Sunday

Well the morning started out with our usual quiet time and a cup of hot green tea. Both Nancy and I ate a bowl of oatmeal with blueberries and a banana before we got ready to head out to Tampa for worship at Element Church. It was in the low 70's but showed a promise of rain. We stopped and picked up GG and Pap(Nancy's folks). Nancy's mom, GG has a lone older sister Darrell who was visiting Clearwater along with her husband, Warnie and a granddaughter Allison(she is Chris's daughter and Chris is Darrell's daughter) and her husband Mike. They too wanted to worship at Element and to see Bobby and his family. Tom who is Darrell's son and his wife, Kathy and their daughter, Amanda also were driving up from Sarasota to not only worship but to visit with the family as well. It had been years since we had seen many of them especially Allison and Amanda. Nancy is younger than Tom and his sister Chris(who did not make the trip to Florida) but they use to visit with each other in their younger days especially at GG's and Darrell's parents cabin on the Capon River in West Virginia. I hope I haven't left you in the blind but just a little background an genealogy on the Rouse's who are originally from West Newton, Pa.

Worship was awesome at Element with uplifting praise and worship music and Bobby's message gave us all inspiration with what the first church faced in the book of Acts. After the service we visited with Bobby and Jill and her family before we headed out to Sonny's for lunch. There were 11 of us and we had an enjoyable meal plus there was so much chatter, laughter and many stories to tell and to share. We met Allison's hubby, Mike for the first time and we were really impressed with his warmth and great personality. Uncle Warnie is nearly 90 and hasn't changed a day since I met him over 30 years ago. Aunt Darrell has had some health issues but is such a delight and still gets around with the aid of a cane, Tom and Cathy look very healthy and are enjoying their retirement and of course Amanda is as beautiful as ever and is on spring break from teaching in Pa. We thoroughly enjoyed their visit and plan on going to the Salt Rock Grill on Tuesday for dinner then back to GG's and Pap's house for her famous red cake. It was nearly 3 PM before we finally made it home.

We hit rain as we left the restaurant and it followed us all the way to Seminole where the streets were flooded, my garden loves this. Nancy and I just chilled and I watched 2 great basketball games with Michigan and Duke being victorious in come from behind wins. Should be a good final 4 this weekend, speaking of next week-end Tom, Kathy, Darrell and Warnie are coming Easter Sunday for worship again at Element as well as GG and Pap. I think we will have a house full for Easter dinner next Sunday.

Well tomorrow is the big tournament for Seminole pickle baller's, should be fun with lots of exciting play. LATER