ROAD TRIP

Steve and I went to Stone Mountain on Saturday...


Stone Mountain is right on the other side of Atlanta, and neither one of us had ever been there! It was really a neat place and we had a blast! The mountain is made of granite and this carving of Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson and Jefferson Davis was chiseled into the side of this mountain. It was beautiful!

We went on a riverboat ride and this is a beautiful covered bridge...

This was the golf club on the water....pretty

Peddle boats that you can rent and work your way round the lake. "Work" being the operative word here, so....we didn't do that. :)

Stevie Baby taking in the sites on the lake...

Ride the Ducks! We did this and it was a BLAST!! It is an amphibious vehicle that goes on land AND water...so after you have toured all around and seen the sites of Stone Mountain on land...

You go down this hill, pretty fast and SPLASH into the lake...and see the sights on water!

Which was so much fun!! We had a GREAT guide, "Captain Bob" who was so personable and funny and just made the whole trip so enjoyable. I told Steve I just wanted to ride around all day with Captain Bob!

We also rode an old train, went to a 4D movie which was great, went to the museum to see how this mountain carving feat was accomplished! That was actually very interesting (and air conditioned). A chance to cool off...

Then we went over to wait for the laser show...quite a few people had the same idea...imagine that...

And then more people came in with their coolers and chairs and blankets to have picnics and watch the show.

The laser and fireworks show took place on the side of the mountain to music and was just amazing!! I loved it and it was 40 minutes long!

The end of a PERFECT day :)

Hope you have a GREAT week!!

Lou Cinda

P.S. The shrub votes are in and.....that baby is gonna be GONE GONE! Thanks for your votes and suggestions :)

Shrubbery Delima

See this shrub here? This HUGE spindly at the bottom shrub? The one in FRONT of our deck on the back of the house?


I hate this shrub...

I think it needs to come down. It is ugly, it is too tall, it is practically impossible to maintain! It is over my head no matter where I try to trim it from. We have to get the ladder and it is STILL too tall! I have disliked it since we moved in our house 2 years ago.

Steve was out there the other day "struggling" to trim the thing and I said "Cut it down!" Now, he did not like that idea too much! He insisted he could trim it, but I really want it gone!

He pointed out you would be able to see under our deck if it was gone. So? Is that not what lattice is for?

I will not miss it!!

What do you think? Stay? or GO!

You Can't Handle the Grasshoppers?

It's okay! I can't look at that post either! So this is a quickie post, to get rid of the prior ugly, disgusting grasshopper post.

They are diminishing in numbers it seems. Steve did squish one yesterday, but that is the only one we saw...I am SO GLAD!

I really don't know of anything wonderful to post about....let's see.....hmmmm.....nope, blank!

I'll post something tonight, I have a shrubbery delima I need help with.

But at least the grasshopper pictures are gone!!

Just don't scroll down or you will see them again! Maybe I should delete them altogether! I just didn't want you guys thinking I was a big Sissy being scared of a little cricket! As you can see....THESE AIN'T CRICKETS!

Prettier posts to come...I promise :)

Lou Cinda :)

(Feel better Jodie ?)

You wanted to see the Grasshoppers??

You asked for it, you got it! Scroll down my friends to see the source of my terror!!! Now mind you I did NOT take these photos, and they are FREAKING me out that I am even looking at them this closely!! Steve came home and took them for me, then he killed the little beast!






Now mind you, this is the second wave of these things.....this is NOT I repeat NOT as big as they get! They get BIGGER than this!!! I ain't even lyin'

Holie Molie!! I HATE those things! I think they could haul off one of my cats!! Their abdomen's are just so huge!! Don't they look crunchy to you???

Hate'em!! Oh and BTW I checked on the internet and with Lowes to see if there is something I can put on my plants to keep these things from eating them. Guess what? NOPE!! Anything that would be strong enough to kill these BEASTS will kill the plants!!

The are called "Giant Grasshoppers"! DUH! Ya' think? I was looking for some terminology like....grasshopperous arealeous or something technical. But no, they are called Giant Grasshoppers and it stated the best way to get rid of them was with a 2X4! Smash'em!

Nothing will eat them because they are so NASTY!! Birds won't eat'em, other bugs won't eat'em, nothing will eat'em! That's just great!

I had another episode yesterday, once again, Steve not home, all alone with the grasshoppers in my plants on the porch! I was talking to them and telling them as soon as Steve got home, he was taking a picture and then they were dead. I told them they had better leave then if they wanted to live to see the sun set again, I gave them a chance.....I warned them.....they had plenty of opportunities! They did not go! After the photo op ~ which I was jumping around and screaming during, Exterminator Steve took care of them!

Just another day in the neighborhood....

AND SO THE STORY GOES...

I am one of those people that tries to never take anything for granted. I have learned this the hard way, unfortunately. I lost both of my parents at relatively young ages, my daddy was 62 and my mother was 65. This has been such a tremendous loss in my life and not a single day goes by that I don't yearn for both of them.

My daddy used to tell me I was "Resilient"! I loved that! I am fortunate to be a very upbeat and cheerful person and that, along with my resilience and unwavering faith have led me through some pretty dark times.

I have mentioned on here that I have been married three times. Yes, three. If someone would have asked me how many times I thought I would be married when I was younger, never in a million years would I have thought I would be twice divorced. The first one, not too too traumatic. In fact, I still run into that ex occasionally, and we hug and chat. He was unfaithful...I found out....divorced him...moved on. I was young.

Second time...a frigging nightmare!! 16 years of hell, except for the two beautiful and wonderful boys that I now have. I tried to hang in there, because I did not want to be divorced again. I felt that I had taken vows and needed to stay. One day I went and talked to my pastor who was well aware, probably more so that me at that time, of the things that the demonseed I was married to was doing. He took my hands, looked me square in the eye and said, "Lou Cinda, get out of this marriage." Pretty powerful! It was the boot I needed so I did it!

It was not easy, the ex made it as difficult as possible for me and my precious boys. He broke in our house when I was at work and the kids at school. He did not have a job, so he would come by the house after I had left for work and before Cameron's ride picked him up for school, and he would ask my baby Cammie Pie for his lunch money. And he would, of course, give it to him, and go to school and not eat. I did not know this for quite a while and when Cameron finally told me, I was devastated beyond belief! That husband was verbally and physically abusive off and on for 16 years. When I was done, I was DONE! There was no going back, no giving it another try. It was OVER! He does not see our boys, and I am glad. He is not a good role model for them, actually, he is not a good anything. Never paid child support, I did it on my own. It wasn't easy, but we survived.

I said I would never marry again. I had bad taste in men, poor judge of character! NO WAY! The months went by and a friend called and told me she wanted me to meet someone! A BLIND DATE!! You have GOT to be kidding me! I am 45 years old! Not gonna do it! She convinced me that I should go, that he was a nice guy. Yeah, right! I consented, BUT I told her I would meet him somewhere, and only if she and her husband went, which is what we did.

That blind date was my precious, kind, beloved, adorable Steve. The first second I laid eyes on him something deep in my soul said, "this is the one." I think it was God. I think he led me to Steve, he knew Seth and Cameron and I deserved him. He knew we needed him. He knew he would take care of us. Steve lived and worked in another town about 40 miles from me and he had no children of his own. He drove back and forth to my house from his every night!

Now, I am the wide open, fly by the seat of my pants, "high strung" type, and that is probably sugar coating it! Steve is stable, quiet, laid back, gentle, kind and has the purest heart...

The poor man did not know what hit him! From that night on we were inseparable and 7 months later we were married! He moved here, we sold my house, sold his house and bought "our" house, which we love. He commutes to work everyday, about 40 minutes one way. Just celebrated our 4th anniversary and I have never been happier. He took my boys on as his own, bought them cars when they turned 16, changes their oil, fixes stuff when it breaks and "we" are getting Seth through college. It is not easy being a step parent and I do know this. We have had our moments, because I tend to be more in the "gray" area and Steve is a little more black and white. Either it is this or this, no in between. I'm big on in between! lol I love it that he still seems so happy to see me when he comes home in the afternoon! His face just lights up when he walks in the door. And my heart just skips a beat every time I look at him.

Sometimes you have to walk through the fire to learn that each day is a gift and that nothing is guaranteed! Tell those you love that you love them....often...daily!

Sometimes you walk through that fire so that when that one perfect for you person walks into your life you appreciate them!

Sometimes you walk through that fire so that when the wounds heal and you are left with the scars, you realize a wisdom and an inner strength that you didn't know you had.

Sometimes you walk through that fire, because it is the only way out...

THEY ARE BACK!

Okay people! I have GOT to tell you about this delima that I have and have had for years. This gut wrenching FEAR that I have to deal with every year at this time! I have had it since childhood....as far back as I can remember. It's not natural to be this afraid of something but I am!!!!

Know what it is???

It is those BIG BLACK CRUNCHY GRASSHOPPERS WITH YELLOW OR RED MARKS ON THEM!! I ain't even lyin! If one of those grasshoppers is between me and the door....I'm going in another way! Another door, a window, I don't care, but I'm not walking past it! I have even left the house and gone somewhere to give the grasshopper time to move on, and then come back home and go in! Because, seriously, if one of those things TOUCHES me, I am dead on the ground!

They come out this time EVERY year! I have been waiting....I knew they were coming....I knew it was time! Well.......THEY ARE HERE!!

Yesterday, I went out side to blow off my sidewalk and water my plants on my porch. I bend over to get the hose and I came nose to nose with one! I just about wet my pants and I am NOT exaggerating! I screamed at the top of my lungs and just took off out into the yard! Well, of course Steve wasn't home yet, so I have no one to protect me!! So I get the bright idea that I will blow that little hummer out of my plant with the leaf blower.

I go and get it and I am all jumpy as I am walking through the yard, cos' I know where there is one, there are thousands! I get the leaf blower go back and turn that hummer on full blast and point it directly at that DEMON!

Well, he just hangs on baby! He don't blow nowhere!! I think I hear him snickering at me as he is chewing on my plant!

So...I wait for Steve to get home. When he arrives I meet him at the car and with my whiny voice I tell him the grasshoppers are back and there is one in my plant on the front porch and he has to get it cos' I can't water and it won't let go and I'm scared!

He starts laughing because he knows ALL ABOUT my terror of these creatures! He picks up a water wand (so he can squish the grasshopper) and goes to the front porch. I point where it was last seen in my plant and he just picks up the pot and sticks his head all down in there looking for the bug and I am just freaking out cos; if it jumps out on him, I am going to LOSE IT!!! I will be dead by association! Well, he spots it on the monkey grass and he steps on it which just gives me chills and I of course have to just scream. I make him hand me the hose and turn it on, and then I see another one of my plants MOVING! There's another one in there!!! So he draws back with the water wand like he is Tiger Woods or something and I realize he is going to "hit" it out of my plant. I take off running out in the yard and turn around just in time to see the FLIPPIN GRASSHOPPER airborne and headed right for me!

I don't even need to tell you what happened next! I could feel the wind from that THING as it went past my head from the velocity with which Steve had hit it! At this point I am screaming even louder and telling Steve he almost hit me with that THING!!! He is all proud cos' when it hits the ground it is dead. I told him if that grasshopper had hit me in the head, my cold dead carcass would have been lying out on the front lawn and he would be calling the funeral home to come and remove me! He would have a heck of a time explaining the "cause of death" to our friends and family!

He killed about 10 more after that and it became a game to him to find them. PLUS they are eating my plants like you would not believe!

After all of the screaming and commotion that had been going on in our front yard, I walked over to the driveway and looked up at our neighbors house and they were all standing there looking down at our house. It dawned on me what they must have been hearing during the grasshopper melee!

It went something like this:

Oh my Gosh!! Kill it! Kill it!
Steven, you almost hit me with that!!
There's another one!! Get It!!
I HATE THOSE! Oh My Gosh!!
Get your head out of that!
You just almost had to call the funeral home mister!

Yep, we have quite the reputation in the neighborhood....

I'm going to Lowe's at lunch....for poison!