I had to pull my bike up short when I found this piece of art, on the trunk of a palm tree, beside the bus stop where the middle schoolers in our neighborhood wait.
My phone camera didn't really capture the detail of this sweet colorful collage. It is an assemblage of varied colors and flavors of chewing gum and a single, faded blossom.
Who knows how long it took the artist or artists to get to this point. I wonder if it is a way of marking off the days until Christmas vacation. Or is it a joint statement of rebellion made by youngsters determined to enjoy that last sweet chew until the very last moment when they are herded off to yet another day of incarceration.
The possibilities made me feel free in my retirement. I took another lap around the park in celebration of freedom.
Since becoming a member of Vocalpoint, I have had the chance to try out two new products and revisit an old favorite. Reviewing all three products were pleasant experiences. There were generous coupons included as a reward so I want to share them with you.
Vocalpoint sent me a nice sized jar of Olay Professional PRO-X and invited me to test it to see if it doesn't help my skin look younger and reduce fine lines. Maybe it is wishful thinking, but I do believe it has helped bring back a certain youthful glow. In addition to the jar of cream Vocalpoint included FIVE $10 off coupons on the next purchase. I am keeping only one since they expire Feb. 28, 2010 and I will happily share the other four with you if you follow the rules outlined below. (Duplicate winners will be decided by a drawing) Coupons will also be included for Del Monte fruit and Pantene shampoo or conditioner. (More... click on title)
This time of year I am always stumped trying to think of the perfect gift for each member of the family. Long ago we made a Thanksgiving Day afternoon tradition that made shopping a bit easier for all of us.
The kids sat down with newspaper ads and catalogs and cut out pictures of the toys they wanted. Each child put his name at the top of a sheet of paper (like school but way more fun) and taped these snippets of desire onto the pages. They were encouraged to include the store name where it could be found, and after all hope of Santa had dissolved, we asked them to jot down the price as well for comparison shopping.
It is hard this year. The kids have kids of their own. Even one of the grandkids has kids of his own. And the rest of the grandkids are getting big so fast, they are growing away from my influence with all their busy days. I'm not as in touch with their wants, needs and day-dreams as I was a few years ago so it is hard to choose just the right thing. I only have one toddler left to buy for and that is just plain fun!
So, I find myself wondering what would Mama do? Grandmothers are supposed to be tops when it comes to gift giving.
The grandmother gift I will never forget is one my mother gave my oldest son. It was a bird's nest, complete with hatched robin's egg shells (mostly there). He looked at me like "is she mad?" but he still has that birds nest... at age 47. It is one gift neither of us can forget.
A few weeks ago I was approached by a representative of CSN Stores to review a toy for them here. After looking at dozens and dozens of tempting, colorful toys at their Swing Sets & More site, and with Christmas bells ringing in my head, I had a hard time choosing JUSTONE TOY that my grandchildren could help me review.
Then I saw a TV story about the "hottest toy on the market this season." The announcer was touting an electronic toy but the film clearly showed a little girl about three years old, standing behind him, playing with a simple plastic toy that I had seen on the Swing Sets & More site called the bilibo Play Shell. So I selected that toy. (click title for more...)
I have fine tuned all the pictures from our Thanksgiving week trip and put them into a slide show on photobucket. Now I can relax and reminisce as I look at them and remember what a wonderful time we had together.
It was totally different going to the Keys at Thanksgiving this year. For the first time ever we didn't fill the house with family to feast on turkey and all the traditional dishes. Well, we did have a large turkey breast the weekend before. And, we did get the Christmas tree up, a wreath on the door and a few other must haves before leaving. I think my husband would not have been able to enjoy our trip if that wasn't done on schedule. Quite a paradox for a fisherman like him. Click on title for more...
Tomorrow we will be heading home again. The past few days have been full of fun and laughter and sunshine. Some of the days were rather colder than we hoped for, but we took our adventures wherever we found them and are ending this vacation with a satisfied feeling.
Picture a man who drove long tedious hours to get to paradise, went to bed early and now faces a day without off-shore fishing. This is the picture of disappointment!
We arrived in Marathon (in the Florida Keys) about 3pm yesterday, drove around the neighborhood to check out the area, picked up lunch supplies and southern fried chicken for dinner to eat quickly so the fisherman could try his luck on the dock at the canal behind the house we are renting for the week.
The neighborhood includes a beautiful 1/2 mile stretch of Atlantic front caribbean blue water called Sombrero Beach. The park is lined by a wide expanse of white crushed coral and shell that serves as sand in the keys. There are three bath/dressing houses in the park; one large and many small pavilions,;a huge volleyball pit; and a large playground. A paved walkway weaves its way through the swaying palm trees from one area to another and ends at a small fishing pier. After walking the entire length of the path and returning to the car, we were ready to head for the supermarket for supplies and then to the local take-out for a bucket of fried chicken.
After woofing down some finger-licking good, the fisherman went to work. A huge Iguana scuttled through the tree branches as I arrived at the pier and disappeared into the leaves. After catching a few nice-sized catfish and a small barracuda, he was ready to have some cookies and milk and head off to bed. We had a big day to look forward to.
Sea Squared Captain Chris Johnson and wife Chrissy had contacted me by email just before bedtime to confirm an 8am departure on their beautiful fishing boat (pictured above) and we were really looking forward to a half-day fishing excursion.
About 2am I thought I heard rain and remember thinking "no, rain isn't forecast it must be the air conditioner noise." Then at 3am a huge bolt of lightning woke me and the power went out for a minute or two setting all the clocks to flashing.
By 6am, it was still raining. A tall tumbler left at the bottom of the stairs was full to the top when we went down this morning. Despite Christy's email telling me "no fishing today... maybe Friday." we decided to head on down to the marina and see what was up, then get some breakfast.
Maybe tomorrow... cheeseburger in paradise. (to us that means no rain and lots of fishing)
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