Are you seeing what I'm seeing?

Behold, the Top Ten List!  And it's not even 8pm!  That's like some sort of miracle.  And speaking of miracles....


TOP TEN LESSER KNOWN BIBLICAL MIRACLES


10.  Elijah calms a jittery squirrel
9.  Moses parts his hair
8.  Paul causes a lame man to roll over
7.  Aaron strikes his staff on a rock and gets free cable
6.  Peter heals a man with a scaly patch on the back of his hand
5.  The children of Israel put lamb's blood above their door and the Jehovah's Witnesses pass them by
4.  Lot's cousin is turned into a pillar of Spam
3.  Peter walks on very slick wet pavement
2. Joshua and the children of Israel blow their trumpets and the Jericho Starbucks falls down
1. Peter gives sight to a Democrat

But Was There Really A Lighthouse? Yes, There Was!

The "lighthouse" of Lighthouse Beach.

Okay, here are a few pictures from Friday from our trip to Sanibel.  We decided to spend the afternoon at Lighthouse Beach. Sanibel has about 5 or 6 public beach access points, but since this was the closest from when you get on the island, we started there.  And that was a great decision because it was heavenly :)  Close parking, soft sand, a great view of the Gulf and skyline of Ft. Myers and it was perfect for my children.  The waves were very small, there wasn't a lot of anything swimming in the water to freak them out, it was very shallow and of course, there were great shells in abundance everywhere.  It was so tranquil and quiet out there too!  No screaming weirdos or anything.  Plus, by about 6pm we were some of the only ones left on the entire beach!  Amazing.

First sight of the water

Me and Cindy soaking up the rays.  I look so white compared to her!  But then again, so does EVERYONE

Nothing funnier than watching Luke walk in his flippers :)

You can just barely see the awesome skyline behind Luke.

Blue sky, blue water.  And my mom in her straw hat if you look really hard.

Serenity.

It wouldn't be a Bingham beach trip without digging a giant hole in the sand :)

Only thing missing was Jacob!

Proof that my children can be brave if they want to be.

Even used dead sea flowers for boot thrusters!

I knew if I made them a mermaid tail and Iron Man Legs once, I would have to do it the rest of my life.....and I was not wrong.

Tenacious C and The Sand Dollar of Destiny

I just accidentally deleted a great write-up about our trip to Sanibel.  While I do some deep breathing to find inner peace and NOT punch my computer monitor in the face, enjoy this story that did not get deleted....

Before we told her the bad news....

One thing I knew prior to our trip is that Sanibel has a reputation for sand dollars.  I had mentioned this to Cindy and within about 1 second of being on the beach on Friday she was already complaining that we had not found one yet.  Oy!   Anyway, as we began shelling I realized that the odds of finding one that was whole and white and pretty like the ones you see in the gift shop are about the same odds as me voting for Obama; Hell would freeze over first AND a comet would fly in front of the sun during a lunar eclipse.  On Venus.  During Ramadan.  So, of course, my parents and I began to hatch a plan for the following day where we would buy one of the pretty sand dollars in the gift shop and then very sneakily place it on the beach for Cindy to magically find and then all would be right with the world.  However, about 2 minutes after we hatched this devious plan my dad actually found a sand dollar!  I could not believe it!  (Side note: If there is one thing that is great about my dad it is his talent for not being afraid to reach down and blindly pick up anything he feels on the bottom of the ocean with his foot.  I am a giant pansy and freak out when anything touches me in the water, because obviously it is a nine-tentacled slime monster waiting to rip my leg off.  But my dad loves to dig and pull up anything that he finds.  Sometimes it can be a little scary- horseshoe crab, anyone?  But most of the time it is a cool shell or other harmless ocean debris.  We all benefit from his courage, though :)  So of course, he made Cindy's lifetime by finding a sand dollar.  The good news: Cindy would stop asking when we were going to find one.  The bad news: the sand dollar was "alive" and therefore, it was forbidden for us to take it home.  Cindy did not take this news very well.  But we did take this picture for her to remember the good times spent with the sand dollar and we promised we would get her a pretty white one from the gift shop.



Which we did.  After she reminded us about every 3 seconds from the time she woke up on Saturday morning.

I would kill for a tan like this!!  Why does everyone else in my family get all the good Choctaw blood? No fair.

The Most Interesting Boy In The World

Your Room Awaits

I told you that coming up with the top ten list topic is always the hardest part and now it is already Thursday, which completely proves my point! Talk about writer's block! Okay, writers block is when you are trying to write something and can't come up with any good ideas.  Oftentimes writer's block occurs on Tuesdays, especially in Sweeneyville.  Also, it can take the form of- oh wait- that was probably more of a rhetorical command.... never mind.   Anyway, since I will be heading off to the beach with my folks this weekend, and maybe you are too, hopefully when someone asks you where you're staying, you won't answer with one of these....


TOP TEN WORST SEASIDE HOTELS

10.  Red Tide Inn
9.  Pirate's Rash Resort & Spa
8.  The Oily Gull
7.  Davy Jones' Futon
6.  Legless Flamingo Lodge
5.  Heatstroke Hideaway
4.  The Villas at Sun Poison Pines
3.  Bloated Barnacle Bed and Breakfast
2.  The Salty Bedbug
1.  Algae Hut

Four More Days...

Back in January of this year, Arthur Frommer (renowned world travel critic and list-maker extraordinaire) compiled his list of best tourist destinations on the entire planet.  Here is what he came up with:

Sanibel? Seriously? For the entire world?!  I would not have guessed that.  But then again, it does look like this:

So the kids and I, along with my parents are headed there for the weekend :)  And all I can say is:

Eureka!

Great news, I found my camera and didn't even have to give up my kingdom!  Yesssssssss.


And now the moment you have all been waiting for; the picture I desperately needed that was on my camera:

I got my cake made out of Oreo Cakesters for Mother's Day.  Thank You, Jacob and Cindy :) I showed ridiculous restraint and only ate about 6 of these and I will give you 1 guess as to where all the extras are at this very moment.  Here's a hint, it rhymes with "boutside greezer."  I am full of riddles.  It's just one more service I proudly offer.

My Kingdom For My Camera!

No, really, where is my camera?  It STILL has not turned up and there is a picture I desperately need for this blog! The worst part of tearing the house apart looking for stuff is what you find instead of what you are looking for.  Thus, I didn't find my camera, but DID find the advent calendar from Christmas, a set of silverware I forgot I had, another 3-ring binder full of soccer drills, 5 shark teeth in a baggie, and even pictures of my brother Chris from his Junior Prom in 1994.  All of which is interesting for about a second, but pretty much useless.  Kind of like a Kardashian.  Or Congress.  So the search goes on....


A Luke Quickie


On Wednesday I had to go up to the church for Activity Days.  When I told Luke to stay with Dad because I would be gone for about an hour he was about to cry.  (It was so sweet :)   Later when I came home and was putting Luke to bed he told me,  "You said you were going to be gone for an hour and I was really sad to stay with Dad, but actually it wasn't so bad."   Oh, Luke.  You sure know how to win over your father!  I did ask Luke why it wasn't so bad and he said, "Because I got to do the new maps on Cawla Dooty with Dad."   (Cawla Dooty = Call of Duty on Xbox).  We start our sniper training young in Sweeneyville.  

Blog Post Coming Your Way!

As soon as I find my missing camera...  Add this to the ever growing list of why I need an iPhone.

I Will Avenge You!

Has it really been three days since I blogged?  Being sick is even more horrible than I thought!  Anyway, it's been touch and go for me since Monday.  Yesterday was terrible, but today was not so bad, so here's to hoping I am totally on the upside of this awful sickness.  Monday was great, though.  Jacob took the day off and we got to go on a day date to go see The Avengers. I had heard and read a lot about it in the last week, but somehow I managed to still be surprised by certain things in the movie.  Were you?


TOP TEN SURPRISES IN THE AVENGERS


10.  The Hulk and Yoda share the same great-grandfather
9.  In order to appeal to a wider audience Captain America is renamed "Captain Du Monde"
8.  President Obama meets with Loki and agrees to give the aliens New Jersey in return for all the space dogs he can eat.
7.  Black Widow repeating as SHIELD Slam Dunk Champion
6.  Stan Lee makes a cameo!!  I mean, what are the odds!?
5.   Instead of Captain America having a square, masculine jawline, piercingly gorgeous blue eyes that take you to places you've only dreamed about, a smile that turns your bones to jell-o and a physique rivaling only that of a Greek--- wait, what was this list about?
4.  The part where Voldemort kills Hawkeye's parents was a little contrived  
3.  Iron Man's suit is still flexible enough for the kick line finale 
2.  Thor's version of American Pie was surprisingly tender
1.  Goodbye Special Agent Coulson,  Hello Hertz Rent-a-Car Agent Simmons


Thanks to Dave for all his help.  Just to be clear, I  definitely wrote number 5 :)