The Jeff Memorial Video

Jeff and Alex

Jeff will always be in our hearts. This is the best: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aM1YXhWbbnw

I am so grateful that the boys posted it on youtube after Bradley's vimeo version was gone.

Hard to believe it will be six years this February that he's been gone.

Arkansas Christmas

We came to town for Mary Grace and Nathan's wedding (It was wonderful and they are now married and happily on their way to honeymooning at Disney World).

Beautiful bride, Mary Grace

Tom with Mrs. Harris

Our extended family with the newly married couple

The groom is one of triplet boys!

En route to the wedding we stopped in Hot Springs and Benton first to visit with Linda, Tim, and the boys, then Lynn Turner, and then the Steeles. (Harper, at four, is so tall...and beautiful!)

Brown's Country Buffet

Hot Springs Xmas lights

Lunch at a local Mexican restaurant

Tom and Harper

Matt, Harper, Jessica -the Steeles

Tom and Jessica (unintended photobomb by Matt)

Tom, Lynn, and Linda

Roberta, Linda, Tom

Timmy, Austin, Linda, Tom

Groom and bride at the rehearsal dinner

Announcing Samuel David's name; praying for him

Name unscrambled in record time!

Esther gleefully opens her toy stroller

In Springfield at the Goffs we attended the rehearsal dinner, helped with and attended the wedding, cleaned up, and enjoyed the siblings gift exchange the next day (so the bride and groom could be there before leaving on their honeymoon).

That night we took everyone to see "Star Wars" and today we went to church.

Tripping for Christmas

Hard to believe I have to be up at dawn tomorrow because that is 24  hours before our flight to Arkansas on Tuesday.
We are so not ready.
Well, we have the flight and the car booked, so that's a good thing. But as for  stopping mail, alerting the police, making sure all bills are paid, finishing holiday cards, and packing...not so much. :-(
Plus our agenda for the week we're gone is non existent except for the dress rehearsal dinner Thursday night and the wedding Friday night.
Should be fun seeing everybody! Everything always works out for the best. :-)

I am over my four days in a row of holiday party gatherings. Time to exercise!

My eye is still an issue, sadly. I haven't been very consistent with soaking it and all. (I am secretly dreading the "squeezing it part). A stye  :-(  Really?

So where's the so-called snow??

They were calling for snow for the week-end and I signed up for CONTACT Sunday afternoon anyway (being brave and figuring it would be driveable by then). Meanwhile, it hit hard in Georgia but nothing here yet (as of 11 a.m. Saturday). Should I be worried or laughing?

I took Marion to Bruce's concert last night in Moorestown (after visiting the set up crew at the Manor House pre Tree Lighting Ceremony.)

It was so wonderful!

(I posted about this on another blog too.....My weebly one.)

It's a stye

It appears my eye issue is cleared up...well, identifying the issue, not making it go away...yet.

So it is December now and let the eating celebrations begin!  I have the Sigma Tea today, and have the BCEA Holiday Party, BCREA holiday lunch, DEAR friends lunch, Sigma Holiday Dinner all next week, and then a Piscataway mini-reunion lunch after Christmas.

Hard to believe Mary Grace is getting married in less than a month now...and we are looking forward to being there for that.

What's Up?

I asked Gary if I could have off on Thursday (so Tom and I can do MaryLou's lunch/movie event) and he said sure. Actually it turns out that would have been my last day of working the Emerald Advance promotion. Next week goes back to normal 3 days a week peopled by the off season folk. Oh, well.

I am going to be pretty busy for the rest of December anyway, so just as well.

If my poor red, swollen, and annoying left eyelid gets better soon, I will be very happy.
(I am suspicious that whatever caused it had to do with something in the eye doctors office last week because I went in with a healthy eye for that wretched eye test and within hours of leaving the office started complaining about eye weirdness and within a day had this big swollen eyelid that continued to worsen as days went by.) Ick.

Thanksgiving

I am so bad at keeping up with the blog, but perhaps that means I am enjoying life too much to stop and take time to write about it. That could be a good thing, right?

I've been keeping busy with Medicare Open Enrollment as a volunteer SHIP counselor and working Emerald Advance (and taking classes ) for HR Block.

I'm doing a phone shift today for CONTACT after Tom and I enjoy some good food in celebration of Thanksgiving. Sadly, this day is  not a happy one for many.

Talking about giving thanks, I am so very grateful (knock on wood) for all the positives in my life. Tom is certainly top of the list. My family, my friends, my health insurance (!)....There have been some tough times through the years, but all in all I have been very lucky. I guess that's why it's so important to me to do what I can to make other people's lives better in any way I can.

Our families are not close by, but our thoughts and love are with them...always.

November and cold

I spent all day Saturday overseeing the "opens" on the latest Constant Contact campaign and calling all the "bouncers" to find out why they did. It led to a couple of interesting conversations.

Actually, Friday I hooked up with oldtime friend BCEA-mate Bunny Hewko for happy hour and dancing at Prospectors. Fun time!

The Saturday night Canaan Smith concert was very entertaining, albeit loud (and packed!)

Today I hope to get out to see The Explorer Club presented by the Footlighters in Cinnaminson and starring Lou DiPilla. Hopefully Dolly will be interested in joining me.

The upcoming week is book club, election day, Convention in Atlantic City, HRB class, SHIP counseling, Sat open, Sugarfootin Sunday.....

Happy Halloween!

And now it's the end of October already! Whew....time is going so fast.

There are probably so many things to catch up on....I don't know where to start!

Jennifer is going to meet us in Las Vegas in January!
 I was surprised to receive an award at the Contact Volunteer Recognition breakfast....and what a thoughtful choice of item to remember it by!

In case you can't see it, that is a glass cowboy boot! :-)
Other month's events since we're back from Atlanta included Eastampton Day (and Trunk or Treat/ Bonfire and Hayride), a couple of Sugarfootin' Sundays and otherwise nights of dancing, three book club meetings (one in Ocean City), both NJREA and BCREA Fall meetings, President's Dinner, phone bank calls, two DEAR lunches as well as lunch with Gee Gee (when was my dinner with Margie and Pat?), some HR Block classes, Conni's birthday celebration, a myriad of movies, Contact shifts, and SHIP client contacts and Fall Update meeting.

Tom is back to bowling and trying to catch as much golf as possible before it snows or something...
His health is always something to be watched or worried about, but he is hanging in there.
New bowling ball, new Amazon Fire tablet, lots of food shopping....

Roberta, the weaver

Book Club in Ocean City

My favorite husband, Tom

Sadly, we haven't been dancing as much as we used to...just can't seem to get up the energy.
Hope to get to the Library Sunday concert today for a cover band-Allman Brothers.
Wish we were in Myrtle Beach with Margie and Mike!




 

Michelle and Roxanne and Home again...oh my

We got home Tuesday morning and later saw the movie "It". It was not bad, actually.
Wednesday was the BCEA Rep Council (my first as "audience") and dancing at Prospectors.
Thursday was a 7- 11 a.m. shift at Contact. I would have exercised on the way home (well, I was slow, but I would have, really), but then it turns out someone was assigned to sit outside the gym and let us know it was closed (!) because of plumbing issues, so I went to the Japanese restaurant and had lunch instead. :-)

Back to what happened on the last of the Atlanta vacation.
We danced at the Electric Cowboy, visited Michelle and Chris at their new home in Dallas, GA, and had dinner at Roxanne's the night before our flight date.

Visiting Chris and Michelle

Sam and Ross and family in Marietta, GA

So I had an eventful return flight from CA. (read as stuck in Denver for an extra day....but turned it into a fun day) and Tom picked me up at 12:21 a.m. on Saturday instead of the expected Friday and I missed my SHIP counseling slot (changed to later this month) and would have missed the Montgomery Gentry concert Friday night but Troy died in a helicopter crash and it was cancelled. :-( So sad.

Here are photos of the Sam and Ross visit trip so far: Photos of the family and us

Here is their formal photo:

The kids are so cute! This is their lovely home.

Tomorrow we are planning to get together with Chris and Michelle who are now living in Dallas, GA. (And maybe country dancing tonight after dinner with Johnsons and neighbors.

Oh, and hopefully dinner with Roxanne, Craig, and Dean Monday night. (and then home early on Tuesday).

More visiting

After we got home and before I left for CA on Sept. 2 (Mommy's birthday- she would have been 94), I had a chance to visit Margie (while she was in NJ!) and play Scrabble and have lunch with her and Pat. Fun!

Tom drove me to the airport and I had an uneventful flight....just long. (Denver layover of like 3 hours). I read my book and I was happy.

Jennifer picked me up and I stayed at her house and met Anayah and saw Jassy. The next day we went to Palo Alto to visit Jody and Chris and Vivien. Sue and Patrick came too.

I went home with Jenn and we headed to Sue's the next day (Monday, Labor Day). Caitlin and Dave and his two girls came.

All other visitors but Caitlin left and we all took naps until it was time to head to DeeDee's in Oakland. Lots of Patrick's relatives were there and we had fun. We came home and played two dice games and then I headed to bed with visions of San Francisco dancing in my head.

Visiting Friends and Relatives

So on August 18 we headed out for Myrtle Beach.
Sadly, we didn't get to visit with the Karnell girls after all. :-(

We did see the eclipse, two movies, Captain George, two Joannes, Georgeanne, Vickie and Michael, Pirates Adventure, and the beach.

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While we were in Myrtle Beach I saw an ad for inexpensive flights via Frontier Airlines, so I booked a trip to San Francisco. The flight description looked too uncomfortable for Tom so he opted out.