Toothpaste boxes

Growing up I always envied my friends and family, especially my sister, who had specific things they collected. My best friend growing up collected sea shells, my best friend from high school Stacy collected Winnie-the-Pooh bears, and my sister collected penguins. She loves penguins...stuffed penguins, penguin pictures, penguin movies, and just penguins in general! I loved helping her collect over the years. To this day I still pick up special items with penguins to give to her. I assume she still has a love for them, but maybe I should ask her. I don't want to be the person who keeps giving her stuff and she is too nice to say, "Enough!" I most certainly do not want to be categorized with my grandfather who has been sending empty beer bottles to someone who once made a comment about how he admires old beer bottles. The sweet man who will remain anonymous kindly receives the package, unpacks the bottles and then puts them in storage in his basement. After admiring other's collections I decided that I wanted to collect something. What did I collect you ask....toothpaste boxes! Yes I am being serious-toothpaste boxes. Don't ask my why I decided on my idea of glorified trash, but I did. I remember my mom getting so frustrated with me because I would have drawers full of empty, dirty, old toothpaste boxes. I finally gave in and knew this wasn't my thing, and I threw them all away...every last one...well I did keep one. I will never forget it. It was an old Aquafresh box that was still in good shape. I thought to myself that if I so happen to start collecting them again, I would like to have one original! Just in case you are wondering, the box is no longer with me. I think my mom "misplaced" it.

Over the years I have been admiring vases. Gorgeous vases that come in all different shapes and sizes. I adore a fresh bouquet of flowers, and I also adore the container they come in. I graduated from collecting toothpaste boxes to vases, and I couldn't be happier! I have a fairly big walk in closet in our house, and on the top right hand shelf sits all of my vases. I have petite vases, fat vases, round vases, and really tall vases. I even have some vases that look impossible to fill, but I know one day I will find some use for it! My mother-in-law gave me one of the most beautiful vases for Christmas last year. She knew I had my eye on a certain centerpiece that held 5 individual bud vases. The first time I saw it, I was. in. love. I could see it on my table. I envisioned having a baby shower or a wedding shower at my home, and I would envision which flowers I would put into the vases. My imagination ran wild! On Christmas morning, I was thrilled to open the box to find my imagination was going to come to life! My mother in law is the best! She always pays attention to the little things, and she is always caring for everyone but herself! Is there something you collect?! Let me know because I might surprise you with a gift someday!!!

Here are some vases on my wish list:

This one is a must have for me.....get ready for how pretty this is!

A new rake and a precious pair of gloves

My title says it all...well most of it at least. On my way home from work yesterday I was noticing all of the pretty yards at different people's homes. Instead of taking my daily left turn on Park Avenue (yes I live off Park Avenue...aren't you jealous?!), I took a sharp right towards our local hardware store. I purchased a rake and a cute pair of gardening gloves. I knew that these were not the ones that would hold up the longest or even provide much comfort, but I thought it might make the work more fun to have something cute to look at while I work. I knew I would have a good 2 hours before my husband would get home from work so I rushed inside, took Susie out, and went straight to work. I wanted to impress him. I raked several beds out in front of our lawn with dead leaves, old pinestraw, and random other things that shouldn't be in the beds. It looked like it was going to be fairly easy to do, but it wasn't at all. We have a lot of ivey that has a long vine attached to it. Every time I would get a great grasp on the leaves, the end of the rake would get caught in the vines. I knew it would be easier if I would grab the bunch of dead leaves with my hands, but I hate to get my hands dirty so I hesitated a lot. You are probably thinking, "you wore gloves, so why would you be afraid to use your hands?" That sounds logical, but once I saw how cute the gloves were I didn't want to get them dirty! I was acting ridiculous. I'm just glad my husband wasn't there to see it. I would never live it down. After a long hour of raking, I gave in and used my hands, and to my astonishment it wasn't bad.

I also decided to pull the hose around to the front of the house so I could wash off our porch that was covered in pollen and dirt. I ended up soaking the area so much I had so push some water off of the porch so no one would slip on our steps. After all was said and done, I was very proud of myself. I had 4 huge piles of dead leaves and such ready to be thrown away, washed the porch, swept the side porch, and pulled weeds out of some ivey. I then went inside, took a nice, long shower and laid on the couch watching my taped shows for the day. When my husband came home I kept waiting for him to say, "Wow babe you really out did yourself or the yard looks great!" I got this-nothing, not even a what is the hose doing in the front yard or why is the front porch wet or where did the huge piles of leaves come from? I didn't say anything because I thought he would eventually notice once he took the trash out. Before I went to bed, I said, "Man my back hurts from working so hard today." He asked why would my back hurt from sitting in a chair. I laughed and asked him how in the world he didn't notice my work? He still didn't know what I had done. After explaining everything I did he said "Oh well thank you," and turned right back to baseball. At this point I thought it wasn't worth making a big deal out of it. I decided to give myself a pat on my back and get some shut eye. In the back of my mind I thought, "Just you wait until you clean the bathroom for the first time, and want me to acknowledge it-haha!"

Home and "Not Me"

We made it home safe and sound from California! It was such a wonderful trip. There is nothing I needed more than a trip to the Sunshine state and a long weekend filled with my family! The big celebration was for my grandfather's 80th birthday party. It was a golf themed party with a special emphasis on the Masters golf tournament. A lot of their friends wore some serious "get ups" that made everyone laugh! Each family also wore matching clothes. We were very easy to spot-Alabama golf shirts and seer sucker. When my grandparents friends would say hello they would say, "You must be from Alabama darling!" An Alabamian is almost always spotted when you go to the west coast! I unfortunately do not have the pictures downloaded yet. Here is one I will borrow from my cousin for the time being. Let me introduce you to my big, "fat", Catholic family ;-)

And of course, a very good example of the attire is this...

Now on to "Not Me Monday"...

I did not blast my horn for a couple seconds at a young couple doing some serious making out in the truck in front of me in at in intersection. I did not drop my mouth open and yell, "You are too young to be doing that!" I did not cry on the plane while we took off in Houston, and I did not tell Hunter I wanted him to ask the stewardess to land the plane because I needed to get off. I most certainly did not burp loudly in the parking deck of my husband's office building, and make him very embarrassed and upset with me. I did not almost wreck my car over a little spider that was running across the dashboard in my car. Last, but not least I did not nap for almost 6 hours yesterday.

To fly or not to fly...

I have been sitting at work wondering why my stomach has been in knots...literally...knots! I have felt nauseous all day, and dizzy. I kept thinking oh I'm just tired or I just ate something that didn't settle, but it just hit me-I'm nervous about Friday. Not nervous because of the actual day, what I will wear, or if my luggage will get to California (that could be a reasonable concern), but I'm nervous because of the flying part. I don't believe there is anything more terrifying to me than to fly. I have had so many bad memories of flying growing up. Not from scary happenings although some, but from my "panic episodes." I honestly thought I would never be able to fly with one of my family members ever again after each flight. Everyone would take their turn sitting by me. Mostly by force or they couldn't find another seat. I can't say that I blame them. I have had a lot of annoying moments on past flights. I cried one flight from the second we took off till moments before we landed in California. That was a 5 hour flight sitting next to my sister. It's a miracle she continued to sit to next to me. She raised her voice at me a couple of times, pretended to be asleep hoping I would stop bugging her, but nothing seemed to work. Finally my mom was determined to make our flights bearable for everyone. She discovered cross word puzzles and word searches. I laughed at her when she bought them, but after being forced to focus on them and play them, it actually took my mind off of the flight. I'm really not that bad anymore...well I can control it better. I don't usually cry often, I don't panic on the outside, and I don't annoy the person next to me (except for Hunter).

I remember when Hunter and I went to New York with his parents in Christmas of 07. I was so excited to go, and thrilled to be taking a vacation with my soon to be in-laws, but horrified of the flight. I was so nervous I was going to embarrass myself in front of them! Luckily Dedee is just as good as my mom. She came prepared...Sudoku style! At first I wasn't sure what to think of it, but after playing it for a while with her, I was hooked! Every time I started to look nervous she would pull it out and say, "Gosh I need help with this one!" I knew she didn't really need help, but it made me focus on the game! I know I sound crazy, but this really is a true fear of mine. Planes are so crowded, stuffy, full of strangers, bumpy, etc. Is anyone else afraid of flying? If so, what do you do to help yourself from not being scared?

California is calling me home

7 days from today Hunter, myself, my mom, dad, brother, sister, neice and nephew are all boarding this

Where we will land here

To be greeted by these fabulous people

To attend my grandfather's 80th "Golf Themed" birthday party

And while we are in southern California we plan to spend some time at the most magical place on Earth

And watch some good Angel's baseball...

I can barely wait!!!!! I will have LOTS of pictures to post once I return home!