The Bling Bikini Weekend

One of my younger sisters Vicky (we have a passel of 'em) was involved in a body building competition this past weekend.  She's involved in roller derby and her name there is Bling-It-On, hence the title of the post.

Saturday morning and I'm up at 5:30 a.m.  I get dressed, realize my toenails need serious repainting and fix them, get some coffee going in my Keurig (yay!) and head out the door by 6:15 a.m., stopping to get gas on my way down south to Pt. St. Lucie.

With my Matthew West and Toby Mac CD's on hand, I was singing and driving along.  My GPS did not have this new convention center in it. That goodness I jotted down quick instructions before I left the house!  I don't have a Smart phone with a GPS in it, so I would have been lost.

I arrived at the convention center and parked near my big sis Brenda, who drove up from S. Florida for the event.  She handed me over a "Team Vicky" shirt she made and I changed in her car.

Brenda, Vicky's Hubby Damian and me.

Lots of Vicky's faithful friends drove the hour or more trip to see her compete.

The day was to be divided in two. The morning judging, which started at 10 a.m. (doors opened at 9. We got there early and got great seats.) and then the evening show with awards starting at 6 p.m.  When the show starts, we realize that they are not going in order like one would think.  Vicky's in the Bikini level; meaning the least buff of the women.  We thought they'd go first.  Nope.  In order to keep everyone there, Bikini was LAST.  Well, duh.  That's what most everyone was there for, so they made us wait for it.

We sat through Open Men, Men's teen, Men's novice, Men's over 50, Men's over 60, Men's Physique, and about the same thing for the women, before we got to Bikini.  Not in any order either.

So after waiting and waiting (a little bit of drooling, not much) we got to see the Bikini competition.  She was in the 5'5" and under division.  We went a little crazy with the yelling, as did everyone else.





It was crazy fun!

Yea. She's smokin'.

After the morning session, Vicky's fan club took pictures with her.

Dub City Derby Girls Represent!

She's not really this tan.  They spray-tan themselves the night before to show more muscle definition

Her # 1 fan. Her husband Damian.

Vicky and her (Damian's) niece Alli, who competed in the over 5'5" division

After the morning show and pictures, everyone scattered to the wind.  The evening show did not start until 6 p.m and we had about 5 hours to kill.

We went with our dad to eat at Cracker Barrel, went to a local mall ("Buy her a hat!"  "FIRST!")   to do some shopping then went to get Vicky and Alli some roses and vases.

We got back to the convention center early and hung out until the beginning of the night show.  The video above shows both the day and evening events.

She didn't place; the judges said she was too lean and ripped for bikini, which is a softer division.  She was too awesome.  LOL  Next time, she's moving up a level.

After MONTHS AND MONTHS of depriving herself, Vicky was given a 24-hour all you can eat pass.

CAKE!!!!

More pictures and hugs, and everyone went their separate ways.  It was after 9 p.m., so big sis Brenda and I decided to go eat dinner at Applebee's, and then this happened.

Vicky HATES WHEN WE SING.  We all SING (sisters, dad) and she hates it.  Ha ha ha!

Brenda and I also sang Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive" which had EVERYONE clapping, singing and cheering.  When we were done, Brenda says into the mic "This song is dedicated to my ex-husband.  You're missing out on ALLLLLL this, boyfriend."  and the place erupted in cheers as we waved goodbye to everyone.  I wish we would have taped it, but we were both signing.

I was very tired and had over a 2 hour drive back home after getting up at 5:30 a.m.  Brenda suggested we stop at a Holiday Inn we had passed on the way to Applebee's.  We went in, asked for the price, showed him my AAA membership, got $10 knocked off the price, so we stayed!  It was like a mini-vacation!




Sunday morning we had breakfast, which was served fast and tasty by a very happy waitress.  I'm telling you, this Holiday Inn was great.  I'm reading their reviews and some people just need attitude adjustments.  Honestly though, being a happy person makes things better, don't you agree?

After breakfast, we hung around until noon (checkout) and then waited in the lobby for my nephew (Brenda's son) and his fiance' to arrive and take us to lunch.  It was good to see my awesome nephew and his gal.

Then it was time to drive home.  The end of a funtabulous weekend.

Summer Kid Recap

You haven't heard much about Jacob. That's because he's been working like a mad person trying to pay off last semester's school debt to us (done) and get started on the fall semester bills he will have (already paid off the first month's payment and is on his way to month # 2.  He has to give us $200 a week minimum to cover the semester.)   On his off time, he's gone to see some bands;

The World is a Beautiful Place and I am No Longer Afraid to Die, Dads and Anamanaguchi.

The guy in purple is from Anamanaguchi.

and has hung out with pals, but mostly, he's been sleeping and being a bum at home.

Isabel has had a pretty ok summer.  We wanted to sign her up for a Summer Camp at the church, but the church cancelled it due to lack of interest/too expensive.  Very saddened with that.  We did sign her up for Jazz dance classes.  She went one day a week for 5 weeks and loved it, so we signed her up for Fall sessions too.  

Her cousins came from Tennessee and stayed with us for a few days. They went to the beach here, and then they drove over to Tampa to stay for the rest of their week.  Jacob and Isabel drove to Tampa (mommy-in-near-panic) and met them at Busch Gardens for the day.

She went to her first Roller Derby game and her first Vacation Bible School.    She's already counting the days until next year's VBS.

We spent a lot of time at Universal, she & I mostly, but we did get David to come with us and mini-golf.   He just cannot do this summer heat, poor pink man.    

She looks thrilled.  It was the end of our day and she was DONE.

We went to the mall to do some dryer comparison shopping at Sears (can you believe that Lowe's won?  More on that later.) and while there, she asked again if she could do the bungee jump in the food court.  I always say no, but this time, I had $10 she was gifted from someone, so I paid the $7 for her to jump.  She was a weeeee bit scared and would not flip.

We went school-supply shopping (new tennies, two new outfits, new Jazz shoes for the fall classes, and her usual paper/pencils, etc. supplies). Fourth grade starts (started, by the time I post this) on Monday the 19th.  Jake starts his sophomore year on the 21st.

Good luck to my babies.  I will post "First Day of School" pics soon.

Fairy-God-Person Strikes Again!

My Fairy-God-Person is not a patient person.  FGP knows my birthday is in late September.  FGP also knew my 18th work anniversary was in early August.  Not being able to contain themselves, FGP went ahead and got me a work/birthday present early.

I. LOVE. IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

David was a little skeptical, until he realized FGP also got us a reusable filter pack where we can put our own coffee, without having to spend so much $$ on the pods.  We can buy a brick of coffee and use the filter pack over and over and over.

DAVID. LOVES. IT!!!!!

Thanks Fairy-God Person!

Powerpuff Girl Nails!

Isabel wanted to get in on the action.  She wanted her nails done with the Powerpuff Girls and their nemeses, the Rowdyruff Boys.

SQUEEEEE!

Painting My Nails

I never paint my nails. I think it's because I can never grow my nails long enough.  Also, it's a laziness thing, but I have a lot of nail polish. A lot. I have no idea why I have so much.  I've gotten gift sets from mom & my sisters, I suppose.  I decided, what the hey, let's get a little creative with the nail polish. Maybe that'll be fun.

Now, I do believe it's best left up to professionals, but I did think that about cakes too,  :)  I had some nice blues and yellows and decided to mess around.

Polka dots are *not* my thing, apparently.

Then, while looking up nail art pictures on the web, I came across something called Water Marble Nail Art.  Crazy way to color your nails using a cut of water with nail polish dropped into it.  Whhaaaaaat?  You have room-temperature water, drop several layers of nail polish, use a stick to make a design and then you dunk your nail into it.  Here's someone I was checking out on YouTube.

Of COURSE I am going to try it, cause I'm adventurous like that!  And what else? I'm gonna take  a VIDEO of it too!





Here's the right one.  I wish my nails were longer.  Also, I was not really doing it right. I needed to lay my nail bed flat on top of the water, not dunk it straight up & down.  Still, I like how this came out.

For the final thing I did, I decided on making a minion on my pinky.

CUTENESS!

Dr. Who Cross-Stitch

It seems like a fitting time to post about my gift for my nephew Jonathan, as we've just heard today who the new Doctor will be.  Congratulations to Peter Capaldi!  I for one am pleased about it.  I really liked him in the Dr. Who spin-off "Torchwood's" season 3, and yes, he was a character on a Dr. Who episode about the fall of Pompeii.  All the whiney "he's too old, he's not hot" people need to seriously brush up on their Dr. Who.

So, my nephew.  Jonathan's my eldest nephew.  My older sister Brenda's son.  Like me, he is Nerdtastic.  And he loves to spoil people.  He has definitely spoiled us on many occasions.  Like the time he got me this picture, signed.  Or the time he got me awesome Buffy books and Harry Potter game.   Then there was the time he COMPLETELY overloaded me with books or bought me the comics on Blu-Ray.  He took me to see "Wicked" for the very first time.  He bought David and I awesome pictures for our loft.  We are constantly texting each other random bits of geek trivia, discussing movies, actors, YouTube videos, etc. etc.

For his birthday at the end of July, I decided to make him something.  In January I purchased a Dr. Who pattern.  We both love Dr. Who (well, except for our mutual hate of the "Amy Pond" character) and I wanted to make him something by hand.

Now, I started in January.  I finished it two weeks before his July 30th birthday, with just enough time to frame and mail it to arrive on his actual birthday.

Teeeeeeeny tiny, eye-splitting stiching

Ta Da!

He totally loved it.

Love his 10th Doctor Tee, too.

Interested in the pattern?  Check out XStitchMyHeart on Etsy.  I bought 3 patterns; this one, an Avengers one and a Buffy one.  :)