I walk out the door this morning and BAM! COLDNESS! I was not expecting that. I get into my car and read the external temperature (yes, my car has a nifty feature, I LOVE my new car!) and it says 56 degrees!! I’m in South Florida People! The temperature hasn’t been lower than 70 in ages! It’s still mid to high 80’s during the day… and 56??? Major drop! I’m drinkin the hot cocoa this morning! lol. Too bad I can’t do coffee, I would love me a starbucks right now…

and PS, sorry to the cold states who are used to this already… it’s very new to me right now. First time I’ve felt cold this year that isn’t from the a/c! haha.

 and PS again… just a little funny tidbit of information… I was CRAVING tacobell last night… of course I didn’t get it, trying to save money here… and I had a dream about eating it! Not once, but twice. I woke up remembering the dream, and then i fell asleep again and had another related dream, almost like it continued. But I HATE when I dream about eating food. I always feel weirdly full when I wake up after I “eat” in my dreams, like I’ve been gulping down air or something lol. So weird, I know.

Hm I wish I had time to blog every morning, I would probably have more to say and get more posts out… TOO BAD!

ok I think I’ve warmed up enough, and over the shock,  to get to work now…

“Secrets, Secrets are no fun. Secrets, Secrets hurt someone.” (From “The Office” Season 3 Ben Franklin Episode)

In my family, I’m usually the last to know things. Possibly because I’ve always lived the farthest away, or maybe I just keep to myself the most, I’m not sure. But how things change! Not only do I know one family secret, but I know two! Now, I can’t share the actual secrets, so don’t get too disappointed on me…and they aren’t the type of secret that would hurt someone like the quote I used (I just really like the office and saw that episode recently and the rhyme has been in my head ever since and is somewhat fitting) so I dont have to worry about holding something bad in or keeping it from anyone in particular, so it’s not a bad thing.  But a couple weeks ago I called my sister for her birthday, we don’t talk on the phone much, and she was compelled to tell me something. I promised I would keep it a secret. Then yesterday, my little brother called me for some answers to a question and advice. Then at the end of the conversation said, “Let’s just keep this between us.” Sure thing! I won’t say a word. But in the back of my head said… oh great, another secret!! I can’t keep all these things bottled up inside! lol. But they are my family and I won’t tell a sole! (well… except my husband which I’m sure both knew I would have to do anyway, because we don’t keep secrets from each other! Actually I did tell my brother I already mentioned it to my hubby when he text’d me before he called, and he’s like, yeah of course, so he understood!)

so now that I got THAT off my chest… sort of!… on to the scary, but now happy stuff! The Hurricane Season is upon us!! And I’m sure you’ve heard lots about that. We’re already to letter J naming them!! That means there has been 10 tropical storms or hurricanes this season already! Yikes. And it’s not over until… I think Oct or November… I forget. So Hurricane Ike is a category 4!! OMG and it was projected to hit South Florida on Tuesday. LUCKILY!!! I just read my broward County updates email and read this:

Broward County Emergency Operations Center continues to closely monitor Hurricane Ike even though Broward County is not in the storm’s projected track or cone of error.

New Projection:

YEA! However we will still be in the outer bands with wind gusts up to 40mph! and they also say…

This is a very dangerous storm and the situation could change as the storm continues its track. All residents should be prepared and have their personal hurricane plan ready to implement.

I’m very disappointed with this 4th of July… It’s the first time in like 8 yrs that we actually had plans to do something… last year for example we were flying back to MI for  our friends wedding, so no plans there!  So we go to the  beach and we’re there for only about a 1/2 hour before it starts sprinkling. This guy, who seems like the most optimistic person I’ve ever met, kept saying, “it will pass, don’t worry guys it will pass.” So we sit and sit and get wetter and wetter. Then it starts coming down a little harder and we’re thinking about calling it a night, but still hoping it will clear up. We’ve been sitting there getting wet for well over an hour now. Then all of a sudden lightning starts to light up the sky and we decide it’s best to leave! We are, afterall, on the beach with big palm trees everywhere and ppl sitting under umbrellas… best to get out of there! I did see a few fireworks driving home, just the little ones ppl set off themselves, no show or anything. and now it stopped raining over here were we live so a bunch of people are out setting them off now, but it’s just not the same! It’s not the “show” I was expecting…what a disappointment! Story of my life…. story of my life…

(the rainy car ride home…)

Writing exercise 10: use 15 specific words italicized… however the forms of the word are changed in some cases making plural or past tense…  (all formed from 4 or more letters from the word CRAVEN) starting with…

I was craving…

some adventure. I had been in the same routine day in and day out for the past year. Nothing changed ever, nothing was exciting anymore. I was in a rut. Then I remembered how much my cousin raved about this hiking trip he took. He was a little vane about the trip so I didn’t get many details, but he did seem so much more laid back when he got back from the trip. So I decided to fly to Tennessee and go hiking in my Grandfathers backyard. It wasn’t, however, just any back yard. He lived on an acre or so of land, the huge field led right to the Smokey Mountains. As soon as I neared his house, I could see him rocking on the porch carving a hunk of wood into a bird of sorts. “What are you making?” I asked him. “Well, it’s a raven,” he replied. “I’ll have it finished by the time you get back.” He picked up his cane and walked into the house with me and made us some supper.

The next morning, feeling not a care in the world, I raced towards the mountains. However I was startled by a loud noise to my right. The neighbors were building and a crane just dropped the load it was carrying. Everyone was scrambling towards the crane. Not such a peaceful start to the morning, I thought. Hopefully once I get away from the houses the adventure will really begin. As soon as I come upon the base of the mountain I am absorbed by nature. The sight is spectacular, the sounds, the smell- I just tried to take it all in. There was so much to see. I snapped pictures of everything: birds, small animals, flowers, even the rocks and dirt. As I continued on my hike and taking pictures of the mountain I noticed a small cave. I was hesitant to check it out, fearing an animal might be inside. I turned on my flash light and carefully poked my head inside the cavern. I didn’t see anything but I heard something, so I booked it out of there. I couldn’t have averred that it was a bear, because I wasn’t certain, but I did not want to find out either. But I say that I earned the bragging rights of successfully climbing the Smokey Mountains and closely averting danger.

Writing exercise 9 Building Blocks

(using 2 mens names, 1last name, age, setting and body of water, write a story)

The Last Time I… was in a canoe I was probably 18 years old. We canoed down the Au Sable River one nice and sunny day. We canoed with brothers Tyler and Wyatt and one of Wyatt’s friends. Neither myself or my friend Roberta had canoed in a long time. She mostly sat in the middle while Tyler and I paddled the one canoe. The funniest part of the trip was when Wyatt and his friend flipped their canoe over. The scariest part was when Wyatt decided to jump from a railroad track going over the water. He climbed up the beams of the bridge and I thought he was going to break his neck! He wasn’t scared of anything. And the most entertaining of the trip was when we got stuck on a sand bar and Tyler had to jump out and push us, he acted like it was a motor boat and even when we were free he kept on pushing. But then the sun started to go down and we knew Tyler had to get home or he’d be in trouble with his mom. But it was the age where you had to try to act tough and “cool” and he pretended that he didn’t care, “I’m Tyler-fucking-Perry I can do whatever I want, I don’t answer to No-body.” Ok Mr. Perry, we know you don’t care, but you won’t be able to hang out with us anymore if you don’t go  now, so we should get you home, pronto. Who knew that canoing would take so long and that you couldn’t just go back when you were tired. You actually had to make the whole journey down the river because, there is no turning back with the current and no pulling over until you reach the destination.  Who knew taking the 5 hr canoe ride would be so tiring, yet so fun at the same time.

And the month long challenge is now done! My last post is Nature for the color red… well I hope you consider this nature… they at least live out in the nature… are animals nature? now i’m doubting HAHA. well i’m considering this nature anyway, these crazy ducks are always around my apt complex. And their faces are red they are the most stubborn ducks too, they will not move out of your way , you have to actually drive around them… They’re not scared of you either. Sometimes they are on the sidewalk when I’m coming out of work and I walk right next to them and they don’t even move. They eye you alright, but they don’t move or bother you.

Another day for a Yellow Pic Post. I’m using the wild card category and took a pic of my fish lure (is that how u spell it the way i’m using it? lol no idea, I haven’t done this in a while). So today we finally decided to use our new fishing poles that we got a few months ago… HAHA. there’s just a little lake behind our apt which we got the fishing poles for but just never got down there! I guess the fresh air for the past two days and being outside just made us want to stay out and not get couped up inside at all. So we went fishing when we got back from Orlando. Didn’t catch anything, but had fun trying to get the hang of the whole fishing thing again. I used to fish all the time when I was younger. My grandparents lived on a lake, so we had plenty of opportunity for that. I really wish they didnt sell that cottage or my family had more money because we wanted to buy it. Actually us kids wanted to buy it the most but I was only in 6th grade when they sold it so obviously we were too young for that haha. It was the best place for all of the family to go to and get together and we knew without that cottage we would never see each other… and thats what happened! very sad… but lets not get this story going on the sad route… because fishing was a happy time, happy story hahaha… so anyway heres the picture! I kind of like the reflection of the sky/clouds and trees in the water…

well sort of… Im back online! this is the first time I was able to get online during the vaca… and it’s only because i’m up before everyone else lol.

So i owe pics for the past 2 days… I’m going with the nature for thurs and text for Friday.

Thurs. Nature. Flowers.

The lovely yellow flowers were located in Sea World. We actually got free tickets to sea world from my uncle! Free is always nice! so we did that on Thursday. The best part was the mime before one of the shows. he was there to entertain and keep you occupied until the show started, and he did a damn good job. He was hilarious. And it wasn’t the hands on the wall or trapped in a box routine if thats what you’re thinking! he was interacting with the people that were walking in for the show. if someone was on their phone he’d walk behind them pretending to be on a phone, or make faces at people until they noticed he was following. he did a whole bunch of hilarious things, and you know… i dont think i got a picture of him… damn. lol.

Day 2, Friday. Category TEXT. There were many yellow signs at Universal Studios…here are just a few…

Universal Studios was a little more fun then sea world. But I haven’t been there since I was in 6th grade, so I didn’t remember much. My Uncle (a diff. one than the one who gave us the free tickets to seaworld) and little cousin who is about 10 or 11 went as well as my parents and my husband. They live here so they have been a million times. Don’t get me wrong, it was really nice to see my Uncle and Cousin so it was nice they came and spent time with us, but they’ve done it all. So they had certain things they wanted to do or see and they knew their way around so we’d go here and there and back again. Well the way we (hubby and I) like to do it is just go around the whole park in a circle to be sure we see everything and don’t miss anything. If we dont want to do something we’ll just skip over it but at least we got to see it or see where it was and whatnot. But we obviously didnt get to do that so I feel like we missed out on the experience a little, and also there were a couple things at the end we were like, “Oh we didnt do that, we forgot to look for it, i didnt even see it.” The park closed at 7 so we didnt get to do everything… and then there is my dad. my poor dad, hes not even that old but his health is not that great right now. He’s sick and doesnt have much energy. So a lot of things he would sit out, and wait for us instead of waiting in line or if it was a jerky ride he would wait out as well. So instead of being able to sit in one place while we did a couple things, he’d have to walk back and forth with us across the park while we went here or there. So we walked more than what we would have if we just went though the park in a circle. So I felt real bad for him But he doesn’t complain, I just know it really wore him out.

Other than things not going as I completely wanted the park was great. We saw a lot of great shows, they have a fear factor and you can try out if you wanted before the show. They have an animal actors show, i forgot what its called somethng like Horror makeup show where they show you how they do the blood and guts for movies, that was pretty interesting. they have a couple 3D shows, terminator and shrek those were cool. And the rides we went on were great. This one roller coaster, the mummy, that was cool. it was shorter then i expected though. i was just happy it didnt go upside down though haha, and it was all in the dark. we bought the pic for that… i kno tourist scam, so much money… but i had to, our faces were PRICELESS. My uncle had his eyes shut, my mom was Screaming, my eyes were bugging out so big, and curt had this face with his lips puckered cuz he was going WOOOOOO! lol. it was great. My dad and little cousin sat that ride out. well anyway, it was a great 2 days off work and great visit with my family! Just sad it ended so soon!

Day 4 of Green, Category Nature. As I think I might have mentioned in the earlier post, I love the palm trees here in Florida! I never realized how much I liked palm trees until I moved here. I mean, I always thought they were neat, but I never felt the relaxed happy feeling like I do until I moved here. There is just something about them that seems so tropical that it makes it a happy place when you are around them. I have so many right here in my apartment complex and even some right out my front window.

On another note… anyone watch American Idol?? I can’t believe that Michael Johns went home tonight. Such a shocker!! I like Carly but I hate that pessimistic attitude, she really thought she was leaving. I mean, its good to know when you suck (haha) but don’t go over the top with it, I mean you obviously never know whats going to happen! I liked the Australian dude and I’m sad to see him go.   I really wanted Kristy LEE COOK to go… I can’t stand her, she idolizes Simon of all people and cares so much about what he has to say its annoying, not to mention the use of 3 names… and shes not that good… I can’t believe she wasn’t even in the bottom 3! But her time will come, I dont see her going much further.

And a 3rd topic… THE OFFICE started up again tonight YEAAA!!! Its my favorite show right now and I’m happy its back! It was kind of crazy tonight… but thats what I like about it lol. Very funny, always something to laugh or almost cringe about

Ok I think I’ll go to bed now… whenever I want to write a quick post I always have so much to say for some reason… haha

When was the last time you saw the sun rise? I mean really rise, not just get light out. I can’t tell you the last time for me… probably way back when when I used to stay up all night, I caught the sun rise that way once or twice But on my way into work this morning the timing was just right and I got to see the sun coming up. I only drive east for about 1/2 a block in the morning, then I turn and drive south, so I never see it. But probably because of the time change, it was perfect. It was pretty cloudy this morning but just right to see the sun shine through coming up over the roadway. It was beautiful and I wish I could have gone out the beach to watch it rise the rest of the way up… maybe one weekend I will have to try to do that… it was a great start to my morning!