HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY LIL PUMPKIN!

Dear Sisters,

It's been a while since my last post and I guess I've  just been plain ole' lazy.  Well, the weather for the past 3 weeks has been INCREDIBLE.  It's been mid 80 during the day and 68 @ night. The kids and I actually went to the beach after church and it was soooo gorgeous out.  No Diana, I did not take any pics today cuz all of my beach pics look the same ;0) The gulf was nice and calm and the kids spent their whole afternoon in the water.  Ohhhhhh that water......... the water was a nice greenish aquamarine color today..... so gorgeous! I just don't think I'll ever get over how nice the beaches are down here :0)

Anyways, I can't believe my lil pumpkin is already 3 :0(  THANK YOU SO MUCH EVERYBODY FOR ALL OF THE NEW CLOTHES! She has a whole new wardrobe for the cooler season and I REALLY appreciate it, foreals! I don't even know what Floridians call this season. It's not Autumn or Fall.  Maybe they just call it the "cooler season". If a fellow Floridian happens to read this, could you please tell me what this season is called :0) 

So, for my lil pumpkins birthday, we went to Chuck E. Cheese and just had cake and pizza @ home... nuttin' too fancy.  Well, WE had pizza, but the celebrant had pizza crust because of you know what and she was content w/ that.

Here's my big girl wearing Lola Evie's outfit.

She really loved the rides!

Yay!!!!!! Tickets!!!! That is what Chuck E. Cheese is all about!

Oh my!  My lil pumpkin rode on this virtual roller coaster ride 4 times in a row.... she couldn't get enough of it!

Here's the strawberry Littlest Petshop cake I made for her.  It was really ugly until I added candy hearts to it :0)

My big girl w/ daddy blowing out the candles.  She is too freakin' cute, man.

So yeah, we had a fun day, BUT it wasn't the same because the cousins were missing :0( Birthdays were always fun back @ home.  Man, I really do miss you guys!!!!

Miss and love you lots,

Joy :0)

PERDIDO KEY

Dear Sisters,

I think the best part about living down here are the beaches.  My goal for the summer was to visit different beaches that are within an hour drive from me. I've been to all of them on the map below except for Fort Pickens, as the roads to that beach were never repaired from Ivan back in 2005.  If you actually click on the map, you can see where we live (Myrtle Grove) and how far the beaches are from us. I think a lot of people think we live minutes away from the beach, but actually it is the same distance as driving to Nantasket Beach back home. 

The kids and I usually go to Casino Beach but for the past couple of weekends we've been going to Johnson's Beach in Perdido Key.  

I'm not quite sure if Perdido Key is actually part of Pensacola, but it is so beautiful over there or shall I say,  "the grass is greener on the other side" if you know what I mean ;0) It actually feels like I'm on vacation when I'm over there because they have all these different pastel color houses and picture perfect palm trees (which I don't have pics of) when you first enter this little town.  I wish there were picture perfect palm trees all over Pensacola.  Before coming down here, I used to think that the whole state of Florida was all tropical with palm trees all over the place and I'm assuming a lot of northerners think the same, BUT here in good ol' P'cola I've only seen them in:

1. Fancy neighborhoods

2. In front of hospitals and 

3. In front of banks

Anyways, here are a bunch of pics of the kiddos in the "public" part of Johnson's beach.....

Most of buildings on this beach are condos....... I think I will retire here :0)

I think for the next beach season, I will buy 3 bathing suits for each child because I just realized that most of my beach pics I have taken look like they were all from the same day.

I love this "Bay Watch" running pic.

Here's my lil pumpkin enjoying my bag of Munchos......

Mmmmmmmm, soooooooo goooooooood!!!

I think there are only 4 to 5 more weeks of beach weather in this part of Florida :0(  I am going to try to make the most of it and try to go 3 more times.  I am REALLY going to miss my exotic tanned skin and I'm not looking forward to turning back to my original pasty beige color :0(

Miss you guys sooooooooooo much,

Joy

P.S- You can actually click on all the pics to take a better look if they are too small.

ED'S VISIT PART II

Dear Sisters, 

I can't believe it is already September!  Hurricane Gustav has already arrived and fortunately all we are getting in this part of the gulf region are spurts of heavy rains.  

I REALLY need to get used to tropical storms and hurricane warnings, as the season runs until mid October.  I was a bit worried when tropical storm Fay was making it's way to our area last weekend because the news was flashing flood warnings on TV.  Thank goodness all Fay did was make big waves for the surfers @ the beach that day the guys went fishing @ the Pensacola Beach Pier.

This is the pier the guys went fishing @ last Sunday.

The boy caught his very first fish!

Hey, you know if they were fishing @ Wollaston Beach, they would've caught a tampon instead ;0)

I think Ed was a lil sad that I got there too late w/ the camera to take a pic of the 22" fish he caught (which he had to set free cuz it was too small).

Ray was happy to be there :0)

That day they went fishing, Fay was making the waves really big and there were signs posted to stay out of the gulf.  Here's a pic of the beach on a good day.......

Here's a pic of how ruff the water was last Sunday.

A beautiful day on Pensacola Beach (Casino Beach) ........

Ruff waves that would've carried the kids off to sea........

There's a beach right across the street that faces inland called Quietwater Beach. That beach has zero waves and is great for the lil ones to swim in. I could've brought the kiddos over there that day, but it's not gorgeous like Casino Beach, which faces the gulf. It's okay though.... instead of swimming in the beautiful gulf, we went seashell hunting ;0)  Well, I hope everyone had a wonderful long weekend.

Miss you lots,

Joy :0)

JUST PLAIN BORED

Dear Sisters,

It's a Friday night and I am so freakin' BORED.  I wanted to play poker tonight, but the peeps we invited just flaked out.  I'm bummed cuz I needed to redeem myself from the last poker game plus I needed to make some money to buy some pampers ;0)

I can't believe Labor Day weekend is already here.  I have no plans :0(  Ray is in Jacksonville for the long weekend and Archie is working Saturday and Monday.  I think I'll just end up cleaning the house and shred the 4 boxes of mail I have laying around here.  I hope you guys have plans.  You all are probably going to a bbq or something fun.

My job hunting has really SUCKED. I've applied @ like 6 places and nobody likes me :0(  Maybe I am just unemployable in FL.  My nail license did not transfer.  They said I would have to do another 120 hours of schooling.  I don't think I'll do that cuz I am always checking online for day spa jobs and nobody is hiring.  Tuesday, I am going to apply @ every freakin' restaurant in Pensacola.  I'm also going to get CPR certified either this week or next week so I can work for this nursing temp agency to work as a CNA or a home health aide.  I really did not want to go back into that but I'll do anything @ this point.  I can't wait to go back to school so I don't I have to work bullshit jobs anymore.  I'm hoping I'll be able to use Archie's FL residency so I can start taking classes in the spring :0)

Well anyways, I forgot to post these pics of this cute lil box turtle Ray found in his yard back in June.  We only kept it around for a couple of days then we let it go because I did not want the cute lil thing to starve to death.

Aint he the cutest lil thing you've ever seen!

He's hiding and wishing me to go away :0)

I think I have a turtle fetish now just like how Diana did back in the day :0)

The kids were sad to see him go :0(

Wellllllllll, I hope everybody has a great and fun filled weekend.  Eat tons of turkey burgers and smoked ribs for me!  Man, I miss Matt's cooking!

Miss and love you guys,

Joy :0)

ED'S VISIT PART I

Dear Sisters,

It's already been two days since Archie's mom and brother went back to MA and I already miss them :0(  It was so nice to have them around and I hope they are able to come back for Christmas.  I THINK Ed had fun while he was down here.  I wish we could've went out a little bit more but he was very content with staying in and watching movies @ night.  

The first night he was here we just chilled in Ray's backyard, drinking beers and smokin' butts.  SPEAKING ABOUT BUTTS, Ed said that cigarettes cost $6.50 in MA! HOLY SHIT!!!! They only cost around $3.oo @ the commisary. Anyways yeah, so we stayed in the first night but the second night we took him to Seville's.  Please note that they do not play that corny music in the clubs. I had a blast hangin' out w/ Archie and his brothers cuz we haven't done that in AGES.  Ed had a great time as you will see in the following pictures :0) But first off, I had to include pics of Archie and Mo that were taken right before we went out because they are just waaaaaaay to funny!

This is Ray's pony Mo. He was never broken in and is just an oversized dog that roams around his backyard.  Mo is an asshole.  He doesn't like me and I most certainly don't like him. He likes to try to nip me whenever I go outside. HOWEVER, for some odd reason, he LOVES Archie. Whenever Archie is outside, he LOVES to go next to his face and nuzzle with him, I shit you not!  I think it is the cutest thing and I always laugh when he does it.  

Here's Ed on his 2nd Johnny Walker.  Notice how sober he is looking......

This is me forcing the brothers to smile. I HAD to take pics to show proof we actually went out!

That's Brandy, Archie's coworker.  We hang w/ her a lot and she kicked my ass playing pool last night @ O'Reilly's Pub.

Taken from the top floor of Seville's. The music in this section of the club SUCKS!

This is Archie's other coworker Bryan.  We hang out a lot w/ him as well and he too kicked my ass last night @ a game of cut throat.

Heeheehee, this is Ed on his 4th Johnny Walker and feelin' GOOOOOOOD :0)

And I'm pretty sure that was his 6th one, but it didn't matter cuz he was on vacation :0)

So yeah, it was a good time that night. I' m hoping that one of Ray's friend's daughters can babysit for us once in a while so that Archie, Ray and I can all go out together.  If not, I don't know when we'll ever get to all hang out like that again.

Miss and love you,

Joy :0)

UPDATE ON THE LAST TWO POSTS

Dear Sisters,

Remember how I mentioned in my last entry that Mar and I got interviewed by some news reporter @ my little turtle excursion, well THANK GOD they did not put that in their segment. However, we were in a good amount of their footage and you can see my fat ass in the video :0( Fudge, I think I've gained like 8lbs since I got here and then the camera adds like another 10, UGH! Well anyways, here's the link to the footage that was shown on the news a couple of nights ago.

Also, I just went on CNN again and found out that the Big Foot body that was stuffed in that huge ass freezer container was FAKE.  It was a stupid costume stuffed w/ animal remains. Don't these people have better things to do!?!?  Man, I REALLY hate being so gullible :0(

Well, I hope you guys are able to watch the news footage before it is taken down from the website. Miss you!!!!!

Love Always,

Joy :0)

GOOD LUCK LIL ONES!!!!!

Dear Sisters,

For the past couple of weeks I've been emailing back and forth w/ Kirsten, the marine biologist who specializes in sea turtles.  I asked her if the kids and I may accompany her to her next sea turtle release and she replied back saying it was hard to predict when but would let me know. Low and behold I got that magical email last night and I was like, "Fudge!!! The kids have school tomorrow and she's releasing the babies tomorrow morning @ 9:30." As you guessed, I let the children miss there 2nd day of school to witness this awesome event and this is how we spent our morning......

Here are the lucky babies that were cared for by Ms. Kirsten

There's Francisca shaking the babies fin before he heads off into the deep blue sea

Hello handsome!!!

There's Kirsten releasing 4 to 5 babies @ a time

Good luck lil ones!!!

Off he goes into the Gulf of Mexico

These type of sea turtles are called Kemp's Ridley Turtles.  They are the smallest in the sea turtle fam and are on the endangered species list.  The sad reality for these turtles is that it is estimated that only 1 out of 10,000 reach adulthood :0(  I am so glad that me and kids were able to witness such a wonderful event!  Please check out Kirsten "The Traveling Turtle Girl" on my blog list!  Well, I hope you guys enjoyed the pics! Hug and kiss the kids for me!

Love Always,

Joy :0)

P.S- The local news was there during the release and interviewed me and Mar..... I'm hoping they show Mar on the news tonight and NOT me!