Friday

Well It was a busy fun filled day with a great family supper at Amy and Tyler new house as we celebrated Sam's 2nd birthday; more on that later, but the morning started out the usual with a 5'ish wake up by Chester the rooster next door as he bellowed out his big mouth in the stillness of the morning, I wonder if KFC would take him? After the wake up and my quiet time I got ready to head out to the rec for a couple hours of pickle ball. The crowd was about average which was surprising for a Friday as we now have to incorporate the intermediate players in with the advanced on Fridays as the gym is closed to pickle ball on Sat. mornings. We had a few of the better intermediate players except for one player which really destroys great play. Anyhow we survived another week with 5 good days of play. Next week we are limited to just 3 days as the whole facility is closed due to the annual Pow Wow festival.

After pickle ball I stopped off at the library for a couple reads for the weekend. I found a new book by a great author Rick Bragg. He writes about the real life of the Appalachia Era, the textile industry in the South and real red neck type folks of which he grew up with. He has a new book titled THE MOST THEY EVER HAD and its all about the cotton era from the pickers to those to worked the textile plants and really how this industry shaped lives. Its a good down to earth read. Sam and Amy came for lunch and we had a salad and pizza then they headed off to pick up Ava as she likes to have lunch on Friday's with her school mates.

I set the sprinkler on the back gardens as its really dry here and hand watering doesn't allow the water to sink in like a sprinkler does, so I read while the garden was watered and Nancy took off shopping. It's warm but not down right HOT yet even though we have the a/c on it still pleasant outside in the shade. The humidity is still bearable as long as we have a breeze and that has been the case except when in the direct sunlight then its really hot. I received a large order from our generous team leaders at Amway and will be distributing all the free(BOGO) items to our local customers. Those of you not in this area should get yours in the next day or so.

We got ready to head over to Amy's for the birthday supper so we stopped on the way and picked up GG. Tyler had the jump house out and was putting together the trampoline for the kiddo's as well when we got there. Bob and his crew showed up just as we were getting out of the truck as well. The kids all headed into the back yard to play. He has a nice afternoon shade in the back yard for the kiddos this summer and its fenced as well, so they will have a great place to play. There are no sidewalks but the street is in a cul-de-sac so lots of the older kids play in the street which has very little traffic. It's a really nice neighborhood. Their living room is twice the size of ours as well and the bedroomsare quite large as well. This is really a nice rental and one if I were staying in Florida would consider purchasing. The landscape could use a little TLC but it not the worse looking lot on the street. They have a well so that should help with getting the outside in tip top shape. It should be fun for them.

The supper Amy and Tyler prepared was excellent. Amy did Pioneer Woman's twice baked potato's which were dewisheous as well as Tyler did a couple marinated flank steaks which were grilled to perfection, median rare. Amy had made a great fresh salad with crusty bread and cooked baby carrots, yikes was that ever great eatin'. After we watched Sam open his presents we sang Happy Birthday and ate the cake grand ma Nancy baked and decorated as a dinosaur especially for Sam along with some vanilla ice cream, yikes was that ever good. The kids played and finally around 8:30 or 9 it was bath time. Bob's crew had an hour drive back to Riverview and after all the hard playing both Gabe and Annsley would be asleep before they got on the interstate. It was a fun evening and a great time of family interaction and eatin'. I will enclose a few pic's from Sam's second birthday bash!! LATER