were going nuts by this time. I was screaming my head off. I've never moved that fast in my life. I could have easily beat Michael Phelps in a swimming race with those guys after us. I swear, it was so scary. Matthew and mom are killing themselves laughing but I wasn't the only person in the beach that panicked. The water completely cleared out with lots of screaming, frantic people heading for the sand. It was exactly like on the movie Jaws where someone yells, "Shark!" and then everyone screams and heads for shore. Those fish were in a huge panic over something. We think there must have been something awfully large that had hearded them up near the sand. They were really panicked and some of them were even trying to swim straight up onto the beach. I've never seen anything like it in my life. It was the biggest school of fish I've ever seen. It looked like something off of a nature show. The water was churning so heavily, I just knew were were being attacked by pirahanas! Thank goodness, they were harmless minnows, but it was still really scary.

I would have given anything to have had a photo of all this. Now, I know why those pelicans were just sitting there. They were waiting for whatever large creature that had scared the you-know-what out of those poor minnows to drive them to the beach. Then, they were easy pickings for the pelicans. Now, I also know why I was so freaked out on our unsuccessful trip to the sand bar. It scares me to death to know that whatever was chasing those fish had to have been RIGHT there with us. I knew I should have listened to my gut when I got scared in the first place, considering that I usually am unafraid of the ocean. If those fish would have started jumping and we were out there where I couldn't have stood up, I probably would have drowned! Gladly, what ever was chasing those minnows was more interested in herding them than eating us! Everyone agreed that it was probably a group of sharks that was chasing the fish. Nice, just what I need, to have to deal with sharks! Now at least, I know what the fishy smell was! It was the thousands of fish that were headed our way! Looking back, it was a really cool experience, but being pummeled by fish isn't necessarily my idea of a good time!

Yes, I know, what an odd topic. But, such is life at our house. Matthew was mowing the lawn day before yesterday and I'd come in the house to grab a couple lawn bags for him. Now, Matthew is the chief mower at our house and I usually mess with the flower bed or something while he does that. For instance, this time I put some seed from our marigolds into a cup to save for planting next year. Yes, they should come back on their own but I saved some just in case they don't survive the winter. I'm super excited because our fall mums survived last year and already have buds for their blooms and should be out in full force soon.

Anyway, back to the story. Matthew was mowing next to the house, beside the porch and this area is very close to the front door. I opened the front door to take him the lawn bags and out of the corner of my eye saw a flash of brown fur. He had a look of horror on his face as his eyes met mine and he immediately killed the motor on the mower. I had slammed the glass storm door shut and was now standing inside it looking out. Whatever it was (if it was still alive) I didn't want it running into the house. My first thought was "Oh no, it's a rat!" I don't know what made me think of that. I've never seen a rat anywhere in our entire neighborhood, but that was what I thought. Matthew said his first though was, "Oh no, whatever it is, I've killed it and I've killed it right in front of MaLeah!" I risk opening the door so I can ask what the heck it is and Matthew says, "Oh no, go get a box." And, I say, "Well, what is it?" And, he says, "It's a rabbit. I don't know if I've hurt it or not." Awwww, a poor bunny! I grab the box (a 12 pack of Diet Dr. Pepper box if you are interested. ha.ha.) and he tries to scoop up the scared baby bunny with it and thankfully, it hops away. Since he isn't done mowing yet, we try unsuccessfully to catch it to take it over to the woods so he doesn't nearly run over it again. It makes a run for the fence in the back yard and I'm thinking, "Oh great, just what I need is a bunny in the back yard since I have a greyhound that runs back there." But, the bunny made a U-Turn and hopped off into the common area in our back yard. So, thankfully, death by lawn mower was only near death by lawn mower and not an actual fatality.

Since I didn't think to grab the camera to take a photo of the adorable bunny, more Sunny Isles pics will have to do. Happy Friday and I hope you all have a fantastic weekend whatever your plans may be!


Mom on our balcony the afternoon we left for home.
Mom enjoying the beach.
A beautiful sunset over the city.
Mom at the county line.
A beautiful morning view of the beach from our balcony.
The cool beach beds at our hotel. There are only 4 of these, so if you want one you'd better get up early!I knew I could count on mom to have a photo of this. This is the walkway to the beach from the parking garage that I was telling you about in an earlier post. You ride the elevators down to the parking garage level, walk across the garage, then out onto this walkway. Where you see the guy standing in the background of the photo, he has nearly made it to the next walkway, which leads to the pool and beach. The 2nd walkway is much shorter than the 1st. So, as you can see, not really THAT big of a deal, but a pain if you are lugging beach gear. Also, there are no bathrooms on the same level as the pool and beach. You have to climb a few flights of stairs to reach them or if you need accessible bathrooms you must go back down this walkway (in photo) take the elevators to the lobby level and use those.