A Veteran's Song

It's another Memorial Day... which means it's time for our 9th Annual Memorial Day Shrimp Boil!  I can't get over how fast time flies!  Luckily, Tommy took off a little extra time to prep for this year's event.  It was so much harder for me than I expected it to be.  I had to keep taking breaks to let the swelling go down in my leg, my back did NOT want to cooperate while I tried to clean the house, and I just couldn't get myself as happily motivated as usual.  I was getting nervous that we wouldn't be able to get things together in time, but my hubby went above & beyond to make sure everything went well.  I love that guy... I think I'll keep him  (hee hee).

Rachel also wanted to help!  She is growing up so fast, it's scary!  But she helped clean up her toys, and is now our resident dishwasher emptier... at least as far as the plastics & silverware are concerned (AFTER I remove all the knives... oy)

Anyway, the party was a success as always, despite the weather being a little uncooperative for the very first time!  It rained on and off throughout the day, but EVENTUALLY (after dinner!) it was dry enough to let the kids play in the pool for a while! 
We are just so glad everyone seemed to  have a good time...  and as usual, we had old friends and some new ones to share the day... I just can't believe someone actually stole one of the American flags off the front lawn! I just hope they did it so they could remember our Service Men & Women... not just to be rude...  Because even though we spend the day enjoying the company of our friends & the fantastic food (thanks to my honey), the TRUE reason for the day is to honor those who have kept us free... So for that reason, I personally want to share my heartfelt gratitude... Thank you to all the Military families of the USA.  The soldiers fighting for the right to be free, and the families of those soldiers who are keeping vigil at home...  And to those who made the ULTIMATE sacrifice, BLESS YOU!

 The buffet table... shrimp boil was still being prepared but you get the idea... lol

 Some of the family & friends... It worked out pretty well! Most everyone stayed out poolside, but the rest were either in the family room or in the bar (where Rachel learned the fine art of winning on our slot machine! Thank you Uncle Bill!! LOL

 Meri & Lexi, who shocked the *@#^% out of me... I almost fell over when I saw just how TALL that kid has gotten!  such a beauty! 

 some steamers for snacking... Most of the rest we did raw... poor Tommy was shucking forEVER... lol...

 Rachel was having the time of her life with her "Boyfriend" Nick.  (Yes, I know she looks too serious here, but that's because she got mad that I insisted she let me take her picture!)
These 2 were INSEPARABLE all day!!!  Nick was absolutely WONDERFUL with her!  He kept her laughing & happy the whole time he was there!

 Kissie, kissie, kissie!

 The cat that ate the canary? 

 2 of my girls from the M.O.M. group (Meeting of the Minds).  wish the rest of the group could have made it... ONE of these years! LOL

We decided to have Mom dish out her INFAMOUS salad!  That way we knew everyone would get a little of everything!  She is the best salad maker on the planet, as far as I'm concerned!  Thanks Mom!!!

Spiders And Snakes

 Tommy was checking the veggie garden, when he realized there were a load of bees swarming around the water plates (they look like tiny  . It's where the water company does the meter reading).  So I called the water company to tell them they need to get someone to clean it out, before their folks try to check our meter again... So here's the weird part... they tell me WE have to take care of it... My first thought was that I sure hope their employees aren't allergic to bees!
Lucky for them, they had the name of a bee keeper... I called, and he agreed to come out immediately (since he was going on vacation).

Turns out he also owns a store locally, where he sells the honey he collects from all the bees he retrieves!  So he does not charge a fee for collecting the bees.  Good thing, huh?
He was also willing to give us the honeycomb, but as it turns out, this was a fairly new hive, so there was no honey in it yet.  It was, however, HUGE!  He was scooping bees out by the handful to put into his "beebox". 
He left the box there for a couple of days, to be sure all the worker bees found their way in... he was quite certain he had scooped up the queen & gotten her into his box.  He was smoking them to calm them down, and just scooping up massive amounts of bees & dumping them in... it was kinda neat to watch!  Really glad to be rid of them though... I was nervous since they were so close to the garden & Rach likes to help out in there!

We also had another little visitor to our lanai, but we couldn't get anyone to get rid of THIS pest for free, so we had to do it ourselves... TWICE!  (guess he really likes the lounge chairs! LOL) 
Here is the one I was TERRIFIED of...

 As you can well imagine, I was NOT a happy camper when I found this guy hanging out so close to the pool!  We've never had one on the lanai before.. at least not that WE had ever seen!

Oh, and before anyone thinks I got suddenly brave, I was using the zoom BIG TIME on these shots... wouldn't catch me within 10 FEET of a snake... YUCK!!!!!!!

Mother

 Happy Mother's Day to all the mom's reading this :-)

My Mother's Day started out with a yummy box of Shari's Berries! They are delicious chocolate covered strawberries... yes, I know I don't like chocolate, but they have WHITE chocolate ones that I eat, Milk chocolate for Rach & Dark chocolate for Tommy!  LOL...

Next up after a nice relaxing afternoon, was dinner... A few years ago, Mom & I decided to start a new tradition... Lobster for Mother's Day!  For a while, we were really lucky because there was a pretty terrific place in town that had live Maine lobsters at a relatively reasonable rate.  (Reasonable as compared to the price at Publix).  They were also some of the best, sweetest lobsters we had ever had!
This year, was a little bit of a let-down.  Our favorite place closed a couple of months ago, so we were forced to find someplace else to go...

 We went to another local seafood market, and bought enough lobsters for all of us to have a nice dinner... even Rachel got her own (much smaller) one. 
I was a little upset that they do not steam them for us.  I really hate cooking these guys myself, but oh well...

So I cooked them up, & we packed them all up along with a big batch of asparagus, and headed over to mom's. 

 Here is almost 10 pounds of cooked lobster!
Once we got to mom's, I roasted up the asparagus and mom had made spaghetti with white clam sauce.
Dinner was delicious, although we were actually a bit disappointed in the lobsters.. they seemed to be a bit salty... (turns out the next day when we reheated the lobster leftovers, they tasted much better...)