bee and rose

All righty then!  So, as per usual, I've had to be away from the blogosphere due to circumstances beyond my control.  April has been one crazy month that started off with a bang!  Teen Caveboy and I went to see 30 Seconds to Mars and Muse in concert.  It was FABULOUS!  (If you ever have an opportunity to see these bands...GO! They are amazing!)  I completely embarrassed Teen Caveboy with my stalker-like papparazzi behavior of Jared Leto at the autograph tent...lol!  I'm only 5'2 so I literally had to hold my camera over my head and just hope for the best...Here's what I got.... Oh, did I forget to mention that Mr. Leto is now sporting a pink mohawk???   I still love ya, Jared...but I will always be partial to this look..those eyes...sigh..... And may I say that he was super nice to his fans...it was impressive!   We also saw Switchfoot, Five Finger Death Punch (yeah...I know...but they were super nice guys off-stage...) and Silver S...

I'm officially residing in the Land of Blog once again!  Woo hoo!  Here's a recent photo of me...(ok...not really me, but a good depiction of my life as of late!) This is one of the reasons for my blogging absence...my new deafness in my right ear..more on those sordid details in another post.... Now, I promised you the story about Chilly's Near Death Experience and I'm going to deliver it right now! Let us begin... As you may remember, Chilly had a triple bypass surgery in March 2008.  He died for 6 minutes during his recovery.  Those six minutes completely changed his life.   Prior to his bypass, Chilly was blessed with many loved ones telling him they would pray for him and his speedy recovery.  He shared with me that he thought all that praying was a waste of time...that it wouldn't make a difference anyway.  Well, we all prayed for him anyway. Chilly was very negative about the surgery and it's outcome...just overall negative about every...

Happy Friday!  We've had a bundle of good times around here these last few weeks!  Chilly has just returned from a fabulous visit at University Medical Center.  He "enjoyed" a lovely trip to the acute care facility because his kidneys decided they no longer enjoyed working for him...let's just say they were failing fast...as in ready to bite the bullet in a matter of days if he refused hospitalization.  His pancreas went on strike as well.  All kidding aside, he is extremely fortunate that he survived.  It wasn't looking so good there for a while.  Happily, he has returned home and is much improved!   He does miss the five star restaurant quality menu and food service he received while hospitalized.  Seriously, it was like he was on vacation at Canyon Ranch Spa.  He'll probably find some excuse to get himself hospitalized again just for the food! It seemed for a moment that we were going to get some dance instruction or cooking lesson...

I've really been a blogging slacker lately....It seems that my days just fly by so quickly with running Chilly all over the place, home~schooling the kiddos, and now it appears that Chilly has probably suffered a couple of mini~strokes. I've received tons of emails inquiring about my bloggy absence and Chilly's health. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for your kind concern.  I'm overwhelmed by your kind thoughts and prayers!  Here's a quick update on the Chillmeister.... Even though he realizes he has suffered some form of stroke (or most probable...multiple mini~strokes) Chilly is being stubborn and refusing medical treatment.  He feels it won't stop the inevitable and may even make things worse. It is enormously frustrating.  It just feels like we are always in limbo...waiting for something to improve or decline.  In addition to all of this, my son's friend lost his mother to cancer last weekend. We attended her funeral this past week. Overall, i...

Dear Michael Buble, I love you...really, really love you.  Please feel free to come and sing for me any time you are in Arizona.  I was feelin' sad this morning about Chilly and then I saw you singing this song.... I started tapping my toes, then I started be-bopping my head and shoulders, then I got up and danced around the family room.  At first, my kids looked at me like I was a complete nutcase, but then Cat joined me in my happy dance. Thanks for making us smile... You are the best! XoXo   ps...You were hilarious on Saturday Night Live....LoVed your Hamm and Buble skit!   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Dear C. Thomas Howell...  You were BRILLIANT as The Reaper on Criminal Minds (the best show on tv).  ABSOLUTELY BRILLIANT!  I was completely riveted during the 100th episode.  I went through a rollercoaster of emotions watching that episode.  It was the best acting I've seen in years. ...

(taps microphone...)  Is this thing on? Well, it appears that I have found my way back to the Land of Blog.  Whew!  I thought I'd never get back here! Lots of activity around the Smith house over the last month! Some cute little 6 year old girl turned 7  last week!   We had fabulous Powerpuff Girls themed party!   ( By the way...this is for the Boomerang network on tv...uh, yeah...thanks for bringing back the Powerpuff Girls...do you know how hard it is to find PPG themed party stuff, Boomerang???) I spent over a month trying to win various ebay auctions for party supplies just to have some stupid person snipe my bid in the last 5 seconds of the auctions!  I finally managed to outsmart the snipers and pulled together a pretty fantastic party.  We had a "City of Townsville Carnival" complete with villains trying to wreck the fun.  The Powerpuff Girls came to the rescue and the carnival was saved!  Buh-bye, Mojo-Jojo!  NO...

Wowza! We had some jacked up weather here in Arizona last night!  I thought for sure we were going to end up in Oz or maybe New Mexico!  We actually had a tornado watch!  We had 75 mile an hour wind gusts, and did I mention...A TORNADO WATCH...in January!   I realize you might be laughing at me...maybe thinking I'm a big scaredy cat~sissy girl...(you're right)....but we do not have things like tornado watches in  southern AZ....hence the reason I love living here....NO TORNADOS...I grew up in the midwest and I've had my fill of those nasty things.  Today it's raining (LOVE the rain...it's a rare event here)....but tomorrow we are supposed to get 1-2" of SNOW!  HELLO, Mother Nature! What the french toast is going on!?! I don't own a winter coat, Mother Nature...come on! Update on my Precious (laptop) and her STD's.... It's official...my Precious should wear better condoms because apparently she gets around.  She has multiple STD'...