A Gator for the Teacher

This project is self explanitory. This is what we made Charles' teacher for Teacher appreciation week. He is a BIG Florida Gator Fan. I think teachers need more Moms like me....

The Next American Idol . . .

Will be Chris or Elliot. I will put all my money on it!
I don't know what happened to Kellie but she sure bombed.
I don't think Kathryn did as bad as the judges said.
Paula was really drunk!!
Tori's husband is surely a hottie!
I still LOVE Taylor and Kathryn even though I dont really think they will win.
TAYLOR NEEDS TO DANCE MORE!

Great Acting Abilities

Here is Charles reciting one of his lines in the Vacation To Mars play. I helped with the set design (background, stars and control panel-shown). He did awesome and is GREAT at memorizing his lines. Don't forget he has a birthday tomorrow (April 27th). My boy will be 9!! Wow!!

CUTE CAKES

Here are my cakes for the Spring Fling Cake Walk.

Fine Times

These pics are from Downtown Melbourne. It is quaint and nostalgic. I love it.

A Family's View.

Ok gang, I have interviewed the two boys living in my house and have compiled a "verbatum" list containing 5 things that "TICK US OFF" and 5 things that "MAKE US SMILE": Of course this is not the ONLY 5 things, just a few. Feel free to leave a comment with yours:

5 THINGS THAT TICK ME OFF
• Fishermen who litter fishing line.
• Drive thru's who get a simple order wrong
• Waiting on people or in line TOO long
• Buying something advertised "on sale" and getting charged full price anyway.
• Gas Prices

5 THINGS THAT MAKE ME SMILE
• Watching a movie in A/C after a long beach/picnic day
• Seeing dolphins and other wildlife
• Cooking for others
• Watching people open presents
• Shopping

5 THINGS THAT TICK MAC OFF
• Bellsouth or Brighthouse leaving trash in the yard
• Dirty dishes in sink from night before
• WInter
• Gas Prices
• Shopping

5 THINGS THAT MAKES MAC SMILE
• Good, glassy, sharkless waves
• Football season
• Florida Gators Basketball team
• A fat, juicy, flame-grilled steak
• When the bait's runnin'

5 THINGS THAT TICK CHARLES OFF
• Sports
• Homework
• Saliva
• Girls who tease
• Simon barking

5 THINGS THAT MAKE CHARLES SMILE
• Video games
• Star Wars
• Family and Simon (when not barking)
• His teacher, Mr. Bailey
• God

MELBOURNE ART FESTIVAL

Here is my cover design for the Melbourne Art Fest Directory this year. It is the weekend of April 22 & 23. The artist of the dog painting will be there and I will get him to sign it for me.

The Mascot of our Country - LIVE!

Visit http://www.briloon.org/ed/eagle/index.htm to see a live streaming video of a bald eagle who has eggs in her nest. In time you will actually see the hatchlings grow up. How cool! Guess you can give them your own pet names.

SUPPORTING FOR FREE IN STYLE

I drove a BMW for Breast Cancer Research!

Yesterday the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation had a fundraiser called "The Ultimate Drive". So far they have raised $9 million dollars. Just by driving an (awesome) car, BMW matches the miles driven in dollars for the foundation. 1 mile = $1. They are hoping to raise another million this year.

It was great to help a research foundation for free with just a little (wonderful) time spend on my part driving a (VERY COOL) car. Apparently Carroll, my strong, cancer fighting mother, highly recommends the American Cancer Society or Susan G. Komen Foundations for donations as their help has recently touched her life.

Seeing the cars drive by 192 today reminded me of a note my sales lady had given me regarding this drive. Shoot! I was supposed to make an appointment to drive. Well, I decided what the hell, I would give them a call and see if by chance they had a spot to drive. The woman told me to come on down that they had taken reservations but they had a car for me to drive.

So Charles and I went over the bridge and went to the Imported Car Store, filled out 1 page of paperwork and picked out a car. This is the car I let Charles pick out for us.



I guess he liked the SAV Model. I was thinking more on the lines of
Convertible roadster but I couldn't decide. No sales, just instructions on how to adjust the seat and steering wheel and a list of directions.

The dealership was on US1 and you drove over the hwy. 192 bridge, to A1A then to Eau Gallie, over the bridge to US1 and back to the dealership. Along the way, I explained to Charles how this little cruise in a (VALUABLE) car was helping people with breast cancer. Against Charles' adamant demands regarding the accuracy of the directions, I made a 'slight' turn to go by my home and wave/honk to Mac and the neighbors.

We enjoyed the rest of our trip and luckily I stayed away from pressing any buttons other than the radio. At one point, there was a cop behind me. As you can imagine, due to my recent encounter with a nice police officer, I was on my best behavior. But I laughed for a split second at the sight of myself getting a speeding ticket in a breast cancer fundraising drive vehicle.

Anyway, we made it and the gratification of helping a great cause in such a prestigious manner really filled me with pride. Thanks Susan, BMW, The Imported Car Store and all the other volunteers, sponsors and drivers for such a great opportunity to show support!

Feel free to visit http://www.bmwusa.com/BmwExperience/EventsandPrograms/UDSK/ to see if they will be in your area.

Read at Your Own Risk

Well last Sunday after Annette left, I made a sudden move and pulled a muscle in my back. I stretched, lazed and took minor amounts of pain killers and apparently got it "back" to shape by Wednesday. I really do believe in stretching. I took Monday off and had a massage monday. He used a hot stone and crystal on my back. It was feeling pretty good before I went but I figured it couldn't (and didnt) hurt. Seems when you get knocked off your feet you plan all the things you will do when you get better so I had some plans for my next good day. I hope that will never change no matter what my age or condition.

By Thursday I was feeling great so I got to enjoy watching the field day they had at school. Charles' event was the 4 person relay. After a great run, his team came in 3rd. I participated in the adults balloon toss an partnered with another male friend because Jerome chickened out. So the tables turned and dad and kid were rooting for me. There were about 20 couples that entered. Of course it was me who dropped it. Bad throw. . . (cough)

After that, I decided to make a grocery store run for baked goods for the school promoted "Spring Fling". The teacher asked us in a short note to donate cakes for the cake walk and/or individually wrapped cookies for the bake sale. Last year, I encountered a negative reaction to my toasted coconut cakes so this year I decided to change it up. Always thinking of what I have in my cupboards, I opted for plain white cake mix and vanilla frosting since I had several colors of frosting gel left over from some classroom cookie decorating event. I bought 1 cake mix and a package of aluminum cake pans w/ lids. I also bought 2 brownie mixes.

I made 2 really colorful 8"x8" individual cakes, added some food coloring to the cake batter and gently swirled. Then I frosted the top with plain white and decorated with the gel. One cake with flowers and the other with a space theme. (stars, swirls, dots, etc.). I labeled both cakes; rainbow cakes. I also made 2 - 8"x8" cake pans of brownies, which I turned into 8 HUGE brownies. I put 5 into zip locks and saved the rest for us.

The next day before school I was about to take all the goodies in and I just happened to look at the paper to see what time this spring fling ended. It is a "fair like" event held after school and it ended at like 9pm or something.

To my disbelief, the date of the event read Friday, April 21st!! What was I thinking? I guess, to those of you reading, this would not be a surprise. So needless to say, the neighbors Judy and Morgan and also Jim and his family received 2 really nice cakes. I was too embarassed to take them to school anyway. I also gave 3 of the 8 brownies away at work and we (happily) swallowed my pride on the rest. Luckily, the cakes came in with rave reviews. Sorry Martha, but she and I have been friends for a long time!! Thanks Betty! (Crocker-DUH)

Yesterday was Saturday April 8th and Charles, Jerome and I went to Orlando park for the yearly Easter egg hunt. This could possibly be the last (sniff) year for that 'particular' Easter egg hunt! I think he has participated in that one every year since he could walk and pick up eggs. Interesting though, it seems to be the same old Easter bunny and chicken costumes, the same ol' kiddy music and the same ol' clown making balloon animals. Either way, Charles always has a good time. This year he met up with 2 of his buddies from school and they ran around. Observation: The couple with the 1/2 million home's son was using a plastic Winn Dixie bag for a basket.

We stayed for short while then left to rest for another Easter function later at the Methodist church right down the street. Around two pm I left to pick up Samuel (7 yr old kid of friends). Samuel, Charles and I headed North only a few miles to find a great little community get together. They had free popcorn, cotton candy, snow cones, drinks, make your own cookies, make your own easter eggs, raffle drawings (Samuel won a little bunny with tootsie rolls), an Easter Egg hunt (each kid guaranteed a dozen plastic eggs filled with candy or toys), Pony rides, various "cheesy" carnival games with great prizes, dunking booth, blow up horizontal water slide and of course their favorite, a play ground. I kept telling them to play the games and win stuff and they would keep magnating back to the playground. Anyway, they left exhausted, dirty (from being wet and in the hay), and with a huge bag of goodies. I don't know why but the candy is still sitting on the table in the candy dish. I'll get to it.

So last night I drank wine, sat in the kitchen and made shish kabobs; Bacon wrapped chicken and shrimp with a pineapple/bbq sauce, yellow rice and black beans. This is one of my best meals. Time consuming to make but well worth it in the end.

Tonight I am blogging-obvious- and it will be a rather lazy night before another set of hectic weekdays.

Chow ya'll.

The beauty of the Palm Tree

I was rummaging through some old pics of vacations and stumbled upon this one. It was taken at the Costa Maya resort in Mexico during our western Caribbean cruise. Upon the many beautiful pictures that were taken, this is one of my favorites. I LOVE COLOR! This demonstrates a good use of color and contrast. There is actually a bird in the tree (you can barely see him) who was whistling a most unusual, probably Mexican tune. A quick snap of time forever freezes the beauty of the world we live in. Enjoy!