Little Swimmer

My little fish is all over the pool this summer. Thanks to swim lessons with Miss Miranda and Miss Tiffany, Cole can swim the whole length of the pool - 40 feet!

I love his long eyelashes and cute, little, freckled nose... 

Diving down for dive sticks...

Tijuana Flats: Accept all kinds of people, even those that use mild sauce!

You can find me at Tjuana Flats on Monday or Wednesday when it's military discount days. Or on Tuesday or Thursday because I'm craving it. Or after church on Sunday. Any excuse...I'm there.

I love their black bean enchiladas with red sauce..delish! With a side of their homemade guac...watch out! Their chips are crispy and seasoned...you definitely can't stop at just one.

The best part is that their customer service is over the top. Seriously...they rock.

Cole likes their food also, but what he really likes is that a tattoo comes with the kids meal. He is all about that. And I'm all about it too because it means he is always agreeable to going!

So if you are looking for a fast, friendly meal that will leave you wanting more...check them out asap!

And if you need more reasons, here are just a few items from their manifesto:

• There is no problem a burrito can’t solve
• Crushed ice can take you to your happy place
• Next time, order a chimichanga just because it’s fun to say
• Predictable is too normal, normal is too predictable
• Lighten up or leave
• Get in touch with your inner weirdness
• Accept all kinds of people, even those that use mild sauce
• Embrace the strange & unexplained, if at first you don’t understand it, maybe you never will
• Don’t be a stranger, just be stranger
• A pair of tacos is always a winning hand
• Give heat a chance
• Sometimes cheezy is good
• It only burns for a little while
• We’ll clean up the mess, so get messy
• Try the hot bar even if it’s on a dare
• Don’t stare at the murals too hard, you might get sucked in 

I must confess, I've always struggled to accept that some people choose to use mild sauce. I mean..what's wrong with them?? I'm not calling anyone out, but Dara and Randy Barwick should feel very welcome dining at Tijuana Flats. 

 

And much to my dismay, I've somehow managed to acquire a reflux problem or an ulcer or something. I'm really not supposed to eat anything that tastes good...like hot stuff, tomatoes, onions, or garlic. Lately I have had to order my enchiladas with NO sauce. I seriously hang my head in shame when I order...like I'm one of "those" people. But just as they claim, the folks at Tijana Flats quietly process my order and my shame is only half as bad thanks to their politeness. 

 

I'm off to take my Prilosec...    :)

 

Splish, Splash...Pool Makeover by Bright Blue Pools

I think everyone who grows up in the deep south has fond summer memories that include high temps and cool waters. When I was 4 or 5 I took swimming lessons from Mrs. Platt (?). From that day forward I spent most of my summers begging for pool time. My cousins Lyndra and Gene and I logged many hours of Marco Polo in the pool at Fernside. If you ever swam there you might shiver thinking of the spring water that filled the pool. My earliest memory of a scent/smell is of the strong smell of pine needles around that pool. Years later my friend Sherri, and I pedaled our bikes up to the Barwick pool more times than I can count. Because my birthday is in August, many of my birthday parties were pool parties.

All my life I begged for a pool. Guess when my mama broke down and got one? You got it...not until the thought of grandchildren came along!  ha

Because we move around so much we have purchased seven homes in the 18 years that we have been married. No matter how hard I searched and no matter how much I wanted one, I was never able to find the right house with a pool until we got to number seven. You can imagine how excited I was to  move here last year and have my very own pool...finally!

But our pool had problems. Black algae flourished on the walls, and we spent a small fortune on algaecide which really just made the problem a little less disgusting. Then a crazy storm came along in March and separated the deck and our coping. We did lots of searching for someone to repair our pool and finally settled on Curtis Nelson of Bright Blue Pools (Destin, Fort Walton Beach, Navarre, Mary Esther...basically Santa Rosa, Okaloosa, Bay, and Walton Counties).

Our pool was a MESS, but this is what it looks like now:

(Restoring our deck is next so ignore the ugliness of the boards around the pool.)

Curtis and his crew did such a wonderful job. I really can't brag on them enough. They arrived promptly each morning, were professional and worked HARD. Curtis was either working along with them or checking in frequently. They worked hard to be sure we were happy with the results. They truly went above and beyond what we expected.

This is what our steps looked like before...ick.

This is what the coping looked like after the storm...

After they cleaned the pool, they went to work removing the coping...

Then they put new tiles in...

Next they made a "mold" for the new coping...

Pouring the new coping...

This is what it looked like before they coated it with cool decking (I don't think cool decking is exactly what they used, but something like that.)

Check out those clean, new steps and the coping!

Steps before the pool was refilled...

And finally...filling the pool!

Thanks so much Curtis and crew. We appreciate all of your hard work and love our sparkly, new pool!

Synergy Organic Juice Bar & Cafe: Satisfying the Inner Hippie

Being a vegetarian in the heart of the south is not easy. It's frowned upon. And if you also happen to like healthy food? Whoa! That's pretty much a major character flaw. Needless to say, it can be hard to find something to eat at restaurants.

A 2013 Public Policy Polling survey found 13% of Americans identify as vegetarian.  A 2012 Gallup poll found 5% of Americans identify as vegetarian. A 2008 Harris Interactive poll found that 10% of adults largely follow a vegetarian-inclined diet.

I'm not sure which statistic is true.  Whatever it is, I'm sure that 99% of those vegetarians live outside of the deep south.

Which leads me to Synergy Organic Juice Bar and Cafe in downtown Fort Walton Beach. It's a little piece of paradise if you ask me. They do serve meat dishes, but they also have a vegetarian option for any of them. Their tempeh is great. You can even get a BBQ sandwich....yeaaaaah.

I had this yummy black bean burger for lunch today...

So if you are looking for a delicious and nutritious meal on the Emerald Coast head on down to Synergy - you will love it. It definitely satisfies the inner food hippie in me.

Apparently my inner hippie stops at food because based on this test I'm only 3% hippie. No real surprise there. What's your hippie rating?

The Salty Sailfish

I'm terrible at naming things. If I had a dog I would probably just name him Spot.

Confession: We had to ask our facebook friends to help us name our child. (Thanks, Ariel.)  :)

So when I needed to name my house I turned to my mama. She calls me when she needs left-brained help. I call her when I need right-brained help because I'm not even sure I have any gray matter over there.

If you've seen my house you  might be wondering why I wanted to name it since it's no mansion. And if you live here  you're probably wondering as well because people don't name their beach houses here. (I guess because we are not allowed to rent them on this sweet, little, crazy island.) But whatever. I think every beach house should have a name.

With that said let me introduce you to...

This photo is just a picture that the artist snapped and sent to me. I'm going to have it made into a sign and put it up somewhere. Project #547 for a rainy day.

If you were going to name your house, what would it be?

This happened.

My day was kinda crazy. I went on this marathon shopping trip to Dollar Tree, Home Depot, Sam's, and Wal-Mart. With my four year old. If that can't make you crazy I don't know what can.

While I was in Wal-Mart I saw this mama give her 10-ish year old daughter "the look" and loudly snarl, "DON'T ruin my trip to Wal-Mart!"  I understood the snarl. But did that woman really expect something wonderful to come from a trip to Wal-Mart? Crazy.

Then I had a photo session tonight. And the family...crazy.  I'm kidding. Totally kidding. They were rather perfect, actually.

I was getting a shot of the siblings, and the dad was standing just behind me. The kids started laughing like something was up, and I thought maybe he was giving me bunny ears or something to crack them up. Whatever it takes, right? But then the daughter gasped.

At that point I had to turn around and see what was going on. Lo and behold there was a gorilla on the beach!

It appeared to be a friendly gorilla, so we went on with the photo session.

After the session I wandered down the beach to check out the gorilla. It turns out the gorilla is eight years old and named Samantha. She was quite hungry for some bananas, but I couldn't help her out with that.

 Then I heard people saying we had just missed the flame tricks. This guy was nice enough to do them again so a little crowd of us could see what we missed.

As I was clicking away I noticed a blur in the background, and realized it was THE GORILLA. Two things I didn't expect to see on the beach tonight...all in one frame. That happened!

Bathroom: Before & After

One of the best things about Pinterest is finding projects for you husband to do. Because every guy needs a few more things on his to do list, right?

I wish we could do a complete overhaul on our room and bathroom to create more closet space, but that is not really in the cards right now. We did take the carpet and vinyl out of the bathroom and put in tile. This is the before pic...

Brian also replaced the faucets, made some shelves and put a pretty border around the mirror to break it up some. After all, I can only handle so much refection at 6:00 a.m.  We are not really sure what to do with the lights since they are now not spaced evenly, but I guess we will figure that out one of these days.

You can't really see it well in the photo, but on the left wall under the picture we put up a piece of wood with pegs all along it for hanging towels, swimsuits, etc.  I'm loving that!

Now if I'm keeping it real...this mess of a closet is what you would see if you were to turn around. Whoever invented sliding closet doors should be locked up in a tiny jail cell with other people who invent awful things...like that hard, sealed plastic packaging that is impossible to open without coming close to losing a finger. Or the person who invented those stickers that make it impossible to open a DVD.

So anyway, these doors just won't stay on track, so they have been leaning up against the wall for about  10 months.

I was all excited when I found this solution on Pinterest (below) and thought I would do (or have Brian do) something similar minus the barn-like hinges. But apparently we can't do this because we don't have the right kind of door jambs or something.

So...what to do. What to do? I'm tired of these leaning doors in my way people so please give me some ideas.   :)