Driving to Cape Girardeau MO

Thursday 7th: We began our trip at 7:15 a.m., stopped for gas twice, ate our lunch in the truck and made it to the hotel (433 Cape West Crossings, 63703) at 9:20 p.m. (EST). We hit several traffic slowdowns: accidents, construction, and just rush hour slowdowns. 

It was late so just chatted with Bill; will see them in the morning.

Friday: We slept our typical night, Ford got up a few times (actually slid off the bed onto the floor once); texted AA at 5:00 a.m. (CST). So not much sleep. We both enjoyed the free breakfast - coffee was good, with oatmeal - Ford had an egg McMuffin style sandwich and some raisin bran. Bill picked us up and took us to their home as I mentioned we had brought gifts that needed to be refrigerated. 

Visited with Joan - she is doing so well! Hard to look at her, knowing she has another big health fight coming up. We chatted about Libby, Ben, how much help Anitra and her daughter Kilee (RN) were during Joan's recovery. We brought them two ponderosa lemons, and two "normal lemons" off Nacy Coats' tree plus Rice Crispy treats and my mini-loafs pumpkin bread.

After visiting for a couple hours, catching up on family news, Bill and Ford went off to the farm and I stayed at the hotel until Joan picked me up to take me to lunch at the Honey Baked ham shop. I ate the smoked turkey salad sandwich with a side of their broccoli slaw. I only ate half the sandwich and something didn’t agree with me during the afternoon. Ford and Bill didn’t go to lunch as planned but stayed at the farm and ate snacks, sausage, cheese, and crackers that Kaci had left for them. Bill dropped Ford off at the hotel and we had about an hour and a half to change and we tried to nap for a short time. We drove to Bill and Joan’s home and had a happy hour with a nice Washington Cabernet - wine before dinner - as Joan says, Pilot house doesn't have much of a wine selection.

We went to the Pilot House for dinner, fairly early 5 PM central time and it was crowded but service was good. Ford had the fried catfish platter with hush puppies, coleslaw, and french fries and I had the three fish fingers with hush puppies. I also got the hot bacon dressing salad, which is very good had cauliflower, broccoli, lettuce, and other veggies in it. Since we had wine at their house, Ford had a Coke and I drank water. They met up with the son of a friend of Bill‘s named "Frog". Everyone was friendly, Bill and Joan knew some other people there. Bill drove us around the town of Cape, downtown seems to have a lot of bars and restaurants open and very vibrant. They also showed us the casino and the new casino hotel. It is where they held Joy's 80th birthday party reception (we did not go).

Saturday: Ford and I drove to Advance to see our new Missouri red granite headstone. Ben and their Mom, Marjorie:

We are at the end, next to the tree (that Bill wants to cut down). I didn't think to add my Order of the Rainbow for Girls symbol (I was the Worthy Advisor in 1976).

Proud parents!

Ford called Larry Roper, so stopped in and met their (Phobe) sone Colby (18 years old, Senior); they chatted and retold the UFO story. They have about ten horses and 20 cats!

The weather was cloudy then scattered showers throughout the day.

We enjoyed happy hour at Bill's home with Nikki and Chris; and we listened to Lane's basketball game - they won!

Chris and Nikki gave Ford a bottle of Justin wine; Kaci and Luke gave Ford a new SEMO hat:

Birthday brothers!

Sunday: We slept our usual, got up showered, packed up the room and met Bill for coffee. After chatting for an hour, we got on the road! We stopped in Dalton, another Fairfield Inn hotel, ate dinner at the Olvie Garden and had plenty of leftovers to put in our cooler.

One last night in a hotel and we will be home tomorrow!

November 2024 - 1st Week

Monday: Ford's left leg is swollen again, similar to the edema he had a couple of months ago. I was able to get him in with the PA tomorrow/Tuesday morning. He did go to his Parkinson exercises, but his leg is hurting (took our aluminum cans to the Boy Scout trailer). I walked and chatted with Mom about our upcoming trip to Missouri.

We paid our property taxes (through the mail) - first time since it's not paid from our mortgage escrow account.

We did the usual, washed AA's bedspread, walked Ginger, made spaghetti sauce in the slow cooker, then we went to Sonny's for lunch (brought back two half pulled pork sandwiches). I drove to the lawyer's office, dropped off Chris Brown's signed form but wasn't able to meet with Linda Wright about LB's 2024 taxes.

We had a very unusual happening - our power went out for an hour right as I was going to boil the spaghetti for dinner. We debated about going out for food, but it was already dark, presumably all traffic lights on Fleming Island were out, etc. All worked out with power back on. We had our spaghetti dinner and AA went back to working on calculus, Government and English (reading Pride and Prejudice).

We watched one part of the BBC 1995 Pride and Prejudice and The Voice.

Leaa called and talked about Liv's first play - she said incredible, and fun! The overall 60 plays in 60 minutes ran 3.5 minutes late, so a pie in the face!!

The common area of her dorm room:

Tuesday: Drove to Ford's doctor's appointment (cancelled his PT). He is now on another antibiotic and skin cream.

We got the truck washed, bought groceries, Donna came and cleaned, thankful for her!

Mia's Navy badge arrived, overnighted by Madison. Mia came to the house for dinner, a not-so-great taco casserole!

River House was fine, with Karrie too. We are all anticipating a horrible election night (which it was, could not sleep!). 

We watched the first episode of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy season one (2018 Netflix). We really enjoyed the original series in 2003.
Wednesday: Rice Krispie treats and baked pumpkin bread to take to Bill/Joan, (kept our minds off of Trump; we are not happy). 

Ford and I went to Target to find men's socks, did not find any knee high. Then to Publix for a few groceries, and lunch at Maple Street. Once home, AA walked Ginger, we are waiting until afternoon as when we are gone for next two days, AA won't be able to walk her until after school.

Dinner was recycled taco casserole into nachos (added guacamole, cheese and sour cream). Depressing news about Trump's plans; I saved so many screen shots, describing how "we" feel today. Guess, not worth adding too many to this post.

We watched another episode of the BBC 1995 Pride and Prejudice.

Thursday: After Alyzabeth left for school and Ginger did her business, we drove to Cape Girardeau - packed a cooler, pillow and bedding, clothes, pumpkin bread, lemons and Rice Krispie treats.

We kept in touch with AA, texting frequently once she was out of school. We left her many frozen individual dinners. AA ate the leftover nachos from Wednesday's dinner. See separate post about Missouri visit.

Friday: Ford and I were awake by 5 AM so that we could text Alyzabeth at 6 AM to hear about her morning and make sure she got off to school OK. AA did well getting ready for school; we texted often. Carolyn stayed with AA for one night (she had to work Saturday). 

Saturday: Alyzabeth worked with Siyan and then went to the Clay County Miss High School competition at UNF.

Sunday: New color printer delivered. Big and heavy, but AA got it working, needed for her Spanish presentation.

Last Week of October 2024

Monday 10/28/24: Took Ford to his Parkinson exercises. Back home I made pumpkin centerpieces (see separate post).

I cook a favorite linguini, chicken Florentine (with mushrooms).

Tuesday: Tuesday morning went well. Alyzabeth got up early and took her shower, had breakfast and then off to school. She has a government test today. Tonight, she has Laurie to help her study for her calculus test that is on Thursday. Ford and I got ready to go to his physical therapy at 9:30 and since he forgot to take his morning pills we drove back home at 10:30. We had leftovers for lunch and then drove to our noon haircut appointment with Steve. Steve has been sick with a type of Gastro ulcer, having a hard time finding foods that he can eat that agree with his system, must be lactose free, gluten and free not spicy not fried etc. I did take him my first and only finished pumpkin vase with flowers. After our hair appointment, we stopped at Publix to buy mixed nuts for happy hour today which is what Ford wanted. My hair was wet so I lay down for about an hour to dry it. Alyzabeth stayed after school volunteering as a Spanish tutor. I browned the beef stew meat for Irish beef stew in our slow cooker. It is a beautiful day a little cooler only in the 70s with clouds and a few stray showers.

Last night I listened to the Rick Steves webinar on Edinburgh Scotland. It was a refresher to help us plan our trip to Ireland, Scotland, and England, hopefully in June 2025.

We enjoyed our time at the River House with Hugh, Maureen and daughter, Erin plus Karrie. I brought corn dip again and mixed nuts. We talked a lot about the past times in Connecticut, past holiday traditions, etc. It was a cloudy day and a big rainstorm had just passed so several people had left the River House. We still enjoyed our time sitting inside the house and stay until 6 PM.

Once home, we enjoyed the Irish beef stew I made in the crockpot with fresh bread and butter. 

The next World Series baseball game is on tonight and the Yankees have to win in order to stave off the Dodgers (Yankees won).

Wednesday 30th:

Another typical Wednesday morning Alyzabeth got up Ford made her breakfast. I actually slept until my alarm went off at 5:55 AM. Once up Ginger had her walk which Alyzabeth is doing first thing in the morning now and we saw her off to school. I was committed and going through some storage tubs in our bedroom that had a lot of personal stuff letters from the 80s and 90s and I want to make piecrust to put in the freezer to be ready for Thanksgiving pies. Ford and I then went out to Sweet Sensations for lunch and enjoyed outlaw chicken salad, and a BLT and we brought home pasta salad for Alyzabeth school lunches. Once home, I helped Ford on Ancestry.com. We are researching his Irish ancestors and hoping to find the town and area so we can plan our trip to Ireland next year.  The time will go by quickly and we need to find out what tours or how we want to book our flights, and if we want to just do it all on our own. Back to going through the tubs, the first one took me several hours. Of course I had the TV running in the background which distracted me, but I did find some great letters from Terri, from Deb Gum, from EE and from Ford’s mom, his dad and Joy so we are going through those and deciding what to keep and what to pitch. The second tub was all genealogy papers so I kept it was a later date.

Thursday 31st: Halloween Day! Not too busy day, drove to Ford's Parkinson exercises.

Dinner was leftover Irish Beef Stew, and I made another apple crisp (with vanilla ice cream). 

We stood outside on our driveway with candy, ready for the kids - one family stopped by with three kids. We sat on driveway chatting with Nancy and hearing about her recent trip to Africa.

Friday 11/01/24: We drove to our Trustwell appointment, yearly to review our investments. They answered all our questions, always helpful.

AA met with SOS Dr. Jones's PA Andrew, pre-op appointment at 3:20 pm. All good, hopefully this is the last one!

Saturday: We slept in, me until 6:30 a.m.; AA got us at 7:50. Nice getting a little extra sleep.

AA and I drove to Target to buy dog food and some toys for the Ian toy drive (plus we sent four toys from Amazon directly to the Bailey's). See separate post.

Green Cove Springs 150th Year Celebration, we decided not to go (hard to walk around, will be after dark) - we went to the River House, usual friends, usual conversation - the Florida/Georgia game was in town - Georgia won. Florida actually was playing well until the quarterback was injured in the 2nd quarter.

Sunday: 11/03/24 Time to FALL back one hour. I am not looking forward to the earlier sunsets.

We decided not to drive to UCF to see Liv in her first play (it was rescheduled due to Hurricane Milton).

I woke up a little after 5 a.m. Starting my day early! Did two loads of laundry, worked on this blog and thinking about my trip to Missouri and then to Maine - Ford and Alyzabeth would normally be fine but Ford's legs are swelling again, so need to call a doctor tomorrow.

I made a new pancake recipe Ford found - using a sheet pan - the pancake did not get brown, so if I make again (probably not - only advantage is everyone can eat at the same time) - would put under broiler briefly.

I went to church, took a pumpkin floral arrangement to P. Faith (left in the kitchen, asked Cathy R. to give to her). 

I chatted with Melissa, she was with Terri helping Hilary reduce her storage unit from two to one. I went to Salinas Nails and had a pedicure (took off the blue and put back on my usual color).

Ford and I drove to Spring Park Coffee for a lemonade and iced tea, AA did not want to come. A few rain sprinkles, plus walking Ginger and panzanella for dinner (AA ate the leftover apple crisp too). With the time change, at 6:30 p.m., felt like 9 p.m.!! Watched the Jaguars lose - by 5 points, exciting game after the halftime.

11/02/2024 Safe Animal Shelter Donation

AA and I drove to Target to buy dog food and some toys for the Ian toy drive. We walked over to Petco and bought a new leash for Ginger. The Safe Animal Shelter opened at noon, we arrived at 12:25 and had help unloading 20 bags of dry pet food - about 380 lbs.

Thank you to family and friends for the money and dog food! This is her 7th tear donating (skipped year 2022) - Five years at the Safe Shelter and her first two years donating was at the Clay County Animal Control Center. 
Photos at Target, loading in the back of the Subaru:

Previously collected dog food in our living room:

Delivering at the shelter:

From Facebook:

Safe Animal Shelter: Alyzabeth Morgan asked for donations for the shelter for her 18th birthday!!!! We can't thank you enough, hope you have a wonderful birthday!!!

Miscellaneous Late October 2024

I think this is the first time I have seen any of my aloe plants have a flower.

I always respected President Jimmy Carter and the White House Historical honored him with the annual Christmas ornament. It is an anchor for his years in the Navy.

Lemons on our tree, so many, I am surprised the tree is surviving:

And about our beliefs:
Wise words from my Hubby: My religious views and beliefs when turned to civic law resulting in discrimination and or criminalization against others is simply wrong. My Biblical tenets do not justify creating laws for all to bow before. ❤