Friday, March 28, 2008

Adventures in Godmothering

Over this past Easter weekend, I, along with my "bestest" friends from high school, had the honor of becoming the Godmothers for little sweet Hollis. Baby Hollis is the son of our friends Kim and Tripp. (We are also the godmother to Hollis' older sister, Arrie B.) It sounds simple enough to become a Godmother - show up at the church and promise to uphold a child throughout their life with regard to their spiritual guidance. Right? Well, not so easy it seems.

When Arrie B was baptized things went fairly smooth since her mother told us to come down front when the families were called for the baptism. At that baptism, Gaby was sitting in the middle of the church and Lisa and I were sitting in the back of the church. Lisa and I saw Gaby stand up and go to the front of the church so that was our clue to also stand up and go to the front of the church. We still had a little bit of hesitation since the minister never actually says "Godparents, come on down!!" but we followed Gaby's lead and no one was the wiser.

Hollis' baptism was a different story. Lisa and I were once again in the back of the church. (Not sure why because at my own church I sit toward the front of the church. And I know Lisa is a join right in kinda person.) But this time Gaby was unable to attend the baptism - and Hollis' mother never told told us to come down front when the families were called for the baptism. So, Lisa and I were blissfully sitting in the back of the church enjoying our surroundings and, since we were in the back, we couldn't really see what was going on in the front of the church. When all of a sudden Tripp rushes down the church aisle frantically asking "Lisa? Lisa Smith?" I am just about to nudge Lisa in the leg when he says "Tonya Sayers?" Ohhhhh the horror!!!!!!!

Well, Lisa and I both realize what is going on and jump into action. At least I tried to. It seems that I had slipped my shoes off so I had to quickly find them with my toes and get them back on the proper feet. Thankfully, I wasn't wearing lace up shoes. Then Lisa and I both had to step over our pew mates and rush walk down front. When we get to the proper spot next to the Godfathers, we had no idea where we were in the service and didn't bring along our programs so we had no idea what our responses were supposed as we vowed to help Hollis make sure his precious little soul makes it to heaven. Ohhhhh the horror!!!!!!!

We muddled through and hoped no one noticed our faux pas. At least we thought we had fooled everyone until we returned to our pew after our muttered promises and our pew mate leans over and asks Lisa why we didn't know we were Godmothers. Ohhhhh the horror!!!!!!!

Well, at least we were there for little Hollis. And we promise we'll do better. :)

(But I can't promise I will have my shoes on.) Ohhhhh the horror!!!!!!!

Thursday, March 27, 2008

Spring is Here!! So, you know what that means.

Yes, Spring has sprung here in the Low Country. The birds are chirping, the bees are buzzing, and the plants are sprouting. All this spring-like activity also brings about the need to start thinking about the dreaded pedicures. Egads!!!!

All winter long I have had the luxury of letting my toenails "breath" since I have been wearing fuzzy socks in order to keep my little toes warm. And thanks to my current state of singledom, there is no need to spruce up my toes in the middle of winter just so a boy will think I am cute. But as soon as Spring arrives the sandals come out of the closet and the little toesies have to look good for everyone to see.

I like to get a good spa pedicure but I also like to save professional pedicures for special occasions - cruises, trips, weddings, bonding with the girls, etc... This way it is a guilty pleasure and I feel like I am doing something extra special for myself. But that also means I have relegated myself to being my own pedicurist, which is not as easy as it used to be. First of all, while my eyesight is still very good it isn't what it used to be. And second of all, it just isn't all that easy to reach my toes anymore. Limberness flew out the door after the age of 33 and unlike the swallows of Capistrano, it hasn't returned. Oh to be young and have legs and ankles that would bend any which way just to have pretty toes.

I suppose things could be worse and I could not have any toes at all. And as awful as having no toes sounds, on a day like this it does make a person think: I wouldn't have to worry about my painted toe nails in cute sandals if I had no toes. Hmmm, to have toes or not to have toes? It is a difficult question when the dreaded self pedicure is looming over a girly girl. I am sort of attached to my toes so I guess I will keep them and start soaking them so they will look cute for my first sandal wearing of the season. Oh the dreaded things we do in the name of beauty.

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Swan Here We Come!!!!

Did you know I won a free stay at the Walt Disney World Swan Hotel? Well, I did!!! Thanks to the DIS Unplugged podcast and my timely suggestion for a new segment idea, my Mom and I are off to WDW again. We go once or twice a year - it is our "thing". We don't exclude other family members from coming with us but Mom and I are the most flexible schedule-wise so it just works out that we go by ourselves most of the time. (Not having children, I don't have to worry about school schedules. So, in effect, by my not having children I get to go to Disney World a lot more. Hmmmm, odd how that works out.)

This trip we are starting off at Disney's All-Star Sports Resort for the first two nights and then we move to the Swan Hotel for the next two nights. (In Disney fan lingo this is referred to a split stay.) The free Swan stay is the catalyst for this trip. We tried to schedule the trip so my sister and niece could go with us but school doesn't get out until May 20ish and that is the beginning of the busy season so Mom and I just couldn't wait that long. It is just too much for me to have a free hotel stay at WDW and not use it immediatly. I was wanting to go the instant I won the trip. :) We got the Annual Passholder rate for the All-Star Sports portion of our stay. So, for hotel purposes, this trip is costing us less than $200. SWEET!!!!!!!!

On these Mom & Tonya trips we like to go with the flow to a certain extent. Usually I have determined what parks we will be at on certain days based on the Crowd Calendar on TouringPlans.com but we don't have a definite schedule as to what attractions we will see. (The Crowd Calendar lets you know what parks are best to go to on certain days and which parks to avoid. And it is always right!!!) I usually have a wish list of things I want to do but depending on the lines and our moods, we wing it. And usually on these trips I make a fun dining reservation. This year I am going to try to make a Crystal Palace reservation for when we are in the Magic Kingdom. It is a character meal with Pooh and his friends. We don't normally stalk the characters for pictures and autographs in the Parks so a character meal is a fun way to get a picture or two with some characters and get a meal at the same time. (Notice my picture with Goofy - a character meal at Animal Kingdom.) :)

This trip will be during Epcot's Flower & Garden Festival. We've never been to F&G so it will be nice to see all the different displays. We were at the Epcot's Food & Wine Festival last year and had a wonderful time. F&G won't have free wine tastings or international food booths but it will have lots of pretty flowers and fun topiaries. And what could be better than seeing Epcot at its best? Answer: Nothing!!!!!

Monday, March 10, 2008

Disappointing Weekend

Brody and I trudged up to Jackson Springs, North Carolina this weekend for another Hunt Test. (Jackson Springs is on the outskirts of Pinehurst.) It is a nice area but I wouldn't want to live there. It is in the sandhills of North Carolina, which is exactly what you get - sandy hills. And where you have sand, you have sand spurs. Generally this isn't a problem unless you are barefooted, but for a dog it is a significant problem. Besides, it gets really cold there. (More on the cold later.)

Brody is my wonderful brittany who loves to hunt. He is fondly known as a "bird finding machine" along with "Brody Baby", "cutie pie" and "sugar bug" among other things. Brody is often dismissed at first sight by many hunters who think he is just another cute pampered dog. Brody is in fact really cute and just about the happiest dog you have ever seen and a bit pampered if I do say so myself. He loves life! (And he is NOT as fat as he looks in the picture. Brody gets a fluffy winter coat that I don't like to trim during hunting season. If I trim his fur then he gets cuts on his belly and legs from all of the stickers and brush in the fields.) But once he gets in the bird field he makes all of those dismissive hunters eat their words. And I love to watch their amazement at my Brody Baby's skills. There isn't much better than proving someone wrong even if you can't gloat about it.

Sweet little Brody is working on getting his Master Hunter title. He has 2 of the 5 required qualifying legs. But this weekend did not bring any new qualifications. Here is how it went:

Saturday morning at 7:30 a.m., Brody had a good run until the gunner decided to shoot the quail in the back side from about 6 feet away. Although a good shot, it did nothing for the structural integrity of that poor bird. Brody held steady through the shot and went to retrieve the bird but was having no part of that messy bird. He picked it up and dropped it. His trainer/handler Scott gave him the command to fetch and Brody obliged him by picking the bird up again and promptly dropped it again. As you can imagine, the birds innards were not intact and Brody was having no part of that. (I imagine that bird entrails don't taste all that good.) While I commend him on being particular since I am at heart a girly girl, the hunt test rules state that this is a disqualifying event. Oh well, c'est la vie, que sera sera, and all that good stuff.

Sunday morning was just a disaster waiting to happen. The clocks sprung ahead an hour early this morning for daylight savings time so it was actually 7 a.m. in doggie time. Brody is like his mama and does not do mornings. And given that the hotel alarm clock went off but the radio station was not broadcasting on Sunday morning, I overslept giving us just enough time to frantically speed our way to the bird field but no time to prepare Brody for his brace. It was also about 28 degrees outside and Brody loves him some cold weather. There was a good frost on the ground so the only thing Brody could smell was QUAIL!!!! Sunday mornings are typically a problem for the early braces at a hunt test because all of the birds from the day before are hiding around the fields. This means there are a lot more temptations for a frisky, cold loving, non-morning, bird finding machine of a dog. At least the other dogs working on their master hunter titles thought it was a good morning to do their own thing also. :)

So, Brody and I will most likely make our way to Walhalla, South Carolina for another test in a few weeks. We may not though and just call our hunting season over. All these early mornings are just about to kill me!!!!!