Bonita Beach

I mentioned that my friend CMB and her daughter visited us when we were in Florida. We tried for a sunset one evening and we got a pretty good one! We have always liked Bonita Beach and we certainly got lucky finding a parking place on the first try. One small upside of all of this Covid stuff, Florida was not SWAMPED with snowbirds and visitors.

We did some walking, some shelling, some picture taking.

It was a beautiful night.

The only time in 6 weeks Honey and I made it to the beach! We tried again when Mousey was down but were not as fortunate in the parking situation, so we settled for ice cream.

I like his face ❤

God is a wonderful Maker.

Advertisement

Back to the Sunshine State For a Bit

The last post from Florida had us doing a little home improvement. Here is the newly painted den, sporting its new color, Malabar. The whole time I was painting the white walls I was thinking, oh, it’s going to be toooooo dark. I have no idea what my problem was! I like it very much. Still no cutey-cute bedding, but it does have sheets and covers for now. Oh well, even Rome wasn’t built in a day. The room was ready to host CMB’s daughter Courtney, and that was a good thing ❤

We also switched the previous queen bed out for a king. After a flurry of texting with Capri P, Mousey and The Dane, who evidently have a form of foam mattress, we decided on this one from Sam’s Club.

 

There was a lot of packaging and it had all the air sucked right out of it!

Starting to floof.

Fully floofed! I have to be honest, it was a little lower than I expected, but I did sleep on it and it seemed quite comfortable. CMB said it was firm, and I can get on board with that assessment. She also liked the pillows we also purchased at the Sam’s Club, they were called Bellagio, which sounds faincy!

I found this set at Homegoods and I very much liked the color. I’m so glad we didn’t wait to purchase it until Mousey arrived because we never saw another like it!

Still need some art work and maybe a few more pillows, but it was also up and running to host CMB!

The last few times we rented, before purchasing our place in Estero, were spent renting in Cape Coral from VRBO. We rented from a very nice woman named Becky Burroughs and her equally nice husband, whose name I cannot recall. Honey mostly dealt with Becky through texting and I mailed her the checks, so her name was in my brain. Becky and her husband had been buying homes and redoing them to use as rentals, and she told us that we were usually the first renters in a new listing, it just worked out that way! There were many things I appreciated about renting from Becky, and a few were full soap dispensers in the bathrooms and kitchen, also dish washer pods, cleaning spray and toilet paper! You would think that would be a given, but you would be mistaken. I find it extremely annoying when you have to go to the store on your first day in a rental to buy toilet paper. VERY chintzy! She actually had a closet that held all sorts of things that people actually stock in their own homes, which was helpful. Because when we make a mess, I would like to have the wherewithal to clean up said mess.

One of the things our family really liked about Becky’s houses were the SNACK BASKETS! In all of their houses, they had a basket full of yummy snacks and there was never much left when we left to go home! So when we were expecting our first guests at our new place, who happened to be Mrs Schmenkman and Mr C, Honey said we HAD to make a snack basket!! I present our Becky Burrough’s Snack Basket! I think they liked it 🙂

I also wanted to have a little somethn’ somethin’ to snack on, but our oven was having an emotional breakdown of sorts. Honey bought several parts to right it, but it resisted being helped. The cook top worked, but no oven. One day I saw our sweet neighbor Jean, who has a delightful British accent, and was telling her of our oven dilemma and she suggested I could use hers. I totally took her up on that! She said she never uses it anymore and she seemed thrilled to help me out, we are now bonded for life 🙂 I paid her with a couple slices of Mrs Davis’ pound cake, our family cake, and she now tells me that she feels like we have been friends forever ❤

In the new acrylic cake holder that The Ab-Cat and Mousey gave me for Christmas! I love it!

First Get Together

On this first day of October I am travelling back to June! I wanted to get these pictures on the blog before the grandkids graduated from elementary school, sheesh!!!

We had been locked down pretty tight during quarantine, I was the only one going out, to protect Honey and his compromised immune system. We missed our grandbabies, but discovered that FaceTime is a really good fix when you are missing sweet little faces ❤ We decided in June that we would throw caution to the wind and get together with The Boy, The Dane, MoonPie and Little Dipper, and it was a WONDERFUL day!!!!

I’m pretty sure MoonPie’s first word upon arriving was “BOOKS!” And so we read 🙂

The big pool wasn’t open yet so Honey got our old kids pool out and filled it the day before so it would be warm.

They had a grand time!

It was wonderful to be outside with sunshine and Beebees!

We missed our people!

I think they missed us too ❤

She missed her Papa SO much ❤ Lots of hearts in this post <3<3<3

We read,

and read,

and loved on little people! Thank you Lord that the stay at home order was lifted!!!! ❤

Happy Grammy 🙂 ❤

The 411 after the 911

Wow, a lot has gone on since i last posted. And on many other days, not a lot. We have had an unusual lockdown. I started out thinking I would use this opportunity to get myself into the blogging habit again, but at the end of March Honey and his weakened immune system developed shingles, and then the worst bout of gout he had ever experienced. It was enormously painful for him. As he was finally making some improvement there was a horrific domestic violence incident next door that spilled over into our house and ended with an arrest after a chase and 2 victims being taken to the hospital. After the neighbor children, their uncle and grandma and about 6-8 police officers left with the written statements of our recollections, I asked the Lord to please clean our previously socially distanced home of any possible Covid-19 germs. We talked of the episode endlessly among ourselves over the next couple of weeks and there is still some lingering PTSD within our walls. Do you know what is not good for shingles? Stress. Honey’s shingles returned with a vengeance, none of the blisters, but all of the pain. He is still not 100%. As I have experienced in the past, it’s hard to blog about my usual nonsense when all is not right in our world. I do feel better getting this all off my chest. I’m sorry to have to unload it onto yours.

Add to this the continuing saga of the virus and Michigan’s near total shutdown, a loved ones diagnosis of cancer, the postponement of Mousey and The Usher’s wedding, the loss of Mousey’s job, the drama of several in the household to try and connect with the ever elusive unemployment office, some dear friends lost loved ones, and then our beloved Capri P’s house burned to the ground. There have been a lot of prayers to the Lord asking Him to comfort His children. And to protect our frontline workers and give those who govern us wisdom.

In between the heartache there has been the stuff of everyday life, purging closets, reading, the working of puzzles, finishing my 20th year of BSF online with Zoom, the every day conversation of what do you want for dinner, my unfortunately regular trips to pick up Honey’s many prescriptions, weeding, talk, talk, talking 🙂 organizing our pictures by year, along with our heavy schedule of news and Love It Or List It. It’s been a full several months. And yet, we still wonder how we have been filling our days and marveling how time goes by so quickly. Things that happened in January, February and even early March seem like a lifetime ago. It’s a strange conundrum.

On the lighter side, I can’t tell you how much joy Facetime brings! We miss our little people SO MUCH!! ❤  Honey and I have been recording ourselves reading books to them, they seem to think it’s grand 🙂 The Little Dipper has been using his quarantine time to grow his hair and practice saying Grammy!!! Oh my ❤  Moonpie continues to amaze us with her expanding vocabulary 🙂 Miss smooching their sweet cheeks. And we miss their parents too 😉

Still think the memes have been hilarious, and we have needed some humor around here. I leave you with some of my faves. Hope to see you soon. Literally and blog-ally. I miss people and I miss blogging.

 

Thoughts From First Week of Lockdown

We made it a week! Since my marathon shopping excursions a week ago Thursday and Friday, and a trip to the lab with Honey last Monday, we have not been anywhere. We are being very careful because Honey has been taking some medication that has him immune compromised at the moment. For the most part, we have been fine. I am so enormously grateful for the ability to shelter in place in peace and comfort, I know there are others who are facing uncertainty and even fear. We have food, a warm home, plenty to do and most thankfully, we have each other. The girls are with us to ward off isolation. And we are still good on the toilet paper front, although I am below my comfort zone in the butter department. 😦

On a lighter note, Guys, the memes have been on FIRE! 🙂 We need the funny right now, it makes things more bearable.

We are in full on comfort mode over here.

🙂

Oh dear!

Now this is funny!

Needed perspective.

Mousey and I finished #2. Took a little longer than the first one, but we persevered.

Found a bag that had a couple of my Mother’s photo albums while cleaning out a closet. I posted this on the Facebook page of the church I grew up in. This was a singing group called The Choralaires. My Mom is in the top row, 5th from the left, standing next to her good friend Nancy. I was glad I posted it, there was quite a bit of conversation generated from the folks who remembered this time. I have some more to post from a church Memorial Day picnic in 1952.

I am feeling sorry for these 2 😦 Because of Honey’s health situation and the fact that The Usher has still been required to work, he has not been able to come into the house. It was his birthday on Sunday, so he came over to go on a walk with Miss Mouse, in the street and adhering to the 6 feet away rule of course. Afterward they sat on the patio and visited for the first time in a week.

Socially distant dating is hard. Mousey made him chocolate chip bars for a birthday treat and he brought us a box of butter and a couple packages of English muffins. He’s so good to us ❤ Mousey sent him on his way with a pulled pork sandwich and salad on a paper plate with a plastic fork, to head home to his lonely basement apartment.

I could do more purging, I could organize our pictures, I have more cupboards, drawers and closets that could stand to be organized and rearranged, we could all go through our books and donate the ones we will most likely never read again.

There is much praying to be done, for our family, our world, our president, our state and local leaders, our AWESOME healthcare workers, farmers, truckers, warehouse workers, and anyone else doing their part to keep things from descending into chaos, the sick, the lonely and scared, those who have heard even more unimaginable bad news regarding health and employment, and the list goes on and on.

I’m thankful for God’s Word and His promises.

An ever-present help in trouble, that’s comforting. I am thankful for that.  Our best to all of you ❤

A Monday List

Y’All, it’s 63 degrees today in The Mitten! In March! I went out to bring in the trash and recycling cans and was ever so pleasantly surprised.

March is shaping up to be a super busy month. Lots of appointments, a couple procedures, some routine temple maintenance. We are doing some extra things because Honey could be retiring any minute, or in a couple months. Whatever, I don’t ask.

The Boy spoke about humbly approaching the throne of grace at his church on Sunday, we were ever so proud of him ❤

We were a little too far away to get a clear picture, or to show you his cute new boots 🙂

I’m a little out of order here, this was Friday. The Boy came to clean the basement carpet so we can put the furniture back where it belongs, since he and his family are no longer basement dwellers. The Girls and I took care of the little rascals while Dad cleaned and their Mom went down to Ohio to pick up some furniture.

They had a snack.

My most favorite hippo ever!

This one was telling us of her love for her shirt, it had POCKETS!!!

Moonpie was napping in the crib when it became apparent Little Dipper needed it. I was happy to be his nap spot ❤

Honey has been gathering papers for the meeting with our tax guy on Wednesday. I kid you not, it seems like we were just sitting in his office about 2 months ago. How does time fly so fast?

Mousey is having Lasik on her eyeballs Friday! She is super excited to see!!!

We hope she can see a little the next day because there is a food tasting where she is having her wedding reception, and we have been waiting for this a while, so she might have to go like Mrs. Magoo. You don’t need eyesight to pick out what your guests will eat at your wedding reception!

Let’s all have a smooth week.

Fun With MoonPie

We have had Moonpie several weekends over the last few months! Because her Dad is the Youth Director at their church, and because The Dane likes to be involved as well, we have taken her when they have travelled for retreats, or had big doings going on, and once when they took a quick trip to Chicago to help one of the students who lived with them in Washington move into his new apartment. She is always a pleasure to have and she seems to like it over here too!

She likes to do certain things, like art with Papa.

Make pancakes with Grammy.

This is a random picture of us at their church for a big Christmas party they had, she had just finished decorating a Christmas cookie and scarfing it down! We DID have her this weekend, so I guess it counts 🙂  I love her expression, this is what a bunch of jumping in a bouncy house, no nap and the afore mentioned sugar cookie looks like!

She likes the phone and can get into things I can’t even get into when I want to, can lock you out and is forever wanting to “take a pitcher!!” Snapchat is a big old favorite too.

 

She loved decorating these Valentines cookies!! So intense, so patient, So.Much.Licking. I am especially digging her new-ish cheesy smile.

She also likes to head down to the basement with Papa to cook and very creatively play with animals. This was a tea party, they all had names. I believe this was Linda.

Might be Karen here.

We have gathered all of Mousey’s kitties, and there are many. She brought them all upstairs and they live among us now. They go for rides in the stroller, Target cart, and she brings a good many with her at nap time.

We have trained her well in the love of feline. She sometimes tells me “Seymour is so cute!” She says this about her Papa too 🙂 ❤ My two Beebees <3<3

An armful of LOVE!

There is always great quantities of reading as well. Sometimes she walks in the front door and says “BOOK!” We were reading about The Little White House, starring Tom, Betty, Susan, Flip and Frisky! That is the book I learned to read with. Anyone else?

She was our Funny Valentine this year ❤

Papa had a special treat when she was here last weekend, PAINT!!! And yes, she is a south paw.

I had a Dum Dum sucker from the last time I picked up Lee’s Chicken carry out and she was a very neat sucker eater!

Was intrigued with her red tongue.

Wanted me to “take a pitcher!!!”

It has been so much fun having her around!

The Usher sent me this after the last time she was here! LOL!

Come again Moonpie, come again 🙂

2019 in Review

Man, that was a fast year!!! I had big plans to blog and capture all the doings and then we and a full house and life just kept on going at breakneck speed! Here are 19 of the highlights, and I seriously could have done 2019 highlights ❤

We welcomed The Little Dipper last year! He is now on the move and getting very personable!

 

Spent time with The Capri’s in February on North Captiva Island, always a pleasure to be with treasured, old Friends. Old as in we have known each other a long time, because they say 60 is the new 40, right??!!

I am Grammy of two!

 

Always love to see my people laughing, it’s my favorite ❤

Oldest to youngest, the extreme ends of the generations!

Me and my Honey, all gussied up for a wedding. I still like that guy.

The Boy GRADUATED in May from Moody Bible Institute!!!!!!! That’s 7 exclamation points because 7 is God’s number!!

These two, the fun never ends ❤

Heard The Boy give a Good Word for the first time!

Thankful for my brother Beeve. I like his face.

 

BUBBLES!!!

So glad to have this family nearby. It’s still an hour drive, but WAY better than the other side of the country in Washington State!

Happy to welcome The Usher to the family, he’s a keeper and we love him ❤

Love this bunch a BUNCH!

Have loved having Moonpie stay for some weekends! We took her to our Dear Friend Awesome Autumn’s costume birthday party!

Love being able to babysit as needed, especially now that this guy is allowing his Mama out of his sight!

Little Dipper celebrated his first birthday last week in Denmark, land of his Mama’s People!

Our annual Christmas celebration with our Dear Friend’s The Hostlers!

And Happy New Year from Ab-Cat and Awesome Autumn from their Roaring 20s party!

Here’s to 2020, may it be the best year yet!

Thanksgiving 2019

We are in the thick of all things Christmas over here, but wanted to get the Thanksgiving memories committed to the blob!

Our Thanksgiving did not go quite as planned. We were expecting 13 in the morning and by noon 7 were out. Sick kids and other plans were the causes, but we made do and had plenty of food!

Honey and I bought this dining room set when we moved into our house, some 21 years ago. It was highly recommended that we purchase the protective pads, which we were happy to do because we are usually the sort to try and protect investments. I do remember the salesgirl using the scare tactic that if we didn’t, a drop of water could ruin the finish. I must have been skeptical at the time because who would buy such a poorly finished table that people actually eat and drink on? As I recall, we had some other problems with this salesgirl and when we voiced concern, we found out that she was someone’s girlfriend and they would not do anything about our concerns, so now I call bull on her sales skillz. I basically think she lied to sell us the pads that we would have bought anyway. But Honey never forgot the one drop of water scenario and therefore the table has never been naked in its entire life. Protective pads forever was his motto.

It was my goal to have everyone at the same table for the holiday. Partly because we are always so close to needing two that it is more fun to squish together than it is to have 3 or 4 in the kitchen. Plus, I am feeling a little attached to our dining room. Since we could possibly move in a couple of years, or at any freaking time, it has occurred to me that each time we use it could be our last. A hard thing for a sentimental gal. This brought up the need to add in an extra leaf that we have never used before for some reason. And for another some reason, that leaf has NO protective pad! Good grief, how did that happen? Honey wanted to go and mosey around Home Depot until something inspired him. If you know Honey, he enjoys a challenge because he is a Fixer and a DOER. He found this, some kind of smooth particle board that was the exact thickness. We put some felt pads on the bottom, slid it in, and it worked like a charm 🙂  Too bad we didn’t need it for our 6 guests.

The bird was good.

As was the pig, and all the other sides.

It was a quiet, well fed kind of day.

30 Days of Thankful-21,22,23

We had a fun time last night! We babysat for Moonpie and the Little Dipper while their Mom and Pop went to Bible study ❤ The Ab-Cat and I went over one other time for this and Little Dipper had a very rough night missing his mama. Not last night!

The only time he cried was when his sister accidently smooshed his little bitty finger! Otherwise he was busy crawling and walking (still holding on to things) and being his all around charming self!

Moonpie and Papa pored over the Jesus books all night long, discussing everything in great detail 🙂

She loves her Papa, yes she does ❤

I spent some time asking Little Dipper how big he was and raising his arms saying “SO big!!”

We also demonstrated the Chicken Dance many times, because they are ones for loud, raucous behavior.

Taking a breather from dancing.

Spent some time with the Legos

Singing the song about Uh Oh, Spaghettios, she participated in that as well!

On to her favorite thing, Snapchat!!

She asked specifically for the tongue one.

I took the little Miss up to bed, read some books, sang some songs, rocked, and at her request, snuggled ❤ ❤ ❤

I came down to this Little Dipper all tuckered out on his Papa 🙂

Oh my goodness, heart eyes emoji!

Today I am most thankful for Moonpie, Little Dipper and the joy of being a Grammy.