Oh For The Love!

Since when does the family pet take over the place? Beaux is our first house dog and I am telling you he thinks he's another kid in the house.

The darn dog has taken up residency, for his relaxing pleasure, inside of my sexy bag! I swear I can never have anything to myself with kids. . and a dog.

He has convinced Ty-Ty that they both should share his ice cream. OH, you haven't seen anything yet. After allowing the dog to lick away to his stomach's content, Ty will then pick up where the dog left off. I looked over in horror the other day as Ty-Ty was letting the dog lick his tongue!! YIKES!! I guess these are some of the crazy things you do with your brother. . .dog. (In this picture, Ty is making sure I don't make a noise and disturb the dog's dining)

I'm just holding my breath that he doesn't start hogging the couch & controlling the T.V remote. He will be just like a husband!!

Kicking Back Condo Style

While on vacation, we spend a bit of time at the fabulous condos in Deer Valley. That is, when we are not down in Park City shopping. . . which is a LOT of time for me:) This is how we kick back here:



Here is Kitty getting her hair bows in for the day. . . all 40 of them. You can never have enough hair bows as a teenager can you? Her amazing "bower" is none other than her three year old cousin Gabs. Notice that there are a couple of redheads in the pic? Yeah, we don't know where they came from.



Every day we do some craft project for the kids. Here are the cousins with Grandma V. doing bead necklaces & sticker art. We manage to keep the kids under control for about 20 minutes and then it's back to KIDS GONE WILD!

Al-Pal and Ty-Ty having a great time doing crafts.

Kitty thinks she is too big for craft time and used the excuse that she had to pick her nose instead. . . I guess she wasn't lying.

Bob would rather read "Parenting" Magazine than help with crafts. I'm not sure what the centerfold is in this magazine but he is sure enjoying it. Check out the back of this magazine. Shouldn't "The Van Rocks" come before Parenting? At least that's what I remember. . . just kidding Dad, there was no van rocking. . . it was a truck! NO, I'm still joking with you all. But I did find that back cover fascinating.

Sometimes when I'm not reading "New Moon" or checking out the computer stuff, I'm taking REALLY BAD self portraits, and blurry ones too! I took a vacation from doing my hair and stuff too so don't laugh. It's just me!. . . Oh, and Bob.

Bob and I went shopping and look what we found in the window of Geoffrey Beene. It's a Bat if you can't tell. I made Bob take this pic because I figured it had to be sick or rabid or something to be sleeping right here in public. I wasn't going to risk myself with this crazy stuff! Sorry Bob. After my vaca reads, he may just turn into a Vampire or a Werewolf! Now that would be so cool!

That completes your tour of our Condo adventures for today. Tune in. . . later? for more really good stuff that you can't stay away from. I know you can't can you, cuz you don't have pictures like this of your own I'm sure. And you've probably never been on vacation and stuff. Well don't you worry because I will be back. . . and that's a promise!

Vacation- Family Style

We are spending the week with family for our annual "Deer Valley/Park City Vacation". It is a great week where we do NOTHING we don't want and EVERYTHING we do want! I love it!!



It is always fun to shop down Park City Main Street. The shops and people are so interesting!

My hubby enjoyed shopping this time because it involved belly dancers for entertainment. (And boy was he entertained. I had to drag him away kicking and screaming. It was quite the scene I tell you:)

If there is one place that is "Green" it's definitely Park City. Here are the recycle containers and instructions for where to put what. Everything they were selling at this "Market On Main" was a green product. (Who knows, I may learn a thing or two).

It was Hubby-Bob's (not his real name) Birthday yesterday. He spent some time doing this.

And some time doing this. You have to take lots of naps when you are now half way to 88!
(He may just kill me for this pic and comment-but I can still outrun the old fart! heehee!)

Hope you are having a great week! I will be bringing you more from beautiful Deer Valley later.

Summer- It isn't over until. . . . .

You do completely goofy stuff with a bunch of ALMOST strangers. (relatives) for an entire day at family reunion. It all started with some innocent disk passing between the legs and over the head.

Things got more serious when we had to really find out just how low you could go! My poor Brother in-law lost his hair on this one. Scalped I tell you!

Obviously my oldest takes after his dad on flexibility. "Hey Jake, don't forget you have a growth on your shoulders you need to get under that bar!"

And then when you are all good and sweaty, how about snuggling closely to a stranger for some three legged fun? (I think by this point I may have had sweat dripping to my waist line:) Attractive, I know!

A great way to end the reunion is to have a "Not So Newlywed" game. I think it may have been a way to end some marriages too;)

Amusement Park Amusement.

We all (my side of the family, including my cute parent's) went to an Amusement park on Saturday. I'm pretty sure a good time was had by all.


I sure hope my face didn't look like this.

I'm pretty sure it DID look like this !!



And that was just on the kiddie rides!

Ty-Ty's face looked a lot like this. . .actually, that is really him in this picture. He loved those crazy horses running around in circles on this ride.

In other News:

I've been tagged by Busty Larue and being the lamo that I am, I can't think of anything fun that you want to know about me. I am supposed to come up with SEVEN things ! *Sigh! What's a girl to do? Well, I'll tell you what I'm gonna do. I'm leaving this up to you! What do you want to know about me? It's your chance to find out. Leave me a question in your comments and I will answer them. . . or not. . depends on if I want to or not. Sound fair? Now, I sure hope that I have SEVEN blog friends/family/lurkers/anyone. . Bueller? I hate to have to beg here so I won't. . . yet. But don't think I won't do it. I will if you bring me to it! So get asking!

Out Of Africa. . . .

These two cute people came home to us! HURRAY!!

Sorry about the quality of this picture but the camera isn't good with moving objects and it seems that Dad hasn't stopped moving since arriving home. Hubby clicked this picture at the
airport as we mauled them when they got down the escalator.

Here is Mom and she likes to have her picture taken. The day they arrived home (at 12:05 a.m.) we came to their house and spent the entire day as a family. I think that Mom was attempting to duck out and have a moment of peace in the laundry room when this pic was snapped. Sorry Mom, you are stuck with us. . . following you!

The men cooked a big breakfast for us all and it was great! Here is Dad again and he's a blur because once again he is moving. Does the man ever stop you ask? I haven't seen it yet! I'll keep you posted when he does:)

Mom is showing off another darling dress she had made for her in Africa. Although it looks like she is alone, the lawn was actually packed with people for their return party today. It was quite the fun shindig and finally a great day to enjoy the outdoors:)

And here we are all giddy with joy. We're Just a small sampling of those who were anxious for their safe arrival back home to us! Me and Bob (hubby) are wearing really cool African attire they brought back. Kitty was also sporting her African dress at church but managed to sneak away after and quickly change, while the party was going on. I thought this was a picture of just me and Bob until I loaded the pics onto the computer and low and behold, there was Kitty. . . Darn kid! I'm sure my parent's NEVER said that about me;)

Waiting To Exhale. . .Ready To Let My Hair Down!

SURPRISE!! I'M BACK!!

Are you completely shocked that I posted? You missed me didn't you? Oh, don't try to deny it. I know you and I could just hear you saying "When is that darn Diana going to get off her butt & post a new/lame post? I seriously haven't had my fix of lame reads this week! Where is she?"

Well, I would like to say that I was on some really cool and relaxing vacation or that I was shopping like a mad woman and treating myself to every luxury a woman could want. Truth be told, I was REALLY BUSY! OH, not that fun kind of busy either! It was work kind of busy and not anything blog worthy to write about and so I spared you the additional suffering. Only because I'm nice like that. Oh, don't cry for me Argentina because I lived through it.

What was I busy with you ask? Why thanks for pretending to care! You really do don't you? OK, then I will tell you. Between working like crazy at our floral in preparation for all the mass Memorial Day flowers, I had to watch the final of American Idol. . . That took a bit out of my life. And then I had to finish my shopping and send off my sox for the exchange put on by the one and only Smiling Infidel. And of course, I had to throw "Mom duties" in there somewhere! All in all, I am feeling like it's about time to let my hair down!

The big Floral holidays are officially over until Winter and with taxes behind us for the year, I just feel like FINALLY doing a happy dance. What's that you say? You want to see such a dance? OH, no you don't want to see that! You would be deeply scarred for life. You have never seen things jiggle so much and look so darn stupid at the same time. It's disturbing.

IN UPDATES: (because I know you are dying to know what is happening in my life)

My fabulous parents (well I hope they are still fab:) have only a little over a week before leaving their 22 month mission in Liberia, Africa to come home to us!! Let's all shout it "YIPEE!" . . . Thanks! I can hardly wait to see them! I have missed them dearly.

My hubby (Bob) and his knife business aren't really doing much. He has sold probably 20 knives and that leaves us with a family room stocked with a mere 280 now! WOW! He is kicking butt on this venture! NOT! Let's not discuss it further, it's a sore spot with us right now and he has to keep the knives out of my reach or else!. . . Oh, you didn't think I was serious did you? Now if anything happens to poor Bob, I had absolutely NOTHING to do with it! hee hee! I'm JOKING people!

Remember my burn? After 10 days of hobbling around with much pain and it only getting worse, I finally gave in and went to the doc. He said it was a bit infected and took care of that (OUCH) and then gave me some Silvadene to put on it. It worked great the first day and now it is really infected! YIKES! I would seriously post a picture because I am gross like that but my daughter Kitty told me that it almost made her throw up. I'm not about inducing such behaviors and want you to keep your breakfast/lunch/dinner down, whatever it may be! Just know, it's gross. Needless to say I will be giving away all my Daisy Duke shorts and swimsuits as I will have a nasty scar glaring off my leg for all to see. OH, and don't ask to have my hand-me-down shorts because I was only kidding people! I don't own any:D

The moral of the burn story is don't do anything nice for anyone else. It will save you MUCH pain! haha! You have heard that "No good deed goes unpunished" haven't you? Like I said. Keep the charitable stuff to yourself! OK, don't! It's still worth the pain:)

I HOPE YOU ALL HAVE A WONDERFUL MEMORIAL DAY! AND HERE'S TO FUN & EXCITING DAYS TO COME:)

Forget A 5th Grader, I'm Not Smarter Than A Preschooler!

He looks innocent I know but the chocolate smear on his face should tell you otherwise! (and yes, I'm talking about the child:)

I'm not sure if I'm getting dumber with age or if kids are just getting too smart for their own good REALLY young! My son Bud (Ty-Ty) is only five but never seems to amaze me with the stuff he comes up with. Most of it is how he can try to pursuade me that he needs something or doesn't want to do something. This is just the latest sample of what I am talking about:

Me- "Bud you need to clean the bathroom today before the Easter Bunny comes tonight."

Bud- "Why should I? The Easter Bunny doesn't use our bathroom"

Me- "I don't care if he uses it or not, I still want it cleaned!"

Bud- "Cuz if he used the bathroom, we would all hear the toilet flush and wake up!"

Me- "Bud, get the bathroom cleaned"

Bud- "I don't even think that bunny has a pee thing!" (sorry, that was rated PG-13)

...........................................

That ends my conversation with him as I can see that I am getting no where!

Later that evening this conversation starts:

Me- "Bud, clean up your toys in the living room"

Bud- "Does the dog have to clean up his toys?"

Me- "Bud, the dog can't clean up his toys! Besides that, the Easter Bunny is bringing you

presents & chocolate and not the dog and if he sees all your toys out here, he might not

leave anything for you."

Bud- "Doesn't the dog get presents & chocolate?"

Me- "NO, he's a dog"

Bud- "Well, if he picks up his stuff I will give him all the dumb toys the Easter Bunny brings

to me!"

.................................

Again I leave with no comment to add to his crazy conversation!

I have got to find that "Handling Preschoolers For Dummies" book! I think that it could really prepare me for situations like this. You would think that having three children previous to Bud that I would be prepared and used to this but I think this is where my Alzheimers is kicking in.

For some reason my memory has me thinking that my other three were complete angels at this age. . . Just another day in the life of Diana I suppose. .Sigh!

Fun Times Had By Most At The Floral!

Skipper, Bud & Cleatus sporting their sexy floral mache hats!


Owning a family floral shop has proven to be quite the challenge when it comes to keeping kids entertained. I know they look harmless but believe me, they aren't always!! My sisters and I have pretty much raised several of our kids in the business & they have learned to be creative as they play. Sometimes they are sporting green mache containers for hats & pretending to be "apricons" (aka leprechauns). At other times they are creating masterpiece arrangements from the clipped stems & dead flowers & then convincing us to put them out on the shelf to sell (and boy our husbands are proud that their sons are arranging flowers- NOT!). Most often the kids take the scraps, leaves and cut stems then add water & stir to make a delicious stew! (which we have to pretend to sample). Fortunately, MOST of their play is harmless and they don't always go home bleeding or with extra bumps and bruises. On occasion some glass containers get in the way of their play and we find glass shards for weeks. It's a real bummer when my son Bud is the only child at the shop. The day becomes very long as he begins his routine question of "Is it time to go home yet?" at promptly 9:05 a.m. (5 minutes after our arrival) and it continues to be asked approximately every 5 minutes until the work day is over! I often wonder how we ever get anything done, but we do. We have managed this "kid" routine since we opened the doors for business 13 years ago and we wouldn't know any different. We like to call it our floral nursery. . . nursery. A lot of flowers. A lot of kid play.

Then Delirium Sets In

After more than a week of pretty much living in the ICU waiting room, it has become apparent that we are feeling the effects of it all. You know how silly you can become late at night or on vacation? Well we have had our own delirious moments that break up the anxious and sad ones. This picture only proves it.




My brother in-law shows off his new spectacles while making a spectacle of himself! I haven't done anything that my posterity will see in pictures . . .yet. But I do catch myself repeating weird things over and over and over. Yeah, it started with "How much wood could a wood chuck chuck. . . " and then chuck would remind me of "Chuck chuck bo buck. . . " I would end it there because my Mom gets so ticked when I start that! I do it just to get a rise from her. Thinking of my Mom would cause me to say "Frig" which is what she uttered in a moment of her own delirium once. Then I would chuckle and that reminds me of the whole "wood chuck" thing again and the whole crazy thing starts over!! I'm not sure who is more unstable, my nephew in ICU or all of us who are in waiting in that room?? It may just be a toss up.

HOLIDAY OVERLOAD!!

After working all day & night in freezing cold temperatures INDOORS (to keep the flowers perky!) We were not only tired and cold, but we were delirious!! It's all a bit hazy to me now but I think we were going for the unibomber look and Lola was spelling COW with her fingers and mouth and I was spelling WOW! (Jenny in the middle was supposed to be doing MOM but failed miserably! She's a loser & looks like she is sprouting something out of her face!) Aren't we incredibly talented? I'm not sure how the flowers turned out for Valentines Day but we were being our usual dorks and enjoying it!! OK, don't be jealous but we are HOT in this pic!! (next time I shouldn't wear my daughter's hoodie huh??)






Darn! I forgot to take pictures of the masses of flower arrangements because I was too busy (working my butt off. . . oh, it's still there) and only thought about it as the day was winding down and few were left! Oh well. Here is just a few of the 1000s of flowers we touched this week!

Right now is my favorite part of Valentine's Day. It's actually the night and I'm finally home and of course eating a sugar cookie, drinking a Diet Coke and scraping the frostbite off from my toes and fingers! Don't worry! I should only loose a couple of digits on each!! I can still walk and type without them!! Hope your Valentine was good to you!!

MY CUTE MISSIONARY PARENTS IN AFRICA !!!

Mom & Dad took needed clothing to a Liberian Orphanage in an ongoing effort to give Humanitarian Aid where and when they can.
Baptisms in Liberia. A little different than what we experience here in the U.S.A

Dad showing off the large, lush foilage of Africa. Nope Dad, I don't think we can use these in the floral!!

MY CUTE MISSIONARY PARENTS IN AFRICA !!

Dad finally found his own species in Liberia!! He is enjoying the entertaining baby monkeys.

Dad & Mom were the "after church Taxi" in Nigeria for several members. I think you have room for one more!!
Dad feeling right at home with the Ostrich! This one seems to like you! No head pecking!!

Nigerian baptismal font that was finally filled with water because of Dad's brains & hard work!!

Mom in Nigeria helping the members pick out reading glasses that were collected here & sent.

Narcolepsy In Vegas Was Had By All!

We had a great time in Vegas but unfortunately we all seemed to have a random case of narcolepsy when the camera came out!! Actually, it was when we were sitting down to eat!

It happened at the Cheese Cake Factory, Jimmy Buffet's, The House of Blues and pretty much anywhere we stopped for food and a pic! From the looks of it we were all having SWEET dreams while we slept with those cheesy grins on our faces. I am sure we were dreaming of the fab food that was coming!! YUM! Yeah, I think that was it! Gary was having one of those "Cheeseburger In Paradise" dreams. I was dreaming of having my corn colored BIG teeth whitened and some wrinkles tightened!! (HOLY Hanna, I rhymed and didn't even try to!!) Hubby is dreaming of Scott and his cool hoodie and Amber is having a 60's flashback! She is at PEACE man! Other than an occasional moment of shut eye, we took it all in and had a great time!

What's With That Name?

I'm not sure what you make of this but I'm thinking this person (not sure if verbyl is a guy or girl) had parents who were not very fond of them! You seriously can't tell me that people don't do this kind of crazy stuff without thinking it through can you? I ran across this website of funny names and it reminded me of my middle school days. Now I know you are saying to yourself "She can't remember her middle school days! She can't even remember what happened last week!!" Yes, it's true. . I have a fading (very fading) memory but there are some crazy things I just happen to keep tucked in there somewhere. No, it's not the useful stuff that would really make one seem intelligent, nor is it the important stuff that would make getting through one's day easier. It's the completely useless and most often times crude stuff that sticks in MY memory. Anyway, back to those middle school days. I hung around with a group of girls and unfortunately, we all had normal names. (our parents must have really liked us!) So we got bored one day and in our young teen minds we thought we should make up names for ourselves. These would be our code names that we would address each other with. For some reason we got a kick out of saying poop and fart it seems because most of the names contained something of the sort. I only remember a few names (see my memory has failed me a bit here!) My name was Elegosnee Fartsaker, I had a friend Genevieve Gapoopanblow, and don't forget good ole Granilda Gruntanfart (another friend).

I remember having a birthday party and my Grandma Hill sitting in a chair in front of us and we had to line up and each one of us tell her our name. I swear I have never heard anyone laugh so hard in all my life! She was in tears with laughter!

I do the same thing when I see a funny name. And don't try to tell me that you don't do laugh !! I remember working at a physical therapy clinic and one of the patients was Harry Balls. As hard as I tried, I couldn't wipe the smurk off my face when I would hear his name called into the waiting room to have him come back. I was doing good with just a grin when I really wanted to just laugh out loud! There were times I would simply have to duck under my desk and pretend to retrieve something to avoid loud laughter, finger pointing and funny faces at the poor guy! Do these people have any self esteem? I'm just wondering! Oh well, Carry On!

BEFORE. . . AFTER

Here is my front door before today's blizzard hit.. . . and then after! It was pandelirium, complete panic and chaos! OK, not so much but it was coming down hard and the small walk I made from the shop to my house literally had me blowing away (yeah, it can blow hard enough to even make me feel like I'm going to blow away!), gasping to breath and with a face full of snow. Ty Ty was walking (attempting to run) with me and he was screaming & gasping in complete horror at the situation. Can I just say "What the hail?" haha! OK, it was really snow but I wanted to say that anyway because you know my deep love for Winter weather! NOT!!


Alright now, don't make fun of the Christmas Decor on the door! I know it's there and quite frankly. . . . I don't really care that much! You will be shocked to know that I took my Spring door wreath down to put up my Christmas one. That's all you get from me. . . two season kind of girl I guess! It almost looks like my door was painted between pictures, but I will assure you it was not and I would never engage is such activities during the FREEZING Winter months! I'm nuts like that but NOT that nuts!

THIS HAS TO BE ME!

No seriously, if I didn't know better I would think this was a picture of me. (When I was younger of course!) No kidding! Ask my Mom! I had the straggling, long hair, the big buck teeth and I pulled this face often! I would do it frequently around Grandma Maxine since she would absolutely FREAK! Then we would hear her yell out "Stop doing that! Do you want your face to stick that way???" That was just one of the funny things that she would say to us. To this day, we love to repeat her funny sayings and giggle about them. It keeps good old Grandma Maxine alive in all of us!

P.S. I'm here to say my face did NOT stick like that! I have the wrinkles to prove it!!