From Maine to Florida

It was a long stressful summer..when we got home from FL in May, our decision was to sell everything and move South. We sold the riding lawn mower, air conditioner, donated our winter clothes to the Church...I even weeded out my craft supplies....in July we had a huge garage sale! Friends and relatives came over to help us on that hot sweltering day and we moved a lot of "stuff"...Yes, we were packing up and moving on out.....

Things came to a screeching halt when our prospective buyer was having second thoughts due to the economy and we sat back and took another serious look at what we were about to do and after a lot of soul searching, decided it wasn't probably a smart move for us to make either....(for now)

So we bought back the lawn mower, suffered through the hot spell with remaining fans and I remodeled my sewing room, making use of the extra room I had created by my downsizing.

Nichole came to live with us until middle of December, we finally sold the boat and Meghan got the cutest little puppy that we fell head over heals in love with....Our lives did a 360, and we somehow got through it all and now we're back in Florida, dodging the cold Maine winter.

We left So. Portland on Dec. 27th, thanking the Lord that the weather was cold and clear and we had dodged snowstorms and/or icy roads.
The trip down to Fl. was a leisurely one, our 1st stop was in Egg Harbor, NJ, the 2nd day in Jacksonville, NC and then onto Myrtle Beach, SC where we planned a stop to see a favorite of ours , The Carolina Opry Christmas Show.

It was just as good as we have seen in the past.

The following day we made it to the GA/FL border, staying in Kingsland, GA. It was a clear shot down to Cape Canaveral the next day. The further south we headed, the warmer it got and we finally started shedding some of our layered clothing.

This will be our 4th season at Solana Lake and so it felt like we were coming home.

As we came through the gated community and rounded the bend to Building "B", there were our friends standing to greet us with carts and dollies, wearing "Bell Hop" signs on their shirts!

Our welcoming committee...no wonder we love it so much here...we have been blessed with making such good friends.

After a couple of trips up and down the elevator to the 5th floor, we began to settle in and get ourselves organized. This is a different unit we are staying in this year and it will be our home until May.

It was New Years Eve and there was an Open House at the Club House from 6-9, we managed to shower and find some clean clothes to change into and headed over. What a warm feeling to greet more old friends as they welcomed us back and we tried to get caught up on everyone's summer adventures.

It was a beautiful evening, warm with a slight breeze, and our goal was to walk the beach at midnight, but it never happened! By 10:30 we were both snug in our new bed and welcomed the new year in by sleeping through all the fireworks and partying.

Sunday we went out to breakfast and then stopped at WalMart to pick up a few staples like milk and bread. We were going to go out for dinner, but come time to eat, we were both so exhausted from putting things away, we opted for a pizza and ate it in front of the TV.

Monday was a "pocketbook-sticker shock" when we saw the bill after shopping for all our staples and supplies at the Commissary. It is amazing how many things you need when your "starting over" buying everything from sugar to paper towels.

Monday afternoon our Canadian friends stopped by to say Hi and Bye! They were heading back to the cold North on Tuesday after spending some vacation time here at Solana. Jack drew Guy another hockey picture, in hopes that his Bruins portrait like last year, wouldn't be a good omen for another Stanley Cup title.