Well, it has been a little over a month since we returned to Florida, the leaves were just turning in New York, and it was cold and windy the week that we left. My bones and muscles just ached from the cold weather, so I knew it was time to head to a warmer climate. I had lunch with my Mom just before we left, with my two sisters joining us. We went to the Park Diner near the park in Norwich, what a nice little restaurant. The waitresses were all so friendly. They took a liking to my Mom. They couldn't believe that she was 96 years old. We had a delicious meal and just sat there enjoying each other's company. After dinner, we headed south and got as far as Winchester, VA and spent the night. The next day we decided to take in the Shenandoah Valley State Park and Parkway, I think it cost $15.00 to drive the 105 miles through this area. Wow, once will be it for us. It is beautiful to begin with and then it got to be the same old scenery. So we won't do that again. We had a good trip the rest of the way. We normally would go through Alabama and visit our daughter, but they were planning on coming our way on Friday night because they were going on a cruise. It was a first time cruise for Kelcey and Ryan. They thoroughly enjoyed it. They returned on Thursday, and then spent Friday with us, headed home later in the day.

It was good to get back to our home in Florida, larger space, lots of friends and sunshine! It felt so good to sleep in our King size bed. Getting acquainted with new and old friends was great also. The unpacking is the worst, my house was a disaster for a few day and quite frankly, still is.

Jerry has been too successful with the fishing. He has been a few times, but the wind just loves to blow down here and the temperature has been so warm that the fish are still too far out, at least that is what he tells me.

I have dabbled in just about all of my hobbies, except for scrapbooking. I haven't done much with that yet. The craft group of which I am the leader has been trying to get ready for our annual Bazaar on December 5th. We do some Christmas crafts, and non-Christmas. I love putting together wreaths and flower arrangements with a help of couple of my friends. We get alot of compliments on our flower arrngements.

I have made some towels that you put over a drawer pull or over your oven door handle and decided to make a couple of pot holders to match. My 3 nieces in California saw them ad loved them when I posted them on Facebook, so I guess after Christmas will have to make some for them too. have 8 of the towels done, need to add at least one pot holder that match them or maybe you call them hotmats. To me they are one in the same.

The picture below was an idea that I got from a Bazaar I went to, they took 2 old books, glued them together, spray painted them gold or any color you want, put a ribbon around them like you would on a gift and then glued a floral pix on the top, we sold these at our bazaar last. I thought they were really cute.

Until next time, enjoy life!

My favorite authors

I have done a bit of reading this summer, especially during my recovering from surgery. My favorite authors are Debbie Macomber and Susan Wiggs. Debbie has a new book coming out the end of August, which is part of her Cedar Cover series. It is a wonderful series. She uses the same characters throughout the whole series, each book is named after the address of which the character lives. Can't wait to read the next book. Her Blossom Street series was very good reading, again she keeps the same characters. In this series of books, she goes from character to character all the way through the book. The last book I didn't want to end. You find yourself becoming friends with these characters as if they were your neighbors. I have found myself hearing someone talk about an incident, and I think that I have heard somthing similar and then I remember, it was in the book I just read.


Susan Wiggs, also a wonderful author. I find her similar to Debbie. I read her Lakeside Chronicle series, which consisted of 4 books. This author uses the lower Catskill area for her books, in town called Avalon.

Happy Reading everyone!

A Day with a Beauty Queen

Let me introduce you to my granddaughter, Kelcey, who lives in Slocomb, Alabama, which is near Dothan. She is 15 years old and has been competing in local beauty pageants for a year or so. She has won 5 or 6 or maybe more pageants. The reason I know this is because she has taken over a sofa table in her parent's living room to display her crowns, sashes and trophies. This table happens to be on our way to the room we use when we visit my daughter and her family. So I cannot help but look at these beautiful crowns.

The weekend before we came North we spent the weekend at her house and got to see what she goes through to get ready for a pageant. Schedule for the day, is a hair appointment, the interview for the contestants and the pagent which is at at 7:00 that evening. Around noon she realized that she didn't have the skirt to her interview suit. She had loaned it to a friend and had only gotten the jacket back. So she gets on the phone only to find out that her friend is out of town, but it could be in the back seat of her car which was at her house and she told Kelcey someone was there if she wanted to go over there and check it out. So we get in the car and off we go to search for this skirt. The car was there but noone was at the house and the car happened to be locked. Panic! What to do now? There was a suit at the pageant shop that she had tried on previously and maybe it would still be there. Of course during the week her mother had asked to make sure everything was in order. Her answer was, "of course, Mother".

In the south where pageants are so popular they have shops that cater to the girls with interview suits, gowns for all ages, sizes, etc. So we arrive at the shop and she finds the suit and tries it on, it fits, Mother pays and we are off to the beauty shop. The shop is in this "old building" that doesn't look like it should have any businesses open there. But a lady and her daughter have a salon here and on the weekend they cater to pageant and wedding clientele. It is not cheap, believe me.

We walk in, 3 or 4 mothers are in the waiting room with 2 or 3 girls waiting their turn. The 3 chairs are all occupied with girls, one chair there is a girl with rollers in her hair, the second, one having makup put on and the third one is having a comb-out. The mother of this duo is putting hot rollers in the hair. She must have had 5 or 6 sets of hot rollers heating up. She finishes and the girls hops to the next chair where the makup is put on. The beautiful girl that is doing the makup was recently in the Miss America Pageant as Miss Alabama USA. Girls keep coming in with their mothers, some for pageants and some for a wedding party of 5 plus the bride. Once the makeup is put on, the girl hops over to the third chair which is where the daughter of this duo is doing the comb-out, some updos and some down-dos, but they are all beautiul in the end. The amount of hairspray used in unbelievable. I heard the girl say that sometime there is so much hairspray on her hand that she can't move her fingers. It was amazing to set there and watch these women work.

Now that the hair is beautiful and Mom has emptied her pocketbook, we are off to the interview which is being held in a Bank building. Several girls are already there waiting their turn. They are all dressed in their nice suits, heels and their beautiful hairdos. It is only about a 5-minute interview. It is finally Kelcey's turn and she wanders up the stairs. Interview goes well, but one of the questions was, "how is your day going" so Kelcey proceeds to tell them about the missing skirt and that her Mother had asked her earlier in the week if everything was in order. I chuckled at this because it reminded me of Kelli when she was that age. She always waited to the day before or the day of whatever to put things together, but it always turned out okay, but it frustrated me, because I wanted her to suceed and she usually always did.

We are off to wait for the pageant at one of Kelcey's teacher's home who graciously has allowed us to hang out there. When we arrive we meet her and her husband and 2 children. The parents are folding laundry and the 2 kids latch onto Kelcey. Across the street from this house is a nice gazebo and an older looking building, so Kelli decides to take Kelcey over there to take some snapshops. Kelcey loves to pose for pictures.

Time has passed, and we are off to the pageant which is being held at the local School. The gym is filling up with parent, grandparents, past and present beauty queens that were crowned earlier in the day. Had to find enough empty chairs for Mom, Grandma, Grandpa, Dad and possibly brother if he decides to come. Proud parents are milling around, taking pictures, etc.

The pageant begins. The girls come out and do their opening number which is a dance routine. Kelcey is dressed in a silky black blouse with black jeans that her mother earlier in the week had glued small stones down the leg, around the belt of the blouse and on the collar. She looked beautiful. The number ends, they change into their evening gowns. They are back on stage as a group parading for the judges, then they come out one by one doing their turns, etc. for the judges. The next event is the random question. They pull a question from the basket, the emcee reads it and the girls answer, some many words, some only a few.

The time has arrived when the winner will be announced. Most photogenicis first , 1st runner up is next and the queeen, Kelcey's name is announced. Wow, tears well up in my eyes. She Won! Kelcey comes out all smiles, the former queen puts the sash on Kelcey and puts the crown on her head. Wow, she really did win! WHAT A DAY!

Well, it is Tuesday and it was my laundry day... This is one thing I miss about my Florida home, is that I can just go to the shed and put the laundry in and go back to what I was doing. Here at the Pond, I have to sort the laundry, put it in the baskets, make sure I have my quarters, drive 20 miles to the laundromat, search for for the washers that don't have "out of order" signs on them, load the clothes, the money, set back and wait to put them in the dryer and once again search out the ones that don't have "out of order" signs on them. They are top and bottom dryers and they share one coin slot, and you hope to push the right buttons for the designated dryer and it has happened before that I put the coins in and the empty dryer starts and then hustle to switch your clothes to the dryer youo just started. I like to watch people in the laundromat, though. They are quite interesting the way people do their laundry. When the guys come in they pack everything in one washer, whites, towels, jeans, etc.

Tomorrow I have to go and see the doctor about my upcoming surgery.. It means driving down to Syracuse, but they is okay because I will also do my shopping while I am there. They have most of the stores that I am interested in over in Clay. Wegmens, Sams, Reg Walmart, AC Moore and I understand they just put in a Hobby Lobby on Route 31. I will have to check that out too if I have time.

I was at Jo-Ann Fabrics in Cortland last week and there was a sign that said "Thanks to You, we are staying open". I asked the girl at the cutting counter about the chance that they were closing. She told me that 2 weeks ago they were told the store would closing in September, but because so many people called and didn't want to have to drive to Ithaca and somewhere else that they decided t keep it open. I don't go there often, but is nice that I know it is there so that if I am traveling back to the Pond, I can stop and pick up something, seeing that Walmar's are doing away with their fabric department. I hope Norwich keeps there fabric!