Ted & Relinda's Life Adventures

 **** We wish our dear sweet granddaughter Claire   a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY! We love you so very much. We really wish that we were there.***

As most everyone knew we were suppose to be in Oregon celebrating Claires birthday but there were complications so we came home early. I am having a hard time dealing with which puts me in the mood not to write but I wanted to get these pictures sent. To Sara and Neil  the 4th of July pictures are for you! Today I have updated the photo albums  adding a 4th of July and a painting Claires bedroom.  I am seriously considering going back to work and will probably go meet with the Sheriff this week. I need something to do.  More later.

Relinda

We are finally back home again. We spent the last week in Orlando at the 60th annual conference for the Fraternal Order of Police. Both of took a train the trainer course so we are now CERT instructors.  CERT is  community emergency response team. This is for groups that are going to be able to assist in any type of disaster or emergency situation where they can go in and start the rescue procedures and searches.Basically to try to hold down the fort until the calvary arrives.  So now Ted & I get to put our program together and start teaching at the lodge. I'm sure it will spread out from there.  I miss the disaster prepardeness side of the job so now I get to get back in to it.  Maybe next year I will even attend a conference or two about emergency prepardeness. That is something that I always got in to.  Much better to know how to be prepared and what to have than to get catch without your supplies in order.

 Recently we purchased new cell phones and now are trying to take them back. Of course we are just over the darn 30 day period so they really don't want to do it but said they are going to try to help. Then it is time to pick out new phones again and see what happens. The new Sprint push to talk doesn't seem to always work well with the Nextel side. And we still use push to talk to get with our friends at the office. Well, maybe in a couple of days I will have a blackberry... Still thinking about that.

 This last week I went to my oncologist and got the good word.  Only 1 more year of the Tamoxifen and she is not planning on putting me on any further medication after that! That was wonderful to hear and all of my lab work came back fine.  She did say that she needed to change my anti-depressant (for hot flashes) because the 1 I am on can interfere with the effects of the Tamoxifen so she prescribed a drug that is reported to not interfere. But low and behold, don't you know that the darn insurance company knows more than the cancer doctor and they denied it! Simply amazing. So today I took the letter of denial up to her office and until I hear different I will just stay on the drug I have been on for the last year.  The doc also wrote me a new script for the lymphedema sleeve that I have to wear while flying  (on the arm the lymph nodes were removed from) and while at the medical supply I decided to ask about mastectomy products. I think it may be time and the insurance does pay for these types of products but I have to get a prescription in order to have the insurance cover these.  Now, I don't know about you but what woman in her right mind would go to a medical supply store to buy mastectomy products who didn't have at least a partial mastectomy?  Amazing   absolutely amazing.

Over the years I have wanted to open a Christmas store but after dealing with all of this I have started to think I would rather open a store to help those who are or know fighters & survivors.  I am looking for information from friends who will tell me like it is to go shopping for those items that you need during treatment.  I am not talking about your normal medical supply store- no chairs or stuff like that.  Mostly personal items- radiation treatment lotions, mastectomy products, products for guys and items to get for those undergoing treatment.  This could also be a place for people to come in & be comfortable to do some research & have someone to talk to. All employees would be survivors, co-survivors, caregivers and that type. Not just someone from off the street who doesn't understand.  Also would look at having massage and other holistics covered there.  What do you all think.  I need truthful input on this since this adventure will include some schooling for me and for who ever I would have there. Ted is asking that I take the one course and then go to work in a store that deals with mastectomy products and such so that I can see how I would feel.

I have added a few pictures in the family picture album so check that out.  Next update will be from Oregon and maybe a few pictures of the 4th of July here. Claires birthday is very soon- she turns 11 and she has asked that we help her with her bedroom to update it. She already knows what she wants so Grandpa will have his hands full showing Claire & I what to do. This way we have it all done before the slumber party!  We always have great fun at that. So until later.  Have a happy 4th and be careful.

Always,   Relinda

PS  I forgot something important.  Claire got her report card and even though they grade kids way differently in Oregon than here in Florida, we were able to figure out that she did an awesome job in her last trimester of school.  It is hard to believe that she is going in to the 6th grade.  Where has time gone. 

 Time sure keeps going by quickly these days. We always seem to have something to do or someone to help. We both know that we are blessed to have our health and each other and our family and friends.  In the last couple of weeks we have attended the memorial services of 2 of our friends.  The first was Charley our next door neighbor at 82 and then one of the guys we worked with for 15 years, Phillip Albritton who was only 51. It makes you stop and think about your life when you go to a funeral for a friend who is younger than you are.  The service today was very country and the gentleman who spoke made of a point to everyone to live your life to the fullest  every minute of every day.  He also said to make sure that you never walk out of your house being upset with anyone in there and to always tell them that you love them. This also goes for your friends- make sure they know how much you love them and need them.  I remember while we were working how the people working with me noticed that I always ended my phone calls with Ted  saying "I love you, be careful, goodby".  I find that now that we are together all the time that we don't say the I love you's near as much. I think that will change because our feelings haven't changed. We are just taking it for granted since we are together all the time. 

I know I have a lot to catch up on but at least this gets us started.  In May we attended the LE national memorial and the services were very moving. At the candlelight service we sat next to the parents of a young officer that was killed in Fort Myers several years ago and on the other side was an officer from Louisiana who lost a co-worker.  At the service on the 15th at the Capital building we sat in the area with all of the Chiefs and Sheriff's. I was lucky enough to sit next to an Admiral and his wife. They had lost a nephew who was a federal officer in 2008.

TJ, Jen and Phillip are doing fine. Jen is still recovering from her car accident 7 months ago and they are looking at possibly having to re-break her arm to get it to straighten. End of school came for Phillip and he ended up making 5's on his fcat's in math and reading. Turns out 5's are the highest you can get. 

Lisa finished her last semester of classes and was on the presidents list.  She is amazing with her work and I am sure that there are some of the students that look up to her for being there in class. Claire sounds like things are going well with her and she can't wait until we get there for our visit. Jim keeps going and I am sure looking forward to his and Claires trip to New York to see his Mom.

MaryBeth decided that it was time for her and the girls to move on and they have moved to West Virginia. Her job was cutting her hours down to less than 20 hours a week and she was not able to support them. So, off they have gone and I miss them all greatly.  It looks like probably early August we will be able to visit them for a couple days.

Our mango tree is in full production right now. Our mangos are ripening much earlier than normal but no complaints from us. They are wonderful and I will break fingers of anyone caught snatching them from under the tree!

We were able to spend an evening with Sharon and it was great. We hadn't seen her in a year (my gosh how time flies) and it was so nice to catch up on what has been going on.  I mentioned that I was thinking about going back to work part time at the Sheriff's Office and she keeps telling me to stay home. I know that she knows me well enough to know that I probably couldn't do just part time. I would get involved and before I knew it I would be working a lot more than I wanted. Guess maybe we just need to tighten the purse strings for a bit. But I do need something to do..

My laptop crashed a couple times and we decided it was time to replace it. Now I am getting use to a newer laptop (but not new) and it is definitely nice. I hope that I have finally gotten everything loaded in to it. We got out on the boat and went to use the air card only to find out that I hadn't loaded the program for it. Ooopps.  It has now been loaded.

It is getting late and at least you know we are still alive and kicking. We hope that this finds everyone well and that you enjoy your summer.  More later.

Relinda

updated:  sailing adventures  Ten-Ten    check back tomorrow for pictures 

 Happy Birthday Little Sister! Happy Birthday to you......

 What a difficult time I had with internet connections on our trip. No one offered free wi-fi and finding one to bootleg off was not possible either. one evening I did hit a coffee shop that offered free wi-fi with any purchase but the connection was really slow. On top of that every time I signed on line the computer wanted to do all of the updates and would tie it up! So we opted to forget about until after we got back.  Then I was spending so much time running trying to get everything accomplished while being so sick that I didn't get it done there either. So here we are sitting at a friends house in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware and it is a drizzly overcast day so now is the perfect time to do this. The guys are sitting here trying to doze. Ted is sleeping through my typing but I can tell John isn't use to hearing fingernails typing away.  Maggie is off taking Duffy for a walk and we are all enjoying our last day here. Tomorrow morning we head off to DC and they head back to Maryland.

 Our transatlantic trip was absolutely awesome. The 6 days at sea were easy to deal with for us. But on that ship you had so many places to go and things to do that it was amazing. We were on Royal Caribbeans Independence of the Sea which just happens to be the largest cruise ship out sailing at this time. By the end of the year it won't hold that title but man what a ship. Ice skating, the wave machine, huge rock climbing wall, golf, theaters, you name it they had it. Food was great on board and the buffets wonderful. No chocolate buffet though.. 1 midnight buffet on the pool deck and that was a rather cool night out at sea.  There were 2 ice shows on board and several performances in the theater and we enjoyed all of them. It is amazing the shows they can put on in such a small space. More on the trip though in our travel folder.

We are heading to Washington DC to help at the National Law Enforcement Memorial services this week. Ted & I are both vounteering to help with survivor families and to do what ever is needed of us. We will arrive in DC on Tuesday morning and have a few days there before heading out on Friday evening for ?? I will try to post a pictures of what we are seeing as soon as possible.  Would you like to see the candlelight service as it happens on Wednesday evening? You must pre register to view the service and to get instructions. Go to :   http://www.officer.com/events/candlelight09/register/index.jsp   and hopefully you can watch it live.

updated: 

  pictures:  transatlantic cruise, friends     world travelers:  New Years cruise 2009  & Transatlantic cruise 2009

 Here we are somewhere in the middle of the English Channel on the last day of this great 13 night cruise. The weather has been good and the seas amazingly calm. We have spent many hours talking with people around the ship and at this moment are helping an older couple do their airline on board check in. 

 Tomorrow we will arrive in Southhampton and then head off to our hotel.  We are looking forward to spending Saturday afternoon with Gary, Iva, Max and Klara and then Sunday with Sarah and Neil.  We are hoping to go to the eye and then down to Stone Hedge. We are also hoping that we have free wi-fi in our hotel so we can play catch up and download some pictures of this cruise.

I have already figured out the next cruise.  Celebrity Cruise lines  2 14 day cruises back to back in Aug/Sep 2010.  More on that later.

Always,  Relinda

 We have just left one of the Azores islands, Punta Delgado. For the last few days we have had a front following us across the Atlantic and of course today it started to catch up.  Our tour was up to the top of one of the volcanos that erupted many years ago and has 2 reportedly beautiful lakes. 1 is a very deep blue and the other is green. But of course today our tour leaves the ship at 9am and as we head up the mountain the fog and rain rolls in. View? Not for us today but we enjoyed the tour of the island anyway.  Later back on the ship we met up with friends who were telling us how beautiful the lakes were. We showed them our pictures of the heavy fog and they showed us theirs. The pictures were taken about half an hour apart and they were in the sun and the view was gorgeous.  Oh well, gives us a reason to go back.

  We are back out in 7000 ft of water and heading towards Madeira Island which is a few hundred miles off the African coast. We will be there on Tuesday and then head off to Southhampton, England.   More later.

Always,

Relinda

 April 15  0030hrs Here we are somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean and what a great cruise this has been so far. We are on Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines; ship name is Independence of the Seas. She is quite a ship with 14 decks and something to do on each one of them. A few other facts on this ship

 Ted just checked the information on the ship and for those who care we are at: 30 degrees 00.00 N and 060 degree 55.67 W. Course is 090 degrees and speed 18.8 kts with apparent wind over deck at 50 km/h.  Depth of the ocean here was showing at 21,501 feet. Wow!  And we are absolutely amazed at how calm the seas have been.  Not that we are complaining at all. I would much rather not use the transderm patches that we got than have a really rough passage and everyone be sick. The sea is a very beautiful azure blue and so far we have seen a couple of ships and some flying fish. I keep hoping to spot a whale or 2. 

  Happy Birthday to me!  It turned out that there are 3 of us in our group who celebrate their birthday on April 15. And tonight at dinner they will sing to all of us. That will be quite an experience. The wait staff sang happy birthday in what they called the Texas style. Happy Birthday y’all. Ted surprised me with our cabin having birthday decorations put up today. Today is day 4 at sea and we are just far enough out that there is no satellite connection for the internet and will be loosing our TV signals soon. The daily newsletter said we would be without until sometime on day 6 when we get back in to coverage areas. Some excuse about being in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.  

 That is it for now. We wish you were all here with us enjoying this adventure.

Love,

Relinda

Check out the new pictures in the folder transatlantic cruise.  Well, I was hoping to add pictures but the connection isn't good enough to upload them.  I will update again when we get closer to an island or land.

 I can not believe how long it has been since I updated this site. We just always seem to be on the run and I keep finding excuses why I don't have a few minutes to do this update.  So no more excuses- it is time for an update.

 We were finally able to get out on Ten-Ten! We had a quick run down to our favorite anchorage since we wanted to get anchored down before the front came through as predicted and are we glad we did. Winds kicked up steady at 30 gusting over 40 and the temperatures dropped. Granted for those of you still north being in the 40's isn't bad but to us Florida whimps 40's is cold. Especially on the water. We watched our poor dinghy fly through the air several times and were thankful that she was tied on well to the stern. We finally pulled her close up and secured her bow and stern and that stopped her flying. On the way home we actually got to shake out the sails even though it was motor sailing.

In mid February we attended an FOP conference in Orlando. We have just finished the fundraiser spaghetti dinner to send us to the national law enforcement memorial service in May. Ted & I will be going there to work with survivor families along with others from our lodge but due to the cost we opted for the fundraiser. We feel that the fundraiser was a success considering it was our first time doing this and the word didn't get spread very far. We will wait until next year to figure out something else.  We will meet with Minerva Vogel, our Auxiliary President, in DC and work alongside her. Minerva has been active in the memorial for years and works with the Puerto Rican families and announces the names of the Puerto Rican officers killed. I hope that she has none to announce this year. We will have her brother who retired after 30 years as a cop Eddie and his wife with us also.  If you have any way of joining us in DC from May 13-15 it is an absolutely awesome experience. I thank God daily that Ted's name is not on that wall.

Ted had a spell of shingles on his face but after almost 2 months is doing much better. Only a little pain and I can tell the areas that were effected. As to me- well, at the end of February was my appointment at Moffitt.  This was year 4 and I went in for my digital mammograms and visit with my surgeon.  Ladies if you have a choice of mammograms, even though they all hurt, the digital is the way to go. It is neat standing there watching the images appear on the computer screen. I guess because of all the mammos I have had due to the breast cancer, I can look and see what is or is not going on. Nothing nicer than seeing nothing more than scar tissue.  Now, I do pray that I don't see something else on there because I am sure that would get my nerves up.  Only scheduled for 1 more mammo at the Cancer Center and then she said they will turn me over to the wellness center they have..  Oh- there was nothing found on my mammo and they told me to keep on doing what ever I am doing now... Thank God for that.

We have been trying to spend time with friends and have been going to t-ball and a softball game. We spend time with TJ, Jennifer & Phillip and wish we were closer to Jim, Lisa and Claire. We are planning several long trips over the next 6 months. The soonest will be our transatlantic cruise and a few nights in London & a night in Dublin. Another trip to DC along with visiting family in Cleveland then to either Maryland or Tennessee (depends on where Teds brother Don is) and a few days with friends outside of DC and if we are lucky out to their beach house. What a great way to relax. August we have a trip to Long Beach for a week long FOP National conference.  July will be out to Oregon and who knows where else. Whew- I keep telling Ted I am going back to work to slow down.  Oh and in June we have a week long FOP conference in Orlando. At that one Ted & I are both going to take training to be CERT instructors. Once in public safety always in one form or another of public safety.

I better close for now.  Please check the boat log (give me a couple days to finish it) and go to the pictures page. I have updated those and need to keep working on the others.  I hope that this finds all of you in good health and in great spirit.

Love,   Relinda

 Just like I really need something else to do. Looks like web pages are what I will be taking care of for a while. Who knows, a new career may come out of all of this. What this means is that tonight Ted was on the computer with one of our old on-line sailing friends when they mentioned it would be nice to have one of our old web groups back together. So I went out to yahoo groups and created one. Well, now that leaves little ole me with something else to do. We will see how this goes.  Anyone can join but it will be about sailing and the sailing life.   It is on yahoo groups and called  westfloridasailing.

 We keep finding things to do here around the house and keep missing out on boat time. Maybe by the end of the month we will get out for a few days. Right now our biggest problem is the low tides. The winds are staying up and out of the north and east and the water just isn't coming back in which isn't a good thing.

We went to the dress rehearsal a couple nights ago of Guys and Dolls by the Charlotte Players and it was very good.

Thursday at East Elementary our grandson Phillip was chosen by his classmates to participate in the Academic Bowl. Also chosen in her class was our adopted granddaughter MacKenzie. Oh yes, they are both in 3rd grade and competed against each other.  There are 6 3rd grade classes in this school. Neither of their classes won but Phillips class came in 2nd. Missed it by 5 points but all the kids did a great job.

Staying on school things-  our daughter Lisa is attending college classes again and found out that she is now on the Deans List!  That is great. Her first semester back in school after being a stay at home wife and Mom for the last 12 years. We are very proud of her.

Better run, it is time for bed.

Relinda

 Just like most everyone else in the US, here we are watching the Super Bowl. It is down to 1 minute and we have enjoyed this game. Especially for 2 of us who don't normally watch football.  We have also sat here discussing the commercials and which we one liked the best.  I liked the one with the Clydesdale that fetched the large branch and the Coca Cola one where the insects took the bottle of Coke and enjoyed it.   Oh my gosh-  what an ending to this game! That was good.

 I figured that it was time that I sent out a note since I have been spending time updating and changing but not letting anyone know.  One of the first things you may notice is that there are no longer any ads on the page. Well, Ted got tired of me always having to remove pictures and text to try to update the page so he decidede that I/we deserved a better webpage so now I have alot more space to post on. So there will be plenty of room for more pictures and I will try to add a video or 2. Just trying to keep it down a bit for those of you who still use dial up and yes there are a few.  I am in the process of posting all of the messages that I had previously removed. As far as I know I kept a copy of most of them and I am trying to enter in chronological order. So for those check the T&R archive page. I also decided to add a calendar to the page and on that I will post dates that are important to us and our friends. So if you have something that you want us to post so that others can see it just let me know.  I think I will also be adding in a fundraiser page so that if you or someone in your family has a fundraiser let me know the details and the I will update the page.  Any suggestions for our page just let me know. I do have fun doing this website and hope that you do. Check the photo albums page and you can see which ones I have added and updated but the dates on the individual albums.

As for us, we made an unscheduled trip up to Conway, Arkansas to see Ted's sister Darlene & her husband Phillip (Dick) before they headed back to China. We were able to spend a weekend there and actually got to attend a service at the church that their son Tim is the pastor of. We greatly enjoyed the service and the fellowship with their parishoners. Sunday night we attended a pot luck dinner at the church and it was great. Nothing better than good old southern cooking.  Blew our diet but it was well worth it.  Then Monday morning we headed south before the ice storm hit and we are so glad we did.

Everyone asks us if we have been out sailing. Boy, I wish that we could say we have been sailing but we haven't gotten away from the dock.  We were planning on going sailing this week but that isn't going to happen right now.  Ted is down with a case of the shingles and they aren't ready to stop giving him problems. He is having enough problems with them that we just don't want to chance getting out and him having problems. We are hoping next week to sneak out for a few nights. I have checked our March calendar and there isn't much on it so maybe we will get lucky then.

Time to run.  We hope this finds everyone in good health and doing well.

Relinda

Here we are already  midway through January.  We just always seem to be on the go and trying to do several things at once.   We had a great cruise on Royal Caribbean  Grandeur of the Seas. The crew was great and the service was excellent.  The special part of this trip was that we were finally able to meet Barb & Ric Kreutzer. For the last 6 years Barb & I have been email friends. This all started on an email list we are both members of that encompasses our brand of sailboats. We sailed to San Juan where we toured one of the forts and a small part of old San Juan. The on to St Marteen (dutch side) where the 4 of us crewed on the Stars & Stripes America's Cup sailboat and the guys loved it. On to St Kitts where we toured the island by double decker train. The 4 of us spent New Years Eve  partying in the atrium. On to Antigua where we landed on New Years Day and most of the island was shut down to party. There we took a land rover tour in to the back country and as we rolled through the street in the villages the parties were going strong. The smell of ganja was overwhelming. Our driver made it clear several times that ganja is illegal but you sure couldn't tell it. The last stop was Tortola an island we have visited before and love. That is the island that we would settle on if we had the opportunity to move there.

 We have been spending time working on Ten-Ten. We are hoping that we get to spend some time on her this spring. But every time we plan a few days out something comes up.  Yes, we are retired but we still have obligations and appointments to go to.  We have had new cabinetry put in our aft cabin (our bedroom on the boat) and now our new mattress is also in there. We decided it was time to upgrade the mattress and it was a good idea.  Since we can't get away from dock we have spent a couple nights on board sitting at dock. We are going to try to get out early in February but I am not going to hold my breath.

That is about it for now. I have updated the photos - just check and see which ones were recently updated. Keep checking back. I still have more to add.  We hope that everyone had a great holiday season and that your New Year has started out great.

Relinda

We hope that everyone had a very Merry Christmas! We spent Christmas eve with friends and had a lovely evening. Christmas Day was long and busy day with starting out with going to our adopted Granddaughters home so they could open their gifts at 7am. They had already been awake 1.5 hours befor we got there and were definitely getting impatient but they waited.  We were then off to my son's home and at 8am they were still sleeping so we came home and opened our gifts.  Then finally off to watch the Grandson open his then up to my Mom's house to help with the meal prep and to wait on the rest of the family.  After the normal family hold ups and the turkey that just did not want to cook- we were able to enjoy a great meal. Then it was time to open gifts and the kids always go nuts and today was no different.  After that dessert and cleanup and then we can head home to peace and quiet! We just aren't use to all of that commotion.  

 Tomorrow, boxing day, we head up to Tampa to meet friends of ours, Barb and Ric and head to the cruise terminal. We are headin out on a 10 day cruise to the Eastern Caribbean. St Marten, St Kitts, Puerto Rico, Antigua and Tortola. We will be back home on January 10th with hopefully a lot more pictures.

I will be changing the photo albums after the beginning of the year so make sure you check them out now.  

We wish everyone a safe,inspiring and Happy New Year.

Love,   Relinda

Glorious 2008

 This year has been filled with so many memories. As we packed up all of our work memories and papers we were filled with sadness, many happy memories and the anticipation of what was going to come next. Since then what a great chapter we have added to our life.

 We had a wonderful retirement party held for us as we started this new chapter. We both felt very blessed being surrounded by so many of our family and friends.

 We attended the National Law Enforcement Memorial in Washington DC and the wave of emotion and brotherhood that overtook us was amazing.

 We have spent some time traveling visiting family and friends across the country. We were able to help Claire celebrate her 10^th birthday in Oregon. We were able to attend the surprise birthday party in Cleveland for Aunt Mary. We spent time in Arkansas, Maryland, Delaware, Alabama and the Cayman Islands. This year we have already taken 2 cruises and getting ready for another.

 The adventure in Grand Cayman was awesome. Ted was a great cabana boy for me and I fell in love with the people there. It was a great experience and one that we will never forget.

 We have done a bit of traveling for the Fraternal Order of Police and taken a few classes. We are looking at becoming instructors for the CERT training.  We are trying to decide if we should keep our certifications active for the next 2 years while we make our decisions as to what path to follow.

 Over the last few months we have been working and upgrading Ten-Ten. Our plans are still to get on her and take off. We are just not sure when this is going to happen.

 We thank God for our family and our friends and wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a safe and happy new year.

Love,

Relinda & Ted 

This is our Christmas letter to all of our family and friends this year. 

 We are so glad to have TJ, Jen & Phillip living right up the road from us now. They moved in just before Thanksgiving and Jen & TJ made us a very good turkey dinner. This was her first turkey that she prepared. TJ had to help due to Jennifers arms being in the cast.  The story behind that is that the first night they moved in to the house, Jennifer was coming home from work in Fort Myers when an elderly man pulled his car out in front of her and she hit him. Jennifer has a fractured wrist and elbow on her right arm along with ligament damage and thankfully that is all. Her car that is another matter but that is what insurance is for.

 MacKenzie had her final t-ball game for the season. She did very well and we hear that she is being signed up for softball.

 The yard sale at the Lodge was a great success. I didn’t expect to make anywhere near what we did especially when the highest priced item sold was $75.00 and most stuff a dollar or less. Tells you how much stuff we had there.  The worst thing that I know of that happened from this sale is that I ended up having what the doctor called a severe allergy attack and a bad sinus infection. So next week I get to start allergy testing.

 We are currently on the road heading south on I77 in West Virginia. Ted is driving through intermittent snow showers.  We keep looking at the strange trucks out here- snow plows on County trucks along with the salt trucks.  Our poor car has never been so dirty as traveling on all these snowy, cindered, slushy and salted roads.  Right now we are driving through an area of freshly fallen snow and it is just beautiful! I hope the pictures turn out. I keep getting teased about all of my snow pictures.

We were invited to his brother Don’s house in Grantsville, MD for Thanksgiving. Ted could not remember having a Thanksgiving with his family in 40 years so we decided what the heck. Snow and all.  We spent a couple days there in the colder temps. When we got up to leave Saturday morning it was 10 degrees Fahrenheit and the water pipes had frozen.  Boy those brought back memories and told us why we live in SW Florida! We had a very nice time there and great food. From there we headed to Ted’s cousins house in Cleveland for the party. We stayed with Dale & Cindy and then went to Uncle Ted & Aunt Mary’s house for night. The surprise party for Mary had about 45 people there and was she surprised to see us. Her kids threw her a wonderful party and she is so blessed to have so many wonderful friends and a fantastic family. We are now headed to Don & Sarahs new place in Johnson City, Tennessee. They have picked this up for their winter home. So we will spend a couple days there giving them a hand with anything they need in their remodeling project.

 We should be back home on Thursday night so I can get on to the task of getting our home turned in to my Christmas delight.  Anyone in our neighborhood come on by and visit.  We are planning on hosting our family Christmas night get together and all are invite to stop by.  But I may have more posted by then. 

 Until next time. Please be safe this Christmas season. Merry Christmas everyone.

Love, Relinda

PS  I am sitting here listening to a song that always makes me cry- Skin by Rascal Flatts. Please keep me in your prayers this month as I head to my appointments with my medical oncologist.  December 15 marks my 4^th anniversary of the diagnosis of my breast cancer.

Boy is time flying by around here. We went down to Fantasy Fest and even with all the rain, we still had a good time. There were definitely some sights to see and I would go back again. Actually I am ready to head down to Key West already since we didn't get to do many touristy things. Something to do with the several inches of rain that happened while we were there.

We are staying very busy with the Lodge right now. With this large yard sale coming up it keeps me going and going and Ted is my gopher. He seems to be running constantly getting loads from Lodge members. Not only are the members donating but now they are getting the remainders of their neighbors yard sales and bringing it in. Looks like we will have a good sale this month.

I have a new car!! Well, not new but new to me.  Ted picked up a 2000 Mustang GT convertible for me.  Nice car... More horsepower so not as good as gas mileage but she looks sharp. I have ordered the special stripe and the Mustang logo and just waiting on those to come in. Once she is put together with the new stripes I will get a picture taken and add it to the site.  As to the status on the other Mustang- she was totaled by the insurance company and we are fighting with the other insurance company over payment.  This is not going to be a quick process but we have the time.

The holidays are quickly approaching and we keep changing our plans as to what we are doing. It is so nice being retired because I seem to keep making plans on things we can do with the kids here in town. I will finally be able to go to the lighting of downtown Punta Gorda, Fisherman Village and even make all the parades if we want. 

Congratulations to our friend newly elected Sheriff Bill Cameron. We will hopefully meet up with you out on the water one of these days for the sail we have talked about for years now. 

I better close for now and get off to bed. I will try not to make it so long before I update again. 

Always,   Relinda

updated: Photo album   family, Fraternal order of Police, friends, sailing ten-ten, ourtravelpictures. Also sail adventure, Cayman Islands and our family.

So you are wondering if things have started getting better for us.  Well-  yes and no.  It has been one month since we returned to the states and it appears we are constantly on the go.

 We finally got a few storm panels down off the window so we are no longer in a cave. Probably take the rest down very soon but the last time we took all of them off before the end of the storm season we ended up with another storm and having to pull them all back out again.  We tried to get out on Ten-Ten after several days of cleaning on the interior and putting everything back on but that didn't work. We knew that there was growth at the waterline but hoped the prop wasn't that bad. But alas she wouldn't even move away from the dock! We knew that meant it was a fouled prop so we just tied her back to the dock and unloaded what we had to. We will have to call our bottom diver and get him to clean her. Then we decided it was time to go for a motorcycle ride but alas she wouldn't stay running. We are starting to wonder what else could go wrong about this time.   The next day we siphon the old gas out and put in new and at least she runs but not good. I ordered a few new lights for her so after a phone call Ted will get her taken to a friend who is a motorcycle mechanic for some maintenance work and some new lights. So hopefully in a few weeks we will get to use her. 

Off to Fort Lauderdale for a couple days of CERT (citizens emergency response team) that both of us took and then a few days of meetings at the FOP state meeting. I was lucky enough to get to shop at one of my favorite Christmas Shops over there so that helped the trip. During this time our next-door neighbor Patti was using our Mountaineer because her car was in the shop.  When we get home our diver arrives and cleans the bottom so that means we can get out this weekend. A check of the tide charts and our calendar (darn a doc appt that keeps us in a bit longer than we wanted) and we will be off. I have also decided that it is time that I get my volunteer status at the Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office taken care of. Now I have another ID card for the office. I had to do this in order to be able to access some training and refreshers for a couple of the International certifications that I hold. Those are what got me that position in the Caymans.  We change cars with Patti giving her the Mustang since hers is still in the shop and we head off on Wednesday to Orlando to meet with our friends Sarah & Neil from England. We arrive there and get checked in and spend a couple hours just talking before we head off to the Cheyenne Saloon at Church Street Station. We just sit down to order when Ted’s cell phone rings and it is Svend, one of the Corporals from the Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office.  He wanted to know if we knew who had our Mustang since it was just involved in a car accident and the person driving and her Grandson were being transported to the hospital.  Turns out someone came up behind Patti as she was driving south on 41 and just drove right in to the back end of the Mustang then it went under the Mustang and dropped it back down. No wonder they got injured.  And yes she was driving and not stopped. There was a witness who stayed and helped Patti and left his information with the officers. That is a good thing.   We had a good time with Sarah & Neil even though there were numerous phone calls about the car and what to do with it since we were told it was totaled. The next morning we headed home and at first look you couldn’t see all the damage. It was once you got underneath her and found the twisted frame and the broken supports.  Now we get to deal with insurance companies.   We decided that we needed some time on Ten-Ten so here we are out for a few days and it feels great.  We will be back home Monday morning early and then take off again on Wednesday for Key West. One of those spur of the moment things when a friend asked if we wanted to come down to Fantasy Fest with him since the other couple backed out. So what the heck it could be fun. We figured we could do it once anyway.    I better run and enjoy some of this nice cool breeze here tonight.  More later after Fantasy Fest! I will have to post some pics on that one.

Love,  Relinda