I CAN STILL REMEMBER

I can feel the excitment in the air. Can you? Schools are letting out for the summer. I can still remember the thrill of rushing out the school door on the last day. Free at last! Free at last!

From time to time, I hear talk about the possibility of having schools in session year round. I personally don't agree with that. I think the kids, the parents, the teachers, and the staff all need a break. A time to sleep a little later, time to actually sit and enjoy lunch, time to linger over a book that YOU want to read, time to go to a movie. Getting to stay up as late as you want. Days of playing outside until dark and running around barefoot. Trips to the beach. Awwwww....Summer is finally here!


A BIG THANK YOU to all those who teach our children and grandchildren and to the staff who makes it possible for things to run smoothly.

WHOSE CHILD IS THIS?

Whose child is this?
I asked one day
Seeing a little one outside at play.
"Mine," said the parent
With a tender smile,
"Mine" to keep a little while.
To bathe him and comb his hair,
To prepare him that he may always be good
And each day do the things he should.

Whose child is this?
I asked again
As the door opened and someone came in.
"Mine," said the teacher
With a tender smile,
"Mine" to keep just for a little while.
To teach him how to be gentle and kind
And get the best he can from school.

Whose child is this?
I asked once more
Just as the little one entered the door
"Ours," said the parent and the teacher as they smiled.
And each took a hand of the little child
"Ours" to love and nurture together
Ours this blessed task forever.
~Author Unknown~



From Kat

IT'S HARD TO WAIT SOMETIMES...

Our friends, Jack and Linda, and their granddaughter, Anna Grace, came over tonight. Anna Grace was adopted by their daughter when she was a tiny baby. What a blessing she is! What a beauty too...inside and out.

Here she is with her parents and Linda aka "Cookie" back in 2003.

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As many of you know, my son and daughter-in-love are in the process of adopting from China also. The wait is soooooooooo long. Waiting is hard. They have three children of their own, but they know in their hearts that adoption is in God's plan for their family.

George and I have 9 grandchildren now. Seeing Anna Grace tonight made us excited about our next granddaughter.

We all decided to take the golf cart up to the village for dinner. Anna Grace has the giggles because her Grandpa was tickling her.

Along the way, we found a turtle crossing the road. It was moving quite quickly, I might add.

What a gorgeous night as we rode along the bay!

And just like when our grandchildren are visiting here, we "had" to go for ice cream after dinner. Can you see the eyeballs they put in the kiddie cups? Anna Grace thought that was too funny.

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Lord, thank you for this precious child.

I pray now for the mother of our future grandchild and the decision she will need to make. I pray for our son and his wife and children as they wait.

Amen

From Kat

PHOTOGRAPHY FROM MY BIKE

This is the only photo that I actually stopped to take - since we were on a small bridge.

Raise your hand if your hubby has teased you about taking so many photos "for your blogger friends"? Yep, I thought so. I know last week when Rhoda was here, both of our husbands were laughing at us wanting to stop and take photos while we were riding around on the golf cart. They teased us, but they did it. I think we've got them trained now, right Rhoda?

Tonight we took an extra long bike ride and we rode for quite awhile on the golf cart path since one of our country club courses is closed this week for work on the course. I decided to practice my photography skills while riding my bike since I know on our biking tours I'll want to take photos. For sure! (wink wink)

I usually ride in the front, so when I pulled out the camera and starting clicking away, the first thing George said was "this is for your blogger friends, right?". I said "no, I just want to practice taking photos while riding so I'll know if I can." (And that really was the reason...really!)

I was taking photos of some of the back of the houses along the way and didn't realize I "caught" my shadow until I downloaded the photos tonight. Cool, but it looks like I'm on a tall uni-cycle, doesn't it?

A few of the photos was slightly blurry, so I had to delete them, but all in all I'm pretty sure I can take photos while I bike.

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Oops...I guess they did turn into a post "for my blogger friends". If you see George, please don't tell him he was right. LOL



From Kat

SO WORTH IT!

Yum! The pizza, salad and wine was sooo worth the extra exercise I mentioned in my last post. Here we are with our friends, Dick and Linda. It was a fun night.



From Kat

HAPPY TUESDAY

I hope everyone had a good Memorial Day. I am so proud to be an American! And I'm so very, very thankful to all the military and their families for ALL they do for our country. If you didn't get a chance to see the video at the end of my last post, please do. It's an amazing tribute to our "warriors".
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"Snoop" and his assistants were the only ones allowed in Jeanette's kitchen. Awww...

We had a wonderful Memorial Day surrounded by friends and neighbors. We had two parties to attend and ate at both. Hey, "you gotta do, what you gotta do!" Right?! The first one had a full dinner of steak, baked potatoes, 2 salads, rolls, and I took the dessert. Chocolate Chip Cake and ice cream. We tried to eat lightly, but I must confess, we failed big time.

Next, we went to another friend's house and her house guest, Snoop, from Louisana did all the cooking. Two boys at the party loved helping him cook. I told them they were smart 'cause girls love guys who can cook. LOL The food was incredible. Oh.My.Word! Amazing! For the first course - grilled pheasant stuffed with cream cheese and jalapeno peppers. To die for! The second course - grilled fish. The third course - fettucine alfredo with shrimp with a tossed salad. Desert - vanilla ice cream with homemade praline sauce. Another to die for! I was stuffed from the first party (wish this party had been first), but tried a little of everything he made. Unbelievable. Sure wish he lived here!

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I haven't mentioned it lately, but we're still bicycling every day and planning our bike trip. As a matter of fact, George is on the phone right now with Backroads asking questions, etc. Tonight we have plans with friends to go out to dinner at our favorite pizza place, so this morning we rode our bikes over to the gym, worked out, and rode some more...trying to work off the calories I KNOW we'll consume tonight with the pizza and the wine.
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A SHORT FAIRY TALE

One day, long, long ago....... there lived a woman who did not whine, nag or complain.

But this was a long time ago.......and it was just that one day.

~The End~

(Hmmmmm.....wonder if George wrote this? LOL)

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Rhoda at Southern Hospitality is back home after her visit here in "Paradise" and is posting lots of photos and info from her trip, including photos from the time we spent together. If you've never visited her blog, you really should. She has a fun blog to visit. And to all of you who commented on my post about her visit here and thought we looked like sisters, I thank you. I take that as a compliment since I think she's beautiful...inside and out.

Come back soon Rhoda...there's still lots we can do!



From Kat

GRADUATION TRIP HIGHLIGHTS

Friday:

Miss Daisy always gets nervous when she sees us packing suitcases, so she was a happy girl when she got to hop in the car and go with us. She's a great traveler though.

The traffic wasn't too bad and we made good time.

Here we are with our sweet granddaughter, Kristin, at her graduation party. It was a casual barbecue party around their pool. So much food. I couldn't believe how much there was until more and more and more people kept coming. There was a large crowd of family and friends.

Here's Kristin thanking everyone after opening her gifts.

Kristin is our oldest granddaughter and here is our youngest, Karrigan, with Kristin's dog, Misty. I think Misty just wanted to nap. (See Karrigan's cupcake icing mustache?)

Our oldest grandson, Zac, (Kristin's brother) and his roommates sang and played guitars. This is a very short video of Zac singing. By the time I thought to do a video, he was almost through, so you only hear a tiny bit.

They all sang for us.
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SATURDAY MORNING:

Since the graduation wasn't until 9:00 PM (yep, I typed that correctly), we had the whole day to do whatever we wanted. We went through the drive-in windows at Krispy Kreme and Starbucks for a quick breakfast and hit the road for a day of exploring with Miss Daisy. We went to two really beautiful parks and did our walks. It was a beautiful day, but so HOT!

I asked George to drive by my grandparents old home and we did, but it had been torn down. I was so disappointed. Then we decided to go check out all the houses we owned in my hometown since we married. I decided it might be a good idea to take some photos.

This is the our very first house after we married in 1978. They must have pulled up the original landscaping and started over??? It's still a cute little house.

We moved into this house when I was pregnant with Bree in 1981. It's actually a tri-level house. The basement has a bedroom, bath, laundry room and den with a fireplace. This was in a great neighborhood to raise our children.

I think we moved into this one just around the corner in 1985. It looked so much better back then. There were LOTS of trees out front in the pinestraw bed when we owned it. I used to plant tons of impatients under their shade and they were always so gorgeous. It made us sad to see it look so neglected.

This was the last house we owned in my hometown. We planted a palm tree out by the pool and when we rode by and looked toward the backyard, you could see it clearly over the tall fence. It had really grown big!

In 1991, we moved to Atlanta (one more house), then Nashville (two houses there), then back to Atlanta (another house). In 2001 George retired and we moved to "paradise".

This is our home today. I wish I had photos of our homes in Atlanta and Nashville readily available to post, but I'm too lazy to find them and download them tonight...maybe another time. Anyway, it was fun to re-visit our old homes.

This is the church where I attended as a child and where I was baptised.

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Saturday Night:

This quote was on the graduation invitations and program:

"This is not an end, only a beginning. A new start on a path into the world. Our hopes and dreams have brought us this far and before us lies a future unfurled."

243 graduates and guests listened to the Northside Singers (on the left) sing "Time to Say Good-bye"

During the recessional, the teaches formed a "path" for the graduates to exit.

Gosh, we're so proud of Kristin!

As soon as he saw her after the graduation, Zac picked up Kristin and swirled her around. It was a very sweet moment.

Here we are with Kristin and Zac.

It was 11:15 PM before we left the Civic Center!

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Sunday:

This morning we packed quickly and got on the road. Again, Miss Daisy was anxious to travel with us when she saw us packing our suitcases. Pets are so funny about suitcases, aren't they?

We were home in time to do a late lunch at the village, so Miss Daisy got her golf cart ride in. LOL! We're all glad to be home.

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HAVE A SAFE AND HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY EVERYONE!

Take a moment to watch this powerful video in honor of our warriors! Click here. (It only takes a few seconds to load and it's well worth watching.)



From Kat