I think we are going to need an Ark pretty soon!

It is hard to believe that it has been over two weeks since I last posted - the days just seem to fly by.  Let me see if I can do a quick review.

Last weekend we went up to our "old stomping grounds" and visited with some of our friends in Dowling Park.  We didn't take the camper (it is still on the consignment lot) or the pups with us (they stayed with Melissa, Justin, Lorelai, and Brady) so we actually stayed at our friends house.  Can't remember the last time we have done that - seems like we always have our camper with our "stuff".  We even had to pack a suitcase!  Anyway, we left fairly early on Friday afternoon - taking Little Miss to her mom around 1PM and were in DP by 5:30.  I drove my car and we got really good gas mileage - it only took a little over 1/2 a tank of gas to get there - so it is a fairly inexpensive drive.  We are thinking, that IF the camper doesn't sell (which I can't imagine it will this late in the summer), we might take it up to the campground and leave it for the fall/winter.  It would give us a place to get away for the weekend and it wouldn't cost us that much either.  We would have to pull it up there with the truck but then we could drive my car back and forth until it was time to bring it back home.  Anyway, it is just something we are thinking about doing.

We are still waiting for the roof over/screen room to be done.  We are "on the books" for next week - so we are hopeful that it is actually installed and completed on time.  We are hoping that it will make a marked difference in the temperature in the family room - right now this is the warmest room in the house - but it is the one room that does not have the double paned windows and there is no shade on this side of the house.  We think that once the roof over is done it will help shade the windows and help with the heat - of course, it doesn't help that the temperatures have been in the low 100's here.  Last week it was even too hot to let Little Miss play outside in her pool/beach area.

While it has been super hot we are still having daily rains - sometimes extremely heavy rains with thunder, lightening, and strong winds.  Then, when the rains stop, it is HUMID, HUMID, HUMID!!!  I can tell you that we have been pretty much confined to the house due to the heat and rain.  We are still trying to go on our golf cart rides in the morning - Little Miss sure enjoys them - but there have been a couple of mornings that they have been SUPER short due to the heat and humidity.  Oh the joys of living in Florida.

Speaking of Little Miss - she is growing so fast.  She now has six teeth - three on the top and three on the bottom of which I can attest to the fact that they work very well - since she bit me by accident yesterday.  She was biting my shirt sleeve while fighting going to sleep at nap time and accidentally got some of my arm along with the shirt.  It upset her so much that she had "hurt" her Nana and that she starting crying.  It was okay - but I do have a small bruise on the arm today.  She is climbing up into chairs now and LOVES to dance.  Since there is nothing on TV during the day we will put on the Malt Shop Oldies (channel 802 on our DirectV) and she will just dance and dance!  If Dan and I don't dance with her we get the "finger" as she will point to us as if saying you aren't dancing Nana or Grampe.  She brings us both a lot of joy!

I'm not saying she doesn't get into mischief - but how could anyone stay mad at anyone when they look at you with that sweet little face!

She still enjoys "reading" her books - but now she likes to do it sitting in a chair instead of on the floor.  (Although, she still "reads" sitting on the floor too!

Well, I think you all know that "we" are expecting a new grand baby in December - but we didn't know if we were having a girl or a boy.  Last week Melissa told us that we had Wednesday off - as she had a meeting in Bartow and a doctor's appointment in Lakeland.  Justin's mom, sister, and brother-in-law volunteered to keep Little Miss for the day.  Now, while Melissa did, in fact, have a doctor's appointment and a meeting she also had a little plan to let us all in on the baby's gender.  If you would like to know if we are having a little boy or girl - just click on the link below for a little video that will let you know.

http://vimeo.com/m/71507509

Nothing out of the ordinary has happened this week - so I think I will leave you for this post.

Hope you have a fantastic week and I'll talk to you soon!

Hugs -

Carol

Deer and baby fawns

I know it's been a few days since I posted - we are still hanging around.

Monday we had the normal rainy day -

In fact, we had a pretty good rain storm with thunder and lightening.  The only good thing about it was it didn't last that long.

However, the weather did get better yesterday - the first day in a very long time that it did NOT rain!

So, we have been out riding on the golf cart two or three times a day - since now it it way too hot to be out for very long.  At least when we are moving in the golf cart we have a breeze.

Yesterday, while we were out for our morning ride we were fortunate enough to see a momma deer and twin fawns.  They stopped and looked at us for a while before running into the woods.  Lorelai watched them too and when they ran she clapped her hands (her way of saying "Yeah!)

Speaking of Lorelai, I know that I was really worried about her eating - she just didn't seem to want to eat anything.  Well, I didn't have to worry - she is becoming a very good eater.  Today she ate a quarter of a chicken breast, some mac and cheese, and some grapes that I peeled and quartered.  I think she just had to discover the many different tastes - and she has discovered that she likes things with some spice to it.  She also LOVES fruit - if you fix her plate and put all her food on it - she will eat all the fruit first!  Apples, pears, bananas, cantaloupe, grapes - I really have not found any fruit that she doesn't like.  Also, if you have anything with cheese on it - she will dig right in - grilled cheese sandwiches - cheese omelets - mac and cheese.  The thing is, she just doesn't eat that much at one time.  For example, the list of today's lunch was not completed - almost, but she left a little chicken and some mac and cheese (no grapes though - they were eaten first).  However, I give her two snacks during the day - one mid morning before her nap and then another one in the afternoon after her afternoon nap.  This seems to work out for us and for her.

Now, the last couple of days she has had a special treat in the mornings.

DOUGHNUTS!!!

As you can tell, she loves having doughnuts with her Grampe!

Yesterday, while I was cleaning up the kitchen, I realized Little Miss was no where to be seen.  I went into the laundry room (where the dog food is) but she wasn't in there - in fact, she has really stopped getting into the dog food.  So, I called her and she came out of our bedroom with a little surprise for me.

One of my t-shirts, which she put on herself, and one of my bathing suit tops around her neck like a cape.

Surprise Nana!

Now, Dan and I are continuing to work on things around the house - lately trying to get the garage straight.  We have put a lot of stuff on a local on-line site that is sorta like a garage sale without having to have a garage sale.  We have sold quite a bit of stuff (including Dan's big table saw) but what didn't sale we donated to our local shelter.  Our goal is to be able to get the car back into the garage AND get the second storage room emptied.  

As you can tell, by the first pictures, the screen room has not been done yet.  We are "on the books" for the week of August 12th thru the 16th.  We are really looking forward to having it completed - Dan says everyday that he can't wait for it to get done.  (To tell the truth, neither can I.)

Well, not too much else is going on - so, I'll close for now.

Have a good week and I'll talk to you soon!

Carol

Little Miss making a mess and the rain.

Well, we had another day of rain - started right around lunch and continued until dinner time.  We also had some very gusty winds with the storms yesterday but no really bad weather.  So far this morning - it has been clear.

In fact, Little Miss was able to go out and play on her slide and get in her little pool (which has very cold water in it due to all the rain water) for about 1/2 hour this morning before she was ready for her morning nap.  This was after a 45 minute golf cart ride with Grampea Dan and I before Grampea went out in his boat.  (I would say he went fishing, but he took his Kindle with him, so I think he was just out on the water).

Little Miss had a pretty good day eating yesterday - she really liked her Mac and Cheese last night at dinner.  Melissa and Justin stayed for dinner last night - Ham steak, Lima beans, and mac & cheese (one of Melissa's favorite meals).  Lorelai wasn't really sure about the Lima beans - but she did try them - eating one but not touching the others on her tray.  

Well, I guess I should let you in on why I have  the title on the blog that I do.

This is not as bad as the usual mess that she makes.  But she plays by herself and "reads" her books and doesn't tear them up at all.

(If you look on the windows you can see the rain on the windows and door.)

So, here is my sweet little one - you can't very well mind a mess when this face looks at you. (Plus, it doesn't take 15 minutes to clean it up.)

Well, I don't have much else to report - hope you have a wonderful day!

Talk to you later - gator!

Carol

Rain, rain, and more rain

Well, we had another day of rain.  It started about noon and lasted until about 4 this afternoon.  We also had some pretty strong winds along with the heavy downpours.  I really don't think there has been a day in over a month that we haven't had some rain - everything from all day downpours, to all day drizzles, to a couple of hours of heavy rain, to just a nice thunderstorm.  We certainly don't have to worry about water in the lake or in the canals.

Since we really couldn't do much outside today (although we did get a short golf cart ride in this morning) it turned into laundry day.  Did all the towels and throw rugs in the house as well as the normal clothes.  This also allowed me the opportunity to mop all the floors for the second time this week.

I put a pork roast in the crock pot around 1 this afternoon and then fixed some new potatoes and steamed carrots.  Tomorrow I'll take the left over pork roast and make some bar-b-que for lunch.

Speaking of food - Little miss had another good day eating - breakfast was a whole wheat waffle with banana and lunch was half a grilled cheese sandwich.  She also had a couple of snacks - this morning a fruit smoothie and this afternoon some baby gold fish.  She is getting much better at eating - she hasn't choked at all this week (this was a problem that we had a couple of weeks ago - she had to learn how to hold the food in her mouth and chew it). Anyway, she is getting much better at chewing.  The other thing is, I have quit stressing on the amount of food she is eating. (I know this sounds strange, since I raised two kids of my own - but I don't remember how much they ate or even what I fed them during the transition).  I've read and done some research and realize that she is eating exactly the amount she should be eating.  Her little tummy can't hold that much at one time - that's one of the reason I've added the morning snack as well as the afternoon snack.

Not really sure what tomorrow will hold - but I'm sure we will stay busy!

I'm going to sign off for tonight!

Hope you had a good day and -

Talk to you later - gator!

Carol

You Have GOT to be Kidding Me!!!

Boy on Boy - I'm starting to think we need to start building the ark. I mean, come on! It has done nothing but rain (and I don't mean sprinkle) all day today - it was so bad this morning that Dan decided he didn't think we needed to drive two hours into Franklin and then two hours back in it, so we did not go to church this morning. I was really looking forward to going, but I do think that you do have to think about safety on the roads when you have a lot of rain to contend with.

So, instead we just sat around the house and watched movies and read. I did a little of my word searches and Dan worked as little on his Suduko. This afternoon, when it did decide to let up a little we headed into Cleveland to buy some groceries. We went to Wal Mart and to Ingles and picked up the few things we needed and then it was back home. We picked up a couple of more movies at Ingles - "Have you heard about the Morgans" and "Julie, Julia". We watched "Have you heard" tonight and it was rather cute. Actually, it was much better than "Old Dogs" or "Up in the Air". Dan and I were both rather disappointed in both of the ones we got the other day - we really thought that Old Dogs would be funny with John Travolta and Robin Williams in it, but it was pretty lame. Up in the Air was NOT a typical George Clooney movie - maybe that was why he was up for an Academy Award - but I was not a fan (don't get me wrong - I still love George Clooney, and still think he is drop dead gorgeous, but this was not my cup of tea). I'll watch "Julie, Julia" probably by myself - this is not Dan's type of movie.

Well, you have pretty much heard about our day - not much happening except rain, rain, and more rain. Oh, and just FYI - the weathermen are calling for snow flurries here tomorrow - what happened to Spring - did I miss something????? OMG!!!!

Well, I'm going to let you go - I'm going to bed and read some more - take care - and I hope you had a good weekend and will have an even better week ahead. (Melissa - I hope you are feeling better - drink lots of fluids and get plenty of rest!)

I'll talk to you tomorrow!!!!

More rain - Really???

Rain - really - just what we need - not. We have had rain just about every other day since we have been back up here in Dowling Park. Plus, now the weathermen are talking about freezing temperatures again! Come on - enough already! Of course, in just a couple of days we will be heading north a few hundred miles and I'm sure it is going to be cooler in the north Georgia mountains than it is in north Florida (although I wouldn't guarantee that!). Anyway, let's just say that I am very glad that I brought sweaters back from the storage room with us. Plus, let's just say that I won't be sad when spring FINALLY shows up!

We did go into town today - first we went by Lowes and Dan bought a hook to put on the wall for his cowboy hat (you know Dan and his hats!). Then we went to the insurance company to pick up the declarations page to send to the new insurance company (it shows that we have not been without insurance). Anyway, while I was there I told them that I would be cancelling the insurance with them. Of course, they wanted to "talk to us about our insurance so they could see where they could improve". Funny how they always want to "talk" when you say you are going to cancel. Doesn't do any good - I'll call and cancel it tomorrow. Really, they don't offer full time RV coverage for the unit and that is what we need - so it really doesn't need to be "talked" about.

After leaving the insurance company we went into Wal Mart (our usual stop). We just needed a couple of things - and as usual we walked out with over $100 worth of stuff - all stuff we 'need' of course. We did pick up a few more groceries than I thought we needed, but it is all things we will use - like coffee, and coffee creamer, and grape juice, etc. Then, of course, there is the sporting goods stuff that Dan can't live without - and I did buy some new body lotion (heat and dry skin - they just seem to go together).

Once we got home and got the groceries put away - I did the laundry. Now, I am going to complain about something. The last two weeks, when I have done laundry, someone here in the park has gone in and taken my laundry out of the washing machine and stacked it on the counter when it is finished. To me, that is a lack of respect. I would never take another person's laundry out of their washing machine - no matter if I had to come back two dozen times before they had taken their clothes out. I have NEVER had someone wait more than 5 minutes when a washing load finished before coming to put it in the dryer - and then for someone to take my clothes out - well, it just sorta makes me very angry. I haven't had that problem in any other park the entire summer, nor in this park until this new group came in. Anyway, I'm done complaining - and I won't have to worry about any more since I won't be doing any more laundry here!

Well, I don't really have anything else to report - so I guess I'll sign off for tonight. Tomorrow we will packing up so we can get a fairly early start on Wednesday morning - we do have to be in Lake Park pretty early so we can get our DirecTV hooked up (yahoo!). Hope you guys are having a good week and -----------------------------

I'll talk to you tomorrow!