A Moving Tribute plus the Netflix Que is back along with Some Stories

First off, I think the day Estelle Getty died was a day that will go down in history as one of the saddest days America has ever seen. I watched Golden Girls all day on the day she died and then Lifetime had a marathon on Friday with all of Estelle's greatest moments on the show. I am starting to think I have a serious problem. I watch the Golden Girls everyday and I don't just mean when they come on t.v. I will play my DVD's over and over and over while I work on my laptop. I never get tired of the episodes. Even Ben can quote Golden Girls episodes. But hey, if that's bad then I don't want to be good...


Secondly, let me thank those of your who voted in the "Who has the best Palm Beach Post" contest I had entered into with my brother in law. I was, hands down the winner and I couldn't have done that without my loyal readers. So I would like to send a special "Macon Fun of the Grants Thanks" to all the little people.

This is a very good week because it is the last week that Ben will be in Texas. Don't get me wrong, I have actually enjoyed my time alone doing what I want and not having to worry about anyone else. It was a good reminder of my single days, minus the dating, but I am really excited about Ben coming back home. I am leaving for Abilene Friday and will spend my birthday (August 2nd)with my family and then Ben, Penelope and I will drive back to Georgia. I am ready to get life back to normal.
I don't really have much to talk about but I was feeling the pressure of needing a new post so I will just ramble and you will just have to deal with it.

Yesterday was an off day, if you will, with my clients. As you all know, I work with developmentally disabled individuals and love every minute of it but yesterday, I was not feeling the love. I went to a day center to visit one guy who has some serious issues with biting, spitting, running away and some other "sexual" things which I won't discuss in this forum. I leaned over the table to get eye to eye with him, from a distance of course because the day he spits in my face will be the day he gets his balls kicked but I, of course, digress. So, I ask him "How was your trip?" and he proceeds to look me straight in the eye, plug both ears with his fingers and hum. I start talking to his instructor who came over and he is still humming with his ears plugged as if to say "Just the sound of your voice, either directed at me or anyone else sounds like fingernails on a chalkboard and I can't stand it." He stays this way until I leave the room.
I then go to another clients group home and find him lying on the couch resting. This guy can walk but prefers to crawl everywhere which causes his pants to be pulled by his knees so his big butt is always hanging out of his jeans AND boxers. I walk up to him as he is lying there and say "Hey C__, how are you?!" He grabs the pillow from behind his head and covers his face with it and refuses to even look at me. The staff person tries to play it off by saying "Hmm. I guess he's being shy today." Yeah right. I can take a hint.
I also have two clients who are apparently dating the same man. I went to one woman's home and she was talking about her boyfriend, Kelvin, who helps do yard work for a certain provider who provides services to people with disabilities. I then go to another consumer's apartment a few days later and she was telling me how she and her boyfriend are on the same softball team. "Oh!", I say, "What's his name?" Kelvin. Kelvin?? Do you mean Kelvin who does yard work at ___? Yep, that's him. I proceed to ask her if she's sure she is the one dating him because I heard he's dating someone else. She says "I'm dating him and I can prove it." She goes into her bedroom and brings out a framed picture of Kelvin. I had to give it her because my other client did not have a framed picture of Kelvin in her bedroom. I guess "She who has the framed picture of Kelvin, wins."

Ok, is anyone interested in my "It's a chick flick kind of summer with my Netflix Que" movie reviews? Hey, did that just rhyme? Here is my list which starts where my previous review (if you didn't read the previous one, shame on you) leaves off:

Waitress-I'm not really a fan of Kerri Russell but still a cute movie. She can't pull off a southern accent if her life depended on it.

The Bucket List-Good. I laughed, I cried, I gave serious thought as to why and how Morgan Freeman has freckles and how Jack Nicholson is still getting laid. I mean he is getting really old.

27 Dresses-hmmm. I liked Knocked Up better. It was entertaining though.

Dan in Real Life-I really liked this movie which I didn't think I would like it as much as I did. Of course, I love Steve Carrell.

Maude Season 1-Ok, to all my fellow Bea Arthur/Golden Girls fanatics you must watch Maude. It is Bea Arthur's sitcom in the 70's and I love it. She is brash, liberal and it was so interesting to watch episodes based on Nixon and race issues. Also, I love Good Times and Florida from Good Times was Maude's housekeeper and then got her own spin off. Sorry, I told you I'm a fanatic. Love ya Bea!

We are Marshall-Loved it.

License to Wed-Love John Krasinki. I think he is the sexiest thing to walk the earth since....Ben. Yeah, the sexiest thing to walk the earth since Ben. The movie sucked. Wow, I actually feel bad saying that. Sorry John. I love you almost as much as I love Bea (and Ben).

So, my birthday is this Saturday and I have to admit I'm feeling a little weird about it. I know I'm young, but still it's my last birthday in my 20's and that makes me feel...in my 30's which kind of freaks me out. Ok, while I'm on the subject, has anyone out there met those people who are young but love to say they're old? Almost like being older is cooler then being young? You know those people who go "Ohhhh, you wouldn't know about that because YOU are soooo young." Like it's an insult! To me, that is the best compliment you could give me. There is this girl who goes to our church who is married with two kids. Her kids are like 9 and 7. Ben and I were at this meeting where we were talking about getting a class together for the 20 something/young professionals in our church. Because this girl's kids are older, I really didn't know how old she was but she looked about my age. In this group, there were college kids and a lot of people in their early 20's. So some of us were standing around talking and I hear her say "Ohhh my gosh, I feel so old being here! I am just so old. These people are little babies!!" And she was saying this like "I am so much better and wiser then these little peons here. If only they would let me teach them the ways of the world.." So I look at her and say "Oh, really how old are you?" And she says "28." I choked on my coke and said "Are you serious? You're 28? Hmm, I'm 28 and feel really young." She just looked at me and started another conversation. I was kind of offended by her saying how old she was. Hello!? 28? That is not old and how dare she say it is when I am 28! Oh and to answer your question, I will be one of those people who will cry when they turn 30 and from, say, 45 on will always lie about their age. Yeah, I admit it. Jealous?

One more thing. Who is super pumped for the Olympics?? I freakin love the summer Olympics! And, hello, men's swimming anyone? So I was looking at pictures of Michael Phelps,the American swimmer, and came across a rather disturbing picture. Do you see anything, oh, I don't know, semi-pornographic in this photo?

Exciting Palm Beach Pictures and Stories by Holly

Ok my loyal blog readers I have returned from my wonderful and relaxing vacation that was Palm Beach. My parents have a time share that is an ocean view so my entire family (minus Ben who had to stay in Abilene and work) came out to Florida for a ligit vacation. It seems "vacations" are mostly spent going to see family so this was a nice change of pace to vacation like normal red-blooded Americans. Also, you should know that Taylor and I have been challenged by loyal reader Heather Sommerville (big shout out to ya, my sista)to see who can post the better Palm Beach blog. I have linked you to Taylor's blog so you can give Heather (via my blog) your feedback should you choose. I think Taylor's post was, how shall I put this...lacking. But some might say I'm biased and I would never want to sway your vote so I will move on. I shared a condo with Paul (my brother) and his family while Heather (my sister) and company shared with my parents. This was to split up the 5 kids because that would have been CRAZY to have them all in one condo but I personally could have cared less and thought the better option was to put my parents and me in a condo (pure tranquility) and everyone else should be left to deal with their wild spawns but no one asked me. The first night, Kate and Nathan decided they wanted to take a bath in the big jacuzzi tub in my room. Paul was filling the tub and asked me if I thought the water looked yellow. Yes. The water was indeed yellow and there was even a sign on the counter saying that the city of Palm Beach recognizes the water is a little off but it is not hazardous to your health and is just the natural "humidic and tannic" something or another of the water.
Yellow water? Who cares, we're in Palm Beach!!
Basically, everyday was the same. Beach in the morning, pool late morning, back to the condo for lunch, back out to the pool or beach in the afternoon. Thankfully, I didn't have kids waying me down so I was able to spend all the time I wanted at the beach/pool. View of the condo from my permanent lounge chair at the pool View of Palm Beach from my balcony View of the ocean from my balcony
We all decided that we needed to try out the hip-hop dance class. I never knew how white we were until I saw this. Seriously though, everyone was a good sport and we had a good time laughing at ourselves! You can see Taylor in the background and Mitchell and Nathan.
Paul (Vanilla Ice)
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As you know, I am not above showing myself dancing on this blog but Taylor has the only copy of my skills during the hip hop class so I cannot post it and for some reason, he decided not to so that's everyones loss...
Taylor and Anna(Go White Boy, Go White Boy, Go!)

We also performed tricks at the pool. We truly are a family of talant.

Anna in her acrobatic debut

Nathan as the human water fountain

Anna mysteriously floating on her back


Paul, Mitchell, Taylor and myself got up early and went deep sea fishing. It was a lot of fun.

Mitchell and I before the boat took off.


My catch. Actually I didn't catch anything, that was my bait. Pitiful, I know


Paul's catch. Jerk...


Taylor's promise:

That little fish is going to look great on his calf. I know a good, ehh, decent tattoo artist named Willow who I can hook him up with.

Pregnetto and me

Mom and Dad relaxing at the pool

All the kids (minus Ben). I love Anna's goggles. Everytime I saw her I would think of Elton John.






I have more videos but I will post those another time since this is getting long. I have some great karoeke videos of Paul, Susan and I but Paul has the video of my singing so when I get that from him, I will post it. It's really funny let me tell you!

Now I will end this post with a story from the end of my trip. When I boarded my plane to come back to Georgia, there was not a space above my seat for my carry on so I had to go to the middle of the plane (I was up front) to store my bag. I was thinking the whole time back to Atlanta about what a pain it was going to be to have to go against the traffic to the back of the plane in order to pick up my bag. When we landed and the pilot said we could get up, I jumped out of my seat and head butted my way to my bag. Of course, I had to stand there and wait for the people ahead to move off the plane once I got the bag and I, unfortunately, was stuck in front of these two small children who did not know the words "personal space." They were kind of bumping into me but I really didn't mind since I understand that is just how kids are. Then, I feel something on my butt. I didn't turn around because I thought maybe the kid was just bumping into me again. Then I feel a small child's finger tracing a circle on my left butt cheek. My eyes go wide but I didn't want to draw attention to this because of how awkward I felt. Then, he starts to do it again and his mother sees it and says "Adam, don't touch the lady. You are in her personal space." The little heathen proceeds to poke my butt cheek while saying "This lady?? This lady?? This lady?? Momma, this lady???" I kind of wanted to laugh but I was so uncomfortable I didn't know if I should acknowledge it or ignore it. I chose to ignore it which might have made the situation even more awkward for everyone involved.
Oh, yeah one more short story from the airport in Ft. Lauderdale. I was sitting by my gate waiting for my flight reading. I had to get there early since everyone else's flights left before mine so the only people at the gate at this point was me and then some girl who sat in the row behind me. All of a sudden I hear her say "Toto, Toto, Toto, Toto, Toto, Toto!!! She sounded like she was trying to get someone's attention and just kept saying "Toto!" I kid you not, for a split second I actually thought to myself, "Am I Toto? Is she talking to me?" That just seemed like the only rational explanation but then I remembered that I didn't know anyone in the airport or in Ft. Lauderdale and, oh yeah, my name isn't now nor has it ever been Toto. I turn around slowly and see she is on the phone. I then hear her say very loudly "Toto, Toto, Toto, Toto, Toto, TONESE!!!! Listen to me!" Apparently Toto was not listening to her so she was getting annoyed. Still, I thought it was weird.
Ok, fine, one more VERY short story. There were these stray cats that we would see from our balcony wondering around the property. Heather and Paul saw a cat one night from the balcony and swore it was a Puma. A puma?? Why a puma? Why not a cougar or a wildcat? Can any one of you look at a cat and know that it's a puma as opposed to some other cat? Turns out, it was just a small stray house cat which made their claim that much more ridiculous, in a funny way.

Ben's Birthday and Texas Trip

Happy Birthday Ben!! I wish I could be with you today but I had a Sonic Blast in celebration of your big 26th birthday! Oh to be 26 again! I love you and can't wait for you to come home.

I'm back!! I got back from Texas around 10:00 Sunday night and I was exhausted. After sitting on the runway in Dallas for two hours watching Nims Island I was ready to be home. I sat next to an Asian man and his wife. He took oh...35-40 pictures of the clouds. While we were landing in Atlanta, he took pictures of a concrete slab used as a parking lot, a Marriott, and a Flash Foods Convenience Store. This annoyed me. I don't why it annoyed me. It wasnt' my camera he was using. It wasn't space on my memory stick he was wasting. It wasn't my batteries in his camera. He wasn't even leaning over me to take the picture. But still, I was annoyed. Everytime I would hear the "click" of his camera with yet another cloud picture my lips and legs would tense up. I would look over at his camera to see the picture he just took and THEY ALL LOOKED THE SAME! And, of course, this annoyed me even more. I could not understand why his wife didn't tell him to stop being an idiot and that two cloud pictures are really two too many. Could you imagine his poor friends and family who have to sit through his vacation pictures! Clouds and convenience stores. Man, with friends like him, who needs friends?? Anyway, I had a wonderful trip home but it was so busy and I don't feel like I actually relaxed once. It was really great to be with Ben again since we had not been together in over 6 weeks. First, we went to Austin for my brother-in-law, Daniel's, wedding. It was beautiful and a lot of fun. My mother-in-law, Cheri, and I threw Amanda a lingerie shower and it was fun. Here is a picture of her best and most often used gift.

Candy "Posing Pouch" thong for men. This is for all you freaks out there...


We danced

We drank

We got really sweaty (I love the ladies face behind us!) Priceless...

and apparently some people lost their shoes in the process.

I got to hang out with some hot Grant (and Brown) men (me, Jon, Justin and Ben)

After the wedding, Ben and I went to dinner with Hayden and Jen who were freshly back from their honeymoon in Cancun. We love spending time with them and wish we had more time to do so. Apparently, a story was going around the wedding that Jen forgot her clothes when they went snorkeling (or something like that. I actually think I still have the rumor wrong). Ben and I thought this was an odd thing to do since, most likely, when you leave your hotel that day you are most likely wearing something whether it be jeans or a "posing pouch." We got the story straight at dinner and it wasn't near as funny as forgetting your clothes. She just didn't have a swimsuit for the snorkeling trip. I love rumors that are completely off base that can make it around a room in 10 minutes. I think I should start one here and see what happens. Ok....let's see. Amanda Musick is pregnant with John McCain's love child and Ben's jealous.

Ben, me, Jen (with clothes) and Hayden

We then went home to Abilene to see my family. Ben is living with my parent's this summer and my brother and sister and their families are all there. Heather and Taylor moved into their home on Monday so I spent some time entertaining their kids, Mason and Anna, and helped them unpack. Their home is beautiful and totally pimped out. Ben and I can't wait to move in to the upstairs guest suite after Ben graduates. Paul and Susan's home is really nice also. They are still renovating but it will look great when it's done. I went to watch my nephews, Mitchell and Nathan at swim lesson. My dad has a new "summer attire." He has started wearing shorts, suspenders, t-shirt, socks, velcro sneakers and a cowboy hat. When he is at home, he wears this same outfit, including the suspenders, just minus the shirt. Unfortunately...actually fortunately, I didn't get a picture of the shirtless summer attire. Your welcome.

Mom and Dad in his summer attire

Mitchell and Nathan at swim lessons


Heather and Taylor (our future roomies)

Paul and Susan. Paul spent hours sunbathing in baby oil to get that tan. Go Paul!

I then went to exercise class with my parents. They take an aerobics class that is called "The Blue Haired Class" a.k.a. "The Old Person's Class." I went to sit and watch and basically take pictures while laughing at them (Did I say that? I meant laugh WITH them) but my mom decided I needed to participate so after I signed the waiver saying I would not sue should I have a heart attack from the over 60's workout class we got down to business. I will say, it would be a good workout for someone in their 80's but I did not break a sweat. However, during cardio we were walking around the room and I thought the instructor said "Ok, now march around the room." Well, I start marching but everyone else is walking. Obviously you go slower when you march then when you walk and some old "Blue Hair" came up behind me and said "keep it moving." I thought I was going to die when she said that to me. Well, I showed them. I walked faster then everyone of them and I passed that old blue hair twice. Yeah, I counted.

Buns of Steel


I must, I must, I must increase my bust...


My mom and I decided Ben has been spending way too much time with my dad. Please note the outfit!


We ate at Chicken Express which I love. Ben got Cayenne pepper in his eye and couldn't open it. I thought it was funny. Ben, not so much.


Mason, Anna, Ben and I.


One of my mom's stray cats had kittens and we are all getting cats. Ben get's the tabby since she is the cutest and will match our already existing tabby, Fitzgerald. We're all about the coordinating cats.

Introducing: Penelope! She is adorable. Taylor and Heather are getting one white and one black kitty. Taylor said he is going to name them Ebony and Ivory. He was kidding but I think that is hilarious.

Penelope, Ebony and Ivory

After a fun week in Abilene, Ben and I went down to Leakey with Paul and Susan and their kids. We like to spend as much time their as possible and we always have a great time sitting in the river, talking to everyone. Here are some of the highlights.


Leakey parade. The floats always throw candy and beads to the audience. We were the only group throwing beads at the parade! It was a lot of fun.
Rockin Grannies. And yes, they were rockin. Ben threw some beads and hit a granny right on the head. He said he hit her on the bee-hive so she's ok. She did keep right on rockin!


Ligit fireworks

Watts-Grant fireworks (Or as Susan so effectionately called then "Fluffers") Ewwww!!!


Nathan is so patriotic. Mitchell gave him a tattoo that says "I love USA." This struck me as funny for some reason.

And now for the Top 5 Quotes of my Texas Trip:
5.. "That look's awful." -Mom referring to my dad's new summer attire as he walked to the car for lunch.

4.. "I just walked into the cabin and Nathan had a plastic bag over his head." -Ben referring to Nathan at the river.

3. Holly: "Dad, I don't think mom likes your manly physique anymore."
Dad: "I don't care, my physique is retired."

2. While were in Leakey at the river, Ben and I had this conversation:
Holly: "Hmmm, I wonder why she's wearing a neckbrace."
Ben: "She's building a case!"
Holly: "What do you mean? Is she in a lawsuit?"
Ben: "When we all get subpeoned for court and her attorney asks us "Was Sue wearing a neckbrace on the weekend of July 4th, we'll have to answer yes!"
Holly: "Sue, why are you wearing a neckbrace?"
Sue: "I have a degenerative vertebrae and had major surgery."
Ben: "Hmmm."

1. "Your boobies are driving me crazy." -Mom was sitting at the breakfast table with my dad and I and my dad was wearing his summer attire, minus the shirt. She was looking at his boobs and then just randomly said this out loud. Ben and I both think this is one of the funniest things we have ever heard!