Sunday Evening Photo Shoot!

I haven't taken pictures in a long time, miss seeing family and having photos afterwards to remember the fun and memories. Plus no golf tournament this weekend AA has a slight cold, so our activity level was low this weekend. Tonight, after AA's bath, I begged for a "photo-shoot" and AA agreed (grudgingly of course). I tried to recreate the photos I took of her and her dog on her bed right after a bath last October. Same special bond and love! Here's to AA and her Ginger! {She will be 1.5 years old on February 5th!}

Ginger loves licking AA's hair.

The two of them get entangled; Ginger demands attention!

Attack!

Fun seeing AA laugh and love her puppy dog!

Last Full Week In January

This week FLEW bye (again).
Between Ford's Doctor's appointment, the "bug man's" visit, AA's golf lessons, playing golf, studying for a solar system science test (which she aced!) and my full-time work, another week flew by. Ford made a delicious pasta, sausage, cheese dish, very good and we ate all the leftovers.
Friday, after AA's golf lesson and playing five holes, we ate dinner at Talon's. We really love the golf restaurant, but boy is it noisy. The decibel levels just keep going up!
Saturday morning started busy - Ford grocery shopping, I made citrus (orange from our tree and lemons from the neighbor's tree) muffins with orange glaze. I took five to Maureen and Hugh O'C. Hugh recently had a knee replaced (his second time, the first one was recalled!). He is doing well, but no visitors yet, just passed the muffins through the door. I thought they came out fine, but maybe a bit too much like cupcakes.

Ford made a new recipe of chili and then took AA to her golf lesson with Coach Bryan at noon. Once home, we ate a quick bowl of chili and headed out to watch the movie "The Greatest Showman". It was amazing, the music, dancing, acting, script, emotions - everything about it was entertaining. We may go see it again! AA still preferred Star Wars and asked to see that one again too!

We had another River House friend, Paul, go in for surgery on Friday. He has had bladder and kidney cancer over the past 20 years and now had to have his bladder removed. He is in a lot of pain, but well enough to text Ford updates.

Our citrus cocktail tree had a few fruit on it, plus our blood orange tree had a couple. Hoping for more next year!

I decided to make marmalade from Justin's kumquats; sliced thinly, with one orange, set for four hours, then cooked for an hour, then added sugar and lemon juice and cooking until at the "jell" stage.

Cooking:

I only had enough fruit for two jars. Will see if Justin has more fruit.

Sunday, was quiet, we didn't make plans as AA had some cold symptoms and didn't know how she would be over the weekend. We went to church, bought dog food at PetSmart, bought some CNY supplies, trolled the book shelves at Barnes and Noble, then Ford treated us to Whit's Frozen Custard! It was so good. We shared a mint grasshopper and the flavor of the day: Caramel Brownie Bite. Ford ate two scoops of vanilla with nuts on top! Way too much sugar!

We came home and since it was in the high 60's with rain expected any hour, we took a quick bike ride along the river and stopped in to say Hi to Jane W.
Baths and a snuggle evening and we are ready for a new week!

NFJG Tournament at St. Johns Golf and Country Club Sunday Plus Jaguars!

Jacksonville Jaguars played today and AA played in the NFJG Tournament.
Jaguars played very well, was ahead until nine minutes in the fourth quarter. Almost penalty free going into the second half, then got some that hurt their progress. Brady made a good comeback in the last quarter. Can't complain, was fun seeing the Jaguars do so well this year, winning two playoff games (Bills and Steelers). Division Champs. Something that I do give credit to Tom Coughlin, new VP.

AA's tournament was called early because of darkness. So they only counted her first nine, 11 over for a 47. It was the 4th best score due to some tied scores, and the top girl again. She said she did much better on the second nine, but didn't count due to dusk; oh well, that sometimes happens!
From Jack's Newletter:
St. John’s Golf and Country Club as you can imagine is a very busy golf course. Unfortunately we were only able to get a later tee time start due to heavy course utilization. With more than 70 players in the field and a 11:30 am double tee start we knew we were in for a challenge to get all the players around the course to complete their round and we were right in our calculation as four groups of the Foundation Elite Division could not complete their rounds. Slow play really was the culprit here, but we will address this at a later time.
The Foundation Elite Division would have the largest field of the year with 15 players. Luke Balaskiewitz fired a two over par 38 to claim Gold for the second time this season. Congrats Luke on your fine performance and congratulations as you move up and head to your new challenges in the Boys 10-12 Division. Bryson Hughes would be just three strokes back with a nice 41 to have the Silver Medal slipped over his head and Lucas Elliott would win a scorecard play-off over Ryan Houck and Christian Paige at 46 all to win the Bronze.
I made a Mexican Layered Dip for when Ford and AA arrived home from the golf tournament. In progress:

Completed with black olives on half. Plus some fresh jalapeno peppers, cilantro, fresh tomatoes along with the layers (used Pioneer Woman's recipe).

Yummy dinner with tacos too!

5th Grade - 2nd Quarter Results

We attended the second quarter academic ceremony on Wednesday, 01/17/18; 5th Grade - Orange Park Elementary. We knew AA had all A's again, she's doing so well. She received perfect attendance, which is always a bonus. Each Grade also gives the top three students a certificate for Social Studies, Language Arts, Math and Science. AA was awarded the science and language arts. So proud of her!!

Perfect Attendance:

All A's:

Didn't get a good picture of AA with her two certificates of Award for Language Arts and Science.

This is why she does so well, doing homework on Saturday morning, get it done!

She is a good student and we are so happy for her!

NFJG Tournament at JGCC 01/15/18

AA played in the NFJG tournament held at Jacksonville Golf and Country Club. She had two triple bogeys, both right after double bogeys. Always something to work on with golf! Her score is about 4 - 6 strokes higher than how she played the other holes. Overall, she placed fourth. She was the highest placing girl and her score was third best as 2nd and 3rd place were tied. 

Details of your round are provided below. Click here to view the leaderboard. 
Scores for Today's Round (view full scorecard): 

Hole	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	OUT
Par	5	4	3	4	4	3	4	5	4	36
Score	6	4	4	6	4	3	4	7	6	44

Hole	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	IN
Par	4	4	3	4	5	4	5	3	4	36
Score	5	4	4	6	8	5	6	5	7	50

Eagle      Birdie      Bogey      Dbl Bogey

Practicing before the round:

Large group of Elite Foundation:

The weather has been close to freezing for several weeks, next week. a warming trend is predicted until the next cold front. Next Sunday is the St. Johns Golf and Country Club. Keep playing tournaments, good experience!

Week of January 8th Plus Meet Annika Sorenstam at World Golf Hall of Fame

Our week began warmer, back into shorts and skorts for two days, then it turned cold again and rain the rest of the week.
AA had her last Robotics Club meeting on Monday; it will reconvene in February.
Monday was the first day with no SJRPP employees at work. Nothing left but to begin the demolition. So quiet at the plant.
We lost a co-worker on Christmas day, Mike McGuire. I attended his funeral on Saturday, and briefly spoke to widow and former co-worker Pennie. I did visit some with Carol S., Reid's, Kevin T., Bob S. Chris D., Bill H., Lassie, Nancy, many mechanics: Jr, Frank B., Dave G., Tom G., Tony C., too many to name.
On Friday, we lost Donna C. G.'s daughter to cancer; Donna is a cancer survivor herself and to see her daughter not beat this disease, so very sad.
AA's golf mentor, Ms. Penny invited AA and Ford to the WGV on Saturday for the meet and greet with Annika Sorenstam.
As advertised: Join us at the Hall of Fame for a special Speaker Series featuring 72-time LPGA champion Annika Sorenstam. Annika will share some of her greatest career moments and discuss her motivation behind the ANNIKA Foundation and the ANNIKA Invitational tournament, which is being held at the World Golf Village’s Slammer and Squire golf course January 12-15. Check out artifacts from her illustrious career and enjoy an autograph signing with Annika after the event. The event will begin on Saturday, January 13th at 2PM. The event is included in Museum admission. 
Penny and Ford took three pictures, all a bit out of focus:

Saturday, we went to the River House, I made a Mexican seven-layer dip to share with Kathy, Maureen and Hugh. It was good, the salsa I used was a bit spicy.
Tomorrow, Sunday, the 14th is the Jaguar game against the Steelers and AA's NFJG tournament on Monday, a holiday from school.

NFJG Amelia River Win! Sunday January 7th Plus Baking, Jam and Ginger!

Another FREEZING day! AA had a pretty good round, ran into trouble on the first hole and 10th hole (off near a bunker, recovering into fairway, lost a few strokes then four putted). She beat the competition of the day which is what each golfer hopes to do. Play your best, against yourself and hope it is good enough to place high. It was a good day in two ways as the JAGUARS won their first playoff game in 18 years!! 

Very cold - Photo from #NFJG:

Ford took this picture; AA comes home very tired - between the competition, stress of playing, cold weather and wind, she gets a well deserved quiet evening!

Scoreboard:

The top three: AA won by 7 strokes.

From Jack's Newsletter:
I hope the year is starting off in fine fashion for you. It looks like the start of the New Year for the Jaguars was a pretty good one as well. A nail bitter I know, but we’re headed to Pittsburgh to give them all we’ve got and hopefully come back with a nice victory. It goes to show you good defenses is a good offence and can win ball games. Well while the Jags were toughening things out, so were 23 of our toughest NFJG TOUR superstars, as they all battled some chilly weather while playing the “Amelia River Classic” in Fernandina Beach. Although it was cold and a bit breezy it didn’t stop the stars from shining.
Cody Tucker Would shoot 82 to claim victory to the Boys 10-12 Division and Alyzabeth Morgan from the Foundation Elite Division would take home her fifth champions award of the Fall Tournament Series. Morgan shot a very sporty 84 to take a seven shot victory over Ryan Houck who shot 91. Trevor Challice at 95 would take the Bronze to add to his collection of medals.
While AA and her Daddy Caddie were at the tournament, I did many chores (dishes, cooking, laundry, ironing, cleaning, walking dog, etc), baked a new muffin recipe that says tastes just like cinnamon doughnuts. Not really. But still good to eat! I plated four and took to neighbor Nancy.

Recipe:

We have been enjoying the "blueberry jam" that tastes just like "blueberry pie filling", cousin Carolyn made from her Mom's jam recipe. So good!

I took a few pictures of Ginger. She's a very good puppy just so BIG!! Once we have a routine of taking her to the groomers, we will let her fur grow out a little more. It gets matted very easily, but no shedding!

Backyard playing:

Ford bought me an elevated planter for our yard. I assembled it on the 7th also.

Assembled! 

OPE Robotics Team Field Day 01/05/2018

Ford attended a few hours of the robotics competition day with AA's OPE team. AA loves this team and is good at working in the team (per the Coach Mrs. Rauth). The base board/map for the robotics challenge:

Practice time:

The OPE team at the sign-in table:

AA with Owen on right:

Outside group photo:

Funny - Goofy:

The End!

The OPE team did not place in this challenge. Ford observed that the OPE team was not ready to meet the time constraints of the challenges with slow set ups. With this first season over, next big competition is at school year-end!