Things have progressed quite a bit since I last was in touch—I am now living full-time in the apartment in Panama City Beach. Ray is here, too, but is making frequent trips back and forth to Peachtree City to the old house to take care of the pool and make the house more presentable for putting it on the market.
Since I last wrote, I spent 2 weeks in Chicago taking care of Lincoln. We went on dinosaur hunts, played pretend ice cream shoppe with Play-Doh, created our own fireworks show using scarves thrown in the air & self-created sound effects, and visiting museums and real ice cream shoppes. It was a lot of fun but also EXTREMELY exhausting. I can now report that a four-year old grandson can run his grandmother in the ground with tons of energy to spare within 24 hours!
On our last trip down here to the apartment, I noticed a few things I hadn’t seen before. I will begin with the 4 foot-tall peanut in Dothan fully dressed in a suit. Quite a sight to behold. Then there was the sign advertising Emu Oil for sale in 4 miles. Well, I had never seen an emu up close, so I told Ray that I was going to look for them, to which he gave a sly smile. At the 4 mile mark, he finally admitted to me that the GETTING of the emu oil probably was not so “healthy” for the emu, especially since the 4 mile mark was at a beef processing plant. I chose not to think about that anymore.
Oh, in April, there will be a Stump Chunking Festival on the grounds of the Peanut Festival area. What is stump chunking, you may ask? I have no idea. The Peanut Festival this year is being held at the end of October, first of November. Oh dear, that is when we will be leaving for our Barcelona-Southern France-Brugges trip. Maybe another year.
As we continued down the road, we couldn’t help but notice the amazingly bright, brighter-than-Barbie pink produce shed that had obviously only recently been painted as there was no way that we wouldn’t have noticed this establishment before now.
We have been here since Wednesday and have made a remarkable effort in the decorating and arranging of our new apartment. The living room is set up, the office is just as I wanted it, and our bedroom is pretty much done—all decorated so simply and just as I hoped. It makes me smile just to walk into the rooms. The guest room is done except for getting the towels out of it and into the guest bath. The kitchen and breakfast room are done except for a few more empty boxes to dispose of. I love our new IKEA furniture.
We do have some entertainment right outside our bedroom window—a HUGE, and I mean REALLY HUUUUGGGEE golden orb-weaver spider and her tiny mate. We looked her up and she is also called a banana spider. I don’t think she is DEADLY poisonous—at least not to anyone but her latest mate—but I don’t plan on getting that near her anyway. I do check occasionally to be sure she is still THERE and not in HERE.
We found a great place for breakfast this morning—Another Broken Egg. A French country-style café that does mostly egg dishes and is open from 7 til 2. We had delicious ham and cheddar omelettes but started out our meal with the specialty of the house—Biscuit Beignets!!!! So truly yummy.
Tomorrow is our anniversary—19 years!!!!! So hard to believe it has been that long ago since we met. Ray is heading back to the house on Sunday morning, so I will have a few days, maybe a week, on my own down here. Hopefully it won’t be long before we are both here full-time, AND—if we are getting our wishes granted—that the house will sell quickly.
Will post new pics of the apartmnet inside when I can. : )
Pictures now posted: Fontainebleau Hotel that I believe was here when my sister and I came on vacation as children; the peaceful bedroom I created; and then, right outside my bedroom window . . . . introducing Ms. CharLOTTA Banana Spider! You can also see her mate, who is amazingly still alive and well, though very tiny compared to her. : )
