Little Bugger

Today I got to meet the "little bugger." That's what Bryan calls my new grandbaby.

Bryan and Mary are expecting.
Another grandchild! Mike and I are very excited.

Today Mary invited me and her Mother to go with her to her ultrasound. I have never seen one so of course I said Yes. They offered to tell us the sex of the baby. I declined -If Bryan and Mary do not want to know then neither do I.

It was pretty amazing seeing that little human on the screen with it's arms and legs moving around and a tiny little heart beatin away. Everything looks good and the baby is progressing nicely.

Another Grandchild!!!

Rookie

I went with Mike to the Golf Show at the Rosemont. We got free tickets from Jon.

I had never been and his buddies bailed on him so I told him I would go with him. I was expecting something much bigger (I was used to the quilt show).

I stopped at all the booths and signed up for all the chances to win a trip or a "golf prize". I gave them my phone number and email address.

I picked up pamphlets for all the places that I thought I would want to golf at.

Mike would patiently wait while I stopped at most of the booths.

He carried the bag that kept getting heavier and heavier.

Every time I stopped to talk with someone or I gave him another booklet or flier for him to carry, he would cal me a "Rookie." I guess you are just supposed to walk by and say No Thanks.

Won't he be surprised when I start using these pamphlet to plan golf trips for us this summer or better yet I actually win one. :)

Mystery Quilt

About a month ago Brita, a woman that works with Sharen, who is a great quilter, asked her if she and I wanted to join a "Mystery Quilt" group.
Sharen told her absolutely!
Brita is the woman who actually quilted Bryan and Mary's wedding quilt for me.

It's her daughter, Amanda, who herself is a great quilter that is spear heading this project.

While I was on vacation Sharen got our first letter with instructions for the first step in making the quilt. There are 3 steps.
Sharen emailed me that she got it and I wanted to come home that day I was so excited.

Sharen and I decided to not shop together for our material so our quilts will be a surprise and a mystery to each other too.

I decided to keep this quilt for our bed. It will turn out to be a queen size quilt and I haven't made one for us yet.

Sharen and I did tell each other what color we would put on the back of our quilts, just in case we happened to pick out the same focus material. IT could happen. Mine is blue and hers is brown so I think we are safe.

We had to buy 4 different materials
1 focus
1 light background
1 Secondary Accent
1 Primary Accent - this material is for the border so we could hold off buying this one till later (I found the perfect fit so I bought mine)

Amanda gave us really specific instructions on cutting and piecing 32 squares and 32 1/2 squares. WE have no idea what the finished quilt looks like either.

I should have my squares done tomorrow and I can not wait to get our second letter with the next step.

The unveiling of all the quilts will be at Amanda's house in May.
I am really excited to go - she is the one that bought Darlene's house and Sharen said that they have been doing a lot of improvements. I cannot wait to see what they have done to the house that my husband grew up in.

Cast Member

When we got back and I was sorting through all the mail, I got a letter from IDES about my unemployment benefits. It seems that they want to extend my 99 weeks for 20 weeks more. Why? I filled out the paper work and mailed it in thinking Thanks, but what did I do to deserve it?

Do I want to work now that we are retired? No, of course not.
I see all the "retired" people that work at Disney and I ask myself - Could I work at Disney? Oh Yeah.
First off I thought it was pretty cool of Disney to call all their employees "Cast Members".

While walking around all the Disney parks and Downtown I would look around and think about what job I would want to do there.
First came the fudge shop. I really could make candy all day, even in the window. Or I think making animals out of sugar would be fun too.

Then again having all those people watching me, maybe not.

Then we stumbled on to the salon where they were dressing up all the little princess. There were so many little girls running around dressed up. Who wouldn't want to make a little girl smile?


There were so many booths where boys and girls alike could get their faces painted. Adults too! Now, I could do that and have fun painting not just the girls, but the boys faces too.


On the backstage tour the shuttle took us through the wood shop and the clothing shop. Could I sew all day? Hell yeah - the only problem with this is that I wouldn't get to mingle with any tourists, just the cast members. Not so sure about that.


Then I found it. The Christmas shop!! I love Christmas ornaments!!!
Here I would sit surrounded by thousand and thousand of ornaments. All I would do all day is paint names on beautiful ornaments.


My dream job in the land where dreams come true.

I have put all my pictures from the trip on my shutterfly account if anyone is interested. There are a bunch - you will be able to tell that I LOVE MY NEW CAMERA!

Anniversary

With Mike's team out of the tournament we had an extra day to do whatever. We decided to spend our anniversary on the gulf. Sunday we drove over to Pensacola. We both have never been there and that way we can take a different route home. No Mountains!
Mike and I both enjoy the ocean - as long as our room is not toooo high up. Great View!

We had a great dinner at an ocean side Crab shack.
Mike had the crab legs and I had the best Seafood mac n cheese I have ever eaten.

There was only 1 guy on the beach the next morning so I asked him to take our picture.

We had a really really great time.

The only thing that got in the way the whole trip was 1 TV - I forced Mike to watch The Bachelor (he could of gone down to the hotel bar) and he would watch the TV late while I was trying to sleep.
We still can decide who had it worse?

Aunt Lori

Aunt Lori lives in St. Cloud just down th street from Orlando so we took advantage to see her and had dinner with her on Wednesday night.

She looks good, even with the sun in her eyes.

Softball

We headed on down to Winter Haven (about 45 minutes SW of Orlando early Thursday morning so Mike could compete in the Skills Challenge Competition.
The fields were out in the boonies so when Onstar sends you the wrong way - What do you do? Ask a Dave, AKA, a friendly Cop.


Under cloudy skies and light rain.

Mike's first skill challenge was to throw softballs into this bucket from the pitchers mound. There were 100 teams with 13 to 15 guys on each team there. Thank God not all signed up.


Next up was precision hitting. All he had to do was hit a ball off a tee through cones set up in the outfield.
Look close - that is how far the ball got on his first attempt. The T made it to first base. He claims the T was too high. It really was too high, not just for Mike but for a lot of the guys. He did make 4 out of 8 after he got the hang of it.


The tourney started on Friday. The weather was much better. The boys won their first game and lost the second. This was a tournament of Champions so most of the teams were good. Really Good. The guys lost all their games on Saturday so were out of the tournament. I was secretly very glad.

Mike is hanging up his spikes. His softball spikes anyway. This was his last tournament.

Done Disney

We finished off our trip to Disney with our last 2 days at Hollywood Studios on Monday.

Through out this whole adventure Mike or I would comment -
Dylan would love this....
The boys would love it here....
Kaylyn would not want to get off this ride...
Every where you went you saw kids with their parents and grandparents.
Disney Hollywood Studios was a lot less walking and more sitting. My feet were NOT complaining.
We both enjoyed the back lot tour and the making of Indiana Jones. And the stunt show was so good I forgot to take pictures. We both agreed the boys would of LOVED that.


Our last day, Tuesday, was at Animal Kingdom. It was a blue sky day.
This is the entrance taken at 10:15 in the morning. I told you NO CROWDS!!!

We got Fast Passes (this is a pass to come back at a special time and just walk right on)to the Safari because the wait time said 10 minutes. We wandered around in the lush greenery among the birds and wildlife. I loved it here.

Mike wanted to ride Expedition Everest so we got fast passes (wait time said 30 minutes).
Here I am with my fast pass. I did Space Mountain for Christ sake I can do this.
Mike avoided telling me that you go backwards on this thing. Well I did it - I didn't like it, but I did it.



After 7 days with 5 trips to the parks (We hit up the magic Kingdom twice)- 3 trips to Downtown Disney- 73 miles of walking. I think we can say we experienced Disney World.

NOW on to Senior Softball.

Golf

I was not too tired to play some golf today though.
Mike and I played at a course down the street from the neighbors winter home - King's Ridge. Ray recommmended it. We got paired with a couple from Canada.
It was cheap.
It was green.
The sun was shining.
It was warm.
And we were playing golf in Feb. No complaints.

I hit in the trees...


And under trees.


Dup you owe me 2 kisses and Sharen Mike gets 4. (kisses in our foursome are given out for pars). One of Mike's kisses is for a birdie.

We stopped at the Schreiber's winter home before heading out for dinner.
Lou flashed her "Cast Member" card again and got us another discount. I swear if I lived down here I would get a job at Disney just for the perks. Lou works just 3 or 4 days a month and gets all the benefits. Sweet!

Another full day in FL.
Only took 12487 steps for 5.7 miles. Thank god for golf carts.

I know about now Andy has thought about the math steps/miles. I set it to my stride big guy tiny vs. Andy stride = BIG!!!

Epcot

Thursday Mike and I spent the day at Epcot. Rumors were right, there was a lot less kids. (One out of every 5 girls in the kingdom wore princess dresses. SO cute!)
Anyway Epcot was very impressive. We got on all the rides again with no waits. We walked from one building to the next and just hopped on the rides. And I did them all except one.
After I helped land the spaceship on the moon I just needed to sit still for a minute so while Mike went on the Fast Track ride I sat and talked with a Mother whose 5 yr old daughter was there with the Make a Wish, luckily she was in remission (6 months). She was telling me about the Make a Wish resort and how wonderful they treat all the families there. Eye opening.
We walked and walked. I was afraid to check out my pedometer, I had taken 20785 step in the Kingdom for 9.7 miles and Epcot was BIGGER.

We met up with our neighbors from Shady, who live down here in the winter, for dinner in Germany. It was a buffet with great food and entertainment. I did have a german beer there, but I find myself drinking the sweet tea everywhere I go - it's almost as good as the tea in Myrtle.

Lou is a "Cast Member". I love how they call all employee at Disney cast members and not employees.
She is taking us into Animal Kingdom on Tuesday.
We hung out with them through the fireworks and then grabbed the shuttle back to our hotel. Let me tell ya I was very happy to fall into bed.
I looked at my pedometer. 22681 steps for 10.7 miles.
No wonder I was TIRED.....

Magic

The weather was in the 80's and the sky was overcast(Mike still got red) and we were in the magic kingdom.


We traveled all over the place and never got into a car.
Shuttle Buses
Ferrys
Disney Rides
Disney Rides
Roller Coaster
Lots more of Disney rides
AND a roller coaster completely in the dark. I cannot believe I got on that thing. There were NO LINES at any of the rides. I think that if I had to stand in line and think about what I was about to do I would not get on Space Mountain. But I got in line walked right up to that ride, saw that you had to sit alone and paniced. WTF no hand to hold. Mike sat behind me. I screamed, but I rode it. I don't think we missed a ride - I did pass on the go carts and the tea cups.

We got good seat for the parade. Goffey wanted to lick my camera.

We really had a good, long day at the kingdom.
I am getting more comfortable with my new camera and have been snapping lots of pics that I will download when we get back.

Mike and I are very jealous about all the snow back home that we are missing. Then we come to our senses and put more sun screen on. :)