Confessions of a Misplaced Southern Belle
Not so misplaced anymore!
Now more than ever it is important to get your annual flu shot. CVS (and other places) offer free flu shots and often gives you a shopping reward. Publix gives you a $10 gift card with your flu shot. I was in and out in less than 20 minute. I was picking up a prescription anyway so I just got mine while I was there anyway.
It was a rainy Saturday here in Florida, the results of a tropical depression on the other side of the Gulf. With all the craziness going on I think we have forgotten that we are still in the middle of hurricane season. Idunn kept me company while I worked on an assignment that I have due on Monday. It’s supposed to rain all day tomorrow and most of the week. The upside is that it should be cooler.
I love taking sunrise photos over our stadium. Most of the time they are pink and orange but this has been a favorite recently. I took this the morning after an overnight rainstorm.
On March 13, I left school for Spring Break. While I fully expected to not return to school for a week afterwards, I never expected to finish the school year online. It’s been…..challenging, but that’s a post for another day. I go to the grocery store once a week, and Amanda and I will go out once a week to pick up a coffee or lunch at a local restaurant that offers contactless pickup. I lucked up and had my hair colored (purple is makes the gray really noticeable!) during Spring Break before we had a stay at home order and things started shutting down. Like many women, one of the things that has been put on hold are regular manicures. I’ve been getting gel manicures for years, but these days I’m on my own. My nails are very short and tend to peel, so I’m trying to strengthen them. Every night before bed, I use three of my favorite things. Two are from L’Occitane and one is from CND. I swipe on the CND Rescue Rxx with keratin to add strength and then add the L’Occitane Nail and Cuticle Oil and once that dries, slather on the L’Occitane Shea Hand Cream. I’m also learning to to give myself a proper manicure. YouTube is an invaluable source. My nails are still short, but I’ve managed to stop them from peeling as much.Maybe the next step is to figure out the whole gel thing as I can’t manage to make regular polish last more than a day or two, no matter what I do. I guess that’s one thing I’ve managed to accomplish during quarantine! Hope everyone is staying safe and social distancing!
Well that wasn’t planned. This week turned into the week where I had something every day in the evening. Tuesday, both JV and Varsity Boys Basketball had their first games against our cross county rivals, Palmetto High School. I teach two boys on the JV team and they kept dropping hints that they wanted me to come, so finally I asked them if that is what they wanted and they both said YES. I ran home, changed clothes and drove back to school for the six o’clock game. Michel saw me and came running up to me and said “Thank you for coming!” So sweet! My former paraprofessional is now the coach and I got to see him too. He was so nervous but the team did great! They got out too hot and got up 20 points, but then struggled in the second half. With two seconds to go, we were up up by just a point, and Michel had to make two free throws! He made both of them to secure our win! Afterwards, I saw him and he told him how proud I was of him and he said “I was so scared!
I told him that no one could tell and that he must have nerves of steel and that seemed to make him feel better. Poor guy. Here’a few photo from that night. One is during the warm up and the other two are my boys.
Tonight is a game with our big rival, Bayshore and I’m going to go because my varsity player asked me if I was going, which is code for “I’d really like you to come.”
Wednesday night was an open house for perspective students so that meant that I had to be here with my TSA chapter, so that was another long day, and last night I had my haircolor refreshed. I’ll post a photo of that later. This weekend is pretty low-key. I have a photoshoot on Sunday, but tomorrow will be spent editing two sessions and maybe doing a little Christmas shopping. I also will remake the Heavenly Hash and maybe some pralines. Stay tuned.
We finally had a beautiful day here on the west coast of Florida yesterday. Amanda and I took advantage and went to the local Dia de los Muertos Festival in the Village of the Arts. Their huge shrine this year was dedicated to the the 2000 tons of sea life that has died along our coast due to red tide this year. We also took a little tour of the galleries and in one area got mother/daughter henna, picked up some local honey from Myakka Gold Apiary (ooh, and sampled and purchased some creamed honey…so good!).
I have been itching to get to my ‘local’ yarn store, A Good Yarn, and by local, meaning a nearly 40 minutes drive in Sunday traffic.I did buy some pretty yarn for a scarf for my mother in law, but I’m not showing the yarn or the color, even though she knows I’m knitting her one, some yarn that reminded me of fall. NO clue when or if I will get to knit it, but I liked it, so it came home with me.I then spent some time browsing Barnes and Noble, but shocker, didn’t buy a single thing! I did get some new ideas for magazines that I’d like to try. I should have purchased them while I was there, but maybe that is the excuse I need to go back. My nearest bookstore is a Books a Million and it just doesn’t have the same feel as a Barnes and Noble. Is that weird? Does anyone else feel that way? Of course, my preferred bookstore would be an independent one, but those are few and far between here, which is just shocking to me. I could go to Tampa, but that is just as far as driving into Sarasota! While on my way home, I took a detour to St. Armands Circle and picked up hubby some macarons. He loves them and it’s been months since I’ve picked him up any as I don’t get to our local mall to get any. I’ve noticed that if I can’t get it delivered or I can just pick it up, I don’t get out much. There are some benefits to that, but I think that I would risk missing out on some lovely local shops if I continue to do that
Oh! I’m knitting on the Weigh it Yowza 4 by Susan B. Anderson. I’ve been knitting on this for over a year…well, actually, NOT knitting, but I’ve picked it back up and am determined to finish it up so I can wear it next month when we do get some cooler weather and I can wear it. Tomorrow is back to work, but I also have a board meeting to attend in Orlando on Friday and puppy raiser day to photograph on Saturday. Good thing we have the following Monday off in honor of Veteran’s Day.
How was your weekend?
It has been a running joke in my house that when my husband doesn’t know what to get me for Christmas, he defaults to a kitchen gadget…usually one that he wants me to use to cook him something specific. Case in point, the Anova Sous Vide machine. (This is not sponsored, btw, however, if they want to reach out, I probably wouldn’t say no) . Anyway, he had been talking about this sous vide thing for a while, and knowing what was coming, I specifically told him to not buy me any kitchen gadget that he really wanted for himself. He didn’t listen. What shows up under the tree three years ago…yep that sous vide machine. I got pissed, he got mad, and he had to do some super last minute Christmas shopping that included a trip to the Apple store and the jewelry store. (We had opened these presents early as Amanda had to work over Christmas and we were headed to Atlanta.) Anyway, after that apology, we began to use it and it really does make a great steak. What we have been doing is using ziplock bags, the water displacement method and a stock pot. Last week, after our latest sous vide, he began to ‘wonder how a blow torch would work on the steaks.” I knew what was coming, but didn’t say anything because I really didn’t want to think about what might be showing up on my doorstep.
Two days later (thanks Amazon Prime) a stack of packages show up. Want to guess what was in those packages? A FoodSaver vacuum sealer, a specialized container for the water, a rack for the bags of meat, and…a flamethrower. Overboard much? I told him that I would pick up the steaks, but he was on his own. After thirty minute, reading the instructions three times, and watching two YouTube videos, we finally figured out the vacuum sealer, popped the meat in the bags and then in the water, and we were off to the races. Once they were done, Joel took great pleasure in playing with fire. Dinner was delicious. The steaks were perfect and tender, Joel did a great job with the flamethrower, and the baked potatoes were a great side. So ladies, and gentlemen, if you want your significant other to cook dinner, just buy a a flame thrower.
1)Sometimes I have too much to do and then I freeze and procrastinate and then panic to get everything done. I think maybe it has something to do with working under a deadline for so many years.
2) I used to hold my tongue and not speak up when I thought people were being ridiculous. I’ve gotten over that.
3) Most of the time, I like my dogs better than people.
4) I’d love to experience a real Fall and a real winter so I don’t feel like me knitting stuff is an exercise in futility.
5) I would love to take a month off, go to the mountains with books, knitting, my camera and my writing. (alone, well, maybe I’ll take Bacchus…Amanda wouldn’t let me take Idunn)
6) Maybe for #5, I’ll go to Scotland instead.
7) Bacchus would need a sweater. I’d have to knit him one or five.
8) And booties.
9) I miss my family in Louisiana. All the time.
10) I watch too much Bravo Tv.
11) I wish I was still writing as much as I used to.
12) I’m really not liking my job this year. I loved it last year, and this year I feel so out of my element that I hate going to work some days.
13) The only thing getting me through this year is working with my TSA kids.
14) I’ll be 45 on my next birthday, and for some reason, that is starting to bother me.
15) I drink too much tea. (well, how much is too much, really?)
16) I’m in desperate need of a manicure.
17) Mariah Carey is annoying.
18) I really need to more organized. I think it would help my feeling of always barely treading water.
19) I need to learn to say NO
20) My favorite meal is my mom’s roast, rice and gravy, blackeye peas and cornbread.
This was all train of thought, and that is a tad scary. lol Feel free to share 20 random things in your post.
In nearly two years of photographing Puppy Raiser Day, this is probably the one photo that truly defined for me why we raise puppies. If you raise puppies as well and you will like to make your life easier you should get a pet auto feeder that will provide the food to your puppies when needed. I know we talk about the want a puppy/need a puppy, but today, this sweet lady was crying before she even got to Carol and Bob. Carol got up and hugged her and they stood that way for several moments with her just crying. All I could hear was ‘thank you’ or ‘thankful’, I couldn’t make it out, but the sheer emotion of what this sweet lady was feeling was something that can’t be described. Treehousepuppies.com have pet reviews to read so you are clued up about everything dog related including information about different kind of dogs as the Alsatian dog. This is why we raise those puppies, and this is what I will remember when we turn in Aja next month. The feeling of making a puppie´s life better is incomparable, families have to understand that raising a puppy should be like raising another child, if you decide to have a puppy you should always give him the best, from buying the best heavy duty dog crates to giving him love each day unconditionally (meanwhile, Tiki has figured out that she knows these people and headed over to the bench…lol)
For more information on raising a Rottweiler, or guide dog puppy, visit Southeastern Guide Dogs and click on Volunteer.
Lately, my weekends seem to be as busy as my regular work week. One would think that once you have an empty nest, things seem to slow down. Mine actually went in reverse! After my daughter went to college, I started really working with my photography and have a part time business. This has kept my Saturdays busy for many weekends and this weekend was no exception. So, without further ado, here are my Ten Things that I did this weekend.
Friday
Saturday
5. Went Purple Martin bird watching and bought some housing for purple martins. Beautiful birds they are, for sure.
6. Photoshoot with Carol’s sweet babies, Curry and Zoe, plus Cashew, who was sponsored by Publix.
7. Edited a newborn/family session that I had two weeks ago. (I really need to get that one finished up, but school stuff has been busy) This photo is from that same afternoon but at a birthday party. This little guy is three.
8.Contemplated working on lesson plans, and then decided that they could wait and I cleaned up a little instead. I used a great new cleaner I ordered from https://www.odorklenz.com/.
Sunday.
9. Church (Joel teaches Sunday School.) This is Lucy, a guide dog in training from Southeastern Guide Dogs. She is staying with us until Thursday.
10. Went to the movies to see The Martian. We went to the see it at the IMAX, in 3D and in the D-Box Theater where the seats move with the action of the movie. That was my first time in that type of theater and I thought for sure that it would make me motion sick, but it didn’t! The movie was really good and I found it a very enjoyable way to spend a Sunday.
The Sundial in St. Petersburg.
Bonus:
11. Picked up dinner at Locale Market to take home. Sauasage lasagna, foccacia bread and mac and cheese. So yummy.
12. Worked on the day’s events in my traveler’s notebook. I’m trying to get on top of journaling.
Hope you had a great weekend and for more Ten On Tuesdays, hop on over HERE.