after the holiday

Good bye November

Good bye fall

But to a little girl who lives in the city named after a German princess, to a little girl who is certainly adored at least as much Princess Charlotte of Mecklenburg, to that  little girl  and her wonderful family...

thank you so very much and...

I'll see you soon!

happy birthday clark

 

Love,

Nana and Papa

 

happy thanksgiving

Our morning tennis matches appear to be catching up with Papa. My grandkids spotted the weak link the first day, and everyday when we first begin they sit together on the sidelines and chant over and over:

"Go, Nana, GO!"

I just have to say that it makes my day.

Courtney helped me roll out the dough for our dinner rolls.

Cherylyn got the kids involved in a project first thing this morning making headbands. Such sweet faces...these Indians of ours.

Dinner was delicious and beautiful. Dan put an extraordinary amount of effort into our wonderful Thanksgiving dinner.

B

A

G

Doug:

Blessings - to have a job with great people

Accomplishment - getting the garage done

Goal - to keep the company in business

Debbie:

Blessing - to teach school and have such a great group of kids to finish up with this year

Accomplishment - making my blog into a book for 2006

Goal - to be a service missionary

Brianna:

Blessing - to have great YW leaders

Accomplishment - to learn a new sport (ie softball)

Goal - to go to public school

thanksgiving eve

Starting the day out:

Seven bears in the bed and the little one said, "I'm crowded, roll over. So they all rolled over and one rolled out. Six bears in the bed...

Off to the tennis courts for more fun this morning. It was 5 degrees colder than yesterday. We didn't have any company of the courts today. Although it was reported that a certain car drove into the parking lot to have a look and then pulled away. I signed up for early morning tennis every morning for the rest of the week on court 3, of course.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We girls had a fun afternoon celebrating B's birthday.

First it was lunch at

and then it was

 

Later,

Carter impressed us with his gymnastic prowess.

loving our time with the seguines

  Oh my goodness. We decided to play tennis this morning. It was freezing cold, actually it wasn't quite freezing. It was 39 degrees. And the courts were wet from the rainstorm last night. Not one to be dissuaded by these minor inconveniences, we went back to Tricia's house and got a broom. I brushed the courts and then ran a spongy moppy thingy over the courts and called it good enough. After we had been playing for about half and hour these very hip and trendy ladies showed up and told us that they had reserved court 1, but it was wet, so they wanted our court, which was court 3.

Hmmmm.

Then they said it was for their league game and it was very important.

Hmmmm.

Well...since we weren't on their reserved court and since we had spent quite a bit of time making our court play ready and since our family is just as important in my opinion as their league, we told them no. And recommended that they mop up their own court. After some more minutes went by another one of the league players came over with the same request and received the same response.

I did find it interesting that only three players showed up for their league game. I also found it interesting that they were not willing to do what we had done to make their court playable. Also, by that time, it was warming up and the sun was doing most of the work, had they stuck around for another 20 minutes or so.

Tricia, Dan, Doug, Brianna and I had a great time. Jonah and Bella played on their tricycles and on the playground. Their little cheeks were so red. It was adorable!

  

Then we opted to follow Tricia's advice of how to be the grandparents of the year. We went to McDonalds and picked up a couple of happy meals. We showed up to Socrates Academy in time to spend lunch with Carter

and Courtney.

You know what I loved about Carter's teacher, Ms. Stainback? She lives with her grandparents! Yeah for Nanas and Papas. They were visiting in class too this afternoon. Maybe our grandkids will live with us for a while someday!?!

andrew douglas has a sock

star bright night

  

I wish I may, I wish I might...

Dinner was a light meal (macaroni and cheese with applesauce, green salad and star fruit) and the traditional candle and wishing ceremony. Brianna's candles said "Happy Birthday", which is exactly 13 letters. Perfect for this birthday girl! Everyone else got cupcakes decorated with stars.

 

Star light...

Flashlight Tag under the stars proved to be a ton of fun, in spite of weather that we Floridians consider particularly cold. It was 55 degrees. Because it was impossible  for me to get a picture  of the game, the girls took a yoga break for a minute.

 

Star bright...

I got some star quality smiles as they modeled new lipstick colors.   

     

Stars I see tonight...

There was  some singing with the stars and some baking/decorating of the stars.

THE STARS of the NIGHT

Jensen, Hannah, Natalie, Kirstie, Nellie, Nashua, Melena, Megan and Brianna

orange prices increase

This is my annual blog about my wonderful neighbor, dear old Mr. Gatch. I have been wanting a picture of him on his rickety old ladder. But I never ask  because I just couldn't stand it, if he fell while pulling mine. Last week he counted the oranges while he was bagging them up for me. 65 oranges for $3.50. That is a $.50  increase. I gave him $5 and told him to keep the change, which he, of course, refused. He might have even made me feel as if I had insulted him. I desperately hope that I didn't. Tricia said that they charge a dollar a piece for organic oranges in Charlotte. I don't know how much they charge here. But, I will be taking a couple of bushels with me next week to enjoy for the holiday.

It has been cold this week, so we talked about the weather. He told me about pulling oranges in 1960 and how cold it was and how he "bout froze to death" one night. The next night he wore snake leggings. Snake leggings protect you from snake bites as you might imagine. I had never heard of such a thing. I wonder if we can wear them to waterski? The snake leggings kept him so warm that he actually had to remove one of his jackets. I love listening his stories.

When he went to get my oranges, I saw the ladder move. Hoping this was my opportunity, I ran to my car and grabbed my camera.

 

Mr. Gatch at age 96 pulling oranges. Bless him.

where's waldo at walmart

All the youth went to Walmart tonight to look for ward members. We had quite a few false positives with the leaders and parents that were also in the store.  I found it quite entertaining.

Our Waldos:

Pierce Doerfler, Lew Clayton,

The Famularo's,  Kristen Higley

Lurlene Lawton, Steve Sizemore

Pam Shofkom