5 Days Sober

Take that DC!!!!

(But really, I kinda miss you.)

Dear love of my life "Diet Coke",

I know I haven't seen you, held you or called you for the past 5 days. I'm sorry that I've neglected you but it's because I have to give you up, at least for a little while. You're like a really bad boyfriend. You are so exciting and addicting, yet you are so bad for me and my health. You're also a little deceiving. Even with your first name being "diet", you kinda make me gain weight, or at least hold on to the weight I have.

I've now started a detox diet to help me feel better and hopefully lose some weight. I'm really hoping I can see how long I can last away from you. I've been doing pretty well. My resolve is starting to weaken, but I'm determined to stay away. Every once in awhile you run across my mind, but I know it's for the best. I still love you and maybe in the future we'll be together again. But, for now, I have to leave and spend time with my new friends I'm REALLY trying to see the good in, but are actually a little boring. Their names are Lettuce, Zucchini and Chicken. Their posse's they run with might have some promise.

Until we meet again.

Sincerely,

A Seriously-Disturbed-At-Herself Blogger Girl :)

Kill the Mockingbirds

Have any of you seen the movie "Failure to Launch"? One of the funniest parts of that movie are Zooey Deschanel's troubles with a mockingbird outside our window....

Well, that's now my world right now exactly. A loud, obnoxious churping bird singing his song IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT. What birds chirp in the middle of the night? 3 a.m. to 5:30 a.m. to be exact. The minute the sun comes up it stops. Except now it's a whole FLOCK of birds. All chirping different horrible tunes that are driving me batty! And now the whole family can't sleep (except for Brian of course who could sleep through a train running through the house.). Today, X&X were up at 5 so bummed that they couldn't sleep and went downstairs to the couches, and that's even after I put loud humidifiers in their room to hopefully drown out the noise. It no worky.

Seriously...what can I do?

I've thought about buying a gun just like "Kit" tries to do in the movie. PLEASE watch this clip I found on YouTube. There are a few scenes that are seriously funny. Just know I FEEL THE EXACT SAME WAY. (You only have to watch til about the counter of 4:40 on the video).

***Beware...there's a little foul language at the very beginning. You've been warned. It's still so dang funny.***

OUR RETURN!!!!

I know, I know. You're all thinking....whoa...where has our favorite blogger gone? We have missed her terribly and have waited by baited breath for her return.

Well, here I am!!!!!!!!!!!! Back with bells and whistles on. Well, maybe not bells and whistles but I'm back! And so glad to be home. As much as I loved being with all my family and friends, there's something to be said for being in your own house, own bed and own space. And then there's that thing about terribly missing that guy I'm married to since I haven't seen him in 8 weeks.

It's cold here, definitely cold, but I've heard it's warming up. We can only hope. Do they do Groundhog's Day here? I don't think so. But if they did, I'm thinking that Punxsutawney Phil would have said it would be six more weeks of winter, because it was snowing the day we got off the plane...in March. Did you guys know I missed one of the worst winters they've had here since 1976. It snowed more this year than it has any other year since then. You know I did that on purpose, right? I just wish I would have brought the California sun with me.

I can't believe it's been over a month since I blogged. Am I allowed to say why? I think I read on someone else's blog a silly list of things you're not supposed to do while blogging, and one was not to talk about why you haven't blogged in awhile. Pishposh. I love to hear about people's busy lives and what they've been doing...and it makes me feel good that someone else's life can get crazy at times. :)

You all knew I was in the States with the kids for three months, right? Well, yes, it did get busy sometimes, but for the most part I was playing! It was a blast...celebrating all the holidays, helping with two siblings' weddings, traveling to all my old stomping grounds and visiting a ton of friends and family.

One of the reasons I didn't blog was because I thought I had lost my memory card with all my pictures on it. My camera was sort of going on the fritz, so I was worried that for some reason all the pictures would get deleted. So I took out the memory card and stupidly put it in my pocket at the hotel last week. Then I took it out and put it on the hotel desk and kept looking at it thinking, "You know I really should put that in a safe place or it's going to get lost." At that point, I really thought I did put it in a safe place.

Well, I forgot the whole thing until the other day when I went to look for it to show Brian pictures. Hmmm, couldn't find it. Kept thinking it would turn up every time I went through a suitcase or backpack or purse. No good. So, instead of having a heart attack, I checked out and forgot about it. Until just this moment. As I was typing the story...I thought, "Check the computer backpack again." So I dug around in every pocket. I found lots of other things, including a smashed M&M and a crackled Good & Plenty (don't ask), but no luck. Until I remembered a secret compartment that we put all the important disks and memory cards.. ta da!!!! There's what it was! I HAD put it in a safe place. See! I guess it IS good to talk about why you haven't blogged in awhile.

I had better have found it soon, cuz I would have lost all faith in myself, what with my notebook going missing and my ipod and...well let's just stop there cuz I'm embarrassed to say all the things I've lost.

So, since there's nothing exciting going on right now, I'll just start playing catch up. I don't have any pictures for this post so I'll just leave you with two that sum up what we've been doing the last week.

(He fell asleep in a sitting position and Xoe got him into this position while he was in a dead stupor)

Airport Coming Home

I really hate those leashes moms put on their kids that are like backpacks. Actually I think they're so ridiculous looking. If I had to use one, I'd much rather have it just be a few straps across the kids' chest. But why a stupid looking stuffed animal that looks like he's crawling up his back and going to smother kid?

Well, desperate times call for desperate measures...You can tell how much spencer hates it too.

This was at the airport coming home. Remember? 3 kids, one being a toddler, and a lap dog...a puppy chihuahua to be exact... and me alone as their chaperone. My only saving grace was that my mom could come inside security gates all the way to the gate. She saved me. But once I got to my layover and Spencer wanted nothing to do with his stroller, and I didn't have enough hands to carry everything, we had no other choice but to use this.

Here are two more pictures that depict our airport experience.

This is the girls' picture of their "baby", I mean dog. *sigh*

And you can see the whole clan. What you can't see is me behind the camera with our huge stroller loaded up with 5 other carryons, including a dog kennel, and food and big jackets.

So, like I said, desperate times call for desperate measures. I now can't despise the leashes anymore, cuz I now own one. Haven't used it since. Does that count? Sorry if I've offended those of you who use them. I just don't like them.

One of My Favorite Pictures

I think we might have a lefty... None of our family is left-handed.

Sleepy Boy

How excited am I? Starting tomorrow, my family is taking a beautiful trip through the countrysides and city sites of the Holland tulips, Amsterdam and Belgium only about 3-4 hours from our house.

But I also know you're so very sad because if we don't get back until Tuesday, you'll miss all of my invigorating blog posts until we return. But don't you worry yourself! I'm not gonna leave you empty-handed. I've already worked long and tedious hours to write fun, exciting and very very long posts for your reading pleasure to be published automatically while I'm gone. But don't be surprised if, unbeknownst to me, the posts have a mind of their own and cut themselves down to being really short. They really prefer being short and sweet, yet still leaving you uplifted and edified.

Until we're back, I'm leaving you with a picture of the most darling little boy, if I do say so myself. Especially in this picture.

This boy never falls asleep "wherever" like other kids do. He usually has to be in his bed or porta crib in a dark room. I've constantly wished for him to be able to fall asleep on my shoulder, or in his stroller, or on a long drive. Alas, he hardly ever does.

But some reason he just couldn't hold himself up this day. (Picture taken a couple of months ago in California.) Too darling, don't you agree?

My favorite parts of weddings

"These are a few of my favorite things...."

(come on...I had to...remember my card file?)

There are two favorite parts when I'm producing the flowers for a wedding. Because I'll admit, there are a lot of things I DON'T like. hehe. But when it comes to these two aspects...if I can be captivated by them, then I can make it through the whole event.

First, I always love to pick my favorite flower of that specific wedding order. I call it "The Flower of the Day". Because when I put in the big orders to the flower wholesaler, many times you don't really know what they're going to be able to get from the growers, and many times you don't even know what the flowers will actually look like. Will they be big and in bloom? Or will they be closed and tight? So, it's always a surprise to be able to see what flower will be my favorite. And the whole time I use it I become so happy and it just makes my day.

Also, sometimes my favorite flower doesn't come from something I've just ordered. I have a ritual. Everytime I go to pick up the flowers, I always love going into their freezing cold walk-in flower fridge and absorbing the sight of all the beautiful flowers. At those times, I am occasionally surprised with a flower I hadn't remembered was in bloom. Or it could be that the wholesaler just randomly picked something up hoping for it to be sold. At those times, the flower becomes much more than even treasured gold. hahaha. It's a sort of personal triumph and I have to use it very sparingly and in the right places.

For my favorites, most of the time my favorite flower ends up being the hydrangeas because they're always so beautiful to me. Other times it's been Leonidas roses (cream roses with brown tips) or hyacinths or peonies.

For Heather's wedding, I was pleasantly in love with the orange ranunculas they gave us. In the picture above, they are the flowers in the bottom right hand corner of the picture. However, the orange tulips came in a very close second. I love to play this game with Jacque (you'll see her in the next post) because she understands COMPLETELY what I'm talking about with every sentiment I have when it comes to producing weddings. I think her favorite flower would have been the white blue bell-type flowers that both of us have no idea what they were called, nor do I have a picture of them. Am I right, Jacque? These ones I found on my random tour of the walk-in flower fridge and they were used with all the respect they deserved and in just the right places. :)

My second favorite part of a wedding is "bucketing" all the flowers once I get back to where I'm going to arrange them, and grouping them altogether in a big huge display. I love just looking at them. It sort of takes my breath away. And I feel a bit of sadness when I have to break them apart and start arranging them. :)

What are your favorite parts to a wedding? It doesn't have to be the flowers... some would say the ceremony, some would say the food. What's your favorite part?