Happy Birthday Boys!

I want to start this birthday blog giving thanks to my mother in law for giving birth to my husband. For raising him to be the man he is today. She did a really good job!


Happy Birthday honey! We had birthday breakfast at Cr*cker B*arrel with Tommy, Claudia and Matt, then hit the road for home! We had a nice time with the kids this weekend and I'm glad we were there to celebrate Russell's birthday together!




















Thanks to Tommy and Claudia for being our weekend hosts!

























Matt and Tommy got to visit too!



















Today is also the 38th birthday of my first born child! Happy Birthday!!! I hope this coming year is very happy. I remember the day Paul was born...actually the wee hours of the morning. One day I'll do a post on his childhood with pictures! Of course, I have lots of scanning to do before that can happen!
So, until then, here's the birthday boy on my recent trip to California. He's standing with his new wife, Jessi and his children.

Happy Birthday son!

Weekend stuff....

We are in Ocala for the weekend...doing lots of stuff....Russell, Tommy and Matt went to the Florida/Hawaii game today. Claudia and I just puttered around and I took a long nap. While we are here, we had some work done on the motor home a.k.a. hole in the highway to pour money into! SHHHH! Don't say I said that!

Tomorrow is Russell's birthday and also the birthday of my first born! I'll be posting more on that when I get home and have access to my pictures! I'll say a big Happy Birthday to them both though!

We will meet Tommy and Matt tomorrow at Crackerbarrell for a little birthday breakfast.

It seems all I've done this weekend is EAT! Tonight I googled waist cinchers. I honestly am considering one... I wonder if they work. Anybody tried it???

I'm nervously watching and praying about the hurricane situation. The only thing is where do you pray it to go??? I'm praying it will just rotate itself out and go away. Then Hannah! Oh, dear....

Hope everyone is having a good Labor Day weekend. We'll be traveling down the road home tomorrow. See you all soon.....

The last hurrah

I had to give global warming another thought yesterday. This was my last day with the grandchildren and I had decided we would do whatever they wanted to do...Adam's first words were "putt putt golf" now called mini-golf....So off we went to the golf course at the beach.

Now that was the true definition of HOT! The sun had come out and the humidity was high. Even Adam was fading before we reached the half way mark. However, since it was a ridiculous amount of money to play, we stayed the course and got to the end.

Ashley and I got a couple of hole in ones! We were so excited, but of course we didn't get them on the free game hole....not that we're complaining! None of us wanted to play again!
















































We then drove to one of the few remaining places that you can get to the beach and took a few beach pictures.




















Each child picked what they wanted to have for lunch. Adam wanted T*co hell B*ll, so we stopped there first. He got his lunch and his blue some kind of drink and we started off to Ch*ck F*let. When we turned the corner, Adam's LARGE drink spilled all over the back floorboard. We stopped, went back, got a new drink and 500 napkins.

We went through the drive thru at Ch*ck F*let and on home to finish lunch.

Then they swam for a little while, got dried and dressed and we went to the airport to pick up Russell's mom, who had been in N*rth C*rolina for a couple of weeks. I was so glad she got to see the kids....

We went over to her house and let them play in the edge of the bay for a little while.

































Then I sadly delivered them to their great grandmother who will take them to catch their plane today!

My grandchildren have always called me Nana....but over the past couple of years, Ashley has started lovingly calling me Nanny. I didn't think I'd like that, but coming from her it is so precious. When I left them at their great grandmother's, she hugged me tightly and said "Nanny, when I see you again, I'll be 17." That seriously brought on the tears!

What special gifts my grandchildren are!

Grandchildren fun

Every year, there are a few pictures that I take in the same pose. This is one although, they are getting almost too big for my bed! :)


These two are very close. They watch out for one another and see how happy they are. They're always like that. They are just really happy, sweet kids! Take a look at those beautiful smiles!























Then there's Adam doing a cannonball into the pool! Our time together is winding down and we are making the most of each moment.


From the time they were really little, I knew I wanted to make memories with my grandchildren that they would remember long after they were grown.

That's what we did today!

A funny thing happened on the way to the polls.....

As I know you will all remember from this post I always vote and even keep my "I voted" sticker on my clothing way past election time! In some cases, many months after election time!

So, today I got the grandchildren from their great grandmother's house and on the way home, we passed a church and people were flooding in and out and I said Hmmmm, I wonder what's happening there?? when suddenly a random thought passed through my mind It's election day! It was storming....pouring rain, but I wheeled right into my polling place, parked, gave the kids instructions not to let anyone kidnap them and ran through the rain in my new shoes and let freedom ring by voting! Whew, really I almost missed it!



My shirt with my I Voted sticker is laying on my bed because I'm wearing it again tonight and I don't want to get it dirty. That says a lot about being old! We just better not even go there.






I swore up and down and all around, I would not comment on politics, but I watched just enough of the convention last nite to hear the "tribute" to T*d K*n****...o.k. when you've been accused of allegedly causing a death by drowning, please don't start off talking about your love of the water (sea). For goodness sake! I turned it off at that point. I'm sorry to any of my democrat friends. It isn't even about that, because being raised in the south, I was a democrat for many years. Until democrats became some other beings. Even some I love and hold dear.

I will repeat what I read on someone else's blog (I would link, but I honestly don't remember where I read this), I pray that America doesn't get what we deserve. I hope God is merciful!

Don't worry, I've got you sister.....

Doesn't it look like Max is protecting his sister Molly? Don't we all sometimes need someone to just say, don't worry, I've got you?

God says that every day.....I just have to remember that!

Polishing silver

Thanks to Katie my silver is now polished! She borrowed it for a bridal shower and it was in bad need of a good polishing! I should have done it for her, but I really hate polishing silver. So badly, that once they had the cutest little real silver tea sets for little girls and I was considering getting a set for my granddaughter when suddenly I thought, I WANT her to start having to polish silver at this age? What kind of grandmother does that? So no silver tea sets.

Tonight we formally installed our new pastor. It was a wonderful service and we just welcome him and his wonderful family into our lives.

Thanks Leigh!

Thanks so much to Leigh for so kindly giving me this award!

Leigh is such a good representative of her generation! She is creative, kind and so cute. Her blog is a joy to read! She is the age of my oldest child which makes it even more interesting for me.

Thank you Leigh! I know I'm supposed to pass this along so I'll pass it to some who have become close blog friends.......Dawn who is very talented at writing and is also understanding and always offers a wise word!

Tonja who is not only funny but has been through many things and trusts the Lord through the storms.


Sheryl who endures physical and spiritual pain with grace and dignity and trust the Lord with it all even when she may not particularly feel His presence.

Leslie my sweet Canadian friend, who is really a conservative, she just doesn't know it yet! :)

Katie, oh my precious almost daughter! Because she is exactly what this award is all about, the perfect blend of friendship...not just to me but to everyone she knows. She's also new to the blogging world. If her sisters had a blog, they would get this award along with her! :) They know what I mean!

There are so many more of you I want to give this award to, but you know how very long it takes me with the linking and all.....

Bye bye hectic week!

This picture was supposed to be at the end of the post, but of course I am once again confounded by the blog! This is my sister, sister in law and brother at lunch today. More below and another picture way below. ???




















This has just been a hectic week! Every day except Monday, I was either taking someone to the doctor or going for myself! Oh, except that Thursday I had to go to the dentist. I had a toothache and went in for them to check it and ended up starting a root canal.


Now one of my major anxiety issues centers around the dentist chair! During any big dental procedure I have to have time to prepare myself mentally and have nitrous oxide. O.K. I had no time to prepare myself because once they took the x ray, it was on with the root canal! I even had them take a picture of me (I later decided nothing about that picture or visit was very funny) with the nitrous thingy on, thinking I'll blog about what a big baby I am. I am usually very good at laughing at myself.


They started, and first of all, it took several tries to get the area deadened. Then something wasn't right about the nitrous oxide, but maybe it was just me. I made it through the procedure, sat up in the chair and started sobbing. I went into a full blown panic attack.....one like I've never had before. I was soaking wet with sweat and was just crying uncontrollably. That has NEVER happened before...oh, I mean I've cried uncontrollably before, just not at the dentist.


On the way out, I had to stop to make a second appointment.....I'm sure the dentist is looking so forward to that....and I was so upset I just handed my calendar to the receptionist and had her make my appointment. I didn't even talk about paying....in fact I almost had another attack when I got home and looked at the bill they thrust in my hand as they were shoving me out the door helping me out to my car.

I made it home, changed into some dry clothes and pulled myself together. I called my husband for comfort and he lovingly said, you're fine, now get over it! Have I ever mentioned he has a minor in Psychology??? Or how grateful I am we don't have to depend on that to make a living???


Today was a much better day! It is two days later after all! My cousin is here for a wedding, so some of us went to lunch.

Voila, cousin and I at the lunch table.....

Fay, Fay, Go AWAY!

We are having the first winds and rain from Tropical Storm Fay tonight. It was a windy and overcast day, but not so stormy and little rain.

I took my dogs outside a little while ago and there were the first signs that we were having a storm.....little oak branches all on the deck and in the pool....the oaks are so beautiful and provide such shade, but they are a fierce enemy in the storms. We have two big oaks, one on either side of our house. Right about now we're thinking we should have trimmed them, we should have trimmed them!

Our children in Ocala and Jacksonville have weathered their part of the storm and as of this afternoon, Matt in Jacksonville still didn't have power. That is one of the bad parts of a storm is no power! Of course, we have always been blessed and not had a lot of damage, for which we give thanks!

My brother and sister in Pensacola haven't been so fortunate! They have lived through a few real hurricanes.

We are apparently making history though, as the weather people here are saying we've never had a storm come in from the east. Usually our storms, hurricanes or tropical storms come up the Gulf of Mexico or directly west into the other coast of Florida....so here we are, making history.

The grands are with their great grandma and their grandpa for a few days, but they're safe and sound. They can now officially say they bring the storms with them! They went through Hurricane Dennis and now Tropical Storm Fay.

We'll go to bed and see what the morning holds!

Random at best!

Recently on a very quick trip to see these sweethearts, my friend and I ran over to see my niece and her family. I told her that she would be on the internet and she protested greatly!



According to her all of you are really perverts just waiting to pounce on me! Shame on you! :) I tried my best to explain that most of my readers and blogs I read are Christian women, to which she replied.....that's what they want you to think!



So if any of you really are perverts, a. cease and desist! b. you sure do a great job of hiding your pervertedness!



On to the next random thing! The grand children's great grandmother picked them up this morning to take them fishing! They will have a great time. They just love everything Florida! Except that we freeze them......they don't have air conditioning so they aren't used to being cold as they put it, I say mildly able to stand yourself from the heat.

Anyway, their great grandmother is the mother of my first and second husband (I'll bet you can't wait until I post about that can you???) Actually, I married the father of my children twice. Don't ask. Back to great grandmother...she's an amazing woman who keeps up a huge yard with every flower that will grow in Florida. She fishes and just stays way busier than I do, 20 years her junior.

So, today, I was going to just REST, but I woke up with yet another bout of bladder spasms so later this afternoon it's off to the doctor for the 4th time in 4 months. I can't imagine what is causing these recurring uti's but I can say this.....I'm not happy about it!

I hope everyone has a great day. I don't think you're perverts! :)

P.S. Please pray for our son who is travelling back to college in Jacksonville today, trying to beat the storm.

Here at last!

My son David was gracious enough to drive two old women to Pensacola to pick up the grands! This is David with his grandmother.....I think he's trying to hold her back from the No Entry area!



The poor man was nagged all the way there and home by not just one woman but two. Here is a tiny bit of the way the conversation in the car flowed.....



Grandma.....David, David, you're going way too fast.



David......I know what the speed limit is grandma.



me.....David! Are you going to drive up into that person's trunk???



David......Mama, please, I know how to drive.



Grandma.....David, do you see what that speedometer says!? You just must slow down!



David....Oh, why, did I come???



Me......Just try to appease us son...It is only 4 hours total in the car.



David.......AHHHHHH!!!!!





But we got there in one piece, although we went through several really bad thunderstorms!



We waited a long time at the airport. Their flight was delayed over an hour and we got there early.



They finally arrived and as unaccompanied minors were the last off the plane. But what a sight for sore eyes!!! The attendant sweetly took our picture.






































Here they are coming into our arms! The poor guard on the left had to threaten us about what would happen if we came into the no entry zone. Just kidding....click on the picture to see how laid back he was.





We got in late and went to bed even later. Today we have been busy in the pool, visiting and stocking up on all the bad snacks you get at Nana's house!

Oh, one last note.....since they are from the very green state of California, I have been getting lectures right and left on recycling. I'll try to do better! I promise! But no plastic bags?????

Hurricane Magnets

It seems like my grandchildren are hurricane magnets! They were here when Hurricane Dennis came through and were excited even though we had no damage except lots of debris! In this picture, they're standing in front of the television so we could get a picture with them watching what to do in the event of hurricane weather. This was in 2005. They are much more grown up now!

Now they think Hurricanes are no big deal! Of course they ARE from earthquake country!

Today they are on their way and so is Tropical Storm Faye! Faye really isn't forecast to come near us! Thankfully!

I'm hoping for good swimming weather, because these two love to swim!

Right now they are about 40 minutes from Bush Airport in Houston.

I'm leaving in a few minutes to pick up their great grandmother and uncle and we're off to Pensacola to get them, have a bit of supper with their great aunt Cathy and head for home! Hopefully, we'll all be ready for bed!

Tropical Storm Faye IS keep Matt from returning to college. He was driving back tomorrow morning, but the storm seems to be going inland and he could run into some heavy weather. So he'll have to endure at home for a day or two more! :)

What about those Olympians?

America is proving at the 2008 Olympics that we are the best and that when we pull together we are winners!!!!

I have been so excited watching all of the different contests, but for some reason today watching these girls, I just cried with pride! There was just a certain something about them that drew me right into their excitement and joy.


Don't get me wrong, I have whooped and rooted for Michael Phelps and all the rest, but it was just something about this group effort that touched my heart.

Congratulations America! When we join together, we are truly the greatest country in the world. We may have moments that are less than glorious, but every time that National Anthem plays and those hands go over those hearts, I realize anew how blessed I am to have been born in this country, the land of the free and the home of the brave!

As my heart soars for these young men and women, I do not forget that there are other young men and women fighting so that we might remain the greatest country in the world. My prayers are with each and every soldier for they are ALL gold medal winners!

True Confessions.......

In an effort to get more comments (thanks to those who did!), I added a little who's who to this post.


I didn't get as many comments as I hoped.....o.k. insecure people need affirmation!


My sister, who of course knows, was sweet enough to comment but not let the cat out of the bag, so to speak!


So, here goes.......I am the Presbyterian! I was born in the 4th pew from the front of Wallace Memorial Presbyterian Church in Panama City, and grew up in the Presbyterian faith. I was actually then a Southern Baptist for 20 years......then returned to my roots.



Having said that, let me say this.....and this may be hard for some of my Baptist friends :), we aint all that different as far as our theology goes.




Sharon, the long haired beauty is still Baptist and Linda the blond beauty is Methodist.


We all love the Lord with all our hearts and are members of the Holy catholic church. For some of you who have a problem with that word catholic....please note it has a small c and means the Church invisible....Christians from every denomination and corner of the earth!



I add that little disclaimer because a boy I dated once attended church with me and when we stated our beliefs in the Apostles Creed, he looked at me and said I didn't know you were catholic!


Now, having said all THAT, I want to say this. I think, Biblically, we are called to be a part of a local church......I'm not talking particular denomination....I'm talking the Body of Christ as He talks about it in His Word. There are many reasons that I personally think He called us to be involved in the local body of Christ.......one, He told us to, which is enough for me......second, He knew that His people would be persecuted and would need one another....three, He knew we needed one another in general in this life....Four, He told us to! I offered another opinion on that in this post.

Happy Birthday Brother.

On the far right in my baby brother, Steve. Today is his birthday!

My mother, sitting, had him in August and turned 40 in September. My dad told her he wanted 3 boys and 3 girls when he asked her to marry him and she always did aim to please!

Happy Birthday Steve, and I hope you have a really good day!

I have two posts today, so keep going down for the first one I did today! :)

Baptist Young Women.....

We three friends have birthdays close to each other. We always try to have lunch or dinner to celebrate. Sometimes that is the only time we see each other all year. Sad I know.



This year we are all in our mid 50's well 39 or so...........

The three young things in the middle of the top row of this picture are us in our young 20's.

I hope we aren't as delusional now about thinking we look good as we were then.

Can you tell which is which of us?????

We are actually sitting in the same order we were standing wayyyyyyyyy back then. First on the top row is one of the missionaries who ran the Baptist Center, I think her name was Mrs. Andler, but I'm not sure about that, I also think she has gone to be with the Lord.....next with the pretty wing bangs is me! Then Sharon who is the one with the pretty long hair sitting beside me in the first picture. She is obviously pregnant in the younger picture.....thankfully none of us have to experience that again! Whew! Next to her is Linda, who is the pretty blonde in the above picture. Standing next to her is Miss Patty, the other missionary.

After our annual lunch in this present day, I had to go to my home away from home....Publix ....and lo and behold who do you think I ran into? YES, YOU GUESSED IT, MISS PATTY!

I haven't seen her once that I can remember in all these years and then to run into her on the same day I lunched with my Baptist Young women friends was just, well providential!

I spoke to her and asked if she were actually Miss Patty and she was so happy that I remembered her. It wasn't hard, she looks the same, just a little older, unlike the three beauties above who never age.

She brought back good memories of much simpler times. We didn't know they were simpler, but oh, they were! We love each other dearly and better than that, each of us understand what the others have been through in life. We have shared many joys and sorrows.

Today one of us is still a Baptist, one a Presbyterian and one a Methodist. Can you look at us and figure that one out??? If so leave it in a comment.

The Superhero comes thru again!

My husband gets the superhero award every day, but today he got my computer back up!!!!! I'm so happy. Oh, maybe I should spend some time with him watching olympics since he was so nice.

I'm also backing my stuff up every day!

Still down

My computer is still really down. I'm using my husband's computer and praying I don't tear his up! He hopefully can work on mine tonight.

I didn't get my notes, but we were able to have a hearty discussion without them! I had handwritten a few things and everybody participates so much that it was no problem.

I am getting a little nervous about all my thousands of pictures! I'm hoping even if mine can't be fixed, my pictures can be pulled off. I do back up, but haven't for about a month. I take so many pictures and I don't want to lose any of them! From now on, I promise to back up every single day!

There has been a major tragedy!

This morning as I tried to turn on my computer, it blew up.....I don't know how else to explain what happened. My monitor wouldn't come on, so I tried to manually shut the computer down to restart. When I pressed the shutdown button, my computer started blowing something, not smoke, but like a fan in the back was blowing....o.k. dust. It was blowing DUST! Because that's what I have the most!

Anyway, I called husband immediately at work and told him he either had to come home or send his computer man here, to which he replied calmly (which irritated the snot out of me)......honey, he works another job and comes here at night and weekends.....to WHICH I REPLIED.....WHAT IS MORE IMPORTANT, HIS JOB OR MY COMPUTER????? My husband told me to go lay down with a cold compress and he would look at it when he gets home at 6 o'clock tonight!

Only, I can't lay down. I'm leading a Bible study at 11 a.m. My notes are on my computer.

Just another day in the life.

More on our trip.....

This lighthouse is labeled as a reconstruction project on the island. Russell and I both think the lighthouse was probably moved from another spot on the island. When it is completed, it will be a museum.





















These long pauses between pictures are blogger's way of torturing me. I worked and worked to make it turn out better, but it just wouldn't cooperate.













A shrimp boat that was tied up alongside the dock. We thought it was such a pretty picture. Maybe another one to frame.



I'm sorry I didn't get any pictures of the oyster boats. If you haven't seen one, oyster boats are just very small ,shallow boats and the oyster men use a long rake to bring up the oysters. They really earn their paychecks! When they get them. Oystering is a hard life!








































This picture my precious husband took when I asked him to take a really pretty picture of me.



I had to slap him off the boardwalk complain a bit. He just can't win!









This is another picture from the Orman house.

One interesting fact (I promised, remember?) about Apalachicola is that there were slave owners, the Ormans being one example. Although the original house was not nearly so big as the house is now....the slave quarters were very small, probably one room. There is one on the property. Slavery has always made me very sad. When I think of slavery, I never associate it with Florida....naive I guess. I always think of Indians and Ponce de Leon.

I may be a distant relative of Scarlett O'Hara. Just don't think about things that are upsetting.

If you click on the picture, you can read about the slaves owned by the Ormans.

Break in the story.....

I know I promised some interesting facts about the house in Apalachicola, but for today I want to take a slightly different trip down a whole nother rabbit trail.....

This is a prayer that my mother found in her father's Bible ...

My mother writes on the prayer......."found this in Papa's Bible 11-22-87, just when I needed it most.....Margaret. She would have been 64 years old... 8 years older than I am now.

A Prayer to Share

Lord, thou knowest better than I know myself, that I am growing older, and will someday be old. Keep me from getting talkative and particularly from the fatal habit of thinking I must say something on every subject, on every occasion. Release me from craving to try to straighten out every body's affairs.

Make me thoughtful but not moody, helpful but not bossy. With my vast store of wisdom it seems a pity not to use it all but I want a few friends at the end. Keep my mind free from the recital of endless details. Give me wings to get to the point. Seal my lips to my many aches and pains. They are increasing and my love of rehearsing them is becoming sweeter as the years go by. I ask for grace enough to listen to the tales of other's pains. Help me to endure them with patience.

Teach me the glorious lesson that occasionally it is possible that I may be mistaken. Keep me reasonably sweet. I do not wish to be a saint.....some of them are hard to live with.......but a sour old person is one of the crowning works of the devil. Help me to extract all possible fun out of life. There are so many funny things around us, I don't want to miss any of them.

AMEN

I pray that I will benefit from this prayer of wisdom. Most days my mouth is wayyyyy out in front of my brain!

What a surprise!

A good friend of mine who, sadly, doesn't live here anymore :(, and I used to drive over to Gulf and Franklin Counties to work with Juvenile Delinquents. (No, the irony is NOT lost on me.)

Each week that we were in Franklin County (Apalachicola), we would drive by a dilapidated old house hidden behind woodsy brush. Each and every time my friend saw it, she would say, I wish someone would restore that house! Her son restores houses and has restored a beautiful house in the historical district of Pensacola.

So! Imagine my surprise when we drove past and not only had it been restored, but the woodsy brush behind it is now a beautiful Viet Nam memorial park! I said to husband, we must go see that! Below are pictures from that visit.

First, the house! Sorry I don't have any before pictures!






















































































This is a little frog pond in front of the house. That's a little old antique sitting on the bench. O.K. RUSSELL, IT'S A BIG ANTIQUE!




































This is the memorial plaque in the park. If you click on the image it will get larger and you can read what it says.




















This is a replica of the Three Soldier Statute that is part of the Viet Nam Memorial in Washington D.C.
























I got many more pictures inside the house and of the park. There are a couple of really interesting things about the house that I will have to save for another day! I just realized that I have two posts today!



I'm so glad I noticed it. Aren't you, Linda???

More beach pictures...

Ah, on to the man I would have married had I been born somewhere else in another time! Dr. John Gorrie....inventor of the ice machine and therefore the forerunner of air conditioning. If you double click on the plaque, you can read his story. Part of it anyway.
























This next picture is a patient room...if you look closely, you'll see a pot hanging from the ceiling. That was filled with ice with a vent (look very closely) going up into the ceiling and somehow hooked into the chimney. They would seal off the doors and windows and it would be "somewhat" cooler in the room. There was a lot of malaria in that area of Florida....and Dr. Gorrie was trying to treat the disease and cool the fevered patient down at the same time.




















This is the Gorrie Museum in beautiful Apalachicola, FL. It only costs $1.00 to tour and it's not the most interesting place you'll ever visit but you know you owe a huge debt to Dr. Gorrie....because after all, which of us wants to live without air conditioning, ESPECIALLY in Florida???

If you just happen to be in Apalachicola, drop by, it only takes a second few minutes to tour the one room museum.











More tomorrow and another museum.....Please come back and leave a comment if you visit. Don't make me beg!

Beach pictures.....

As promised, here they are, our beach pictures!














Our first lunch was at Papa Joe's, a little restaurant on the marina. It was good! Russell had the grouper basket and I had the shrimp basket, fried of course. I very seldom want seafood any other way!


SHHHH!!! Right over to the left of that picture is a dock where boats are moored. It was honestly deceiving because there is one dock and then it is a huge step down to the next dock...if Russell hadn't fallen first, I would have. When he fell, I was in total shock. He went down to the lower dock and rolled. In my mind's eye, I could see him rolling into the water between boat and dock, but thankfully he stayed on the lower dock.

At that point, I realized he wasn't hurt, so it became funny. Really, how do people get those "getting hurt" shots for Amer*ca's F*nniest H*me Vid*os??? Of course, he didn't think it was nearly as funny as I did. As a matter of fact, I began to seriously worry about his sense of humor! When I asked if he was hurt, he replied just his pride!






I love this second picture of the beach! We were walking down and I realized this was a picture that many paintings have copied! I do think I'll print this one to frame!
























I'm trying to hide behind some sea oats! Now protected by law from being picked, back in the day any self respecting Floridian had a vase full of these beauties somewhere in their house!

From what we could see, they're coming back with a vengeance. But it is still a huge fine if you're caught picking them.....and of course Miss Rule Oriented would never dare!









I have more great pictures coming.

The Birthday boy

This is actually last years picture. I was out of town for his birthday this year.

Tomorrow nite we will have chicken enchiladas, his favorite!

By the way, does anyone think I should enter my homemade chocolate chip cookie cake in a contest??? :)