Another Verse!

A sweet friend of mine read the poem I posted yesterday and sent me this addition (which she wrote) in an email. I L.O.V.E. it, because she is referring to specific friends of mine! I must confess...it brought tears to my eyes!

One that loves your children just like their own.
One that loves to watch movies with you when your hubby goes out of town.
One who works out with you.
One who likes to cook with you.
One who sells little and big clothes with you.
One who wears funny looking flip flops with you,
One who home schools with you.
One who sings beside you in the choir.
One who is here for you no matter what.........

Then at the end, she added this:
"...take it from one of your best friends; we all love you very much!"

I am sooooo blessed!

National Flip Flop Day

A friend of mine called today to let me know that today is National Flip Flop Day. Did you know there was a day to celebrate flip flops? I didn't, but I can sure understand why. I love flip flops! In fact, I just spent some birthday money purchasing flip flops.



And I used a $10 money back certificate that Old Navy sent me to purchase four pairs of flip flops for my kiddos (I use the term "purchase" rather loosely since the flip flops were 2 for $5 and after the coupon, I paid nothing!).


In honor of this holiday (which BTW I don't think its a real holiday, just a marketing tool invented by Tropical Smoothie), I want to take a little time to tell the the story of the flip flop bandits. I did after all, promise here and here to tell you about this. My hesitancy is that I won't properly recount the tale and you'll be left saying, "what's the big deal?"

The Story of the Flip Flop Bandits

Once upon a time, there were six friends who loved to get together for each others' birthdays. They would meet at a restaurant or someone's house to eat, laugh, open gifts and enjoy some girl time. On one particular spring night, the six friends were enjoying a birthday meal on the patio. The night was quiet, the breeze was soft, the food was good and the companionship was comfy. All wore the cutest pair of flower-adorned flip flops in various colors given to them as souvenirs from the recent travels of one of the friends.


It just so happened that the small town in which the six friends lived was in the midst of a mayoral election. There were four candidates running for mayor and all were members of the same church that the six friends attended. The idea was hatched that since the pastor of the church couldn't really advertise his choice for mayor (as not to offend any candidate or family member of a candidate), it would be hilarious if campaign signs for each of the candidates were to mysteriously appear in his front yard.

Heads conferred (amidst lots of giggles), plans were made and the friends waited for the appropriately late hour to work their mischief. At the appointed hour, all pranksters squeezed into a vehicle and sneaked into the streets. Their first stop was a family member's house to pick up the first sign. Problem was, they didn't have the three other signs they needed. To avoid being accused of trespassing or theft, they must find the signs they needed on right-of-ways, not on other people's property.

Some of the friends were having a blast, other's were scared to death! At one stop to get signs, one of the friends was plastered to the floor board for fear of being seen. This, of course, was the source great fits of laughter from the other pranksters.

Finally, signs were secured and phase two must be initiated. The friends drove to the pastor's neighborhood, parking their car several houses away, of course. Then one must imagine in the mind's eye what happened next: Five flower-adorned flip flop-wearing mischief makers walked down that neighborhood street (the "plastered to the floor for fear of being caught" flip flop wearer was too afraid to join in the prank; she designated herself as the driver of the get-away vehicle). One would think that the ladies carrying out this dastardly deed would have the presence of mind to be quiet while working out their plans, but that was not the case. A severe case of giggles had erupted long before arriving in the neighborhood, and they were unable to keep from laughing.

With hearts racing and giggles escaping from their lips, the bandits carried the signs to the pastor's front yard and hurriedly placed them in strategic places for all passers-by to see. The "plastered to the floor for fear of being caught designated driver" swooped in for the pick up. She was so flustered, she practically dragged her cohorts down the street before they were able to jump in the vehicle. As one can imagine, the ride back home was loud with uncontrolled fits of laughter and boisterous recountings of the escapade!

The six friends have never forgotten their adventures that night and have dubbed themselves the flip flop bandits. Their prank lives on in small town lore and is often alluded to with covert winks and lots of giggles.

Epilogue: The pastor received a card from the bandits the following Christmas. On it was a group photo of the pranksters. The photo was altered to show a yellow smiley face in the place of the ladies faces and the caption read, "Merry Christmas from the flip flop bandits."

There you have it: the event that deepened my love for flip flops and made me thrilled to find out that now there's a holiday for celebrating my favorite footwear.

It's My Birthday!

Not really....
You might remember that I've already written about my birthday. It was last month. But my girlfriends and I couldn't seem to all get together to celebrate until this week. Tuesday night they threw a luau for me! We drank virgin strawberry daquiris, ate yummy food, swam in the pool, laughed and carried on. Because of a prank we pulled together a couple of years ago we have come to call ourselves the flipflop bandits. I keep promising to tell you that story, but haven't had a chance yet. So stay tuned...I'll tell it someday. Anyway, at the party there were flipflop decorations everywhere (see the flipflop lights hanging in the window?)


including a cake in the shape of flipflops (the cake was made by a member of our church who has started a cake business on the side. She does a great job!).

My gift was a bag and shoes (perfect gift every time...can't have too many). The shoes were some tevas that I've been wanting for our camping vacation out west. I was thrilled to get them!


Brook, Dianne and Lindsay even wrote and performed a song for me after we got out of the pool! Thanks, friends for a fun evening!

No Honor Among Bandits!

You know the phrase, "There's no honor among thieves"? And do you remember when I told you about my friend Lindsay and the pranks we like to pull? Well, there is a group of friends (of which I am one) that likes to refer to themselves as the "flipflop bandits." Its a long (but good) story how we got that name. Someday I'll tell you the whole story, but let's just say for now that one night a couple of years ago, we were at supper wearing flipflops that had been given to us as a gift. During that meal, a prank was hatched. We carried out that prank later that night while wearing our cute little flip-flops (we pulled the prank on our pastor). Other pranks have followed over the past two years, and we're proud of our little name and our work.

This week, we turned on one of our own. We waited until a sufficiently late hour on the night before her birthday, and we T.P.ed Susan's house. Now this was not your everyday, run of the mill. T.P. job. In fact, no toilet paper was used. We used leis, balloons, stuffed animals, wind socks, windmills, posters and more to decorate her front porch. And we did something we've never done before when carrying out one of our pranks: We rang the doorbell when we were done. I know it sounds crazy, but we were afraid the balloons wouldn't last the night, and we really wanted to see her reaction. We then hid behind bushes and the cars in the driveway to watch.

Her husband, who had been forewarned of our activities, came to the door, then went to get Susan. Susan was sound asleep in her bed. In fact, she hadn't even heard the doorbell. Her hubby had to wake her up. Well she came out on the porch and was looking around, when we jumped from our hiding places and yelled "Happy Birthday!" She pretty much jumped out of her skin. The next day, she informed us by email that she had taken a sleep aid that night. When she woke up the next morning, she thought she had dreamed the whole thing. However, when she left for work, there was our handiwork to remind her that there is no honor among flip-flop bandits.

Pictured are Lindsay, Brook and Dianne

P.S. Janet is also a bandit, but when we called her to go with us, she said she was already in her PJs. We now know who the real adventurous bandits are!:)