oneoliverii.com

April 7, 2018

Hope everyone had a blessed Easter. Ours was very nice but quiet. On Good Friday I went to the noon service at our church and then to the First Baptist Church for 2 hours of bell choir practice. That night we played at the Baptist Church for an all community Godd Friday Tenebrae service. It was really beautiful-pastors from 4 different churches did the readings, the choirs from all the churhces blended together, there were vocal and instrumental soloes and then our bell choir. We had played this song before and it was pretty easy-only 2 1/2 pages. I don't know what happened but I completely blew it! Got lost on about the 3rd measure and didn't get back on track until about 6 measures from the end! I thought I was the only one who did that badly but when I saw the rest of my gang at church on Sunday morning, EVERYBODY was disappointed in the way they played! Apparently it didn't sound as awful as we thought-just a bit "thin" since some of us weren't evern playing! On Sunday morning at our church, we played a much more difficult piece, 12 pages long, and we all did well! So there's no way to tell when we will be good and when we won't! We just have one more Snday to play and then we recess for the summer. We came home and had a nice Easter dinner, then walked Skipper and the day was over!

We had a quiet week this week. I had to cancel my piano lesson because my neck was very sore and I got bit by some insect and my right eye was almost swollen shut! I'm better now, although my neck is still bothering me at night. They started working on our driveway yesterday and boy is it a project! They came back today and they still haven't finished digging it out yet. After they complete that, they have to lay the crush and run, then a layer of sand, pack both those layers down and then they can start laying the pavers. We had a crew of 3 the past 2 days and then we will have a new crew for the next 2 layers and finally will have 10 guys here to lay the pavers! No wonder this is so darned expensive! It will be really nice when finished though-no more gravel in our garage and house!

I have a really busy week coming up. Lunch wiht a friend on Monday. Tuesday my garden club is going to Savannah to tour some gardens and then that evening Oliver and I will go to a cocktail reception for The Retreat , the new asisted living facility opening near us. I know all the people there from Summit Place so we are invited. Wednesday I have a piano lesson, a hair appointment and then I will pick up a frined who needs a ride to the hospital where her husband is being treated for cancer. Thursday will be Summit Place in the morning and bell choir practice in the afternoon, and Friday I am docent at church, and then we will go to Mike and Jeannine's for cocktails that night. On Saturday I will take Patti to the hospital again. We hope to go to Charlotte next Monday but it depends upon the driveway being completed by then.

Last night we went downtown for First Friday and the Art Walk. We wandered through a few of the art galleries and chatted with some folks we know and then came home to have dinner and watch a movie. They had the street blocked off and some old cars exhibited. The weather was nice o it was a pleasant evening. Here is what Bay Street looked like.

Here's a few pictures of what our driveway looks like right now! This was yesterday but it's really deep now!

March 25, 2018

Well, a MONTH has passed since I last blogged! You would think it was because we were so busy but I don't really think that's the case. I just have been neglectful! But here I am now. After we got back from Florida, we eased back into our routine activities-for me that means, piano lessons, prayer services at the nursing home, bell choir practice and now I have taken on the job of coordinator for the Lay Eucharistic Ministers. This is a group of trained lay people who take communion to our shut in parishioners, as well as to the 5 (soon to be 7) nursing homes in Beaufort. Right now we are a bit short staffed so I have to cover the home visits when I can't find someone to do it. This morning at our Rector's forum, we requested more bodies!!

For Oliver, a normal routine is anything but normal! His days range from bushhogging around the property, to cutting firewood, to planting trees, to making things for me! Right now, we are getting ready to install pavers on our driveway. We spent a LOT of time getting estimates and selecting a contractor, and now we are waiting for the pavers to be manufactured and then installed. It is a BIG job-about 2800 square feet along with 2 piers that will have lights on them. We are so tired of the gravel driveway we have now-the tires track it into the garage and then we track it into the house on our shoes. It will be a great improvement.

We are also busy doing a bit of landscaping. We lost some little bushes during the frost so we are replacing those and planting a few other flowering shrubs. We are planning to add more grass along the side of Oliver's workshop as well. A couple of weeks ago, I hosted my garden club here. It's lots of fun-we start with wine and appetizers, then have a speaker-this time it was a talk about wind resistant trees, as a result of our 2 hurricanes, then a bit more wine and desserts. Oliver went out to dinner with 2 of the garden club husbands and then to one of their houses to smoke cigars. He enjoyed his evening about as much as I enjoyed mine! In April my garden club is taking a field trip to Savannah to visit some famous garden.

On St. Patrick's Day, we went to a church Foyer Group dinner and had a traditional corned beef and cabbage dinner. I made a yummy scrumptious mint cheesecake-delicious!! In April, we will host the Foyer Group-for the second time this year-and will do a surf and turf meal on the porch. We hope ti warms up-it's been a cool spring so far although this week it is supposed to be near 80.

This morning at church we had a special Palm Sunday program. The bells led a procession of choir and congregation from the Parish House, across the street to the church and then we had a lovely service. For Holy Week, the bells will practice on Friday, following our Good Friday service, and on Friday night, we will play at the First Baptist Church for a community wide Good Friday service. The we play at our church again on Easter Sunday. A very busy week.

We are planning a trip to Charlotte to see Phyllis and Bobby and to let Skipper play with their puppy, to see if he would like a little brother! I kind of hope he says no, but we will see! Then in May we have our trip with Mike and Jeannine to New Mexico. Busy times!

Our azaleas bloomed early and they are glorious!!

Skipper celebrated St. Patrick's Day by getting groomed!

I bought this cute little sheep planter, although I haven't planted it yet!

We had a storm last week and the sky was so beautiful...and a bit scary!

February 26, 2018

Our weather has been fantastic for the past week-sunny and warm and wonderful! We just got back from St. George Island, FL which is just outside of Apalachicola. We thought that a few days in a new place on a beach might be good for Skipper so I found a very nice house on VRBO and we rented it for 4 nights. It's 7 hours from here to there so not too bad. We left on Tuesday and got there about 3. After unpacking, we went to find a restaurant and it turned out the Blue Parrot was excellent-right on the beach, with very good seafood. We were exhausted but took Skipper for a little walk on the beach. He had a very restless night and I was out with him a couple of times so we were all tired on Wednesday. We walked again in the morning and then cleaned up and went into Apalachicola. Many of the shops and restaurants are dog friendly so Skippy had a nice day. We ended with a beer at the brewery and he was a very good boy. After taking him home, Oliver nd I went to Paddy's Raw Bar, also on the island, for oyeters (for Oliver) and shrimp for me. We all slept better that night and were up bright and early the next morning for a walk on the beach. Oliver and I went into Apalach again to pick up a few things we had seen-a picture of a pelican, and a couple of cute signs for our porch, and of course the ubiquitous tee shirts! We ate dinner in Apalach at Bss Oyster-more oysters for Oliver and more shrimp for me! Wlaked Skipper on the beach again and sat on the deck to see the sunset. The next day, after our beach walk, Oliver and I drove over to Carrabelle. When we did the Loop, we stayed in Carrabelle for several nights before making the LONG Gulf crossing and we were hoping to see the harbormaster who had been so helpful but turns out he has retired. Back to spend some time sitting at the pool before another dinner at the Blue Parrot. we left early on Saturday mornign and we were home by 3PM. We had a wonderful few days and we think that it perked Skipper up a bit!

Not too much has happened other than that. I had a garden club meeting and of course my nursing home visits and docenting. We also went out to dinner with friends Abby and Jim one night and to a cocktail party at neighbors on Tuxedo Drive. Sunday after church we had brunch with some friends-she is an artist and we are talking about having her do a painting for our house. We don't have much else scheduled until we go to Santa Fe in May wtith our neighbors Mike and Jeannine.

Skipper and Oliver on the beach

Sunrise from the deck

Eating dinner at Boss Oyster

Raw oysters at Paddys Raw Bar

Oliver and Skipper happy to be home in their own bed

February, 9, 2018

FINALLY our weather has improved! We were so tired of being cold but now it is in the 60s and 70s and hopefully, winter is over for us! We have lots of yard work to be done because of the damage done during our cold snap. We are hopong that some of the plants that look dead will come back.

We made a brief trip up to North Carolina for the funeral of Oliver's brother in law, Earl. He had been sick for several years and on dialysis so it was not unexpected. He had wnted to live long enough to see his granddaughter get married, and he not only accompliehed that, but he also saw her give him his first great granddaughter! We stayed with Phyllis and Bobby in Charlotte for 2 nights, since the funeral was just about an hour away. We enjoyed playing with their fabulously cute puppy Beau and ate at a new restaurant we had not visited before. Our wonderful dogsitter Anina stayed with Skipper and he was a happy little guy-he LOVES his Nina!!

Speaking of Skipper, he had his teeth cleaned yesterday and had to be sedated for it. He stayed at the clinic all day and I picked him up on my way home from bell choir practice. He was really groggy and moaned all night and still isn't out of bed, at 7:30!! The vet said he had gingivitis, so it was a good thing we had it done now. He is switching to a special dog food for tartar control and will need his teeth brushed every night. THAT will be fun!!

We had a fun time Tuesday night with Mike and Jeannine and 2 other couples at Every Second Counts. It's kind of hard to explain but it's sort of like a real life computer game. You are locked in a room and the object is to solve clues and puzzles to discover the combination to get out. There are different themes-we played in the DaVinci Code room. You have 60 minutes to solve all the clues and we got about 2/3 of the way through before time ran out. It was great fun and we want to go back and try a different room. Afterwards, we all went to a local sports bar for burgers and played a little bingo!

Tonight we are having Mike and Jeannine over for dinner. Our friend (and Deacon) Mark is coming to bless our house and he and his wife will also stay for dinner.

In a couple of weeks we are taking Skipper for his promised vacation to St. George Island, FL. We hope he enjoys running on the beach and walking through Apalachicola.

I must go start getting ready for tonight. Thanks for keeping up with my rather sporadic entries!!

Skipper is most definitely NOT allowed on the sofa...but sometimes he's so cute!

Oliver finished my mudroom shelf and I love it!!

January 22, 2018

Not too much going on since the great blizzard of 2018!! We had some really cold weather and we SUFFERED! We are definitely not used to the cold temperatures anymore. But now it is back up in the high 60s, where it belongs and we are all feeling much better. Hopefully that is the end of our winter!

Oliver had his cataract surgery on January 9 and he is very pleased with the results. Before the surgery, he could not see that great big huge E on the eye chart! Our doc would have to hold her hand right up to his face for him to see how many fingers! Now he is at 20/40 which may be the best it gets, because of his retinal problems but it might get to 20/20. His left eye is not nearly as bad so it will be a while before he needs to deal with that. I am still on medication for my eye chingles and likely will be for quite some time.

Other than that, everything has been quite odinary. I continue with my piano essons, docenting at church, playing in the bell choir and visiting the nursing home every week. On Sunday we had our newcomer's program at church and I head up the refreshment committee so did a lot of food fixing and serving that afternoon before watching the playoff games.

We had a great dinner out at a new Italian restauarnt with Mike and Jeannine. It is very near our eye doctor's office so we will likely be visiting again soon. Today I had lunch with Jeannine and a friend of her's from church and then came home to put a second coat of paint on a shelf that Oliver has made for me for our mudroom. I found 4 baskets that will go in the cubbyholes and there will be hooks for jackets and purses. We have a cute bench in there and I am getting a new cushion made for it so that room will be completed. We bought a couple of pictures and we are having an artist friend paint a picture that we took at Monet's Giverney when we were in France last year.

Hopefully we will do something a bit more exciting before my next entry!!

Here is the shelf Oliver has built for me.

January 7, 2018

Happy New Year!! I can't believe another year has come and gone with all the high points and low points that go along with living. Of course OUR high point was moving into our new home in May and our low point was losing Marina in October. Hopeing that 2018 brings more high than low with it!

We did a LOT of celebrating during the month of December. We went to Mike and Jeannine's for a cocktail party with several of their friends and had a very nice time. Next up was our church foyer group party at our house on December 15. 12 of us gathered for drinks, yummy appetizers, and good conversation. We enjoy these groups so much. Every year is another group and we meet once a month from September through May and then on to a new group the next September.

I thought since we were having one party, having another one the very next night might be a good idea. So on the 16th, we had 35 friends here for more drinks and appetizers. It was very cold but we still had a fire going on the porch and people spent quite a bit of time out there. You never know what the temps will be this time of year-it could be 80 and it could be 40!

We had dinner at Mike and Jeannine's the night before they left for California for Christmas and then had a couple of quiet days (except for my mammogram and bone density scan) before Christmas Eve. That was a long day for us! The Bell Choir played at the 9AM service so we went to church early that morning. Then Oliver had to usher at the 5:30 PM serv ice so I tokk him to church and dropped him off and came home. I was on Altar Guild for the 7:30PM service so I went back at 7 and spent a rushed and crazy half hour getting all the candles filled and the communion set up and then after the service, did the same things in prepaprtion for the 10:30 service!! We were glad to get home that night!!

John and Jeannette invited us to Savannah for Christmas Day but she was recovering from the flu and since I am on an antiviral for my shingles, I can't take the flu shot and I definitely am trying to stay away from any possible contact so we stayed home. Had breakfast in bed and then a nice walk with Skipper before I fixed a tasty prime rib dinner. We were glad to be - almost - closing out the season. One more party to go!! On New Year's Eve we gathered with 4 oher couples at the home of Rich and Marcia Seymour, frinds from church and our foyer group. We had cocktails and then a wonderful beef tenderloin and salmon dinner. Then we moved on to another home where we had dessert, champagne and watched the ball drop in New York City. It was such a nice night and the first in a long time that we actually stayed up til midnight!

The next big excitement came this past Wednesday, January 3, when we were treated to a little ice storm followed by 3 inches of snow! It as beautiful and I enjoyed watching it fall but now am so over it! Of course, EVERYTHING closed down-schools, churches, government offices. No mail for 2 days. The bridges between Ladys Island and Beaufort, and LI and Port Royal were all closed so we couldn't go anywhere anyway! We, along with almost every other person in Beaufort, made a big pot of chili and enjoyed our forced vacation. On Thursdau afternoon, we did go out for just a bit because our dog sitter and favorite vet tech was sick. She has no family here and was in need of some things and I went and got them and delivered them to her house. It was slippery and slow going but certainly manageable. On Friday I went to get my hair done and EVERYBODY was back out but about half of them were scared to death and traveling at about 5 MPH!! The grocery store was packed, with people driving around in circles waiting for someone to leave so I went to Food Lion instead. It's still icy here in spots and we are off to church and then a brunch with friends but tomorrow it will be in the high 50s and not below freezing so it should be all gone. Shoud be close to 70 by the end of the week and this will just be a memory. It has only snowed here 8 times in 56 years so hopefully it will be a long time before we see this again!!

Our church was beautiful on Christmas Eve

Happy New Year!

Snow scenes!!!

December 12, 2017

Can't believe it's been a month since I posted! Time really flies this time of year. We still miss Marina so much and think about her every day, especially when we go walk and I still think I should be pushing her in the stroller. Almost every day someone asks where she is and we go through it all again. Skipper seems to be getting back to (new) normal. He was very subdued for a while and we worried about him but he is a bit more energetic now. I took him to the doctor last week to have a thorough checkup and everything turned out just fine. He needs to have his teeth cleaned, whcih we will do next month.

We spent a quiet Thanksgiving, after driving a friend up to Charleston in the morning. Her husband was in the hospital and she doesn't drive so we took her but we were still back by 3 and had a very nice turkey dinner.

On December 2 we traveled to Atlanta to celebrate the wedding of John R and his new bride Sarah. It was a lovely weekend and a beautiful reception. We enjoyed being wth family again and the weather was so nice.

Since then we have been getting ready for Christmas. I got all our cards sent out, the house decorated and a lot of baking done for our 2 cocktail parties, which are this Friday and Saturday. Once I started baking, I realized I didn't have enough freezer space so we ordered a new freezer for the garage--and now I am trying to fill it up! We also have been to a couple of parties-and missed a couple more! Christmas will be quiet for us. Debbie is coming Sunday for an early Christmas. My bell choir plays on Christmas Eve morning, and we will also go to Christmas Eve services that night, since I am on Altar Guild this month-a very busy time for the church! On New Year's Eve we are getting together with 4 other couples for dinner at one house and midnight dessert and champagne at another house. We generally don't go out on New Year's and we definitely don't stay up til midnight! We'll see how we do!

Fall is an awesome time in Beaufort. This beautiful picture was taken downtown.

The early risers in the family went out for breakfast in Atlanta and then waited for Alex, Whit and baby Jace to arrive.

The bride and groom

Enjoying the party

Mary and the beautiful cake

Skipper is looking forward to Christmas!

November 10, 2017

It doesn't seem possible, but just a day after my last post, we had to let Marina go. She quit eating on Sunday and would only take what water I could get in her mouth with a syringe. On Monday morning, she wouldn't even swallow any water-it just dribbled back out of her mouth. Her breathing was labored and she could hardly stand up. I talked with her neurologist who said that she didn't have meningitis and probably had a stroke. She said we could try a big dose of steroids to see if that would bring her around but that this might put her into immediate congestive heart failure. Oliver wanted to take her for a ride in her stroller so we bundled her up in her striped blanket and put her in the stroller but she wouldn't even look around-just laid there limp. That was when Oliver realized that it was time. I called her wonderful vet, who agreed to come to the house in the afternoon and help her go to the Rainbow Bridge. It was a long and sad morning for us. When Dr. Rockwell came, she had Anina-our favorite vet tech who is our dogsitter-with her. We were all in tears. We gathered around her bed and peted her and talked to her and then Jess (our vet) gave her a sedative. She laid there very peacefully and when she was sleeping, Jess gave her an IV. We petted, talked and cried while she drifted away from us. Jess and Anina gave us time with her and then took her away. It was a terrible day for us. Skipper has been very subdued.

On Wednesday, we left for Cincinnati for our nephew Aaron's wedding and Anina came and stayed with Skipper. We drove for about 6 hours and then stayed at a hotel in Newport, TN, and arrived in Cincinnati at about 1PM the next day. Nancy and Nick, Mary, Tom and Carol, and Bob and Jana were already there so we shared a drink with them and then Bunny and John arrived. The sisters and husbands had another drink in the bar and then we went to the rehearsal dinner at a nearby bar. When we got back, we all had another drink and sat and talked til midnight. It's been awhile since the 3 of us have all been together so we had a great time. On Friday we had breakfast and then walked around town a bit before going to Macy's to buy Jonh a belt. Of course, we girls had to do a little shopping too so we were there for some time! Returning to the hotel, we got dressed for the wedding. There was a bus to take us to the venue, a really lovely old building that had once been a church. The wedding was very nice and then we had dinner and there was some dancing-mostly the groomsmen and the little kids! We went back to the hotel and had a couple of drinks in the bar before going to bed at midnight. We would have felt bad, except that we will all be back together in Atlanta for another wedding on December 3!

Oliver and I left at about 7:45 the next morning and drove til about 4PM and stopped in Clinton, SC. We had a nice dinner and went to bed early. Because it was the time change, we were on the road by 7:30 the next morning and home by 10:30. Skipper was glad to see us although he really misses Anina. She spoils him! He's had a few bouts of vomiting since then, the worst in the toy aisle at PetSmart where we took him Monday to buy some toys to cheer him up. His birthday is the 18th and we have a few more things for him. We can't tell whether he likes being an only child or not.

Here is our baby girl shortly before she left us

My friend Sue sent me this pillow. Her dog Cody is on the left-he passed away last year.

Anina brought Marina home while we were gone.

Here is Skipper's new puzzle. The drawers have treats in them and the little bones turn and lock the drawers. He has to twist the bones and then pull the drawers out. He can do it in a relatively short time now.

Mike and Jeannine went to a Halloween party but came trick or treating at our house first!