Saturday, November 28, 2015

ST. SIMONS ISLAND PHOTOS

Before Thanksgiving, my hubby took me to St. Simons Island for my birthday. He knew I had been wanting to go to gather vibes and research for my next series, THE ST. SIMON CHRONICLES. Book 1, A Dachshund for Savannah, will come out in early 2016.

What a beautiful place it is! Glad to share some of the many photos we took while there:

The Pier

Looking out over the Pier

Back toward the island from the Pier

From the Pier once again!

View of the Island from another section of it















St. Simons Lighthouse

Maritime Hall

Ashady residential street

Avenue of the Oaks at the golf course--these
trees were planted in the 1870s!

Avenue of the Oaks




















One of many beautiful homes on St. Simons

Another shady residential street

Christ Church, started by the Wesley brothers in 1736

Christ Church

Saturday, November 21, 2015

MASQUERADE BALL PICTURES


Alexa's birthday party last night was so much fun! All the children and adults dressed up, and the decor and food were fabulous! On the menu was homemade lasagna (Alexa's request), garlic bread, salad, and birthday cake.

Here are some photos commemorating the event:

Alexa with a friend

Holly and Alexa
Holly & Philip, Alexa's parents


Waiting for cake!

All the party beauties--plus Dad!


Birthday cake made by Holly, her mom



Brother Asher: Phantom of the Opera!

Attendees enjjoying the deliciious meal




Learning to waltz via tutorial video

















Sister Annika and friend Jean

Philip and grandparents:
Clark, moi, Joe and Sheila (Philip's parents)


It was a great party, and we were blessed to share in it with our granddaughter! Holly and a friend did all the decorating, and Holly make the cake and prepared the lasagna as well.

Have a great Thanksgiving, doxie lovers! Clark is taking me to St. Simon's Island for my birthday next week, so I won't be posting the week of Thanksgiving. We'll be back to join our daughter's family and Philip's parents and grandmother for Thanksgiving.

May God's blessings come your way.

Friday, November 20, 2015

HAPPY 10TH BIRTHDAY TO MY GRANDDAUGHTER, ALEXA!!


Hard to believe Alexa's ten years old today. It seems like only a few months ago that she was born!

Our middle grandchild, she's our princess, our diva, our drama queen, our own Shirley Temple, our sweetie pie, and our angel, all rolled into one sweet granddaughter with a voice like an angel. She loves princess things, all things Barbie, all things Disney, and adores The Phantom of the Opera--the music as well as the play.

That's why her mom, our daughter, is having a masquerade-themed birthday party tonight (pictures are sure to follow next week!). All the little girls attending are coming in formal gowns, and one of the activities in the party is "decorate your own masquerade mask." I don't know about you, but I will enjoy that activity myself.

Indulge me as I provide a photo collage:

cheerleader

Twins?!

cutie

Pure Alexa pose

Loves horses

less than two years old here


She's always loved "twirly" dresses

With her mom, dad, brother, and sister

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ALEXA! Grandma and Papa love you to pieces.

Thursday, November 19, 2015

COMFY SHADOW


Here's my granddawg Shadow all comfy in Mama and Daddy's bed--does your doxie enjoy human beds like he and Duke do?


Dachshunds . . . you gotta love 'em!

Friday, November 13, 2015

ON THE HOME STRETCH: BOOK 5 NEARLY READY!


I'm on the home stretch with the completion of A DACHSHUND'S MERRY GO-ROUND-LIFE, Book 5 of THE DACHSHUND ESCAPADES! Finishing up my first edits today, then I'll go through it once more before submitting it to Kindle Direct Publishing for release on November 30.

This book is written a bit differently from the other four: instead of Sarge relating his day-to-day life situations, he's sharing his most unforgettable memories. Some are doozies, too!

It's available at 99c for pre-order until the release date, so get your copy today and enjoy this doxie's humorous, poignant, and ridiculous memories. You're certain to be entertained!





The paperback version will hopefully be out before Christmas as well. HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND, DOXIE LOVERS.



Thursday, November 12, 2015

CAN YOU FIND DUKE?



Clark and me on our wedding day:
we were so young!
 I took this photo of our yard (and Duke) just this morning. Ah, the leaves!  We had 16 straight days of rain here in Georgia, ending on Monday, finally. When I let Duke out, I saw that he was enjoying smelling the fall leaves, so I decided to snap the photo of our yard. All the leaves haven't yet fallen, as you can see across the street to our neighbor's yard, but Clark is itching to get out there and clean it up once again. I told him that it will be covered within 15 minutes after he gets all those leaves up, but he says he has to stay ahead of it or he'll never get it cleared out. There are woods all around our house, and our backyard backs up to woods as well.

He subs in our county schools most days, so he won't have the opportunity to do the yard until Saturday--at this point, the weather app on my cell says isn't supposed to rain then.

Fall is my favorite time of the year. Clark returned from Vietnam in November 1970. We were engaged before he left, so I had an entire year to plan our wedding. We wed in December that year.

Happy fall, y'all!

King of the rock



Wednesday, November 11, 2015

FUN WITH THE GRANDCHILDREN


Image result for Disney Store


Since our daughter homeschools them, the grandchildren were able to come for a visit for several days last week, and boy, did we have fun! Clark and I, being retired teachers, helped them with their schoolwork while they were here. It rained every day, so that curtailed outside activities, like bike riding. We went to the Mall of Georgia, ate lunch there, and walked like what seemed miles.  It's a big place!

Their favorite store, of course, was the Disney Store, where we bought them an item of their choice. Asher got a Star Wars set of figurines; Alexa, an Ariel the Mermaid doll; Annika, a sparkly Mickey/Minnie Mouse shirt.

Image result for Phantom of the Opera, Royal Albert hallWe had introduced them to The Phantom of the Opera their last visit, with the viewing of the 25th anniversary performance at Royal Albert Hall in London. I thought Asher would get bored and do something else, but all three loved it, especially the music--and wanted to watch it again this time. Asher informed me that he wanted to see the WHOLE THING, including the end, when the "famous people" were introduced--he stated that he wanted to hear Sarah Brightman sing again!  Their mom, our daughter Holly, says they walk around the house singing the songs from the soundtrack!  So, we watched that version on Netflix, and I had told them about the movie version, circa 2004, and commented that I didn't like it as much as the play version. Of course, they wanted to see that, too--so we watched it the next day. Asher stayed right with it, making comments. They all agreed that the play version was the best.

When Clark and I were in education, we took our Christian school's senior class to NYC every year, and one of the things we enjoyed so much was seeing Phantom at the Majestic Theater on Broadway. Oh, the music, when hearing it live, is fabulous! We did that for seven years straight, and I never grew tired of the play.

Our doxie Duke outdid himself playing with them. He's partial to Asher, and the two of them played  hard. Duke chased Asher, and Asher chased Duke. The girls love Duke and he loves them, too, but there's a special bond between Duke and Asher.

Their parents came to pick them up on Saturday, but we all went out to eat together at a local steak place for lunch. All in all, it was a blessing to Clark and me to be with the grandchildren! Family is the most important thing on this earth, you know.

Photo booth fun

Grandma riding the carousel at the Mall of Georgia

Annika 

Alexa and Asher

Monday, November 9, 2015

AS PROMISED: HALLOWEEN COSTUMES


As I said, I didn't post much last week because the grands were with us for several days. I had promised to post photos of their Halloween costumes, so here they are:

Alexa as princess

Annika as Southern belle

Asher as Yoda from Star Wars

Daughter (their mom) Holly as cat

Annika and Holly (as Barbie doll)

Yoda, Barbie, Princess

They had a fabulous time at their church's "Trunk or Treat" Halloween festivity. Love those grands!

Grandkids . . . you gotta love 'em!

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