Thursday Night Dinner - Freddie's

Our Thursday night dinner took us to Freddie's - a new fast food burger joint in Lee's Summit. Burgers were great.

Even Violet had a few bites although I spent the end of our dinner picking all the green beans, burger bites and French fries from the floor.

Girls Christmas - Flo Rida

My KCP&L friends and I get together every month for lunch. Our December Christmas lunch was cancelled due to my unexpected trip to Florida. So we were finally able to get together today to exchange our Christmas gifts. This year we decided to just buy one gift and do a gift exchange.

While I was in Florida I found this metal frog in a swim suit with a float ring. Debbie was the lucky girl to receive my gift. I think she was a bit embarrassed to carry it back to work. On the way out of Cascone's, Debbie asked what we should name the frog. We came up with Flo Rida. Hey, if it's good enough for a band, it's good enough for an ugly frog.

Melissa - Happy 31st Birthday

Today my baby girl is 31 years old. It makes me cringe thinking she could be that old. I don't even want to think how old I'd be even if I would have had her at 16. Although 48 isn't bad. Yeah, I'll settle for 48!

By the way, Melissa wanted me to point out she wouldn't look so bad if she wasn't so tired. I think she looks great. The family gathered for dinner at Cheddar's. There was 8 of us - Dad, Karen, Teresa, Brad, Jamie, Violet, Melissa and myself. Sometimes I don't understand what people think when they are at work. When I told the hostess we needed a table for 8, she told me the table was occupied by a family who had been there since 2:00 that afternoon and as soon as they left she would seat us. It was now 5:00. My next question to her was "What if they decide to stay until 10:00 tonight?" She looked at me a little funny and then said they wouldn't be there that long. I suggested they seat us in adjoining booths in which she promptly complied. Would she really have made us wait until that party left? By the way, they were still there when we finished eating. Sheesh!

Okay, back to Melissa.

From the day Melissa was born, she has been a joy to my life. Even though she was the spitting image of her brother, she was much more shy and easier to control.

Within a blink of an eye, Melissa had her first birthday. Although she didn't walk until she was a year and a half, she could crawl with the best of them trying to keep up with Michael.

Melissa went through her awkward phase during grade school. I found this picture to post not wanting to embarrass her with the photos she hates. You know which ones, don't you Mis!

For a few years she even found time to be a cheerleader for the Sacred Heart Gremlins.

But her true talents shined through when she was playing volleyball. I'd have to look up the countless number of times she was featured in the Sedalia paper for her excellence on the court.

During this time she met Jamie and I knew it would be for always.

Her high school days were full of the usual teenage stuff - volleyball, softball, school dances, slumber parties and being crowned homecoming queen.

Then senior year

And high school graduation.

Melissa continued to live with me during her college days attending Maplewoods Junior College then later graduating from UMKC.

Then came her engagement to Jamie...

And in 2006 her wedding.

Melissa celebrated her 30th birthday 7 months pregnant. That was the day we had her baby shower. It's just like Melissa to try and celebrate 2 things at once.

Then in 2013 this wonderful bundle of joy came into her life...

And continues to be her reason to get up each and every morning - or in her case - for the 3rd or 4th time during the night.

So Happy Birthday Melissa. May your life continue to be as blessed as it can be. And remember it's all "Because You Loved Me"....Mom

Violet - 10 Months Old - REALLY!!

I can't believe Violet is already 10 months old.

She seems so advanced for a 10 month old baby. She crawls, she pulls herself to a standing position, she walks around the furniture, she holds your hand and walks, she pushes her stroller (or anything with rollers or moves freely across the floor) and walks behind it, she waves, she claps. I can't even list all the things she can do or the things she is aware of. But don't let that cute little face fool you. She can be very hard headed and always wants her way. Hmmmmm, sounds a bit like her Grandma!

Thursday Night Dinners Resume AND Why We Close the Bathroom Door

Our restaurant of choice tonight was Master Wok to continue our weekly Thursday night dinners with Dad.

Dad treated Michael, Ashley and me to a great Chinese dinner, well for most of us. Ashley ordered pineapple fried rice that was served in a hollowed out pineapple half heaping full of fried rice, chicken, pineapple, vegetables. Michael had some sort of shrimp dish that even he wouldn't eat. I tasted it and it wasn't the best. Dad had Kung Pao shrimp which the menu indicated was "spicy". Dad's sitting there just gobbling it down so I decided to see just how spicy it was. It didn't seem that spicy at first. But after the first 10 seconds I was ready to drink everyone's glass of water. I had a delectable dish called Springfield cashew chicken. Same thing as cashew chicken except the chicken is batter fried instead of sautéed. Needless to say to go boxes were used for everyone but Michael - we decided to leave that tasty dish on the table.

But of course Violet stole the day once again. I received a text from Melissa while at dinner that said "This just happened". My first thought was something got broke. But it was just Violet discovering the roll of toilet paper.

This is one of the reasons why we keep the bathroom door closed. This and the constant flushing of the toilet!

2014 New Year Celebration in Florida

I've been toying with the idea of going to Florida to escape the bitter cold of the Midwest. On Christmas day I had decided not to go. But after looking at the weather forecast for the next few days and a little push from Melissa, I packed my clothes, made a few phone calls and jumped in my car the Sunday after Christmas and headed to Florida. My car doesn't have a GPS system but MapQuest is a great navigation tool. My drive took me through St Louis into Illinois heading south to Paducah, Kentucky. From Kentucky it was on to Tennessee through Nashville to Chattanooga. The traffic going through the Smokey Mountains was extremely slow and congested. I think all the winter snowbirds (aka "old people") were headed to Florida for their winter nesting and not one of them took their foot off their brakes while going down the mountains. I knew my trip was going to take me about 20 hours and I wasn't going to drive all 20 at one time. But I was a bit perplexed on where to stop my first night. When I got to Chattanooga, I'd already been driving about 12 hours. But it was only 6:00 p.m. and I wasn't tired so I headed to Atlanta. I debated about stopping just before I got to Atlanta but I didn't want to deal with rush hour traffic into the city on a Monday morning. So I decided to stop on the south side of Atlanta. You don't know crazy intercity driving until you drive the freeways of Atlanta in the dark. I swear there are 8 lanes of traffic and instead of overhead signs, the road itself is marked with the interstate number. There has to be a bypass through Atlanta, but if there is one, I missed it. With white knuckles I made it through Atlanta and stopped for the night.

The next morning took me through Macon, George, down to Florida. Instead of following my MapQuest instructions, I turned east to travel the coastline through Jacksonville and Daytona Beach into Vero Beach.

I can't remember the last time I went out for New Year's Eve. I had reservations at Costa D'Estes - a resort on the beach owned by Gloria Estefan. My stay included a complimentary welcome mojito - a rum and lime drink - very tasty. While enjoying my cocktail, I watched the wait staff set up an amazing ice sculpture. My intent was to travel up and down the beach and check out the parties at the other resorts. Each resort had some type of band set up both inside and on the outside patios.

I can't believe I celebrated the new year outside in 70 degree weather.

I feel just a tiny bit bad escaping to the warm climate of Florida while the temperature and snow were falling at home.

But I did notice from this picture of Jamie shoveling the snow from my driveway and sidewalk that he did get the Christmas decorations down!

Meanwhile I was strolling the beach. I need to check and see if the condos behind me are available for winter rentals.

There is some new construction going on but I could never afford something like this.

But I'm not quite the snowbird I want to be so after a week in Florida I headed back to Missouri. The trip home wasn't nearly as congested as going to Florida. I felt like an expert cruising through Atlanta (at least it was the middle of the day and not at night). There was still traffic on the other side of the highway going through the Smokey Mountains but my side was moving right along. I was headed to Metropolis, Illinois, where Harrah's has a casino. I wasn't quite sure how long it would take me but as I passed Chattanooga it was still early. My choice was to continue driving or stop for the night. If I stopped I figured I'd only be sitting in front of a television so I decided to drive on through. I don't know where my geography knowledge went but I was thinking Illinois was on the other side of Tennessee - NOT. You still need to go through Kentucky. It's now 6:00 p.m. and the sign said Paducah was only 86 miles so I continued. About an hour into Kentucky I heard a strange noise. It was sleeting. I didn't know what to do. I was on a highway with no towns, no streetlights and not much traffic. So I slowed my speed and kept trucking. Along with the sleet came the snow. Yikes! When I reached Paducah, I knew I was less than 10 miles to the Illinois border. Again, I kept going. I can't remember being happier when I passed the Kentucky/Illinois border and saw the sign - Metropolis - 6 miles.

Harrah's Metropolis was okay - not Las Vegas or even the Harrah's in Kansas City. But I was off the road and took the three days to rest before heading home. So far the temperatures in Kansas City haven't been too bad. But if things take a turn for the worse, I may be headed back to Florida.