As The World Turns- Nassar Style (Part 2)

So, my mom is off today with her care helper and the house is all quiet. I am evaluating my 'summer to do list' to see how far I've gotten since I only have 3 weeks left before I go back to work. Here's the list:

1- paint foyer table- done
2- make file organizer in office- done
3- clean up Fred’s closet- (doing it today maybe)
4- organize pictures in tubs
5- transfer Andy’s videos- done
6- transfer Steph’s videos- done
7- make folder of Mom’s important numbers, dr., services
8- paint family room
9- paint bedroom
10-clean out patio room - (almost done!)
11-deal with pinball machine- FIXED
12-clean patio room windows
13-weed out backyard- probably need to do it again
14-learn to play racquetball- had 1 lesson with andy, need more :)
15-read 3 books- on my 5th one now

Fred wants to wait till oct. to paint. He said it will be less humid then.
And I have also worked in the guest room and office, and that wasn't on the list... so, over all, not too bad, I think.

Andy is at camp. Before he left, he wanted to talk about moving back home. We sat with him and discussed what would be expected. Nothing new, really. Like Fred said "our expectations in this house haven't changed". Of course, now that he's 18, he will have more freedom than before. But we will still require the courtesy of him telling us where he will be and what time he will be home. We told him that we want him to come home because it will be the best thing for HIM. But we want a son NOT a tenant, and if he's only coming back because it will be cheaper for him, then he needs to not come back. We told him to seek his heart and pray about it while he's at camp. So, we are cautiously optimistic.

We desire our kids to know that this home is a sanctuary for them. We don't want them to come home for OUR sake. Honestly, Fred and I have grown accustomed to just the 2 of us here (besides mom) and we are ok with it. But the kids will always be welcome back if they need refuge.

My brother and his family are coming in 3 weeks. They are going to Puerto Rico for vacation (SO jealous!) and are stopping here first. Well, mom's birthday is in Sept. and she is turning 80, I thought she deserves a party. And since they wouldn't be able to come back down, we decided to really surprise her and celebrate her birthday a month early. My sister is also coming down from Ga. and mom doesn't know about that either... We are all chipping in and getting her a 26in flat screen for her room. Right now she has a 19in and she can't see the menu since her eyes are so bad. Fred and my brother will put together a delicious Puerto Rican meal and we'll have a great time of reunion. I can't wait! We are going to have a house full for the weekend, but I am actually looking forward to it. Steph is hoping to come down, and Andy is looking at his work schedule to be here as well. Now, if only Freddy was here, life would be perfect!

I have some video we took at the beach with our new video camera, but I don't know how to upload it, so I have to get on Fred to help me... by the way, we got the video camera for FREE! I have 'points' from my credit card that we have never used, so we looked at the site and were able to get the camera with the points. It's normally $579, so that makes me double excited about it! :)

So stay tuned for some home videos soon! hehe

Summer Fun Continued...

To finish off Fred's vacation week, we went to Treasure Island and stayed at a little condo right on the beach. Steph, my DARLING daughter, came for the weekend to stay with my mom. That was VERY sweet of her.

The view was great:

The beach was relaxing:

We did some bird watching:

There was a bird couple that we watched. It seemed that the boy bird brought the girl bird (who was chunky, possibly pregnant?) a fish. The fish was bigger than she could swallow in one bite, so she was having a little trouble.... while she worked on it, the boy bird would scare off any other birds that would try to get near her. It was a very romantic sight!!!

Fred wanted to try out a restaurant on Friday night called Sloppy Joe's and it was only .4 of a mile from our place. So we decided to walk to it. Now, I have no sense of direction and I put my trust on my level headed husband. We start walking 'south'. We walk and we walk and we walk... It's 5pm and I am wearing flip flops. After walking a while (more than .4 of a mile) , we decided we were going the wrong way. SO we head back the other way... we pass our condo and keep going. Sure enough, we find the restaurant a bit later. By the time we got there, we were soaked in sweat, my feet were burning like I stepped on hot coals. My face was beet red and all through dinner, Fred kept saying 'are you ok? your face is so RED!' hehe

Over all, it was an adventure and we survived to tell it, so no complaints!

Saturday night, we walked the beach and watched the sunset. That was very nice...

I found a ring in the sand... pretty cool if it was real! lol

Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning, we spent time at John's Pass

And before heading home on Sunday, we had lunch at Bubba Gump's.... we got some shrimp!

We had a wonderful time, all be it too short. I am so blessed to have a husband that is my best friend and we don't get tired of spending time together. I look forward to many more amazing trips with him!!

Summer fun... so far

Normally, we would have headed to NC and spent some great time with the Stancos. But with mom moving in with us, the plans changed. She can't be left alone and she can't travel. So... we did something locally.

Fred took the week off last week and went camping from Monday till Wednesday at Fort DeSoto beach. He bought a 'truck tent' and set up his ham radio and had a good ole time.

I met up with him on Tuesday for the day, but I went home to my comfortable bed that night. :)

Thursday, I mentioned that I was hoping to go to Dade City and hit up some antique shops before Summer ended, and Fred said " Let's go!", which was a nice surprise since he is not really into 'window shopping'.... and speaking of windows,

I have been looking for an old window pane to hang on my wall. I have seen this type of decoration in books and in the cabin we stayed in Tenn. Again, Fred surprised me by being the one that found it. And he encouraged me to get it. Now, I know this is not something he would think of using as a wall decor, so it really meant a lot that he was so cool about getting it. I love my hubby!!

We had lunch at a little place called 'A Matter Of Taste'. It was quaint, which is exactly what we were looking for.

Food and Friends for the 4th

We were invited to the Caddells for a cook out on Saturday. The only requirement was that Fred brought the ribs. Not a problem!

We love hanging out with the Caddells and Ross.

We have tried very hard to stay connected with these 2 families even though we all go to different churches now.

That's the tough thing about 'church' friends... I have had dear friends that I worked side by side at church for years, and when we changed churches, life happened and we lost touch. We still love those friends and think of them often, but we don't get to see them much...

So I am thankful for Becky because she is the main one that makes sure we get together periodically. We actually try to meet at Village Inn about every 4-5 weeks on a Sunday night to catch up.

Here are some pics of our cook out. We even got in the pool and hot tub for a while. There are NO pictures of me in a bathing suit, though..... :)

Good food!

Good friends!

Now you see it....

Now you don't!

Friends and dessert

I got a call from Becky last week telling me I HAD to go to lunch with her and the girls.

Well, she didn't really have to twist my arm.

Katie really wanted to go to the Columbia restaurant in Ybor City.

Here we are with dessert. Yum!

What REALLY happened??

My mom has a Michael Jackson doll she's had forever. She thought this was as good a time as any to try and sell it. So we took pictures of it to send to Freddy and he will post it on Ebay.

While I was taking pictures, Kaya got curious. I hope I am not offending anyone, but I thought this picture was hillarious!

Tale of a possum or two

Fred was cutting the grass this morning. He has an area in the back yard where he collects the grass cuttings, like a compost or sorts... Well, what he found was more than compost. He said there was a momma possum and 5 babies. All were dead except one and he wasn't far behind. So Fred went and buried them all. Though I told him it was a bit cruel to bury the one still breathing... I told him he should have called me, but after thinking about it, I'm glad he didn't.

By the way, this picture is from the internet.... I tried to find a "cute" possum picture, but I don't think there is such a thing! lol