My Summer Vacations

My grandchildren and my son-in-law during our 'after the 4th of july' picnic at the park.


My husband and my granddaughter, Sophia, the day before we left to come home.


Sophia, playing model in the window of a store in the mall.

I haven't been home much since the end of May. The last few years, my husband and I have spent my birthday in Alabama so I can be with the grandchildren. And even though we returned home to Florida during the first week in June, I was on my way back to Alabama two and a half weeks later with my sister and niece. We enjoyed a short visit and returned home six days later, joined by my daughter and my two grandchildren. My son-in-law couldn't get off from work so they came to visit family and friends without him. Because of the 4th of July weekend, their visit was a short one. After only 3 days they returned home just in time for the celebrations going on in their hometown and my husband and I decided to join them again. I had barely unpacked and I was packing again. Because somewhere along the way I had hurt the heal of my left foot and found it difficult to walk a lot, I stayed behind when everyone attended the 'First Friday' celebration and again the next night when everyone went to the fireworks display over the Coosa River. But I did manage to make it to the BBQ at my daughter's house on the 4th.
This stay was only six days, and we returned home to Florida this past Wednesday. Before we left my daughter told us that if we wanted, we could take our ten year old grandson with us if we promised to get him back in a week or so. Needless to say, we agreed and Jesse returned to Florida with us. He and my husband have been enjoying swimming in the pool for the past few days and Jesse will be going to Busch Gardens tomorrow with his other grandparents. The following day we will be taking him to Fort Myers to Thomas Edison's summer home and museum, which he is excited about. He loves museums and anything educational. Though my husband can't take off from work again so soon, I will be leaving again this Thursday to bring my grandson back to Alabama, with my mom (his great grandma) along for the ride. This will be another 5 or 6 day trip. I will be returning in time to celebrate my sister's 50th birthday with her. I am thrilled that I am getting to spend so much time with my grandchildren this summer, but I know that it is only going to make me miss them all the more when the trips come to an end. I just can't wait until we can finally sell our home in Florida and make the permanent move to be near them.

Botanical Gardens

For the past few years I have chosen to celebrate my birthday in Alabama with my grandchildren, so we headed north this past weekend. I got to spend my birthday with my daughter, son-in-law, grandkids and close friends. The day after my birthday we took a small road trip to Birmingham to the Botanical Gardens. The following pictures are from the gardens, though they don't do it justice at all. It was truly beautiful there. While we were in the Japanese Gardens there was a wedding taking place on a bridge. We were able to hear the ceremony as we walked the path around the bridge. It was a magical setting for a wedding and it made me wish I was young and getting married all over again. I didn't take any pictures of the wedding, sorry, but I didn't want to intrude.


My grandson, Jesse, inside the tropical greenhouse.



My husband and Jesse at the botanical gardens




My daughter bought me a beautiful hydrangea plant from the gardens as my present, which I had my husband plant in our front yard at our Alabama residence. It is much bigger than my plants here in Florida, and it seems they are more common and grow beautifully up there.

Missing The Grandkids

After visiting Alabama for Christmas and spending a little over two weeks, it was hard to leave and come back to Florida. My grandson gets upset when we leave so my husband promised him we would be back in March sometime. We kept our promise and returned for a short visit at the very end of March and stayed thru Easter. We enjoyed spending the holiday there, but again it was hard to leave, especially because my grandson was scheduled to have surgery only a week later. The surgery was minor surgery but still I wished that I could have been there. Jesse's surgery was successful and he is doing well. His little sister was playing nursemaid to him for the first few days after the surgery. Now when we talk to her on the phone the first thing she tells us is that Jesse is all better. In this wonderful age of technology we often make video calls so we can see and talk to Jesse and Sophia, but that only makes me miss them more.
During our visit we also enjoyed spending some time with our close friends who moved to Alabama two years ago from Florida. Our daughters are close friends also and we all gathered at our friends house for a wonderful Easter holiday meal and fellowship. There is nothing better than spending the holidays with with family and close friends. The weather was absolutely gorgeous and we were able to enjoy our meal outside on their huge front porch. The only thing that would have made it better is if their oldest daughter and her family, and my youngest daughter could have been there also.

Extended Holiday Weekend

Hope everyone had a great 4th and is recuperating nicely. We are still in Alabama enjoying the grandchildren. Friday night we attended the monthly "First Friday" celebration and it was bigger than ever. Saturday we had a great bbq/party at my daughter's house and went to the Broad Street bridge at 9 to watch the fireworks. It was great being with family and friends again.
During our stay I managed to hit 3 of the local thrift shops where I finally found a table for my kitchen. I have been looking for the past month. A quick paint job and it will be perfect. My next search and find will be a table or table and chairs set for my front porch, or maybe a small shelf or sofa table that will fit in my hallway. The more furniture I can find and buy in the thrift shops means the less furniture I will have to take when we finally move.

Time With The Grandkids

Last month my husband and I went to visit our grandkids in Alabama for a week. We have a small house in downtown Gadsden just 3 blocks from my daughter, Cindy's house. Because both Cindy and her husband work, little Sophia is in daycare...but not when mama and papa visit. Sophia is a beautiful, smart, sweet little fireball. She is two, need I say more. Her brother, Jesse, is 9 and he is a wonderful, understanding, loving brother. (He doesn't really have a choice with Sophia). The first day of our visit, Sophia, excited to see us, came running up our walkway wearing flip-flops and flopped right at our porch step hitting her little face on the brick step. Poor Sophia had a nice little black eye and cut under her eye...but it only slowed her down for about 5 minutes. She was quickly back to normal. Because we don't see the kids as often as we would like, whenever we visit we try to bring them a present each. Sophia's present was a cheerleading kit with pom-poms, a floor mat and a instructional DVD. She loved it and by the time we left to come back to Florida she was cheering right along with the girls on the DVD. We like to try and do something special with each child whenever we visit. For example, on our last visit we went to Hobby Lobby and bought melt and pour soaps and cute candy molds and each made their own special soaps. This trip Sophia and I made blueberry muffins and Papa and Jesse made an exploding volcano.
On the weekend when Cindy and her husband were home, we all went on a picnic at Noccalula Falls and afterwards we went to this area on Rainbow Drive across from a park where the kids could play in the huge water fountain type fun area.I really can't wait to go back, the area is beautiful and so are my grandkids.

Shopping Day

I really needed to get out of the house today, it was just one of those days. I didn't have any important errands to run, though I did have to mail a package to an Etsy customer, so I went thrift store browsing. I hit two of the local thrift stores, St. Vincent de Paul where I spent all of $3.00 on 3 small decorative items, and Goodwill where I spent $7.00 on a "Alabama" plate and a small gnome. Before I headed home I had to stop at the local Target store where I found an adorable straw picnic basket. My daughter has been looking for one just like it for a while now so I bought it for her. Now that I am back home I think I will continue my shopping on-line. Some of my favorite etsy shops are coffeeandcream.etsy.com, considerthelillies.etsy.com, thelillyofthevalley.etsy.com, thecozynest.etsy.com. Also on Artfire check out www.fr8rain.artfire.com. This shop has commerical grade elastic and lace.