Sister and best friend, Cindy

Busy Days

As you can see, lots of new photos on the blog. Our days have been very busy since the move. We have a garage filled with boxes so the end is nowhere near in our unpacking. I am keeping my precious Caleb during the week while Kelly teaches so he is helping me unpack ! I have to tell you , my biggest holdup is that I have been glued to the t.v. watching this Sarah Palin landslide ! I am in awe of how our country is pulling toward her. She stands for what is right and good and I am so proud of her for speaking out ! The left wing is shaking in their boots.
Summer is coming to an end ... I love fall so that is the silver lining on that cloud. Jim and I are planning a trip to NY to see our friends and attend a wedding. We will be celebrating our wedding anniversary there....34 years. Where did all the time go?
The holidays will be upon us before we are ready...always are... and I will have to stop where I am and decorate whether the house is ready or not. I think Jan and Feb will bring a welcome lull in our activity so we can catch up ! Retirement is not for the faint of heart.
Bo will graduate from Stetson Law on Dec. 20th so that adds another element to our already busy month/season. Maybe 2009 will be my year to be organized and relaxed. ???????????

Our Vacation to Seaworld and Busch Gardens

What a great week ! Tom and Kelly, Sophie, Caleb , Uncle Bo and I all went to Busch Gardens for two days and spent a day seeing Uncle Bo's house and school campus and swimming at the hotel. The last two days, we left Bo in Tampa and took off to Orlando for Seaworld. I may sound like I am bragging ( I am ). My grandchildren spent 5 days in the car, at the parks, in the hotels, restaurants and got pushed past dinner, lunch, bedtime and naptimes...and were wonderful every second of our trip ! I am overwhelmed at the politeness, the appreciation they had for everything and the joy they were to me for every part of this vacation. My hat goes off to Tom and Kelly for the great parenting they have done. Also, I must say my son in law took great care of us. We had to leave Big Daddy Jim behind to work so Tom had to take over all the care of the Gigi.
I am posting some of the best photos from the trip. I cannot tell you how beautiful the parks were and how much fun we had. This will go down in my memory as a really wonderful time. The weather was cool and breezy the whole trip with occasional rain showers to cool things down even more. We did not miss out on anything. Caleb ( 3) went on every big ride they allowed him to enter and Sophie made the Gwazi coaster with Uncle Bo and her dad !!!! Gigi watched as they coasters rolled upside down and went at 65 miles an hour ! The shows and exhibitions at Seaworld were awesome. The kids got to feed the dolphins and pet the stingrays. Get to Seaworld if you can !

The crew is back

My Guatemalan crew is home safely and back to routines and life in the good old USA. You will see some of their photos on the site. Happy to say that my sister and brother-in-law did not arrest me for vandalism but much appreciated all that I did to the house ..... should have painted as now I know they would have been ok with that.
Moving along with the move into the new house. It is much easier with Bo and his truck here. Hopefully, I get this old house on the market soon.
We are off to Seaworld Monday and Busch Gardens after that. Will post photos when we return.
Someday, I am going to rest.

I should have gone to Guatemala

One of the reasons I did not sign up for the mission trip with Jim, Bo, my sister and her entire family( minus Robby and Holly) is because I thought 12 days would be perfect for me to laze out on the beach, get some stuff done in my beach house....like painting etc... and move a few items to the new house...NO that is not what is happening. For the entire time they have been gone I have run from one house to another.... 4 of them... Cindy's house, my old house, my new house and the beach house trying to take care of 2 dogs, 3 cats and 4 houses. This is not fun or productive. I will consider it my contribution to the mission. Hopefully, tomorrow when Amy takes over at Cindys' and with the animals, I can get to some real missions....like moving and maybe find one day that it is not raining that I can actually take a nice long nap on the beach.
I have however found some things to occupy my time while I am at Cindy's sleeping with a 70 pound pit bull ( not a dog person) refer to older posts for info on that... and I might say that I have renewed my belief that dogs are meant to live in China where they can end up in a soup. It is one thing to be kept awake by your husband snoring and tossing but when you are giving up your comfort for a spoiled pit bull who snores loud enough to wake the dead... that is too much.
Anyway, I did say I found some stuff to pass the time at Cindy's while I am dog sitting. I have redecorated, remixed . She will either love me or hate me when she comes home. I did stop at painting walls without her permission only because if she hated them, I would have to paint them back so I will just wait on the painting but she will come home to some changes.
So you all don't think I am too bold, she and Scott did say I could move furniture around while they are gone.
Well, I must go finish my kitchen redo and get the spoiled dog into the house and find my 3 inches of bed that he allows me. Tomorrow cannot come too quickly for me. Woooooohooooo , tomorrow night I will NOT have a dog in my bed... how many women can say that????

Off to Guatemala

So it is 4:45 in the morning. I just dropped Jim and Bo off at the airport. The money we spent on food bars, toiletries,last minute items, and work clothes, hats, sunscreen etc.etc. would give a few people in Guatemala an annual salary. None of us got any sleep so hopefully, the plane will afford the group a little rest. I am sure that since I had only 2 members to get off to the plane that my sister who had 5 to get there is exhausted and she is on the trip. She is 3 years younger than I am so her energy level is a little better. I am not called to go to any 3rd world country and hike mountains, break rocks with an ax for concrete, eat foreign food or sleep in cots. Forgive me but I am sure it has to be a call and I just do not have it.
While they are gone, between taking care of animals ( which I have already shared about in previous posts), getting some stuff moved to the new house, having New York friends visit and trying to lose 50 pounds.... just kidding.... although it would be nice... I am going to try to enjoy my solitude.
Yesterday, a tree fell in the front yard of the new house. The storm in Summerville was severe and the tree was a Bradford Pear which I understand is prone to break when they get tall. Well, it did . Jim and Bo managed to cut it down and get it out of the driveway before they left the country. It was a beautiful tree that added a lot to the landscape so I am sad but what can be done ??? I guess I am thankful the lumberjacks were still in the country when it happened.
Pray for the team in Guatemala. One of my nieces on the trip is diabetic so I am praying for her to do well in the heat and activity. I know they will all benefit from the work they are doing there. As for me,
Right now, I am going to climb into bed with the shades down to block the morning sun and sleep until my body says wake up !

Our Happy July 4th

What a great weekend ... The beach was beautiful. We had our grands and our two little Italian visitors Anabelle and Victoria Moore, at the beach house for the big 4th celebration. See the photo on the left of the page to see some of the loving that went on with our little darlings ... the house was full. The old house is really too small for a big crowd but we made it work....beds and sofas and suitcases, beach bags...it was reminiscent of beach retreat days when we were busting at the seams at the rental houses for SOAR retreats. No shaving cream fights or water balloons from these little ones... we are keeping that a big secret.... We are tooooooo old for such nonsense now ...
Now recuperating from 3 days at the beach with everyone...I am off to an early bedtime and a great celebration at Calvary tomorrow. Jim is preaching...kelly and her fam are coming..our longtime friend David is here and Amy and Peter will be there...also our little Italian sweethearts... so we will all be together except for Bo who is in Florida until Wednesday. He will come home and pack and head off to Guatemala with Jim and 10 others to a mission there.
My memories of this 4th will be flags, hotdogs, apple pie, loved ones and the beach !!! Life is a celebration.

July 4th

Right now we are managing 3 houses...not so much fun. The house we are in and want to market in the next 2 months ( meaning we have to move our stuff out !!!) The house we bought several weeks ago ( which because of being too busy , we have been unable to move into) and the beach house which is still a shack but with new roof, windows and siding... we feel compelled to now update the inside. Still trying to enjoy the prettiest part of summer. It seems all I do when I get to the beach is work. The palm trees swaying and breeze blowing call to me but I cannot seem to get to a place where the house is not calling me also to do some of the much needed clean out.
HOWEVER ! I am leaving here today ( house 1) and going to the beach. I promise I will be on the sand for any time of the day that is sunny and nice and I will do my work at night.
We feel blessed to be celebrating Independence Day with some of our family and friends. I will have 2 precious little ones who are visiting us here from Italy... Victoria and Anabelle Moore.. daughters of youth group alumni and extended fam.. Tom and Leslie Moore. We have found that Folly Beach is the place to be when it gets dark on the fourth. The money goes up in smoke for about 2 or 3 hours and the beach is the place to take our chairs, coolers and torches to soak in the glory of America.
Next week I am honored to have Jay Black occupying the beach shack. This was a way for me to congratulate him for his 4 year tenure at the Citadel where he maintained a 4.0..one of 4 cadets to do so in his class. He was not recognized at the graduation when the top 2 were named. I am appalled. You would think that 4 cadets out of all of the grads could have been named for such an accomplishment. Well , I cannot go back and fix that but I can reward Jay for his dedication to excellence. He loves the beach so he will be shacking it before he takes off to his new home and job in D.C. next week. Jay , YOU are surely what we consider the ultimate cadet.
Jim and Bo are heading to Guatemala next week as part of the mission team from our church. Please keep the whole team in your prayers for safety and spiritual blessings and growth.
I will be helping to babysit the spoiled rotten dog that belongs to my sister. This overgrown pit bull who is really a baby!!!!!!! will be spoiled by Amy and me for the length of the mission trip .. this is to include one of us sleeping with him...... do I love my sister or what.... I do not even like dogs ! Before all of you dog crazy people out there start throwing tomatoes at me... I do treat them like I like them but here is what I have to say about owning a dog..
fleas and flea treatments
hair and furniture
smelly breath and dog odors
no manners as the excrete gases and saliva
barking
pooping and other stuff
hindrance to travel
I could go on but you get the drift
Okay, heading to the beach for a real few days of vacation and fun.
Happy 4th to you all and as you celebrate... think of the blessing of living in the greatest country in the world.
Adios

okay so I got tagged by jenny

Not sure I am doing this right but here goes...
6 quirky things about me:
I rarely if ever wear tennis shoes... I think they are clunky and hot and look totally unfeminine.
I have a pet peeve about having a garage on the front of a house.I think they are ugly and take away from the house.
I am a stickler for proper grammar. I think every American should know how to use the English language.
I think everyone should learn to write a proper thank you note and do it often.
I am never really happy with my haircut.
I love being alone. I am a people person most of the time but my alone time is important to me.

So there they are... now I am tagging: Kelly @ www.reserfam.blogspot.com , Amy @ www.amygrace77@blogspot.com , Karen @ www.leaderboys.blogspot.com , MaryBeth @ www.espann.com , Dita @ www.therosefactor.com and Jim @ www.landofbiggs.blogspot.com
so now I guess each of you are tagged and you have to :
write on your blog six quirky or odd things about you, then tag 6 people to do the same. There are no prizes or curses involved !!!!! Just fun to learn about each other. Dixie

My German Adventure

My latest real adventure happened rather out of the blue ! Jim and I were in IHOP with my sister when we noticed a family eating near us were speaking German. Jim, who claims he can speak German now feels challenged to talk with them. His German is really limited to ordering stuff in a bakery so I thought , "this will be interesting". He proceeds to ask them what city they are from in Germany. The wife of this group of 5 does speak English fairly well so she tells him they are from Stuttgardt... I think that is the right spelling. Anyway for the next 15 minutes , Jim and Barbara, the wife, try to converse with each other...mostly in English...well all in English. They were a husband and wife, two teen daughters and the wife's sister, Isolde. Bruno, the husband spoke no English but they all were very interested as Barbara translated for them.
We found out that they had just flown into Charleston that Evening.... 30 minutes prior to our meeting them. They got a rental car and checked into the Best Western near the IHOP on 17. They were tired and hungry. As the conversation went on, we learned they were on a tour of several cities in the USA ...planning to spend one day in each of them. They had just come from
Niagara Falls !!! They only had one day in Charleston.
NOW !!!! the next thing that happened is that I am sitting there thinking how much of a hassle it is going to be for them trying to see anything that would truly give them a picture of Charleston, in just one day ! I am thinking of the downtown traffic, the one way streets, the things they will miss... Soooooo I offer to take them on a tour then next day...fully thinking they will say no because who would trust a complete stranger to be in charge of their day ? First the mother and Dad talk it over and they say thank you but we will do okay. We continue on eating and the mom says.... the children like the idea of having you show us the town. So I did.
The next morning I met them at 9 and got into the rental van with them. We took off.... the waterfront park, King Street, Meeting and Broad, Church Street, The Battery, Rainbow Row, The Market,The Visitors Center, The Citadel Campus and gift shop. We did the whole downtown thing for about 3 hours then off to Ravenel Bridge and Shem Creek, over to Isle of Palms , Sullivans Island...where we parked and they walked in the Ocean for a bit. Finally , it was 3 o'clock. We went to Bessingers for lunch...they loved the BBQ and then I got my car and led them out to Middleton Plantation. They wanted to spend time there for the afternoon. I gave them a map to get to 17 as they were already packed and planning to leave for Florida after the plantation.
It was a wonderful day. I loved meeting this lovely family and establishing friends in a far away place. Since then, I have received an email from them. They are back in Germany and considered Charleston the highlight of their travels.
I love living in a city that has so much to see and do. I have no plan to move from here ever again... God willing.
I hope the family spreads the word, that we are friendly and love our home city. Surprised as I was that they took me up on the offer, I am thankful that Jim speaks enough German that he was able to start up the conversation that led me to that fun adventure. Barbara is going to email pictures to me soon. I will post them for you to see.