Julie's Journal

This was the best birthday and I feel like I am at least 95, now, because I have celebrated it many times! My wonderful children took me out to a great dinner on the beach in July and that was the first celebration. Then, I exchanged a Time Share for Hilton Head and Carol, Andrew, Jeb, Kathy, Danny, Kelly, Claire, Grant, Fiona, Michael were all able to come for part of the week and we celebrated on Tuesday night with birthday cake, balloons and they presented me with this wonder IPOD player. Wednesday night, Carol took Andrew and me out to dinner at a jazz restaurant, Jeb took me out for a sunset dinner on Friday night right over the water at Harbor Town. We came home from Hilton Head on Saturday, the 8th. On Monday, my tennis buddies gave me a luncheon at Twin Lakes with great food and friends. On Tuesday, some dear long time friends gave another luncheon at Twin Lakes and we ate and swam for both of these. On Friday, Anne & Ed gave me a dinner party with Bill, Joe, Camille, Francis, and George. They all gave me gifts!

Joe and Sandy gave me a ticket to D.C. for my birthday and I left on Tuesday the 18th and returned on Monday, the 24th. George came over two nights for dinner. Highlights were a visit to Dan’s grave at Arlington, working out with Sandy at her health club, day trip and lunch at Tilghman Island and ice cream and browsing at St. Michaels Island, Sandy and I went to see the movie “Julie and Julia”. Sandy is a wonderful cook and she and I both enjoyed the movie.

I thought that was the end of the celebrations, but I played mah jongg Monday night after I returned, and Jean brought me a birthday present and beautiful card. I have enjoyed each and every person who have been so thoughtful and loving and feel truly blessed with such a wonderful family and friends.

Ted came over for dinner last night and has updated my IPOD with a ton of music that Joe and George gave to me, plus all of the ones I wanted to save that were already on there. Now, it’s on my computer and I can upload my own CD’s to the IPOD. That’s very exciting! When Ted bought a new IPOD last year with 16 GB (this one has 8), he said he would lend me his “old” IPOD. Well, I think maybe it’s mine, now, since he has let me put all of this other music on it.

I think I have had the best birthday of anybody this year, and I don’t need to celebrate any more until I’m 100. Gosh, that’s not that far away.

Well, isn’t that interesting that I now have a new photo on the home page, and it is just me and Jeb! How sweet. Oh, my goodness, I went back, and now it’s me, Ted and Carol. What is happening to the blog home page?

Anna Maria Beach was the location and it was the 6th time we have spent our Family Vacation there. We have never stayed in the same houses twice, and really never know what our accommodations are going to be like. Well, we hit the jackpot this time (thanks to Carol). We stayed on the north end of the island and on the bay side. This turned out to be just great. We were a couple of blocks from the pier on the north end and discovered we could see both sunrises and sunsets there. The bay was a new adventure every day with manatees, dolphins, turtle eggs that had been washed out of their nest, fish, birds and even a crab. The grands had a grand time playing in the bay and digging in the sand.

Some of the highlights of the week were:

sing alongs with Jami on the guitar,

story time with Grandaddy’s recorded voice telling 3 stories (by candle light), (invitations to this event were by Carol, Fiona and Michael.)

some creative original stories told after story time with a prize for the best. (The prize was a puzzle -maybe 250 pieces-, and nothing to go by, but it turned out to be Grandaddy on Anna Maria at the park right next to where our houses were this year.) (Story time and prize were compliments of Carol with Bob’s help)

bike and kayak rides

making tie-dye shirts (Carol brought 2 kits and shirts for everybody)

breakfast at Manatee Beach

riding the trolley

visiting Two Scoops Ice Cream Shop

celebrating my BIG birthday by going to the Sand Bar right on the beach. There were 2 weddings on the beach while we were there. The dinner was compliments of Jeb & Kathy, Carol & Bob, Ted, and Grant & Jami.

swimming in the pools at the houses

Risk games with Ted, Grant and Andrew

touring New College of Florida where Eric will go to college in August

lots of good meals furnished by

Saturday – Bob & Carol

Sunday – me

Monday – Jami & Grant

Tuesday – Kathy & Jeb

Wednesday – pizza by Ted

Thursday – Sand Bar for adults and the kids stayed home and made cassadias.

Friday – cleaning out the refrigerators

There were 15 of us this year and we missed Danny and Nicole.

Another wonderful Family Vacation. We are truly blessed!!!!!

Just back from a very interesting visit with Marion Leathers Kuntz. I went with Anita and Mary Sydney. Dr. Kuntz lives off Ponce de Leon and her house was on the tour of homes in Druid Hills. I was supposed to be a docent for her house, but had jury duty for a murder trial in DeKalb County, so had to bow out. Anita and Mary Sydney were docents, and enjoyed meeting Dr. Kuntz and arranged to go back for a visit. They invited me to go, too.

We took a bottle of nice Italian wine and some appetizers and arrived about 3:30. She is in her 80’s, and truly brilliant and amazing. She was dressed in a lavender blouse and purple skirt,

with gold high heels and lots of jewelry. She has an apartment in Venice where she researches manuscripts for her next book. She has written several books and has taught classes as recently as 2 years ago at Georgia State (as well as other colleges). If you google her, you will see all of the books she has written. She is a Latin scholar and has translated books written in the 1500’s. I don’t know how many degrees she has, but she has plenty! I could not find anything about her on Wickipedia, and that is curious. She adores her 2 sons and 2 grandsons. She also has 3 granddaughters and truly enjoys all of her family. She can only stay in Venice for 2 months at a time so that she can come home to be with her family for a month in between each visit.

Dr. Kuntz seemed to enjoy our visit very much. We did not leave there until 7 p.m. as she was reading parts of her latest book to us and showing us the illustrations. Her house is a showcase with wonderful collectibles and umpteen sets of china. I’ll post a picture or two of our visit.

What fun! We plan to go back in August when she returns from Venice. She insisted!

It helps now and then to step back and take the long view.

The Kingdom is not only beyond our efforts,

it is beyond our vision.

We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction

of the magnificent enterprise that is God’s work.

Nothing we do is complete, which is another way of saying

that the kingdom always lies beyond us.

No statement says all that could be said.

No prayer fully expresses our faith.

No confession brings perfection.

No pastoral visit brings wholeness.

No program accomplishes the Church’s mission.

No set of goals and objectives includes everything.

This is what we are about: We plant seeds that one day

will grow. We water seeds already planted,

knowing that they hold future promise.

We lay foundations that will need further development.

We provide yeast that produces effects beyond our

capabilities. We cannot do everything,

and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that.

This enables us to do something, and to do it very well.

It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the

way, an opportunity for God’s grace to enter and do the rest.

We may never see the end results, but that is the difference

between the master builder and the worker.

We are workers, not Master Builders, ministers, not Messiahs.

We are prophets of a future not our own. Amen

Bishop Ken Untener

who died on this day five years ago

Ted and I drove back from Florida yesterday, where the high was 85 degrees. It actually wasn’t too bad in Atlanta when we arrived – somewhere around 60 degrees. But, snow was predicted for today, and sure enough, it happened! Here it is March 1st and we had several inches of snow. Great big flakes and a lot of them stuck for a while, and it was a winter wonderland, but turned into slush pretty soon. It will probably be all melted tomorrow.

You have all heard me talk about my Monday and Friday tennis round robins while here in Florida. I took a picture of the guys this morning so you could see how harmless they are! They are great to me and always seem glad to have me join them. Some are much better tennis players than I am, but they don’t complain – much. All in good fun. Left to right are Younger George, Tom Costello, Older George, Steve Flannery, Lenny, Ed Waits, Steve Squires (from Jamaica), Dicky (kneeling). They are lots of fun to be with and I look forward to the games.

My good friends, Honey and George, are renting at The Villages for the month of February. Both Patsy and I have heard a lot about this place and decided to go visit them for the day. We went Wednesday.

The Villages is actually a man-made city near Ocala, FL. (thevillages.com) and is a retirement playground for the 72,000 people who live there. They have built 40,000 houses so far and will build 10,000 more. It’s unbelievable how fast these houses go up and look like they have always been there since they are completely landscaped. They sell 300 houses a month.

There are 8 country clubs, several golf courses (Arnold Palmer and Nancy Lopez own 2 of them), umpteen tennis courts, lots of pickle ball courts, several recreation centers where you can take all sorts of classes, play cards and other games, go to parties. There are two town squares that feature live music every night with people dancing (mostly line dancing), and shopping at the street vendors tables that are set up every other night, alternating between the squares. There are 72 restaurants, 5 Publix, Fresh Market, Super Walmart, every kind of church, and just about every kind of store you’ve ever heard of. Almost everybody has a golf cart and that’s how people get around unless they are leaving the Villages to go some place else. The golf carts are parked in lots and on the streets around the shopping areas and restaurants, and everyone just leaves their expensive golf clubs right on the carts. There is a theatre group, polo club (cheerleaders cheer at the games and they are all senior citizens with their pom-poms) twirler club, bowling alleys, pool parlors, – you name it! There are at least 16 heated pools (year round heated). Half of the pools are for age 30 and above only, but where there is an adult pool, just down the street there is a family pool for younger people (visitors). There are also medical facilities.

If you buy a villa or house, you can play free golf and tennis for the rest of your life. Villas start at about $130,000 and houses go up to millions, but every residence pays a $135 Contractual Amenities Fee per month that includes free golf, swimming, tennis pickleball, bocce, over 1,000 organized activities every week, exercise pools, private fishing lakes, waterfront parks, fitness trails, 24 hour neighborhood watch service, and a daily newspaper published right there.

We had a wonderful time with Honey and George. They took us out to lunch at one restaurant and to dinner at another. We rode the trolley with a guide telling us about everything there. We went to some model homes with a realtor. We stayed til after dark so that we could see the squares all lit up with live bands and dancing and entertainment. George said that this all ends at 9 p.m. each day and by 9:15, the squares are dark and empty!

Patsy and I have made reservations to go back the end of May for 4 nights. It’s $100 a day and we will have a two bedroom villa, golf cart, 2 bikes, meal tickets for some of the restaurants, and free golf and tennis and pickleball. I can’t wait to try pickleball. The courts look like tennis courts, but are about 1/2 the size. You play with paddles and a plastic ball about the size of a tennis ball. Great for seniors who can’t run like they used to!

It sure is nice to be retired!

Last weekend was a Musical Weekend.

First, I had my hair cut at Walmart on Thursday and the young fellow who cut my hair told me he played with a Christian Pop band and would be playing Friday night at Resurrection Church. That is C’s & B’s church and I knew they were having Mardi Gras last weekend. So, I asked him what time and he said 7 p.m. I told him I would be there to support him. Carol was working the ticket booth 4-6:30, so I got there at 6:30 and we both sat down to watch the performance. Some of her friends were sitting around us. Lonnie the beautician/youth minister/drum player and his group played after 3 other groups performed. He kept coming over to talk to me and update me about what was going on and some of C’s friends ask if he was related to me or what. She just told them that “He cuts my mom’s hair at Walmart”. It was a funny and fun time. Lonnie gave me a CD of his band when they were done. He really appreciated us being there cheering for them. A side story is that one young man who sang had tried to buy food tickets from Carol with a debit card, but they couldn’t take debit cards, so after he sang, Carol bought one of his CD’s for $5 and he thanked her and said “now I can get something to eat”. She knew that’s what he would do. Wasn’t that kind of Carol?

Second, Patsy and I went to Orlando Saturday night to work for Bill Gaither Homecoming (over 9,000 people in attendance). We sold CD’s, DVD’s, books, shirts, etc. and did a tremendous business. We worked hard and really enjoyed it. They gave us a free DVD and CD for working and we had good seats at the concert.

Third, Patsy found out Sunday morning that Ernie Haas and the Signatures were performing at a church in north Lakeland Sunday at 6:00. They are a great quartet who join the Gaither group for Homecomings and sing wonderful gospel music. So, we went and they performed for 2 solid hours. We got seats on the 2nd row. The church seats 3,000 and was full. We had worked the Signatures booth at the Gaither concert in 2007.

It was truly a wonderful weekend, praising God and tapping our feet to some really good music.

I invited some of the Lovely Livsey Ladies to come for cocktails at 5:00 p.m. today and everyone in invited came! So there were 7 of us and we sat out on the porch, and enjoyed this beautiful time of the year. This is a great way to entertain and to stay in touch with people. So easy. Turns out that everybody brought something (though I said not to) and we had a beautiful assortment of snacks and I served (get this) a dirty martinee, 2 manhattans, 2 wines, 1 gin and tonic, and a cup of hot tea in one of my beautiful china cups. They stayed 2 hours and we had a fun visit. I recommend this way to entertain! Easy! Fun!