end of Spring, beginning of Summer

So the month of May is in it's final days which brings the magic of Summer to all of us. As I reflect on what transpired during the end of Spring, I look forward to what will develop during the upcoming Summer months. The Spring came to an abrupt halt at the beginning of the month. All of a sudden 90 degree temps hit us and the sheen of humidity was upon our skin, soaking through our clothes and reminding us that it was now time for the air conditioner in our home and car. At the end of spring my garden was in it's infancy.

The tomato plants have produced a eenny bitty tiny tomato that I picked this week. We have enjoyed the basil, cilantro and chives. The cabbage I know has a way to grow still.

The lavender at the end of the season will be a wonderful joy to dry and savor the flavor.  I learned alot and will continue to develop my skills as a small yard gardener.





The middle of the month we celebrated Mother's Day at Epcot viewing the annual flower show. My favorite peice of the show was the Fairie Garden with the butterflys flying all around.

As for the last week of May I have been on staycation. I sewed for 2 of those days creating a new look for the living room. I wanted a softer beachy feel for the summer and I feel that I achieved that. Lots of hand sewing, which made me realize why I do not cross stitch any longer. Was able to read a couple of books, spend some time at the pool, have my hair touched up and finally be a photographer for Carey and Stephanie during their home inspection. Now it is back to work in 2 days and counting down to our annual vacation with Bonnie and Rob on North Captiva Island. Can not wait for the middle of the summer to be here. Hoping all enjoy the beginnings of summer.

end of April

it is so hard to believe that another month of 2010 is almost over.
Where did it go? I just finished catchng up on all of the blogs i follow and lurk and am amazed at what everyone is up to, what accomplishments have happened and what is in the future. Can not wait to see how all dreams develop.

Dago and I flew over to New Orleans last weekend for celebrations. His mother was 70 and Terri was 50. How do you celebrate in April? CRAWFISH boils. Yes, we ate crawfish all weekend and they were delicious. Janet flew in from CO to help with the Terri celebration. It was a mini BBW reunion. We had so much fun, catching up, shopping, eating, and just having a great time. And we did live up to our anagram (that would be Bitchy Bead Whores). No we did not catch and be greedy about beads, but just had some great moments with each other. Dago was able to spend time with Monica and Martha with Elijah in the emergency room getting stitches in his head. Poor guy he and CJ just decided to bump heads at the end of our first crawfish boil. I then spent the balance of the afternoon with Jacki and CJ. Rocko was not a happy camper when we returned, I guess life at the Ryan household must really be great, especially playing with his cousins Jack and Nanook. He kinda ignored us for a day. I am a little stressed at work, but things most likely will be unstressed within 2 or 3 weeks. Will keep all posted. Hope all ends their April showers with lots of sunshine, I know after tonight that is what i am wishing for.

april

just a catch up blog.
easter was great with cimi and randy.
jack, nanook and rocko enjoyed playing and catching up with each other.
thanks randy for getting my computer fixed.
just in time for taxes.
and the 2nd time around we still did not get a refund this year.
on vacation this week.
monday was tax day
tuesday is disney day
wednesday is cleaning up the guest rooms day
thursday is packing for new orleans on
friday off to visit the BBW's for terri's 50th
gonna eat crawfish all weekend, yummy
rocko will be visiting his cousins, thanks aunt cimi for having me over, be careful this time when you walk me, i don't want any accidents.

Manny and Emily visit

What a great visit we had this weekend with Manny and Emily. Mary also came up for the weekend. On Friday evening Cimi, Randy and Judy were over for dinner. Gotta get the table fixed so it does not collapse one day into Cimi's lap. Saturday was spent shopping at Macys Mall at Millenia. Manny always likes to spend his hard earned money at this mall. During the afternoon at the mall Macys had Cat Cora, the only Female Iron chef, demo in the store. Yes I was working during this time. That evening the family joined us for one of Manny's favorite mom dishes, fajitas. Sunday was just a lazy day. The weather was rainy so we just chilled out at home and then joined Cimi and Randy for dinner. Then it was Monday morning and they had to get back to Lafayette to their jobs, school and of course their lives. Visits like that are all too short and I always want to go back to New Orleans when they are all over cause I want to be near all of our families. But alas life is not that way, we all have jobs, homes and lives in our own cities and need to remind ourselves to cherish the moments we had with each other and to look forward to the the next time we will be with each other. All of the pics from the weekend, including tons of Cat Cora, are now posted on my picasa page. I also uploaded all of the Mardi Gras pictures too. Carey maybe you can tell me how to get more light into night pictures with no large flash. Check them out.

Saturday night

I remember Saturday nights as the night that "you had to go out".  Now it is just the last night of the week. And I do not even mind working late. I like Saturday nights just the way they are now. There is no pressure on where to go, what to wear, who to go with, do I have enough money to go there, am I going out with the "right" people and all of that other nonsense that you think is so important at that time. I like spending time with Dago and Rocko. I like having dinner with my sister and her husband and maybe watch the 1st half of a football game with them before heading home. The only Saturday that I have to be out is the one before Mardi Gras and watching Endymion parade through the streets of New Orleans. One month from tonight that is where we will be celebrating Dago entering a new decade with our family and friends.

Good Night

DO love, pray for peace, hope for the best, be humble, remember the small things,

live in the moment, smell the flowers, what feels good and right, follow your passion,

celebrate life, remember to look up, dance at least once a day, sing out loud, anything and everything, and always say I Love You before parting.

Good Night














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DO DO DO DO DO DO DO DO DO DO DO

Life

Life is a journey
a journey that takes us down many roads
some good and some not so good
as we travel we learn
we grow
meet people that make those journies worth the travel
with them we find comfort

the lululemon manifesto, part 3

- live near the oceanand inhale the pure salt air that flows over the water, Captiva will do nicely.
- observe a plant before and after watering and relate these benefits to your body and brain.
- practice yoga, so you can remain active in physical spots as you age.
- dance, sing, floss and travel
- successful people replace the words "wish", "should", and "try" with "i will"
- creativity is maximized when you are living in the moment.
- nature wants us to be mediocre because we have a greater chance to survive and reproduce.
- lululemon athletica creates components for people to live longer, healthier and more fun lives.
- do not use cleaning chemicals on your kitchen counters. someone will inevitable make a sandwhich on the counter.
- SWEAT once a day to regenerate your skin.
- communication is complicated. we are raised in a different family with slightly different definitions of every word.
- what we do to the earth we do to ourselves.
- the pursuit of happiness is the source of all unhappiness.

hope you all enjoyed the lululemon manifesto
some good thoughts to start a new year.
have a happy one

lululemon manifesto part 2

- the world is changing at such a rapid rate that waiting to implement changes will leave you 2 steps behind. DO IT NOW
- friends are more important than money
- breathe deeply and appreciate the moment. living in the moment could be the meaning of life
- take various vitamins. you never know what small mineral can eliminate the bottleneck of everlasting health.
- don't trust that an old age pension will be sufficient.
- visualize your eventual demise. it can have an amazing effect on how you live for the moment.
- the conscious brain can only hold one thought at a time. choose a positive thought.

to be continued

the beginning of a new decade

do we say two thousand ten or twenty ten that is the question on everyone's mind as we enter this new decade.

one of my goals this year is to daily update my blog. 2009 found my blog skills lacking unlike some members of my family.

the first day of the new year brought a frustrating day at work with an early departure.
enjoyed the evening with cimi, randy, mary, judy and dago. the dogs - jack, nanook, ziggy and rocko kept us entertained during the end of the rose bowl.
the "traditional" new years dinner was very good, my compliments to the chef.

remember to tell those that you love "I love you" today.

LSU or bust

Well it was a bust for LSU, I am sorry to say. As a New Orleanian I congratulate the Gators and their consistancy of wins. I am glad that Tebo was able to do that run and get back into his groove. I congratulate all of my neices and family members that the better team won. And I wish that LSU wins next year. Go Tigers.

October 2009

I continue my memories. Today or tonight however to place it, I gave birth to Manny. He was about 10 days past his due date.
Since never having had a baby, I was not aware of how you should feel when the contractions started. The evening before I just started pacing up and down the hallway. It felt like bad period cramps, it's funny even after 9 months of no periods you always remember what cramps feel like.
I decided in the morning to call my mother in law, Joan and asked her what I should do, she immediatly said to call the doctor. Being past the due date the doctor told me to go to the hospital. YEAH, it was going to happen today. At that time, we did not know who we would be having. The funniest, not at the time, was while the nurse was prepping me, shaving, I asked her if she was an expert at this procedure, which she claimed to be and immediatly cut her finger. So much for being an expert.
All day in the hospital and it was a Sunday and only thing on tv was football, yes the Saints did win, which was really a miracle. The weather was wonderful, a first fall day in New Orleans and here I was just lying in a hospital bed all day long, eating ice chips. After about 12 hours the doctor said let's do an xray to see if you can birth this baby, and the other funny thing was the really BIG poster on the wall asking if you thought you may be pregnant, ok. After the xray I was induced and here came Manny with a major scream out of his lungs.
Happy Birthday Manny and I hope your last year in the 20's is great.
Thanks to all who have helped me in the journey of giving advice, taking care of and being supportive of me as a mother and as a friend and relative to Manny.

remembering still

so as we begin a new week, accomplishments were completed by Dago. He has become such a handyman. When we purchased the new FULL size washer and dryer a few weeks back, Dago discovered that the dryer vent that went through the walls upstairs and out into the attic was totally clogged and hard as a rock lint. He cut the wall, removed the venting, bought a new venting system. replaced the insulation, put in new sheet rock, blended it into the existing wall and painted. And now we are done and I just have to clean up the DUST. Thank you Dago for doing an awesome job. I celebrated a birthday this past week, thank you Cimi for the great Snoopy t shirt, silver garland and my favorite Mardi Gras Crown candle holders, Mary for the china jewelry basket, Pat for taking me to lunch and Susan for the Anthropologie gift card. The AB cake was great. I guess I continue to look back and just wanted to share some fun stuff that I discovered during the mess in the room that Dago created, now you see how it all comes full circle. Favorite Record-Tea for a Tillerman; Cat Stevens Favorite TV show-Rowan and Martin's Laugh In Favorite Actor-Clint Eastwood Favorite Car-Jag Favorite Colors-Blue, Grey, Green and Yellow Favorite Bands-Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, Neil Young, Carol King, Janis Joplin Favorite Clothing-Jeans and Halter Tops Oscar Winner-The French Connection-Gene Hackman-Jane Fonda Live band at the Warehouse-Emerson, Lake and Palmer, The Who, Allman Brothers, Joe Cocker, Stephen Stills, Jethro Tull, President-Nixon, VP-Agnew How much things cost-Movie $2.00, Football Game $.75, Hamburger $.80, Milkshake $.40, Men's tie 4.00, gallon of Gas $.31, Jeans, $6.00, Socks $.70, Records 45 $1.00-33 1/2 $3.75, Shirt $6.00, Skirt $5.00, Shoes $10.00, Sweater $10.00, Posters $2.00=about $50.00 to have all of the above, of course I was only earning $1.20 an hour. and on the last page of this Senior Year Remembrance Book my saying was "just to keep on truckin' " Hope you enjoyed.

the 70's

So as you can tell from the previous blog my thoughts have been running backwards, is it cause my birthday is near? Most likely, I think most people think of what has happened and what is to come when they are near their birth day. So my thoughts turned to the 70's, so much happened during that decade, I graduated from high school, married for the first time, started a career, even if at the time I did not know that it would be one, saw my family move thousands of miles away from me but did not realize the importance of family at that time, lived in the French Quarter in New Orleans and had some really interesting experiences, strippers on Bourbon Street with your husband playing drums while she dances on an electrical spool in front of him, turning 18 and having my first legal drink at the Warehouse at a Bob Dylan concert, pretty cool getting carded on your B'day, having my first apartment, moving 6 times in 5 years, why?, buying my first house, learning how to drive and buying my first car, it was a van with curtains and a sofa, and collecting money for gas, cause it had gone to $1.00 a gallon during the first gas crisis, voting for President for the first time, learning how to crochet from my mother, learning how to make a roux, loving white platform shoes in my little pink double knit polyester mini skirt suit, it was so professional, never going on a vacation that did not include a visit to family, I guess I did realize how important family was, always planning on partying on the weekends with friends, hating that I had to work on Saturdays cause the career turned out to be retail, loving my life and the no stress that we all seem to have today. So enjoy a couple of Peter Maxx paintings and remember the follies of your youth.

Mother

I know that all of you are aware of the recent activities surrounding Mother. So my thoughts went to things that I did with Mother. One of the best memories I have was the time that I was getting married back in 1972 and she and I went to Canal Street, via the Algiers ferr.We were going to shop for fabric for my wedding dress. It was a great time. We wandered up and down going into every fabric store that were there. We stopped in one and found the perfect material, satin and the overlay, poi di soi and made our choice. It is a good memory. I hope you enjoy the picture from the past.

Princess Diana

Just a great dress and a great pic.

Rest in peace, Diana, Princess of Wales, 12 years ago tonight.

Diva Dresses

Diva Dresses is a charity for breast cancer awareness. I choose to support this charity this past week by viewing the dresses that Princess Diana had worn. If you know me you are aware that this is one of my small obsessions that you learn about me upon visiting my powder room. I had not seen this exhibit before and thoroughly enjoyed it. Here are the only pics I could take as none were allowed inside. My favorite was the taffeta dress worn by Diana during one of her Christmas's at Balmoral.

random updating

So I know that it has been at least a month or less since I have posted anything. Just a few thoughts. The month of July was a busy one with the beginning of August being the same. We live in Florida and people like to spend their vacations here. We started out the month with Dago's sister and her family, kept the middle with Terri and ended the month and started August with Dago's parents who just left this past Monday. His parents were wonderful while here. They always like to have a project of some sorts and this time was no different. All of my white baseboards, doors and trim were painted during the beginning of their visit. The last weekend was spent painting our bedroom. Tried to take a couple of pics, hope you get the feel. We had it painted "Ocean Tide" thanks Brenna. It really is a beautiful and relaxing bedroom. We moved the TV out and have not missed it. Only have the bed, our chiffarobe and Rocko's sleeping headquarters. One of the You will also notice a few pics of the BEAR that visited the Friday prior to their leaving. I always wondered where they came from and where they were going. We have had several sightings of bears since living here. This was actually the closest that I have gotten. He was across the street in Norm's backyard, preceded to climb the fence, meander across Hunt Club, climbed another fence and was gone. Rocko was going nuts inside of the house. He looked as if he wanted to wander on down to Cimi and Randy's but decided not to. Work has been work. We are still in the midst of becoming mymacy's, a little stressful at times, but it is all good. Dago has been staying busy at his job. My one enjoyment of the summer had it's last visit today. Erinn was cleaning the house weekly and is now on her way back to Gains ville for her last semester at school. I will miss her and her talents at keeping my house clean. So that is about all for now. Hope everyone is well and enjoying the last of summer.

Friends

What a joy it is to have a friend that you are able to do absolutely nothing with. Terri flew into town Thursday after work. Dago had Tijuana Flats for us and of course you can never have a vacation without doing a grocery run. We choose Pub lix of course and anyone who has ever had carrot cake knows that Pub lix does have the best one out there.

Then Friday morning we got up with Dago to wish him a happy day and it was off to Cocoa Beach to spend a couple of days with Terri's sister, Cindy and her beau Brian. Cindy and Brian have a condo right on the beach. Could life be any better?

And two hours later we were set up on the beach for the day. Terri had given Cindy a "beach table" like the one that Cimi and Randy had given to Dago years ago for his birthday and Cindy had chairs, umbrellas, towels, snacks, water and great chemo stories for us that afternoon. We had a great time just sharing memories, getting bit by fish, sunning, lots of sand and just enjoying the simplicity of life. Dinner was fish tacos down the road when Brian came home. Then off to the condo to watch the lightning storms. Saturday was a repeat of Friday, with a sunset included in the day.

On Sunday morning I got up with the sunrise, which was great. As i strolled along in the surf I made sure to pick up whatever did not belong so it would not get washed back out when the tide came in. It is amazing that such

small things can really mess wonderful things up.