POST NUMBER 600

My post has nothing to do with the title I just wrote up there. I just am amazed that I have written that many!

I was on the phone to my daughter Kari this morning as she was preparing to leave for her meeting at her work's home office about two hours away from where she lives. She was combing her house for the phone. She wanted to plug it in because by the time she came home from her meeting, it would be dead and they'd have no phone tonight. She looked all over and could not find it. Finally she muttered "those kids.........."

Then she burst out laughing and exclaimed "oh, I'm talking on it!"

SOMETIMES I FORGET

Yup. Sometimes I forget that I really don't live here. Sometimes I forget that I have a home bigger than 8X15. Sometimes I forget that it isn't summer!

I've been working on more bags; have finished a red and blue floral one that I'm going to use as a purse, and am starting on a yellow floral one. Yesterday I thought: wow, I like this yellow one, I think I'll keep it, too, and use it when I get home. A yellow floral bag? In February or March? In Minnesota? Oh, I guess not. It isn't spring there, is it? I forgot because it's been plenty warm and quite humid here. I am covered in some bug bites, and I don't think those pesky no-seeums are around in Minnesota in January, are they? I just forgot.

As we were leaving a Christian bookstore yesterday, I was marveling about the sandals and crop pants and short sleeved T-shirt I was wearing. No boots, coats, hats, scarves, mittens, and layers here! I keep forgetting where I am!

Another thing I keep forgetting is that my mom is gone. Every day I think of something I need to call her about. I see something I want to tell her about or show her. I find something I know she'd love and I want to buy it for her. It's just a fleeting thought and then reality comes back and my eyes tear up and I remember. I remember that I don't have a mom or dad. I remember that I'm an orphan. And then I think that I would rather forget.

I love the way seagulls pose for me. I call this one Three Birds.........
....and I also call this one Three Birds!

Mexico Beach is way way off in the distance. And the white beach covered with shells continues all the way.

Richard is being brave, walking in the toe deep water.

Hundreds of thousands of little shells cover parts of the beach. We found only a few intact sand dollars, though. Some days you can't take a step without stepping on sand dollars.

Then we took a trip to the moon! Doesn't this look like a moonscape? It's so cool the way even a tiny piece of broken shell will catch the drifting sands and create a scene like this.

And God decorated the sand here with the waves rushing in and out, leaving another beautiful sand scape for us. It just boggles my mind how this whole world works under His direction!

Heading back to the base, the shadows made for a cool photo op.
And this is Bev and Dick on the left, Glenn and Carole on the right. We went to dinner at Applebee's to celebrate Bev's and Ernie's birthdays. And I didn't even get a picture of the birthday boy! The new $9.99 steak special at Applebee's is an excellent deal. Try it soon!

BUSY, BUSY, BUSY!

Do any of you realize how busy the lives of us retired folks are? Let me give you a schedule of the week down here at the camp. First of all, every morning starts with Ernie and quite a few others, meeting around the fire in the gazebo and solving all the world's problems. Then these fellows join the bigger crowd up at the rec center for coffee and cookies. Exercise class comes next, but Ernie hustles home to shower during that time. Exercise class meets on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and a huge number of the retirees attend the mostly stretching class.

Tuesday night is the highlight of the week, with a big potluck dinner offered. The place is packed and the food tables are loaded. There are usually a large number of salads, lots of casserole type dishes, quite a few meats in crockpots, different types of chicken, ground beef, brats and hot dogs, etc, and a whole table at the end filled with cookies, cakes, pies, rolls, ice cream, cream puffs, and all types and flavors of high fructose corn syrups!

Wednesday afternoon is usually craft time. Either the women meet and all work on one craft, or like me, they bring their current project and work on it. The needles, fingers, and tongues are flying! Wednesday night is cheap hamburger at the VFW, and last week when we went on our cheap date, the place was filled with the campers from here. I counted ten table full!

Thursday night is Bingo, but lately I've only seen card players, not Bingo. Oh, Monday is called poker night, but it's usually just tables of about six, playing all kinds of card game. In fact, the tables are full every night with card players.

Friday night is hot dog night at the gazebo. Bring your own dogs and buns, and the rest is provided. The rest usually being french fries or tater tots, catsup, mustard, and chili.

Every day the rec center is filled with people on their computers. Some working, some playing games, and some trying to figure out how to turn the darn thing on! There is usually someone around to help that last group!

We've also had special events like last Sunday's Penguin Appreciation Day. We have a lot of fun and meet a lot of people. Some of these folks become lasting friends, like Glenn and Carole who we met two years ago and have kept in touch with ever since. We visited them in their home town, and are now spending this month and part of next with them down here. And we convinced old friends who lived across the street from us 30 years ago to come down too! So we're having a good time and keeping busy.

Then add to this schedule at least 4 trips to the quilt shop or fabric stores, grocery shopping, church, sight seeing, etc, and you can see that we have very little time to spare! Busy, busy, busy!

TOTE BAGS

I think I've mentioned a couple of times that I've been doing some sewing the past couple of weeks. I know I've mentioned that I've visited JoAnn Fabrics and the Quilting by the Bay shop a few times! This is what I've been making. My friend from Maryland, Carole, brought along this pattern, and I liked it and have become a bag making maniac! I've made these three and have the parts cut out for four more!

I know the background of my blinds isn't the best, but I had promised to show my projects, so I just took thee photos on the spur of the moment and here they are. What do you think?

ERNIE'S BIRTHDAY

Not to be outdone by daughter Kari and her hubby Mike and their classy date, Ernie and I, and friends Glenn and Carole, celebrated Ernie's birthday tonight with a once in a lifetime date too! First of all, we went to the local VFW for their weekly hamburger night. After our cheap meal, eaten in a crowded smoky room, we headed off to the entertainment portion of the evening. Glenn took us to a free car wash! Much classier than the $9.99 one that Mike took Kari to!

Yes, it's like daughter, like mother, or whatever. Bet you all didn't know you were hanging out with such high society people! Our family really knows how to party, don't you think?

SATURDAY'S ADVENTURE

Yesterday we again rented a van ($29 for a day....unlimited mileage!) and went on an adventure. We went to Havana, Florida, a bit over two hours from here. Havana is a small town that was dying until they turned it into an antique shopping village.....a destination visited by thousands of folks on a weekend, mostly women from what I observed!

This shop had the rooms set up as a beach house. I loved the bedroom, done in white, white billowy gauzy curtains at the windows, accents of sea glass blues and greens. It was so refreshing, so relaxing, and so expensive! That's my friend Carole heading up the steps.

Here's one of the streets, with my friend Bev trying to hide from the camera.

Every time we took my mom on an adventure, we would look for red berries. It kind of became our special thing to do, finding berries in different locations. This tree was full of them and mom would have loved it.

I loved the old buildings, creaky wooden floors with uneven doorways, smelling of old furniture and fabrics, with every surface covered with glassware, old toys, musty books, and jars of grandma's old buttons.

Here was a fountain, not especially beautiful by any means, but it caught my eye because

the water that splashed on the plants was frozen! Yes, folks, we are in Florida, and the splashing water was frozen on the plants.

I loved the vine covered buildings too. And I also like the awnings on many windows.

And we had lunch at this cafe, which I highly recommend to anyone visiting Havana, Florida. Ernie and I split a Cuban pork sandwich and each had a cup of the most delicious mushroom soup I've ever eaten. Yummy! The cafe had a lot of interesting pictures on the walls. The one I liked best was a watercolor of Bob Dylan, a fellow Minnesotan. We had a safe trip home and stopped for Mexican food for dinner. We haven't planned the next adventure yet, but I'm sure we'll find something to do this week.

PATHETIC BLOGGING

Good Morning. Sorry to be such a pathetic blogger this week. I'll try to do better. Ernie has been under the weather all week, actually since late Sunday, so life has not been the norm. Our trailer is so little that when he was sleeping I tried to be gone. I did work on a sewing project.....photo later.....and made four trips to the fantastic sale at JoAnn Fabrics. Otherwise we've done no sightseeing or exploring this week. We do plan a trip tomorrow, though. To the town of Havana Florida, which is a small town turned into an antique shopping experience. Sounds fun to me!

And another thing. What is this weather doing anyhow? It's been down in the upper twenties here at night......yes, below freezing in Florida. Then back home in Minnesota it's been way below freezing.....like forty degrees below zero! And the temperature this morning in Seldovia, Alaska where son Chris lives, is 50 degrees. Yes, you heard me right!.. FIFTY degrees ABOVE zero!

Hope to get some pictures tomorrow so maybe I can write an interesting post for a change! Please stick with me! I'll be back.

OUR CAVE TRIP

We went on a trip to the Florida Caverns in Marianna. The trip was offered through the base recreation services, and consisted of the ride up there (about 70 miles), the admission to the cave, and the ride back. We furnished our own sack lunch at noon. The driver was young, maybe 22, and was one armed. Oh, he had a second arm, it was just wrapped from tip of finger to armpit in gauze. As we got on the way we found out the problem. He was holding on to a huge firework that exploded in his hand on New Years Eve. Not too bright, uh?


Anyhow, he drove like a bat out of hades! In a 55 zone he went 70, and in the 65 zone he went 80! Remember that he is driving with one arm. He couldn't signal because he couldn't use his left hand or arm. He hit the warning strip along the edge of the road a few times, and it scared the living daylights out of me. Reminded me of the bus driver we had in Italy who was on the cell phone with one hand, gesturing with his other hand as he talked a mile a minute, and somehow navigated the narrow winding road with his knees!



These pictures are from the cave. It wasn't very colorful, but was interesting.

And I was happy with the pictures my camera took.

It was 65 degrees in the cave, much warmer than the caves in Minnesota. We found out that the temperature of a cave is the average year round temperature of the area where it is located. So it stands to reason that a Minnesota cave would be cooler than a Florida cave!

There were two little kids on the trip with us. They were so well behaved. I really get upset when I'm on a tour and little kid get tired and cranky, but these two were so good. And, it was a short walk, only about half a mile underground, and not very tough hiking either.

I do like to do caves. I'm amazed at the formations. God at work again!

A little color in the dried leaves. Sweet violets.

This bumper sticker is for my daughter, Kari.

The area around the cave looks like a jungle.

Pretty green. Are you still white????

THE ADVENTURES OF THE BABIES

The babies have been taking a nice long nap, for about a week, and they are now well rested. I decided to take them out yesterday for a little exercise. The first place we headed was just
down the road from our site, to the swing. They had a real fun time and were very well behaved.

Then Jammin' Jaden took off to climb on the vines, and

of course Aqua Maria had to follow. They swang on the vines, and did lots of Tarzan yells while pretending to rescue people in trouble.

Not to be out done, Chip climbed a tree, and then

Bob-a-Lou had to follow. It was hard for the little one to keep up, so

I finally convinced everyone to settle down again. The girls sat nicely and looked at the bayou, while

the boys dreamed of driving the big boats with the orange tops docked off in the distance.

Everyone was very tired last night, and went right to sleep with no troubles.

So Jaden, Madison, Ben and Anna, your little friends are having a good time and they are behaving themselves pretty well. Thanks again for letting them come along.

THINGS FOUND ON THE BEACH

Sand and water

Nice waves

Shells and blue things? A type of jelly fish????

Large, but broken shells

Thousands of shells........

More broken shells

More blue things

Awesome jelly fish

Garbage

Garbage

And more garbage. Ugh. People shape up. You are spoiling our beautiful sea shore!