ENJOYING THE 4TH!

Hi, Everyone.
We had a terrific weekend with all of my grandchildren, except Mitchell!
I wish he, Zanny, and Jack could have been here, but this gathering
was a last minute decision, so there was no time for them to make
the trip from Colorado.  Darn.

Cody and Amy had planned for weeks to come stay with us on the
4th for a few days, and Rob and Susan just decided at the last
minute to drive down on Saturday, so we had four out of my five
grandkids, and fun was had by all.

Elena turned one on March 2nd.  She is something else.  She has
absolutely no fear of anything and a great deal of curiosity about the
world around her.  She is learning a few words, such as "backpack"
(from the Dora show), pizza, dada, baabaa (for bottle), etc., but even
with her limited vocabulary, she has no problem making it known
what she wants and how she feels.  She's lots of fun, but you can't
turn your back on her for a moment.  She would have walked right
into this swimming pool had Amy not been right there with her.  She
loves the water!

We went to Steak and Shake for lunch one day and they gave
the kids suckers, which they found delicious but also very sticky.

Jude did not share Mitchell's love for the go-karts.  It was shortly after
this photo was taken (lap two) that he called it quits.  He insisted on
going by himself before riding with his daddy to get an idea how they
worked, so he was pretty amazed at the whole experience, especially
at their speed.  He also had no idea what a gas pedal or brakes
were.  He was barely tall enough to reach the pedals as well, so it
was not the best part of his trip.

We went on a couple of boat "trips," as Jude called them.  They both loved
the boat a lot, especially when Jerry would go fast over the "bumps" (wakes).

Jude decided he wanted to take some photos with my camera.
Below is one of his better shots.  :-)

Rob, Susan and the kids arrived at about 1:30 Saturday.  We had some
lunch and then headed for the pool at Millstone condominiums.   Here's
Susan in her new suit she bought in Cancun recently.

Tessa has loved the water since she was a very little girl.

Here are Sam and Rob having a "noodle" battle and squirt gun fight.

I am not sure what Jude is doing in this shot, but I think he is
enjoying it!

I think he might have been getting wound up about his early birthday
party!  The poor kid had to look at his gifts for days yet wait for his
party on Saturday night before he could open them.  (I did let him
have a few gifts before the big day.)  Finally, Saturday night arrived
and we celebrated his July 19th birthday.

Jude has a severe allergy to dairy products so he has never been
able to eat a piece of his own birthday cake, so I searched the Internet
for a dairy-less cake recipe and gave it a try.  It was a strange recipe,
but he loved it.  He ate and ate and couldn't get it in fast enough.  I was
sooo pleased.  I got the biggest lump in my throat watching him devour
that silly cake.

 

Elena is at the stage where she is very leery of anyone except her mommy
and daddy.  She may let you hold her, but it doesn't last long and then she
wants to go back to one of her parents.  This is true except when it comes
to Tessa.  Those two have had a bond from the very beginning.  Elena
loves Tessa. We had trouble getting her to sleep; Tessa had no problem
at all, and what's more she stayed asleep right in the middle of all the
TV noise, conversation and fireworks happening outside!

Rob is one of the many folks around the country who has been waiting
with baited breath for the new iPhone to arrive.  He got his on the first
night and had it with him this weekend.  They are pretty darn amazing. 
Here he is giving Jude some  iPhone instructions.

We had a quick breakfast Sunday a.m., and then we headed out on
another boat trip.

Before leaving, we played a "raise your arm" game with Elena.  It
is a game Elena invented and seemed to really enjoy.

We have a strange tradition in our family of taking pictures of
people taking pictures.  (Or perhaps it is just me.)   :-)

Cody was my hero when my cap flew into the water.  He came to
its rescue with the big net and fished it out.  Way to go, Cody!

Elena was deep into her shyness when Rob was trying to talk to her
in the below photo.

We are nearly home in this photo, so this boat trip was coming to an end.
Sadly, so was the weekend.  Cody, Amy and the kids left shortly after
we returned.  (Jude commented several times that he would like to just
stay.  That would be fine with me!)   Rob, Susan, the kids and I then
went back to the condo pool for a quick swim before they left town at
about 2:00.   It was great fun to have "my boys" here and especially
at the same time.  It is fun to see Jude and Sam play together and to
watch Tessa with Elena.  I enjoy my daughters in law also, so it was
an awesome weekend -- improved only if Mitchell and his family
could have been here also.

I believe I told you last year about Missourians and their fireworks.
Well, they out did themselves this year.  I have never seen so many!
Our neighbors are two young guys who made fortunes during the
dot com days by selling out just in time.  They are back in some
sort of business that is working out very well again, as they
personally spent about $30,000 on fireworks to shoot off
Wednesday night.  What a show!  Holy Moly!  Their show was in
addition to dozens of others that were happening all around us. 
It was really, really cool.  The Lake of Ozarks is without a doubt
THE place to be on the Fourth of July!

I have fun news!  My sister, Pam, and I are headed to New York City
on July 21st!  I am thrilled.  NYC is a place I have dreamed of visiting
but I never really expected to see. Well, thanks to the fact that Pam's
daughters have chosen wonderful cities to live in (London and NYC), I
am going places I never ever expected to see in my whole life!  We
leave on Saturday, July 21, and return Friday, July 27, giving us five
full days to tour the city.  I imagine we will sign up for some bus
tours, etc.  Any suggestions?  There's so much there to experience,
and I won't want to miss a thing!  (My budget is extremely limited,
so I hope there are lots of free things to do and see.)

Our 2nd annual Fritz Girls reunion has been canceled for this year.
It is just too hard to get everyone together.  We will try again next
year, although I am not sure we will be here at the lake to host it.

I interviewed three realtors last week regarding the house.  They were
all over the place in price.  I am not sure what we will do.  Perhaps we
will try it on our own for a while.  There's still nothing happening with
the condo, I'm sorry to say.  We really got ourselves into a big mess.
The moral of the story is never ever buy your next house before the
current one has sold, especially in a RE market like we have today.
It used to work, but it sure doesn't any more. 

We keep searching the Internet for places in KC, but being able to buy
a place there could be a very, very long way off.  I think we do it partly
just to take our minds off the present and think about the future.  We are
now in the 7th month of double payments, and its getting very scary.
I try to avoid stress when possible, as I believe it is very detrimental
to your health, but there's no way around it ... this is very stressful.

Jerry started a new job!  There is a corporate resort at the top of our
hill.  They have a mini-zoo with zebras, camels, llamas, ostrich, etc.,
and several houses they rent out to various corporations.  This is all
situated on several acres and taking care of those grounds is mostly
Jer's job, except he will be expected to help care for the animals when
the woman who does it now goes on maternity leave.   He is working
there as we speak.  He wanted to work only 2 days per week; they
want him 3-4, so I am not sure how that is going to work out.  He loves
to mow, so he is a happy guy.

Not much else to report.  I have my scans next week, so I won't know
anything until the results are in.  I will let you all know.  Thanks for
your continued prayers and concern. 

I have been asking around and have learned that acupuncture is now
being used to help with cancer.  Not as a cure but as a help to pain,
etc.  We happen to have an acupuncturist here in town, a friend of
Jer's from his morning "breakfast club."  He is very interested in
talking to me about it and is willing to provide treatment without
charge so we can both learn together what acupuncture can do.
It can't hurt, so I plan to give him a call today.  I'll keep you posted.

That's it for now.  I hope you all had a wonderful holiday week!

Love,
Judy and Jerry