Friday - March 23

What a lovely day.....we are so spoiled and blessed down here in Florida with day-after-day of warm sunshine!    And so much of the country is dealing with floods, snowstorms, tornadoes, etc.

 

Anne, Patrick, Liam and Connor are on their way to Florida.....and just in time as 3-5" of snow is coming their way back in Bloomington tonight and tomorrow.

 

Michael and Drew are in Iowa City visiting the U of Iowa - snow coming their way, too.

 

We had a leisurely day catching up on our "to-do" list and got the laundry all done this afternoon.

 

We went to The Hut for supper - we each had a cold glass of Chardonnay and the shrimp dinners - sooo good!

 

A big exodus of RV's is leaving daily - folks are heading back north!

 

Walked when we got home - gorgeous evening!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thursday - March 22

Chilly this morning when we went to 8:15 Mass (50).    At 7:15, the H2O folks were here ready to start on our irrigation system.  

 

Mark saw Stephanie, (physicians assistant) and she said hand is doing well.    He will continue to wear the splint for at least 6 more weeks and not do any serious lifting for 12 weeks and will take 1 (ONE) year till he's totally "up to snuff"!

 

He has an appointment with Dr. Novotny (my orthopedic doctor in Bloomington) on May 1st and then another follow-up 4 weeks later.

 

Orthopedic Specialists is a huge facility (11 doctors and 11 PA's).    We asked Stephanie how many patients they see in a day's time.....the doctors who work there full-time average 80 (EIGHTY) patients per day per doctor and those who work 1/2 days, see around 25 per morning or afternoon.    Unbelievable!!!    When Mark filled out the initial paper work, he had to give 2 addresses

 (Florida and "Northern").

 

Dennis and Jamie around the corner stopped in for a nice visit.     Mark and Dennis used to work together and they bought their lot in January.

 

We went to The Mix Grill for lunch - love this place and I had a unique sandwich (cheeseburger wrap).    Ground beef, bacon, cheese, onions, chopped tomato, lettuce with a delicious Russian dressing on a Spinach wrap.).    It was excellent!

 

Then we drove downtown and met with the Lee County Permit and Zoning Board to see what is all involved for what we plan to put on our lot......shed, chickee hut, gazebo???).

 

Came on home and it was already almost 4:00.   Boy, this day got away from us, but overall,

a good one!

 

We went for a walk around the park checking out lots and what people have added, etc.!   

  Too many choices!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wednesday - March 21

Sunny and breezy and low 70's.    And seeing this picture pop up on Facebook taken 3 years ago in
 El Centro and start of Ryan's year as #6, was a nice start to the day!

Corrie Mays, Nate Barton, Matt Suyderhoud, Ryan, Mom, Dad,

 Tom Frosch, Andy Talbot, Mark Tedrow, Jeff Kuss

Sure miss these Angels....RIP Jeff

Wishing the 2018 team a fun, safe season!

Mark got a haircut in the morning.   I got some things done on Flo and we braved the very strong winds.....25 mph with gusts 30-35 mph. 

It's been a very busy February and March and since we arrived at Cypress Trail on February 1, we have been with over 35 family/friends (several of them more than once)!    That's a lot of fun AND eating!    So today until next Monday (except for Saturday) when we leave, we are going to enjoy some "down" time - just us and vowing to:

Eat LESS

Exercise MORE

I got a haircut at 4:15 (Jewel had a cancellation)!     But traffic at that hour was heavy!   Ugh..

We were going to go for our nightly walk after supper, but still so crazy windy and really cooling down, so....took a short walk and called it good!

They are really working away on the newest and final phase here at Cypress Trail.   After clearing away lots of trees and hauling away truckloads of dirt, they are smoothing things out for the 57 new sites, streets, etc., to be completed by fall.

If Mark had not had his accident and the weather had stayed warm in DC for the blossoms to come out, we would've been there tonight......5" of fresh snow on Terraphobic today!

  Ugh....just wasn't meant to be!

Total sweetness

"taming the curls"

Tuesday - March 20

H A P P Y   S P R I N G

Very windy today, but what fun we had with Allie and Owen.....they picked us up at 9:30 and we visited for a bit and then we showed them our clubhouse and pool and off to Manatee Park.  

Allie and Owen on a little tour of Cypress Trail

  We were very pleased to see so many manatees today....some really big ones, too.  

Owen and Allie watching a video all about manatees

One of many we saw

Left the park and drove downtown and had delicious lunch at Cabos Cantina - excellent "gold" margaritas and seafood enchiladas.   This place has the best Mexican fare...

 Owen, Allie, Pat, Mark

Tomorrow we had planned to fly to DC to see Ryan and the cherry blossoms.    They are predicting 4-6" of snow, so thankful that it wasn't meant to be this week.....Mark needs an x-ray, weather will be awful and those trees are not budding out any time soon!

Luke and Maeve went to the Science Center in Hickory today.
They are checking out "Pedro", a 60-year old tortoise

Weather was certainly in the news again today. terrible damage in Alabama and some nasty heavy storms in the Midwest and Florida, flooding in the west and another big nor'easter coming again to the east coast.

  Strong winds, heavy rain and lightening for us late this afternoon.

  

Monday - March 19

Happy "Sweet 16"  Davis

Our Lego Master celebrates today!

How is this possible......March 19, 2002 we welcomed our 2nd grandson and here we are 16 years later - with our smart, athletic, handsome, funny, sweet,

favorite red head

Foggy this morning when we left for 8:15 Mass, but afterwards, nice 'n sunny 'n warm!     We ran some errands, picked up a few groceries at Publix and then on home.   Mark had some projects on Flo

which I helped him with - a bit reluctantly as we were using some tools - no electric drill, though!

Allie and Owen arrived at 2 and we showed them around Flo and visited.    They left to check into their hotel and then we picked them up at 3:45 for trip to Cape Coral and the Gatlin show.    This was our first time to see them at Overtime Pizzeria Pub - great food, packed house and as always, so enjoyed the show!

Owen and Allie

Crab nachos

 Afterwards we went downtown to the Skybar for drinks (chocolate/raspberry martinis for Allie and me - "Guilty Pleasures" and Grand Marnier for the guys).   It was just a perfect evening to sit on the 4th floor of the Firestone Grill overlooking the Caloosahatchee River with the fountains, boats, etc.

At the Skybar

Pat and Allie overlooking the Caloosahatchee River

We talked to the birthday boy on our way home.....great ending to a great day!

Our niece Laura and Mike welcomed their 3rd child yesterday...

Congrats to their family

Riley and MacKenzie with their new brother, Paxton Michael

Mark's parents had 13 children (10 girls and 3 boys); 38 grandchildren (19 boys and 19 girls) and if I'm counting correctly, Paxton is the 43rd great grandchild with 2 more coming in 2018 (so far)