All set to go!

I make my mom nervous by not packing too far ahead of my departure. I am fairly well organized, knowing what I wish to take and where to find it in my dresser, drawers, and closet. My joke is that I pack from across the room, quite the opposite of some of my friends who pack their bags so neatly. Once I stand my bag up on end the whole works heads to the bottom anyway so who cares? I have some things about which I am particular, but packing my bag is not one of them!

Yesterday afternoon I started throwing stuff into my bag which was open on the foot of my bed. In about 15 minute's time I was zipped up and ready to go, lacking only the cosmetic bag which I yet needed in the morning. My friend, Nancy W., is taking me to the airport, our planned departure from here is 6:45 in hopes of beating most of the heavy traffic. She had wanted me to go to The Club for dinner last evening but I had to decline because of church and being with Justin. 

It was a very nice service, almost like singing hymns from Favorite Hymn Sunday. We had 24 people in church including 5 visitors, four of which were Judy's family. Her grandson, David, is graduating from UF Law school on Saturday so family will be on hand for that, and in our pews!  Also, a young man from Victory, the only one who came across the bridge during rush hour. He couldn't believe that Victory didn't have worship for Ascension. He recently moved up here from Sarasota where they had a regular worship schedule. I was glad he made the effort. He looked so handsome, too, all dressed in a suit. I am glad he enjoyed the service with us. 

Jessica, Judy's granddaughter, invited me to dinner with them after church but Justin and I already had plans to eat Chinese food he was having delivered from Ming Moon for our last dinner together in May. (Sniffle, sniffle). He ordered extra food so he has it available to him during the week plus his meal for dinner. I had an order of cheese wontons which are my favorite. And enough to hold me over until I eat the next time. I am not hungry this morning yet. 

Once we finished eating, Justin finished up the prep needed for my iPad for use on my trip, and we each went to our rooms. He was exhausted from working and I was just ready to settle in. Nancy will get a wake up call from me as we pre-arranged 'just in case' and I am showering this morning as a courtesy to my fellow travelers. I am waiting to shower for a little bit so as not to wake my neighbors but then I am ready to go. I know Justin is up already so we'll get to say official good-byes before he leaves for work. I will keep in touch, folks, but God's blessings in the meantime! Manitowoc, here I come!!!

Ascension Day

Today is Ascension Day. It is a bit of an overlooked special day in the church year. This is the day we remember Jesus left earth to return to His Father's right hand. Yesterday I asked Pastor H. if we were having Bible study today because of it being Ascension Day. He said we would have class and asked if we had worship tonight. I told him we do, and I looked forward to Bible study. I also look forward to our evening service tonight, singing the hymns, and then saying 'good-bye' to my friends, until we meet again in June, God willing. 

This morning I was watching Fox & Friends. They had segment showing a man out on the patio area cooking bbq and sharing it with passersby, and later with the hosts. The man was a representative of a restaurant called Mission BBQ, strong supporters of Wounded Warriors. In their restaurant every day at noon, work stops, diners pause and stand to sing the National Anthem. Goose bumps!!!  I sent Linda a text message (my computer was resetting) to tell her about it, and she wrote back that she was watching it, with tears on her face. So cool! I can easily imagine that happening at my new favorite place, 4Rivers BBQ. At noon, the place is busy with Navy folks in their flight suits and other military apparel. I can just hear it!

Watching and listening to that segment reminded me of something Justin experienced a couple years ago. He was working alone on a property not far from the base. His equipment is pretty noisy so he wears ear covers besides having his ear bud in his good ear. I guess he was changing equipment or something when he heard something strange. He uncovered his ears and sure enough, he could hear the National Anthem being played over a sound system from the Base. He was not sure what the protocol was for this, so he decided to just listen without continuing to work until the anthem was over. I don't know if he put his hand on his heart but I wouldn't be surprised if had. I guess that happens every day on the Base only we didn't know it. 

We didn't have Bible study last week due to a new fence going up and our leader, Cary, needed to supervise the project. Pastor is back now from vacation so was our leader today. And the fence never got put up either. Some kind of problem with where to drop the sections or whatever is holding up the process. It is a shared fence with the subdivision next door and they are the ones paying for it. Nice!  Patience is the watchword for this project.

One of our ladies is back from her annual trip to New York. She brings back special souveniers including a booklet for Pastor from a Jewish museum she toured. And for me? A man in a stationery store gave Dawn a paper with his life's philosophy handwritten on it. Two pages! That's a lot of philosophy. Dawn gave it to me, knowing I would enjoy it. All the statements are positive, good advice for living, etc. I shall cherish it! How nice of her to share that with me!  

Fanatical fans

Last night Justin and I enjoyed an episode of Jeopardy! where celebrities were playing against each other to earn money for charity. Justin and I were thrilled to see Packer QB Aaron Rodgers go up against an astronaut and an entrepreneur. And Aaron came out on top, his winnings to go fight juvenile cancers and blood diseases. I was as proud as if I was his mama! One of the best things he did was nearly sweep the Bible category, missing one because of hesitating. Way to go, Aaron!

Earlier in the evening, I spent some time on the sundeck with my neighbors. Yesterday I had given them a dish of fruit salad leftover from Sunday's luncheon. Kathy returned the empty dish with a bottle of body lotion in it. This soothing lotion is intended to ease stress and calm nerves. Jokingly she said she puts it on first thing in the morning as she faces a day with her dear momma. I can see that...Elizabeth is 86 years old, a remarkable business woman in her younger days but now showing signs of aging and what often comes with it. We'll leave it at that. What the heck---I'll give this lotion a try. 

Kathy was telling me about her son's house he recently purchased in the Atlanta area. He has some stuff to do it in order to personalize it, including some painting. More than once Elizabeth and she have mentioned the red door on his slate grey home which I think is the ideal color. Only last night did it occur to me the reason why the red door has to go---red is a GA Bulldog color!!! These people are Gator fans through and through. From nail polish to wine glasses to having their van painted in Gator colors. No red door for him, even if it is perfect for the house. 

Now, if a person would drive around in WI, you might see assorted Packer adornments such as mailboxes or flags outside homes, etc. I am a Packer fan but I cannot imagine NOT using a certain color just because it's the color another NFL team sports. (See what I did there?) I can't speak for other Packer fans, they may be as fanatical as these folks are!

Elizabeth has a quilt made by her granddaughter which used the deceased grandpa's old shirts. Elizabeth showed me the swatches, identified which shirt it came from, so sentimental. There was one red square, right in the center, from her husband's shirt worn only on Fridays to show patriotism. Otherwise no red shirts were worn, because of the Bulldogs, longtime foes of the Gators. I have never heard of such devotion to a team or disdain for another, and this is college ball, not even pro. I find it amusing but keep that to myself as best I can, and will make other suggestions for the door color for Tom's house!

Pressing business

I had a rough night last night sleep-wise. I got settled in and dropped off to dreamland after 10:30 pm and found myself awakened by a thunderstorm right around 11:00. What? I was just snoozing so good, too! Normally a storm won't bother me but this one had wind blowing the rain hard against my windows which gave me some pause. I did have my water alarms in place but still had to get up to check the walls for dripping water. Thankfully, found none!

For the duration of the storm I stayed awake, listening and sort of waiting for the power to go out. It did not nor did I fall back to sleep. I heard my clock strike 1:00 a.m. and believe I did go to sleep while listening to "Frasier" reruns. Before I did finally drop off, one particular exchange forced me to write to my sister, Lori, and share it with her. She and I used to laugh over "Frasier", especially when I started to collect the DVDs. So funny!  That's the problem with laughing ones self to sleep...giggling and snoring at the same time!

I woke up at least one more time in the middle of the night/early morning, changed the channel to listen to Law & Order, and went back to sleep. At some point I changed it to Fox News but didn't wake up until well after 8:00! That never happens, so I think I am caught up. So, why don't I feel like it?

Once I was up and about, showered and dressed, I planted myself at the desk. There is stuff to do before I leave for WI including getting the Ladies' Group Minutes typed up and sent over to Terri for presenting at the next meeting, which I will miss. Next I have an assignment from Justin to complete---marking on a guide which "Seinfeld" episodes I want him to load on the iPad for me to use for sleeping when in WI. Not taking the little laptop along this time will make my load lighter for traveling. He got me a keyboard for the iPad so I can type on it while away, work on the church newsletter, etc. when at Mom's. He thinks of everything!

Besides that type of working going on, I should clean off my desk a bit in case something happens to me and I don't make it back. Don't want my legacy to be that of a messy desk. I have enough stuff for Justin to have etched into my grave marker such as "She put her cast iron fry pan in the dishwasher".  If I get to it, I get to it, though. No water exercise class for me just yet, still thinking the water is not quite warm enough for me. The Friday Nancy and I had breakfast at The Club Marlena said the water temp was only 75. That is a definite NO! from me. Nancy swam much of the winter as she is tougher than I am, plus her pool is more shallow than The Club's so warms more quickly.

I got some more video today of the manatees romping in the basin. My sister, Kerry, has been asking for it so I sent it to her via e-mail. I hope she enjoys it. In the house with my windows closed I could hear the water splashing but don't believe that transferred to the video. Such fun they were having, or whatever....

Mother's Day luncheon

At the end of February, Justin prepared and served a wonderful luncheon for some of my lady friends from the building and from The Club. We had planned to have a second luncheon for the church ladies but then ran out of time before he went back to work full time this spring. It was his idea to do a luncheon for Mother's Day for our Sunday group, minus Terri T. 

 Here is the table all dressed for the luncheon

 The first course was strawberry soup with the angel food cake croutons. Mike S. said he'd never had such a soup before and described it as being 'refreshing'

 Here is the glazed fruit salad. Unfortunately we were unable to find fresh strawberries so he had to use frozen ones instead. They got a bit mushy but still tasted good

This is the kalamata olive salad tossed with Caesar dressing. Mike loved this salad, saying he could make a meal out of it. Justin bagged it up for him to-go since he doesn't eat it 

Justin made his tasty chicken salad using rotisserie birds, grapes, red onion, garlic, slivered almonds, and mixed with Greek yogurt. This was served in pastry cups

Justin used his Apple watch and his iPhone 6Plus to take our picture. He propped his phone on the glass piece in the river room and remotely snapped the photo of our group. From left is Mike, me, Justin, Betty, Michael, Judy, and David (Judy's grandson)

Fried chicken, anyone?

Today we didn't have Bible study because of a project going on at Victory requiring our leader's attention. Cary is taking Pastor's place while Anne and he are on vacation in Alaska. I hate to miss class but it can't be avoided. I'll have to find something else to do!

Nancy and I decided to go have lunch at The Club, on Fried Chicken day! On Thursdays they offer a mini-buffet besides the regular menu. Not all the offerings are up my alley but their fried chicken certainly is! So good!

Her gentleman friend had been in town for a visit during the week so she filled me in on where they'd gone and such. I mentioned how the other Nancy had tried getting hold of her for dinner for Bill's birthday dinner at The Club but this Nancy said she didn't get a message. In reality, she had but didn't recognize the number. We got that all figured out so the next time she gets an invite, she can make it. I didn't mind having Bill and Nancy M. to myself for the night, though!

Justin and I are eating in tonight, meal yet to be determined. We are trying to be done eating dinner before 8:00 so that Justin has a couple of hours of digestion before he goes to bed. He usually doesn't feel like cooking so I give it a whirl, or there's always leftovers. With the long work days, he is exhausted at the end of the day. His back is doing much better but he still feels achy when he gets home. The alarm goes off for him to get up at 5:45 so the night is sometimes short. Tonight will be one of those where he gets to bed early so I better come up with something to make and quick!

A birthday treat

Today our usual group plus a couple others celebrated a bit belatedly the birthday of our friend, Gretchen. Last Sunday, closer to her big day, was not workable, so today after church we gathered at Sam's St. Johns Seafood. Having fish twice in a week's time is over the top for me, but hey, for Gretchen, I can do it!

Terri T. called ahead to make sure they could accommodate our group of 10 and was assured there would be room for us. Good! The rest got there ahead of me because I had choir rehearsal after worship, but Justin knew what I was ordering. As I zoomed in the door, thinking I was far behind them, I was wrong. The waitress was just then taking the order, with our group broken up into three sets of tables in a row. Shoot! That was the best they could do for us, despite Terri's best efforts. I got to order my own food and in fact, got mine first! As Darwin said, "The last shall be first...." 

Gretchen seemed to enjoy the time with us even though we were spread out this way. No one dared to sing "Happy Birthday" to her or make any type of fuss. She is not fond of that type of attention, so it was kept low key. What a dear lady and friend she is, I just love her!

Justin and I stopped at Winn Dixie on the way home, each of us taking our own carts. We wanted to pick up a few things including special priced chicken legs and thighs plus I got a beef roast on sale. I can smell it already! The hamburger was a good buy as well so we took three pounds of that for the freezer. I think I'll have to cook some meals before I leave for WI! He got a bunch of stuff, too, for our larder and for himself as he is going to make dinner at Jesse's this week for Cinco de Mayo. Fajitas are on the menu so far, not sure what else they will have. 

A lovely evening ended our day with the full moon rising

We got our purchases hauled up in one trip, which was remarkable for us. Often I leave non-urgent stuff behind for the next trip but today this was not necessary. It helps for him to be strong like bull and able to carry so many bags at once. No dilly-dallying, though--straight to the elevator and to the door so he can put them down. Every time I use the elevator I thank the Lord for it, for allowing me to pay my share for a new one a few years ago. Sure would hate to tote those bags up the stairs---yikes!