Daytona Beach

Today we drove to Daytona Beach, about an hour and 15 minutes away from Ocala. It was a beautiful day.

This is Jimmy doing Physical Therapy...Florida style.

Isn't is nice to be retired!!

Westobou Festival, Augusta, Georgia

Yesterday Jim and I were walking downtown Augusta on the opening day of the Westobou Festival. The Westobou Festival sort of took over the old “Arts in the Hearts” of Augusta that happens every year. Don’t worry, “Arts in the Hearts” is still going this weekend, always fun and has good food. We had dinner in a small restaurant called “Casa Blanca” which is located in the old Whites building. The upper floors are now luxury condos. They serve lunch but starting at 5:00pm they become a “Tapas” restaurant. After dinner we walked down to the “Zimmerman” art gallery.


HISTORY LESSON: The Augusta area used to be inhabited by an Indian tribe called the “Westo Indians”. There name for the near-by river (now called the Savannah) was the “Westobou”…thus the name of the festival.

We spoke to Ms Zimmerman the day before and she told us that she would be hosting a “Whiskey Painter” so we went by to see him. I don’t know his name but he came down from North Carolina.

HISTORY LESSON: There are only 150 “Whiskey Painters” and Ms Zimmerman is actually one of them. Google “Whiskey Painters of America”. It is very interesting. All the paintings are water colors using some “alcohol based” liquid instead of water.

Happy Birthday Caleb!

Yesterday we went over to Kim’s house for Caleb’s 7th Birthday Party. He is getting to be such a big boy. Kim had a Low Country Boil and the food was great! She made a “Soccer Ball Cake” that looked great…and tasted great (although black icing comes with its own set of issues). Here are some of the pictures from the party. I hope you enjoy them.

The Low Country Boil was so good. Kim always has great food.

Caleb and his cousin, Rusty, with his Soccer Ball Birthday cake.

Caleb opening his presents with his cousin, Hannah. She is such a pretty girl.

This is Caleb with his cousin, Kendall, and his new skate board.

Grandparents Day at Caleb's school

Today Jim and I went to Caleb’s school for Grandparents Day. This is Caleb showing us his "Journal". He is in the First Grade and he really does a good job on his journal. The teacher told them they did not have to spell all the words correctly, just to try to sound them out the best they can. He wrote on one page that "he can klim a tree" I had no problem reading that because he spells the same way I do.

Caleb is doing so well in school and we are all proud of him. The teacher did an exercise with M&Ms. She passed out a small bag of M&Ms to each student, had them open the bag and separate them into colors. Then she gathered data from each student on what colors of M&Ms they got in their bag. Caleb could read all the colors and completed the exercise quickly…..then Caleb and Grandpa ate the M&Ms. quickly. We met Elaine Jones, Caleb’s other grandmother, at the school and it was so nice to see her.

Caleb and Grandpa. They both had a good time.

Calab and I at Grandparents Day.

This is Caleb with his other grandmother, Elaine Jones. We had a nice visit and I will see her tomorrow at Caleb's 7th Birthday party.

I love this poster!! Caleb had to write three "super cool" facts about himself and he wrote, "I can catch fish", "I can play Gitar Hero", and "I can train my pup". I hope you can read the other parts because they are so cute.

Visit with Dawn, Sean, .....and Sara

I just got back from a lovely visit with Dawn, Sean, and, of course, Sara. This is the first time I got to visit with Sara since she was born and she is such a beautiful little girl. We were very busy and Dawn is such an organized mother. While I was there she cooked up 5 dinners to freeze and two boxes of whole grain pancakes for Sean’s breakfast. She sorted out boxes and boxes of clothes for Sara that will last her for at least the next two years….and we cleaned the rocking chairs on her front porch. That sounds like a harder job than it was because we got some great cleaner and just sprayed it on and the dirt rolled right off.

We took two trips to Rita’s for Italian Ices and Frozen Custards and took the kids out to eat a couple times. I hope you enjoy the pictures I brought back from my visit.

This is Sara "shopping". I think she has "shopping" down pat.

I know you won't believe me...but this is Sara saying, "Thank you Grandma for my sock monkey"

This is what Sean gets for breakfast...whole grain, of course. I think Dawn is making up for some lack in her own childhood because I know for a fact she did not get her name in pancakes for breakfast. Sean is lucky to have Dawn for his mommy.

This is Sean when we pick him up from school. You can hardly tell he just had a "dirt fight".

This is the handsome boy eating an Italian Ice at Rita's.

This is Sara playing. She loves to look at herself in the mirror....such a girl!