Thursday, December 15, 2011

 Anna finally bought a Jeep!  She is enjoying having her own car again.  She couldn't decide between another pickup truck or a Jeep...but this one finally won her heart.  It's hard enough parking with 5 cars in the back yard...I'm not sure where the twins will park once they start driving their own cars!
 We went to Florida to spend Thanksgiving with Mike's parents. This picture was taken in Grandma's neighborhood.  I remembered to upload my pictures in reverse so they would be in chronological order...but they got posted the opposite way.  Oh well.  We took this picture just minutes before we got in the car to come home.

 Family pictures.  It's hard to smile when you're staring at the sun and waiting for the camera's timer.
 My hubby and children went on many boat rides.  They usually left during daylight and came home after sunset. 
 The beach has many fascinating creatures.

 My children enjoyed Grandma's golf cart.  Since Grandma and Grandpa live on a little island, there is no fear of fast cars.
 Ruthie and I took many rides on the bikes.
 On our way to the mall for Black Friday shopping, we passed this animal hospital.
 For some reason this entrance door caught our fancy.  The other side of the building had a door marked Dogs & Exotic Animals.
 My pictures are really out of order!  This was taken on a boat ride.
 Eating pie and Tofutti ice cream on Thanksgiving Day. 
 Grandma has a nice big table so we all can sit comfortably at meals.  We ate like royalty...as usual.  Thanks, Grandma!
 Allen caught this animal off Grandad's pier.  When we tried to get close to it, it would squirt a stream of water at us!  We threw him back in.
 For years, Mike has told us the story of how every Thanksgiving holiday, Uncle Herb (Grandad's brother who lives in NJ) would come up to Connecticut and bring lox and bagels.  Mike has been trying to revive that tradition ever since.  He finally got his lox and bagels.  Grandad was pleased! 






 When we got to FL, we learned that Grandma and Grandpa are planning to sell their FL home and move closer to Dwight and Linda, about 3 hours north.  Grandpa misses his tractor and wants some land to mow.  They are looking for a little farm.  So we tried to make the most of the beach since this will probably be the last time we come to this home.


 Grandma does her grocery shopping off the island at a Publix.  Behind the store is a large pond with two alligators, a large turtle, and birds.  We stopped many times to see how they were doing.







 Grandma and Grandpa eat breakfast out in the lanai most mornings.  Grandpa watches the morning news and does his crossword puzzles.  

Coming home from the beach and looking for Grandpa's pier.  We had a wonderful time.  We left Maryland on Sunday morning and drove nonstop, arriving in Florida around 3 am.  We stayed until Saturday morning when we left to visit Dwight.  After an hour catching up with him, we headed home to MD, arriving around 5 am on Sunday. 

When all was said and done, we decided our children are now too big to be bunched up in a mini van for that many hours.  We need to rent a bigger van for long trips. 

Hope you and yours enjoyed your Thanksgiving holiday as well.  Many blessings ~ Kathie

We gather together to ask the Lord’s blessing;
He chastens and hastens His will to make known.
The wicked oppressing now cease from distressing.
Sing praises to His Name; He forgets not His own.

Thursday, November 17, 2011


 Little Clara loves to sit on our laps and play or read.  We love that!

 This past week Maggie made 5 Layer Greek Dip.  It was delicious.  The recipe is a cinch...hummus, then tomatoes, black olives, green peppers, cucumbers, feta (we used goat feta) and dill.  We got the recipe from here.  I had to add the picture of how our dip was supposed to look:-) 
 This afternoon Allen, Lizzie, and I made a quick stop at Apple Basket store and saw this weird antique.  Anyone know what it is?  Added later:  It's an antique egg poacher!  I googled "antique egg poacher photo" and saw many wonderful examples.

 The handle moves and lifts the three rings.  There are little drain holes on the bottom part.  It sure has our curiosity!
 Speaking of curiosity...Maggie and I went to Silver Springs yesterday for her acupuncture appt...and as we were sitting at a light, we came up with the sudden inspiration to see what this store is all about.
 We're always on the lookout for hard-to-find ingredients.  We didn't buy anything...but we sure had fun looking!
 This "Special Gunpowder" is actually green tea!  I'm not sure why it's called gunpowder.
 This is yam powder or flour.  We also saw lots of casava flour. 
We were walking down the aisle when there was a strong fishy smell.  I turned around and saw all the refrigerators full of dried fish and eels...and some other unidentifiables...but best left unidentified!  Yuk!

Last weekend our church had special evening services (Sat thru Mon) with BJU evangelist Mike Shrock preaching.  His sermons were based on II Peter 1:4-8.   

"Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.  And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity. For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ."
Each of the young men represented the seven characteristics we should be adding to our faith.  As usual, Mike Shrock was very energetic and kept us entertained while teaching Bible truths.  He is already scheduled to return next year.

The first three days of this week were wonderfully warm and sunny...but today the weather has turned cold and rainy.  We are thankful for our fireplace.  Tomorrow we will be cleaning diligently in preparation of hubby's homecoming...and Anna's get-together.

Just one note:  To all my friends to whom I recommended pinterest.com:  I apologize for my recommendation.  I enjoyed three days of collecting wonderful ideas and recipes...but since then that website has had profane and obscene pictures.  I'm not sure why it changed so drastically, but I'd support anyone who wanted to start a godly pinterest! 

Many blessings ~ Kathie