That is not exactly what I am doing, but I guess I had this song in my head. What I was really doing was working on a new painting & having a little sip of really lovely coffee. However, there is someone in my life that is causing me to get into real mischief…
All I can say is, I wouldn’t recommend you getting a teeny tiny chick. Mine wants constant entertainment, and wouldn’t let me get anything done…
She was right. It was certainly a scorching day. A very very lazy summer day indeed. Those days where you just want to swing back and forth in your hammock, one leg dangling, as you spritz yourself with cold water while fanning your face…
Luckily the desert has cactus blooms that enjoy the heat. But, beware if you get too close. I got too close and the stickers simply jump right off the cactus, and adhere to your clothing…
So, we find that after a simple roam about to find a cactus flower, we are now eager for water… Oh the splashes of water… We envision a stream, under cool trees… Perhaps some fairies? I suppose we are looking for an experience much like that of a favorite True Fairytale Story… How I wish for a lake on our property, or waterfalls? Wouldn’t that be dreamy?
But, the fact is… It is hot and droopy… Lazy days that bring bits of summer fun. Like, making your own salsa and sauces. Beautiful light summer eats. Sitting under the huge canopy trees… Popsicles abound…
Pineapple treats from Mr. Lovee. Cold refreshing watermelon and cantelope. Running through the sprinklers…
Eagerly awaiting the rippening of the peaches…
All of that, and still the baby chick, is not amuzed… She wants more fun that that!! 😉
Okay, I say. Taking her on. Okay, you want fun… Let me think, let me see… What can be fun?? I pace around, wringing my fingers… OH!! I got it. Let’s go harass Mr. L…
I know, I know. Obnoxious. Annoying. Mean? But, who else do we have to throw water balloons at?
You see, I am a fish. I LOVE water!! I could be in the water all day. I could float for hours. I could swim my heart away… My whole youth was spent in the pool. I thought I had a mermaid tail 😉
BUT, Mr. L, does not share that passion. He loves the heat. He hates cold water. Pools are not his favorite thing at all. And, I suspect, he will NOT enjoy water balloons. Although, he did when I first met him… But, that was probably because when you first meet someone, and they knock your socks off, you don’t even get angry if they throw water balloons at you 😉
So, off I went with my water balloons. One skimmed his shoulder, getting him a tiny bit wet. The blue one, simply bounced off him. And bounced down the rocky path. I threw it again. Again, it bounced. Hmmmmm. So, I tore a wee hole into it, and chased him around, soaking him…
Haaa!! Well, that was fun. Fun until, as I was heading back in the house, I spy this… My mouth drops open!! hahahaaaaaaa!! He is back for an attack!! Eeeeek!! (I was sooo not expecting that)
I am in for it now. He says to me (as he tosses it around). "Look, it is like the blue one, it will bounce, not break, let’s play catch." And then, me, being a total goose, goes, "OKAY!"
He gently tosses it to me. I go to catch it. And, well, you know the rest. It bursts all over me. My hair, my face! I am smiling. I am soaked. And you know what? THAT WAS FUN!!! (he is laughing)
So there you have it. A summer day in the desert. What do you like to do to cool off?? Any fun weekend stories you want to tell me? Oh c’mon!! Share them with auntie V 😉
I’ll tell you something. A flashback story… If I were in Junior high, I would be playing a cassette in my pink and teal radio (chosen from one of three hundred from my cassette suitcases). I would be, sitting by the pool, all my friends hanging around… I would be in a wanne-be-scooba-diving material, body glove, zip-up bathing suit. My nose would be covered in fluorescent zinc. Is that what that suncreen was called? I would have to remove 3 pairs of socks to get in the pool (and laceless keds). I would be in a giant Esprit hypercolor t-shirt while hanging around (wearing 47 scrunchies in my ponytail and 14 swatches on my wrists)… And, we would be preparing for my mom to take us cruising in her GIANT (like a big square boat) white (faux convertible top) Lincoln towncar, as soon as the sun went down… (That would lead to being dropped off in the cemetary, scared to death. But, I’ll save that one for later).
I don’t know where I found this 80’s child list? Besides some typos, it is really funny…
So, cheers to those summers, all those years ago… When all I could think of was growing up… And, I dare say, being all grown up, is gooooooood 😉 it is fun!!! Just what I think I hoped for?? Although, I think at the time, I wanted to grow up to be Cyndi Lauper on stage or something like that??
Now it’s your turn!! Give me YOUR junior highschool SUMMER flashback!! xoxo, V
Marta played with water baloons last week, and we could hear the laughter of girls for miles. Today it is raining cats and dogs, just leave a couple of baloons out in the garden and they will be filled in seconds.
Sorry, no flashback memories for me today.
Hey Fanici Miss,
My regards to the mischievous little chick, to Mr. L. and my best to all the curious little characters in your world!
Can I tell you a funny water ballony thing?
My mom and I had a lunch for some girl friends at her house. I told Kay (70 yrs) to bring a game. I was thinking something with words. She showed up with a hula hoop and big bag of forty water balloons. We tried to get them in the hoop. It was TOO funny. All these ladies paying this game. Still makes me laugh.
xox
Constance
Happy Happy to YOU!
We had a really hot day yesterday so I did my ironing in the garden- that’s how rock ‘n’ roll am!
Ohhhh…I remember when we used to wait for the chicken to be all cooked at put out at the grocery (this was back when there was no just baked rotisserie stuff even) and we would grab a bucket, some salad, chips and drinks and all pile into the back of my mother’s pick-up (with a camper on it) and run up to Sedona to slide rock. Now…this was waaaay before you had to pay to park on the side of the road, there was an old grocery there, back before the state took control and made a parking lot…so, other than the gas, it was free! We would slide, eat, tan and play all day…until we piled back into the truck and came home. I think of that so much when it starts to get warm here…there’s this pull I have to take a road trip to water somewhere…
Well Hello out there!
I just adore your teeny chicken!
Sandra Evertson
The only flashback that I want to re-visit were my BAD bangs and a denim dress that I wore EVERYWHERE. 🙂
Love the pictures!
Heat?!? Oh, how I long for a day without rain and a high above 55! It seems we never had a spring and it’s still winter here. I miss sunshine. And as much as I love scarves and sweaters, I’m ready to go without. Enjoy your heat! Hearing you tell about your nice weather just brightened my day and made me feel a little warmer.
Thanks!
T
Love all that you share.
Love you
Hah you just reminded me of one of our past wedding anniversaries when we played catch with a water bomb, of course it had to be me who it burst all over!
As for teeny tiny chicks I have boxes of the little darlings here, I’ve loved them since I was almost as teeny tiny as they are. Can’t remember who it was but someone published a book of them a few years ago in sort of dolls house sets with captions, brilliant wish I’d thought of it.
80’s child…OH MY GOSH, We were SOOOOO COOL! I do love 80’s music, but I was a bit older than you and this was a high school song.
For me, Jr. High was Journey’s Open Arms and Faithfully with maybe a little Flock of Seagulls, The Tubes, Talking Heads, Murray Head (One Night in Bangkok) and SAFETY DANCE! Yay! My Jr. High summer memory is of going to the Quarry, which was a local swimming place where the water was a very strange texture (I never figured why that was, but it was very thick…please no suggestions), and hanging out in the diving area watching a specific, very hot guy do high dives off of the high diving board. Of course, he really didn’t give ME a second look. His loss.
The weekend was nice. Yesterday we spent awhile at the pool before going to yoga. It was my first day in the sun since Puerto Rico in January. My skin is so white it glows. You would never know I am from Arizona.
Junior High summers? What fun! Me and my BFF would have been at Paradise Valley Mall shopping for Forenza t-shirts, Esprit anything and Gotcha shorts. And like you, I would have had a pair of Keds on that had no laces and I had written “I love Teddy” (or whoever the love of the week was) all over them. We probably stopped by the record store to look for a Duran Duran or Bananarama album and then ate at Chick-Fil-A before going to her grandma’s house and making up a synchronized swim routine in the pool.
I had a Body Glove swim suit my Freshman year in highschool. It was a black and pink neoprene two piece with a zipper front top. How silly. Gosh, I forgot about that. You’re sending me back in time. :o)
How fun…….water balloons at ten paces. ha! Mr. L is a good sport (or was it revenge?lol!)
Junior High summers(mine were what, 150 years ago) were spent swimming at the local pool….transistor radio, the smell of the suntan lotion, the muffled voices of people playing marco polo…and the smell of the rubber swim cap (we had to wear them in the pool – ick). I can’t remember what the swimsuit looked like though, probably blocked it out!
Love the little chick, reminds me of when I was little and would complain “there’s nothing to do!”. 🙂
XOXOXOXXO
Miss Vanessa! Your water balloon thing reminded me of my most favorite prank ever! You wrap a rubber band around a kitchen sink sprayer so that the rubber band holds the handle in the “open” position. Then the next person to turn on the faucet is going to get sprayed full force by the sink sprayer! SO funny! Ummm…but ya better be able to run fast! 😉
Jr. High school memories. Hmmmm….it was the ’70’s, there was a lot of polyester, most of it flammable….it’s a miracle my generation is still around! Although, the 80’s had TONS of hairspray!! What is it with teenagers?? Why do we try so hard to kill ourselves in the name of fashion?? 😉
That A-HA song is my FAVORITE OF ALL TIME. Thanks for the cute post and trip down memory lane!
Oh water balloons! Such fun. And I spent much of my childhood immersed in a pool too, due to the heat. Don’t feel like relaying any flashbacks now (having a migraine attack) but will email you about something else. Lovely cactus flower. xoxox
Oh gosh…..Junior High summer memories…..My best friend and I riding all over the place on our bikes blasting the B-52’s and wearing wigs….we were quite the little odd-balls!! 😉 tee hee!!
Water balloons!! Hooray!
Carolyn, I have boxes and boxes of those chicks, too! I glue them to the inside frame of the canvases I paint on when I’m done so the recipient has a little surprise. The book is called “Bitter With Baggage Seeks Same” and is by Sloane Tanner.
Vanessa, I grew up with an above-ground pool and I was in it pretty much every day of the summer when I was a kid. I used to take those sinking rings they made for kids to learn how to dive and slip one over my ankles to turn my legs into a mermaid tail. I’d swim like that for hours and hours, pretending I was a mermaid. I was around 8 or 9 when “The Little Mermaid” came out and that was the basis for summer play for *years*!
I now live in an apartment, so to cool off on hot hot hot summer days, I break out the hose and go nuts. My neighbors think I’m a little crazy, dancing around in my driveway, listening to Elvis and playing with a garden hose, but it’s fun and it cools me off!
Your little chickie may be needy, but it sure is cute!
For some reason junior high summers always bring up one memory of eating sno cones and watching soccer in my room with the window open. Apparently that was a really good day 😉
Happy summer to you! (p.s. I heart desert heat!)
Your little chick reminds me of my kids when they’d have nothing to do (read — can’t be bothered to think of anything) and tell me how bored they were!!
Water balloon fights on a hot day?!? Exquisite!! It’s been miserably hot here too though seems to be cooling a bit.
Jr. High summers? Popsicles, swimming, listening to music, reading — just chillin with anyone who was around……the good old days!
okay in junior high I went to camp down in Cape Cod and I remember the showers were freezing and that we woke up very early one morning to watch the wedding of Princess Diana on a small blk and white t.v. To me this was the best since at that time I had high hopes of becoming a fashion designer. Although freshmen year at Pratt I switched my major to illustration! But her dress was fabulous and she looked amazing!
I also remembering having my dad come down and take me to a lobster dinner since the food was soo bad, and that was my last stint of camp forever!!!
Summer passes at the community pool….so much fun. Picnic’s packed and sitting with friends playing music, gossiping, discussing which roller rink we’d go to and if we could convince our parents to let us go to the drive in…to see some scary movie. Koolaid popsicles and tons of fresh vegies and fruits.
Your 80s list made me laugh out loud! I can remember the 70s quite well too. We used to dance around my basement and pretend we were the Solid Gold dancers! Crazy baby!!! I loved George Michael, Madonna, Michael Jackson and DuranDuran. Depeche Mode and New Order. The Cure!!! Love CATSSSSS!!!!!!
I had goth makeup, black spikey hair, an army jacket, a plaid kilt, doc martens, fishnet stockings and heavy black eyeliner. I wore red lipstick and smoked. I was cool. Aquanet hairspray!!!! Crimping irons!!! Scratch and sniff stickers!!!!!
Did you wear Pepsi clogs?
Did you have an obsession with Obsession, by Calvin Klein? Or wear those body sprays!?
White leather jackets with fringe? Mocassins?
Wow.
Thanks for the trip down the virtual memory highway!!!
I love that you and the little chicken got into a water balloon fight. Little chickens can talk us into all kinds of mischief!!!!
xoxoxo
oh my gosh….i just watched the “fairy tale: a true story” last night with my girls….planned on logging in this morning and telling you to rent it. i could picture you and all your snails and pretty ladies…. in the mushroom ring….and then
you mention it in your blog…how cool was that?
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one of my daughters is in junior and she is having friends over today to swim. they will listen to music and dance by the side of the pool… and talk about boys! they will be lathered in sunscreen and drinking plenty of lemonaid.
when i was in junior high we lathered up in baby oil ….layed out in the sun on the drive way and talked about boys and drank our lemonaid …flipped over when the timer went off and hosed off when we got too hot….
i guess not much has changed….except the intensity of the sun!…oh, and the music!!!…(yikes)
My Jr.HS days (the 70’s) were spent at my Granny’s in Ironton Ohio. She was a school teacher, so when school was out, she would take the Grayhound Bus to Virginia. Stay a week or two and then my older sister & I would take the Grayhound back to Ironton with her. I loved those trips. Packing my suitcase to go to Granny’s. The bus trip was a beautiful journey threw the West Va. mountains, I loved looking out the window at the amazing country scenery. Delicious road side cafe’s that the bus would stop at , the food was good homemade, one had the best blackberry cobbler.
Finally pulling into Ironton, such a beautiful small town where my Mom grew up.
Setting on the screened porch in the evenings, playing Scrabble and sipping Pop out of the glass bottle.My Granny had the most precious of all homes. My Grandfather built most of it. Think hand carved cottage. This was my summer, every summer till I got married in 1992.(minus the Grayhound as I got older) Wish I could do it one more time. But, time changes things, Granny is gone and I miss her so.
WoW, Thanks auntie V…..that little memory hit the spot, just now. Amy
We usually cheat during the summer and hide inside with an air conditioner – but we do sometimes make use of a swimming pool or a shady park. And we love to sit on our porch in the evenings and sip a beer or wine as the day turns cool and the sun goes down.
My junior high days overlapped the explosion of grunge music, so I ended up listening to a lot of nirvana and pearl jam in late junior high/early high school. I also was really into early nineties pop in junior high, I remember listening to the top 30 countdown every weekend, and I remember when Under the Bridge by Red Hot Chili Peppers was number 1 for like 10 weeks or something. I was also introduced to the U2 album Achtung Baby (which I still think is their best album) while I was in junior high, and I became hooked for life.
I think I fit a lot of the list.. 🙂
Who doesn’t love Ice Ice BAby?!?! 😉
I can always count on your for a little 80’s flash back! I was in high school but have many of the same memories! Good ol’ Cyndi Lauper, George Michael, Boy George, Duran Duran, Madonna, oh too many cool bands…I had my hair super cool all messy with scarves. I wore little white socks with lace edges and flat shoes. Way too much makeup. Swatch Watches for sure. The more the merrier. My friends and I would sneak off campus to go to Burger King and get a double whopper with cheese (eek), a coke, fries and washed it all down with peanut m&ms. Good thing I was a size two back then. It is a wonder I wasn’t a blimp.
xo
I do so love your blog, I’ve been lurking for a few days…did you have that eery feeling something was watching you?!?! It was ME!
I watched that video of BANANARAMA and had a barrage of memories…I dyed my hair red, well tried to dye it red, it turned PURPLE, and It was shaved in the back and sides with really long bangs to my chin, i used to wear bandanas like the one gal in the video with my bangs teased up…I must have looked like a giant rooster! I had black rubber bracelets all the way to my elbows…5 earrings in each ear…tons of aqua net in my hair and blue mascara. We used to go thrift shopping in downtown glendale and but funky old clothes, purses, shoes and jewelry. Then we spent our nights dancing at Tommy’s night club for teens in phoenix…getting into mischief…what fun!!! Thanks for sending me down memory lane…ooo what fun it would be to have a retro girls day {hmmm…mind wanders thinking “how could we pull this off”}
til next time…
Rowan Willow (Artist/alter ego)
aka Tiffany
OH MY GOD!!!!! Can I tell you how much I have been thinking about this post all week and waiting to comment. A-HA – how much did I love A-Ha? Do I need to describe a summer junior high flash back? NO because you just catapulted me back in time! Body Glove, zinc, scrunchies? HA! Oh my, us teeny boppers of the 80s. And Tea Party on the 28th? I will bring some strawberries marinated in balsamic vinegar and lemon juice (all the better to bring out their sweetness). We’ll have our part hats and bring our own finest bone chine tea cups. Love it!!!
Middle school-well, it was a Catholic School, so imagine, my delight at pretending secretly that I was Helen Hunt in the movie “Girls Just Want To Have Fun” (with Sarah Jessica Parker-if you haven’t seen it, it’s a goodie…)….Neon green dinosaur shirts from Espirt…black plastic skinny bracelets, like 15 on my wrist, white sunglasses, bangs miles high…so radical! When are the 80’s fashions coming back??? My 8 year old asks all the time-she knows fashion!!!
Love your pictures, so fun to read!
excellent grouping for decades it has always been producing music first, thanks for the excellent blog topic and always live red hot chili peppers …!!
Well now, I was searching for blogs on fitness or health when i came across this post. Although not exactly what I was expecting I will give it ****.
Nice pictures, Excellent post and wonderful blog, I really like this type of interesting articles keep it up. Nice work keeps on posting thanks.
Cheska