The last week of September was pretty quiet - I continue to work around here tweaking little things. I did get my hair cut on Thursday. Then Saturday, Oct. 1st was "October Fest" here. Dan and I helped park cars. Well, actually my job was to ferry the owners of the antique cars to the parking area for their trucks and trailers back to the staging area. Dan helped park the visitors cars. We worked from 7:30 until 9:30 - then we walked around and looked at the different vendors. We came back home - watched some football and then went back down and picked up some food - half a rack of ribs, half a smoked chicken, and lunch.
Sunday morning we went to church and then went over to the dining hall for lunch. After getting home I packed my suitcase (nothing like putting things off till the last minute), loaded the car and set off for Lakeland.
I had to make a stop in north Lakeland to deliver the tie flying box to a friend of ours. Dan finally decided that he was ready to get rid of it. After visiting for a few minutes I headed on over to the kids new house.
My mission for the week was to get the boxes unpacked and put away - and while I did make SOME progress I did not get as much done as I had hoped (or as much as the kids probably hoped either).
Monday I was able to get all the kitchen boxes unpacked and put away - only rearranging one cabinet. Monday evening my son-in-laws family from Texas, who were visiting, came over to see the house. (Talk about stuffing stuff in cabinets to make things presentable! HAHA!) Then we all went over to Justin's parents house for dinner. It was a somewhat late night for the kids and Melissa paid for it on Tuesday morning with Ada crying and fussing.
Tuesday I finished up the kitchen (all that stuff that was stuffed away!) Went to the grocery store and got the ingredients for spaghetti and then worked on the master bathroom.
Everything was going pretty good until Wednesday - and Hurricane Matthew. It was announced Wednesday that all schools would be closed in the county and the county that Melissa works in - which means that she and the girls were going to be home on Thursday and Friday PLUS I needed to go out and get supplies in case we lost power. Getting food that everyone would eat that could be cooked on the grill, buying propane canisters, water, bread, etc. proved to be quite a task. By Wednesday afternoon there was NO water or bread at WalMart or Publix. I finally found a loaf of bread, some hamburger and hot dogs buns, then found water at Home Depot. I never could find flashlights (Melissa ordered some from Amazon - so they will have them in the future). Anyway, Wednesday was pretty much shot.
Thursday Melissa worked from home and things were somewhat stressful as she had employees in Boston for training that had to get home. The airport in Orlando closed at 5 o'clock (where every one's car was) and she had to fly them into Tampa. Then she rented them a car to get to Orlando to get their private vehicles - to find out they couldn't get their cars out of long term parking. To say that she had a bad day, which transferred to the rest of us, was an understatement. I was able to keep the girls occupied but it was not a good day.
The storm was scheduled to hit early Friday morning - it was never predicted to make a direct hit on us, but we were supposed to get tropical storm force winds and rain. We were afraid that we would lose power (that's the reason for water, food for the grill, and propane. We even filled the bathtub Thursday night so we would have water to flush the toilets IF we lost power. So, imagine our surprise when we woke up Friday morning to, well, nothing. A little rain, a little wind - but we get more in a good thunderstorm. Now, I know that the east coast was hit hard - especially St. Augustine and parts of Jacksonville, but we didn't get anything. So, I had another day of keeping the girls occupied while Justin spent most of the day in bed (sick) and Melissa working. So, no boxes were unpacked Friday either.
Saturday morning we got up to a beautiful sunny day. So, I got a couple of boxes unpacked and put away and we made some decisions on where to put some pictures. Then it was decided that Melissa and I would go shopping. We did go out and find a few things and picked up dinner. Melissa asked me what I missed as far as food went, and believe it or not, I said Chili's - so dinner came from Chili's. (In hindsight I should have chosen Chinese from the Lake Miriam Publix store).
Sunday morning, pretty bright and early, I headed home. I loved seeing the new house and helping, what little I did, but I was also ready to come home. Sunday afternoon was spent doing laundry and some straightening up.
Monday I cleaned house, Tuesday I started working in the garage. Wednesday was my first day of volunteering at one of the gift shops in the Village Square. Thursday, after making a menu for the next couple of weeks, we took mom to Perry with us to buy groceries.
Friday I got the budget book caught up and the worked in the garage some more. I put a pork roast in the crock pot and fixed pulled bar-b-que for dinner. Carol and Neil came down before we all went down to the church for the "Live at Downling Park Series". Friday night was Williamson Branch - a bluegrass/country family act and were very good.
Saturday morning Dan helped down at a friend's garage sale. She lost her husband a couple of months ago and was selling his tools. She wanted to make sure she had help so several of the men in the subdivision went down and helped her. I worked on a few things here in the house before settling in for an afternoon of college football. I had a really good day with my teams - Vanderbilt beat Georgia (Yippee!!!), Alabama won over Tennessee (undefeated so far this year!!!), and Ohio State won their game (but I have to admit I went to bed before the end of the game). I fixed a pizza for dinner.
Today is NFL football this afternoon - Chili is in the crock pot and I'm ready for the games to begin.
Have a great week and I'll catch up with you later!
