Isn't she lovely!

I've just returned from spending three weeks in Virginia with Ella and her family. When I was there in April for Easter, there were some tulips and daffodils, and the dogwood was just beginning to bud along with the other trees and shrubs. Four weeks later when I returned, everything was in full leaf and flower. We grow so accustomed in Florida to having flowers all year around that I don't appreciate the newness of spring when I see it, although I must say that it is so refreshing to see the earth awake after the barren winter.

Some of you have commented on my photography. Most of the photos that you see of Ella were taken by either David or Sabrina, and I've just "borrowed" them. The photos above were taken at Easter. It is so neat to see how much Ella has grown and developed each time I visit. I cherish each visit with her. I continue to be amazed and amused by her vocabulary and some of her antics.

This past week when I was there David was away at a conference, and so I requested that Ella go to her sitter's for part of that week since I was rising early to do her treatments with her and get her ready for the day. On Thursday when I went to pick her up at Ginny's, she was happy to see me and said to Ginny and Phil, "Here comes my best friend, Grammy!"

I arrived home on Sunday after a very smooth trip down I-95. Traffic was not heavy, and there were no backups or accidents. I made it all the way to mile marker 3 in Georgia around 6 Saturday night and then came on home Sunday morning. It's always good to be home, even though I love my time in Virginia.

Today I was at my church, volunteering in the office, answering the phone while the staff had its weekly meeting. One of my "jobs" is to do a mailing to some of the seniors in the church. The pastor writes a weekly letter to them and includes a fun sheet with a word search and other interesting facts. As I was putting the address stickers on the envelopes and thinking about some of the people that I know, I thought how much they must look forward to receiving this letter each week. Personal mail is almost a thing of the past, isn't it. I remember someone complaining about all the junk mail they received, and the elderly person commented that junk mail was the only mail they received.

One of the ladies who receives this letter is now 101. I have known her since I was a young girl. Her husband has been gone for many years. One of her daughters who looked after her here got cancer and died a few years ago. Now she is living with a granddaughter in the Tampa area. She was at our church not too long ago, and I had the opportunity to speak with her. Her mind is still sharp, and she's in pretty good health, and she has a loving home to be in.

Another lady who receives this letter is 96 or 97. Her husband was the first pastor of the church I belong to now. Breathing difficulties make it hard for her to get out, but she has this connection with her church family.

It's a little thing, but I'm glad that I have a little part in brightening these folks' day.

I hope that something happens to you today to brighten your day.

Welcome Home

Bradenton became my home when I was four. My parents moved there after World War II ended to begin a new life after having lived in Lacoochee for several years. Since we were away from family, we took trips back to Lacoochee and Trilby to visit my father's parents and to Starke to visit my mother's parents. My mother and daddy had a '36 Chevrolet in that fashionable color of black. There were no interstates, and to a four-year-old, those trips seemed like an eternity.

Whenever we returned the trip, this sign was a welcome sight. It meant that we were home. This sign is now in our South Florida Museum...not the original sign, but a replica...a sweet reminder.

Carmi's theme this week is "signs." You can join in or see other signs at his site.

Smiles

I've read for sometime a blog by a mom of a 3-year-old toddler in California. Often she includes "Froggyisms," some of the funny things that her daughter comes up with. I commented once that I could hardly wait until Ella would be coming up with her own funny sayings.

Yesterday a nap was not in the schedule, Ella's schedule, that is. She usually goes right down and sleeps for three hours, and I generally get a nap in too. Not yesterday. I finally gave up and got some markers and paper out. When she managed to do it, I'm not sure, but sometime during our art project, she marked all over the bottom of her feet. When she got into the tub for her bath, she was quite upset that she wouldn't be "The Mixed-Up Chameleon" any more. Now you have to know Eric Carle's children's book by that title to understand..

Last night around 8 o'clock, she had her bath already and all the things that have to be done in getting her ready for bed. There was plenty of daylight outside, and she could hear children's voices outside. She went to the door and said, "My friends!" A couple of middle-school aged children from next door came over to the door, and Ella said, "I'm trapped inside!" That brought a chuckle to us all.

Growing up too fast

I'm going to take a quick trip to the store, Dad. Be back in a few.

Wordless Wednesday

Ask me what I did on Mother's Day

I read so many beautiful posts about Mother's Day yesterday. They were all so great. Sarah took me out for breakfast yesterday morning and then she asked me what I'd like to do. My response was, "Why don't we work on cleaning out the garage?"

Some time ago I had asked her to help me start getting rid of "stuff." My garage has lots of stuff. There is room for the car, but there is a lot of stuff. Sarah is super-organized. I'm not. Having taught kids who had labels like LD, EMH, EH, ADHD, I decided that I deserve the label OD - organizationally disabled. It's true... sad, but true.

We had worked on the garage some already, but yesterday as we worked there, actually Sarah did most of the work, we uncovered some treasures. In a small box were some school papers and art work that had been done over the years. I unfolded one paper, and it was quite a nice finger painting that Sarah had done. I opened another booklet, and it was a cookbook that David's kindergarten teacher had compiled and put together for the mom's.

I smiled as we went through the "stuff" and I discovered those treasures.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I've had these photos waiting to be posted for a while. When I was on my way to Virginia back in April, I stopped in North Carolina for a couple of visits. Spring was just bursting forth.


A lovely home in a little North Carolina town.

The old tobacco barn at my friend's house

And a great friend, Kenju, whom I've met through blogging. This is the third time I've visited with her. The first time she drove over to the interstate for lunch. Last time I went to her house, and she served lunch. This time I took her out for lunch.

One of the lovely yards across the street from Kenju's house.

Fifty Years!

This past weekend our high school class celebrated our 50th year as graduates of Manatee High School in Bradenton. Friday morning several of us gathered to decorate the Palma Sola Botanical Park for the festivities of the evening.

Can you tell our school colors were red, white, and blue? As these balloons were being inflated, a few got away and landed on the ceiling. At the beginning we heard a loud pop as too much helium went into one of them. As they were tied, they were stored in the men's bathroom until ready to put them on the tables and tie them around the deck outside.

We were and are the Manatee High Hurricanes. On game day, hurricane warning flags fly. Our high school was the county high school until 1959 when the high school across the river had its first graduating class in many years. Now there are six.

It's always interesting to gather and reminisce. Some of the boys at dinner Saturday night were talking about cherry bombs and all the mischief they got into. The comment was made that you could walk into any store and buy the equipment needed for making all these things. They would have been a threat to the community these days. A lot of engineers came out of our class. Two of the very popular girls went into convents and lived as nuns for a few years. Our class president, whom we thought would surely be governor one day, did become an attorney, and continues to work in Dade County today.

The thing I like about these reunions is that we're all on a level playing field now. You can pretty much still tell who the cheerleaders were, who the rascals were, who the brainy ones were, but we've all gotten to be senior citizens with our extra pounds, some wrinkles where there were none, artificial joints here and there, but we still laugh together, cry together, and remember the "good times" we had in the fifties.

I think this is how most of us felt when the two evenings were over -- "too pooped to pop!"

April 30, 2002

We woke up just like any other day. Don got ready for work and was off, and I went over to church to answer the phones while the staff was in its weekly meeting. I came home at noon, checked some e-mail, and after a while started to get ready to go to the gym. When I got up from the desk, I looked out the window to see my pastor's wife coming to the door.

I welcomed her in, and she told me, "We need to sit down." And then the date April 30 was etched in my mind forever. Don's life had been taken in an accident. Seven years have passed. Each year, not just on the date, but leading up to it, emotions still run the gamut.

This is my favorite photo of him. Sarah posted it on her Faceb*ok page tonight, remembering her dad. I had often kidded him that when he died, I was going to lay him out in his work clothes because that was the way that most people knew him. I didn't, but I often wished I had. That was what he was most comfortable in. I know most of you have read my previous posts about Don, but if you haven't, you can find them here and here.

Round - Carmi's Theme

During my visit with Ella in February, we were reading her little Highlights magazine, and there was a story about marbles in it. I told her that on a future trip, I would bring some marbles, and we would play some games. She went right upstairs, opened the closet door, and brought out a bag of marbles. Since we were upstairs, I told her, we would play with them on the bed. That way they wouldn't roll too far away. Even with that precaution, some of them ended up on the floor, rolling away.

When I told Ella's mom we were playing with them, and I was afraid that they might be some kind of keepsake, she said they were left over from some craft project that she had done, and she had no idea that Ella even knew where they were. I'll tell you, there is not much that the girl misses.

Carmi's photographic theme this week is "round," and I figured I better get this post up before time runs out. Visit his site for more photos of "round."

Unwanted visitors

In a post a while ago, I wrote about taking the garbage out late one night. I moved the garbage can, and underneath it was a little snake, just a grass snake I thought. When he saw him, he coiled up and got ready to strike. I know that the snakes can only strike the length of their bodies, so I wasn't too frightened, but I did cut him in two pieces with a shovel. I'm assuming it was a pygmy rattler.

Kenju wrote in her post today about a boarder who seems to have taken up residence under her deck. This in turn has attracted a fox who seems to be interested.

Neither of these visitors compares with the visitor in the video below. It was on our local news this past week.

Floral - Carmi's theme - 2

But a weed is simply a plant that wants to grow where people want something else. In blaming nature, people mistake the culprit. Weeds are people's idea, not nature's.-

Anonymous

Floral-Carmi's theme

When I drove to Virginia a couple of weeks ago, I saw spring in its many different stages. In north Florida, I saw the trees bursting forth with new green leaves. I arrived at my friend's home in North Carolina where there was a fair amount of new life. As I traveled further north and arrived at my son's house, some of the tulips and daffodils were out, but not a whole lot else.

Having lived in Florida and Haiti for most of my life, where we, of course, have the four seasons, it is hard sometimes to distinguish one from the other. We have deciduous trees, but the season is so quick when their leaves fall. The new ones are there immediately. The spring green is there when one takes the time to notice.

And so I have enjoyed these two weeks of seeing new life erupt everywhere I look, and when I return in a few weeks, everything will be in full bloom, awaiting the summer season. Ella and I have enjoyed walking around the neighborhood, enjoying the flowers and listening to the birds singing. The robins have been bobbing about. She thinks they should be still while she approaches them.

Look around you - winter is over.

the winter rains are over, gone!

Spring flowers are in blossom all over.

The whole world's a choir—and singing!

Spring warblers are filling the forest

with sweet arpeggios.

Lilacs are exuberantly purple and perfumed,

and cherry trees fragrant with blossoms

Song of Solomon 2

For more photos of flowers, visit Carmi's blog.

Love at First Sight!

On this day in history the Titanic sank, Abraham Lincoln was shot, and David Whitcomb was born. Someone who shares David's birthday sent me a note with those facts tonight. I must say that the only one that I was aware of was the important one...David's birthday.

Tax day...isn't that a birthday to have! It happens that the year David was born, it happened to be Easter Sunday, so that took some of the edge off of tax day. My good friend, Sara, who worked in accounting was in her office that Sunday. I knew she would be. I called her after he was born, and she said to me, "He may be the Easter bunny this year, but from now on, he'll be Form 1040."

The years pass by so quickly, don't they. The little boy who hurried his appearance into the world has brought much joy to me and his father. His sister likes him just a little too. Now he's all grown up with a family of his own.

Happy birthday, David...the big 3-0. You are making your mother feel very old, but very proud. I loved the little boy that you were, and I love and respect the man that you have become.

He is Risen-He is Risen Indeed

Warm Easter Greetings to you all this morning! Rejoice!

I attended a Good Friday service this evening. It used to be that these services were at noon on Friday, and businesses closed or let employees off to attend. Some still do; that is, allow people to attend services during the day, but many churches have gone to an evening service.

There was no preaching tonight, simply the contemplation of God's love pouring out for us, sinners as we are. We sang a couple of contemporary songs, but most were the old hymns that I learned as a child. I love to be able to sing without having to look at the words. The song below is one that we sang. I found the words here, and in reading the verses, found a couple that I have never seen in a hymn book.

Beneath the cross of Jesus I fain would take my stand,
The shadow of a mighty rock within a weary land;
A home within the wilderness, a rest upon the way,
From the burning of the noontide heat, and the burden of the day.

O safe and happy shelter, O refuge tried and sweet,
O trysting place where Heaven’s love and Heaven’s justice meet!
As to the holy patriarch that wondrous dream was given,
So seems my Savior’s cross to me, a ladder up to heaven.

There lies beneath its shadow but on the further side
The darkness of an awful grave that gapes both deep and wide
And there between us stands the cross two arms outstretched to save
A watchman set to guard the way from that eternal grave.

Upon that cross of Jesus mine eye at times can see
The very dying form of One Who suffered there for me;
And from my stricken heart with tears ,two wonders I confess;
The wonders of redeeming love and my unworthiness.

I take, O cross, thy shadow for my abiding place;
I ask no other sunshine than the sunshine of His face;
Content to let the world go by - to know no gain or loss,
My sinful self my only shame, my glory all the cross.

I read today in several posts "It's Friday, but Sunday's coming." Hallelujah!

What a Savior

Man of sorrows, what a name

For the Son of God, who came

Ruined sinners to reclaim.

Hallelujah! What a Savior!

Bearing shame and scoffing rude,

In my place condemned He stood;

Sealed my pardon with His blood.

Hallelujah! What a Savior!

Guilty, vile, and helpless we;

Spotless Lamb of God was He;

“Full atonement!” can it be?

Hallelujah! What a Savior!

Lifted up was He to die;

“It is finished!” was His cry;

Now in Heav’n exalted high.

Hallelujah! What a Savior!

When He comes, our glorious King,

All His ransomed home to bring,

Then anew His song we’ll sing:

Hallelujah! What a Savior!

Edible--indeed!

One of the treats of the trip to St. Augustine was shopping--window shopping for me. There were many appealing shops to visit. One that I especially enjoyed had all things related to cats. Another one was this chocolate shop. My mouth watered; my eyes danced at the sights, but I resisted. I asked the clerk if she minded my taking some photos, and she said, "Go right ahead." I'm sure she figured it might be good advertisement.

Edibles in all forms. Carmi's theme this week is "edible." Whose taste buds wouldn't be tempted by all this chocolate in its many forms.

As I turned to leave the store, I passed by shelves of shirts, all singing the praises of chocolate. I especially enjoyed this one.

Places I've Been

About three weeks ago, I boarded a bus and headed for the east coast of Florida visiting the historic city of St. Augustine. I had the opportunity to go with a group of retired educators and miscellaneous retirees. It is nice to let someone else do the driving for a change, although there were parts of the trip when I wished I hadn't been on the bus. When we got to St. Augustine, I thought we would get off and have a tour by trolley around the city. Instead the tour we were with had the bus driver drive around the city while the tour guide lectured. The lecturer was really good, but it was sometimes hard to see.

After the ride around the city on the bus, we did have time to go for lunch and to walk around the city. The historic section is quite small, and one can easily walk to all the places where we had been by bus. Riding around and walking around the city brought back the memories of when we took our children there when we were younger. There are some things that never change.

The delightful way to see the city would be in the horse-drawn carriage as you see here. Even though it was close to spring break time, it was not terribly crowded, and that was a nice thing. Pleasant weather and a good companion made the trip very enjoyable. I roomed with a lady from New York who is down for the winter. She, like I, am a widow, and we found that we had so much in common. For not knowing each other before going on the trip, we got along famously.

I could not resist taking this photo. I wonder how many of these are given out these days.

Reflective

Carmi's theme this week is "reflective." I really didn't need an excuse to post this photo, but it fits the theme, and it is one of my favorite photos of Ella. I have tried since that day to get more photos of her showing her reflection, but she's too quick these days. Is she cute, or what!

Some have asked where I've been...a little bogged down, a little lazy, spending too much time on Facebook. I do read everyone's blogs, even if I don't take time to comment. Our Sweet Adelines chorus is on its way to competition this weekend in Daytona Beach, and then I'm on my way to Virginia for a couple of weeks with Ella. See you then.