My Happy List

Every once in awhile I'm going to post about something that makes me happy.  I know, I know, here is where you're probably telling yourself that you really don't care what makes Jeanne happy.  But you're here and it won't take long, I promise, so maybe, if nothing else, it'll prompt you to think about what makes you happy!  Okay, here goes the first one:

Let me just say that I love my second job of driving people around.  Now the job as a whole doesn't necessarily make me happy.  Believe me, there are negatives like traffic, wheelchair lifts, and annoying people (not many but a few).  But one of the things about it that makes me happy is that after six years I still go somewhere I've never been before at least once a week.  Yesterday I got a double dose when I was able to ramble around in the country in two different areas I've never seen.  I guess I have enough traditional southern (oh, let's just call it what it is) old person trait in me that I love a good "Sunday drive".

On one of the routes I came across Good Ole Boy Road!  Only in Texas, right?  And there was an old brick farmhouse....... for sale!!!!  I'm just sayin'...........Bob!!!  But it's out by the lake amid quite a few way out of my league new homes.  Sigh!  Living in an old farmhouse AND having an address on Good Ole Boy Road!!  Now that would make me happy!!!  

Views from the Crosswalk

This blustery afternoon at the crosswalk after most of the kids had gone I heard some bozo yell at me out his window.  I'm pretty sure he said, "you'd better hold that sign better Big Mama!"..........uh, really??  I still have no idea what he was talking about.  I mean, it was very windy and on days like this I hold that sign like it's about to take off with me (picture Mary Poppins) so maybe that's what he was talking about.  Or maybe he was flirting??!!!  One can only hope at my age!   But "Big Mama"?  Now that's a first!  And one that I hope will stay a first.....and only!     

If I may........

I just heard this quote so am making it mine for the day......no, the week.......no, why not my whole life?!

            "It is in self-limitation that a master first shows himself."       Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

And while I'm feeling preachy (if my kids are reading this, they're now wondering if I'm ever NOT preachy)................The sermon I heard  yesterday prompted me to think about what or who Christians mirror their lives after. 

             Is it mirrored after the last book we read?
               "               "           "     latest popular TV show?
               "               "           "     most recent celebrity in the latest 
                                                  gossip magazine?
               "               "           "     most influentual people in our community,
                                                  work place, or school?
               "               "           "     thinking and writings of philosophers?
               "               "           our own thinking?
               "               "           the  traditions we grew up with in our homes
                                            or the church?
            Or are our lives mirrored after the truth and doctrine         
            that we read in God's answer to all questions, the Bible?

Something my pastor said yesterday that has glued itself to my brain is this:  When we close the Bible and make decisions based on our own thinking or the thinking of some philosophers, then we will die.  (Is that what's happening to our country now?)

Okay, I'm through preaching........for today! :)
         



 

Cruise moments remembered

Okay, I'm pretty sure this is the last post I'll do about my cruise experience.  Truly one of the best things about going on vacation is just remembering and savoring the favorite moments. 

Some of the best ones I had on the cruise were when I met and visited with interesting people.  A cruise is a great place to do that because everybody has lots (I mean LOTS) of time.  There was the 80 something woman named Janet that I met in the back (oops! sorry, Dad, I mean the stern) of the ship as we were leaving the port of Nassau.  She and her husband had been on 27 (yep, that's what I said) Carnival cruises in the last ten years (just Carnival, by the way).  Amazing! 

Then there was Ruth!  She was very short and round with curly gray hair and said she was "over 91"!  Her husband died when she was 65 so she started to travel.  And I don't mean just down the street either.  This little ball of fire has been to over 50 countries and always stayed in hostels.  And she mostly traveled alone!!  Very cool!

But one of my very favorite memories on the cruise happened with my own family!  Imagine that!  Since Dave was with us this year and because he's kind of a fancy pants we ate in the formal dining room a lot more than last year instead of grazing at the buffet.  

Eating at the Monet is definitely an experience and an education in fine dining and one part of that is the length of time that you sit at the table.  There were three courses and fine dining allows you plennnnnnty of time to leisurely enjoy each dish.  We probably spent at least two hours each evening just visiting and appreciating not only the delicious and sometimes new fare but also the beautiful presentation. 

At first I was kind of antsy, wondering what was taking so long but as the days went by I began to relax more and just enjoyed the whole event.  

On the afternoon of this particular day Dave, Dad, and I had been on the third level deck watching as the ship left Key West and Dad began to reminisce about his years in the Coast Guard during WW II and how all of that began.  He hadn't gotten very far in his story when we were distracted by something and so he didn't finish.  But that evening at dinner I asked him about it and so began the stories of his years in the military, including the time his boat was shot at by German airplanes as they were escorting the American battle ships.  It wasn't so much the stories that was so memorable although I had never heard the one I mentioned.  It was just the time......the time spent with my dad just visiting and getting to know him and who he is just a little bit better. 

Yes, memories of the cruise are nice!

      

More cruise memories

We're saying Bon Voyage to Galveston as we begin our week of luxury and relaxation!

The Monet dining room had open seating for lunch so on this day we had this great table with a beautiful view out the front of the ship.

The guy in the middle is Leroy, our tour guide at Nassau.  I'm sure he's sharing his many bits of wisdom.  He was really a very nice guy but was just always in high gear.  Mostly with his mouth!

Leroy took us for a short visit to the Atlantis Resort.  It was a pretty amazing place.  Lots of money flows in and out of there.  We could tell by all the high end yachts parked at the dock. 

Speaking of high end, this was our rental ride in Freeport the next day.  The lady that rented it to us told us to be careful that we didn't lose any hubcaps!  Huh??  Well, we actually figured it out once we were on the road because the poor little car pretty much had no shocks.  Every bump was a jolt.  But we made it to the end of the island and back without losing a hubcap! 

This was our favorite beachcombing beach at Freeport.  And notice the beautiful water.  Sometimes it's hard to believe that we were actually on a cruise!  Thanks again Dad!!

We saw this sign quite a bit as we neared the end of the island.  I don't know if there was only one dumping site (what if the Chicken Nest Restaurant moved??) but we saw piles and piles of them in several places. 

The ship's breathtaking view of the water and beach! 

The Conch Train in Key West.  It was a little expensive but a great way to see and hear about this beautiful and historic town so it was worth it.

This was a common sight in Key West.  Bougainvillea in all colors were everywhere.  I didn't know that the tiny yellow flower inside of the red (or whatever the color might be) is actually the flower and the red is sort of a leaf.   

The southernmost point in the United States!  We also passed mile marker 0 on Hwy. 1.  Very cool.

Well, thanks for allowing me a minute of your time to share a little more of our trip!

A tribute

At the risk of making Bob jealous, let me just say that I LOVE Dick Van Dyke!  And more specifially, the Dick Van Dyke Show.  He's just so talented and funny.  That group of actors was just a perfect mix.  And can you believe that in all of the five or six seasons of episodes I don't remember one that had potty or sexual humor?  And it still remains one of the funniest shows available.  Amazing!  Can today's sitcom writers not see the popularity of shows like this one,  I Love Lucy, and The Andy Griffith Show and get a clue??  Do none of them have a creative or original idea to their name?  

I heard an interview with Carol Burnett quite a few years ago and her opinion of the downhill slippery slope of shabby sitcom writing was this:  When those original sitcoms were written, the material was drawn from personal experience because they had nothing else to draw from.  But now writers draw from what they've already seen on the screen and aren't creating but just redoing, over and over and over again!  (Sidebar:  I personally think The Carol Burnett show was part of that downhill slope.  It was full of potty humor also)

So are we just so primitive that we'll only laugh or react to crass and vulgar humor?  The answer is definitely not.  But what we've become is lazy and apathetic.  And we've become dependent on the escape that television is to all of us.  I'm just grateful that shows like The Dick Van Dyke show are still available so we can know what "real" humor is.  At least the kind of humor that, if we HAVE to depend on television, won't contribute to the dumbing down of our minds.

If you've taken the time to hear me vent, thank you for your patience! :)  Next time I plan on sharing more pictures of our fabulous cruise!    

Getting away from it all and back again!

I bring greetings from the sunshine and cool breezes of the Caribbean.  We're home now, all rested, and ready to hit the ground running..........well, maybe not running but we certainly hit the ground after spending seven fabulous days on the ocean aboard the Carnival Conquest cruise ship. 

So I'm resting up today........hey, it's hard work going on a cruise!  It takes stamina to decide what to wear each day, which of the many onboard activities to choose from, and of course, what comfortable chair to sit in on any given day to complete a Sudoku puzzle!  And there's always the exercise in strenuous brain activity when we sit down in the elegant Monet dining room to choose from the assortment of gourmet items from the menu.

Here's an example of the desserts we had to choose from.  They served a chocolate buffet on our last full day and not only was it a delicious assortment of sweetness, it was also a work of art.  Very fun!  Some of the fare I remember ordering were rainbow trout almondine, petite filet mignon and rib confit, lobster bisque, mahi mahi, the most delicious tomato soup I've ever tasted, and much more. 

For those of you who are reading my blog for the first time, my father graciously treated my sister Suzy, my brother, David, and I to this amazing experience.  I'm having a hard time maneuvering these pictures around so I'm just going to tell you about our trip and caption the pictures.  

We docked in three places, Nassau and Freeport in The Bahamas, and Key West.  At our first stop in Nassau I wanted to be sure to get my passport stamped.  It would be my first one and so  I was pretty excited about it.  I know!  Small things, right?  We arrived at port pretty early so when we got to the right building there were four or five employees milling around but the actual immigration office wasn't open yet.  One of the women told a man that he could go ahead and open the office and stamp our passports but when he did and as we were leaving we started to pretty much skedaddle because another woman was letting him have it about using official equipment.  Oops!

After walking around a bit to get a feel for the place we  were approached by one of the many, many people offering tours so we took him up on it.  Leroy was his name.  It means "the king".  Believe me, he told us several times.  He even had a name book so we could all look up the meaning of our names.  Mine means gracious.  I'm serious!  He did and it does!  But we did get a pretty good tour of Nassau in between hearing about how knowledge is power, everything in moderation, how people in The Bahamas are "laid back", and on and on and on!  He was a hoot!

The next day we were in Freeport.  We decided to rent a car and Dave drove.  On the left side of the road!  Interesting!  He did a pretty good job though.  Especially with me beside him in the front seat saving the day by using my skill and expertise at map reading!  Whatever, Dave!  It's my blog and I can say anything I want to.  :)   

I'd read online about a not very well known snorkeling shack about twenty minutes away called Paradise Cove so that's where we headed.  On the way we stopped at a beach that the rental car lady had recommended for beach combing.  And she was right.  Suzy and I made a haul on shells and beach rocks.  We were happy!  The snorkeling place turned out not to be that great for beach combing but I did find a man's wedding band.  That was pretty interesting.  The owners of the snorkeling place had the name and numbers for a woman who had lost a ring a few weeks back so I called her when we got home and sure enough it was hers.  Yay, me!  

After having lunch (see picture below of me eating conch fritters--not that great, by the way!) we kept heading west to the end of this very long and skinny part of the island.  As we were driving I spotted some conch shells by the side of the road so Dave pulled over.  Sure enough that's what they were and Suzy and I thought we'd found a treasure until as we drove on we noticed that there were huge piles of them everywhere the further west we got.  Apparently there's actually a problem there with too much dumping of conch shells.  They take out the insides to eat and then just chunk the rest.  So if you're ever in Freeport, The Bahamas, just go west on the island and you can pick up all the conch shells you want.  My three big ones are now sitting around my fountain in the backyard.  I even found a dead crab when I unpacked all the shells and rocks.  Ugh!  But at least Thursday (Kaylee's dog) had a treat!

My favorite port was probably Key West.  It was just such a perfect weather day and the city is really colorful and beautiful with all the great old houses.

If you'll notice from the pictures below I did try my hand at gambling............it's Dave's fault!  He talked me into it!  Really!!!!  Anyway, Dave had been telling me the rules at dinner (see???) and so when I sat down at the table the dealer helped me along cuing me when to "tap" and when to "swish" my hand.  Yeah, I'm a pro now! I figured I'd risk $20 and after about 10 minutes I'd won about $65!!  Yay!  But did I get smart and stop? Nooooooo!!!  Not me!  I was feeling lucky!  I did stop though when I got down to $5 over my original $20.  Then Suzy talked me into using that $5 on one of the slot machines!  Man, you can't go anywhere with family!  They'll get you into all kinds of trouble!  I won some and lost some but whittled that $5 down to about 18 cents.  Then I stopped.  Whew!  So I came out ahead! :)  It was weird because the next morning I woke up thinking about Blackjack!  So that's how it gets you!!  But I didn't go back.  I was strong!  Whatever!!

Here are the pictures!  I may post some more when Dave sends me his.      
         

our new friend  :)

the Carnival Conquest

an artsy picture on the beach of Freeport

conch fritters

daily coffee and ice cream

my dad and me

trying to decide what to do

a view from the top

dining at the Monet

Suzy and me with our waiter, Istvan, from Hungary (he told us to call him Steve)!  :)