Have you ever seen such beautiful children??? My gosh...I don't know how I ended up with such gorgeous grands!

Yesterday my Kindle suddenly stopped connecting to the internet. I was back and forth between ATT (internet service provider) and Kindle. They were both very good and we finally resolved the issue today (mostly due to my sheer determination). Kindle even shipped me a new device, but I will return it to them unopened tomorrow...and I am so happy that MY OWN Kindle is fine and can stay in my family of favorites! You know who else I love in recent months??? I LOVE Vera Bradley! Vera actually sent me a birthday card that made me cry yesterday! Well, I think I was already a little fragile with finding out I have a torn meniscus on my knee, and having the Kindle issue.....but anyway, Vera's birthday card to me featured two of the cutest owls on front and outlined in the fabric pattern of the items I had recently bought from her (a new wallet and e-book reader cover). Inside was more of "my VB pattern", birthday greetings, and a 20 dollar off coupon on my next purchase!!! It was all too much for me, as I had an approximate 34 dollar item I wanted to buy, and now it will only cost me 14 dollars! This makes a non-working girl very happy!!! Seriously though, just the fact that they pay attention to what patterns you buy, your birthdate, and are so generous...I seriously want to buy one of everything she has!!! I do not work for Kindle, ATT or Vera Bradley (but if Vera Bradley wants to hire me as a sales woman, I will accept the position)!!! :) It seems all is well in my world right now. I think I have decided I will cancel my ortho appointment and try to heal naturally. I am NOT IN THE MOOD for surgery! At least I know what the problem is...I can go from there. At a minimum I have ruled out what it is NOT, which relieves my mind. I hope everyone has a devine upcoming week!

A fun day with grands!

School was out yesterday, so we drove an hour south and visited a mall, and then spent hours at the coolest park, and hands on childrens science museum. We love it there. It is called Sugar Sand Park in Boca Raton, Florida. The picture of the arch we built shows Donovan, my daughter, and Emily underneath. Random pics due to my posting on my phone! Have a lovely Friday and weekend coming up everbody! Xoxo- Julie

Hardy Mallow Hibiscus, and a neat art wreath

Well, hello again! It has been a busy week...school started today for the grand kids, and daughter-in-law at her brand spankin new office job which she is loving! Yeah! Back to the sort of normal yearly grind around here.

When hubby and I drove to Lakeland last weekend, we came upon these giant, sort of Hibiscus-looking flowers...only thing was they had a different kind of look to them, they are huge (the size of my hand) and they have a different purple leaf.....so they are a big mystery to me...but I will tell you with all sincerity, that I WANT SOME OF THESE!!! I love the dark leaves...and these appeared so healthy, I was inspired that, I too, could make these flowers grow in my own yard!

Mystery solved: These are called Hardy Mallow Hibiscus, as best I can tell, and are only hardy in zones 3-9. That is why I do not see these super giants down here in zone 10! Sadly, they will not be for me...:(



When touring my grandsons new school, we found this wreath on the art room door!!! I just instantly loved it, and thought quite a few of you might as well. His new school is open, airy and very homelike. I really love it. His school (my old alma mater) is being torn down and a new one built to replace it, so for 2 years they will be in this other location. The whole building is under air, so not much walking outside except for P.E. and band room. NICE, specially in this horrid heat!

Sea World picture, and our awesome villa stay.

This is my one pic at Sea World last weekend. Well, I do have a few more of Donovan wearing a multicolored flashing mohawk wig as well...but I will save that for another day! LOL. Anyway, the grandkids are standing looking into the dolphin tank...and don't you know a few of them were actually mating right in front of the window! That was a first for me!!! LOL.

We stayed in a 3 bedroom, 2 bath villa at Sheraton Vistana Resort, and it was really wonderful for families, and for family reunions! There are 7 pools on the property, and all sorts of other fun areas and things to do!
I only tell you this because we truely had a wonderful time there and would go back just to hang out there on resort property!!! Forget about Disney World and Sea World...just relax! Ahhhhh...I can imagine it now!!!

We did not relax...we were moving every moment we were awake!!! But had a lot of fun!

Donovan's rainforest gorilla project.

We printed pictures, and found interesting facts regarding gorillas for Donovan's classroom project (1st grade).

When we Googled "gorillas", one of the first photos to show up was one watercolor my friend, Teri...over at Teri's Painted Daisies       had done. I emailed her to see if Donovan could use her painting...and she gave him permission. Thanks, Teri....i think your painting took the project to the next level, and it made it really special for us!!!

We sent all our photos and information in, and the teachers assisted them to put it all together.

Donovan made the giant gorilla, and with the addition of some black and brown large puff balls...he became 3D. Cute!

We did not get any of the infomational part back. Gorillas are very interesting creatures!

We had fun.

Have a nice Fathers Day weekend everyone!

A few realizations today...

All two of my realizations came within a few minutes of each other...

One was that I will need to continue to work in my same career path (I had hoped to make a midlife career change), but will just NOT be able to due to financial requirements.

The other is that as I worked some plain old x's on top of piece of gingham cloth and attached it to my embroidery collage, and came to realize that this is a very pleasing thing to my eye. I filled in with some pretty little french knots...and it is just old fashioned and more "me".

Here are a few shots of the kids and my daughter at the park today. We played golf (they had a put-put golf area there), and ran around like fools.

Doozey popping in to show a new succulent fairy garden, and other good things...

Hello from the Dooz-in-ator!!! She is looking directly at the camera for the first time ever!!! DIL took this shot as she was sitting...I believe she got such a result due to food being involved! Of course.....

Doozey would like to present her Mama's new cleaned and organized screenroom succulent area!

Many were just plain dead, many were used to make the new fairy succulent garden below, and so I had to do some shuffling, throwing away, etc. It was all good though and now it looks so spiffy. It lead to a good cleaning of the whole room, which was SOOOO GOOD!!!

Before I show the fairy garden, there is some other breaking news.....guess who has lost not one, but TWO baby teeth this week???

DONOVAN the magnificent!!!

So here is my new creation today! I had saved all my fairy garden making supplies, so I dragged them out, washed up my large shallow dish, and got some brand spankin new cactus soil. I took a few cuttings from the outside tire gardens as well, and most from the shaded screenroom. I will need to water daily for a while until roots are established.

Here are a few close ups. I love it...makes for a lot of happiness!






I haven't been posting a lot lately...been doing a lot of catch up after quitting my job...house cleaning, doctors appointments, etc. I hope to do better...trying to search for a job too...everything is so time consumming...but as my friend always says "EVER ONWARD..."
Hugs and kisses...Julie

Halloween sugar!

Grands at the Beach Today!

While I was slaving away today at work, 2 cute little kids were playing at the beach with their Mom and friends...

Happy Grandpa Day around here!!!

From some wild and crazy kids!!!


q

A few pics!

Here were my grands, Emmie and Donovan on Easter Day! Do you like the sandals with the tie??? LOL. I keep thinking he was going for a surfer dude look!!! :) On a side note...just have to tell you that this little doll keeps telling us that she LOVES Batman, and wants to kiss him on the lips! WHAT??? Where did this come from??? Grandma Julie does not want to hear of such Tom Foolery!!!

My fence and gate are covered in Jasmine right now...and I love walking through there to water the garden! Smells devine!

Here are some new, nearly RED colored Vincas to plant around in different areas. I stuck the flat of them in the white Vinca garden...and they look so cute peeping out, until I can plant them! I think Saturday will be the day!

Here are the Cosmos seedlings that Donovan, Emily and I planted a few weeks back. They are coming up nicely! Don't look like much yet...but will show flowers soon! This pic was taken after Emily snuck over and gave them 2 gallons of water...they have revived since then, thank God!!!

I have about 13 of the 15 Sparaxis bulbs coming up! Here are a few just popping up, in one of the tires! I REALLY can't wait to see these blooms!!!

Hope everyone has a wonderful Wednesday!!!
xoxo- Julie

Birthday fun, and Happy Cactus Monday!!!

Well, today polished off another great day here in south Florida. A little chilly, but invigorating...and it warmed up a bit by afternoon, so I went out and took white lights off all my front bushes. I got out my electric bush trimmer and gave them a haircut...and then guess what I did??? I put the lights back on the bushes!!! I figure they can't say they are necessarily Christmas lights, my bushes are well trimmed, and I like having the extra light right there by the door, plus they are pretty! I was enjoying it so much that when Donovan came outside, I decided to pull a Tom Sawyer on him, and show him how much fun it is to pull up weeds by the roots! Oh, yes, he was enthralled for , ummm, oh, maybe 6 minutes!!! I don't think he ever mastered the technique though...hehehe...but it was a fun moment in time!!! :)

Oh, I did do something else out in that front garden.....remember when I had mentioned that the wind had blown over my prickly pear cactus??? Well, I wanted to straighten it up and stake it, but when I tried to pull it upright it just cracked, and I did not have the help or energy to try and right it. So...I just started cracking it up and finally got to the bottom where I was able to pull out the roots. I bagged it, so it wouldn't take root anywhere else, and put it out for the trashman. How bad am I??? Do you hate me??? I will tell you that I was walking around the neighborhood tonight looking for a missing Sheltie, and I saw the original prickly pear tree the cuttings had come from, and it was covered with blooms!!! It is a gorgeous specimen all tall and stately...in tree form.


Today was my DIL's birthday, so we decided to make chocolate cupcakes (her choice), and frost with white, then we made up bags of different colors of frosting to decorate with. I never saw people have so much fun!!! Carolyn (daughter), and Donovan (grandson) really had a good time, as you can see by the photos below.












Yes, that is ACTUAL BLACK icing we made up that she has applied to her face!!! Goodness.
Hope everyone has a great week.