Lessons in Loving

Today was an emotional one for me. A dear friend of mine lost her son in a tragic accident. The memorial service was today. I haven't been struck by such an overwhelming sense of love and faith in a very long time. This strong, beautiful family came together in their saddest hour to honor the life of their brother and son and I feel taught everyone there a lesson in loving their strength and devotion to one an other will stay with me for sometime ~ I think. Only 22 years old but, what a shining example of a life well lived. You'll be missed Russ.

Home Show

Today we went to the Sarasota/Bradenton convention center for the Home Show. We had coupons to get in for 3 dollars but as we were walking up to the door a man handed us a ticket to get in for free so it only cost the 2 of us 3 bucks total. Once inside I was so happy that we didn't pay full price or even 3 dollars a piece. I expected to see brand new state of the art building materiels, decorating ideas -- amazing kitchens etc. What we saw pretty much we could have gone to Lowe's or Home Depot to see. In fact it only took us just about an hour to see "everything" and the place was packed with booths. The only neat thing that I came across was a hand blow glass booth. I took several pictures thinking about Martha's CC. Next year I think I'll pass on the home show. Too bad.

Animals Galore!

I don't think that I ever mentioned that my husband and kids are animal lovers. We have 3 dogs and a cockatiel bird. Our oldest dog's name is Fletcher he is a rat terrier he will be 9 years old on Christmas day. My sister's female maltese and my neice's male matlese had a litter of puppies about 8 months ago and we went to adopt "one" -- a male who we named Junior -- while there with all of those adorable puppies we decided to take 2! So, we came home with a female too :) Her name is LuLu - our neice Monica had named her the day she was born so we kept it and is it an ever fitting name for this little bundle of energy! We are having so much fun raising these two cuties. I tell everyone that " I love my malteeeses to pieceeees." Sonny that's our cockatiel has been with us for 12 years he is a funny guy ~ he never did learn to speak but, he can whistle with the best of them -- he drives the wild birds crazy with his imitations:)

Fun Futon Fishes

Here is my second attempt for the Martha's Color Carnival -- this is a shot of a piece of the futon cover that was in the cottage on Gasparilla Island.

Little Gasparilla

Yesterday we spent the day out on Little Gasparilla Island friends of ours rented a cottage on the beach. In case you don't know you can only access this beautiful little island by boat. I have not been out there for about 10 years ~ it definitely won't be 10 years until I go back. What a pristine place it is. Once on the island you can only get around by golf cart and there is only one "main road" basically just a sand path that runs the length of the island. Our friends took us on a tour and did I ever wish I could buy a place there. On the island there is tiny little chapel, a golf cart repair shop (boy was that guy smart) and the phone company (I think it's some sort of sub-station) they are the only 3 non-residential places on the whole island. We noticed that "they" are in the process of building a few new homes and all I can think is that -- you must be very organized when doing something on that scale - no quick trips to Home Depot. This saying was hanging on the wall in the dining area of the cottage where we stayed. I just loved it. If you ever get the opportunity to go out to Little Gasparilla don't miss it!

Sleeping Bee

Moving right along with life and all that it has to bring with it. I have been checking out some other blogs and Martha's Color Carnival has me looking for colorful things to photograph. This is a picture I took some months ago in my backyard one evening -- I noticed that all of the bees were asleep on my Mexican Sunflower and I managed to get in a few shots without waking them. shhh.

Well, I just got back from celebrating my 25th wedding anniversary with my husband and his parents. I was not really feeling the whole thing at first but, it all turned out well we had a lovely dinner at MiPueblo my favorite Mexican place and I had my favorite fish tacos. I have a wonderful recipe for fish tacos that I will be posting soon. Here is a picture of the lovely flowers that my daughter and husband gave to me today. 25 years! Wow.