Forth of July Card

http://www.jacquielawson.com/viewcard.asp?code=1897331846244&source=jl999

Happy 4th

http://www.bornagainamerican.org/index.html

Remembering The Past

Remembering The Past

This is my entry for "A Cowboy's Wife" photography contest. The theme is "Faces". Join in the fun.

Holy Cow, It's been a while!

Holy cow, it's been a while. Winter over and we are packing to leave here after church this Sunay, Easter Sunday. We are going to our friend's retirement from the Navy in New Orleans. His family from Mass. will all be flying in and it is sure to be a great time. Dan, is a son of my forever friend Carol, this being her third son to retire from the Armed Services.

We will be traveling I-10 which is flooded in some area, so we are not sure how long we will be able to stay on this route. Time will tell.

It's been another fun year at Baker Acres. It is a very friendly park with a lot of people volunteering for a wide variety of activities. Park events included Fun Day, in which I was the sheriff and had 5 deputes. We raised over $400 for more activities. We played bocce, talent contests. built a float for the city parade and won first prize, many pot lucks, we ran a baby shower this year for needy families in Zephyrhills, once a month we had paid entertainments come into the park for a small fee, one being a Elvis impersonator, Jimmy Smith, the ladies just love him and he feeds right into them. Good show. We had some line dancing lessons this year that went over big, we had a sox hop, another fun night was a Murder at Deadwood party, which was held in our clubhouse. It's hard to think of all the fun things going on here. Another unusual activity was chair volleyball, so many laughs here. It is played with a beach ball and 8 players on each side. You must keep your butt on the chair, which is harder than you think. That's about all that I can think of now. I'll save time now and not go into all the things we did outside of the park. LOL

This year we were pleased to have old friends Art and Ginny stay at the park two months with us, right across the street, and also friend Pat an Ken came down for a month.

Our managers, Marla and Don are two of the nicest people I've met and she is a great cook as well. She personal baked over 600 cookies for an activity we were having. We have good neighbors and hopefully we will get to know them a little better next season. I guess that's enough for now. Hugs.

Last week Bob and I and four other friends of ours went to the Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park here in Florida.

This 210 acre park is home to native Florida wildlife and one of the only place you can see a West Indian manatee up close 365 days a year. These manatees reside in the freshwater spring while re-acclimating to the natural environment before being returned to the wild, as most of them were brought here injured or orphaned.

This is a self tour park starting with a scenic and nature ride on a pontoon boat to the entrance of the park.

The park seems to be a haven for bird watchers. While walking along the paved trails and boardwalks we observed a black bear, Key dear, bobcats, alligators, a Gray fox, and cougars.

After hiking around the park we were all ready to search out a place to have dinner and we found a very nice restaurant right on the river and we were lucky enough to get a table by the large picture window across from
Monkey Island. Monkey Island has a lighthouse on it trees, a monkey house, rope swings and lots of other playthings. During the 60's there were many monkeys along the canal and this inspired a resort owner to bring a few to the island to attract tourism.

Today there five spider monkeys on the island: there is Ralph, the alpha male, Sassy, the matriarch, Ebony their offspring and the two newest female adoptions, Eve and Emily. The monkeys are fed twice a day from a menu designed specifically for them consisting of : green leafy vegetables, bananas, sweet potatoes, raw peanuts and monkey chow. They stay on the island because they prefer not to swim and the river acts as a natural barrier. They delighted us all through dinner with their playful antics.

End of the month

Wow, It's been a busy month. We just recently got back from seeing our granddaughter, and as you can imagine, she is just perfect. I guess all grandmothers believe that, well count me in.

It's a big weekend here in Florida, with the Super Bowl game being played here. The Cardinals and the Steelers. Most off our friends down here are from Penn and are big Steeler fans. Seeing that the Pats didn't make the play offs, I will side with the Steelers, and wave my terrible towel.

Along with the football fans, Tampa Bay is filling up with Hollywood celebrates, many which are hosting super bowl parties. No I wasn't invited to any, I fear that they didn't know that we were back in town. Perhaps the next time we leave town on an important weekend coming up, we should put a small ad in the papers. I hate to miss a good party

When home, we have continued to enjoy our Wii game. Bowling has become our favorite. A couple of days ago we bought a Wii Balance board. This fit program will take you through a set of exercise games working balance,and yoga poses.The program keeps track of your progress and offers more difficult challenges as you master the old ones. The program also will calculate your fitness age.

Last night, we and 78 of our closest friends went to the Show Palace Dinner Theatre went to see "The Producers." It is located in Hudson, FL., about one hour from us. This is a Mel Brooks musical. The men in particular seem to like Mel Brooks shows.

Dinner Theatre, Dinner Theater, The Show Palace Dinner Theatre We all enjoyed the show and the food hand both rand's and raves. All in all we had a good time, but stayed up long after our bedtime. LOL

Goodnight for now. I hope you all have a great weekend.

Makenzie Dawn

Today we are in Georgia on the way to see our first grandchild in Indiana. She was born last Monday, weighing in at 7lb 11oz and her name is Makenzie Dawn. Don't you just love that name, well I do anyway. LOL Bob and I had given up the idea of a grandchild long ago. Most people our age have grown grandchildren. Well, we say better late than never.

We traveled I-75 all day to north Georgia and is it cold here. Snow flurries when we went out to dinner tonight. We should have brought some long Johns.

While traveling we saw an 18 wheeler turned upside down in Georgia. Not a pretty sight. We don't know anything about the health of the driver. Better get to bed, we have an early start in the morning.

Happy New Year

We had a grand Christmas and got lotsof gifts, but I'm glad it's over. Next comes the chore of taking down and putting away all those lights and decorations. Lordy, Lordy, where to start. We even put lights all around the top of our golf cart, we were very festive indeed. We had Christmas dinner here with several friends all bring a dish.

After dinner we played with a Wii game that our son had sent us. We played a bowling game and it is awesome! Lots of fun. Three couples including us will be forming a bowling league, now all we need are some shirts.

Today is a really lovely day here, in the 80's with sun and a slight breeze. Tomorrow, friends of ours, Art & Ginny, from long ago will be coming in their RV and will spend the winter here in the park. We are both looking forward to seeing them . Ginny is a very talented craft person.

Well it took me so long to finish this, it is now New Years Day. Here's wishing you all a happy and health New Year. I will try to enter more often. Till we chat again, take care, Dawn