That's What I Get for Being a Slacker

Last week my sister posted a status on Facebook that you could buy Southern Living on amazon.com for only $5.oo. My first thought was, "Sure you can." My second thought, after reading it again on someone's blog today was, "I should go subscribe!" You know the saying He who hesitates is lost?...that's really true. She hesitated and she lost. The deal ended yesterday. Too late, slacker. Bummer. Now it's more than $5.00.

So, how then, you might ask, did I end up with a subscription to COASTAL LIVING?

It's very simple, really. I had two items in my shopping cart already: a Christy Nockels CD and a Meredith Andrews CD. (in my quest to update my painfully inadequate iPod Shuffle with some new worship music, so I will have great music to walk by.) Yea, because if I have great worship music I'll want to walk more! Ha, ha, ha, ha!!!! Sorry....

Heading to checkout I received the notice, Wait! To get free shipping add ONLY $9.62 to your order...so naturally I would be saving money to do that, right? And, at the bottom of my order form right next to recently viewed items (Southern Living) was Customers who purchased Southern Living also bought these items (Coastal Living). How perfect! I NEED to spend $9.62 and the magazine is $10. It's like we were made to go together. Like peanut butter and jelly, the beach and me. The very thought of a beach-focused magazine arriving in my mailbox every month was just too good to pass up. And if that wasn't enough to lure me in, this sent me over the edge -- an example of the photography in each month's magazine:

Oh. my. Yes, please? I want to go there. NOW. No, really...now. I just switched over to delta.com and am booking my ticket. I don't know where this is, but I will find it.

Just looking at this picture makes me happy. In fact, I'm thinking about making it the desktop picture on my computer screen, rubbing a little coconut-scented sunscreen on my face and taking a mini-vacation right now. See? Sometimes it pays to be a slacker.

Now...where did I put that bottle of Tropicana Dark Tanning Oil?

So, I'm Not Really Sure About the New Neighbors

As we were pulling into the garage a couple days ago, we saw these two characters across the street. They were acting as if they owned the neighborhood!

"How disgusting," I said. "Look at those awful turkey buzzards eating something on the road."

"Cool!" said Abigail. "I'm going to get my camera!"

I'm not sure why we needed a picture of two of the ugliest birds I've ever seen. I'm even less sure why I'm writing a blog post about them. Then, it hit me! They were eating a dead squirrel!!! Oh yes, now this is an animal that is really contributing to society. I'm sorry, but you know how I feel about squirrels. I'm sure I've written a post about my dislike of them, and I would reference it here, except I'm too lazy to go look for it.

I'm going to call them Harry and George.

"Look! Zoom in," Abigail said, showing me this picture on the camera. "He's ripping the flesh off the squirrel. That. is. so. COOL."

Where in the world did that child come from? I could not possibly have given birth to her.

Dear Alabama...

August 27, 2009

Dear Alabama,

I miss you.

Your friend,
Genny

Yearbook Family

Well, you didn't think I was going to just yearbook myself, did you? Thought these were just too fun not to share.

Abigail - 1982

Rebecca - 1978

Katherine - 1964

Jeff - 2000

School Daze...

From a previous post you will recall that we started school on August 17. And, I believe (as noted by my title) that I have truly been in a daze since then. Everyone came home with loads of homework on day one and we have not stopped since. Whatever happened to slowly reintroducing ourselves to the rigors of school? Oh, well...guess there's no time for that when you have to cover one entire chapter of history in one week. Yes, we all had a quiz on Wednesday a.k.a. the second day of school. Egads! Well, that's not quite true. I didn't have a quiz. It just felt like I did.

Anyhoo...here are pics from the first day of school. Yes, they all look the same height, but the true heights are as follows: Katherine - 5'4", Rebecca - 5'3" and Abigail - 5'2". (Although I think Abigail and Rebecca have grown since school started!)
And just to be different, I took pics of everyone's shoes. I like how they seem to reflect the different personalities.

Abigail - a classic, down-to-earth, sporty person

Rebecca - classy, yet fashionable and fun

Katherine - trendy, artistic and comfortable

What the Heck?!?

I went to bed at 9:30 p.m. last night. I woke up at 6:00 a.m. tired.

I took a 3 1/2 hour nap today. I'm still tired.

Why?

That's all.

Goodnight.

So, I'm Supposed to Be Balancing the Checkbook...

Yes, I'm finding ways to waste time like you wouldn't believe. I just despise balancing the checkbook, even on the computer. While on Facebook tonight (another avoidance technique), a friend had posted pictures of herself from YearbookYourself.com. They were so cute, I couldn't resist. After all, by the time I modified the photos for each year, and then wrote a blog post about them, that would buy me even more time to avoid the checkbook. (Note: If you are Jeff and reading this, I promise I will have the checkbook done by the time you arrive home tomorrow night. Come in late, okay?)

So, here are my fun photos from YearbookYourself.com. I selected my favorites between the years of 1950 and 2000.

1952

1960

1962

1964

1968

1972

1974

1986

1992

1996

1998

Hope these gave you a little chuckle today. Now, back to Face...I mean, the checkbook.

Can It Be? Only Nine Days Remaining...

Just a few days ago, or so it seems, the whole of summer was laid out before us, like a huge gift waiting to be unwrapped. Now I feel like I'm holding an opened gift singing "It's my party, I'll cry if I want to!" Summer is essentially over.

I knew that the minute Monday morning dawned with volleyball practice and piano camp, and orthodontist appointments, and sports physicals, and last minute trips to Mardel to buy forgotten books, and school uniforms purchased, and SOMEBODY STOP ME! I'M ALREADY ON THE RUNAWAY SCHOOL TRAIN!!!

I knew this was going to happen, but somehow I forgot to remind my body and my brain that when we pulled into the garage on Sunday, August 2nd, VACATION WAS OVER. There was no gentle easing into what would soon become, oh, let's call it Rush Week. (No one's joining any sororities around here, we really were rushing around that much.) And this week will be more of the same. Heavy, heavy sigh...the sound of the surf is but a distant memory to me now...

And so, I will do as I have always done. Put on my big girl panties and deal with it. And, think of at least five things that I love about the end of summer/start of school. Give me a minute, here. This is hard. I'm thinking....thinking...

1. the smell of freshly sharpened pencils
2. new books

Five minutes elapsed...whew, this is harder than I thought!

3. the new television season?...wait, I don't watch TV. Doesn't count!

Ten minutes elapsed...

I'm gonna have to get back to you on this one.

Fort Morgan, Alabama...Can I Move There?

I find myself at the extremity of a long beach. How gladly does the spirit leap forth, and suddenly enlarge its sense of being to the full extent of the broad, blue, sunny deep! A greeting and a homage to the Sea! I descend over its margin, and dip my hand into the wave that meets me, and bathe my brow. That far-resounding roar is the Ocean's voice of welcome. His salt breath brings a blessing along with it. ~Nathaniel Hawthorne, "Foot-prints on the Sea-shore"

Why do we love the sea? It is because it has some potent power to make us think things we like to think. ~Robert Henri


Had a wonderful few days in Alabama. Here are just a few of the many photos that were taken. These sum up the things we did while living as beach bums for four days.

We wrote in the sand...

jumped waves on the boogie board...

sat on the beach and enjoyed the sun...

enjoyed the beautiful evenings...

took long walks on the beach...

read books...

took lots of fun pictures...

drove to Florida...

ate really delicious seafood...

made a sandy starfish out of Abigail...

stood in awe of God's creation...

built sand castles...

caught blue crabs...

breathed in the warm, salty air...

lowered our blood pressure...

and cried because we had to go home so soon.

Sweet, Home, Alabama.
So true, so true.

Road Trip! - Summer 2009

Driving to the beach...there is no better summer vacation. (Unless it's flying to get to the beach.) We hopped in the car on Monday, July 27 and headed for Fort Morgan, Alabama. We planned to take a day and a half to get there instead of driving all in one, which ended up being a good idea since we parked on I-20 for quite some time, were rerouted and our planned 8-hour drive on Monday ended up taking ten hours!

Most of our time consisted of this:

And there was lots of this...

And this...

Couldn't get a pic of the Louisiana sign, but decided we didn't care
because none of us particularly cared for that state.

Then, we saw this...

And finally, this...

And we drove through towns like Bugtunna and Citronelle,
until we arrived here...many hours later.
Finally!

Let the vacation begin!