And on the seventh day.....

..............she gets a moment to talk with her friends.  That's you guys!  


I guess you can tell that I don't write my posts in advance.  If I did maybe I could post more often.  Right now I'm sitting in our bed with my husband writing this as he watches a movie.  This way I can spend a little time with you and with my hubby!

So much to show and tell and so little time!  And maybe just a little bit of a rant, but that can wait.  I know there are lots and lots of pictures so feel free to skip over them if you can!

The princess after showering off all the algae she picked up from the beach.

Son Matt had us over to his new house and cooked dinner for us.....very yummy.

Of course he was also focused on showing dad how the new system works.

Working hard in the kitchen.

This little guy and his mama and daddy came for the weekend.  We had so much fun in spite of the rain.

Charley is really on the move now with no stopping.......isn't his little tent cute!

Charley and Daddy

What do you think George?

Uh oh, Nana, George is trying to leave!

Pappy and I love, love, love being with the grands.  Someone is missing from this picture and it made us very sad!

Ashley singing in the rain.....she makes the best of every situation

Oh, by the way, we are always glad to babysit!

The rain finally let up for a little bit and Charley went swimming!

Daddy and Mama had fun swimming with Charley

Charley in motion!

Uncle David helped Charley as he walked up and down the little step from deck to deck.

Charley is a very brave little boy.  He's jumping, well almost, to Daddy while Mikey watches.

I did it!!!

Pappy was backwashing the pool which made a fountain in the yard.  Charley was headed that direction.

Later in the evening, we had dinner and were joined by David and his family.
Ashley with Devin making silly faces!

Uncle Matt came after work.......Charley was so glad to see him!

Pappy and Jack

David wasn't mad, he just wasn't smiling!  But Arwen was.

Thumbs up on the dinner

Tommy and Charley

Ashley standing Charley on the kitchen bar

Give me a kiss Mikey

Hold it, don't you usually make the bed for this picture?

Chase me Ashley.....Charley would run and laugh.  You know, that laugh that everyone loves to hear

I'm gonna get you Charley.......

Charley loved playing hide and seek with the curtains.  Pappy told him to go ahead that I had never liked those curtains anyway.  True!

It's really wonderful having any of the grands with us for church.

Charley loved opening and closing the screen door.   Look how he's studying how it works, his daddy is an engineer after all.

Loves his Uncle Matt

And I believe Uncle Matt loves Charley!

It was a wonderful weekend, over too fast and Ashley left on Monday.....but more about that later.

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Rats, no time to rant.  But I do have a prayer request.....I always say this is the best prayer chain.
Our friend Mickey has renal cell carcinoma and had a kidney removed several weeks ago.  Monday, he had a wedge of his lung removed and it was determined to be renal cell.  The future in uncertain but we know who holds the future and He is never uncertain.  Thank you for the prayers.

Good night friends!

And just like that!

Like snapping my fingers, it is already Wednesday and seven days have passed!

 We've been busy when we are out of the pool....

 Aunt Cathy came over for a day and we enjoyed visiting.

O.K. I take all the hugs I can get!

With Pappy and animal house...

Uncle David and Ashley acting like Uncle David and Ashley..... having a good time together.

Yes!  She's not too old to play with frogs!

In fact, I think she's going to eat that frog.....she didn't!
Whew!

The top to my Ugandan bowl made a great hat as she patiently posed for Nana to take pictures.

The annual Nana's bed picture....sad because we were missing Adam.

Man, I love this girl!!

Uncle Tommy came in out of the rain!

Tuesday was beach day.  Ashley's new cousin Devin joined us on our trip to the state park.  It was packed and the water wasn't even pretty.  Let me say that we do live on the World's Most Beautiful Beaches, but the seaweed was plentiful.

The girls had a good time frolicking in the Gulf

I sat in a chair on the beach reading while they played in the Gulf  watching as they played in the water, completely carefree for a little while.

These are a few of my thoughts as I watched them.....

When I was their age.......19......I had a one year old and the playing and easy going beach days were kind of over for me.  At least playing at the beach with no responsibilities.  I pray that they will stay in school, get their educations and let boys be last on the list for now.  

I pray they live their lives to glorify the Lord.


Being this young will be gone so fast......before they know it they'll be sitting on a beach somewhere watching their grandchildren play.


I sure do love these girls.


I wish the lady sitting beside us wouldn't smoke wonder if they're ready to go yet.


The days are flying by.  Tomorrow night, or should I say Friday a.m., they are going to the midnight showing of the last Harry Potter movie.  It's so much fun just watching them and what grandparent doesn't love seeing grandchildren having fun?  


If only time would slow down a bit.  Ahhhh......but I'm enjoying every moment. 

Just a few....

minutes to tell a little about our visit with Granddaughter Ashley so far.

She's beautiful and so much fun.
She got in late and we picked her up from the airport.

Growing up hasn't changed her love of the pool

Jack doesn't really like to swim, but he found he had no choice!

Uncle David is so glad to see his neice

Nana loves her hugs

We do have a sad thing this trip.  Our grandson Adam wasn't able to come be with us.  He didn't do well enough in school and that was something he had to do to come to Florida!  But we MISS him so much and hope he will get to come in the fall.

We went to Chi* f*l a and it happened to be Cow Day.

Ashley's friend sent a boyfriend charm with her......like her Nana is going to let her find a boyfriend!  HA!

Boys, you might as well stay away.....Nana's prayers always work and charms never work!  We're holding out for a great Christian man....after college!  :)

We're having a great time and I have lots more pictures but for some reason they won't upload tonight.  So I'll go sit by the pool where the mermaid granddaughter is swimming....again!  She loves the swimming.

Right now....

This beautiful girl is winging her way to Florida! 

She won't need the winter clothes though!

If I'm missing in action for a few days, you'll know I'm having a great time with my granddaughter!!

May God Bless America....

Oh, Lord, bless us even though we do not deserve your blessing.  Help us to stand again and call ourselves a Christian nation.

Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord!

Psalm 33:12

Falling......and birthdays, and other stuff.....

***********Update*************


I did not forget this special little girl's birthday.....


Happy Birthday Anna Cross!  I love you!!

Anna Cross is two years old today.  She and her cousin Grady were visiting recently.  


Anna Cross is missing her daddy today, he's one of our brave Navy men who is on deployment.  Thank you Beau!
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I fall......a lot.  I mean after all my middle name is grace, how appropriate.  I've fallen in the garage, off my bike several times, tripped over the dog, you get the picture.  No one is ever surprised that I've fallen, so when I fell in the laundry room the other night it was no surprise to me and as I was going down I was thinking oh, boy.....I hope Russell hears me scream.  But at just that moment I heard a crash in the back of our home.  

Flash back......we just bought some new bedroom furniture.  When it was delivered I immediately saw that the furniture wasn't the quality that we thought it was.  Some pieces were real wrong, so we called the store and they delivered a couple of new pieces....no better....but we decided to just sleep on it and call back the next morning.   

Back to the crash.....

while I'm in the laundry room tangled in brooms and mops, Russell had gone to bed in our new kingsized bed that I had longed for for years.  The moment his body was fully on the bed, it fell......the mattress fell.  A support had been left out and the slat broke.  And so did the final straw for my dear hubby!

Being the calm, cool and collected man he is.......after he fumed and said all the furniture was going straight back to the store......he went out to his shop, cut some boards and put supports under the mattress.  Or should I say, we struggled the mattress and box springs off and then he put supports under the mattress.  Ever tried taking a king sized mattress off the bed?  Don't.  We actually had a good night's sleep and I loved the extra space on the bed and so did our dogs.  

We are getting a different set of bedroom furniture soon.  We will put this whole fiasco behind us and move on......AND after all the back and forth, I also got the reading chair I have been wanting .  

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Moving along,  Mercy Uganda director Laura and her husband Mark were in Uganda for several weeks.  After many months of working on it, our Ugandan  liaison, Henry Mello, finally got his visa and is here on his first trip to America.  

Henry has been to work several days with Mark, pictured above......after a day of work, Mark goes to the dump to, well, dump stuff.  Henry asked this question Do you have no needy people in your country?  Well, of course, we do.  Why did he ask that question????  The things he saw at the dump.  

 Henry picked these shoes out of many things he found, good and usable things, at the dump.  He will be taking these shoes back to Uganda, to his people.....many who don't have shoes.  

I think Henry is amazed at what American's waste.  


It puts the whole furniture thing in a new light.


******  Check back for more on Henry's adventures in America******