Meet Thelma and Louise

Well my dryer of 15 years died last week and my washer had “work stoppage sympathy” syndrome. I convinced Jimmy that “washer” was is such distress without “dryer” that we should replace both of them and keep them together. It worked!!

We bought a new washer and dryer but it seems they have changed in the last 15 years since we bought our last washer and dryer. Some of the differences are:

1. The instruction manual (what Jimmy calls the manufacturer’s suggestions) is ¾ inch thick for each machine.

2. It does not use a lot of water. I will quote from the “manual”…"If you do not see the water during washing; it is not a problem because the laundry is sufficiently wet." Good thing I read that before I washed!

3. The rinse cycle involves a lot of “spinning” and very little “sloshing”. I was kind of used to the “sloshing”.

4. It plays you a little song when the wash is done instead of buzzing. I do like the song better.

5. All of the detergents, softeners, bleach, etc are inserted into their proper little cups before you start the wash and you better put them all in the right little cups or something bad will happen. Not sure what bad will happen but it came with a big “WARNING” so I will do my best to get it right.

6. Oh yes, there is no “water level” for you to select. It seems that Thelma (that is what I named the washer) “senses” the size of the load and “adjusts the amount of water required”. Isn’t technology wonderful!!

I named the dryer Louise; I think that was the nice one. It is not too complicated, sort of a cross between my old dryer and Wall-E. At least I have found the button that turns it on and turns it off.

I spent all day yesterday washing clothes so I think I got the hang of it, it just seems like I should dress better to wash from now on.

Baby Girl Abercrombie!!

Well we now know that Dawn will be having a little girl!! We are all so excited!! She is due in early July so we don't have too long to wait. Here are the first pictures of our new granddaughter. These pictures were taken for you by her Aunt Kim.

This is her profile.

This shows her profile (see the little nose). It looks like her hands are already up ready to "duke it out" with her big brother Sean.

This shows her little feet with 5 toes on each foot, just like it should be. We thank God for a healthy child.

Sean's 3rd Birthday!!

On Saturday we celebrated Sean's 3rd Birthday. The theme of the party was fighter jet airplanes, particular the F-22. Notice the large poster was actually signed by the Chief Test Pilot for the F-22. It seems either Dawn, David, or one of their friends knows just about everybody. Sean's flight suit was a little big for him but he can wear it for Halloween too. Jim and I drove up from Augusta on Friday the day before the party so Dawn and I could work on the Birthday Cake. Believe it or not it took us most of the day to complete it and Dawn already had the cake baked and frozen for us to use. We cut out all the pieces, which Dawn had drawn to scale, and iced it. The icing came from Publix. Little known fact: Publix, and probably other stores, will make up icing to any color you want and sell it to you. That helped a lot.

This is the cake!! Dawn molded the stars out of white chocolate. Notice the three candles on the back of the plane. We had a good time making it and the red, white, and blue colors look better than the grey and dark grey we did on our "dry run" in Ocala. (See earlier blog)
In keeping with the all American military theme the colors were, of course, red, white, and blue and we had mini hot dogs and hamburgers to eat. All the food was good but the hamburgers were great!!

Dawn also had a couple of things to keep the kids busy. The day before we prepared some small cakes with white icing melted and poured over them for the kids to decorate. Boy did they have fun and did such a good job!

Sean "decorating" his cake with all the other kids.

See what a good job they did....then they got to eat the cakes they decorated.

They also played a game called "Pin the Pilot on the Plane" Dawn had the picture that the F-22 Test Pilot had signed for Sean blown up and she used that to "pin the pilots" on.

This is Sean pinning his "Pilot" on the plane. Of course he could not win the prize because he was the Birthday Boy...and if you look closely he is also peeking.

Please notice that the kids did not pin just any Pilot on the Plane but each child had a picture of them selves to pin. You would think that this a sign that the mother has too much time on her hands.....but that is not true. I don't know where she finds the time to do all these things.

Not only did Dawn find time to help Sean with his cake...

She decorated one herself.

I know Sean will always remember his 3rd Birthday...at least until his 4th Birthday.

The Florida Manatee

We paid a visit to Sonny and Mercedes on Sunday and had a great lunch on the water. We were so glad that Jason was able to join us. Jason is in ROTC at the University of South Florida and plans to go active duty in the Army when he graduates next May. The Army will be lucky to have him as he has the highest grade point average in his class and has max'ed out the PT Test with a score of 300. Hooah!!

After lunch we took a ride to a spot where the discharge from a power plant causes the water to always be at about 80 degrees. Because the water is so warm it is a gathering spot for the Florida Manatees. The Florida manatee, Florida’s state marine mammal, is a large aquatic relative of the elephant. They are grayish brown in color and have thick, wrinkled skin on which there is often a growth of algae. They are actually so ugly that they are cute.

The Manatees breath by sticking their nose out of the water. Their nose is like a short elephant nose.

This shows the temperature of the water. about 80 degrees. Manatees love warm water.I hope you can see all the Manatees under the surface of the water. There were several hundred Manatees hanging around the power plant. It was so interesting.
This Manatee weights between 1,500 and 1,800 pounds. Look at all the barnacles on him!!

Dawn and Sean Visit Ocala

Last week we drove to Alpharetta to pick up Dawn and Sean for a visit to Ocala. We left early Thursday morning from Alpharetta to Ocala, which takes about six hours to drive. It was a long drive down I-75 but we all made it and Sean was a good little traveler. He watched his movies most of the time. After we got to Ocala Dawn and I took Sean to a little park so he could play a while after being cooped up in the car most of the day. He had a good time and he can really climb. This was a "nature park" which means everything is "natural" except the brand new playground equipment.

This piece of playground equipment is made to resemble a spider web....cute, huh.

This was a "jungle gym" that Sean climbed all over.

In this picture Sean is hanging by his hands, of course Dawn is close just in case he falls....which he didn't.

The next day we took Dawn to a couple interesting stores in Ocala, like a Gourmet Food store and a Restaurant Supply store. Then we took Sean to the park where he fed the ducks.
The ducks would actually take the food from his hand...and one almost took his hand.

Dawn and I also kept busy trying to make an airplane cake. We actually did pretty good but this is just a practice for Sean's 3 year old birthday cake.


On Saturday we took Sean to Silver Springs and he had a good time seeing all the animals, like the alligators and the stinky giraffes.


Sean wanted to ride the Carousel but only in the seat. He wasn't sure about the horses that were going up and down.

But Dawn and Jimmy had a great time on the Carousel!!

But he did not have a problem with the aligators.......

...or touching a great big snake!

We all had a great time even if Dawn was fighting a bad sinus problem the whole trip. Dawn is a real trooper and you would never believe she is four months pregnate.

Why old people retire in Florida....

Today is the 4th of January and it is 80 degrees with a beautiful blue sky. This is why people retire in Florida.

This is a picture of Ormand Beach, about an hour and fifteen minutes drive from Ocala. We drove down to Ormand Beach because it was such a beautiful day.

This is Jimmy walking on the beach. It was such a beautiful day.

New Years Eve

Jim and I spent New Years Eve with our grandson, Sean. Dawn and David had tickets to the Chick-fil-A Bowl with Georgia Tech playing LSU so Jim and I kept Sean. We took him to play at Monkey Joe's ...

and to lunch at Chick-fil-A.

We also fixed him a good breakfast in the morning. (Notice all the healthy food)

Sean was a good boy and we enjoyed taking care of him.