I'm Baaaaack

Sooo long since my last post! My apologizes - hope I didn't lose you. Things have been so hectic here it's been hard to take a breath. We are having beautiful Florida weather right now (sorry to all y'all that have SNOW). Yesterday we spent the day at the beach for the first time since we moved here. What a nice beach! We had a great time, saw some beach volleyball teams that were on tour and now suffering from extreme sunburn. Yep, sunburn in April!

This week Kyle stars as the lead in his school play "The Emperor's New Clothes" - showing Thursday and Friday night this week. I'll try to take lots of pictures. Reality hit of the work he has put into it when I dropped in to Wynn Dixie earlier today and saw a big poster for the play on the front window of the store. Guess we need to really rehearse some lines this week! Kyle is the "king" and we ordered him a super cute king costume on line. Hey - where does one shop for a "COSTUME" when it's not Halloween - why on line of course!

Well have a good week! Watch for "play photos" soon!
xoxo

Don't Drop the Soap!

NORTHWEST FLORIDA BUSINESSMAN SENTENCED TOFOUR YEARS IN FEDERAL PRISON FOR TAX FRAUD

Pensacola, Florida - Gregory R. Miller, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Florida, announced that Roy P. Snowden was sentenced today on conviction for five counts of Evasion of Payment of Income Taxes and one count of Conspiracy to Defraud the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
Snowden admitted during his November 2006 plea hearing that he was a businessman engaged in a variety of marketing and investment-type ventures, including a magazine distribution business. He had most recently been manufacturing and selling “Java Jo’z” drive-thru coffee businesses. The indictment and factual basis for pleas further proved that his wife was named president and director of the Ft. Walton Beach business, though the indictment alleges she had little to do with its operation.
Snowden admitted that he failed to file accurate and timely income tax returns from 1992 through 1997, and was subsequently assessed taxes by the IRS. After the tax assessment, Snowden admitted he transferred businesses and placed assets in others’ names, and created corporate entities which he used in part to transfer and hold money and property out of the reach of the IRS.
Senior United States District Judge Lacey A. Collier sentenced Snowden to 48 months (four years) imprisonment, to be followed by three years of supervised release, and to pay a special monetary assessment of $100 per count of conviction. Judge Collier further ordered Snowden to pay $1.16 million restitution to the IRS. To date, Snowden has already paid over $900,000 of that restitution to the IRS.
The investigation was conducted by IRS Criminal Investigation. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Michelle M. Heldmyer.

Our Bennegan's Experience

So very rarely do we ever go out for dinner on a Saturday night but we made this "family date" to go out tonight. We decided on Bennigan's, which is close the house. We arrived at 6:45 p.m. and waited 20 minutes, even though we could see empty tables in there. After being seated the gal we thought that might be our waitress unfortunately had that disease where she couldn't see new people at one of her tables looking at menus. We finally after another 15 minutes or so flag down this waiter and he says "oh, you're not my table I'll tell your girl". It was the girl with the eye disease that somehow couldn't see us! So I order a glass of red wine, W a cocktail, and K orders a rootbeer float. Oops, sorry, there's no rootbeer - even though it's on the menu. He gets the "Pepsi float" which consisted of a Pepsi with a blob of ice cream steaming down the glass. Get this, our appetizer platter arrived BEFORE our drinks. That's right, 20 minutes later she brings me a glass of wine in a brandy snifter! And there was about as much wine in there as if it were brandy in there. I said "this isn't a full glass of wine" - but waited that long and needed a drink by now! Why no wine glass you ask? They were "dirty"! ::what?:::(By the way, when my next one came in a wine glass I poured it into the snifter to see the level, I was served a 1/4 of a glass of wine. Then the meal. Since K ordered mini burgers and we ordered this huge appetizer platter we decided to share the steak and shrimp platter. It comes with a baked potato but we substituted french fries since we were sharing. The expeditor throws it on our table. A plate, with a steak and some shrimp. No potato, no fries, no steak knife, no extra plate.. just this lonely platter. Waitress finally meanders by and says "oh, no steak knifes. Comes back, sorry they are dirty too, no steak knives. How about some A-1 W asks.. she comes back, sorry we're out of A-1. She gives us the bill as says we took 10% off because of the A-1. BECAUSE OF THE A-1!?! They deducted $3.25 from our bill! The manager authorizes this HUGE discount but never looks us in the eye as she passes our table a kajillion times. As we are getting up to leave some guy is yelling at the waitress out loud about how they are staying and how bad it was and what a bitch the manager was. We just kept nodding and telling people waiting - while our section was near empty.. run while you can..run.. Bad Bennegans..never again!

Update: Bennagans called us then sent us a gift certificate for $40. Todate: still unused.

The Circus - Part Deux

Okay, we went to the circus. My kid loved it. I'm still mortified that they use elephants - huge, gigantic animals forced to stand with all four legs on small round stands, forced to jump onto their hind legs - I still think it's wrong. I think the tigers are wrong too. They were all hissing and swatting at the guy with the "whip" and half way through I swear I was rooting for the tigers to just swat the guy a good one. The little dogs (poodles and such) were cute. The elephants play quite a small part - one little bit where they make them do ridiculous things and then mostly people riding/parading them around - why don't they just eliminate them from the show? It's just wrong. We actually had to cross a picket line of people who felt this exact way. I'm weak..had to go in anyways. Ahh the things we do for our children. I freely admit I'm a hypocrite on this one. Never again will I go...I promise.
I'm not even gonna mention clowns....

The Circus

So tomorrow we are going to the CIRCUS. Yep, I actually agreed to go to the circus! My fear of clowns should be in overdrive but I was convinced my son needs to see the circus. It should be quite the day. I'll let you know how it goes.

A New Day

Today is a new day. Let's all breathe and go about our business and let the chips fall where they may.

Let's everyone do a random act of kindness and get on with life.

January 1st, 2007

Wow, gotta get used to writing 2007, it's a funky reach with the finger on the keyboard.
So, six days after Christmas as we have already suffered from new toy boredom. That's right, all the cool stuff that was under the tree and all had to be opened and played with that very day, is stacked, tossed, shoved, and ignored now. :sigh: Next year it's underwear and socks, lots and lots of underwear and socks, and may a shirt.... yea a shirt or two.. and maybe pants. Every gift will feel like the dreaded clothes gift...... Got just under a year to plot........

Happy New Year

Happy New Year to you all! May 2007 be your best year yet. Just say no to resolutions, have the cupcake, wear your comfortable shoes, and sing along to that song!

http://www.thenumbersmovie.com/

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

WHOA

Where does the time go? Totally ashamed of myself that my last post is December 2nd and today is already the 13th, no 14th, no 15, NO 16th!! ARGH. Okay, so the tree is up, the outside lights make our new place Christmas-beautiful and I guess you'd say 95% of the shopping is complete. The reason I say 95% because..well.. you never seem done. For some reason there is always something that makes you go out and brave the crowds again. Not to mention that Kyle's birthday is on Wednesday the 20th which brings a whole new set of plans and problems.

Nice experience at Publix today (the grocery store) where I bought a bag of Idaho potatoes that were on sale - just grabbed a bag and threw it into the cart. I had walked away for a minute while they were scanning and bagging and the bag-boy comes up to me with the bag of potatoes in a grocery bag and says "smell this". Well, after all these years I know better! I could have kicked myself! I know better than when someone says "smell this" YOU DON'T. UGH I still can't get that smell of rotten potatoes out of my mind. He, on the other hand, had a pretty hardy laugh when I said "I even know better than to smell something that someone says smell this" (not to mention the sour look on his face).

One thing that surprises me here in Jax is how nice most of the people are. Everywhere else I have lived this time of year shopping brings out the nasty in people. You know them - the grumby people that are sighing and rolling their eyes and have nasty-icky all of their faces..
This morning I encountered the nicest, most pleasant people ever. They smiled, they apologized for being in the way, they said "excuse me", it was nice and quite the surprise. I remember when we lived in Vegas and it was the polar opposite this time of year. Jax people are quite nice I must say.

Okay, off to wrap. Kyle is at the skatepark so gotta grab the opportunity when I can! Cheers all and happy shopping and stuff...

Congrats to My Cool Friend Becky

My cool friend Becky (in my blog links) completed NaBloPoMo (aka National Blog Posting Month) wherein she had to post EVERYDAY in the month of November. Now those of you who post blogs know just how darn hard that is to find something every single day to post about. Well, Becky did it. I cheered her on from afar and, when time allowed, sent off an email or two telling her how great she was doing. Now that December is here, she can breath and know the pressure is off for another year BUT GIRL... WAY TO GO!!! You "blog rock" my dear.

Giving Thanks

So Thursday was Thanksgiving here (my Canadian friends and family celebrate Thanksgiving the second Monday in October). We, of course, give thanks to all the stuff we should - family, friends, health blah blah but on this post I would like to thank the hillbilly woman at Wal-Mart who found it necessary to walk past me and COUGH RIGHT IN MY FACE. Thanks! I've been sick as a dog for almost six days now and did a 3 hour wait at the walk-in clinic to get meds. It was like I could see myself inhaling her germs! I'd post more..BUT I'M TOO SICK.

November brrrrrrr

So I think that we have lost sight of COLD. Having been in the South for about 12 years now I can truly say I'm cold when it's 65 degrees out. I remember chinook days in Canada where 65 was WARM AND NICE! We grab the hoodies and move from barefeet to warm fuzzy slippers. When Kyle was playing ball a week ago we actually turned the heat on in the car on the way home! I know, I know...we've become WEATHER SOFT. Anyways, if it's snowing where you are - I'm sorry. It's still a little warm and my windows are open and hoping for a cooler breeze for sleeping tonight.

This Week :phew:

Hell week in Florida...but... it was my sister LAUREN'S birthday this week. In case you didn't know - the sun actually DOES rise and shine for her.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LAUREN, WE LOVE YOU!

!!

Sunday

Well it has been quite the week in Florida. Firstly, our weather is bizarre. Started to get a little cooler (low 70's) which was soooo nice..then it spiked back up to 90. Some mornings it was so humid that the steam coming out of the car a/c seemed like smoke and you glasses would fog up the minute you stepped outside. It's suppose to get "more reasonable" this week - we'll see.
I went from temporary to permanent a my job 45 days early which is great. My "official" first day is Monday (tomorrow) where I get my "badge" and they take that geek picture that they send out to everyone and their brother in email. Feel real bad about making fun of those people now!
Kyle is playing lots and lots of baseball and is getting better each game. He's more confident and yesteday's game he even pitched an inning and stuck a guy out! Way to go Kyle! Today he's gone fishing with his friends.
Halloween is coming up and, once again, he wants to be something REALLY REALLY scary. I think it's to make up for those ever-so-cute costumes I put him in when he was younger. :sigh:
But we all know what this means... kit kats for everyone! My mom used to take out all of the bubblegum from our bags - I, to this day, don't know why -but alas I do the same thing. Still don't know why, but it seems like the right thing to do. Not a fan of gum anyways, he seems to end up in places that I have to clean.

Well start of a new week - have a good one!

American Translation

So I thought my Canadian family and friends would enjoy this one...

While the kids are playing little league baseball and when they are up to bat, they shout

"put it where they ain't!"

Translation: "Hit the ball where no person is standing".

Whoa - bad English on EVERY level......

I Know (part deux)

I'm so sorry - I realize my last entry is SEPTEMBER! Trying to adapt to a new full-time job and then having such a short window of time when I'm home in the evening to spend with the family has left my poor blog neglected. As time goes by it's getting easier so bear with me!

Kyle Joins Baseball

Living in Florida and so close to the beautiful baseball field (complete with batting cages and big lights) Kyle signed up for baseball. Little did we know that they are pretty serious about their little league in Florida and the kids are "drafted". Since none of the coaches were familiar with Kyle we got very lucky where the number one team and number one coach drafted him. As it turns out, Kyle is not only the youngest on the team but also the smallest. As it also turns out, this team has never lost. It has put quite the pressure on Kyle as he has really only played on one team (in Vegas) and it was just a "fun and play as you go" type team. First few practices were difficult for him and trying to make friends with team members that had known each other for years was also a challenge. Warren's due diligence paid off. After daily dates of "playing catch" and numerous trips to the batting cage, he had him ready for his first game on Friday night. There we were, under the lights for an 8:00 pm start. Kyle was tenth in the batting order. Nobody had hit when he went up to bat. Then, there he goes - a perfect connect that sailed over the shortstop and into the whole between left and center fields. Kyle hit a single and eventually got home and scored! They have a two hour time limit so his second bat he walked and again scored. Biggest news of the night??

Kyle was MVP for the night and got the game ball!!! Horray for Kyle, proving hard work and diligence pays off!!

Made Me Laugh