Dear Mali Sue

Dear Mali,

I loved your gift! I really love the Color Wonder set and the stuffed pigeon to go with the book! I'm sure I'll like the cupcake set as soon as W gives it back to me. He swiped them right out from under me and hasn't stopped baking since. He's kinda obsessed with food;0)

My Mom LOVES your card, she thinks I should start calling her 'Wonderful' as well, but I'm in no mood for it. I'm working real hard to get my way with her, but apparently, she's on to my tricks and she's not making life real fun for me. She keeps telling me that she's smart like that and I should just give up now, but I'm working real hard to fake her out.

I can't wait for you to come over again and play with me, maybe we can crawl together again real soon!

xox, eme

Island Time

It was a perfectly wonderful sunshiney day in paradise yesterday!

And it felt great to get back out to our favorite island with our favorite friends...and by the number of boats out on the water, it appears we weren't the only ones anxious for summer.

Eme 2 year pic and video

Today's the day: *updated*

* annual elections in our neighborhood behind these gates of hell. Lots of hard work went into this election. Lots of knocking on doors, meeting neighbors, talking...gawd, LOTS of talking. Lots & lots of good ol' fashion drama which included, but was not limited to: smearing ones personal name, going above & beyond the 1st amendment of 'freedom of speech', involving 3 lawyers that mailed out 4 individual cease & desist orders and 318 letters to every single homeowner about the legality of what has transpired, spreading vicious lies about ones personal life, using slurs to reference ones name and making up a big ol' pile of BS to gain advances. Yeah, it's been fun.

** My Kita girl has not been walking correctly. She has a really bad limp. So today she went to the vet and received an A+ on her health. She's just an old lady that has a limp. She does have a benign tumor under her arm, but all is well and she is in remarkable health for her age. The doc was quite impressed with her. She's also lost 18lbs and that had us worried, but nope, he said she's just no longer a fat pig;0)

*** Results are not so good for my Eme girl though. She was up all night with that same painful cry that we heard a month ago. I took her in and she has 'suspicious' urine, which would indicate another UTI. They are growing her culture and won't know for 2 more days for sure. She is back on the antibiotic and we will continue that for 20 days and after that they will decide what to check for next. The kidney reflux test was fine, but now they'd like to check for a blockage in the 'pee line' that might be causing the enlarged kidney and these UTI's.

I was pretty certain she might have another UTI during the night when her cry was that same painful cry as before, but after she woke up, she started holding her privates every time she went potty. My poor girl.

**** I swear, Eme Grace has sprouted in the last week. I looked at her Friday and declared she was quickly leaving toddlerhood and becoming a little girl. She just looked so grown up. I even snapped a photo on my phone and sent it to her Daddy. Her legs look longer, her tummy is fuller, she's more stalky and she's talking so much more. When Kris commented on it in the last post, I chuckled, because it's exactly what I've been seeing up close and personal.

**** Annual Elections: 5 hours and counting....GAWWWWW the DRAMA!
Got drama?

UPDATED: We pulled off another victory for the 3rd year in a row. I know this means very little to the outside world looking in, but for those of us living behind these gates, it means another year of peaceful living with NO harassment. For those that have been with me for over 4 years, you know what this means. 3 1/2 years ago, I vowed to make sure the ego ridden BOD that held such great power over our personal lives would never hold that kind of power again, we prevailed. This election was extremely important to us for more than one reason and I couldn't be happier. 2 months ago I wrote the date of March 23 on our calendar for the BOD meeting and I also wrote 'Celebrate BOD Victory' for March 24 on the calendar. My son asked me about a week ago when he saw it, "Mom, did we win again?" I told him 'the results weren't in, but I don't play this game to lose, count on it.' All I could think to say, as I walked past my nasty EX BOD neighbor who spent years harassing my family for our laid back boating lifestyle is, CHECKMATE.

mopping

What I find to be rather interesting is the fact that girlfriend has never seen me mop like this..

I use the H00ver M0p Mate. I really love the fact she decided her new beach pail could double as a cleaning device.

She's smart like that=0)

& then got a little crazy with the mop...

Pics & Suits

It's that time of year again! YEEEHAWWW! This has been the coldest Florida winter that I can ever remember in all my 16 years in SWFL and boating has not been on the list of things to do. However, with the temps back in the 80's this weekend, we are planning some much needed, long overdue island time. So in my personal quest to organize and purge, I decided to tackle the bathing suit basket....ugh...

(sorry the photo is so dark, my computer with my editing software is getting a makeover)I have a really hard time getting rid of bathing suits, even though some just look down right pathetic on me. You never know when you might have guests that forget their suit and we just need to polish the night off swimming or chillin' in the hot tub, so I keep a bunch in a variety of sizes, considering I've been a variety of sizes;0). I do actually go through a lot in the summer. They lose their elasticity from the sun & salt and I usually have a suit on every day in the summer. My newest one is the Flintstones looking one in the corner from VS, pretty Barney Rubble looking isn't it?

So I have fat suits, skinny suits, tankini's, bikini's, board shorts, 1 skirt one that I bought for a luau party and to many cover ups.

The grand total being:

14 cover ups

20 bikini's

10 tankini's

4 *extra* bottoms... which leaves me wondering where I left the matching tops???

& 2 bikini tops that do not match any of the *extra* bottoms. That must have been some night.

I've decided to purge 8 bikini's and 1 cover up.

So what's in your swim suit drawer?

Is this obnoxious or normal?

& few pics (right of the camera) of Eme getting her groove on with W's old scooter.

Her St. Patty's Day tee that we've had hanging in the closet for 3 years, it says...

"I'd rather be LUCKY than good"

Funny how it ended up matching her personality so well=0)

Rolling Along

I wanted to update Eme's status as A+ OK, at least the reflux issue is.

It was a test I was dreading and I'm thankful it's over. It wasn't necessarily the results, but the actual process. It seems so wrong for me to have to help console my girl while strangers poke things up in her that hurt. Not nice.

Again, it's a trust issue and though she was a bit pissed with Daddy & me, she seems to be feeling like her groovy self again.

I'm trying to keep the blog flowing, but every time I sit down to type something, I realize I really don't want to. Maybe it's all the stuff going on right now that is just to big to write. To big, to much, to muddy. I know the old blog had a whole lot of BOD drama, but I don't think those are the same readers and the history is just to deep to start explaining now. 3 lawyers are now in play and though it's all extremely positive for us, it still doesn't wipe the child like behavior away & I still have to see those same people causing all this bullshit in our life.

It's exhausting & I'm tired.

Stupid Busy Bullet Brain Dump Post

*Eme has her kidney test today. I'm worried about her anxiety level. We will be giving her a doze of some anxiety medicine, but it won't take away the painful procedure, the new faces and the fear that fills her eyes when things aren't right. I should probably be the one to take the anxiety pill....

*The night before last, I had a horrific dream that I was swimming in the pool and had my iPhone held up in the air with my right hand and then I panicked and needed the hand so I smacked the phone in the water and flooded it. It's the brain of my family. It tells me where I'm supposed to be every minute of the day and EVERYTHING is set with alarms.

*So mid morning rolls around after my dream and my phone starts going all psycho on me. The mute button is going off and on, the screen is fading to a light so low you can't read it and it keeps shutting down. Brainiac phone was now psycho phone. The DH comes home that same hour and tells me his phone was completely blacked out and wouldn't turn on. We make appt at Apple Store and walk out with 2 brand new free phones...not an ounce of our data had been backed up. What a pain. We both lost everything.

*The reason it wasn't backed up was because itunes got all picky and stopped recognizing our phones when we plugged them in to sync them. Apparently 2 iPhones can't share the same computer for sync'ing and were sync'ing 3 iPhones and 4 iPods to the same system. Sometimes I wonder if these smart phones are really all that smart. So now DH is using his own laptop from here on out. Oh how I'd love a MAC!

*Election time here behind the gates of hell has proved to be nothing short of a mud slinging contest. Fortunately for J & myself, I have managed to bite my tongue when in the same room as the asshats. Our lawyer did slap a cease and desist order on them. Their reckless ability to trash our company name and accuse us of unethical issues goes beyond their freedom of speech. There is a meeting on Friday in order to address some of these issues to get them in the minutes. 2 asshats have signed up to speak, 1 being my nasty snowbird neighbor and the other being one we slapped an order on. I called to sign up to speak just in case I feel frisky. I have NOTHING to say, but I might just want to get F&#@ Y@* on the record. I am so over this place, as much as I love it, I'm over it.

*I saw our old president this week and she was so happy. She moved out right after her time served with the DH. She had heard how ugly the old BOD was being and was giddy to not be in it anymore. She wasn't the least bit shocked by their viciousness.

*We aren't the only ones who had to slap a cease & desist order on them, my neighbor, the president did the same to a couple other asshats. They attacked him in very rude way. Even handing out fliers at the front gate from 6:45am-8:30. It really took the wind out of his sails, but he's determined to keep his chin up and beat em at their own game.

*So the old BOD, who wants back in office decided to throw a party to meet the candidates, but they managed to not invite any of the 7 great people wanting a seat on the 5 person BOD, just so they wouldn't show up and look bad. Silly them. They should really know who they are dealing with by now. I'll update this bullet after the event.

*As much as I'd like to step back from all this drama, I can't. I made a promise that as long as I lived behind these gates, I'd never let them hold a BOD seat again. Not only do I never want to see them attack and control the personal lives of those that live here like they tried to do with ours for 2 miserable years, we are also fighting for the 2 contracts that our company holds in this neighborhood. It's our job now. And being in an area where the unemployment rate is at an all time high, 12% for our little county...we can't afford to lose these contracts.

*Election date: March 23...if I can make it that long...

Happy Birthday Eme Grace!

And on this bright sunshiny day, my beautiful girl turned 2. 2. Let's all pause for a moment of 'awwwe.

yeah, she's 2.

Our family used to celebrate our LID~versary on this day ever year, but now we celebrate our beautiful girl and in case you are keeping track, this would have been our 4 year LID~versary.

She is growing up quick and we are enjoying every second of her little busy self. It was our first pink party in thy castle of all things boys and we found it simply sweet. After making years of boy cakes, I was stupid excited to use some pink Wilt0n dye =0) Shockingly enough, my boys were giddy with excitement to help me set up & prepare for her party and her 2 favorite guests, Grams & Gramps. Naturally, she had visitors during the cake cutting part and she couldn't have been more excited to have the birthday song sang to her all over again!

I apologize for the gazillion pics, I knew my Mom would want to see them up north and I just didn't have the extra time today to create digital pages to shrink them, though I intend on doing so. We want to remember every memory the minute held of this beautiful day!

A very fashionable bag full of all things fabulous...lip balm!

Mommy added the tulip birthstone dangle to Eme's Pand0ra bracelet.

& Auntie Ann & Uncle Terry added the angel bead for my angel girl, which happens to be what Auntie Ann always calls her, "Angel Girl."

& Grams & Gramps added the turtle bead to match Mommy's!

But even though Eme Grace was really busy, she managed to slip in an unsolicited hug for her G who came back from a week of vacation in the great white north with our neighbors. She really missed him.

Sharing some cake with her BFF Jaylee...

Grams & Gramps

And just like many adoptive Mom's, I hold many emotions about what this day truly holds for my beautiful girl. The day that we claim to be hers and the beginning of her adventure to us just 2 short years ago. Though we celebrate in this house that our girl is growing up, I betcha there is another woman on the other side of the world that remembers this date as well. Her sorrow is our greatest joy, & sometimes that makes things a tad bit more difficult to process. I thank her birth parents for the gift of her life. She is a miraculous little being that fills our every day with joy. We simply could not adore her more.

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Happy Birthday sweet girl.

Welcome to the next year of your life!