First Houseguests

Around noon on Wednesday, Jack and Bobbi Leahy from Sedona, Arizona, pulled up into our drive. We had been waiting for their call for directions but Mapquest brought them right here.

After lunch, we drove them around to give them an overview of The Villages. About 4, we stopped at Arnie Palmer's Legends Country Club for a drink. It poured down rain while we were in there so that was a good place to be. :-) After finishing our 2 for 1s, except Arne, who was only given one Arnie Palmer, we headed to Lake Sumter Landing for dinner. Lake Sumter Landing is one of the town squares where they have live entertainment nightly with room for just sitting or dancing, whatever your choice. Jack, Bobbi and Arne
Not what you're thinkin'. This is a sea turtle, which we observed in Lake Sumter.

On Thursday, we drove Jack and Bobbi to Harbor Hills, about 25 minutes from us. It is a beautiful area which is built around a BIG lake, compared to Lake Miona. We ate lunch in their clubhouse and then brought the Leahys to the Villages Sales Center where we introduced them to our sales associate, Kathie. She showed them some of the models and then brought them back to our house. We invited them to stay another night but they had to get their son's SUV back to Tampa.

Great Day for Washing Cars

Arne and I joined the Fitness Center this morning so I now have a place to work out besides walking/jogging. We got home around 8:30, it was cloudy, and I decided to wash the Acura. The poor thing still had all of the grime from our cross country road trip. When I'd almost finished, Arne asked me to move the car so he could then wash the Corvette. I proceeded to back down the driveway, forgetting the expensive bucket I had been using was behind the car. By the time I realized it, I had put a big dent in the bucket. Needless to say, Arne was not at all happy with me. He had to go to WalMart and get a cheap $1.50 pail to wash his car. Because the sun had come out by then, he had to wait to wash the Corvette until this evening, which is a very beautiful one.

Our "Lake View"

Back in the late '70's, we had a summer home in Lake Geneva Club. This was one street, lined on both sides with houses, and leading to the lake. Today, we must walk two houses to the east to see the lake view. The lake being Lake Miona and MUCH smaller than Lake Geneva. The sound of a boat motor still brings back pleasant memories.

House at Lake Geneva, which we bought in 1976 and sold in 1979, when we moved to Scottsdale. It sure would have made a nice summer retreat. Arne once said that if he'd been a teacher, we could have spent the summers there. I reminded him that if he'd been a teacher, we probably couldn't have afforded a second home. :-)








Lake Geneva in Wisconsin











Lake Miona in Florida

A REAL tomato!

I do love the tomatoes here. They taste like tomatoes frøm the Midwest. Arne is hoping to grow a few on the side of our house.

Let There Be Light!

With the kitchen being in the middle of the house, it was very dark. Arne complained when I turned on the lights and I complained when they were off. Problem solved. Tim from Solar Guys installed a Solatube, seen in pic, through hole in ceiling and roof and now God's light shines through the rooftop.

We also got telephone and DSL installed today so I'm posting this from home...finally!! What a great day!

What's This?

Very strange. Today I received in the mail an envelope with no return address. It was postmarked Phoenix. Inside was a sheet torn out of the June 2009 "News Today-Finance." It was an ad for a product which would fade wrinkles "like magic" in one week. Handwritten on the top was the message "Sharon Call fast, it works!! I only paid shipping!" Is this person trying to tell me I have too many wrinkles?? Who sent it? It's a mystery and I'm putting the page in the recycling bin.:-)

Boring Stuff...More Unpacking

While we haven’t started having fun yet, much was accomplished this week. Wednesday we drove to Altamonte Springs, an Orlando suburb, and shopped at ScanDesign (our replacement for Copenhagen furniture) and Costco. Since the trip was over 35 miles one way, we won’t be making our weekly treks to Costco. :-(

We ordered kitchen dinette and dining room furniture from ScanDesign. We also ordered a washer and dryer from Best Buy. It was a closeout on last year’s model GE steam washer and steam dryer. The set was delivered Saturday and was out of commission as soon as my first load began to spin. We’re not certain what happened but Best Buy is giving us this year’s model for even exchange. Meanwhile, I have piles of clothing lining the hallway from laundry room to our bedroom. Another :-(

Today we attended North Lake Presbyterian Church. It is large, like Valley Pres in Scottsdale. We might try some other churches before joining.

After MUCH deliberation between Comcast Cable and Embarq, we finally decided to go with Embarq for phone, Internet and TV. Internet is DSL which they claim is as fast as cable. TV is DISH sattelite which is supposed to be better for high definition. Hope we made the right choice as we’re locked in for one year on Internet and two years on the Dish. Unfortunately, it won’t be installed until next week! I’ve been able to get some Internet access at home using a neighbor’s connection. Once we get our permanent connection, I’ll help him secure his network. :-)

Our sales associate, Kathie, presented us with a gift on day of closing. I finally got around to opening it. Inside was a throw with inscription and a gift certificate for a sign with our name and house number to hang on our lamp post out front.
This is our new bedroom set. Espresso seems to be our new color for furniture as the dining room will also be Espresso. Since the mattress won't be here until Wednesday we've been sleeping on the old guest bed. My apologies to all our former guests! My back aches every morning after arising and even though I'm sleeping 7-9 hours per night, I still feel tired. Part of that could be my body adjusting to the humidity.

Back in Florida

After a wonderful week with family in beautiful Colorado, I arrived back in Florida (also beautiful) Sunday night. We still don’t have TV, phone or Internet so have to go to a Regional Rec Center to get an internet connection. I unpacked a few more boxes yesterday and then we spent the whole afternoon shopping. Our largest purchase was a new King mattress for our new bedroom set. Today we waited for the Corvette to be delivered. Then we were off to get my driver's license and register both cars. I thought I had proof of insurance for both cars. Unfortunately, I didn't read the small print and brought the Arizona cards and not Florida. So...Arne had to race home while I finished getting my DL. We're officially registered to drive and vote in Florida.

Since Marla gave such a good recap of our reunion, I’m going to refer you to her website and her entry on Rocky Mountain Reunion. Click on the link on right side of this page for Adventures of Grandma, Drew and Kayley.

After leaving the reunion site Friday morning, my part of the family headed to Denver. Thanks to my nieces, Heather and Melissa, I discovered Hotwire.com and was able to get two rooms at the Crowne Plaza in downtown Denver for $60/night. It was one block from the 16th Street Mall which is several blocks long with trees down the center of the street and no auto traffic. We were also less than two miles from Elitch Gardens amusement park. We spent Saturday from Noon until 9:30 PM at the park. I rode several rides, including a couple of the coasters, and could still take the turning upside down. Gracie, who turns 7 this month, has no fear. She went on every ride for which she was tall enough. She really wanted to go on Mind Eraser, insisting she had grown enough by the end of the day to qualify.

Sunday morning, I took SuperShuttle to the airport, leaving before the others were awake so there were no sobbing Grandma or granddaughters. Flight was on time and I took the Villages shuttle to Lake Sumter Landing, 5 minutes from our house, where Arne was waiting for me. It was a great week. Now back to work getting this house in shape. Our first house guests are expected in less than two weeks...a couple from Sedona who are considering a move to Florida.
Visit from Fort Collins relatives...Cousin Barb with her two granddaughters, Marla, Megan, Jan, Aunt Ellie (my mother's sister), Me, Uncle Darrell (my dad's first cousin and brother-in-law), Barb's son Ken,and daughter-in-law Brenda. My cousin Joyce (Kalkwarf) Erickson and her husband Gordon came up from Denver.

The following pictures were taken at the Butterfly Museum. Kadin took all of the pictures except for the one of her and Gracie with me. Not bad for an 8 year old.

Daughter Lisa
Son Erik
Grandma with Nick, 22, and Taylor, 13
Grandma with Gracie, almost 7, and Kadin, 8 1/2.