The Chace's: May 2012

NOT the best trip to Ocean Reef (for me anyway)

You all know we love visiting Len and Jaye in Ocean Reef over Easter. This year was no exception. A few days before we departed I was feeling a little weird. My hips, ankles, and wrist hurt SO bad. I even went so far as to look up symptoms of Fibromyalgia. Friday we headed out around 9am. On the way down I just felt horrible. Then I started having chills. I slept most of the way down. We stopped in Florida City and picked up a thermometer....103. Not good.

I was sick the WHOLE time. I mean really, really sick. I did everything in my power to rally and make the best of the situation. I slept most of the week. I would put on my bathing suit and go to the beach with they family and sleep. I never was able to get my fever below 100 for long. I made a trip to the Dr. and finally got a z pac on Friday after a week. I would have "moments" where I would try to participate in the fun but the vacation basically sucked for me. There were a few times with the fever where I would have to ask Sandy, "Did that happen or did I dream it?" I developed a really weird cough toward the end of the week which turned out to be Whooping Cough. Yes folks, I'm 44 years old and had Whooping Cough. It has been a long hard 6 weeks but I am finally WELL.

Me and Anne Marinic

Sissy and Le

Le and Blair doing the "Glee" jump. We had a really funny night trying to get a good photo of Le, Daniel, and Blair doing the Glee jump at the same time. 78 photos later we gave up.

Some how I ended up with two of these photos.

Blair and Turtle Kitty

Le coming after me after I pushed him in the pool.

Well, that started it. We all ended up fully clothed in the pool.

Coming out of the pool. Look how sick I look in the eyes!

Playing cards!

Daniel thinking REALLY hard.

Daniel having a miserable time....

Easter Egg hunt.

How weird is this. Blair and I went to Talbot's on different days and came out with the same shirt and shorts. She looks better.

Me checking my email with a fever.

This was a window of approx. 2 hours where I felt almost normal. We went out to eat with the Marinics and had fresh caught fish caught by the Marinic's earlier in the day. YUM!

Waiting for fish!

This is a sad picture. This was me with 102 fever on the beach...dead to the world.

There are not many pictures. And a lot of them were taken by Blair. From what I hear everyone else had a great time.

Random LAX photos of Le

Le scoring his first goal ever.

Here are a few photos of Le taken by Brenda Rutledge during the Riverside High Lacrosse season. I will make sure to post some great pixs of Daniel during travel team!

My Secret Mission To Columbia

This was one of the greatest days ever. You remember the post of Angelia and me taking the boys to see the Vital Body Exhibit in Columbia, SC. We had a secret mission as well. Several weeks ago I went to Angelia's house to hang some art. One thing I hung was this AWESOME painting of a chicken. I flipped out. I loved it for the sole reason of the existence of the Reefcup Girls Club and our mascot Benny. I decided I wanted some of this art. Wouldn't it be great to take each of the Reef Cup Girls an original piece of art with Benny painted on it? This is where the story begins.

The artist is known as "The Chicken Man". He is rather famous in South Carolina. His work hangs in the SC Capital as well as the state museum. The Chicken Man is VERY hard to track down. He paints out of his truck and can be found on any given corner in Columbia on any given day. The only way to find him is to go to Columbia, go to a corner that he frequents and start asking people, "Do you know where the Chicken Man is today?" Well, I was BENT on altering the rules. (I know you can't imagine ME, Mrs. Type A, trying to change rules.) I called EVERY gallery in SC that represents his art. I Googled, I Facebooked, I Tweeted. I covered every angle of trying to find the Chicken Man before leaving Greenville so the trip would not be in vain. Body Vital Exhibit be damned!

Twelve hours before departure I am able to contact a "man" who "knows" the Chicken Man and has seen him at such and such corner in the past two days. The "man" says he will drive by the corner and tell Chicken Man I am coming and call me and tell me where he will be. I was SO excited! But the "man" never called back.........

The next morning we departed Greenville with NO information. Going blind. Out to find the ever elusive "Chicken Man". Twenty miles down the road my phone rings. It's a number I don't recognize. I answer.......It's "The MAN". He KNOWS where the Chicken Man is going to be. I have him on the speaker phone and I motion for Angelia to grab a pencil and piece of paper to write the directions. It is at this point where all excitement vanishes. Honest to goodness a comedy writer could not have written a better skit for a sitcom. "You want to take the exit BEFORE downtown Columbia. When you get to the end of the ramp you are going to turn right or left." We were on the phone with "The Man" for at least ten minutes trying to glean SOME sort of valid information. In the end we had maybe four key names of streets as CLUES. We were determined.

You can see from the photos we DID find him. It was SO MUCH FUN! I fell in love with Ernest Lee, The Chicken Man. When we pulled in and started talking to him he said, "You that lady from Greenville they say was lookin' for me?" I showed him various photos of Benny and while we were at Body Vital he painted up a storm for us. (After I ran to Wal Mart and bought him some paint.)

If anyone ever wants to find The Chicken Man, I now have his cell phone number. I'll give it to you if you like.......but honestly the hunt made it much more fun.

Ernest gave each of the boys a painting. Notice in the background the painting are just laying on the ground. I've since learned his paintings are worth MORE if they have some grass and grit dried on them.

Me Ernest and Benny

Angelia and the Chicken Man

Reef Cup Girls Club Meeting 2012

Well, we did it again. We members of the Reef Cup Girls Club met for an awesome weekend of sun, fun, and fellowship. BFF dressed Benny Reefcup, our mascot in a bathing suit so Benny came to the beach with us for most days. Yes, we probably got a few looks....

Next spring won't come soon enough!