Here is some more from me.......

Let's see if I can recall some of the highlights, as compared to the low lights of the water leaking....
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Lynn and the family stayed for the rest of the day Tuesday at Magic Kingdom, getting home right before 8:00 pm. I'd left to meet Martie for a margarita and taco salad, and told Lisa I'd leave the door unlocked for them....Well, I very foolishly but automatically locked it up, so when she called me, I had to rush home to let them in. The boys were this close to tinkling in their pants, but it took me less than 1o minutes to get home from when she called me. I felt so terrible about it, and didn't even realize how late it had gotten since Martie and I met right after 6:00 p.m. when she got done working.
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They'd driven some in the rain but not all the way, thankfully. Noah showed me a photo of Manny holding up four fingers, which was how many times he went on "It's a Small World". Lisa and Gabe went into the Haunted Mansion and the Pirate ride more than once, but they are too intense for a little guy like Manny. I think they also went on the Thunder Mountain roller coaster which is a wild ride. All had a really good time, and the boys each brought home a stuffed animal souvenir courtesy of their Great Grandma K.
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Wednesday was the day we set out for Eagle Harbor where I showed Noah the neighborhoods and homes we lived in. Lisa and gang were behind us all the way but I had Noah to myself---poor guy! The boys enjoyed watching the fella cook our food right in front of them at Koko's but Manny didn't care for the oil being lit on fire and flaring up like it did. The chef did that special just for us, because ordinarily they do the "show" stuff for dinner only. It was really slow business-wise since it was noonish, but I guess that under the circumstances, it was okay.
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We stopped at Hang Ups after lunch and the boys really enjoyed petting the dogs and feeding them little treats. The kids were well behaved considering all the breakable pretties in this store, and I was happy Dee and Julia got to see them at their best behavior. All the adults were treated to a brief yet lovely back massage using Dee's glass paper weights, as is her custom. As I'd already mentioned, Lynn and I went back to the condo while the Ellisons went shopping. Lisa bought me a Catch Phrase game as a thank you gift, and I am so glad to have it. We never had enough people to play a round while they were here visiting, or at least, didn't have the interest or enough light!
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Thursday was a sleepy day weather wise. Lynn and I watched the boys while Lisa and Noah went to breakfast at Grumpy's and then shopping at the Mall, just to pass some time. I may be off a day or two on these dates but since its not for a grade, it won't matter. The days rather ran together because all it did was rain, blow, and rain some more. Thursday evening we went upstairs to the social which was forced indoors by the weather. I took summer sausage and Ritz crackers for our appetizer, as the function was named "Insteada Dinner". My downstairs neighbor, Tracy, had commented to Lisa that she heard the running sounds from my unit, and thought I must have bought myself a Dance Dance Revolution machine which would account for the racket. She was just kidding, of course, and totally understood about the boys needing to run their legs off now and again.
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We watched some TV that night, I think we watched Mr. Holland's Opus before heading off to bed. We still had electricity when we went to bed but shortly before midnight, the house grew quite silent without the sounds of TV, ceiling fans, and appliances. Oh, oh........now what? I did have ice and Justin had brought me foam coolers in case we needed to put the freezer contents into them. I'd had the foresight to set both my fridge and freezer on their coldest settings days earlier and had set dishes of water into the freezer to make blocks. This was in addition to the ice bags, juice packets and other frozen hunks to help keep things well preserved for the duration. As long as no one opened the freezer......and no one did!
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I absolutely HAD to open the fridge to get out something vital to my existence.......I'm sure you know I'm talking about my soda supply! Simply reaching and grabbing the carton as fast as I could----the kids can live without milk or juice, right? Nah, we did grab some of that, too. I had Pop Tarts on hand for times like these as well as graham crackers and Lucky Charms for the boys' breakfast. One of the days Noah made breakfast for us when we still had power, and it was the first time, I think, that bacon was cooked in my condo. The smell is absolutely intoxicating! Lynn said there should be a candle scented as "Bacon"!!! I'd buy one! He couldn't believe that I could live without bacon but I'm not usually a breakfast eater and certainly wouldn't bother making some just for myself. I made a hot breakfast on Saturday, cooking sausages and scrambled eggs with cheese in them. Yummmmmm.....
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On Friday evening we met the Rosses at Carrabba's for dinner, driving to the restaurant in the midst of a tornado warning. It seems Brenda and Carey actually saw the funnel cloud reported on the news, and it traveled down the river toward Orange Park. My friend from church, Gordy, must have called me half a dozen times with church related business as well as trying to keep me updated on the weather reports as he knew I had no power. I did have a battery radio and the little TV but it made him feel better to tell me himself. It was sweet that he called me while I was driving to the restaurant to warn me about the twister. Justin joined us for dinner and came back over to the condo with us for the evening. As we pulled up to the house, we saw Tracy and Jeff loading their car, reporting we had zip, zero, nada for electricity yet and were off to the Holiday Inn. Their friend owns it and offered them a room. As we sat around in the darkened river room waiting for a breeze, Lisa checked on their flights for the next day. All was still a go ahead for taking off. Nuts! Noah wanted to rent a larger car and drive all the way home if the flights were cancelled....I'd have hated that idea! About an hour after arriving home and sitting in the dark, warm house, Justin noticed my computer printer making noise and then, ta-da! All the lights came on and we were good to go! I immediately dashed to the laundry room and started washing the wet towels we'd gathered so far. Yippee! Justin told me he rolled down his window and shouted "thank you" to the JEA guys when he left my house. That's my boy! Lisa and I stood by the doors and listened to shouts of glee going up from the neighbors. She thought we should call Tracy and tell her the power was back on....I figured they'd be settled in for the night. It was nice to sleep with the ceiling fans on and A/C running for those who required it.....
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Lisa hadn't seen Brenda N. yet this visit so she came over on Saturday morning. It was great to see her, more so for Lisa. Brenda was able to finally meet Noah, as so many people didn't even believe he existed! Now all can see where the boys get their looks from! Or, at least, some of their good looks----Lisa contributes much to their appealing faces! I have some great photos of the boys which I'll share once I'm home on the desk top computer. Seems like that will never happen....but, of course, it will, perhaps even tomorrow already!
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The whole gang packed up and left me on Saturday afternoon, leaving around 2: 15 p.m. for the airport. Their flight didn't leave until nearly 5:00 p.m. but they wanted to make sure there was enough time for the drive out to the airport, returning the car, checking in, and finding the gate. It started to storm again just prior to 5:00 p.m. but when I sent Lisa a text, she replied that it was still okay at the airport, and they were on the plane already. Nuts! I was sort of hoping to keep them another day but that was very, very selfish thinking of me, and I'm the tiniest bit ashamed of myself!