Because My Photographer Quit Without Even A Two Week Notice...

In November the Murph got a new job and we packed up two homes and three cats and moved down to the Tampa/St. Petersburg, Florida area to begin our new lives. I was very excited and love it down here and everything so don't get me wrong.  I guess I didn't realize that with his new job keeping him busy, the Murph wouldn't have time to do his old job anymore.

 Old job = being my Chief Fashion Photographer/Athletic Supporter/Nutrition Consultant.

With no photographer, I am having trouble doing my Fashion Friday blog posts or any other fashion related blog posts that may require a picture of me in some fashionable or not so fashionable outfit. I've made some sad but serious attempts at selfies, but the photos turned out like this....

and these... not much better photos....

How can a person who generally has trouble with picture taking be coordinated enough to take selfies?

The Murph did agree to take this photo, but I never managed to do a fashion post on it.  It was a cute dress though. I wore this one to see Wynton Marsalis in Sarasota play a fun Christmas jazz concert.

Please excuse the photo bombing cat! He is seriously attached to me in a weird way. I always believed he was taken from his mom at too early an age. Bless his heart!

Dress: Mark & James by Badgley Mischka;

Shoes: Nine West

These days most of my pictures are of the cats so if you love cats you're in luck! If you love fashion, well, I'm sorry but until I can come up with a better plan, there just might be a bunch of cat pictures on my blog again.

Also, with no Athletic Supporter, my triathlon endeavors are nonexistent, but I have hopes for the spring and summer. If I can still swim and ride a bike without training wheels that is.

With no Nutrition Consultant, I've been sneaking to McDonalds to get sausage biscuits and hash browns several mornings and I'm lucky to get in one green smoothie per week. Not good for the detoxing, but I do get an occasional salad passed on from the Murph when he doesn't want to eat his lunches.

I'm still thinking I should become a vegan, but I've tried that before. It was the toughest 2 hours of my life!

Don't worry about me though. I'm tough! I'll figure it all out and be back to normal in no time. Hopefully, I will be better than normal because my normal could use some improvement. (or so I've been told)

In the meantime, here's some cute kitty pictures and some random home interior pictures because those I can manage to take all by myself.

Enjoy....

Stop taking pictures and give us the food!

Phantom 

Ed- The Good Kitty

Reminds me of Cadence and Phantom only they wouldn't be rubbing on each other like this.

Deluded Disillusioned sperm painting.

Cool Jazz Paintings.

Cadence showing his flexibility.

Also, I have job openings available for fashion photographer, athletic supporter (aka cheer leader) and nutrition consultant (aka food nazi).  Please apply here if interested.

Happy New Year!

I usually don't do new years resolutions and I'm not going to now.  I always try to stay fit, eat healthy,  and all those other things people resolve to do better in the new year.

I will try to blog more since I seem to have gotten a little negligent lately.

Anyway, Happy New Year to all of you who still pop in occasionally and haven't totally given up on me.

And a huge thank you too!

Merry Christmas!

image from fellowshipofthemind.com

Wishing everyone a very, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

And may the year ahead for all you crazy triathletes be filled with swim, bike and run.

For all you non-triathletes, pick a sport and go for it! Just maybe not all three at the same time.

Image from zazzle.com

This Is What Christmas Is All About

Merry Christmas Eve!

Just a reminder as you are enjoying all your Christmas festivities tonight and tomorrow, please don't forget what Christmas is really all about.

Everything That Kills Me Makes Me Feel Alive....

I love this song, "Counting Stars" by OneRepublic.

What's your addiction?

It's Just A Little Bitty Statue... Okay, maybe it is 6ft Tall, But I REALLY REALLY Want It

Below is the email exchange between me and The Murph regarding the fine statue above....

-----Original Message-----
From: Kristy  <konabarbie@gmail.com>

          To: The Murph

Sent: Thu, Dec 12, 2013 10:48 am
Subject: Check out what I found on eBay!

Hi! I found this on eBay and thought you might like it! Check it out now!  ST.20MICHAEL20ARCHANGEL20COLLECTORS20620FOOT20COLD20CAST20BRONZE20INDOOR20OUTDOOR20STATUE http://r.ebay.com/dEqUPF

I like this. Can we get it?

xoxo

          Love,

          Your wife

     Sent from my iPhone

     On Dec 12, 2013, at 11:05 AM, The Murph wrote:

Umm no

From: Kristy  <konabarbie@gmail.com>

          To: The Murph

Subject: Check out what I found on eBay!

            Please!  Pretty please.

"Umm no" is the best I could get from The Murph.

 Subject dropped!

I really don't think that he really understands why we need this statue. Archangel Michael is a very powerful angel and I would really feel much safer having him around. It's not like I don't communicate with him everyday and ask for his protection. (Ms. Mary taught me this. She has a direct line to all the Archangels).

A statue of the Archangel would be nice to have around too. We could put him in the Florida room or even in the bedroom to watch over us as we sleep. This would probably keep the cats out of the bedroom too, so we would all sleep better.

Maybe I should just ask for a cool sword like Archangel Michael's sword.

I'm sure The Murph wouldn't mind if I had one of those....

And it doesn't take up as much space as a 6ft tall statue.

I could slay serpent with it out in the backyard cause lord knows we have plenty of those around here in the tropics.

(and I haven't given up on the statue either...)

Wedding Shadow Box

We ordered this right after the wedding over a year ago and our florist shipped my wedding bouquet and the Murph's boutonniere to a company called Freeze frame/bloombeads.  Freeze Frame preserves flowers from weddings or memorials and makes custom shadow boxes or jewelry with them. It took a long time for us to get the finished product because they were backed up with orders.

As you can see, it was worth the wait.

It is a true work of art. They helped me pick the frame and background color that worked best with the flowers and the invitation. There were hundreds of different options.

Currently, we have the box hanging next to an arrangement of our wedding pictures. That other picture on the ground with the brown frame has been moved to another spot. We have no place to put it for now, at least not in this house. Maybe our next house.

Green Smoothies with Aloe Juice, Weird Fruit Things and Christmas Trees

We have finally unpacked everything that we were planning on unpacking at our new place and are slowly getting acclimated. One side of the garage is packed to the ceiling with the other stuff that we aren't going to unpack, but there's plenty of space for one of the cars on the other side of the garage. That's "Little Red's" spot when we bring him down after Christmas.

I have found a new hair place, new nail place, two new vets for Phantom (one is a cancer specialist), new places to shop, etc. There's an overabundance of grocery stores and pharmacies in the area in all directions around us. Take your pick. We also found a farmer's market that is very, very close. The produce is AMAZING! My green smoothies have never tasted better.

While at the farmer's market we discovered this Aloe juice drink. It comes in different fruity flavors that are all good, but I really like the pineapple flavor the best. We have been adding this to the green smoothies. The Murph takes his produce and protein powder to work and makes his smoothie for lunch sometimes.

I really love this New Zealand whey protein powder made from grass fed cows. I feel healthier just reading the label!

We decided to try these for the first time. They are like grapefruits, only sweeter and were very good, but I have no idea what they are called. Pommelo or something... maybe.... ??

Yes, Pomelo. (I had to google it) They are the grandparents of the grapefruit. (that's what google said)

I still add cilantro and kale and a few different fruits, usually a banana and pear or strawberries. I add the cilantro because it helps remove toxins, such as mercury, from the body and I had high levels when I tested two or three years ago. I haven't retested yet to see if the mercury levels have gone down, but hopefully they have.

 It doesn't hurt continuing to eat the cilantro and I still have one silver filling left in my tooth so until I get it out, I will assume I am still getting mercury leaching out of it. I can't wait to have NO silver fillings left in my mouth. I had no idea the dangers of them when I had them put in.

Finding a local dentist is another thing on my list!

The cats have settled in somewhat. Phantom is okay wherever we are. Ed is pretty cool and laid back too.

 Cadence - not so much! He disappears up under the box springs during nap time and we don't see him for awhile. He feels safer there.

I put two Christmas trees up over Thanksgiving weekend. These are the only two trees I moved down here. All the others were given to charity. I really miss my big, gynormous tree, but it was too heavy to move and was over 10 years old anyway. Time to buy another big tree when we purchase our own house down here. After this move, I'm all for getting rid of everything rather than moving it. Packing, moving it, then unpacking it....

Next time I think I'll just get rid of everything, move with nothing and start over with all new stuff!

Yeah!

From Wrecking Balls To Kitty Cats

I am sure by now you have all seen the Miley Cyrus video where she's singing my theme song, "Wrecking Ball".  The Murph made this my theme song the first time he heard it because my official nick name is Wrecking Ball. Now she's singing my theme song with a giant lip syncing kitty performing behind her in the video.

I believe she has my life totally represented...

Wrecking ball... giant cats (probably hungry),,, and don't forget the tight, stretchy not much there clothing (except hers has cat heads all over it)... see what I mean here? Am I right?

Now if next time she includes a bicycle, swim cap, running shoes or anything to do with Barbies, I'm really gonna have to check my house for spy ware.

I'm on to you Miley!

Packing And Moving, Moving And Packing And Then Unpacking And Stuff

 Hello again blog readers. I hope there are some left of you after my little blog hiatus. I temporarily had to abandon my blog because I've been packing, moving, more packing, a little home remodeling, long vet visits with Phantom, the BIG move followed by unpacking, dealing with setting up new Internet, new direct TV, etc. You get the picture?

We were without Internet for almost a week until they got here to install it. Then they were so motivated to set us up that they tried to do a new install not once, but three times on two different days! Now we Really need three Internets set up here! NOT!

Last time I was on this blog we were enjoying October on the beach in Pensacola Beach. That seems like a zillion years ago. I was really dreading leaving Pensacola Beach because we love it there, but I was excited about moving to the St. Petersburg area too. At least we are still in a beach community even if it's not Pensacola Beach.

We packed all our stuff up and loaded up the cats and left Pensacola Beach to head back to Birmingham to get our house there ready to list with a Realtor. Trying to sell it ourselves while we were hanging out on the beach in Pensacola didn't work so good. We spent a week in Birmingham picking out granite for the bathroom counters, hiring a painter, picking out new carpet, packing, etc. We left before we even got to see the final results, but the house is in good hands and will go back on the market this week.

Moving day was long. The movers couldn't get everything on the truck so they had to store it until they could find a truck heading to Tampa.  I don't really know why they even sent a guy out to look at what we had to move and then give us an estimate and not even send a big enough truck out. We are imagining that they are having a huge yard sale with whatever was left in Birmingham. Thank God the Babysitter was over saying good bye to us when the movers told me that they weren't going to be able to fit one of my triathlon bikes in the truck.

The Babysitter looked at me and said you need to get that bike in your car somehow if they can't get it on the truck. My car was packed full and I already had two other bikes on the bike rack, so I told the movers that the bike HAD to go in the truck. No exception. Now I'm thinking that if I didn't get it on the moving van when I did, then I wouldn't ever see it again. When we FINALLY get the rest of our stuff we are going through every box to make sure we aren't missing anything.

Mr. Frosty better be there among my Christmas stuff too! I just KNOW those movers had their eye on him!

And all my Christmas ornaments and my trees because I only kept two of them. The other three or four are history so those two better show up.

And my entire "Little House On the Prairie" series from when I was in elementary school. I am positive he movers are just wanting to get their hands on those books!

The Boy's collection of beanie babies all made it safe and sound. One of the movers did notice them and asked me how old the Boy was. When I told him that he was 21, he laughed and said, "well tell him we really appreciate moving all his beanie babies." Secretly, I'm probably more attached to the beanie babies than the Boy is.

Ok, I admit, the Boy doesn't even know I still have the beanie babies!

We left Birmingham a day sooner than planned because of the movers. They came and took our stuff on Thursday ( well they took 3/4 of our stuff) so we decided to head back to Pensacola Beach for the night since we had furniture there and it would break up the long drive and be easier on the cats.

Easier... HA!!

Soooo after a long day dealing with movers, we drove 4 hours to Pensacola, spent the night and then on Friday afternoon drove 7 more hours to St. Pete arriving at a dark, empty house around midnight that we had only seen one time before. We were very happy to finally arrive, especially the cats who were a little tired of car riding despite the cool jazz I had on the radio.

The air mattress we had to sleep on was awful, but we survived. The next morning I went to find coffee first thing. Then the movers showed up to unload in the rain. This time we had some better unloaders than loaders. The loaders were not so good. Otherwise we'd have all our stuff, not just 3/4 of it.

It took a week to get Internet, but we finally have everything set up. We love it here! The house is perfect. We are renting for at least a year so we can get use to the area better before we purchase anything. Everything is super tropical and it is over 70 degrees F here as I type. I hear Birmingham got down to 20 something degrees F last week while our "cold snap" was in the upper 50's. I think I can handle that!

There is a screened-in, kitteh approved porch/room at the new place so the cats are happy and loving the new place. Especially when the movers left.

There's also lizards running around all over the place. This drives the cats nuts!

Also, we have beaches EVERYWHERE here! All roads west lead to a beach... from St. Pete Beach up to Clearwater Beach and all the cool beaches in between.

Triathlete heaven.

Professional beach bum approved!