FRIDAY NIGHT FUN!

Jack & Linda, Garrett, George, Cindy & Ronnie (our minister), Jeanette, me (with my mouth open, as usual)

We had a small, but fun dinner party in our home last night. Always always fun to be with good friends!


Hugs from the beach,
Kat



"Father, please let me be a blessing to someone today."

I WON THE BATTLE! (today anyway)

I've had an ongoing battle with the master closet. I must admit I have a LARGE walk-in master closet. It's wonderful with built-ins for everything, even the dirty laundry.

But...you know what happens, right?! The more room you have, the more you fill it up! It's so true.

Anyway, I try to clean it out frequently, but I usually end up keeping more than I should.

Today I decided to get serious with the de-cluttering. I told myself to stay on track and only keep what I know I will use/wear. And I did good, if I do say so myself. I'm quite pleased with the results.

We have been toying with the idea of putting our house on the market for over a year now and have finally decided to quit talking about it and "just do it". Our real estate market seems to be on the upswing (please God) and this time of the year is good. We love where we live so I know we will stay close by, but we both definitely want something smaller and easier to keep up. We want to travel more and go spend more time with the kids and grandchildren.

So.....it looks like I'll be doing lots more de-cluttering all around the house and garage.




Hugs from the beach,
Kat


"Father, please let me be a blessing to someone today."

DELISH

Another fun night with friends at Fat Clemenzas!

See why I have to exercise so much?!!!!!




Hugs from the beach,
Kat


"Father, please let me be a blessing to someone today."

MOTHER'S DAY 2011

WOW!
I hope your Mother's Day was as beautiful as ours!
After church this morning, we went to the Santa Rosa Beach Club and had the Mother's Day Brunch at Vue On 30A.
We sat outside and this was our "view at Vue". lol Not bad, right?
There was a wedding there recently and the groom did this...how sweet! Before I knew the real story I asked George if he did it for me? giggle I'm sure every woman there asked the same question.

We always have fun with our friends Dick & Linda and Kay & Larry. The 6 of us usually go to lunch together every Sunday after church.


I wish I could have spent today with my Mom. She was with me in spirit though. There is almost nothing she would rather do than be on her knees with her hands in the dirt planting flowers. The two of us have planted lots and lots and lots of plants/flowers/shrubs/trees, etc together over the years. Today once we got home from church, I went to Lowe's and filled the back of my SUV with daffodils and daisies and then came home and burned off that HUGE brunch by spending the rest of the day planting them.

Mom...I sure wish you were here with me!

Happy Mother's Day everyone!




Hugs from the beach,
Kat


"Father, please let me be a blessing to someone today."

GOOD FOOD AND GOOD FRIENDS!

Our friends Jack and Linda are in town for the week. It was wonderful seeing them tonight. We had dinner at one of my favorites...Borago in Grayton Beach. Oh.my.word...delish! Color Me Happy!

(that empty dessert dish we shared WAS dark chocolate creme brulee...to DIE for!)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!




Hugs from the beach,
Kat


"Father, please let me be a blessing to someone today."

MELANCHOLY

Melancholy: a pensive mood.

Pensive: sad thoughtfulness.

I'm feeling melancholy tonight.

I drove the grandchildren back today. The house is so quiet. It feels empty somehow. Know what I mean?



Plus....

Tonight we had the opportunity to meet a former American hostage who was taken prisoner by the Sunni Muslims and was buried alive for 311 days.

Blindfolded and handcuffed. For 311 days. Can you even imagine?

I can't.

He is friends with friends of ours and is visiting them. Tonight they had a casual cocktail party to introduce him to those of us who have read his book and heard his story through them. So unbelievable, yet true!

His story is told in this incredible book.


This video shows his actual rescue!



Thank you Lord for his survival!


I'm REAL tired so I know that's another reason I'm feeling this way.

But...Scarlett is right...

tomorrow is another day................



Hugs from the beach,
Kat



"Father, please let me be a blessing to someone today."

GOLF CARTING FROM ONE ADVENTURE TO ANOTHER

The kids LOVE to be on the golf cart and they have lots of areas on the resort they like to visit, so we hopped on the golf cart around 11:30 and didn't get back home until almost 5:00!

First stop was the marina for lunch.
While we waited for our burgers to arrive, the kids love watching the parrots.

They didn't do much talking today, but they performed for us.
Afterwards we took a walk out on the pier to see the boats. The kids had questions and we stopped and talked with some of the boaters to get answers.


I always get a kick out of some of the names! We've owned two boats. The first one we named MY NEW OFFICE since George had just retired. The second one was called OFFICE WITH A VIEW. lol

Next stop was the large tree house by the marina. The kids LOVED it! I did too.

I climbed up there too!
It's pretty high up. That's George (in the red hat) sitting with one of the girls who decided she didn't like the height and came down to sit with him. I understand...I'm not crazy about it either.
A nice view of the marina from up top.
We found a "old" path leading from the marina to the Village of Baytowne Wharf.
The kids are really too big now (sigh) for the playground at the village, but they loved exploring it a bit before we hopped on the golf cart for our next stop.

Jolee Island Nature Park was next...
On the bridge heading to to Jolee Island. You have to cross over by foot.






We also rode over to the beach for one last peek before they head home tomorrow :-(
I love this photo of the girls walking to toward the water. Sydney is dragging a stick she found on her adventures.

Afterwards, we stopped by to see two of my girlfriends so the kids could see them (and their dogs) and then went for ice cream...of course ;-)

Tonight was a double feature movie night, including popcorn, with lots of snuggles.

The week went by waaaay too fast!





Hugs from the beach,
Kat


"Father, please let me be a blessing to someone today."

ICE CREAM EVERY NIGHT

Our tradition with the grandchildren of having ice cream every night they are here is still happening. Sometime we have it at home, but they love to take the golf cart up to the village or Grand Boulevard to get ice cream. Tonight we had dinner early so the six of us (Miss Daisy too) could go to Kilwins before sunset.

I love having them here!




Hugs from the beach,
Kat


"Father, please let me be a blessing to someone today."

HAPPINESS IS....

being with those you love!

I'm happy.

And tired! ;-)




Hugs from the beach,
Kat


"Father, please let me be a blessing to someone today."

A WEEKEND OF GIGGLES AND FUN!

I had the best long weekend of giggles and fun in Atlanta with my baby sister Kim, my Mom and my Aunt Sherry!

Of course we played games! And enjoyed some wine too!

On Friday night Sherry prepared a yummy meal of pork roast and gravy, Mississippi cornbread, baked sweet potato and sauteed onions and apples. Soooo good!
I have these girls trained...when I say "say cheese", they turn and smile! lol
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

On Saturday morning we went to The Metropolitan Cooking and Entertaining Show which was held at the Cobb Galleria in Atlanta.

I took just one photo (?) of the first row of MANY rows...there were over 200 fabulous exhibitors! We went from table to table sampling things and buying quite a bit too. We stopped periodically to rest while we watched live cooking demonstrations. We were there from 10:00 am to almost 5:30 pm!

We were all pretty exhausted by the time this photo was taken as we were leaving!

We were so full we didn't even have dinner. We just went back to Sherry's house and had cheese and crackers, etc. before calling it a night. A VERY fun day! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

On Sunday morning we headed to IKEA early and had breakfast in their cafeteria before we shopped...and shopped...and shopped. If you've never been to an IKEA, you don't know what you're missing! It's a HUGE store!

Afterwards, we stopped by a Krystal for lunch. I know...there's lots of places we could have eaten, but I LOVE Krystal and we don't have one at home. It's a treat for me to go.


Our final stop was at a large Korean market. What an experience!


Between IKEA and the market, I don't know how we managed to get all our purchases in the car!

Once back at Sherry's we loaded the car and headed back to Columbus. Kim and Terry treated Mom and I to a fabulous steak dinner in their home. So yummy!

I spent last night at my Mom's. My daughter-in-love Angela and three grandchildren drove down and met us for lunch and then I got to bring the kids home with me for the week.

It's wonderful to be home. We're already having fun!




Hugs from the beach,
Kat


"Father, please let me be a blessing to someone today."