Fun Couple of days

To say I have had a blast from the past is an understatement.  We have had a great time reminiscing, taking pictures, and looking at old team pictures.  We've got a good group of guys here who are excited about staying in touch in the future.  Fun times!

As for our family, we're seeing them too.  Unfortunately the kids are all scattered, so I haven't gotten any group pix of them.

More later...

Very pretty day

It was beautiful here today!  We had our meeting  with Wyndham this morning and again we hear different things than we've heard before.  Good thing we like using our Wyndham points to stay down here!

For lunch we went down south to the pretty beaches and ate outside at Del Mar...we both had pasta and chicken dishes - both were wonderful and both were 50% off!  Unfortunately the iced tea cost $6 each, but our meals were only $9!!  It was gorgeous on the beach!

Now I'm watching the World Series while Dave snores beside me!

More later...

Monday

We had another great day.  Jami took the day off to spend time with us, so we went to ride the water taxi all day.  We had a nice leisurely ride up and down the river and a wonderfully laid-back lunch at Mango's on Los Olas.  On the taxi I made friends with Annamaria and her family from Sweden.  Her daughter had a Canon EOS and we got to talking about her camera.  Next thing you know Annamaria and I were talking like old friends!  They even went to lunch at Mango's and then they were at the dock when we boarded our taxi back down river.

We picked Danny up from school on our way back to Jami's and the girls were already home.  After a little while, Dave and I decided to come back to our condo to rest and the next thing you know it's dark!  So we just hung out last night here in the condo.

More later...

Sunday

It was a great day for a drive across the state!  We arrived here about 1:00 and met the family at Sweet Tomatoes!  We all love that place.  The girls are growing up and Danny is being a typical ornery little brother!  #2 is finally sleeping in her own room - hallelujah!  Only took 11 years and 10 months!

Internet connection here isn't very reliable, so I may not post every day.  Just know that we're enjoying ourselves with the kids!

More later...

Saturday

It was hot here today!  We went to the Largo Preserve today and did our walk around the lake.  I had sweat dripping when we got done!  It was fun, though.  We didn't see any alligators today...just some birds...a limpkin, some gallinules, and an ibis with beautiful blue eyes!  We also some some yellow crowned night herons, but they're sort of reclusive so they were hiding from us!

Limpkin

The rest of the day was spent packing and cooking for our supper!  In the morning (early) we're leaving for a week in Pompano Beach.  Hope I've got wifi when we get there!

More later...

Friday

We spent another beautiful day here in this little bit of Paradise!  We went to the Legion for lunch.  There were 19 of us from the Ranch there.  We saw several dolphins, so the day was perfect! We came home and I finished my newsletter and calendar and got them sent off.  I also got my Cyclones data base all set up and all of the recipes typed!  I'm feeling pretty good.  

Tonight at cards, we had two tables of 4.  Doris and I won so now I'm 4-2!!  

More later... 

Thursday

Today was an appointment day!  Dave got his teeth cleaned.  I got a haircut and a pedi.  I didn't particularly like my stylist...the guy who usually cuts my hair had the day  off today.  Guess I won't go on Thursday again!

We had lunch and dinner out in the lanai.  It was a little warm here this evening, but the weather is gorgeous right now.

More later...

Poor Cubs!

I think the youth of the Cubs came into play in this series.  The Mets just seem to be calm and the Cubs seem to be trying too hard.  Too bad this "slump" came at the end of the season!  They should be fun to watch for the next few years if the Cubs don't trade everyone away.  Baseball was fun this summer thanks to these "kids"!

We had a great day.  We went to  the chiropractor and both got adjusted.  I had my teeth cleaned and we had a meeting with the manager here at the park.

Cards were fun.  We were behind by 1,800 points going into the last hand.  We went out before they had any canastas so none of them were in their feet yet.  That meant we won and now I'm 3-2!

More later...

Tuesday

Dave went to the dentist this morning and found out that he needs a tooth pulled and then a bridge made.  Oh boy....more dental bills!  When he got home, he wanted to go to the water to eat.  So we went to John's Pass and ate at Scully's.  We saw 2 dolphins the minute we started walking on the boardwalk and never saw another one the whole time we were there.  It was beautiful there today, though.  I think it was 84 and a bit breezy, but beautiful!

Tonight at bingo...I WON!!!  I was the high winner, I think!  I won $78!!  I can play for several more weeks, now!  Woohoo!  Now, if our Cubs would just start hitting, it would be a great night.  I'm afraid the youth on this team is proving to be a downfall this series.

More later...

Monday

This was kind of a lazy day.  Dave and I both slept a little later today and that was good.  I, in fact, slept until 9:30 and Dave said he got up at 7:45 - that is unheard of!  I tried a new recipe for the crock pot today and it was delicious!  It was called Italian Chicken and we loved it.  It is definitely a keeper!

We also went to the bank and opened an account here.  So we're on the road to becoming Florida residents!

Tonight's card playing wasn't so good.  But if it were baseball, I'm still batting .500!

More later...

Sunday

We went to church this morning - good service, but Pastor Jack was on vacation.  The youth minister gave the message from Nehemiah.  He challenged us big time.  I didn't sleep last night...I had iced tea for lunch...I should have known better!  So when we got home from church I tried to take a nap.  That didn't work, either!  Dave was helping some of the people in the park by cleaning their gutters for them.  I took a bike ride - I rode two laps by myself and then Dave and I rode a lap this evening...almost 3 miles!  A cold front has moved in here - the wind is blowing quite a bit so our last lap was a chilly one.

I'm watching the Cubs-Mets game and I'm starting to get a bit discouraged.  Come on, Cubs!

More later...

One week down!

We've been here a week already...hard to believe!  Today we went to breakfast at Bob Evans' for our monthly breakfast.  There were 13 of us there.  We had a good breakfast and a fun time talking.  After that we took off for Sarasota for Bealls and the beach.  I was able to get 5 shirts for $102 with the use of coupons...and I've got $15 in Bealls bucks to use the 25th and 26th.  Unfortunately I'll be in Ft Lauderdale on the 25th and 26th...and they don't have a Bealls!!  Just my luck!

When we got done there, we headed for the water.  We ate lunch at The Beachhouse Restaurant.  We both had salads, which were huge!  We had planned to go to  the Red Barn, but Dave decided to just come home.  We saw some beautiful scenery - the water was gorgeous today!

Tonight we're watching both the Cubs and the Cyclones and both are losing.  Poop!!

More later...

Fun Day

This was a fun day.  Since it's Friday, we went to the Legion for the first time this season!  We didn't see any dolphins, but shortly after we left there were several of them, according to our old neighbors.  Oh well...a day late and a dollar short!  When we got home, Dave worked on cleaning out gutters and I didn't do anything!

Bryan went to our condo and took pictures for us of our new backsplash.  He said it really looked nice!

I'm thinking it looks pretty darn good!  We'll think we live in a swanky place now!!

Tonight at 7s from Hell, my partners and I won.  Can't believe it...I'm 2-1 so far!

More later...

Good day!

Dave and I both worked around here today.  I typed up some of the recipes that I've received here at the Ranch.  The cookbook is to be our fundraiser for this year.  I've gotten quite a few recipes, but I need a bunch more to make a good cookbook.  Guess I'll have to get on everyone...including myself!

This evening 7 of us ladies went to Hamburger Mary's for dinner and a show.  The food was wonderful and the show was very entertaining!  We all had a good time!

More later...

We had a good day today.  We went up to coffee this morning - there sure aren't many people here right now!  There were only 17 at coffee!  After coffee, we drove to Temple Terrace to see a table and chairs to replace our existing dinette set.  We loved it and brought it home with us.  It looks really nice in our dining area and now the chairs match the table!

It's also much more comfortable.

Slowly but surely we're getting the place cleaned up and put away!  Tonight, I went to play cards and Dave went out socializing!  When I got home, we had ice cream to celebrate National Dessert Day!  My team won at cards tonight, so I'm 1-1!

More later...

Cubs WIN!!

It's wonderful that the Cubs won their Division, but it's too bad one of those teams had to lose.  The Cardinals are a good team!  We'll take the win, though.

Today we cleaned the other half of the house and then proceeded to mess it up again!  We (Dave) put in a new faucet for us.  Ours was so low (neck size) that you couldn't even rinse dishes under it.  Now we've got a tall faucet and it works great!  We also got the TV working.  I called Bright House and she walked me through the fix!  Yay!!

Bingo tonight was just like usual.  I did get to yell bingo...unfortunately 2 others yelled it after me, so we each won $2.00.  Woopee!

More later...

Monday at The Ranch

Dave and I both slept like babies last night.  It was good being home!  Today we worked on cleaning house and putting things away.  We also went looking for a new dinette set (at least new to us) but didn't find anything that we really liked.

Tonight I played cards and got clobbered!  But the Cubs won, so all is well.  We can't get the big tv to come on, so we sat out in the lanai watching the end of the game.

More later...

Home in Florida!

We finally made it!  It was a long trip, but a fun time nonetheless.  This morning we were going to leave at 7:00, but it was still dark out and we had an hour of mountain roads.  So we left at 7:30 when the sky got lighter.  We saw 7 deer in our hairpin turns, and lots of fog, so I'm glad we waited to leave.  We made it thru Atlanta with no problem - just straight thru on 75!  Then after we got into Florida, we hit tons of traffic about 85-90 miles out of Clearwater.  I drove in it for 15 miles or so - bumper to bumper and stop/go.  Not much fun with idiots trying to pass and slamming on brakes, changing lanes.  Stupid people.  So we got off of 75 and angled over to Homosassa Springs and got onto the toll road.   It caused us to be about 30 minutes later than we wanted to be, but we made it without incident.  Then we got caught in a complete stoppage on the Courtney Campbell Causeway but still got to The Ranch around 6:00...just in time for our Oktoberfest dinner at the clubhouse!  Fun times and lots of hugs.

The car is unloaded and the clothes put away.  Now we're exhausted and ready to go to bed!

More later...

Rainy and lazy

It rained here last night and all day today, off and on.  We never did see the sun.  The clouds were stuck on the mountains and just wouldn't leave.  The kind of day it was allowed us to watch football all day, baseball this evening, and more football tonight.  I thoroughly enjoyed it, but my butt is tired of sitting.  Maybe I'm just practicing for tomorrow's 10 hour day!

More later...

We're in Georgia!

We had an absolutely beautiful drive today...we drove from Paducah to Blue Ridge, Georgia.  Mark was here and Diane got here about 5:30 or so.  We had a lovely supper of rotisserie chicken, corn, french fries, and green beans.  Unfortunately I choked on some corn when Diane and Mark made me laugh.  I have never been so scared in my life..I was getting a very, very small amount of air in...the corn just went down the wrong place.  I kept coaching myself to relax and about 4 minutes later, I was able to get a pretty decent breath.  We're a half hour away from any hospital, but Mark is an OR nurse and Diane is an anesthesiology nurse, so I felt I was in good hands.  The first thing I did when I could breathe, was thank God.

I'm watching the Cubs/Cardinals, but things are not going well for my guys.

More later...

Tired!

We didn't leave this morning until about 9:10, but we made it to Paducah by 6:00.  We're at the Drury Inn where we get a free meal for supper and a free breakfast.  Hope I sleep better tonight than I did last night.  I am having allergy issues from all of the harvest dust in the air, so my eyes are on fire...being tired on top of the dust, doesn't help that problem.  Tomorrow's another day, and we're about to run out of corn and soybeans.  I don't think cotton and peanuts have as much dust!!

Tomorrow, we've got about 7 hours of driving to get to the north side of Atlanta where Dave's cousin lives.  We'll stay there until Sunday morning and then we'll take off for The Ranch.  I'm so ready to be there!

More later...

Wednesday

The car is packed and in the morning, we'll take off.  We're just planning to go to Paducah tomorrow and then into Dave's cousin's on Friday night.  Hope to be in our southern home Sunday!  Prayers for a safe trip.

We went to Bryan's tonight to say goodbye to the kids and Aidan.  He was so fun tonight.  He loves to play peek-a-boo with me...and tonight he also blew air out of his lip and then waited for me to do it too.  Smiles all around.  He even let me hold him for about 15 minutes tonight.  Now that he's getting used to me, we're leaving and won't see him until Thanksgiving.  He'll have to learn who I am all over again.

More later...

 I thought I'd share a picture of two of the sweetest little guys you've ever seen.  The first one is Aidan, our grandson.  He just is so fascinating.  I'm not sure I've ever seen him cry..  I've seen him fake cry, but not a real cry!  Isn't he cute?  He'll be 1 on the 13th - 1 week from now.  Right now he's pretty much a mommy's boy.  He's finally warming up to me.  Dave has no problem with him, but he still is a little leery of me.

The second little guy is Kyle & Cassie's little guy, Blaise.  He's my great, great nephew.  He is 17  months and he's a little dynamo.  He's like the Energizer Bunny...he just keeps going and going!  He likes football and likes to read and does several animal sounds.  He also knows where his nose is, where his eyes are, etc. and he showws you his muscles!  He doesn't just walk, he runs!  He's also fearless and isn't a bit bashful.

We had a fun day.  We went to Iowa City to have lunch with Chris, Sudi & Howard before we take off for Florida.  Then this evening, Bryan's handyman came by to give us a bid for our backsplash..  He's going to do it the 15th of this month!  I guess Bryan will have to send us a picture!

More later...

Sunday

This was one gray day!  Gray and cold!  Okay, I'm definitely ready to go to Florida after today.  I didn't get have on long pants, I even had to dig out a pair of socks for sitting around tonight.  We've got the heater going, but refuse to turn on the furnace.

After church today, we tried a new restaurant...Morg's.  I'd read the reviews and it sounded really, really good.  Guess what?  It WAS really, really good!  Our friend Howard would love this place.  I ordered a pancake.  It was at least 12" across and it was the best pancake I'd ever eaten.  Dave took a big chunk out of it and I still brought home about half of it.  Dave ordered 2 eggs, hash browns with the works, and bacon.  The bacon was perfect and the hash browns were fabulous!  We'll definitely go back when we return in the spring.

This afternoon we took the boat out to Kyle's for the winter.  I got to play with Blaise for a while and when we picked the boat up from Bryan's, I even got to hold Aidan for a couple of minutes before he reached for his daddy.  Successful day!

More later...

Brrrr....

I have on jeans!  Can you believe it...it's only October 3rd and I'm wearing jeans!!  I wore my Cyclone football shirt today and my Cyclones won!!  Cubs also won, so it was a good day for my teams.

Bob & Ann and Linda came by this morning and then we (without Dave) went to the Happy Barn for lunch.  Interesting place.  Good lunch in an old dairy barn with tons of "stuff" made in Iowa by Iowans.  I bought Dave a coffee scoop - one that he can't lose hopefully and I bought me a Cyclone key ribbon thingy.

Tonight we took Erin, Aidan, and Bryan out to Jack & Arnie's (a steakhouse where you cook your own meat) in Janesville.  Today is Bryan's birthday - he's 38!  Aidan ate a bunch - he's so cute!

More later...

Frigid Friday

It's cold up here!  Actually I had the window open in my craft area today - I'd been dusting and vacuuming and I got hot.  Unfortunately I didn't close the window quickly enough, so it got pretty cold in here!

Dave went out to Bryan's after lunch to help him haul some stuff to the landfill.  This evening we're watching the Cubs play.  Hope they win again.  They're ahead 5-0 in the 7th!  It's been so much fun watching this team.  They look like they're having fun!  We've got our Eden Pure heater on - or did have.  It's off now.  It's plenty warm in here.

More later...

Thursday

Dave and Al went fishing this morning, so I was left to my do my own thing.  I worked on cards and paid bills.  Then I stumbled onto the fact that the Cubs were playing, so I watched them from the 6th inning on.  Cubs win!!

Dave and Al caught 7 fish today - yay!  Dave was getting so discouraged that he couldn't catch any fish.  Now he can put the boat away for the winter and not feel badly.

More later...