Pictures and stories of our dear family and friends
Did you know that cameras naturally gravitate to small children? Mine was no exception!
Ellie enjoying some time with her Uncle Woody (Josiah)
Hayley was full of smiles and contentment!
A kiss for a special friend
And posing with Mom with friends from Nemo!
Today is February 3, 2005 – our granddaughter Ellie’s 2nd Birthday. Wow, did that ever go fast. This week was also our six month anniversary of being “retired†or whatever it is that we are. I think of us as just unemployed, but whatever you want to call it, it has been a grand six months. To those of you who faithfully stop by to see where we’ve been and where we’re headed – Thanks! Please feel free to add a comment so we know you’ve visited. And if you’re a first time visitor – welcome to our adventure! We hope you stop by often.
We just spent almost a week in the driveway of friends in Ft. Myers. We were very bad tourists, for although we located a couple of nature preserves and historic houses, somehow we never quite got to any! One of the reasons we just hung around home so much was the lovely setting that we were enjoying – here’s the view in the early morning light…..See what I mean?
We certainly enjoyed our visit with Jim and Sue and their daughter Missy and her husband Rich. We were also blessed to be present for the big news that not only is Missy newly pregnant, but she is expecting TWINS! Sue was exhausted just thinking about it! It’s a good thing she only has to be the Gramma and not the Mom! It exhausts me and I’m just the friend of the Gramma and Grampa! Here we are together on our last evening – it was great to be together with such dear friends.
We also were able to get together with Bill and Irene Creighton, friends from Jamison. Irene used to do some office work for us, and she and Bill now live in Ft. Myers 6 months of the year. As is often the case, we don’t see too much of them when they’re in Jamison, so it’s only fitting that we tracked them down in Ft. Myers. Again, another special day!
We continued our Florida Travels with a visit with Judy, Gary’s sister. She lives in Punta Gorda, an area that was badly damaged during the Hurricane Charlie – and then continued to be battered as the remaining three hurricanes visited the state. Judy lost the roof of her house – and all of her belongings. It’s been a tough road for her, but the house is almost rebuilt and she hopes to be in by mid February. The entire area showed many signs of the massive devastation from Charlie, so it was good to connect with Judy and see that all was well with her (well, on the way to being “well†at least!).
From there we headed to Ft. Myers where we are staying with friends Jim and Sue Taylor. Lizzie fits in their driveway, so we are enjoying spending time with good friends without being right under their feet all the time! It’s been a quiet laid-back time so far – maybe tomorrow we’ll head out to see some of the local sights.
I’ll write more later – just wanted to let you’all know where we were!
No, not Lara, Toby, Tammy, and Josiah. These are the Kids at the Green Isle School where I was “tutoring†for three weeks. I mostly worked with Ricky (he’s the blonde, second from the right) and Cory (he’s the big guy in the back trying to strangle the two boys in front of him.) These are great kids that already have a couple of strikes against them and are probably carrying more “baggage†that I will ever carry. This first picture is the “official†one – the gang is more or less under control. (The girls are daughters of staff members and the guy in the front is Mr. Bill, one of the teachers).
This picture is a little more realistic!
It was a great experience, frustrating at times, but one that I’m thankful to have had. And it sure has given me something to pray about!
When we started planning this adventure it all seemed so simple. We’d sell the house after all the kids were launched (more or less), wrap up our little business, buy an RV and take a year off to see the country. Even then (as many of you know) I had no concept of how that would actually happen. That was 1997. This is 2005. My oh my oh my.
We’ve learned a lot these five months ~ about each other, about life in an RV, about places to see and things to do, about the Lord and his grace, about the importance of family and friends. We’re also learning more about how this “adventure†is changing us and changing focus. We’ve fallen in love with the SOWER concept – using our talents to help others as we travel around the country. We’ve been very blessed by the two projects that we have done. So, instead of being tourists for a year and doing a couple of SOWER projects along the way, we are planning on doing SOWER projects most of the time and doing a little “tourist†along the way. We’re hopeful that the adventure lasts for a good long while. Keep Prayin’!!!!!
“Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might.†Ecclesiastes 9:10
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