Saturday - January 5

Beautiful cooler day (70's), sunny and very windy....gusting to 20 mph.    We had a leisurely morning on Flo including a big breakfast of sausage, eggs and English muffins.    We did some computer stuff and then around 10ish, off to town.....we've been to the ginormous flea market in Fort Myers.    Thought we would check out the Okeechobee flea market knowing it would be smaller but whoaaa...wasn't quite prepared for the stuff they were selling.   It was 99% ALL flea market and not the new things like in Fort Myers!     Never saw so many "oldies but goodies" (I guess)?    Ha.....
Anyway, we walked around - it was bigger than we thought and lots of people shopping for treasures.

From there we went to Home Depot and got a ceramic pot and red/white impatiens for outside Flo's door.   Then to The Brown Cow for lunch - great sandwiches, soups, chocolates, ice cream, coffee, etc.    DELICIOUS shrimp chowder.    Onto Publix for a few things and finally home.   Opened all the windows and enjoyed the fresh breeze!

At Happy Hour we met 2 new couples.....Diana and Tom from Minnesota and Nancy and Mike from Tennessee.    Always a good time!!!   With the strong wind and cooleer temps, most everyone was was wearing a jacket.

 Maeve wearing little ruffled skirt from Grandma

with one sleeve up and one down!

An interesting little ditty that Mark came across and had to share with Liam, Connor, Brady and Drew (our Niagara Falls companions this past summer).

Bobby Leach was the second person to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel.    Years later, he died of injuries sustained from slipping on an orange peel.

Ya never know.....

Friday - January 4

H A P P Y   B I R T H D A Y  
   B I G   R E D

One year ago today on a bitterly COLD day in IL, we picked up Big Red in Peoria.    We then drove to Bloomington and gave Liam and Connor a ride before heading south!

  25,000 miles later, we are so enjoying it!

A busy morning starting with yoga from 8-9 and 2 newbies joined Sue and me - Carly and Sadie.    A good workout and then we stayed and watched and "did" zumba.   Carly has done this before and wanted to try it and so we all were jumping around to the music - fun!   On home to welcome Jud and Sue, the final friends to arrive from VA.   They were to be here December 1, but Jud had serious health issues and then on their trip down here, had 2 tires blow out (75 miles apart).....arghhhh!

Enough is enough - let the fun begin.

Happy hour and then Mark and I went to the Parrott Grill for dinner - good shrimp and grouper!

Have a great weekend!

Thursday - January 3

A very fun day with an out-of-town trip to Lakeland and visit with my brothers and wives.    We left Water's Edge around 8ish, stopped at McDonalds for a quick breakfast and I drove onto Bartow.    We stopped at Publix and picked up lunch for all and then arrived at Ron and Vicki's at 11.

We had not seen Vicki since her knee replacement and then subsequent trips to the hospital (3x).    She is gradually getting back her strength and will have evaluation of her knee tomorrow and continue with therapy.    We 6 had a great visit and Mark helped set up some new apps, ring tones, etc. on Bob and Linda's new IPhones..    We drove thru a little rain and arrived back on Flo at 5:40.

Ron, Bob, Vicki, Pat, Linda

  Had salads for supper and settling in...

Wednesday - January 2

Oh what a gorgeous day......sunny and low 80's.    Sue H (there are 3 Sue's in the park) and I went to yoga class with Miss Belle who has been instructing past 3 years we've been in Okeechobee.    This is from 8-9 and so enjoy Miss Belle and feels so good to do all that stretching!.    Back home and I exercised (Mark did it while I was gone - weights and balance using bands).    I rode my bike around the park 5x and then it was time to shower and get ready for a big afternoon in Stuart.

Carly and Ross who are full timers from Canada (Carly) and California (Ross) rode with us to Stuart.    They had never been so we gave them a little tour ending up with some shopping at Sewell's Point and downtown.   At 3, we met others who came over from Okeechobee and had drinks/appetizers at Spritz's City Bistro.    Really good food and drinks - a cauliflower Asian dish was the BIG hit at the table.  This is a fairly new place downtown and 1st time for most of us   Sat outside and so pleasant visiting with this some old and some new friends from Water's Edge.   On back to Flo around 6ish.

 Ross and Carly

Ross took the picture....

Left:   Carly, Butch, Joyce, Lee, Shirley, Gary, Sue, Sadie Chris, Pat, Mark

Hi Luke!

Back to kindergarten tomorrow!

Brooke's Mom, Judy shared this video from YouTube with us - we've read and watched so many articles, internet and TV coverage from the tragic Blue Angel accident on June 2, 2016 when Capt. Jeff Kuss was killed in Smyrna, TN.     I watched this for the 1st time this morning with tears....very well done.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGRMVNpoaSk&feature=share

New Year's Day - 2019

What a beautiful sunny start to 2019.    We went to 9:00 Mass at Sacred Heart (Solemnity of Mary) and what a treat.   Sacred Heart will be our church this month of January and it is a bilingual congregation (English, French and Spanish).     Father Yves speaks all three languages and is delightful remembering him from last year.   Once a year (New Years) they have a mass for all the congregation - singing (great choir) was all French; homily in English and rest of Mass alternating between the 3 languages.

Mark had a return at Home Depot and then on home.    It was a nice relaxing day - RV's really trickled in yesterday and today here at Water's Edge.    Read, took a nap, caught up on computer stuff, bike ride and then happy hour.