I'm Fine. Really.

I kind of feel like this kitty today. Hopefully this head, chest, throat thing will clear out of me soon. Because I'll tell you flying on an airplane was no picnic, your ears actually hurt(think feeling like they will explode) upon landing with all this junk in you. But we are home and are grateful for our time together. I went to the grocery and got lots of soup so let's hope it'll clear out of me soon so I can put together a sentence without confusing everyone. LOL If you are having trouble reading what's on the photo, it says "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." Matthew 11:28
Here is my granddaughter Maddie modeling a t shirt that Papa and I got her in Hilton Head. It says "SISTER FOR SALE ' $1.00 NEGOTIABLE. For anyone who doesn't know, Maddie is going to have a baby sister in a little over two weeks, okay it's actually 20 days, 8 hours and 5 minutes, but who's counting? LOL She has a couple of big sis t shirts but I thought this one was funny. Hopefully she won't really feel this way about her new little sis and they will be the best of buddies. But I'm sure some of you with sisters probably felt like selling them for $1.00 at some point in your life. LOL This is called an action shot because she doesn't like to hold still to pose anymore, she's multi tasking. She has her drink in one hand and pretzels in another. :-)
Here is one last shot of North Forest Beach on Hilton Head Island right before we left for the airport. If you click on the photo, I think you will be able to see Dausfuskie's Island in the background. I've not taken the ferry over there in all of my time visiting Hilton Head and need to do that sometime. I also discovered the Bluffton area this time. Bluffton is right outside of Hilton Head Island and has alot to offer. The May River and the marshes are beautiful. When we go back in September with our family, I want to get some photos of the marshland. There is real beauty in the marshes that is different from the beach. Anyway, I'm glad to be home and hope everyone is well. I will be making my way around blogland soon to visit but it might be slow.

Going Home!

Today is our last day in Hilton Head. The photo above is from our porch. We love having the patio doors open and listening to the fountains. We've had a great time but it's time to go home. The Flying Pig Marathon is this weekend in Cincinnati and my sweetie and I have volunteered at the marathon for years. So this weekend will be very busy with all of the events surrounding the marathon. But before I go home I have a few more photos, if you can stand them. LOL


This is a little baby cardinal outside of the condo. He was so frightened and his parents were not happy with us being near him. I really wanted to help him but didn't want to touch him. Mike said there was another one roaming around too. I hope he made it back to his nest.

Anyway, I was not feeling well yesterday. Not sure what I have but it has wiped me out. So since I didn't eat all morning, my sweetie decided I needed to eat so he took me to The Sea Shack for lunch. Now the Sea Shack is really just a shack with really good seafood. If you ever make it to Hilton Head, stop by this place. It is where the locals eat. Anyway, I had to take this photo because I thought it was funny. Click on it to see it better. This is what they do to people who complain here. LOL

Here's another shot of the restaurant. It's not anything fancy but you won't leave hungry or cost you an arm or a leg. LOL After I took this photo I realized that this guy getting his drinks had a gun in a holster, you can see it if you click on the photo. I think he was a detective but he kept looking at me because I took the photo. Don't know what he thought I was going to do but I didn't think it was against the law to take photos in a restaurant. LOL

And this last photo is of the Coligny shopping area across from the condo. This bird was sunning himself on the statue. Coligny is alot of fun to visit, it's filled with shops and restaurants. I just like to walk around it sometimes. So it's back to Cincy and hopefully I will have some time to catch up with everyone. See you back in Cincy.

Happy Birthday Jim!

Happy Birthday Jim! Our son Jim turns 28 today and he is lucky because Mom is out of town and only has access to a few photos of when he was little. Look at what a cutie he was as a little guy! And the second photo is of Jim and his sisters Melissa and Christina. Happy Birthday Jim, we will celebrate when we get home. We love you!

Hanging with the guys!

Here is my sweetie and his brother Kevin. Kevin lives on Hilton Head so we've been spending some time with him. Mostly at the local Starbucks. LOL We go there every morning and watch the usual cast of characters as they begin their day. Some are on their way to work, there are alot of golfers on their way to a game and tonight it looked like a group of young people having a bible study. It's just fun to sit and watch everyone. Last night we went to eat at a BBQ place, no one makes pulled pork BBQ like the south does. I had pulled pork with corn on the cob and corn bread. Yummy! We've been walking the beach everyday and just hanging out. I don't like to spend too much time in the sun because I get these nice little brown spots on me that my dermatologist would call wisdom spots. Yea, right...wisdom....LOL Anyway hope everyone had a great weekend.

Just Chillin'

I've been chillin' with my sweetie here in Hilton Head. My sister Judy and her friends left very early Friday morning and then I picked Mike up from the airport and we've just been relaxing. We had decided before we came here that this trip was going to be all about just hanging out and spending some quality time together. But before he came in my sister Judy and I went shopping at the Salty Dog and I bought a few t shirts for my grandbabies. The crazy birds in the photo above are outside of the Salty Dog and they make alot of noise. The red one was very vocal.
Okay, so what do you think the chances are of getting all of my grandbabies in a photo wearing their Salty Dog T shirts and everyone being happy and still? LOL
This photo is of Signe's bakery and cafe here on the island. I took Judy here so she could get a piece of their key lime pound cake. They are well known for their pound cakes, I might try their new flavor one called thunder and lightning, it's a lemon pound cake with dark chocolate pieces in it. Doesn't that sound good and isn't this just the cutest little place?
Before the girls left we went to eat at the Old Oyster Factory and this was the view from the restaurant. The marshland is so pretty here. I had fun with my sister and her friends and I was glad they didn't mind me crashing their 50th birthday celebrations. So I have a good book to read and I'm going for a walk on the beach later on and just hang out. I could get used to this. LOL Hope everyone is having a good weekend!

Start of a new day!

I made it to Hilton Head Island late last night and for some reason I just could not sleep. Some of you know this because I paid you a visit in the early hours of the morning. Don't you just hate the hours between midnight and 5am, when you know sleep is not going to happen and you just lie there? Well, I finally got up and decided to watch the sunrise this morning because well, I was awake. LOL I have never watched the sunrise only the sunsets and let me tell you, God puts on quite a show in the morning. I grabbed my Bible, my camera and cell phone and went down to the beach. First I called my sweetie, who I knew would be at work and told him what a site this was and then I took photos and had a quiet time with the Lord. It was worth not having any sleep. My sister and her friends have been here all week celebrating their 50th birthdays and they leave tomorrow and then my sweetie comes in. We are just going to relax and spend some time together. So now I am going to Starbucks and get a triple expresso. LOL
Enjoy the photos, if you click on them you should be able to see the sunrise better. This was just taken with my little Sony Cybershot DSC-170 but this is when I wish I had one of those really good digital cameras.



The fish were up and ready to greet me this morning too. Actually, they thought I had food for them. Have a great day!

The Land of Mango Sunsets!

I'm heading out to this beautiful place tonight. Can you guess where it's at? I know my good buddy Irene knows where this is because she loves it here as much as I do. Anyway if the plane flies out tonight (you never know anymore) I'll be there in a few hours. I have my laptop with me so hopefully I can get the internet. See you later on at the beach. And no I cannot take credit for these gorgeous photos of the sunrise and sunset, they are not mine but I got them from a website for this island. Where am I going anyway???? I totally stole my post title from my favorite author, Dorothea Benton Frank. Sorry Dorothea, but it's a great title and it's also the name of the book I am reading right now and it also is another clue as to where I am headed.

Butterfly Show and Meeting Great Gramps

We had a busy day yesterday. First we took my granddaughter Maddie to the butterfly show along with every person over 90 and every kid under 4 in the city. It was really crowded, Maddie loved the butterflies but was not too crazy about the crowds. It is so cool to see all of these creatures, they are so pretty. Here's a few shots of some of them.

I loved this blue butterfly and I kept trying to get him to land on my hand but he would have none of it, he wanted to go to the flowers. But isn't he so pretty

And I had to take this photo of the clock outside of the Conservatory, it really works. It's beautiful with all of the flowers surrounding it.

Here's another little guy trying to hide from people.
And since we couldn't get a shot of a butterfly on Maddie this time, I had to get one of her face as she seen them. She did think they were cool and she did try to say butterfly each time she seen one.

And then later on in the day we took my newest grandson over to see my Dad. This little guy is my Dad's fifth great grandbaby and with Maddie's new little sis coming it'll be six. That's Allison showing my Dad Cameron. That girl looks too good for just having a baby! LOL

My Dad holding Cameron. He's always worried about holding tiny ones but he did fine.

Maddie came along to Great Gramps place and loved his magnets on the refrig. He has quite a collection from when my Mom and Dad used to travel. I think they had been to every state but a couple and my Mom used to buy a magnet everywhere she went and of course whenever any of my sisters and brother went away we would pick her up one also. Anyway, it was a full and fun day.

Also if you could keep little Cameron and my daughter Melissa in your prayers, I would appreciate it. Cameron is still having trouble with his acid reflux and he has alot of trouble keeping down his food. He is being breast fed and it looks like he spits up about an ounce or so of what goes in him each time. It's alot of breast milk coming back up. He's going to the doctor's on Monday for his one month check up so hopefully they can get some answers. Allison and Jimmy do not want him on medication anymore and it may be he'll need to outgrow this, but he is so uncomfortable when this happens.

And Melissa is having such a hard time with her gallbladder with this pregnancy and trying to take care of a toddler. She's in alot of pain and it hurts her so bad sometimes she says it's hard to just do her everyday things. I've been there with gallbladder issues(they took mine out) so I know how painful it can be. They think it's pregnancy related but they can do nothing until after the baby is born in four weeks and then it might correct itself but it's hard for her to sleep and take care of Maddie. She really wants to spend some quality time with Maddie before the new baby comes and this is such a distraction. Anyway thanks for the prayers, my bloggy buddies are always ready to pray if needed and I do so appreciate it. Have a great Wednesday!

I've been Tagged and the Butterfly Show

Butterfly Exhibit May 2007 - Look at the butterfly on Maddie's dress - I'll explain this later in my post.

I've been tagged by my good blogging buddy Jenn at the Beaufort Lookout . I am suppose to tell 6 unimportant things about myself and tag six other people. But you guys know me and I usually don't tag specific people, so if anyone wants to play along please do and let me know so I can read your six unimportant things about you. Okay, so here we go:
1)I grew up on the Ohio River and I know how to bait a hook with wheaties(the cereal) pretty good. (betcha didn't think a girly girl like me could catch catfish, huh?)
2)I can read super fast. My sweetie won't even read anything along with me because I finish it way before he does. Now comprehending everything I read is probably another story. :-)
3)I love driving in my car in the Spring with the sunroof opened and just enjoying the warm weather.
4)I love the ocean. Just love walking it and looking at it. But when I went to Alaska last year, those mountains just had me in awe but give me the ocean anyday.
5)I love my flip flops. I wear them all year long. Well, around my house in the winter. :-)
6)I love Graeter's Mocha Chocolate Chip Ice Cream. Go to their website and you'll be hooked on it too. Too bad they don't make a Weight Watcher's version.

Okay, hope you join in on the tag and let everyone know six unimportant things about you also.

My daughter Melissa and I are taking Maddie to the butterfly show this morning. The exhibit runs from April to June and last year we took her the later part of May but by that time alot of the butterflies were gone. It's really cool because the butterflies fly all over the Krohn Conservatory and they will land on you. And they are so beautiful to see. Last year she just kind of looked at them so this year should be interesting. That's the photo that is at the top of my post. Then my son, Allison and Cameron are coming over later in the afternoon so Cameron can visit Great Grandpa(my Dad) for the first time. I did all of my work yesterday afternoon so I could have some fun today. Hope you are having a great Tuesday!

The Highs and Lows of the Weekend

Every Friday my sisters and I meet our Dad for lunch and on Friday we went to one of our favorite places on the River. It is an outdoor restaurant that is only opened from April to September so it's alot of fun. Maddie joins us most of the time along with various other nieces and nephews when school allows them to. One of these days I will get a photo of the whole crew because sometimes there are quite a lot of us there. Anyway, Maddie loved this place with it's fake colored palm trees. She thought it was lots of fun!

She was also very fascinated by ice from her glass that fell on the deck of where we were eating. She spent more time trying to squish the ice and pick it up then she did eating. LOL

And Great Grams came in town for a funeral of an old family friend(that was the low of our weekend) and she met her great grandson for the first time. He didn't want to wake up and show her his beautiful eyes. :-)
And my sweetie decided to do a closeup of me holding Cameron. I'm not a big fan of closeup but Cameron looks cute. He is going to meet my Dad tomorrow so you know I'll have lots of photos of that.

And the rest of the weekend, I could not put this book down. I finished it in twenty four hours. No kidding, it is that good. The faith of the families involved in this book is amazing. You have probably read about this story, the two college girls in an accident and one lives and one dies. One family believes their daughter is dead and the other takes care of a young girl they think is theirs only to find out five weeks later that it is not their daughter. This is a true story and one I won't forget for a long time. They had a blog and it looks like it ended in August of 2006. Go here if you want to see the archives. My sister Judy gave me this book to read and she told me I wouldn't be able to put it down and she was so right. The whole book honors God and sings His praises through everything.

Not much else going on this Monday. It's time once again for my six week get the gray out of my hair appointment. Last time I went, the stuff she put on my hair caused it to burn and itch my scalp. It stopped at soon as she washed off the stuff. She told me it had that reaction on everyone she used it on. I was a bit puzzled as to why they still were using it if it felt like it was burning and itching on everyone. When I left I had told her I really liked the color and she said if I could stand it the next time she would put the same stuff on. Now I don't know about you but I'm not a big fan of an itchy and burning scalp, so is there some reason they would still use this? Hey I'll do alot to look decent but if it involves pain, I'm outta here. LOL Okay I rambled on too much this morning. One more thing, HBO's John Adams series ended last night and it was so good. Both John Adams and Thomas Jefferson died on the same day. They both died on the 4th of July exactly 50 years from the signing of the Declaration of Independence. I'm sure many of you already knew this but I found the whole series so interesting. Okay I'm done now. LOL Have a good one!

It's Friday!

Aren't you glad when Friday comes? So does anyone have any big plans for this weekend? I had wanted to go to a Red's baseball game but it doesn't look like it'll happen this weekend but there will be plenty of games to see this season. It is suppose to be a beautiful Spring weekend here in Cincinnati so I am just going to enjoy this beautiful season, maybe grill out. It's kind of nice not to have any plans for the weekend because May and June are usually so busy with graduations, Mother's Day etc... Anyway, I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend.
P.S. Is this not the cutest photo? Love the kitties but I especially love what it says.
P.S.S. We felt an aftershock from an Earthquake here early this morning. My Sweetie was already at work and it woke me up but I thought I was dreaming. Weird feeling.......we don't have this here in Cincinnati so I didn't even know what was going on.

How To Enjoy A Glorious Spring Day!

BY MADDIE!


First you work really hard collecting all of your sidewalk chalk and moving it from one place to another. Hey, this is really hard work people!
Then you inspect your vehicle and make sure it is in perfect working order.

Then after all of that hard work it is time for a treat!
And you really enjoy the treat.....................
I mean REALLY enjoy the treat...................
And then you look at Grandma and Mommy about every two seconds and say hmmmmmm.........with a big smile
That was the best treat ever. Don't you just love how little kids enjoy the moment? Enjoy every moment of this Thursday!