August 5, 2019

We had a busy month in July, with lots of fun visits from family. First up was Sarah, Norah and Laine visiting us all the way from Wyoming! Aren't I lucky that my nieces love me enough to make such a long trip? The day after they came, we drove over to Hilton Head where Bunny and John, Alex, Whit and the boys, and Spencer and Josh entertained us for a fun afternoon of swimming and lunch by the pool. All the cousins-big and little-had a great time together. Norah and Laine had a laundry list of things they wanted to do and we managed to work our way though them all! I was worried about making dolphins appear on command but fortunately for us, we walked down to the dock just in time to see a pod of about 8 swimming in the creek. Laine doesn't much care for dolphins but Norah was thrilled! Next up was a trip into town to browse the arts and crafts show for Water Festival and the girls made some fun purchases. We had lunch at Paninis before going to The Sands beach to look for shark teeth. Both the girls found a number of them-Norah really had a good eye and found even a tiny little tooth. Our next trip was out to Hunting Island where we climbed a lighthouse, did a little souvenir shopping and then the BIG event! Norah got to hold a 7 foot snake! It gave Sarah and I the creeps but Norah just loved it. We also saw alligators, turtles, lizards and a raccoon making his way down the marsh! In between all these events, there was a lot of pool time with their new friend Kadence. She showed them some crabs and then they all tried a little fishing. We had a wonderful time and I was so sad to see them go but hopefully they had enough fun that they will want to come back!!

They got up early one morning to take our walk with us so they could feed the ducks!

Sarah and the girls at our "visitor's bench"

Hunting for shark teeth

In the pool at Hilton Head

Cousins

At the top of the lighthouse

Norah took a little nap on the unicorn

It's especially fun to swim after dark!

Fishing with Kadence and Miss Jeannine!

We made cupcakes for dessert

Poor Laine wanted macaroni and cheese and none of the restaurants we went to had any so we had to make our own!

This face!

We were all sad when we went to the airport for the trip back!

We had a little break-long enough to change the sheets, broken up by a trip to Oliver's new pain doctor. He had a really interesting treatment that I got to watch. They stuck 2 needles into his back, then did some tests to make sure they were in the right spot. Then they put anesthetic through the needles and then hooked him up to a machine that heated the tips of the needles to 210 degrees for 90 seconds! He has another treatment on the 20th of this month. They say it takes 6 weeks to get a response so we are sure hoping it helps. We'd like him to feel better before our cruise to Nova Scotia next month!

Next up was a visit from Dave and Libby and the girls. It was a short overnight visit, so we didn't get to do as much but it was wonderful to see them all. They were in the pool within 15 minutes of arriving and stayed there for the next 5 hours! Kadence came over to swim with them and they all had a ball. We had a very late dinner with 2 very tired girls! The next morning we spent some time on the dock looking for dolphins but no such luck. We did see some fish and a baby raccoon getting a drink of water! The girls really wanted to swim again so they spent another hour in the pool before leaving to go see their grandparents in Florida and visit Disney World. I was so happy to see them and hope they come back again next summer!

Erin did a good job of balancing on unicorn!

Kadence with the girls

Erin diving off the unicorn

Libby taking aim with the water gun!

Now we are pretty much back to normal until the end of the month, when Nancy and Nick come for a visit. I had a busy week as our church is seeking a new Music Director and I am on the search committee. We did video conference interviews every night last week and met with our Rector to make a recommendation on Friday. Our first candidate is here this weekend and the other candidate the following weekend and then we will make a decision. We are all very sad to see our current director leave-he is going to Rochester, MN-but we will have somebody very good to take his place.

Thanks for stopping by to catch up with us!!

 

June 27, 2019

We've been busy here, celebrating birthdays, Dragonboating, having company, being neutered, etc!! Fun times.

The week after the wedding, we celebrated Oliver's birthday and had Bunny and John here for a fun week-end. We always have such a great time with them. We didn't do a lot, mostly just eating out and sitting around or in the pool, but it's always fun. Here we are at The Fish Camp, our new favorite restaurant.

After that we got back to our basics-piano lessons, nursing home visits, and Oliver did a lot of work outside. He really works too hard when it's so hot but he doesn't seem to be too affected by it. Here he is trimming trees. What could possibly go wrong?

Anyway, he managed to not get bruised or bloody so for that, I was thankful. We had our church dinner group over for a special "tomato supper" that one of our members does every year when the really good tomatoes come in. It was yummy and a lot of fun. That was followed by the DragonBoat Race!! We had been practicing for months -some of us anyway-and as I was Captain of our team, I spent many hours trying to fill our team of 20 paddlers plus our "drummer". Then our friend Jack designed and got the banner made and I worked on our tee shirts. The week of the race we had 2 practices and then on Saturday we were ready to go! This is a very big event and as most of you know, it is a fundraiser for cancer patients in Beaufort County. Our family and friends were very generous, as usual, and Oliver and I raised $920!! Our team raised almost $3000 and we were the 4th highest team out of 28. The highest team raised over $9000! It was an extremely hot day-in fact, we had a heat advisory-but we had a tent for shade and we all drank a lot of water and it was a bit cooler when we were actually on the water, so everybody was fine. The day started with a big thunderstorm at 6:30AM but by the time the festivities started at 7:30, it was sunny. We started with the National Anthem, introductions of the drummers-they are the ones who sit in the front of the boat and keep the beat and they dress up in all types of outlandish costumes-and a prayer. Then the carnation ceremony-carnations are handed out to cancer survivors or to people wanting to honor people who have lost their battle-a special song is sung and then the flowers are either dropped into the river or returned and taken to a nursing home. Some people keep their flowers as a memento. People write the names of those they are paddling for on their arms and it is all very moving. Then the races start!! There were 28 teams and each team races two heats in the morning. The times are added together and then the teams are divided into different classes. A,B,C,D. We of course knew we would be in Division D because up til this year, we had lost every heat we ever paddled in! We raced at 9:15 and came in 3rd-we were thrilled!! Then we raced at 10:30 and we had a TERRIBLE steersman. That's the person at the back who steers the boat and ours was pretty bad. She couldn't get us to the starting line and took us WAAAY around the course and back again and we were exhausted by the time we got to the starting dock and then the race started in about 10 seconds! We came in last by a pretty wide margin-10 seconds worse than our first heat. We had a break then for lunch and raced our final heat at 1:30. We came in 3rd in that heat-although some on shore said they thought we were second-and that put us in 4th out of 8 teams in our division. One of the teams we lost to was the Single Marines! No shame in losing to the Marines!!! After our race, we took most of our team to one of the river side restaurants for some adult beverages and then went back for the closing ceremonies. It was a great day and we were pleased with our results. I think next year we will do even better since most of our team plans to come back.

Bishop Hathaway from our church came to say a prayer for us. Here he is with Pat, our angel drummer!

Warming up is very important. Oliver got right in the swing of things!

Heading to the boat

Loading the boat

Heading to the start line-the long way!

And we're racing!! That's me in the front right seat. This picture was on the front page of our local paper this week!

Glad to be back at the dock!

Our team

The day after the race we had Sunday brunch with our friends Jack and Cathy and started strategizing for next year!

Quincy's birthday was Monday so we had a little party for him. The very next morning, it was off to the vet for THAT surgery as well as a hernia repair. He was quite pitiful when we got him home but he is doing better now. He wants to lick his wounds, tho, so he has to wear the Cone of Shame pretty much 24/7 for the next week. He's quite goof about it though.

Thanks for checking in with us.  My next update will include a visit by my niece Sarah and her daughters. I am VERY excited about that!

May 19, 2019

Once again it has been quite awhile since I last posted. It seems that at first I have nothing to say and then things get really busy and I have no time! Anyway, since I last posted, quite a lot has happened. Right after my last post, we had another Foyer dinner. This is a group of church friends and we meet once a month at someone's house for an evening of fellowship and always excellent food!! Here's a picture of that dinner.

The following week we made a quick trip to Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville for a follow up check up for Oliver. All went well and we actually enjoy these little junkets! We stay at the Marriott Courtyard and go out to Jacksonville Beach for a nice dinner. All went well and we were home relatively early the next day. My birthday followed as well as Jeannine's birthday so the 4 of us went for a nice lunch at Madison's. I eat out a lot!! The week after that I had lunch out with a friend from church and then dinner out The Fillin Station with a bunch of ladies from church!

The Bell Choir has played a couple of times in the past month so I have been busy at practice. We also had a wonderful full day workshop with a professional bell choir where we learned so much! Ironically, some friends of ours from Port Washington were in town that day and she was our bell choir director there so we took them to the concert that night and then out for dinner. We had a wonderful time! It means so much to us that our old friends keep in touch and care enough to come see us! This is Kathy and Jerry Wiskow!

Oliver had cataract surgery on his second eye and although it is somewhat better, he still has issues and is actually seeing his retina specialist tomorrow. Between his eyes and his back, he is very tired of dealing with health issues!

Easter was such a joyous time for us! Oliver was an usher at the big service and the bells played. After that, our Foyer Group met at the Seymour's house for an awesome Easter dinner. We had ham, salmon and ALL the trimmings. What a wonderful day it was!

After 6 weeks of training, our Quincy passed his Canine Good Citizen test! I was quite worried-he was struggling with a couple of the test items and we were almost the last pair to be tested but he came through like a champ! We have a wonderful trainer and she thinks he could be a therapy dog! I'm not quite so sure but he has to be a ear old so we will see!

 

Our sweet little neighbor Kadence had to do a science project for school. She did a project that compared the germs in a dog's mouth to those in a human's mouth!! Skipper and Quincy were the test subjects and it turned out that Skipper has a VERY dirty mouth, Quincy's still nasty but somewhat less and Kadence's quite nice! I went to Kadence's school for the awards ceremony and not only did Kadence win the prize for 5th grade but also the GRAND prize for the whole school! We were so proud and she brought Quincy and Skipper medals!! Here are her medals!

While we were waiting for the ceremony, I met a sweet little guy and we enjoyed reading together. I am now signed up to be a volunteer reader for pre-schoolers next fall!

A couple of weeks ago my garden club had a field trip out to a wonderful nursery. We toured the 6 acres of flowers they grow, then had a lesson in flower arranging and got to make our own arrangement and then we had a beautiful lunch with vegetables from their own garden. I so enjoy my garden club and am learning so much!!

Our church maintains the property at Old Sheldon, a church from the 1700s that has been burned twice, and every year right after Easter, we have a service out there. Everyone brings a picnic lunch and it is a glorious day! Our Foyer group attended together and had a wonderful lunch!

Sadly, I was bitten by something out there! I have been on steroids for the past 2 weeks and am finally doing better!!

Our weather has been so delightful and my boys enjoy hanging out b the pool! I still swim 40-60 laps a day!

We had more friends visit us! Scott used to work for Oliver in Wisconsin and he and Susie now live in Ft. Myers. Bless them for taking the time to drive up to see us. It meant so much to us!

Friday night we had another wonderful Foyer dinner. I am also busy trying to put our DragonBoat team together for the race on June 22. We deeply appreciate the donations so many of you have made. We are in second place for all 24 teams right now!!

I took this picture for one of the ladies at the assisted living where I volunteer every Thursday. When I told her what color I was wearing, she stripped off her bracelet and necklace and gave them to me to wear. Don't they look pretty?

Last night was the wedding of my oldest and dearest friend's granddaughter. We went to Savannah for the wedding and it was the most beautiful ceremony ever! Emily was born and raised in South Caroline and Hyun Jai was born in South Korea. The entire ceremony was in both English and Korean and Emily and Hyun Jai brought tears to our eyes-they were so tender. He helped her as she struggled with the Korean words and it was just so touching. The reception was held outside on the river and there was a full moon and it was just beautiful! We so enjoyed having time with Phyllis and Bobby and I was so happy with my dress-after ordering EIGHT different ones!

Phyllis and Bobby and their beautiful granddaughter Elizabeth and her cousin (and their grandson) Andrew!