I am back home and mighty glad to be here!! I have certainly had better vacations but hey, the weather was great, the shopping fabulous and the food was fine ... if the company left a lot to be desired, then I know what not to do next time! I thought God had put me in instances before to teach me patience but they were nothing compared to this! I had to have no opinion whatsover, speak when spoken to pretty much ... because no matter what I said, it was disputed ... very tough for those of you who know me!! I have heard of "people who know everything" but I stayed with the King and Queen! Even when I was looking for a church to go to, it was "it doesn't really matter where you go because we are all trying to get to the same place anyhow" ... do you know how hard it was to keep my mouth shut? I had learned at this point that it was useless to say anything ... it was a no win situation!
I was very disappointed at not being able to connect with Sara but I did call her and we had a great chat! Next year, God willing, if I go down, we decided we would have to get her and her family to come to the beach for a week or 2, whatever they can get away! The kids would have a ball!! Had I been thinking clearly, that would have worked this year but we left it too late!!
I actually arrived home on Sunday, May 20th but have been so busy all week unpacking and cleaning up the winter-summer clothes thing that I haven't had a chance to post! Doug & Lynn have their trailer down at the Pleasant Lake campground in Maine so I will be spending a lot of time there with the kids this summer. Doug, Emma and I went down on Wednesday and came back Friday. He built us a great deck! The trailer borders right on the playground so it will be great ... I can lay back in the sun on the deck with my book and watch the kids right there in front of me. Of course we will spend lots of time at the beach section in the water too! Doug works almost every weekend all summer and Lynn works every weekday so they won't have much time there except with me and the kids individually! The blackflies are VERY bad down there right now though so hopefully by the time school ends and we are there more, they will have left!! I actually bought a Skin So Soft bug spray while I was in the US and it worked great ... unfortunately you can't get it in Canada so I'll have to find myself an Avon lady there!
I'll take some pictures and post them later! I forgot my camera there so I can't even see what I have on it ... not much as it was certainly not a "picture taking vacation!"
I have also been busy doing my retirees' newsletter and found this little tidbit which made me think of you, Gail, with your Raggedy Dolls! I bought a cute little Raggedy Ann outfit while I was away ... at a Cracker Barrell of all places ... that I'm going to send to Sara to remind her of you and your dolls. It is a size 4 so won't fit her for awhile but it is too cute! And it has a hat!!
The Story of Raggedy Ann and Andy
Raggedy Ann, beloved by children for nearly a century, first appeared as a faceless rag doll that artist and cartoonist Johnny Gruelle found in the family attic in the early 1900s. Gruelle painted a smiling face on the doll and gave it to his daughter, Marcella, who adopted Raggedy Ann as her constant playmate. In 1915, Gruelle submitted a drawing of Raggedy Ann to the U.S. Patent Office. When Marcella was a teenager, she died tragically from an infection. Her father dealt with his grief by writing down and collecting all the Raggedy Ann stories he had told his daughter when she was younger. The first Raggedy Ann collection of stories, along with commercially produced Raggedy Ann dolls, appeared in 1918. A year later, Gruelle patented Raggedy Andy, and for the next two decades, wrote and published a Raggedy Ann and Andy book nearly every year, as well as other children's adventure stories and fairy tales.
A little side note ... I have a ton of rhubarb in my backyard ... I don't like it at all but if any of you who are close, want some ... let me know and I'll get it to you!! I'll try to post more often!! My life is a little boring but I always have lots of great stories and so on to share!!
