Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Wonderful Memorial Day Weekend With Carter & Griffin.

A few years ago Joan and I became members of The Hilton Travel Club. We have stayed at several of their resorts but our favorite one is The Parc Soleil in Orlando.

This was our third time to stay at this one.

There is so much to do there. Joan and Barb went grocery shopping and we went out to eat Sunday evening and that was the only time we left the resort.

We checked in Friday night and Saturday morning we went to the pool and spent about five hours there.

They have three pools, many hot tubs, store, activities center, access to computers ,restaurant, play ground, etc. Just a great place.

We were on the 11 TH floor and the view from our balcony was magnificence.

Carter and Griffin had so much fun, Mommy, Nana, & Papa had just as much fun as they did. LOL

Although we had to check out by 10:00 AM Monday we still had access to all the activities so we spent most of the day there again.

We will be going back there for the Labor Day weekend in September.


Just some of the pictures from our fantastic weekend.

                                          Saturday, Sunday, & Monday we literally spent hours
                                           in the pool.
                                          Mommy and her boys.
                                          Nana is such a trooper, she is so active with Carter
                                           & Griffin.
                                                   Here is Nana getting ready to hit the pool
                                                    from coming down the water slide.
                                                  You normally sit up coming down the slide
                                                    and enter the water feet first, Nana ended
                                                     entering the water flat on her back check out
                                                     the splash she made. LOL

                                        Griffin entered all the kids games, he was the youngest
                                         and the smallest one taking part.
                                          That's Carter in the orange shirt and Griffin beside
                                           him. This was the water baloon game. They passed
                                           the baloons while the music was playing, who ever
                                            had the baloon when they stopped the music was
                                            eliminated.  
                                        They started with over 20 kids, Griffin made it to
                                         when there was only 5 left. 
                                         Nana didn't want people to see her hair after she went
                                         under the water so Carter let her wear his cap, isn't
                                          she so cool. LOL
                                          We had to check out by 10:00 AM Monday so
                                           they rode down on the luggage carrier. LOL
                                            This is what we seen coming back into the resort
                                             Sunday evening coming back from dinner. It was
                                             a beautiful sight. 

Saturday, May 18, 2013

Life Is All About Choices



After I met and got to know Joan she told me two very profound things. Joan has had a lot of tragedy in her life but those of you that don't know every thing about her would never know it. Always smiling, always positive.
Way back then she told me life is all about choices. She said it is up to all of us to choose if we want to be happy or sad. She said I choose to be happy.

I try to do that every morning but sometimes it is challenging. I was married to a woman before Joan that also chose to be happy.

So between the two of them I have spent over 50 years with two women whose choice was to be happy.

And at times I still struggle with it. But I keep trying. LOL

The other thing she told me was that she wanted to wear out, she never wanted to rust out. No chance of rust ever being able to settle on her, LOL

So when a friend sent me this E-Mail today even though I have read it before I am going to print it out and refer to it often.


Read this

LET IT REALLY SINK IN......

THEN
CHOOSE..



John is the kind of guy
you love to hate. He is always in a good mood and always has something positive
to say. When someone would ask him how he was doing, he would reply, 'If I were
any better, I would be twins!'


He was a natural motivator.



If an employee was having a bad day, John was there telling the
employee how to look on the positive side of the situation.




Seeing this style really made me curious, so one day I went up
and asked him, 'I don't get it!'



'You can't be a positive person
all of the time. How do you do it?'




He replied, 'Each morning I wake up and say to myself, you
have two
choices today. You can choose to be in a good mood or...you can
choose to
be in a bad mood


I choose to be in a good mood.'


Each
time something bad happens, I can choose to be a victim or...I can choose to
learn from it. I choose to learn from it.



Every time someone
comes to me complaining, I can choose to accept their complaining or...I can
point out the positive side of life. I choose the positive side of life.



'Yeah, right, it's not that easy,' I protested.


'Yes, it
is,' he said. 'Life is all about choices. When you cut away all the junk, every
situation is a choice. You choose how you react to situations. You choose how
people affect your mood.


You choose to be in a good mood or bad
mood. The bottom line: It's your choice how you live your life.'


I
reflected on what he said. Soon hereafter, I left the Tower Industry to start my
own business. We lost touch, but I often thought about him when I made a choice
about life instead of reacting to it.


Several years later, I heard
that he was involved in a serious accident, falling some 60 feet from a
communications tower.



After 18 hours of surgery and weeks of
intensive care, he was released from the hospital with rods placed in his back.




I saw him about six months after the accident.


When
I asked him how he was, he replied, 'If I were any better, I'd be twins...Wanna
see my scars?'



I declined to see his wounds, but I did ask him
what had gone through his mind as the accident took place.



'The
first thing that went through my mind was the well-being of my soon-to-be born
daughter,' he replied. 'Then, as I lay on the ground, I remembered that I had
two choices: I could choose to live or...I could choose to die. I chose to
live.'


'Weren't you scared? Did you lose consciousness?' I asked.



He continued, '...the paramedics were great.



They
kept telling me I was going to be fine. But when they wheeled me into the ER and
I saw the expressions on the faces of the doctors and nurses, I got really
scared. In their eyes, I read 'he's a dead man'. I knew I needed to take
action.'



'What did you do?' I asked.


'Well, there
was a big burly nurse shouting questions at me,' said John. 'She asked if I was
allergic to anything 'Yes, I replied.' The doctors and nurses stopped working as
they waited for my reply. I took a deep breath and yelled, 'Gravity''




Over their laughter, I told them, 'I am choosing to live.
Operate on me as if I am alive, not dead.'


He lived, thanks to the
skill of his doctors, but also because of his amazing attitude....I learned from
him that every day we have the choice to live fully.



Attitude, after all,
is everything .



Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about
itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.' Matthew 6:34.




After all today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday.




Monday, May 13, 2013

Our Wonderful Mother's Day Weekend.

I hope every one had an enjoyable Mother's Day weekend. You have probably read where I have said I hated to see the weekend end, Well this was one of those weekends I hated to see end.

I can't imagine how it could have been any better. Friday Barbara, the boys Mom had a tea for the Mother's of the children in her class. Joan went to help her. She said it was wonderful. When she came home she brought Carter & Griffin home with her.

We got the slip and slide out, hooked up to the water and they had such a great time with it.

Saturday we took them to the Palm Beach Gardens Municipal water park. The pictures will tell the story. Hopefully every Grandchild has a Grandmother like Nana. No matter how tired she gets she just keeps going with the boys as long as they want to go. Great Great, four hours.

Home to rest, Griffin took a two and a half hour nap. We met Barb and Brett and the boys other Grandparents at a really nice restaurant for a wonderful Mother's Day evening.

Sunday morning it was off to church for a great sermon by Pastor Lucky.

Then we drove over to Sebring to spend Mother's Day with my daughter Martha, her husband Jimmy, their daughter Jessica and Martha's Mother-in-Law Anita. Another great visit topped off with a wonderful dinner.

Then we went by the cemetery where Bubba is buried to wish her a Happy Mother's Day also.

Now you can see why I hated to see the weekend end. LOL
This is Carter & Griffin's 73 year young Nana.
They adore their Nana and why shouldn' they?
                                           I
                                                 It's called a water park for a reason, water, water, every where.
Do many different ways to get wet.

                                                           Griffin is game for just about every thing
                                                            he wants to do every thing big brother does
                                                             which isn't always possible.
I say this quite often but it is so true, I know they
have fun bit Nana and I have just as much fun
as they do.

                                          When we got home he said he wasn't tires but he
                                          took a two and a half hour nap. LOL
If they ever bring the show Dennis The Menace back
Griffin could play the part.



                                           When this bucket fill up it dumps the water, got a picture
                                            just as Carter got the full bucket.

                                          Wow, so much fun.