October recap

I can't believe November is already here!!! Time is slipping away at a record pace...and we're all just trying our best to keep up. Seriously, it's not that I'm super busy every day, but suddenly a week as past and then another, etc.
After our trip to Washington, we got home and then it was time to get reorganized. John had work to do and I just needed to catch up on things.
September 23rd was my first day as a Rolling Reader again. Originally I started back in 2001. Funny...I am back at the same school where I started in 01'. (some of the same teachers are still there, but looks like all new office staff. When I originally did Rolling Readers, I was still working. At that time I had a set schedule every week, so I was able to commit to going to visit a class once a week at a specific time. I read at that school for a couple different classes for about 4 years. As my job demands changed...I wasn't able (wasn't willing?) to commit to once a week. I did keep reading though, to a friend's class at another school. I read to her classes each year for about 3 years.So like my regular job, I was kind of on again off again over a span of many years.
I like having a once a week commitment again, though this class is very LIVELY!!!! I have a Kindergarten group. I get there at 12:30pm...and they have just come back from recess at that time. It takes them a few minutes to settle down. They're a little tired, hot, thirsty, need to go to the bathroom etc.hahah As the teacher told me a week or two ago...what they really need  at that time is a "rest" period or a nap. Instead I read for about a half an hour and then they have to do Math. (not sure how that goes!) So...I just try my best to find a few short, fun books to keep them entertained for a few minutes so the teacher can have a short break. I'm still trying to figure out if the teacher is weary because of the class behavior...or if the class behaves like they do because they can sense her weariness.....haven't figured it out yet. I will say there is a wonderful volunteer who is there every day!! I don't know how the teacher would manage without her.
The first week as I entered the classroom...the teacher said "Well, Good Luck!"   yikes hahha. They actually did well...much to my surprise...and hers and the volunteer, etc. I was feeling pretty proud of myself...like a wild kid whisperer or something...hahaha That lasted ONE week. Second time there they were all over the place...a little reality check for me- one good week doesn't mean I'm that good...hahahah I've been there 5 times so far...and some days are better than others. I love it and maybe they do too. They seem excited when I get there, so that's progress. I am also reading to a couple of other classes, every other week or so. One 1st grade group and another 2nd grade group. Fun to read to them because I can do a little more with them, Both teacher friends of mine have good classes this year which makes a huge difference. I have enjoyed picking out my old favorite books again and sharing some older titles with the classes. So far so good and I am doing exactly what I love to do.

In early October, Brenna decided to get an Annual Pass for Disney.

Art of Animation Resort

We got to ride the brand new Skyliner! from our hotel to the park!!!

 We went over for a night/day. I think I wore her out trekking all over EPCOT, Animal Kingdom

and Magic Kingdom all in one day. Brenna is a whiz with the Disney App...as soon as we used one Fast Pass, she was looking for another one for us.

We were able to make the most of our time and got on some great rides. The new Avatar ride in AK was a LOT of fun.

 We were able to get into to our favorite restaurant too.

We ran into some friend's while we were there.

Took a break to meet the new baby and say Hello then we were off to the Magic Kingdom. Other than the fact that it was still pretty HOT!!!!!!!! and we were melting...we had fun! We were both worn out the next day hahahah but it was worth it.
The following Saturday Brenna and I again, went to a Breast Cancer awareness Fundraiser our friend Gayle was hosting. Gayle found out last December that she had brest Cancer. It was a shock to her and all of her friends. She was lucky. It was Stage 1 and "easier" than many to remove. No Chemo needed...but it has still been an ordeal! She was raising money for a local organization that helps women with necessities when they are going through cancer treatment; because not everyone has family and friends to help them through it.

We had assorted appts here and there to plan around
October 20th was a friend's birthday. She and some other friends were going to see a Tom Petty Tribute band (his birthday too apparently). Last minute plan turned out to be a fun time. Band was not bad...played all the favorites and everyone seemed happy to be there. The "dinner" portion of the deal wasn't great...but it was fine. Pizza, garlic Knots and wings...hahaha I wasn't expecting gourmet...so what the heck. It was okay.

Happy Birthday to Gayle( and Tom Petty)

The following night was BUNCO night. I have been playing with the same group for 20+ years. Once a month we get together. Some people have moved on, others have left and come back and some have been playing all along. It's one of the few things I have been a part of for all these years. At one point when I was applying for other jobs a couple of years ago...there was one that seemed pretty good...but it required whoever got the job to work every Monday until 8pm.( From the job description, I knew it involved some Mondays, but did not realize it meant every Monday. )I don't know if they were even interested in me...but I thought about it and decided I was only going to be working for a few more years...and I was going to make sure whatever I did was going to be something I really wanted to be doing. I called and told them to take my name out of the running. I just wasn't willing to give up my one activity I have enjoyed all these years. *This month...it's at my house again 😀
Halloween Brenna and I had planned to go back to Disney. Neither one of us gets many Trick-or Treaters at our houses, and I personally hate that!!!

 Hate sitting waiting for the kids who don't come! We get a handful...but a lot of people on my street don't participate...so I don't blame the kids for skipping us...but I really enjoy seeing the kids, the costumes, the fun. So if the kids weren't coming to us...we figured we'd go be kids for a day ourselves. haha Unfortunately her dog Haze, got sick and she was concerned about him, He's old...15! so each ailment makes her/us nervous. We did decide if the dog was feeling better,,,she would go with me to LongDoggers where they were having a Halloween Costume contest.

 She and I dressed up and went and had fun for a couple of hours.

Ghost of Mardi Gras Past-your bad decisions will come back to haunt you

 And we did have fun...it was perfect. When I got home it was early, so kids were still out Trick-or-Treating. We actually had about 20-25 kids and parents stop by. Might be a record. I gave away almost all my candy and had fun seeing all the cute costumes. Everyone who DID come by had cute/clever costumes. So the night was a success.
The next day...that I had hoped earlier in the year that I might have a Dia de Los Muertos party...(didn't) I did have my Book Club. It's been several months since we last met so it was nice to get back together with that group. The woman who started it used to volunteer at the Library. We worked at the circulation desk a number of times and I always enjoyed her company. I was thrilled when she invited me to join her book club...because for years I wanted to be in one...but it  had never worked out.I like that I end up reading books I might not have otherwise read and meeting a whole new group of friends.
Saturday the 2nd we got together to watch the Gator/GA gam. Our team lost the game...but we sure had fun!

This week I'm breaking out all my favorite food and Thanksgiving books and reading to all three of my classes. John is getting ready to play in an Over 60 Baseball Tournament.
The rest of November I have BUNCO here, then we will be off visiting family and/or having family come visit us...so it's going to be a fun frantic couple of weeks, but I'm ready!

Still here

Well it's been a couple of months, but I'm still here. I just haven't taken the time to sit down and "write".
We were all wondering how long it would be to get the wedding pictures back from the photographer...well I understand her dilemma. It's tedious to sit and edit pictures. I had some photos on my phone...and it just took me a while to download, edit, etc. all the photos. I actually finished that...a couple of weeks ago...but once I got through step one...I ran out of steam.
I (obviously) don't write this blog because I have lots of followers...I do it for myself. I know I  also have a few family members and friends who check in from time to time, but it's kind of a way for me to write down my thoughts and add the pictures. From time to time I do look back and read old posts. I have half-hardheartedly started one or two journals over the years...but find this blog makes it easier for me to combine photos and thoughts all in one place. So...I may  ot write often...but I guess I'll keep going for now.

With that said...this post is a recap of our recent trip to Washington state.
My sister and her husband bid on a vacation stay at a resort near Seattle...last year at a hospital fundraiser. They "won" the bid, so plans were under way. We talked about it last September (2018)...and after a month or two they decided to plan to go this year in September. Seattle is a mid way point for all of us. It's approximately a 5 hour trip for them from Honolulu and about the same for us from Florida.
They also invited Tony's sisters and their spouses. Maris and Wim from Maui, Judy and Tom , currently in Washington, and Cathy and Andy from North Carolina.  Andy and Cathy arrived a day before Martha, Tony, John and I did. They met up with Maris and Wim and Judy and Tom. They all spent a day and night in Seattle. The next morning the group from Honolulu flew in and John and I arrived a few hours later. We had a relatively easy drive from Seattle airport to the resort in Cle Elum.  We drove through a rain storm or two, but there was not too much traffic on the road....so that was nice!

We arrived to the house

 a few hours after the rest of the group. They had already been to the grocery store and they were checking out the house and the resort. John and I arrived and got settled in in our room down stairs. It was kind of nice...not quite as nice as the rooms upstairs maybe...but we had a bathroom to ourselves and the play/game room was also downstairs. We didn't have any kids running around...and that room was unused for the most part, so it gave us more room to watch TV, relax.
We planned ahead and brought some board games. Maris brought a couple, Cathy brought one or two and so did I. The guys were relaxing...the girls got right to the games.

 It was great to have enough people to "play with" hahah At home it's usually just the two of us and most games are more fun with other players.
The plan was that each couple would be responsible for cooking dinner one night. Andy was already working on our first dinner when we arrived. We had a fir going...it was wonderful to be cool enough to want to sit near a fire!!!! When we left temperatures were in the 90's...with some days feeling like 104 !!! There was plenty of wine, some great food and some stories and laughs by the fire.

Martha, Tony, John and Andy had plans to golf the first day there. The girls and Wim and Tom went to play Pickle ball. There were lots of hiking trails in the area and a "1000 Step Challenge" down by the resort lodge.

river at the bottom of the steps/hill.

Also just walking around the neighborhood was a good workout. (for me anyway hahaha) We lucked out...the weather was great.

The golfers golfed again  on the second day, After pickle ball and/or walks, the rest of us set out to do some sightseeing. Judy and Cathy had a few places in mind. We all loaded up in our car and went to Leavenworth Washington. It's a "Scandinavian" themed town.

 It was a picture perfect day and the town was full of colorful flowers and colorful in general. Everyone was friendly, it wasn't too crowded....after Labor Day...kind of quiet. We poked around in some of the shops, got some snacks, and met up with the guys (who knows where they had been haha) for lunch. I managed to find something on the menu full of bratwurst, kielbasas, potato etc. Not exactly my top choices for eating out...but I had some of the appetizers we ordered and enjoyed my lunch. Hey it was what I expected it to be. Pretzels and cheese.....helped hahahahah

we ate on the upstairs porch of the place with the red umbrellas-

We also went to the town of Ellensburg. Judy had been there before since one of her children went to college near there.

We wandered around a bit. Stopped in a coffee shop. One thing about Washington...there is no shortage of good coffee shops!!! I love it and if I lived there I'd probably be drinking coffee all day long.

view as we drove along. Little rain shower in the distance...but look at the colors of the day

Other sight seeing trips we took were to the town of Roslyn. There are less than 1000 residents (if signs are up to date) and other than one street downtown...there didn't seem to be much else there. And yet...I kind of liked it

the Smith sisters

always happy to act like a tourist

. A coffee shop/bookstore (another thing Washington has a lot of), a couple of restaurants, some crafty shops and boutiques, a post Office and one storefront window that has the "set" of the" radio station" that was in the TV series "Northern Exposure".

on Facebook there were several comments about this sign...hahaha no comment

 There's also a World Famous bar....that John popped into for a minute...but I didn't bother. A bar is a bar. I did take a picture out front though. hahah We stopped in a Glass Shop where there was a friendly artist/craftsman and some nice artwork. I bought a little souvenir there. He had some great blown glass pumpkins....if I had had unlimited funds, I would have bought one of them. In general glass art doesn't usually catch my eye...but maybe it was the artist who was so friendly and informative....I found several things I liked.

Another time we drove out to a lake that Judy wanted to check out. There weren't many people around.....the place was mostly deserted. It was a longer walk down to the water, than you realized at first glance. 

Because it was so quiet...it was kind of an odd feeling standing at the top looking down towards the water. I had a sensation that there was going to be a sudden dramatic drop off to the water. There wasn't...but it was weird the way it may me feel like it might....if that makes any sense.

There was one small camper and a few people down closer to the shore of the lake...we never really got close to where they were. There was also a boat launch area down there...so I imagine on weekends and in the summer there might be boats on the water. When we were there...just old big evergreens, driftwood and shells scattered about and sand.

We all went out to dinner one night to a place on the property. The Swiftwater Cellars, It was a nice bar and grill. Casual but nice. Everything we had for dinner was tasty. It was a little smoky in the place when we first arrived...but thankfully the sliding doors to the outside were open and it cleared out a bit. We had a fun dinner and were were especially happy that our reservation got moved up...thanks to Andy. Original time was for 7:45 (I think)... but got moved up to closer to 6pm. More than once that evening one or two of us looked around the table and commented "Thank goodness we got in early!...we would just be getting here"..etc,etc

Another afternoon Judy, Maris, Cathy and I were out walking along one of the trails. It took us along the road, through the neighborhoods, and eventually up near where the Swiftwater Cellars bar and Grill was located. We had no money with us...but we figured the group on the golf course would come bail us out...hahah or Andy and Wim would drive up with some $$. We sat down and ordered a drink and a couple of appetizers...meanwhile no one in the group was calling us back!!! hahah We were getting just a little nervous...but not really...we knew eventually one or all (all finally did) join us and bring money!!! It all worked out and we enjoyed a nice late afternoon/evening on the deck before we went back to the house for Tony's delicious chili that had been simmering all afternoon.

It was a great week. We had lots of laughs and lots of conversations. It was relaxing and fun for me to be part of the group. It was fun to see the Smith siblings interacting....they are a lot like my family. Listening to the stories it's clear they have spent a lot of time together traveling around the country and the world.  I enjoyed listening and getting to know them all a little better.

Okay..if I keep writing and adding pictures...I'll still be typing this up next September hahah so I

ll close this out now. Till next time.....