A LITTLE BEHIND
Man am I far behind on here... It's really the middle of AUGUST right now and I completely missed JULY!  What's up with that?!?  Between not feeling that great and working a lot and just having way too many pictures - I fell behind.  I don't know what I'm doing with this computer.  My photos are acting up and I'm just a bit overwhelmed. My pictures are scattered just like everything else in my life. I typically will write a post for the day and then get to the photo later but that didn't work for July... Stay tuned - I'm going to catch up and back post as best as I can and get back to today... which may turn out to be tomorrow - or the next day - or some time next week!  I intended on hosting Christmas in July too - I even have a couple bins of stuff put away for that... That came and went. Maybe next year.   In the meantime... I've been looking for puppy photos to show the residents I work with. Here's a pic of Lily from March 2009.  Such a cutie pie.

181/365

SOMETIMES I WISH I LIVED BY A PIER IN A LIGHTHOUSE WITH A CHANDELIER...
Part of  me wants to go renovate an airstream and do my traveling dog thing... I keep questioning if I can do it myself though... like how would I go shopping or get anything with the dog?  I can't leave her by herself... I keep thinking about Norfolk. I'm not sure I ever really mentioned it on this blog - even after all these years.  30+ days of coffee, chicken fingers and adventures while living at the Radisson there - all while The Dad was on a ventilator - well half the time, at least.  It's not exactly a short story.  Maybe I'll tell it one day. Anyway, my airstream dreams are very much still alive...

180/365

"THERE IS NOTHING YOU CANNOT DO"

I sent this to my yoga girls... thought I would share here.  Ted Talk with Tao Porchon-Lynch.  See video here.

179/365

VIRTUAL MESS
Just like with my photos - I have another problem. It's no secret that I'm an email hoarder.  It truly is getting out of hand and is beyond overwhelming.  I just saw an article about managing your inbox and have to come up with some plan...

Yep, you read that right... 31,000+ emails.  That's just the ones I haven't read...

I have a serious, serious problem. Don't even get me started with my "drafts" folder.

178/365

BEEN AROUND THE WORLD AND I, I, I, I CAN'T FIND  MY BABY...
Man oh man!!!! I have so many photos on this computer... in iphoto... in folders to do something with...  Ughhh.  I did a search on here and I can't seem to find a post with Epcot Bud so I guess I never put them up.  I swear I did. Here they are... I'm going to delete the folder now. One down.  A million to go... Here's RoseBud on her tour of Epcot.

177/365

FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS
The Dad mentioned the other day that he would consider moving. I think he's sick of my shit everywhere here.  I just don't know if I'm going to be able to do it. With the way I feel I'm not so sure it's possible. I was going through the pictures from the wedding and thinking I have to find some property so I can have a party barn...

Could you imagine our friday nights?!? Dragonfly string lights flickering all over the place... big old kitchen... storage for all my mason jars! We could have dance parties! ;-)

I could hang the disco ball and set up the tables. I'm not asking for much - maybe seating for 30 or so. We'd have to have a fryer for Aunt Joyce's pizza frite and I could put my co-ed bathroom in with the stalls and urinals... I have a plan... just have to see if I can make this happen.

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SLUMBER PARTY
Chrissy said that she would check in on The Bud... so after the wedding we headed up to Ligonier and later that night Chrissy and Ted came over and sat with her for awhile and played with her and fed her and took her outside. Instructions were left...

Ted was furious with me because I didn't have the HD channel on for her! He's a cat grandpa now so these things matter.  I figured Lily would just sleep through the night (hopefully not too scared or too lonely) and we would be back as fast as we could the next day. So we had some waffles in the morning...

...and I let Chrissy know we were on our way...

Minus a stop over at DeLallo's - sorry Bud - we knew we would be back to the house soon... I ran up the steps and couldn't find her - she wasn't on the couch or in her dining room bed or baby bed... I did panic for a brief second. I, of course, thought she got stuck somewhere - under the bed or in a closet searching for us or she choked on something...  Anyway,  I found her in The Dad's room sound asleep on his bed! Why that wasn't my first thought, I don't know.  She never heard the garage door or the alarm chime or me calling for her - a hundred times.

My annoying voice couldn't even wake her up. You may want to turn your speakers down...Video of Lily waking up from her slumber here. ;-)

Also... video clips of some of the wedding and The Dad and his Bro and Sis cracking themselves up here as well!

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HOW SWEET IT IS TO BE LOVED BY YOU
More photos of Augie and Alexis' wedding from the weekend.

They had a little candy bar...

...and a coffee bar...

... and a s'more bar...

...complete with s'more menu...

...and, of course, a few cookies...

...and a few more...

...and just a few more!

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PINTEREST WIN
I have to admit we did kind of creep on the bride's Pinterest board - anticipating what she was going to do. I knew when she pinned my s'more menu we were in for some good stuff. You know how you hear of so many Pinterest fails, though?   Crafts not coming out as planned... recipes that are a disaster... things just not turning out as the photo showed?!?  This wedding was a Pinterest win -  everything turned out great. Here are a few cute things...

An old door in place of a guest book for everyone to sign their names and well wishes...

A suitcase for cards like we did for Janel...

Poms all around...

Things in place for later that night...

A big old chalkboard seating chart...

And little reminders of a special day... So many cute details.  Well done.

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TODAY'S THE DAY
Alexis and Augie are getting married! We knew it was off to a great start when we saw these fans...

The reception was in a barn in Ligonier so we all decided to stay... I can't even manage to get back from work without pulling over to the side of the road so I figured it was the best thing... the only problem: The Bud!  I thought about putting her in a kennel and, of course, that thought passed within seconds.... then I was going to bring a sitter with me but I couldn't find a place that would take her so I just went with her getting checked on. Ugghh.  That was a hard decision.

Anyway, back to the wedding... there was a sea of cupcakes...

... complete with little tree stump cake - an homage to Augie's proposal.

Centerpieces were mason jars with a daisy stem, a hydrangea stem and a votive and cute s'more favors.

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I'M A SUCKER FOR A CUTE INVITE
It's been one cute chalkboard card after another for this upcoming wedding - from the save the dates, to the shower to the wedding... looking forward to tomorrow. ;-)

171/365

THE WOMAN FORMERLY KNOWN AS JEANNINE
Truth be told, this name change thing is throwing me for a loop. It's no big secret that I'm having a hard time with this and, honestly, I think most people think I'm crazy and it's not a big deal. No one seems to think it should be this hard for me.

First of all, it's a big pain in the ass, logistically.  I've changed some things - some things, not yet...  Some are harder than others... Emotionally it's a big reminder of a failed marriage and the stigma of The Scarlet D I will always carry with me.  It's just kind of sad all around.  I know some would just keep the name - for their children or to be a bitch or because it's not really that easy... others would hurry to change things as soon as possible... I'm just really depressed about it.

I always found it weird when women resisted taking their husband's last name.  My therapist was saying he took me for "one of those girls."  I was a little insulted. ;-)   I think that's a major part of the whole marriage/commitment thing and think it's kind of absurd not to but to each his own, I guess. There's not much of a difference with my married and former last name and that's kind of weird too... I'm getting kind of stuck when someone asks me and fumble over what I'm supposed to say. I'm sure once everything is changed it will be different... I'm getting there.  It's just hard.

I was joking and saying I would rather change my first name or maybe just change it to a star with wings.... I'm thinking that (STAR WITH WINGS) DeLuca DiGioia DeLuca may get a little tricky when I order a sandwich at Panera, though. ;-)

170/365

SCENTS AND SENSIBILITY
I was downstairs looking in a bin for an overnight bag for this weekend and came across this thing...

It's just one of those packing pods/organizers.  I brought it upstairs and had this weird sense around me but couldn't quite figure it out... The Bud swiped it from me as soon as I got up the steps and took it in her bed and was rubbing her face on it.

I let her play with it for awhile and then took it away from her and got that weird feeling again... then I picked her up to give her a kiss and figured it out.  She smelled like David's cologne. 

169/365

TRUCK LOVE
When I'm sad I just have to take a look at my truck board on Pinterest and I get happy again.

I'm getting my trucks (and shoes) ready outside and I've been thinking about that old beat up leaf and bean truck on Rodi Road that's been parked in the same place for a long time... I think it's still there - not sure if it even runs. I wonder if whoever owns it would sell it to me.  I keep having visions of it painted turquoise with a star painted on the door.

168/365

THREE TIERS AND YOU'RE OUT
Well, remember when I said I can't be left unattended... turns out it doesn't matter. We went to HomeGoods after The Dad's dinner and Cara and Debbie totally let me walk out with this lovely thing!

It's the same one as this one but it's all grubby and rusty looking. AKA fabulous.  I did the obligatory "tell me I can't have this" routine but by the looks on their faces I even knew, no matter what they said, they weren't going to win.

167/365

FATHER'S DAY
I was kind of miserable today... you would have thought it was mother's day.  Just wasn't into it and feel a little bad about that. Lily helped The Dad open his Birthday and Father's Day presents...

Later, Terry made us a delicious meat fest.

I tried to get a picture of the two pups together...

... but never got one.

Then, we had cake.  That cheered me up for a bit.

It's impossible to be sad when you are eating cake.

166/365

BEST $1.49 BUFFET IN TOWN
I thought of this scene from Vegas Vacation when I saw those little pink shrimp...

We had The Dad choose where he wanted to go for his birthday.. I swear he did this to piss us off. ;-)

We resisted but we finally let him go where he wanted...

...ONLY because it was HIS birthday.

166/365

SAY AHH...
I bought this ahh bra at the 380 auction for 99 cents.  I don't think I can say anything else about that. Or maybe there's just too much to say about that.

165/365

TRUTH BE TOLD...
I'm not big on the quizzes all over facebook and stuff. I don't really do them all that much but I thought I would give this one a try just to torture myself.

You can usually tell where it's going a couple questions in. I ended up with this result...

Truth be told, I thought it would have been 100%.