Pat and I got up and going about 7am. It was nice to not have to move rooms this morning!
Pat wanted me to take her back to the good sale at Jo-Ann's (LOL!), so I did. She got a pack of cardstock and one of the Nana's Kids paper stacks.
Next was the cemetery. The flowers I had left there in February were still there! I removed those and put new ones there. It affects me deeply to visit here. I miss him. I know I can talk to him anytime, but I feel more close to him in this place.
After another morning stop at Chick-fil-A (I do love those Minis!!), we headed on back to the scrapbook store. We cropped (other than a quick lunch) until about 3:30. I got six pages done over the last two days... the last one I worked on today was of the elephants at Busch Gardens, and I'm real happy with how it turned out.
We found a Hobby Lobby and did more shopping. They didn't have much on sale, but they had a good clearance rack this time around. I got several Cuttlebug dies. My sister got her a rolling tote for her scrapbook supplies, along with several embellishments. I tell you, I have created a monster! She is a scrapping machine! It is really too bad we don't live closer... she kept saying she'd love for us to be able to scrapbook together once a week. And that would be great... IF she would just quit bragging about how many pages she has finished! LOL
We went back to the motel and rested for a couple of hours. Then we met Missi, Jon, Brittany, and her BFF, Britteny, for dinner. (Brandon was out of town with his father.) It was great to see them. I really, really like Jon... he's so funny! Brittany is just a teenager... she had wanted to go to the scrapbook store, but she never called me to pick her up. I guess she changed her mind and wanted to do her own thing. Just typical kid stuff. We took a bunch of pictures, and she seemed to enjoy that. She even let me get a picture of her new braces! I think we all had a great evening - I know I did!
Like last night, my sister is sound asleep with the light on and the TV on! I guess I'll sign off and get ready for bed myself. I have a long day tomorrow - I'm going to drive all the way home.
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Friday, August 14, 2009
Trip to Jacksonville - Days 1, 2, and 3
August 12: Last night I began to get a little nervous about my trip... I've never spent this much alone time with my sister! How would it go? We are actually going to be sharing a motel room! Will we get along? Will we get on each others' nerves? I mean, I think everything is going to be fine, based on our phone conversations and Facebook chats, but you never know!
I had lots to do before leaving... pack, give the cats their fluids and meds, clean out litter boxes, get gas, pick up prescriptions, etc... Busy, busy morning. But I actually got away earlier than I had feared and was on the road out of Covington by 12:00 Noon.
It is about a 4 1/2 hour drive to my sister's house in Waycross... mostly all back roads. The only interstate is 5 miles on I-75 in Macon and 50 miles on I-16. Many times I had no cell phone reception. I was officially in the country! Tracy had gone down earlier in the day to pick up a refrigerator we bought from my sister and brother-in-law and was already on his way back home with it... so we met for a FEW minutes in McRae. After that stop, I didn't think I would ever get there! I thought they had moved Waycross! But I did make it to their house about 4:30.
They have a beautiful home and made me feel soooo welcome. My sister cooked supper (yummy) (oh the black-eyed peas were to die for!!) and breakfast the next morning! Pat and I rode over to see her son, daughter-in-law, and granddaughter. My great-niece is almost two and totally precious!!
August 13: We got up and going and left for Jacksonville about 9AM. We made a stop in Folkston, GA... gathering information about our father. Interesting tidbits there. We tried to visit the scrapbook store Callahan, FL, but it didn't opoen until 11 and we had too many stops to make to hang around. Maybe another time. Then we went to Fernandina Beach to pick up something re: Pat's family... and that's where the 'interesting' things started happening to us. Pat wanted to get a copy of her grandfather's death certificate. The Health Department doesn't have them anymore so we had to go to another location downtown. There the lady seemed totally put out that the death certificate was from 1990!! She said "1990?!! It'll take me a while since I have to dig back that far!" And wait we did. When she finally brought it out and handed it to Pat, she made it clear she was irritated about having to do her job: "Well, here you go." With a tone. And an attitude. And that was it.
I then took Pat to eat lunch at Firehouse Subs. She had never been there, and thank goodness she really liked it. I think I like it because the subs are warm. I don't care for cold sandwiches.
Anyway, we then went on down to Jacksonville. Our first stop was the Vital Statistics to pick up more birth and/or death certificates. Well, almost all of the people working there seemed to have attitude. But after about 45 minutes, we finally got all we needed. We then headed downtown to the office to get marriage/divorce records. That was another 45 minute wait! And after paying $15 to get the records the same day (as opposed to $5, but a 2-3 week wait) and more attitude, it wasn't even what we wanted!
So off we went to find the courthouse! Thank goodness for a GPS! "Samantha" as I call her, has saved me more than once, and she came through this time, too! We found the Clerk of Court's office and finally, got a really nice lady who was very patient while pulling those huge, heavy deed books for us. We made several copies here... and while not exactly what we were looking for, it gave us more than what we had. By this time, it's almost 5pm and we're exhausted! So it's off to the motel... in rush hour traffic. But we made it.
We were supposed to have dinner with our cousin, Ronnie, but his mother was put in the hospital and he needed to be there. So Pat and I found a hole-in-the-wall Mexican Restaurant right up the street and ate our fill of some yummy chips, salsa, quesadilla, and carne asada!! We went back to the motel and zonked out!
August 14: I didn't sleep very well... I never do on the first night in a strange place. I was hot most of the night and finally got up about 4:30am and turned the air on down to 68. It finally got bearable in the room. (Luckily, Pat is as hot-natured as I am!) But then about 6:30 am... barking! Yes, there was a dog on our floor - and it was only a couple of rooms away! And it barked non-stop. I got up and called the front desk. They said they would call that room. And the dog did get quiet for a short while, and then started again. Non-stop. We figured the owner had gone out and left it alone. Poor thing! We called the front desk again. There was no going back to sleep, so we started getting ready. When Pat went down to get coffee, she stopped at the front desk to talk to them about it. It seems that the dog's owner checked in on Tuesday and had been leaving the dog alone every day. The motel had been fielding complaints all week and giving away free nights right and left! They had been trying to get in touch with the dog's owner but he was not answering nor returning their calls. The guy has been sneaking in at night, taking a shower in the mornings and then sneaking back out, leaving the dog alone in the room! The motel has been checking on the dog, but can't take it out of the room.
Anyway, the motel moved us to a new room on the next floor and gave us tonight free! We appreciated that at least! And we cannot hear the poor puppy anymore.
We left the motel and drove to Orange Park (about 10 minutes away). We ate breakfast at Chick-fil-A - love those Chicken Minis!!! - and went to TJ Maxx and Jo-Ann's. Jo-Ann's was an ETC and was having a GREAT sale - 40% off just about every last thing for scrapbooking. We racked up! We were going to the cemetery for me to put some flower's on our nephew's grave, but Navy Captain Scott Speicher, the first soldier killed in the Gulf War, was being buried there today! So we had to put that off until tomorrow.
We went to Pictures In Time and did a little shopping, but their tables were covered up with boxes, and there was no room for us to scrapbook there. We went to Scrap 'n Stuff - also in Orange Park - and cropped there until almost 4pm. We went out about 2 to get some lunch. We decided to just grab something at McDonald's and take it back to the store. Well, this McDonald's is one of the old-timey looking ones - with the arches stretching along both sides of the building. Pat wanted pictures of it. While I waited on our food in the the drive thru, she got out and went to take some pictures with her camera. Almost immediately, an employee came out of the restaurant and asked Pat what she was taking pictures of. Pat told her she was taking pictures of the golden arches! The employee asked her why. Pat said, "To scrapbook!" And the employee told Pat that she understood, but that there were people in the restaurant having to duck and cover their faces because they thought she was taking pictures of them!!! Unbelievable!! Are they on the run? Having lunch with someone they shouldn't??? Who knows! Just another example of the crazy stuff that has happened to us on this trip.
When we left the scrapbook store at 4pm, it stormed hard. We went to another store and shopped for a bit and then came back to the motel. It was storming so badly, we sat in the car for about 30 minutes.
Ronnie couldn't meet us for dinner again tonight, so we went up the street to St. John's Seafood and had sone shrimp. They were good!
As I type this, my sister is sound asleep (and has been for about an hour and a half) and I'm ready for bed myself.
Good night.
I had lots to do before leaving... pack, give the cats their fluids and meds, clean out litter boxes, get gas, pick up prescriptions, etc... Busy, busy morning. But I actually got away earlier than I had feared and was on the road out of Covington by 12:00 Noon.
It is about a 4 1/2 hour drive to my sister's house in Waycross... mostly all back roads. The only interstate is 5 miles on I-75 in Macon and 50 miles on I-16. Many times I had no cell phone reception. I was officially in the country! Tracy had gone down earlier in the day to pick up a refrigerator we bought from my sister and brother-in-law and was already on his way back home with it... so we met for a FEW minutes in McRae. After that stop, I didn't think I would ever get there! I thought they had moved Waycross! But I did make it to their house about 4:30.
They have a beautiful home and made me feel soooo welcome. My sister cooked supper (yummy) (oh the black-eyed peas were to die for!!) and breakfast the next morning! Pat and I rode over to see her son, daughter-in-law, and granddaughter. My great-niece is almost two and totally precious!!
August 13: We got up and going and left for Jacksonville about 9AM. We made a stop in Folkston, GA... gathering information about our father. Interesting tidbits there. We tried to visit the scrapbook store Callahan, FL, but it didn't opoen until 11 and we had too many stops to make to hang around. Maybe another time. Then we went to Fernandina Beach to pick up something re: Pat's family... and that's where the 'interesting' things started happening to us. Pat wanted to get a copy of her grandfather's death certificate. The Health Department doesn't have them anymore so we had to go to another location downtown. There the lady seemed totally put out that the death certificate was from 1990!! She said "1990?!! It'll take me a while since I have to dig back that far!" And wait we did. When she finally brought it out and handed it to Pat, she made it clear she was irritated about having to do her job: "Well, here you go." With a tone. And an attitude. And that was it.
I then took Pat to eat lunch at Firehouse Subs. She had never been there, and thank goodness she really liked it. I think I like it because the subs are warm. I don't care for cold sandwiches.
Anyway, we then went on down to Jacksonville. Our first stop was the Vital Statistics to pick up more birth and/or death certificates. Well, almost all of the people working there seemed to have attitude. But after about 45 minutes, we finally got all we needed. We then headed downtown to the office to get marriage/divorce records. That was another 45 minute wait! And after paying $15 to get the records the same day (as opposed to $5, but a 2-3 week wait) and more attitude, it wasn't even what we wanted!
So off we went to find the courthouse! Thank goodness for a GPS! "Samantha" as I call her, has saved me more than once, and she came through this time, too! We found the Clerk of Court's office and finally, got a really nice lady who was very patient while pulling those huge, heavy deed books for us. We made several copies here... and while not exactly what we were looking for, it gave us more than what we had. By this time, it's almost 5pm and we're exhausted! So it's off to the motel... in rush hour traffic. But we made it.
We were supposed to have dinner with our cousin, Ronnie, but his mother was put in the hospital and he needed to be there. So Pat and I found a hole-in-the-wall Mexican Restaurant right up the street and ate our fill of some yummy chips, salsa, quesadilla, and carne asada!! We went back to the motel and zonked out!
August 14: I didn't sleep very well... I never do on the first night in a strange place. I was hot most of the night and finally got up about 4:30am and turned the air on down to 68. It finally got bearable in the room. (Luckily, Pat is as hot-natured as I am!) But then about 6:30 am... barking! Yes, there was a dog on our floor - and it was only a couple of rooms away! And it barked non-stop. I got up and called the front desk. They said they would call that room. And the dog did get quiet for a short while, and then started again. Non-stop. We figured the owner had gone out and left it alone. Poor thing! We called the front desk again. There was no going back to sleep, so we started getting ready. When Pat went down to get coffee, she stopped at the front desk to talk to them about it. It seems that the dog's owner checked in on Tuesday and had been leaving the dog alone every day. The motel had been fielding complaints all week and giving away free nights right and left! They had been trying to get in touch with the dog's owner but he was not answering nor returning their calls. The guy has been sneaking in at night, taking a shower in the mornings and then sneaking back out, leaving the dog alone in the room! The motel has been checking on the dog, but can't take it out of the room.
Anyway, the motel moved us to a new room on the next floor and gave us tonight free! We appreciated that at least! And we cannot hear the poor puppy anymore.
We left the motel and drove to Orange Park (about 10 minutes away). We ate breakfast at Chick-fil-A - love those Chicken Minis!!! - and went to TJ Maxx and Jo-Ann's. Jo-Ann's was an ETC and was having a GREAT sale - 40% off just about every last thing for scrapbooking. We racked up! We were going to the cemetery for me to put some flower's on our nephew's grave, but Navy Captain Scott Speicher, the first soldier killed in the Gulf War, was being buried there today! So we had to put that off until tomorrow.
We went to Pictures In Time and did a little shopping, but their tables were covered up with boxes, and there was no room for us to scrapbook there. We went to Scrap 'n Stuff - also in Orange Park - and cropped there until almost 4pm. We went out about 2 to get some lunch. We decided to just grab something at McDonald's and take it back to the store. Well, this McDonald's is one of the old-timey looking ones - with the arches stretching along both sides of the building. Pat wanted pictures of it. While I waited on our food in the the drive thru, she got out and went to take some pictures with her camera. Almost immediately, an employee came out of the restaurant and asked Pat what she was taking pictures of. Pat told her she was taking pictures of the golden arches! The employee asked her why. Pat said, "To scrapbook!" And the employee told Pat that she understood, but that there were people in the restaurant having to duck and cover their faces because they thought she was taking pictures of them!!! Unbelievable!! Are they on the run? Having lunch with someone they shouldn't??? Who knows! Just another example of the crazy stuff that has happened to us on this trip.
When we left the scrapbook store at 4pm, it stormed hard. We went to another store and shopped for a bit and then came back to the motel. It was storming so badly, we sat in the car for about 30 minutes.
Ronnie couldn't meet us for dinner again tonight, so we went up the street to St. John's Seafood and had sone shrimp. They were good!
As I type this, my sister is sound asleep (and has been for about an hour and a half) and I'm ready for bed myself.
Good night.
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
July 2009 Roundup of Memories
What books did I read this month? Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck (book club); Digging to America by Anne Tyler; In the Company of Cheerful Ladies by Alexander McCall Smith (audio book)
Magazines? Guidepost
What movies did I see this month? Kung Fu Panda, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (at the theater), Mr. Brooks, National Treasure, Clueless, Failure to Launch (again), The Holiday (again), Bonnie & Clyde: The True Story (1992 version), The Italian Job (again), Hancock, Transporter 3, Mutiny on the Bounty (Clark Gable), The Proposal (at the theater)
TV Shows? Burn Notice, Leverage, 24, CMT Insider, America's Most Wanted, Saving Grace, The Cleaner, The Bill Engvall Show, Saving Grace, Lie to Me, 30 Days, Chelsea Lately, I Survived, The Soup
What special days did I celebrate and how? Another one for my birthday - w/Donna Joseph
What illness or health concerns did I have this month? Retaining fluids in my legs - blood work done and put on a diuretic. High blood sugar - lowered through diet.
What fun things did I do with friends and/or family? Tracy and I went to Myrtle Beach; cropping with Christy and Carolyn every Wednesday; Lunch and movie with Donna Joseph; visited Fernbank Science Center with my mom
What new foods, recipes, or restaurants did I try this month? Sticky Fingers (ribs) in Myrtle Beach - great baked beans and corn meal muffins!!; Rico's World Market in Buford - excellent Shrimp Po'Boy!
What special or unusual purchases did I make? We bought a down comforter with a duvet cover - it's pretty comfy! Bought several magnets and T-shirts while in Myrtle Beach. Got some more Sizzix alphabets and other dies.
What were this month's disappointments? The condo we stayed in at Myrtle Beach; the probability that I will not get my $200 deposit back from the condo where we stayed in Washington DC
What were my accomplishments this month? Getting through the busy weeks!
Magazines? Guidepost
What movies did I see this month? Kung Fu Panda, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (at the theater), Mr. Brooks, National Treasure, Clueless, Failure to Launch (again), The Holiday (again), Bonnie & Clyde: The True Story (1992 version), The Italian Job (again), Hancock, Transporter 3, Mutiny on the Bounty (Clark Gable), The Proposal (at the theater)
TV Shows? Burn Notice, Leverage, 24, CMT Insider, America's Most Wanted, Saving Grace, The Cleaner, The Bill Engvall Show, Saving Grace, Lie to Me, 30 Days, Chelsea Lately, I Survived, The Soup
What special days did I celebrate and how? Another one for my birthday - w/Donna Joseph
What illness or health concerns did I have this month? Retaining fluids in my legs - blood work done and put on a diuretic. High blood sugar - lowered through diet.
What fun things did I do with friends and/or family? Tracy and I went to Myrtle Beach; cropping with Christy and Carolyn every Wednesday; Lunch and movie with Donna Joseph; visited Fernbank Science Center with my mom
What new foods, recipes, or restaurants did I try this month? Sticky Fingers (ribs) in Myrtle Beach - great baked beans and corn meal muffins!!; Rico's World Market in Buford - excellent Shrimp Po'Boy!
What special or unusual purchases did I make? We bought a down comforter with a duvet cover - it's pretty comfy! Bought several magnets and T-shirts while in Myrtle Beach. Got some more Sizzix alphabets and other dies.
What were this month's disappointments? The condo we stayed in at Myrtle Beach; the probability that I will not get my $200 deposit back from the condo where we stayed in Washington DC
What were my accomplishments this month? Getting through the busy weeks!
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