Just Call Me the Mad Hatter (or am I the Rabbit? or Alice?)

And all today's wisdom will come from Alice and Wonderland, mainly because I had tried to start a paragraph, got halfway through it and then realized it made not one lick of sense to any suitable brain. Made perfect sense to mine today, after a two hour long crazy and fun conversation with a friend that in hindsight left me feeling a little out of sorts and in a mood for comparing her story to my own (they are similar yet each with their own twists)... thou shall not compare! It's never good (see there I go not making much sense again)! These words should sum it up better than I ever could. Enjoy! And have a fabulous, carefree, and crazy weekend! Apparently that seems to be the mood I am in. 

And that is all. Good day to you! 

My Peace for the Soul Place

It's Wednesday and I am about to get all kinds of Whatever Wednesday up in here because I am going to start with today's topic and transition into Tennessee. Alrighty people?! This is mainly due to the fact that my response to today's topic is going to be short and sweet (somewhat). 

The lovely Whatever Wednesday gals, Shay and Alissa, would like for me to discuss my first kiss with you, but considering I talked about it in last weeks Whatever Wednesday post, you can read it in more detail there or just take it like this...  I don't really remember, ok?! Probably something one should remember, I know! I could be all sly and just say my dad, but technically it could have been my mom (I guess I could ask which one kissed me first if I wanted to, but nah!). I could also say that I think my first "official" one was in fourth grade in the fort part of our playground in the backyard. However, 1.) I do not know if that is completely correct and 2.) I may only be remembering it because it is the one my brother remembers and often reminds me of. Prime example I was setting for my younger siblings! Except I think John Wayne had probably already had his first one long before that point and I also think it may have taken place because he dared us. Who knows?! Not me! Maybe my brother can tell you. 
Anyways... I do know who my last one was with. And where! It was to Babe, in the shining state of Tennessee (ok, so really it was here at home, last night before going to bed. But Tennessee is a happier setting and also useful for the following) and that is how we will move into the rest of this post.  

I am not sure if my soul was meant to be raised for city living.  I think it belongs somewhere in the likes of Tennessee with a decent mix of country living and the suburbs. More of your small town feel, if you will! Most days I know that Florida is my home and that I belong here but some moments, I find myself longing for a different place, a different way of life. A place where things move at a slower pace and life doesn't seem to make people so flustered. My heart literally seems to sing when I am in Tennessee. It is at peace and my world is calm. I am on vacation but I also feel as if living there would make me slow a little bit and take in more around me. We were coming off the boat after a day on the water and joking with some of the neighbors about what goes on in their "little" cove (they were joking about all the craziness but...). And that is when I referred to it as "a little slice of heaven" and not a single one of them disagreed. They have a corner of the world that still seems untouched by the outside. Where you know your neighbors (heck you know everyone on the almost 30,000 acre lake) and where you all have each others backs. The kind of place where you can leave your doors unlocked while boating and not fear coming home to absolutely nothing, mainly because those who may even think of coming in "uninvited" also know you have an extensive gun collection. It is the type of place where all are welcomed and where setting an extra place at dinner because someone swung by for a glass of sweet tea is never even thought twice about (just pull up a seat). It's this magical land where the beer cooler always seems full, yet people's hands are never empty. Where the sun doesn't seem to burn as harshly and where the water is perfect for bobbing. Children are respectful because they have been taught how you treat others and the world is less 'dog-eat-dog' and more about 'help-a-brother-out' and 'roll-with-the-punches'. It's a place where you don't have to worry too much about people gossiping about you because what they may say about you, they will also say to you and it's never really in a harsh, judgemental way. It's more so a way of acknowledging that we all have our "stuff" and we may as well put it on the table. I am not sure what it is about all of it that sounds so appealing to me, but I could very well plant myself on a piece of land up there, settle in and never leave. 

 Going, going, gone.

Alas, my home is here and while some part of me may long for more land and a quieter, slower pace I do love my life in the sunny state of Florida and I would miss my people (most of them anyways ;) ). If I could bundle it up and take it all with me then I would, but then... I don't know if it would so calm anymore. 

Where's your place? Where do you find peace?

High Five for Monday

Sooo... it may be Monday, but I have been out of town, out of touch with technology and in the midst of all that is right in the world.  Now, it is back to reality and though the Five on Friday is supposed to take place on, well, Friday I figured I would (in pure Melanie fashion) jump on the bandwagon a bit late.

Here are five things I am loving lately

1.) Tennessee!!

 It is my place. It is the place I think my soul belongs. More on that later. Until then just know it is something somewhere that I am really, REALLY, REALLY loving! Which is why it is also number...

2.) TENNESSEE!!

Even the storms seem better in Tennessee. It was less like a horrible, Florida flood and more like this incredible, peaceful light show that we got to enjoy from the confines of a wrap around back porch while the storm took place right across the lake behind the mountains leading into Kentucky. 

3.) This book

I have read this book already but our 12 hour road trip consisted of dramatic readings. Babe is still working his way through it after reading Divergent and while he is not a reader he has managed to get immersed in some of the books I love (which I love him for). Due to school he has not really been able to pick it up since our cruise in January. Most car trips consist of at least some dramatic reading periods by me while he drives. This trip we actually made it through almost 250 pages. I have forgotten a good bit of what happens and so now we will be reading this book aloud together so I can finish it with him.  If you are looking for a new book series and have not read this one I seriously recommend it! It is right up there with Hunger Games for me. However, I would wait until at least September to start (depending on how quick a reader you are). The third and final book does not come out until October (which I was unaware of when I first picked up the series before out last cruise).

4.) This movie

Fe, fi, fo, fum... you should watch it, is is fun!

We just watched it and my expectations were somewhat low. I had wanted a movie that I didn't think would require much thought and gave Babe three choices. He chose Jack over Despicable Me and Keeping Score (both of which I still want to see). I thought this movie was great! A little icky at parts (the giants were somewhat disgusting) but overall a really cute story! And though most of it was somewhat predictable to me (there is not many a movie or tv show that can stump, I always call the ending) there were parts that I was off about, which I deem like worthy in my book any day. It was kind of Narnian-esque in the filming. One scene looked exactly like the scene when the White Witch comes to discuss the terms of payment for Edmund's treachery.

5.) Skype

While in Tennessee I got the first chance to Skype with my bro, who is currently serving in Afghanistan. Tears ensued, but it was so great to see his face and hear his voice. Well, kind of. One thing about the lake is that there is not very good wi-fi reception. This is great for the most part because I leave all cares behind. Yet, it's not so great when trying to Skype all the way across the world. It was hard to see him but it was perfection either way. He got a chance to see all the Tennessee crowd too, which was nice! 

What five things are you loving this week? 

A First Time For Everything

Just swinging in for the 'Whatever Wednesday' post that these great ladies have thought up! Thanks Shay and Alissa for the idea! 

I am not super great with the whole memory thing. I can't remember dates or time or tell you many specifics. Feelings and moments though?! I can give you some of those. Today's topic for this wonderful non-link up, link up that I am jumping in on is about firsts... Dun dun dun! 

My mind was going in many different directions... milestones, interviewing my mother about my first words (she's a tad busy trying to get out of town), first memories. Then I thought why not go through my list of "first" boy moments (Disclaimer: Babe if you are reading this you are welcome to stop now). I was a tad bit "boy" minded when I was a young soul (bless that child). My old soul has it's moments. I sometimes live vicariously through The Bachelorette as to who I would pick and why. It's sad I know, the show in general and the fact that I get such pleasure out of the drama. Any who, here we go!

My first "love" 

That one is simple. That would be my Daddy! 

My first kiss

Oh heavens. Who even knows?! My mom tells me I had a little kissing buddy in preschool. I can still remember one that was in the fort part of our playground when I was in elementary school. There were a few of the neighbor boys too. One who reminded me not too long ago when we were out with mutual friends. *Clapping hand to head now! Child, where were your parents?! Just kidding Mom!

My first "wedding"

So I think I may have like three different husbands. I am pretty sure I "married" my little preschool best friend in his backyard one day so that we could play house in his really cool tree house that had a zip line. Then I "married" one of my neighborhood friends. His brother officiated and all our neighbors were in attendance. He wasn't strong enough to carry me back down the aisle sidewalk so his older brother filled in for that part. 

My first official "gift" from a boyfriend 

*I use the term boyfriend lightly because I am not sure if elementary school should really count

That would be a pet snake - yes, snake - that he found and put into a plastic juice pitcher. He jumped the school fence to get it for me from the woods behind our school. This is the same snake that I named after one of my elementary school besties and the same snake that escaped its cage a few weeks after I brought it home. My Mimi was never fond of me having the snake so when she was over one night my parents told her that we gave it back, instead of telling her it was lost somewhere in our house. After finding it curled up in a potted plant one night, Becky, was taken to a pet store because we couldn't tell Mimi that the snake had just miraculously reappeared. 

My first "date" with the first boy who I had fallen pretty hard for 

Oh this night! This was my first high school 'I think I am head-over-heels' crush (turned relationship). He was a senior to my freshman. He wanted to take me on a date. Daddy did not agree with him. At least, wouldn't until he had met him. This boy happened to not live too far from my house, a two minute car ride maybe. The big plan? For my father and I to go on a run with him... A run! If you have read any previous posts you might know that I do NOT run. Anywhere! But I was young and smitten and so like many a girl in my circumstance would do, I laced up my sneakers. I tried to keep up, I really did. I made it maybe a block when it became one of those walk/ jog/ intermittent running things. We ran to a nearby park; the boy, my dad and me. My dad asked him all kinds of questions and they did most of the talking considering I was trying my best to breathe, run and at the same time not sweat too much. Then on the way back to my house we walked, the boy and me, while my dad did a cool down jog up ahead (just a ways). As a freshman girl I was slightly mortified, but I dealt. As a future parent (someday), you can bet on Babe being right there at the door ready to run down with any of his daughters potential suitors. 

My first heartbreak

Heartbreaks are tough. It doesn't matter if it's happening to you or you know you are causing it. It burns. The main one that sticks in my memory would have come from the one who takes part in the story above. It was a long story that is best chalked up to immaturity on both parts.  The first time I felt I dealt one was just as tough in many ways as being the recipient. It broke my heart to think I was breaking someone else's. Sometimes I think that whole courtship idea and not getting to emotionally attached to someone until you're ready for the whole marriage thing seems like a good idea. But try telling that to any person who thinks that they've already found it (even young naive freshman who think the whole world works like a high school love story). 

The first time I understood "love"

Each step in my life, each person that came before, taught me something different about what love is and isn't. In recent years I have not been hugely fond of the word love. For me it implies the love that we read about in fairy tales. The only name that fits for me with any clarity for what love looks like is Babe (and God and my daddy and now knowing what it means to love the little people I sometimes claim as mine, though those loves are slightly different). Babe teaches me everyday the true meaning of the word and the selflessness that is involved in being with someone completely. Love is about commitment. It really is about weathering the good and the bad together, especially when sometimes the only thing in sight is stormy seas. When it's right and it's yours and you know it was built to last you hold on, you cherish it and you work at it.

Ok so now that this post went from slightly funny to serious in the matter of paragraphs we are going to consider this a true 'Whatever Wednesday' post and say, see ya on the flip side. Excited to read through some of the other lovely posts as I road trip it to Tennessee! Yay for my first summer getaway!

How about y'all, any summer vaca plans? 

Any of you guys out there "married" to multiple people?! 

You know because those two questions totally go hand in hand...not! 

Daddy's Girl

"We stand together in front of the mirror, one of us old and the other no longer young. I think of the ties that bind us: our sense of family, our sense of place, our sense of fairness. The old man next to me stands tall, walks softly, and says nothing, even when his heart is full of feeling." -Michelle Morris

I can tell you right now I will probably not make it through this post without tears. Yesterday I spent the day celebrating the man that I have been blessed to call my dad. My father is the most amazing man I know aside from my husband; they share the title.  It was very hard to imagine that there could be someone that might share that spot with my dad.  He held that place in my life, alone, for many years. Everyone says that I am so much like my mother (which may be true) but I am forever my father's daughter. Just ask anyone who has so much as questioned that my daddy was anything less than the hero in my life; apparently, you do not want to know the wrath that follows.  This is something I did not know about myself until someone pointed it out to me after a discussion on if my father would come and find me like Liam Neeson did for his on-screen daughter in Taken. Sure as shoot he would and no one better try to dispute that claim!

My dad has a stillness that does not run very much through many of his children, but I would like to think that I have received many of my qualities from him. His determination at never giving up on those he loves is amazing. He has had every reason to give up on some of them and yet he stands, solid, against all that the world may throw at him. In a world where it seems like people are so quick to give in when the going gets tough, he shows me what it really means to hang on through it all - even if your heart is bleeding - and the reasons why, sometimes, it is so important. He is a shield. A barrier, barring out the world and trying to keep it from attacking, too strongly, those he loves.  He is a man of few words, surrounded by people who love to talk. Yet when he has something to say, it is as if the world stills for a second, just to lean in and listen. He is strong and noble, the very essence of what a man should aspire to be. I am so amazingly blessed by the example that he set for me and the fact the because of him, I know that my children will be able to be led be the same solid assurance in their own father. 

This man- the thoughtful one, the loving one, the funny one, the strong one- is a man who carries many titles on his back (good thing he is fit for an "old guy"). He is the provider. A lawyer who will probably never know the definition of the word retirement. It just really is not a part of who is. Yet, he is also a surfer.

A kick-your-shoes-off, sand-in-your-toes, paddles-the-lake-everyday (if he can't be on the ocean) dedicated boarder. He is a son, a husband, a friend. He is the best grandpa "Surf Daddy" that any fairy princess grand kid could ever ask for.

But the title that I love most, the one that he will be until I take my last breath, is my daddy. I love him to the end of the world and back again and am blessed beyond measure to call him mine.

*Even if he did give me my red eyes and fair skin, I still wouldn't trade it for the world!

Lazy Days

I am sitting here being lazy and knowing that I should probably move my behind, however, since I figured I would not find the motivation to do that at this exact moment I figured it was a good enough time to catch up on blogging. I was reading through some blogs and stumbled across the Sunday Currently with Lauren while I was reading posts from the wonderful Ashley. Today is actually Saturday but I figured what the heck? This seems fun and light-hearted for my lazy day and given that I am prone to breaking rules on occasion I decided I would go ahead and jump the gun.

So here is what I am doing on this Sunday Saturday Currently...

Reading: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets... for probably the 5th time. And loving it! Dobby melts my heart. How can you not love a soul so kind?!

Writing: This post and one about my daddy for tomorrow.  I love that man!! Happy Father's Day to all of the wonderful daddies out there.

Listening: To Hoarders: Buried Alive and Dead at 17. Yes, I am a channel flipper. I do not watch me any commercials... ick!

Thinking: About how absurd tv can be and how I should probably move from this couch and get motivated on getting stuff done, but I am just exhausted and the mind-numbingness is quite nice right now.

Smelling: Nada... I would like to be smelling some popcorn popping though.  I could totally go for a movie night right about now.

Wishing: That my coffee table worked like the house tables at Hogwarts and that food would just magically appear from the invisible kitchen that I am sure is right below my floor. I be hungry, but have no motivation to make anything. Man, I am really working it today. Please don't judge my laziness! Or my decision to use improper grammar.

Hoping: For sunshine tomorrow so that we can enjoy the day outside with my dad!

Wearing: Cut off sweats and a hoodie, I be scrubbin' and loungin'!

Loving: The fact that I leave for Tennessee in just three short days! I could not be more excited!

Wanting: See smelling...

Needing: To get off this couch, shower and get moving. But... I feel like that is just not going to be happening.

Feeling: Exhausted!

Clicking: Back and forth between channels when the commercials come on.

Hope everyone is enjoying their Saturday currently!
Anyone else having a lazy day like me?

House Elves and Engineering

Want this!! 

I find it especially fitting for this week considering the little cleaning that typically gets done has been left by the wayside as I have been in planning mode all weekend and am in teaching mode all week. 

I have been a little MIA the last couple days and probably will continue to be for most of this week. I am teaching an engineering camp this week to a group of boys going into first through third grade.  Yes, I said engineering! No, I do not know anything about engineering! But I am learning. And, the kids seem to enjoy camp so far, which is all I was hoping for. It started as a potential photography camp, which morphed into a games camp, which then morphed into Lego camp, which has now become engineering camp. Yesterday, we were civil engineers and designed newspaper forts and then today we were chemical engineers. It was a messy day, but have no fear nothing was blown up! Except for maybe my gumption... I am wiped. 

I am missing this blogging world though, so while I take the time to go and stalk some of the posts I have been missing out on (since upon making it home last night I did nothing but crash) enjoy a pic that I am hoping made my bro very happy.  Those fine little children would be my nieces and nephew. The ones at the bottom (other than me) are my sister, who takes claim to the two kids on the right and my other bro, who takes claim to the lil' one on the left. These people make me happy (and on occasion drive me stark raving bonkers; including the one in the bottom middle)! 

Somebody's Son

I wasn't sure how to go about today's post. I never planned to discuss politics. And for the most part that is not where this will go but it might be in there so if any of this offends you, well, I'm sorry!

This is my "little" brother. He is currently deployed in Afghanistan. He just received a promotion and was made the spotlight for his platoon's Facebook page. They do that occasionally to keep loved ones updated on their soldiers. I could not be more proud of him!! He has truly forged a path for himself far different than any my family would have thought for him but he is making it his own and he is becoming such an amazing man. This post is about him and men and woman like him.

I will never know what it is like to be a soldier. I will never have to know because of people like him who willingly sign up to serve our country. So when, on the day that we have dropped him off to deploy, my mom happens to see a certain bumper sticker on the back of a car in the Cracker Barrel parking lot I may get somewhat offended.  I have seen many a bumper sticker with all kinds of differing opinions. I am all for them! We are all different, we all have our opinions and mine may not be the same as yours and I believe that is ok. We are a free country, formed on differences. However, when your bumper sticker reads "If you support the war, feel free to send your children to the front lines." I may feel a little hurt.  Especially to have my mother see that, on that day, was heartbreaking. She is a little more forth coming with her opinions than me, but on that day I don't think she even knew what to say. It had already been a morning of many tears. Her youngest child just went to the front lines and someones car is practically begging for him to go.

The army was never something discussed with Patrick. My parents were sure that he was going to end up playing golf, coaching golf, doing something golfish.  He is an amazing golfer (and now he is an amazing soldier).  They had tried to send my other brother to military school (the straighten your shiz out kind) but he only lasted a day. That was the last the military was really discussed with any form of connection to my brothers.

Patrick decided on his own that he was going to enlist. He had met a former marine and that is where his story began. Politics was never something very openly discussed in our home, we were allowed to form our own opinions. My parents backgrounds differed from each others in many ways and one side was never promoted or slandered.

When any person chooses to enlist, it is for reasons the resonate with them. Just because someones family may believe in the military and all it stands for doesn't mean that their child will automatically decide to enlist and just because they may not believe in it doesn't mean their child won't. At 18 we are all adults, all legally able to decide our own path in life. My brother chose his. I ask that you not diminish that decision. He is my brother, he is my parents son, he is a young man forming a life for himself and we as people should support that. I choose to stand behind him, not only because he chooses to stand in front but because he is my brother and I love him. If I could change your bumper sticker I would like to have it read, "Whether or not you support the war, that person on the front lines is someones son or daughter."

That man up there in the green will always be this kid to me. The boy who was my bud, the "baby" of the family and the one with a huge heart. He is the man who loves his nieces and nephew like nobody's business and the one who is becoming one of the best and strongest men I know. Please do not wish him harm! He is my brother.

Hot Mess Mamacita

I was at the beach with my family a while back and took the picture below. I had planned to post it earlier but then began the challenge to blog everyday in May and this post just didn't make its way into the mix. So I shall share it with you now, partly because it was already written and I have to be at work by 7:30 and partly because I haven't seen my niece in a couple weeks and am missing her. 

This is my beautiful niece; I call her Lele or, on occasion, mamacita.  This picture was taken at the beach, hair all askew, eyes as red as if she were related to a Cullen, and in great need of a nap.  I absolutely love this picture! One, because I love this little girl with my whole heart but mainly because it represents how truly related we are.

Heaven help us, this child is the exact replica of her mama and me... please pardon me while I take a moment in prayer.

Lord,
Please keep her safe from herself! She is so much like the other women in our family and we were all blessed by Your good hand with just a little bit of 'cray' and impulsiveness.  We have the uncanny knack of always finding that "fine line" and riding it just as long as we can; please keep her toes on this side of it.  Protect her from men with the perfect combination of gorgeous eyes and smooth words.  You know what a disastrous recipe that can be.  Make her strong enough to not be a welcome mat that gets walked all over but hospitable enough to always keep the door unlocked for a friend on a rainy night.  And when I say unlocked, what I really mean is bolted tightly until she has looked through the peephole once said friend has knocked, because while I hope she is trusting I already know she's not stupid.  Thank you for putting a good size brain in her head.  Keep a hand firmly on her shoulder and a guard over her heart.
- Amen

Now that I have a good bit more help on her side I feel a little more at peace.  Man, if she doesn't have it cut out for her though.  I think it is seems like she got all the impulsivity and stubbornness in my soul and the impulsivity and stubbornness in my sisters and they combined to create a firework of independence! She's like the Fourth of July that child - feisty as all get out - but she is also sweet and kind and caring.  She can turn up the charm like a leprechaun on St. Patty's Day and has her Unca' Andrew wrapped around her little finger (ie: "Aunt Mel can I have a lollipop" "No, sorry you may not." Two minutes later... "Aunt Mel?!" And she's peeking around the corner of my bathroom with a sucker in her mouth. I hear Babe shout from the kitchen.  "Lee? I said don't show Aunt Mel". See what I mean?! That so would have been me at her age.) Bless any sweet daughters I may have and help me to keep them from being spoiled to death (Lord, can I please just have one.  I will take all the boys You are willing to give, but just one daughter please?! I am not sure it I can handle any more than that). Thanks!

All Domesticated Like, Just Read My Walls!

My post title has domestic in it... call the presses and alert the news!

I don't know where it came from but this last week had found me with a 'crafty, clothe-my-naked-walls' hair in my rear end. Considering it has been two and half years since we moved in and two and half years since I so much as placed an item on a shelf to look somewhat decorative you should probably not expect too many of these posts.  This mood may have come about because my dear friend Kalee was in town visiting from her new home in Birmingham. She is so good at all that 'planny, arrangey' type stuff and some of it may have rubbed off while she was here. Whatever the reason, since I have been in said mood lately I will share with you my fond little corner! My walls are so happy not to be naked anymore. Come and read them for yourself!!

I finally made the book wreath that I had found the idea for here.  Check Christina out if you want to know how to make it because, well, my step-by-step process talk would give you a whole lotta nothing! I could barely figure out how to roll the cones the right way. It took a handful of tries before Wally (who was helping me) finally figured it out and then a bazillion how-tos for me to finally catch on.  This is what finally began to commence after that tutorial.

It all started with a few ripped out pages. This part was the hardest thing for me to do! You do not rip books around this girl!!  Books are like babies, they need to be treated gently. I can get all kinds of be-nice-to-that-book crazy, but I felt that given the cover and the amount of love this book had seen it was time to be recommissioned for a higher purpose.

And that is when the pile began to grow...

and grow... (plus you can't beat some time with my main man Tim McGraw and the ever wonderful Sandra Bullock)

And grow! Until it was this glorious pile of Harry Potter happiness just waiting to be put together to adorn my wall.  It was actually pretty neat seeing the book piled up on my table like that, with the pages spread out and the cover atop them all.

And then all of those cone pages became this. It took the first movie (The Blind Side) to cone everything and then the second (Bedtime Stories) to get everything glued down properly.  I used a 12 inch wreath instead of 16 because I wasn't sure the book had enough pages to fill the bigger one up. 

Then the next day, in all the remaining crafty steam of the day before, I finally decided to display wedding photos.  And this was born!

I was so happy with myself for these little projects that I did a little jig (or two)! Babe has only been hinting for me to clothe our walls for what seems like years now (maybe because it actually has been).

I also figured I would share with you a lovely sandwich Babe and I ate when we went to dinner at a friends parents one evening. I now dub this sandwich the "Mr. Beaver" in honor of our sweet host (though he did get the idea from a sandwich shop somewhere in St. Pete)!

It is sandwich consisting of grilled tuna steaks, egg salad (made by a sweet friend I call Beave) and avocado. Considering I am not a huge fish eater (though I do love meatier fish such as tuna) and I do not typically like egg salad, I would say anyone should try this sandwich.  You will love it! It is so yummy! I loved each and every last morsel of it.  So, so very delicious!

Now that you have made it through my rant of domesticated, craftiness how has your summer kick-off been? 

Any sandwich ideas you love that I could try out this summer?