A Mother's Heart

Tonight, because of the rain, I was rocking Monkey to
sleep. I had him cradled in my arms, even though he is getting a little too long to
comfortably rock-a-bye in that chair, and I was singing "The Wheels On The Bus" (for some reason, his favorite song to fall asleep to).


Randomly, for no seemingly particular reason, he took his little hand and used it
to pull my face down so he could plant a big kiss on
my lips. Then he let go, and patted my cheek with that same little hand.


And my heart just burst.

Sarasota: Fun, Sun, Fishies, Boats, and One Bad Map

I pray to be like the ocean, with soft currents, maybe waves at times. More and more, I want the consistency rather than the highs and the lows.
Drew Barrymore

Well, folks, we are back from the lovely Sarasota!


We had a good time, although not without a few misadventures.
: )
We got to our room early Friday evening. After checking in, and doing the
settle in/freshen up routine, we set off to find a place to have dinner.
I envisioned a cute place, on the water, nothing fancy, just somewhere where the Monkey
could watch the water and boats and sunset while we ate.

Well...the little tourist map we had basically took us in a round-about, ass back-wards
way where we ended up at a dead end in a residential area instead of
the restuarant. Hunh.

Longer story short, we ended up eating at an adorable little
Italian place that was deeee-lish.

Saturday, we got up early and went to Siesta Key to play on the beach. It
was the MOST beautiful beach I have ever seen in the states.



Clear, blue skies and white, soft sand that was like flour. We had a blast
running around, playing.


After we all got nice and sandy (no swimming for us- it was too chilly yet!), we took
off for the Mote Aquarium (after a quick stop to Starbucks!).

I'm kind of an aquarium junkie. I love them. Anytime a town has one, I want to
go to it. I hate that Orlando doesn't have one (and no, I do not consider Sea
World an aquarium!).

Anyway...this aquarium was awesome!!

We saw an octopus...




...this guy was crawling all over his tank. It was so cool. Monkey didn't know
WHAT to make of him!



We saw sharks...


...these were just little guys. They were kinda cute! (Jagged sharp teeth aside)


We saw baby seahorses!


...they are called fry. Yeah, see, I learned something!


That was all in the first building. Then we followed the turtles-




-and the manatees-



-across the street to the second building, where we saw (wait for it...)...Turtles and
manatees!! I know. You're shocked. There were also two dolphins that were so cute.


They were practicing getting this guy in the sling, for when they would
need to get him out of the water for a check up or something. He did
a good job, and Monkey loved all the little tricks he did.

My favorite part was the manatees. I can't remember if I've ever seen a manatee up close
and personal before, but I sure did at this place.



They were so cute!!
They were named Hugh and Buffett, and they kept swimming up to the window of the tank
to come see us. : )


...This one kept running into the window! I couldn't tell if
he was doing it on accident to be funny, or if he just couldn't see (they have very
tiny little eyes!).


So, all in all, we loved Sarasota, and we had a great weekend. : )

Weekend Adventure!

Because this is the last free weekend we have before
the Hubs starts his new job, we decided to go on a little getaway
to Sarasota. Not to be confused with Saratoga, which I started typing
and then had to backspace. Derrrrr....

Anyway, this is one of our favorite things to do. Go to places, stay the night,
explore. Its something that is so important to me. My parents
were always amazing about taking me places and spending time with me. I
always appreciated it, but now that I'm in the parental seat I
respect them for it even more. Some of my best memories
were from our little family getaway trips. I want Monkey to have those
same kind of great memories.

So. Wish us luck in our little adventure. I will be sure to photograph our findings
and report back!

Hope you all have your own weekend adventures planned, of some sort...

Weekend

1. I love the smell of the office supply store. And all of that stuff is like crack
to me. I want to buy all the pretty post-it notes, pens, highlighters, etc. and then
arrange them all neatly on my desk at work. Yes, I know, I am very strange.

2. Making your own stamp is kind of a pain in the ass. I now know why they are so
expensive. Yeesh.

3. I like baking. And I'm not that bad at it.

4. I don't plan on running out on Thursday to buy up Avatar on DVD, Blu-Ray, or whatever.
Eh.

5. I now sit and read cookbooks like my mother. Huh?

6. Monkey can charm the socks off of anyone if he puts his mind to it. He
can also drive me to drink. : )

7. Outback Steakhouse makes a great black cherry peach mojito. Yummmmmm...

8. I miss my mom and dad. Its gotten so bad that I've begun "house-shopping" with
them in mind. I will convince them to move here...dammit.

9. I've had that old song, "Mama Tried" stuck in my head all evening.

10. I seem to find blogging really difficult lately- aside from making lists such as this one.
Sorry, folks.

Easter...A Week Later

Just a little recap of how Easter was for us.


Wonderful! : )



We ate too much candy...





Monkey got lots of goodies from the Easter Bunny...








.


And we got to play outside!




All in all it was a great day. We are all very blessed to have one another!

Clash.....ish

Monkey was having a slumber party at his grandma and papa's, and so the BFF and I went to see Clash of the Titans.

Eh.

I am not a film critic, even though I love movies. In fact, more often than not, I like movies that the critics hate. And, really, it doesn't take much for me to be entertained. I know all this about myself, I admit it- hell, I embrace it.

All that said, I don't think I should be bored during a film that is a supposed epic. There is no excuse for it. What happened?? When you have a crazy awesome story, Liam Neeson as flippin' ZEUS, and cute little Sam Worthington- that guy you might have seen in a little flick called, uh, AVATAR-, and endless amazing movie technology that we have nowadays....you better freakin' give me something good. But I was left wanting. And especially when its a remake- you need to make it BETTER. Not worse, or even the same. Better. Otherwise its just unnecessary.

I'm worried that this whole 3-D business is going to ruin movies. I get that its cool, I get that we all like feeling like we're right in the middle of the action, etc. However, I do not think a storyline can be sacrificed just because your film is in 3-D. Both need to be done correctly. And really, if I'm going to pay nine, ten, even twelve bucks to see your movie, its my right as a consumer to see a quality film. No?

That said, it wasn't the worst film ever. I was still semi-entertained. But I would have liked more character connections, more storyline, more EMOTION. The BFF said that the film needed a woman's touch- it was lots of fighting, no emotional draw. When men died, we just left 'em in the dust. No one cared, because no one remembered one from the other.

In the end, it was still a good night. Its always nice to be out and go to the theater and just be a girl in the world for awhile, instead of Mama-mode. : ) And that I'm thankful for.