SMILE ~ ~ ~

I need to make this my mantra for the next few days! We are in the middle of another snow event here in Ohio!!! My friends and I were driving to Columbus today to meet some other gals for lunch ~ scratch that trip!

We were in Florida a couple of weeks ago ~ and one morning, this greeted us on the beach! Made out of shells and undisturbed by the surf ~ I love it! Wish I had taken my camera ~ I think the picture would have been better but Sonny's cell phone at least let me capture the essence of somebody's kind thoughts that morning!





This scattering of shells was taken with my cell phone (we drug the camera all the way to Florida and didn't take one picture with it!) ~ I just liked the random look of shells and stones that washed up on the beach. We had great fun with our friends, Diane and Greg ~ they go to Florida for a couple of months and kindly invited us to spend a week with them! The weather was not too warm but we went to the beach four times ~ Sonny loves to hunt shark teeth and he found quite a nice stash ~ some for us ~ and each little grandchild gets some for their collection! A couple of those days the wind blew so hard that Diane and I covered up with hooded jackets and beach towels on our legs ~ there was free microdermabrasion on the beach that day!!!! We laughed because we looked like little old ladies all covered up for our day at the beach!

We ate some great food ~ Diane and Greg know all the best places! We had dinner one evening with our son-in-law's parents at their clubhouse ~ that was really good ~ but they plied me with cosmos before we left so I hope I behaved!! We met another couple from Lake Erie for lunch a couple of times ~ there is always someone we know down there! We're getting the bug! We may go for a couple of weeks next year ~ it was nice to get away for sure ~ although there were two big snow storms here while we were gone ~ a little unnerving with Tad and his sitter here ~ Sonny's boys came and plowed the drive twice so Barb wouldn't be trapped like a rat!! When we arrived at the airport in Columbus, our car was buried under a foot of snow and it was COLD! After Sonny cleared it off, we drove to a nearby McD's and let it warm up while we went inside and warmed up! But it was all worth it to spend time with our friends!! Soon, Spring will be here and we'll all be back at our beloved lake havens having the time of our lives!!

One trip we took while in the sunny south, was to visit the Ringling Museum in Sarasota! A museum of a miniature circus ~ very interesting and intricate. A tour of the family mansion on Sarasota bay ~ hard to believe people call a place like that 'home' ~ everything so lavish and so ornate and gilded with gold!!! And a wonderful art museum filled with paintings of Rembrandt and Matisse and lots of painters I never heard of. It was really inspiring to be standing in the middle of all of those beautiful paintings. If you're in that area, it's really something you should visit ~ a wonderful experience!

Last week was a fun week here in the gravel pit (that's what this property was years ago!) ~ the transmission went out in Sonny's truck ~ thank goodness for a wonderful friend who loaned him a truck for a week! I lost part of a filling in a tooth and am scheduled next week to have that repaired! Yesterday, I lost part of a filled TOOTH on the other side of my head and had to go in for an emergency visit! I opted for the $183 filling as opposed to the $1100 crown and pin; as opposed to the $2000 root canal, post and crown ~ those were my three choices and I took the least expensive and time consuming route. Maybe not the smartest choice but I'm choosing to believe that this filling will hold and serve me for as long as I need it! Going to the dentist is so traumatic for me ~ I try to meditate while I'm in the chair so they don't think I'm the biggest baby they've ever had!

Since today's plans were changed, I have ample time to clear up my office work, do laundry and maybe get some hooking time in! I'll show you my rabbit rug on my next post! I hope all of you are somewhere warm and cozy ~ hasn't this been the craziest winter?!

Alice