The funniest thing happened today at Shoney’s. I laughed so hard that I cried. My shift at Shoney’s is very very early. I open the store at 6 am. (thats very very early in my book) We have several hotels within walking distance and we are directly off of an I-95 exit. (right before you get to South of the Border in fact) So we get a LOT of travelers. That is actually one of my favorite things about my job. I love getting to talk to people and hear about where they are going and thier vacations …more often than not any family eating at Shoney’s is headed to DISNEY.. and I am jealous of them every single time.. except maybe today Its way to hot to be in Disney today.

ANYWAY. This morning  was pretty slow.  There were no customers in the place and the waitress and I were standing near the front of the store when we watched a cadillac roll into the parking lot and two people get out. The windows were steamed from the 85% humidity and the fridgid AC that we run in the mornings to prevent it from being hotter than the surface of the sun by 4 pm. I didnt really think to much about it when a nice looking older gentleman with a cane walked in. I smiled at him and seated him and he said he would be joined by his “lady friend” . I turned from the table to stand eye to breast with a 6foot + tall latin transvestite. “She” had a bad blonde wig and a hairy legs. Her dress was all flowered and she was wearing hooker heels. And more make up than any ten Dolly Parton look a likes except her 5 oclock shadow was giving her away big time.. and she was smoking a cigarette on one of those old timey cigarette holders. When she walked her hooker shoes made this “clonk clonk clonk” sound. She kept exclaiming over the breakfast bar. “oh Daddy.. this some good food.. you gone’ be so happy” in this really deep baby voice.. like all fakey you know. Her voice was  octaves lower than anybody I ever heard speak.. like litterally a bass voice but with baby tones though.

A few minutes after they were seated a couple of our regualrs (we have about 6 or 7 retired guys that come almost every day to drink coffee and gossip) came in.  Ms Latin “lady” was in the ladies room so I made sure to seat our regulars where they would see her come out. I was at the register when I head “Holy Sh*T!!” from the table where my regulars were… Seems whenever she came out and sat down her um.. “bits” were hanging a little lower than her skirt!

 The sweet old guy didnt seem to be aware that “she” wasnt who she seemed to be. When I was refilling his coffee( the waitress was laughing so hard that she had to go in the back)  he said “I met this nice girl last night at the hotel, she said she just needed a ride to NY and wouldnt you know it? Thats where Im going” When he went to pay the bill he put on these coke bottle glasses and held his wallet WAYYYY out at the length of his arms.  I wanted to say something to him.. like “uhh… be careful “daddy your lady friend isnt who you think she is.” But I was laughing to to hard.

You just cant have a bad day when you start out your day with a bad latin transvestite…

      We are still sorting through the mess the fire made at church.  I guess now we are waiting to hear from the insurance company and for more decisions to be made by the council at church. Last Saturday morning we joined thirty other members in going through the rooms that werent burnt up in the fire. There was actually more than I anticipated that wasnt ruined. Although pretty much everything has smoke damage. We were able to clean about 200 folding chairs and maybe 20 folding tables, as well as a lot of things that were in the Women’s ministry storage areas.There were about 10 rubbermade tubs full of holiday decor stuff that was smoke damaged. It was going to be thrown out anyway. SO I grabbed it and brought it home. I cleaned it all and organized it, and along with a HUGE pile of stuff that I have purged from my house, and some thats promised from my mom, I am having a yard sale this weekend. I will be glad to see it get put to good use. I plan to take some of the money and give it back to the church and then take the rest and apply it to my cruise!

THAT is coming so so fast. I cant believe how fast time is going by. I am getting really really excited. Our payment is due the 15th.. and I am juuuust about ready for it. I have about 8/10ths of it saved and will pay it off just in time. I am proud of us for getting it taken care of. I love that we will go on a totally payed off vacation. I wont be thinking about how much everything costs when we go, because I plan to have every single thing pre-paid .. from the gas (probably cash in an envelope for each item) to the tips for our helpers on the ship. (YAY! for people who come and clean your room twice a day!) I just know this is going to be the BEST vacation for Steven and I.. and also that I will be wanting to book another one with the babies!

I still have to decide our exact itinerary. The only thing really concrete is that we leave Port Canaveral November 2. and plan to be at the terminal by 10 am (? I think?) We have discussed driving down friday after I get off work and spending Saturday at EPCOT (our favorite Disney park) and then driving over to the port about 45 minutes away on Sunday morning. OR spending the day at Kennedy Space Center (weve never been) and getting a place in Cocoa beach . We have also discussed driving the middle of the night friday and then spending the daytime Saturday at Cocoa beach just lazing around.. (which is kinda where I am leaning. Im all about laying around somewhere with my honey and nowhere particular to go.) and saving some cash by not needing a hotel on friday night. But I guess I need to decide SOON before all the good places to stay have booked up.

 The lovely Lisanne at Bathtub Junkie  joined the fun over at org junkie and posted a really yummy looking weekly menu today. This is something that I have done periodically here.. and even failed at making a separate blog solely for that purpose.. (lets face it. I do really well to just get to posting here a few times a week)  I love the concept that the org junkie has. She is so right that making your menu plan a week at a time helps to keep you organized, and while Im not sure HOW it helps me keep my grocery bill lower.

Anywho. Im game of any fun meme type thing. SO here you go!

Menu Plan Monday- mom’s life style (SOME weight watchers point values included!)

Monday- Marinated Center Cut Pork chops, baked Sweet Potatoes, green salad (10 pts if you put butter on your sweet potato)

Tuesday- Baked Teriaki Salmon, brown rice, Green beans (8 pts. with 1 tsp teriaki glaze)

Wednesday- lite hot dogs (Oscar Mayer was on sale. 2 pts each) , pretzels, fruit

Thursday- BBQ chicken, baked potato, corn (we use butter spray and lite sour cream for the baked potatoes and corn.

Friday- Taco Salad ( shredded chicken breast, kidney beans, lite cheese, lite sour cream, baked tostitos and lots of lettuce and tomato)

Saturday- pizza (its our cheat day)

Sunday- oven fried chicken (ww recipe) mac and cheese, collards, deviled eggs

Its been an eventful week here in our family! We’ve been busy working and playing a little too. Steven had 2 softball games this week.. winning one and losing the other.  He continues to enjoy playing a lot. I was asked to keep the line up book the other night. I had no idea what I was doing and was just kinda winging it. Who knew it was such a stressful job? Once I figured out the idea of it, though it was pretty fun. Definatly keeps you on your toes and really into the game!

Today, the franchise owner of our Shoney’s came in. Right in the middle of the lunch rush! Yikes. It was scary! Of course everyone is already doing thier jobs.. but it makes you feel a little nervous with him running around issuing orders and being cranky. I was glad that he left after about 2 hours. Hopefully he was happy with everything I wsa doing.

The biggest deal around here though is that on thursday morning the Family Life Center at our church burned down! We are very involved in our church, and when you spend three or more days a week at a place it really becomes an extension of your home. The Family Life Center, is the busiest place in our church except for the sanctuary.. maybe not even that. It housed the gym, the youth room, cafe and game room. The children’s church and the kitchen as well as huge storage areas and a banquet room. Its a big loss. But thankfully no one was in the building at the time and anything lost in the fire was covered by insurance.

There were a lot of firemen that are members of our church. They worked really hard to keep the flames from spreading to the main church building which is just across a parking lot. As it stands the value of the lost building is over $100,000.

I guess the people most affected will be the kids. Initially,Thing Two was pretty upset by it. She cried and was pretty upset. I was at work at the time, but Steven took her to the scene and let her see (and give great big hugs to!) her kids pastor and the Preacher. I think it helped her to see the PEOPLE she loves ok and dealing with things. The Preacher explained INSURANCE to her, and I think that helped her feel better too. She is still a little worried about how things will be on sunday. ( Routines are pretty important to her, and Sunday school and kids church is a big part of her routine.)

 SLED was called in to investigate, and it was determined that lightening struck the building sometime wednesday night and when our sweet church cleaning lady turned on the AC on thursday morning the shorted out system sparked and started the fire. The building is totally gutted and will have to be destroyed. Plans are already underway to rebuild bigger and better. So we are excited about that what could have been a disaster if it happened when kids were in the building. Tommorow we plan to join in on a church wide work day to help remove anything that can be saved and re-used from the building.

We are back again at the ball feilds for another round of softball. This time Steven is the player. Our church entered a city-wide ball league and I was so glad when Steven decided to play. I think its good for him to have “guy friends” and to spend time doing boy things.  Our church had enough players to make up two teams.. one of the youth (18-25) and one of the moldy oldies (26-? ) Steven of course is playing for the moldies, and last night was thier first game.

Our Youth played at 6 and Steven, and the Things and I went along to cheer them on. It was HOT HOT HOT or as my friend Shanny likes to say “the seventh level of hell” The temp was over 100 and that made the heat index 105 something. It was miserable just sitting on the bleachers.. I dont know how those boys played ball in it! By the time the youth game was almost over Thing Two’s goose was COOKED. done. big time. Her icee was gone, she got bit by a bug and she was “sweatin” so she called my parents and talked her Nana into coming and getting her.  Thing Two.. who was enjoying watching the “boys” stayed and sweated it out with me on the bleachers.. to watch the youth team lose 16-9. boo.

By the time the moldies took the feild at 7 it really hadnt cooled noticably. Thing One and I indulged in another icee and continued to puddle on the bleachers.. to see Steven’s team come back from 10-7 to win 16 to 7 in the 7th. YAHOO.  It was really fun to cheer them on and scream at the umpire.. all in a chritian sort of way of corse.. this is church league afterall!

Last night we saw a true testament to how much weight Steven is losing at such a fast rate. Mid-way through the game he took his ballglove off to realize that he had lost his wedding ring somewhere! We looked and looked everywhere, but never found it. .. well actually we looked a lot.. but by that time I was so unbelievably hot and cranky that I decided that since he was losing so much weight that we’d have likely had to replace it soon anyway( it wasnt expensive.. it was more sentimental value than anything) and that I had a cool shower, some iced tea and some AC at home calling me. So today I am shopping for a new ring for Steve-o. He has been wanting to get some kind of tattoo ring there anyway.. and with his line of work it makes sense..(im always grossed out that he might get something nasty on it and it wont wash off good.)  We might look into that for a christmas present and then get a ring wide enough to cover it for church and dressy occasions.

I guess with the business of summer I am like a lot of people and havent had to much time to blog! But as always there is a lot going on.

This weekend was nice. We stayed in mostly. I spent time sun bathing and reading some useless novels on friday. In the evening we ate spaghetti and chilled out. Watching television and just enjoying being together after everyone being out and about last weekend. It was sopposed to be Thing One’s weekend with her mother.. but we really havent heard much from her lately. I know T1 had told her that she wanted to be at my nieces party… but I didnt expect her to just leave her the whole weekend!

Saturday was my neices 13h birthday, so we went to thier house for a BBQ and little party. My cousin Samantha was there and it was nice to see her again since I havent seen her since she and her kids stayed here when my Uncle died this spring. The kids had a good time playing in the yard and running around together. I got to snuggle another cousin’s new baby boy mostly the whole afternoon. Hunter is 2 weeks old.. I have some pics I’ll add whenever Steven lets me know where in the flyswat he put them. (thats the trouble with sharing a computer!)

After the party we went to my parents house to cook dinner together and watch a movie, I have some issues with my right shoulder and my Aunt Cindy, who took massuse classes gave me a really deep tissue massage. It hurt like the dickens… since the whole area was really tight.. I am all out of whack in there. I gotta get to a chiropractor so he/she can get me straightened out! I ended up having to take some meds and they totally konked me out. But not before we watched the movie. The Bucket List. It was pretty good.

By the end of the movie I was pretty sleepy and totally crashed.. and barely got up the whole day on Sunday. I even missed church! I was just so out of it.  Thankfully, the massage, the meds and some rest worked together to help my shoulder a lot.. it still feels all stiff. But its much better.

Today after work I came home to FINALLY find a lane bryant catalog in the mail! UGH. I have been waiting for a new one for a while. After checking it out I was able to decide on and order some new things for our cruise! I realize that it is 3 months away, but all the summer stuff will be gone by then.. I got 2 pairs of capris, 2 tops and a dress to wear to my friend’s wedding. Its pretty cute… and I will have time to send it back if I decide I dont like it. Another reason to get this stuff organized early!

13 pounds this week! YAHOO!  I was so happy when I saw that number this week. Steven posted an even bigger number (im not sure.. the scale was mysteriously broken this week.. something to do with Thing two trying to get paisley to climb on it. hmmm)

I am now looking for more inventive ways to fix dinner. Things that are healthy and yummy at the same time. I know its a constant struggle for most people.. But yeah. gimmee your best shot. so far we have been eating a lot of

baked salmon with wild rice and roasted broccoli, salad

baked boneless skinless chicken breast, sauteed zucchini and squash, salad

ham sandwiches on weight watchers bread with lite mayo and fat free cheese, salad

turkey taco salad

salad

did I mention salad? yeah. We are blessed to have my Daddy’s bountiful garden supplying cucumbers up the wazzoo.. but I cant even tell you what they are doing to my tummy. WOAH!

In other news (yeah I know you are tickled to be hearing about my digestive woes.. but there are other things to talk about!)

BIG BROTHER 10 started last night.

**In case you actually HAVE a life and dont know what Big Brother is (hense refered to as BB) BB was a show brought by CBS about 7 years ago as a summer slot filler. It involves a group of “housemates” who are generally 18-30 something beautiful people with a few weirdo’s and oldies thrown in for good measure, that are put under lock and key in a house that is covered from stoop to porch with cameras and microphones. Their every move is recorded for our voyeuristic glee. The housemates are competing against one another evicting one fellow housemate each week with the final remaining housemate receiving a half million dollar prize. They face such hardships as being limited to eating only “big brother slop” ( a concoction of what appears to be oatmeal, protein powder and possibly milk?) for a certain period of time, and various luxury competitions, (last nights winner won a 1967 camero!)  In addition to these competitions each week one houseguest is named “Head of Household” and that person along with being afforded the privilege of a private suite and the responsibility of nominating which housemates will be up for eviction that week.. drama and various forms of espionage ensue… Its terrible television that helped spawn the rash of terrible television that we see now ( something about a Japanese game show??) But we love it.  YAY for summer television.

I love this show. Its like crack around here. My Dad and Thing One and I have watched all 10 rounds. She was like 7 when it started.. and I realize that BB is not quite educational television.. but it was something we bonded over. We chat about the episodes, we go over to my Dad’s and watch it with him. We speculate, we strategize… we are addicts. Thing One and I would be an unstoppable team if we were to get on the show.. (not that we actually want to be on it.. we just like to assume that we would kick some serious butt if we went on it)

Thing One will have to miss it this week though, since she is off to sleep away camp until friday. If stupid Direct tv would come off of a DVR for less than $100 Id DVR it for her.. but the dumbheads wont do it. Which I totall dont understand since they are offering a FREE DVR UPGRADE for NEW customers. This to me makes no sense at all since I am a loyal customer… who hasnt missed a payment in years. Why would they take a risk on someone they dont know.. and not reward a loyal customer. Silly. I talked to about 5 CS agents and then just lost my temper. I may switch to DISH.. (if they offer me a good deal on a DVR! LOL) Other people are having trouble with DTV too.. check out SHANNY and her DTV woes

10 pounds! Yup. Weight watchers is working for me. I am so excited. While I am trying really hard not to fixate on numbers I am really excited that after 3 weeks I am at the 10lb mark.. only. ummm a gazillion to go Thing One and Steven are doing even better than I am. Steven (typically shedding pounds really fast.) is at somewhere close to 15 lbs and T1 did a HUGE 7 lbs last week. I am SO proud of us. YAY.

Been super busy at work. We are runnning a $4.99 lunch buffet special and its been working really super well. Last night I picked up a waitressing shift and made almost $50 in tips in just 4 hours. Thats not bad considering I was in a smoking section.

Thing One goes off to sleepaway camp this next week… She is getting exited. I am happy for her.. although a little jealous.. I didnt get to go this year  

I am making taco salad for dinner tonight. I got baked tostitos, ground turkey breast and picked up some fat free refried beans and some low fat cheese and lite sour cream. Well mix it with big bowls of lettuce and lots of fresh salsa (with tomato from my dad’s garden and cilantro from my little herb pots on the porch!)  I may even have points leftover for a fat free/sugar free icecream bar later!

I got this from Shannon O’s Blog . I enjoyed reading her answers… so here you are.

1.) LAST MOVIE YOU SAW IN A THEATER
Harry Potter? Its been a while. Ive been wanting to take the girls to see Walle though.. maybe my aunt will want to go this weekend?

2.) WHAT BOOK ARE YOU READING?

The 7 Cries of Todays Teens. (for like the last 2 years.. I never get very far) Disney Cruise Passporter (again and again and again!) any number of cheesy trashy pool novels.

3.) FAVORITE BOARD GAME?
Cranium… love that game. I wish we had friends who had time to come play it!

4.) FAVORITE MAGAZINE?
Taste of Home, Good Housekeeping, All You

5.) FAVORITE SMELLS?
Deisel exhaust on cold mornings, rain on hot concrete, bread baking, strawberry jello, Steven’s cologne.

6.) FAVORITE SOUNDS?
My kids laughing really hard, the music at the entrance to EPCOT in WDW. Carolina Evenings

7.) WORST FEELING IN THE WORLD?
umm failure, the feeling that Ive forgotten something important and cant figure out what it is… being broke all the time.

8.) WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU THINK OF WHEN YOU WAKE?
Whats going on at work today? Should I wash my hair or not.

9.) FAVORITE FAST FOOD PLACE?
mmmm taco bell.

10.) FUTURE CHILD’S NAME?
Kiah Serene for a girl, Joshua Isreal for a boy.

11 What would you do with a zillion dollars?
adopt babies, build a house big enough for us all to live in. Travel around like Angelina and Brad.

12.) DO YOU DRIVE FAST?
I dont drive. 

13.) DO YOU SLEEP WITH A STUFFED ANIMAL?
Just Steven. 

14.) STORMS – COOL OR SCARY?
Freakin awesome!

15.) WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST CAR?

1984 Ford Tempo, beige

16. Favorite Drink?

A&W diet Rootbeer, diet coke, sweet tea.

17.) FINISH THIS STATEMENT – IF I HAD THE TIME I WOULD…
I would learn more things.. read more books.. go to school. Learn to bake really good bread.

18.) DO YOU EAT THE STEMS ON BROCCOLI?
yeah. theres a lot of fiber in those!

19.) IF YOU COULD DYE YOUR HAIR ANY OTHER COLOUR, WHAT WOULD BE YOUR CHOICE?
Ive been a lot of variations of my natural color.. nothing to wild though. Ive been thinking of some really fun streaks lately.. like maroon and bleach blonde. Just to do somthing people wouldnt expect.…

20.) NAME ALL THE DIFFERENT CITIES/TOWNS U HAVE LIVED IN?
Bothel Washington, Issaquah Washington, Anchorage Alaska, Dillon South Carolina, Waxahachie Texas, Chugach Alaska, Barrow Alaska,

21.) FAVORITE SPORTS TO WATCH?
NASCAR and other car racing.

22.) WHAT’S UNDER YOUR BED?
lost pieces of clothes and so on…space bags with the Thing’s old baby clothes in them… shoes.. ect 

23.) WOULD YOU LIKE TO BE BORN AS YOURSELF AGAIN?
Sure.

24.) MORNING PERSON OR NIGHT OWL?
I am a morning person once I am actually out of bed.. I dont like to get up, but once I am, I make the best of it.

25.) OVER EASY OR SUNNY SIDE UP?
I like over medium.. a little stiffer than over easy

26.) FAVORITE PLACE TO RELAX?
In the pool, or in our beautiful den.!

27.) FAVORITE ICE CREAM FLAVOR?
ohhh I remember ice cream. lolI love mint chip.. but really any kind of soft serve is my favorite.. love pineapple dole whips from Disney World.. vanilla soft serve from McDonalds makes me pretty happy too.

Blog neglect.. yeah its bad around here. LOL

We had the most wonderful 4th. Steven and I invited friends from church as well as my Boss and her family (we were friends before I worked for her) to our house for a fun cook out.. well it was PLANNED as a cook OUT but it turned out to be more of a cook IN as it rained cats and dogs most of the evening. It was crazy! It was like monsoon rains.

Eventually though, things cooled down and the storm moved on. We had hamburgers, hot dogs, pasta salad (with tomato,cucumber and basil out of my Daddy’s garden!) and baked beans. My friend Zee made a great carrot cake and my 4th of july cupcakes were pretty tasty too.  We let the kids have a BIG shaving cream war in the yard.. it was so much fun! Even Paisley got in on the fun. They had so so much fun. It rained a little on them but that was ok. They went WILD all over the yard.

After everyone got dried off and cleaned up. Steven and the other “men” got the fireworks rolling. We didnt have a hUge budget for combustibles..but they had fun with what we had on hand.

Thing Two had a BIG time with sparklers and all the smoke that was produced with them.

The next day we spent some time hanging out and relaxing.. I am loving our pool this summer!  

Later Steven, Thing Two and I (T1 was at her Mama’s this weekend.. she left right after fireworks friday night) went to the race. It was  a little rainy, so we had a couple rain delays. But it was fun anyway. Thing Two was in a really silly mood, so we danced to the music, ate a picnic super (grilled chicken, cucumbers, fruit, and SNOW CONES!)

Sunday was busy with church and custody changeover..  Steven and I watched a cheesy made for TV movie that for some reason was in my Netflix cue. Carolina Moon.. was about some girl who is psychic and is involved in all these killings.. I dont remember putting it on my que.. but whatever. It was good brain candy.

This week promises to be just as busy as last week. I am working all week of course, picking up a waitressing shift on tuesday and a long shift thursday! YAY. Lovin that money comin in! Thing One goes to sleepaway camp next week, SO I also have to get her organized and whatnot. Steven goes off to play in a church league softball tournament next weekend too! Looking like friday and saturday nights will be girls nights round here!