Day 2 - Indian Shores, FL

Day 2 of our vacation was fun.  We went to the beach around 8-ish in the morning and as we walked onto the sand, seagulls started making noise.  Benjamin said, "They're announcing our arrival" and that is what it seemed like.  :)
Here are some pix of the morning at the beach:

This HUGE bird was taking off not 15 feet from me!

Here is the bird again

The bird was watching and stalking these guys. After they caught the fish, the man fed it to the bird.

Benjamin took a picture of this sailboat.

And a seagull

Since we needed to be out of the sun for a bit yesterday, we drove around looking for some different shops.  Did you know that they have a Publix and Home Depot on nearly every corner?  It's almost like the way they have built all the Walgreen's in the Nashville area.  Everywhere you look, there's one!
Starting Day 3 and more pix tomorrow, I hope! 

Day 1 of vacation

Yesterday was the first day of our vacation at Indian Shores, FL.  It's beautiful here.  We went to the beach across the street around 9am and within a couple of minutes, saw a bunch of stingrays near the shore.  They are so pretty and fun to watch.  At first, we saw just a couple, but soon we started seeing larger groups of 4 and 8 together.  For this landlocked girl, it was extremely exciting and I watched them for quite some time. 
No pictures on Day 1 - we forgot the camera in the condo!  WOOPS!  Day 2 will definitely have pictures, of some wildlife.
After an hour or so, we decided to drive out to Honeymoon Island.  It's a state park and very pretty if you go early enough.  It gets crowded fast!  The first area we went to had a really rocky sea floor and shells for days!  You HAD to wear flipflops or foot protection - you could barely see any sand and those shells are sharp!  So we hung out there for awhile and enjoyed finding some interesting shells.  I was sitting on a bench just watching the waves roll in and saw a small conch shell, so I leapt up and snatched it before anyone else could.  Later, at the condo, I had put the shells on a table.  As I was inspecting them, I realized this one I snatched up after being washed on shore was not empty!  It startled me to find a live muscle in it.  So, we took it across the street and I put it back in the ocean where it belonged.  Sure was a beautiful shell, but it seemed pretty selfish to kill the muscle to keep the shell.  I'll find others, I know. 
Looking forward to the rest of Day 2 and will write more tomorrow!

Old Timey Pictures

Here are some old pictures.  Enjoy!

My Mom and her kitten

My Mom

I think this is my Grandad Tingley

Ted and Gale (my Dad and Uncle)

My Dad

You never know what you're going to see

A few months ago, Benjamin and I saw a chicken crossing HWY 41 while we were driving on our way to school.  Of course, we thought it was pretty funny. 

A few weeks ago, Jim, B and I were going to Springfield to the library and saw a hedgehog trying to cross the road. That was pretty surprising! I believe that is the first time I've ever seen a hedgehog in real life.

Last weekend, Jim and I were driving home and I saw a woodchuck up on a hill (not on the road this time) watching the cars go by. That was pretty funny to see too.

This morning, I saw a VERY large wild turkey crossing HWY41. Now, I've seen wild turkey's before, but not one this big. I was pretty stunned at its size.

A March Sunburn

Yesterday was March 12th.  TWELFTH!  That's early in the year and technically it's still winter, but I got a sunburn yesterday sitting on my back patio.  It was only supposed to be 63*F yesterday for a high, but by 9:30am it was already 65*F here in the mid-south.  I sat outside in my sweatsuit for about 30 minutes and then quickly changed into my bathing suit!!  A bathing suit at home in March...fantastic! 
Jim worked in the yard with the plants while I sat my lazy butt on the deck chair reading most of the day.  Oh, I got up to be nosy and see what Jim was working on (potting some hostas for my folks), to pet the cats, and of course, to come in and eat lunch (that Jim cooked for us).  Yeah, I'm spoiled rotten.  I need to get a move on because it's already 10am since the time changed!  Yikes!  The day is nearly gone!  ;)
Hopefully warmer days are here to stay!

Benjamin's Paintings

I've always encouraged Benjamin to paint and he's always loved painting.  I have one painting that hung in my office at my last job that people offered to buy.  I always loved watching him create, especially when he was much younger.  Now that he's older, it takes a little prompting to get him to relax and just go with whatever he wants to do instead of worrying about "doing it right" or staying in the lines.  
Recently, he painted outlines of his feet for my parents.

Outline of Benjamin's Feet before painting

One of the first brushstrokes

FEET!

These pictures below remind me of when Benjamin would paint himself.  He once had his arms painted black and he looked like he had black gloves up past his elbows!  A bath was taken very soon after the body painting was complete! 

Benjamin at age 5 painting himself

Crazy Hair

You may or may not know that I have cut my hair very short.  I love it!  So now I have short, red hair...very sassy!  :D  I style it kind of messy and use some "product" in it that is similar to glue, although it doesn't really make my hair stiff, just holds some of the style I like.  ANYWAY....I guess I used a little too much yesterday and I don't shower at night, so the product is in my hair overnight. (Yeah, I know..not a good thing...I guess I'll have to change my ways someday.)  This morning, when I got up, I went into the bathroom and saw HEATMISER staring back at me!  Well, not exactly Heatmiser, but definitely his hair!  For those of you who do not know who Heatmiser is, here is a picture:

I kid you not, my hair looked EXACTLY like the picture.  I'm happy to say that my face still looks like me.