Dad went to Augusta Friday to be in the Saint Patrick’s Day Parade on the C—– float that Bob had ordered. You can tell how much fun they all had by the pictures. See the next blog to learn what happened after the parade.. That’s our Irish flag that Bob is sporting.
Dan and I went to Mulberry on May 9th. I rode the Greyhound Bus over the Daytona from Lakeland on May 17th. Marilyn picked me up at the Daytona Greyhound station in her Mercedes and Mary Sydney and Diana made me clean my hands while Diana sprayed the leather seat covers before I got in. Oh brother!
We had such a good “girls” trip, just playing lots and lots of mah-jongg, going to our favorite fried shrimp restaurant up in Flagler Beach (Betty’s), and creating some very interesting meals right in the condo. We swam in the pool and walked the beach. The condo is beautiful and we are so fortunate that Marilyn enjoys having us twice a year.
I returned by Greyhound the next Wednesday, and Dan picked me up in the Honda Van (nobody made me clean my hands are the seat covers this time).
Pamela Sue S. is our neighbor who has a condo above ours in Mulberry. I called her last night to tell her that we would not be coming down because Dan will have another catherization on his heart next Tuesday. She immediately said that she would pray for him. I have many Jewish friends, but I don’t think any of them have ever said they would pray for me. I appreciated that.
Then she told me that Dennis’ son, D. J. who is 26 years old has gotten his girlfirend pregnant and he wants Dennis to pay for a wedding. Well, Dennis, said that is the bride’s family responsibility, but knowing Dennis, he will probably end up paying for the wedding. Dennis is the person in charge of the upkeep of our condos and he is a really great guy.
D. J. has never had a real job, but now that he is going to have a wife and a baby, he decided he should try to get a real job. Dennis told Pamela Sue yesterday morning that D. J. had a job interview yesterday morning and he was so thankful that he had actually gotten an interview. Pamela Sue told Dennis that he should put some money in the poor box at the Catholic Church (keep in mind that Pamela Sue is Jewish) and Dennis asked if she would do it for him. She said “well, you should really light a candle, too.” So, Dennis pulled out a $20 bill for the poor box and two $1 bills to light candles for both of his sons. Now, Pamela Sue was going to the YMCA to work out and doesn’t like to have anybody elses money she is responsible for, so she went straight to St. Josephs Church, downtown Lakeland. She looked all over for a poor box, but could not find one. She saw a little old (about 90) man who was stooped and she went to him and asked him if he could tell her where the poor box was. Turns out he was a visiting retired priest. He said he didn’t believe there was a poor box. So, PS said she would just give the money to him and that he could pray for D. J. that he would get a job. The priest said he would make sure the money got to the poor, but that he would pray for him right away. This was at 11:00 a.m.
Later on that day, Dennis told Pamela Sue that D. J. had actually gotten the job at noon.
Guess what cute couple was spotted last night at P.F. Chang’s in Tampa with Bob and Carol! That’s right, Laura and Marcus M*** all the way from Denver, CO.
Who would believe that the young ladies in this picture have been out of high school for 25 years?
I don’t know what in the world you are talking about – BUT – guess what. I called the DOT back a few months ago about adding a street light at Briarlake Road and Brailake Woods Way (to light up the entrance to Twin Lakes). Now, this is not a “done deal”, but the person in charge called me today and said that there are 3 poles a traffic light could be installed on and that he is recommending this to Georgia Power. It will be next week before I should know if it has been approved. Well, this is pretty good. At least, he is in favor of it and is working in our favor. It would be amazing if this happens because the entire board said “this will never happen”…
Mom
We met Jami, Michael, and Fiona on Tuesday morning in Bethlehem, GA and transferred Fiona to my car to come spend 2 nights with Gramalie & Grandaddy. She was very excited! We drove down to the heart of Bethlehem to see if we could see something special – but nothing but a little post office where people come from far and wide to mail their Christmas cards! Fiona and I stopped by Publix before we got home to pick up a few things (I don’t know how you mom’s handle all this carseat stuff all the time). We came home, ate lunch with grandaddy, and we played the rest of the afternoon, went to the park, and took a long walk (with her in the stroller which also has to be buckled in like a carseat). We had supper and she wanted a bubble bath, then she asked to sleep in the crib. Of course, she could sleep anywhere she wanted to, so that was fine with us. She was in bed by 8:15 and slept til 7:00 a.m.
We had breakfast, got dressed and went to pick up Kelly and Claire. We all went to the Mall of Georgia which is huge! Fiona was in (and out) of the stroller (having to be buckled in and out). We ate lunch at some Pretzel place and just had cinnamon-sugar pretzels and soft drinks. Well, I had a pretzel wrapped hot dog, but the girls didn’t want one of those. Our main purpose to go to the mall was for Kelly and Claire to shop for their family presents. We were mostly successful with shopping in Claire’s (the store named after Mary Claire) and the candy store. They were all very good and Claire and Kelly were a huge help with pushing and buckling in and out Fiona.
We were home by 4:30, and had healthy snacks of apples, bananas, peanut butter, cheese, and milk since we had such a terrible lunch. We were all pretty tired, so the girls watched The Little Mermaid. Fiona was a little bit scared. After the movie, we had spaghetti and yogurt, and about 8:00 p.m. the girls voluntarily went upstairs and got dressed for bed. Fiona wanted to sleep in the crib again and Kelly and Claire slept in the twin beds in the same room. Fiona said they were going to talk and talk all night. So lights went out and they started talking, and before long Fiona went to sleep. Claire and Kelly sneaked out and came back downstairs and Grandaddy, the girls and I played Mexican Train for a long time. Lights were really out and everybody in bed by 11:15.
Fiona slept until 7:38 and, of course, we all had to get up when she woke up. The girls and grandaddy all piled in bed with me. It reminded me of that song years ago on Captain Kangaroo about the little dogs that went to bed and “they all rolled over and one fell out”. We had pancakes for breakfast, and the girls all got dressed on their own, then we had arts and crafts. They colored in the comics in the newspaper with colored pencils, and they looked like Sunday comic when they finished. They used dots to decorate and Claire made her own cartoon strip with “dot people”. They also played hide-and-seek.
We piled in the car about 12:30 to go meet Grant in Between, GA to return Fiona. Then, Grandaddy, Claire, Kelly and I stopped at Wendy’s and had lunch, and we had them back to their house by 3:30. It was a fun couple of nights to be with the girls. They are all so precious and good. I think they had a good time. We sure did.
Gramalie
