My Sweet Baby Girl

Hello girls! I hope this finds you both doing well and having enjoyed a lazy Sunday.
Here...NOT!!!! Ringo and I gave the kitchen a deep cleaning, waxed the floors, repainted all of the cabinet doors, threw away all of the dusty ivy...lol...and generally decluttered! ( This seems to be a theme lately with us ). I cannot even believe the layers of dust on top of the refrigerator! And the nails are absolutely ruined by all of the 409 usage to clean the grease build up from the chickens...LOL...Now they look like chickens again! But, even though I feel like I have been run over by a truck and walking like Fred Sanford, it is nice knowing that that project is done...now on to the next! It seems like the more you do, the more you notice that you need to do. I am just getting too old for this.
Maybe that nice retirement community in Fairhope is looking better and better...LOL.
Gypsy, my heart is aching for you today. I know how you are feeling. Letting them go is not easy. This is something I have really struggled with these last few months. But, aren't you so very proud of the wonderful man your son has become? (It was so good seeing him Friday. MB thinks he is just the bees knees :) He is finding his way in life and I can't wait to see where it leads him. I am just so proud of our children for not being afraid to step out and see what other places have to experience. I wish I could hug you right now. :)
Blondie, where have you been, girl??? I have missed you here! Please write and catch us up on what is going on in your life. A new job? :)
On Friday, my sweet MB turns 15. This is, I can tell already, going to be an emotional week. She will be going to get her permit next week. I can't believe she is getting older. I would give anything to turn back the clock and go into her room and have a good old game of Barbies or My Little Pony again. You know, she would probably play with if I asked her. :) I can so see us doing this this week to mark her 15th birthday. I may even have to buy her a new Barbie for old times sake. It is just so depressing to me to even walk down that isle at Walmart. I have a hard time not going down it. I can remember when I had to go down it with her to drool over the latest one and would just want get my grocery shopping over with...now I would love to be "drug" there again by a little hand.
Why is it so hard letting them grow up? Mama didn't tell me how hard this was going to be.
She is happy that Jess is coming home this weekend and so am I! She has had a tough week at work and is so looking forward to coming home. I love it when she comes home and curls up in her bed in the Beachy Room and sleeps like a baby. I am hoping that we can have a girls day at the beach on Friday. I actually have no orders for Friday! YAY!
Well girlies, I will close for now. My bed is calling.....Going to go take vitamins, Gypsy :) and hopefully get some sleep tonight.
I wish you both could be here to share a cup of Sleepytime tea with me.
Goodnight kisses and hugs to you both.
Sweet Dreams.
Love,
Candygirl

Devine Secrets and Love's Bouquet

Well.. IT HAS been a lazy Sunday of gentle rain and muscles relaxers. My back is almost "Back" to normal.
And tomorrow I start counting down 6 weeks to Maine. I can't wait! I know you enjoyed your girls this weekend Candygirl. I miss cooking Sunday breakfast for my N- but he will be down this coming weekend.

Now as to the fragrance of love, I have to disagree with Blondies Tresor Candygirl. I think that every love, even stages of self- love needs to have a new fragrance to celebrate lessons learned and yet to bes. I think the search of a new fragrance is very VERY important. Part of Blondies journey of creating herself anew and celebrating what she has found with CC. Maybe she should mix her own. You can get all the essential elements online. We are all so unique, and our stories so very individual - not part of the every woman norm... I think a the search of a new fragrance goes hand in hand with a new life. Blondie, you might not ever find another Tresor, but what you do find, that leaves your Southern essence in the air wherever you go... will tell the story of who you are becoming... not just who you have been.

and just cuz we are SO fabulous

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikS5j6drFzw&feature=related

all my love,
Gypsy

Loving this Rainy Sunday....

Hey girlies!
Happy Sunday!
I am so loving this rainy day. We haven't had a long rainy day like this in ages!
Don't you just love to wake up to a dark house and the sound of a gentle rain fall?
I woke up late and cooked a big breakfast for everyone and it was so nice to have both girls at the table this morning. I love cooking with my honey, although I still don't understand why he puts Tiger Sauce in his grits and on his eggs...LOL...That is just Un-Southern...LOL...and he doesn't like biscuits. How could anyone not like biscuits? I need to keep working on him about those biscuits!
I have been working on downloading cake pictures to the website and facebook album...my computer is as slow as I am! I can't believe how long it's been since I posted pictures...It's amazing to look back through the pictures and the amount of work that went into them and think..." Did I really do all of that???" Sometimes the days are lost in a blur of icing and cake...lol...and candy. Gypsy, do you still not want to see another Dragon Fly with glitter on it again any time soon?
You were so much help and alot of fun to have there. We make a good team. I'm so glad you came and helped Thursday. I so wish Blondie could get in on some of the candy making. Maybe one day you can come home and we will have a Hello Kitty Lollipop making session, but this time we will have to have Delta Diva's. That would be a blast!
Blondie, I have been giving much thought to your perfume issue. I think that you should go back to what you have always known. When I smell that scent, it makes me smile because I always think of you. It makes me miss you and wish you were here. That scent is and always will be linked to you. You have worn it for so long and it has just became a part of who you are. People say that a certain scent can bring back powerful memories. I know that is true. I always match different scents to different memories and catching a whiff of one of those scents always takes me back. Love's Baby Soft - my first perfume in 5th Grade. Charlie - my second, more seductive perfume of the middleschool years...LOL..Whatever Beth had on her dresser I could sneak - The perfume of my high school years.lol...White Linen - The perfume of my early twenties that I always associate with my first scary job in the big world and the smell of it always lingered on my sweet baby's head after she snuggled with me... Givenchy Amarige- The perfume of most of my first marriage- good and bad memories attached to that one, it was a good, quick gift that husband number one always purchased for most occasions..I usually had a bottle or two at all times ....Carolina Herrara- The perfume of my second marriage and some of the best memories yet....Now, there have been other perfumes along the way, some I can't even pronounce...lol...but when you are wearing a fragrance and people stop you and ask, " what is that? it smells wonderful!" then you are wearing a scent that is made for your body chemistry and sometimes, even if you stray from it to try other things, you always go back to that scent. Tresor is as much a part of you as your Southern Roots and curly blonde hair. It would be like you giving up Merlot and drinking Cold Duck!!! :) And so, Blondie, you should go back to Tresor. It is who you are, and why should you have to put an important part of your past away? So, I'm tellin you to spritz a little on behind the ears and between the girls, put your bright pink lipstick on, powder the nose, put on those power glasses,don't ever forget to drop your g's" and and strut your stuff, girlfriend. Why let go of it? Embrace it as the scent that, in it's part, made you the beautiful woman you are today, defined all that you were in the past, and now carries you into the next chapter of your life.

Well, girlies, I suppose I should go for now. I have to do that proposal for those McDonald's People that I have been procrastinating, Gypsy. I emailed the stupid sketch of the cake, but haven't pulled together the "fancy little finger food" thing yet...LOL ( Something tells me that if we get that job, it will be one that I will NEVER forget. ) Diva men and I do just not jive. They will cut you down quicker than a good old " Bless her heart" ever thought about. Many stories to tell on this subject...LOL.

I love you both!
See you here soon.
Candygirl

A Woman's Right To Perfume, Hormones & Pink Flannel PJ's

Hello My Dears,

So sorry I've been remiss these past two weeks... Have felt just too yuckie to post much but, here I am now! :-)

Gypsy... I'm so happy for you, TK & the Girls. I had this dream about you the other night, it's like you were Marmee and had all of your "Little Women" around you, they were so sweet. I know what an absolute blessing you'll be to them and vise versa. I can't wait to hear all the news when you get there. It really is strange that all three of us have had similar experiences, and like our Candy Girl, I hope you'll be as happy as we both are. Candy, I did smile when I read your blog, those are definitely sweet memories. Yes, me & CC we've had our share of difficulties and hard times, but it's made us even closer than ever. I guess that truly the measure of a good relationship, if you can stick it out even through the hard times. I'm so glad that my Best Girls have found such great guys! :-)

Girls, you are preaching to the choir! I so totally know how you're both feeling and Candy, I know it's hormones. I'm having so many of the same symptoms that you are. I started natural ones, but didn't go to the specialist for the bio-identical, but CC & I have talked about it, I'm definitely making an appointment soon! I never had these issues either, until my hormones got so screwed up! Extreme fatigue, insomnia, muscle aches, brain fog, bouts of depression, night sweats, acne, and the list goes on and on! You should both get Suzanne Somers, "Breakthrough, 8 Easy Steps to Wellness & "Ageless, The Naked Truth About Bio-Identical Hormones" they really are worth reading. Candy, go online and do some research on them. I'm sure there are Dr's in the area. And Gypsy, just cause you still have your pieces & parts don't mean that yours are in balance, get them checked! I honestly think this is the key to everything with how we're feeling. Keep me posted on what you both find out.

As you both know, I'm still in search for the "perfect scent." To date, I've purchased 5 bottles of expensive perfume and still nothing is me! CC just says, keep looking! In the back of my mind I'm thinking that he'll get tired of me buying expensive perfume and tell me to go back to my Tresor, but it hasn't happened yet. Right now, I'm working my way through the Dior line, and nothing is working for me. They smell nice, but just not my style... Any suggestions? At this point "Hello Kitty" is looking pretty good!

I think I'm secretly punishing my poor CC, I've been living in my pink flannel jammies, which I know he hates, but in my Tresor deprived state I'm enjoying it a little too much. ;-) What is it about flannel that makes a girl feel better when she's a bit low? Haven't figured that one out yet.

Candy, I so agree, wish we could all be together, share a few bottles of wine and talk through all of these things that are happening. I miss you both so much! Hope you have a great time with your Girls this week, I know you're happy to have them home! How sweet of N & V to give you & Ringo a few days away, you really did need it!

Can I just say how very happy I am to know that my Best Girls have finally found men who love & appreciate them, cause you two are the best! Gypsy, can't think of anything I would rather do than be at your wedding next Spring!

Love you both muchly!

The One Who Followed Love

Summer's Fading Fast....

Hey my girlies! I have missed you both so very much. I have finally got a few moments to collect my thoughts and type...LOL. It has been a busy time at work but it is winding down a little....My Ringo and I have been in Biloxi for a couple of days at the Beau for a much needed get-away ( courtesy of Grandpa Nick)...That dear, sweet man treated us because he said we were working too hard and needed to get away. ( It has been so nice getting away, but back to reality tomorrow..LOL.) I so wish that I could spend time with Nick and Vicky more than once a year. I finally get good in laws and they live 3000 miles away. Vicky and I have the wildest phone conversations, though. I love talking to her. She is so funny! I wish you both could meet her. She is a doll.
Gypsy, last Saturday afternoon when the bad weather kept you from visiting, you missed out on a pitcher full of my new favorite drink...LOL... It's called Delta Diva..I had it waiting for you...It consists of Butterscotch Brandy, Coconut Rum, and Pineapple Juice...Yum! We will definitely have to schedule another time for you to visit before you go on your big journey so that you can try it.....I am praying for you that this will be "The ONE" and that you will go there and both fall madly in love and have your "happily ever after." I know you are so excited and nervous and anxious all at the same time. I remember how very nervous I was before my Ringo came to visit for the first time. I was shaking so hard when I met him at the airport that he had to just hold me for a few moments so that I could calm down...lol...who would've thought that we would still be here 7 years later?
I am looking at him from the corner of my eye as I type this and it makes me almost want to tear up thinking of all that we have been through and how much I love this man. He is so sweet and so good to me. I can't imagine my life without him. Gypsy, I wish this for you more than I can say. And I am so sure that Blondie is reading this now and smiling at her own sweet memories of meeting her true love for the first time and wishes the same for you. We have your back, girl! :)

Gypsy, I can so identify with you...where did all of these health issues come from?..I know the same old reasons that Dr. # 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 have given me...weight, age, lack of exercise,lack of sleep, improper nutrition, yadda, yadda, yadda...( I think I am smart enough to know that they are completely right concerning those things, and I also know that I have much work to do in all of those areas) but,I have been trying to back up in my mind to a beginning point and all I can come up with is that everything went down hill from the hysterectomy forward. I honestly think ( where I'm concerned anyway, Gypsy still has her parts and pieces) it goes back to lack of hormones at too young of an age to be without them. This topic is one that we could probably cover in several hours and two or three bottles of wine....I so wish I had never had surgery. I just haven't been the same since. I think fybromyalgia is just a new little catch phrase to diagnose anything that can't seem to be pin pointed. I am soooo tired of being in pain all of the time. I have come to the conclusion that drugs do not help, so I don't do that except for Aleve ( which really doesn't help much). Some days are just not worth getting out of bed. Some days it hurts to just walk...and if you can imagine, my hair even hurts.. But, I have found that I can't give up and give in. It seems that when I do, I feel worse. I would just love to know what it would be like to have one day without feeling this way...one day with no pain and being able to just bend over or stoop down without saying, oh, oh, oh on the way back up...lol....sometimes I wonder if it's like this now, how will it be in 10 years? I worry that maybe something is wrong with me and when the Dr. finally finds out what it is, it will be too late to do anything about it. I have had every test imaginable. I guess about the only thing I can do at this point is live with it and try to make the best of it and try to forget about it, but it seems these days it gets harder and harder. And I always tell myself that it could be so much worse and to stop complaining. Any advice, girls? I am so discouraged and worried about the future....I just want to be able to do the things I used to do and more than anything I look forward to playing with my grandchildren one day.
O.K...shaking myself mentally here...enough talk of distress....my girls are coming home this weekend!!! I am so looking forward to them being home. Jess will be staying until Tuesday of next week, so we have alot of catching up to do....Hoping we can go to the beach on Monday...
Well, I better scoot for now...got to go the grocery store...I am once again out of everything! For someone who is in WalMart every day for the shop, I don't understand how I let this happen..LOL
Wishing we could all curl up this afternoon with a pot of tea and talk girls...I could really use the "girl" company.
Love and hugs to you both.
Candygirl

Come September

Good morning Kindreds,

May I just say GRRRR!! Woke up irritated and in a poo poo MOOD!!
I had to chuckle though because after almost 2 weeks of no one writing
It appears we all may be At least that’s the message I received from blogspot.
So I am writing this in WORD and transferring over later.
So how has everyone been? I have been good, although Never EVER
as B.R.O.K.E as I am now. Those tornadoes and my illness are hard to
bounce back from, I will get there though. Not a whole lot going on.
trying to deal with a long distance romance with 4 little girls involved
is proving challenging to say the least. It’s funny that both of you know the
frustrations of long-distance romance. This 6’4 Yankee is practically
perfect for this 5’4 Southern girl… so we will make it work. I am going up the
end of August. The girls ages 5-12 race to the phone every time I call to ask me questions
or tell me all of their news. They so want a female in their lives. They have NO ONE.
No Grandmothers, no Mom, or at least none of them to speak of, and they are such
sweet girls. SOOO… I am taking my vegameatavitamins and building myself up.
Speaking of… DO YA WANNA TELL ME WHAT in the HELL has happened to our health? We are much too young to feel this damn old. Aches, pains, lack of energy and
All together… blah!! I HONESTLY think it is for the most part what we are putting
into our bodies. I AM TRYING to do better, exercise a little more. I just keep telling myself that is I can work hard and sort all of this out – come September, I will be walking
on Prince Edward Island hand and hand with the man I am suppose to be with. You girls
KNOW I am not a patient person. So I have given up sugar – ‘cept for the occasional coconut bon bon Candy girl and I am taking loads of vitamins and supplements and exercising. So that come September, I will have the energy to give four little girls and one Yankee boy my very best so that COME SPRING… MAYBE… my best girls can be with me on Prince Edward Island when I marry one wonderful man and 4 little girls.
And Blondie, thanks for the email to the Kirby, it helped give him perspective.

Love you both and miss my girls SO MUCH! More than words.

Gypsy