Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Happy 92nd Birthday Grandma

Happy Birthday Nana! These are photos of my Grandmother's 92nd birthday. We all traveled up to Deland for Sunday afternoon where we enjoyed some good ol' family time. I love my family! They are so funny. We know all kinds of funny stories about each other from the past. I was so selfish! I am still selfish, but oh how far the Lord has brought me. They knew me when. They always make me laugh. Grandma seemed quite pleased to be the belle of the ball and posed for tons of photos. I needed to get one with me and all my cousins....next time. Just wanted to publicly thank God for my sweet Grandma and her funny ways. She has lived through so much and she has survived more than I hope to ever survive. God certainly made her resilient. I don't know that I have half the character that she does. Anyway, thank You Lord for Nana and bless her and in Your perfect time take her home to her Heavenly reward. You blessed me with a family that knows me and loves me anyway and I'm forever grateful. Yours, js





Sunday, February 15, 2009

Daytona 500 Fest-Ode to Sprint

So, hey there. Right now I'm in a black SUV with a police escort leaving the Daytona 500 with some pretty intoxicated folks and I'm not even kidding. Doesn't that sound like fun? Thankfully none of them are driving. David and I are away for the weekend in Daytona as Sprint's guests. David received the invitation through work. It has been a fun weekend that culminated in our attending the Daytona 500.

We arrived on Friday afternoon to a lovely room on the ocean. There was free food and drinks all weekend. I told David that this would be the weekend to start drinking and he said, "that's fine as long as you can quit by Sunday night." So, I drank like 450 free diet cokes. With lots of ice. Just like I like them. As Sprint's guests we had some fun activities planned. David went by bus to Disney's Driving Experience and was on the winning racing team. He had a ball. I stayed back at the resort and received a massage at the hotel's spa. It was really nice. The problem with a massage is that you are supposed to lie still and enjoy it. My problem was that I had an itch. I laid there trying to decide if I could scratch my itch or not...finally I did. Anyway, it was a really nice treat. Last night we had a nice dinner where they presented the ladies with a small bouquet of roses. We sat and ate dinner with strangers. There was one guy at our table who calmly stated that he had driven 162 miles an hour in his BMW on the turnpike. To which I replied, "excuse me? did you say you drove 162 miles an hour? on the turnpike?" He responded calmly and I held my tongue...at least I tried to. I think I might, maybe, have calmly said, "are you kidding me?!" with an "oh my goodness" thrown in for good measure. It was at that point that I just shut my mouth and smiled across the table at the idiot...sorry for I offend any of you speed demons, but wow...that could so kill someone. Anyway, after a lovely dinner and very stimulating conversation David and I headed up to our room.

This morning we got up and David had to attend a sales meeting in order to receive our tickets to the race. The exciting thing was that at the meeting David won a pass to the "Driver's Meeting" at the race. I had no idea what a driver's meeting was, but people were congratulating us so I figured out pretty quick that it was a big deal. I'm no dummy you know. There were 2 buses of Sprint people and our buses had a police escort to the race. Your tax dollars hard at work or maybe Sprint paid for the escorts, but it seemed a bit extreme to me. I kept thinking that the people we were passing had been waiting for a long time. Just didn't seem fair to butt in line like that. I felt like a fraud. You know, like I should be someone important to receive a police escort and all. It was weird. Since Sprint sponsors the race we had wonderful accommodations in a suite with more free food, drinks and headsets where we could hear the drivers talking to their pit chiefs and such. Don't I sound like a race fan? We also had tours of the pits. Lots of tires in them there pits I tell ya. I decided to root for Jeff Gordan and so I was listening to him on my headset. At one point he had some choice words to say about car no. 2 who didn't have a bumper anymore for him to bump up against. Thankfully his language didn't shock me. I'm a southern girl...I've heard some language. Oh, I forgot...Keith Urban was the entertainment and he sang 3 whole songs. Are you kidding me? And Tom Cruise was there 'cause he's a race fan don't cha know. I was about 15 feet from him when we were all inside at the Driver's Meeting and HE HAD ON HIS SUNGLASSES. It was the Top Gun look I'm thinking. Oh, I digress...from our suite the view was lovely and the noise was not bad at all :). Ok, as an aside, the drunk gal in front of me is yelling into her phone trying to order a pizza...oh my goodness...she is just drunk enough to be funny. She yelled into the phone..."I'm staying at the nicest hotel in Daytona" when the people asked her where she wanted the pizza delivered to. Oh my goodness. That's all there is to say. Oh, and bless her heart.

Well, we are back at the hotel and our racing experience is nearly over. The race ending was very anti-climatic since it was called due to rain. Bummer. All in all it was a great weekend and I'd do it again if I was asked. I'm such a martyr. It's back to the old grind tomorrow, except tomorrow we are having family photos taken. I sure hope my hair decides to co-operate. Today was like the worst hair day I've seriously ever had. I have no idea what happened....I was seriously bothered by my horrible hair day. I could hardly get over it. I kept thinking that people were looking at me thinking, "that poor lady with the bad hair." And then I remembered the days when I used to get tons of compliments on my hair. And then I wondered what has happened to my hair. I tried to watch the race, but my deep thoughts kept getting in the way. Seriously, it was a fun weekend and I would like to publicly thank Sprint for the memories. We could have never done it without you. Love, JS (I'll post pictures later)

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

A Photo Session

So, I decided I needed some new profile photos and I asked my 12 year old, Cat Jo, as she is affectionately known, to do me the honors. Normally she is a good photographer. This assignment offered her a bit of a challenge. Me being the assignment. It is difficult to make a very middle aged overweight woman look good in a photograph, but that was my desire. I have recently become active on facebook and all kinds of folks that haven't seen me in years may view my profile. It's alot of pressure to look good 30 years after high school...I wish I had held up better, but hey, it is what it is. Still, I want a flattering photo. That began a 30 minute laugh fest. She would snap a photo and then laugh at the hideousness of it. She enjoyed the bad photos far too much. She mocked my squinty eye. She mocked my cleavage. Oh how she mocked her momma. I am happy to report that in the midst of our photo session we laughed and laughed. It was hilarious. I asked her to take a photo looking down on me a little. She stood on the SOFA to get the angle she wanted. I asked her if she needed to be SO far away. Maybe she should have gotten on the roof! After a half hour of this a kinder photographer appeared. My oldest is a gentler soul, more like her daddy and took a few photos...most of which are in this series. Enjoy and feel free to laugh. Really. It's good for you. I heard that even from God Himself. "Laughter is good medicine"Proverbs 17:22a...my paraphrase :) love, js

the mean little thing and me
funny faces







This is me trying NOT to squint...a deer in the headlights is more like it.