Toadfrogs and Elephants

Madison is a bird dog. She chases birds. She is not very smart about it. This birdhouse sits in the middle of our backyard. Madison spends all day on her two back legs trying to get to the birds. Occasionally she will bark at them, but amazingly they never come out for her…

Today was a girls’ day out. I have only seen my friend Michelle a few times in the past few months. She found out she was pregnant about the time I started working. She has not been feeling well and I have been crazy busy. We still email daily and talk quite a bit, but we haven’t had a lot of time to sit and talk. Today was great. We drove to Commerce, GA and shopped. This wasn’t a serious-dent-in-the-wallet shopping trip. It was more a buying of a few things with lots of time to talk in between. We had a great day and now I am hoping to finish my book before Wade gets home.

I love to read. I’ve always loved to read. I often have a book I don’t want to put down until I finish and Wade is very understanding. Work tends to get in the way but I avoid temptation by leaving the book at home. Now for my current problem. I not only have a book I don’t want to put down – the book is part of a 13 book series. I am currently on book number 5, but I started the weekend on number 3.

My friend Kate gave me the second book in the series for Christmas a few years ago. I am a little particular about things and didn’t want to start a series with the second book. However, it took me till my last trip to the used bookstore to find the first book.

Janet Evanovich writes the Stephanie Plum novels. The books center on a woman in her late twenties who grew up in and still lives in an Italian New Jersey neighborhood referred to as “The Burg”. She lives paycheck to paycheck and when she is out of work her cousin the bail bondsman gives her a job as a bounty hunter. Stephanie is a horrible bounty hunter. She is scared of guns, hates to run, hates to be shot at, isn’t in shape, gets easily distracted in the shoe section at Macy’s,etc. However, Stephanie does always get her man with lots of humorous encounters thrown in. There is also the neighborhood boy she grew up with who is now a cop. They seem to have a love hate relationship with lots of sparks. He is constantly annoyed that she ends up finding dead bodies and landing in the middle of his cases. I’m addicted – must read more…

Wade is gone for the weekend. Work is sending him to the Make Convention in San Francisco and he is very excited. He drove to Atlanta around noon, missed his flight, and finally flew out around 9 pm. I am completely on my own this weekend and what did I do? I fell asleep at 8:30 on the couch. I am such the party animal. I did manage to sand the basement door, iron the clothes, vacuum (read as I set the roomba on the floor and pushed the button), and read half of my book. Sadly I didn’t get a friend’s engagement news till the next day due to my early bedtime.

The story of these boots started long ago in Aspen, Colorado. (Melissa if any of this story is wrong, feel free to correct me.) My family was on our annual skiing Christmas trip around the year 1994ish. The girls had gone shopping and Melissa bought a pair of cowboy boots. I was with her when she found them and I thought the boots were awesome, but I remember thinking I didn’t want to spend the money on buying myself a pair. I have regretted the decision ever since. I have even looked for the boots online and on eBay, but never found exactly what I wanted. Melissa has occasionally let me borrow the boots, but it’s just not the same.

I was talking to Melissa on the phone the other day and she was talking about cleaning out her house. She has been on a wild declutter spree. She is selling and donating unwanted and unused items left and right. She offered me the boots or said they were going to GoodWill. I immediately said yes and even offered to pay for them. She wouldn’t take the money and apologized for the bad shape the boots are in.

The boots arrived today. Talk about immediately putting a smile on my face! She warned me that they were in bad shape, but now they just look well worn and the tread looks brand new. She did say if I ever want to get rid of them to offer them back to her. Maybe these boots will turn into the “Sisterhood of the Traveling Boots”. Regardless, after 12 years I now have the boots I have always wanted.

Wade and I attended our first (and as of yet only) wedding of the year. Marshall (my boyfriend before Wade) married Tarver (his long time girlfriend) in Birmingham, AL. Wade and I had an awesome trip. The drive was only three hours, we got to the wedding on time, we loved the reception building, and we saw old friends. After the wedding we went out for a little shopping and ice cream!

The bad news just keeps coming. I got a phone call this morning that my step-grandmother, Dorothy, died last night. I knew she wasn’t doing well, but I didn’t realize it was this near the end. My mom and I drove to Atlanta to visit with her in February and my mom and Aunt Gayle were planning on another trip sometime soon. Her funeral will be on Tuesday, which means I can’t make it to Matt’s funeral in DC. Sadness. It is all very sad.

Daniel called and invited us to a cookout celebration. Laurie has graduated and is now a Nurse Practitioner. She still has a big yucky test to take, but she has finished all the classes and gotten a diploma. We arrived with a celebratory pinwheel. Wade helped Daniel cook the meat and I helped the others eat chips and dip. Kendall and James (pictured below) were there and Laurie and Daniel’s families and their neighbors.

The entertainment part of the evening was a pinata. Evidently Laurie hates birds, so Daniel bought a bird shaped pinata. By the time we finally broke the pinata open, all the candy was in pieces, but it was hilarious to watch!