Boys....

..... we love our two little guys!  The only drawback to being in Florida for the winter is the length of time when we don't see them.  In an effort to keep ourselves in their minds, it has become the custom to send them a little parcel each week.  The first thing we sent this year.....

.....was these jammies.  Poppa saw them - and they were warm and fuzzy and had feet - and he wanted them for his little men up in Canada.  Mommy tried to get them to sit still for a picture - which was difficult.  So, she turned on the television and they almost sat still!  It appears that the jammies fit well and the little boys look warm and content.  Little Smiley is growing up on us!  He has been trying....

...his hand at working in the kitchen.  He has been trying....

...on larger shoes to see if he can fill them - or at least walk in them!  Meanwhile - Munchie has been trying.....

...to help his little brother wash his hands...how adorable.  The other day while I was talking to Mommy on the phone, we heard a terrible screeching coming from the TV room at their house.  She went to investigate....and....it was Little Smiley screeching.  Quite clearly - over the phone - I heard Munchie say that Little Smiley had snatched the TV remote and Munchie had rescued it.  Hee!  She couldn't really give anybody a hard time over that one!  Munchie has also been trying.....

...alternative seating arrangements.  I think he decided this one would be more comfortable with a pillow in it!  Both of the little boys have been trying........

....on the sweaters I made them for Christmas.  Mommy has them all dressed up cute with pants that match the sweaters.  Want a closer look???  OK!  I just happen to have another picture.....

....the hoods are up in this one!  Goodnight boys!

Another Pair.......

........Auntie Colleen has recived her crazy socks..........."The socks have landed! hee. They are even more fun in person. We both really like them!"  Another happy customer - Hurray!  Of course, Auntie Colleen and Mommy always love their socks no matter how crazy and Gramma - well I think she prefers the crazy ones!


Thank you all for asking......Poppa is feeling much better - he walked up to MacDonalds for coffee this morning since I didn't feel like breakfast at all.  That's a long walk for a coffee and an Egg McMuffin - it's about 1.6 miles (according to the TomTom) each way - whew!  Now he is outside with Squeegie, reading a John Grisham novel.  Me?  Well, I'm not up to speed yet.  Last night I felt really good and thought I was out of the woods, but this morning when I got up, I just went straight back to bed for another couple of hours.  Not so bad now.


Here is a picture of......

....Munchie in his New York Jets shirt.....and here.....

......is Little Smiley in his - maybe Mommy should have taken the picture before he ate??????

Books and Sox

Remember I told you I would bring you up-to-date on my Florida reading material....and you may have noticed I haven't done it yet...well...

...here we go.  The Lucifer Code is a take-off from the De Vinci Code by Dan Brown - a rather famous book and movie.  But don't let that keep you from reading it....it was a good, fast-paced book - I enjoyed it.  Dean Koontz always writes good books - you just can't go wrong if you like your reading on the spooky side.  61 Hours is another of the Jack Reacher series (which I am currently hooked on) by Lee Child.......another gripping read.  Then....

...there were three more.  The Memory Collector is written by an author unknown to me.  It was a good story - but not good enough to send me back to the book store for more.  James Patterson is a well-known entity to me and Poppa.  I believe he is Poppa's favourite author - in most part because it was his Maximum Ride series that really got Poppa into reading in the first place.  This book wasn't disappointing either - you might think twice about all those electronic toys when you are finished!  Then another Dean Koontz - this one mixed science with the supernatural in a little romance.  Then....

...oh!  Imagine that - another Jack Reacher novel by Lee Child - what?  I told you I was currently addicted to this series - didn't I?  Another excellent read!  Then - for Poppa, I bought another James Patterson.  I actually really enjoyed this one.  There is a sequel out now in hardcover - and I am awaiting the release of the paperback so I can afford to buy it!  What?  I don't read too much!  I have also gotten lots of knitting done....

 .....here's a peek at the next giveaway collection....Taffy is working on another pair right now.  Besides I'm on vacation - so it's OK!  Right?  What am I reading right now???  Before I show you, I have to explain...........unfortunately and sadly, I neglected to pack all my pretty bookmarks - sigh.  I couldn't find any that I liked well enough to pay a ridiculous price for - so one day at Michael's I found a package of 25 bookmarks intended for teachers to hand out to young students - and they were only $1.50US ....now you've been warned....can you guess?

You're right!  Another Jack Reacher novel.  There are 16 books in this series to date, and there are eight more that I haven't read yet.  Two of them are sitting on the dresser waiting for me to get to them!  Have I mentioned that I am addicted to this series right now???

Speaking of socks.  Gramma got her crazy socks....."Then I just came back from the mailbox and inside I found a package with your crazy socks.....they are just splendid and I love the colours and patterns....I think they may be my favourite pair yet!!!"  Hee!  I live for comments like this!  Especially this round, since these socks were really bizarre!  Mommy got hers too......"Oh yeah…I got socks". Hey - she's my kid - she's used to these socks - been getting them for years!  And, Aunt Grumpy also received her new crazy socks.........."Received my wonderful socks yesterday. It was Family Day and I was off, but my poor mailman had to work because it is a provincial holiday."  So far, so good!

A Week In Review...

........let me just take a minute to tell you about our last week.  You probably already know about last Monday.....it was a great day!  We went out for breakfast, Poppa & Squeegie went golfing...then we went for supper at Longhorn Steakhouse.  Yep - a great day!  On Tuesday Poppa said he wasn't feeling quite right, but didn't have any specific complaints or symptoms.  So, we took it easy that day...a trip to the Post Office was the epitome of our excitment...other than that we lazed around the pool, read books, I did some knitting - you know, all the stuff we do when we are on holiday in Florida!  Wednesday morning Poppa is feeling worse - he has a headache, abdominal pain - and, oh yes...he was well...trotting a lot.  This went on until Friday and finally we decided he should go see someone.  So off we went to the walk-in clinic (the good news - we found one very close to the villa).  We arrived there about 3pm and left there about 6pm with three prescriptions - one for lab diagnostics, and two for medication.  Of course, by the time we got out of the clinic it was too late to go to the lab - so that had to wait until yesterday.  He is starting to feel better - they think he had Norwalk virus, but won't know for sure until the lab work is completed.  Today is the first day he has shown any enthusiasm about eating.  But, it gets worse yet.........now I am afflicted with the same darn thing.....so my energy level is about zilch!  Hopefully a week from now, we will both be recovered.  Thankfully, part of my retirement benefits includes out-of-country medical expenses...and when I called Great West Life they were extremely nice and helpful and we went today and mailed off the receipts and forms to try to recover some of the funds.  For all the horror stories we have heard about the cost of medical treatment here, we were surprised .. it seemed quite reasonable to us.  The lab work was expensive, the doctor visit and prescriptions were not...in our opinion.  By the way....

....in Florida - they call this winter!

Happy Birthday Squeegie 2012

Yes - yesterday was Squeegie's birthday.  How old is our boy bear?  Believe it or not - he is 11 yrs. old!  Pretty good for a bear!  I must admit that he's not as fuzzy as he used to be, but he's still a going concern.  On Monday Poppa pulled his golf clubs .....

.... out of the garage to put them in the car and....

.... Squeegie got his clubs ready too and....off they went to the golf course.  While they were gone Taffy and I sat outside and read for a while....oh goodness.... I have been forgetting to let you see what I am reading this year....I'll do that in my next blog!  We did some knitting and watched some TV, and when the boys came back from golfing we went to the Longhorn Steakhouse for their birthday dinner.  Since it was early in the day - we avoided the supper rush - and the boys enjoyed their steak.  The weather has been so perfect this year - we went.....

back to the beach a couple of weeks ago.  We wandered up and down for about four hours - the water was a little colder than it was just after Christmas, but the sun was hot and we enjoyed it as much as ever.  We saw....

.... this pelican trolling for his supper and we saw....

.... him in a short while with supper in his pouch.  We watched him for quite a while.  He caught quite a few fish and the gulls seemed to hang around - in case he dropped some we're guessing.  Further up the beach I saw.....

....an artist taking advantage of the beautiful weather and the beautiful vista, catching his rendition on canvas.  Later I espied....

.... this gull having dinner.  I wasn't sure exactly what he was feasting on, so I asked a passerby.....turns out this bird had expensive taste........ it was crab!  Finally......

.... we decided that we had wandered long enough and headed home to have our own supper!

Yesterday we stopped in at Denis's villa for a couple of minutes..... we checked the inside to ensure that all was as it should be.....

....Poppa took a couple of minutes to water the plants he had so carefully planted, and then....

.... I couldn't resist taking a photo of the bougainvillea bush.  I don't know if it was the perfect weather, or Poppa's careful application of fertilizer - but this little bush is beautiful!

Happy Birthday Poppa!

Yes - today is Poppa's birthday.  He doesn't want me to reveal his age, but last year he became the recipient of Canada's Old Age Pension.  We didn't do anything exciting today.  He decided that he wanted to go to the Flea Market to look for new crocs - so we did.  And - he found some - so he got what he wanted.  We had leftovers for supper - but we had a small bottle of champagne with it.  The plan is to go to Longhorn Steakhouse on Monday - halfway between Poppa's birthday and Squeegie's birthday on the 14th.  The reason:  Restaurants here are really busy on weekends, so it will be more pleasant to go on a weekday.  So we had a quiet day today, but I think he enjoyed it.  He received cards from Canada - Aunt Denise and Aunt Grumpy - thank you ladies!  Yesterday UPS brought a package addressed to Poppa.  He wasn't here when it arrived - so I left it for him.  Inside....

.....was this lovely assortment of nuts.  Poppa loves nuts and he was so surprised and pleased!  Thank you to Mommy, Daddy, Munchie and Little Smiley.  He also got lots of phone calls today.....Uncle Ernie & Aunt Lynda called, Great-Gramma called, Uncle Leonard called, Kev-Inn called ........and Mommy called too!  Thank you to everyone for making his birthday a happier one!

Last month Mommy took Munchie to the doctor for is 3yr checkup.  He passed all the test with flying colours....

...and was declared to be Super-Chris!  He is 38" tall and weighs 36 lbs.  Today Mommy took Little Smiley to the doctor for his 18month checkup.  He got his last shot until he is four!  He was really good.....

.... said "Ow" when the needle went in and only shed a couple of tears over the ordeal.  He is 33-1/2" tall and weighs 28 lbs.  He was declared to be Super Curtie!  Meanwhile, the weather continues to be lovely here - except it is supposed to be "cold" on Sunday - only a high of 58F.  Yikes!  The good news is that it will only be cool for a couple of days and then back to the 80F range.  Taffy was feeling rather tired last night....

.... so Squeegie let her lean on him while we watched Grey's Anatomy.  He's such a good big brother!

Aunt Denise and Tracy both opted into the new sock giveaway before I even announced it.... so we now have seven participants.  Taffy is keeping the option open until Tuesday at midnight .. so if you're not in yet and you would like to be........send her an e-mail!  I have three pairs finished now...so Taffy and I have lots of knitting to do before they'll all be ready!  Good Night All!

A Newbie!

Hey!  We have a newbie in our sock giveaway!  Mudder found this in her inbox this morning....

If you are doing socks for anyone, I wouldn't mind a pair.


This message came from Aunt Lynda!  This will be her first time in a sock giveaway!  Do you think it will be her last?  Some people really love handknit socks and others don't like them at all.....we'll have to wait and see.

More later............Taffy

And Another One....

We have another participant in the latest sock giveaway.  Here's the message.....

Dear Taffy,

Please tell Mudder I would love a new pair of socks.   Love Aunt Grumpy

Hurray!  Mudder was starting to worry that nobody wanted any more socks - and she has all this yarn!  Now we have four people...and lot of time left for anyone else who wants new socks!

See y'all later!  (When down south speak like a southerner!)  Taffy

One More...

Mommy is in the sock giveaway too!  Very concisely she said....

As usual....I'm IN! 

....so Taffy has been knitting madly.  There's still lots of yarn and lots of time to get in on this giveaway...so if you like handknit socks and you would like a pair just let Taffy know.

While Taffy has been knitting...Squeegie has been practicing his swing and his putting!

Second Opt-In

Auntie Colleen is in for the sock giveaway!  She quite simply put it like this.....

Me, of course!


She is always enthusiastic!

First In....

....Gramma has already joined the giveaway......here's a transcript of what she said....

What a lovely dress you have on with matching ribbons too!  I have been enjoying mudder's many knitted socks that she knit in past years!!  I do love the crazy socks though but would also enjoy matching ones too!  This winters weather has been pretty nice in Canada though they say its supposed to get colder this week but half of winter is already over so I guess I don't mind.  I bet you are enjoying the warm sun down there in Florida!  My flowers are coming up so they don't agree with the goundhog!

Hee!  I love the part about my sundress!  Sounds like they are having nice weather too!  Later...Taffy

Finishing Touches

Poppa has finished all his chores over at the Villa Fayolle (Denis and Liz).  The last chores were all outdoor chores.  He started by vacuuming the pool - to remove all the detritus from power washing the surround......

....and soon had it just like new!  Then - while the power washer was still handy, he ......

..used it to brighten up all the brick work around the flower beds in the back yard.  Then he pulled weeds from the flower beds and....

....when there were no more weeds he added some lovely red mulch to highlight the plants better.  Later....

...he sprinkled a little fertilizer on all the plant to spruce them up and give them a head start on their spring growth.  Yes - spring growth - the weather has been so warm here, all the plants are starting to prepare for spring.  The newscasters are saying the plants are six weeks ahead of normal this year!  Which, of course, has meant excellent weather for us.  But, we do need some rain.......so........

...after he had embedded a few colourful plants and I had re-arranged the critters...he..

...repaired one little sprinkler head that was broken, to ensure that the plants got water.  Then he sprinkled a little fertilizer on these new plants and....

....moved around to the front flower bed to eliminate some weeds there.  Then, as he did at the back, he added.........

.....he added some of that lovely red mulch......and finally declared himself satisfied that the chores were finished.  I think he did a great job!

One more thing which has been finished......all the "crazy socks" went out in the mail today.  Just for information purposes...it cost me $1.85US to mail one pair of socks to Canada from Florida.  The last pair of socks I mailed in Canada from one city to another cost me over $11.00CDA.....Wow!  What a difference!  Anyway....this means that I have started a new batch of socks.  This batch will be matching pairs made with one (or two depending on the size) skein of yarn....yes!  Imagine that!  Anyone who is interested please e-mail Taffy....

...(seen here in her new pink sundress) at taffy.robert@gmail.com and let her know.  I will then enter your name on my list.........and make sufficient socks for everyone who opted in.  I will hold the option to receive a pair of socks from this giveaway until February 14th.... so you have lots of time to get back to Taffy!  Thanks to all those who participated in the last giveaway!

One more thing.........I try to mail a small parcel to our little men each week......and here they are....

...wearing the jammies Poppa picked out for them and then sent to Canada.  I hear they were both pleased to get a package from Poppa all the way from Florida!

The Clue

The clue to this post wasn't the Kit Kat bar (or whatever it was?) stuck to Munchie's forehead.  The clue was on the top of his head.  I'll show you....

...see our little Munchie sitting in this large chair?  Have you already guessed what is about to happen?  Need another picture?

He looks quite comfy and happy to be there!  So....while Daddy and Little Smiley....

...looked on (well Little Smiley seems more interested in the baby in the mirror - but Daddy looks very attentive!)....the nice lady pumped the chair up high....

....draped Munchie in a dinosaur cape (see how proud he looks?  He watched Daddy get his hair cut before this adventure - and reports have it that he was very happy to do what Daddy did!)... and...

...proceeded to give our little man his first haircut at a barber shop!  He was quite pleased with the result (but Nanna isn't sure about the spiky stuff)....

.... and he sure looks adorable!  Don't you think????

Sox are Drawn!

Let me see if I can get this in the right order.  Tracy chose these.....

...they were called Desert Storm...the sky is blue, but the sand is blowing.  Then Auntie Denise chose....

... Sunny Heels........she thought with a name like that, they should keep her feet warm inside her winter boots, because - up there in Canada it is not 80F like it is here!  Next was Gramma who scanned the pictures carefully looking for the pair with the most artistic appeal, and picked....

...Mexicale - maybe they reminded her of a Mexican blanket or a hot taco....that's what I thought of when I looked at them.  Then it was Mommy's turn to pick - and she picked while I was on the phone talking to her ....

...and Hot and Cool was her choice.  I'm not sure how these got named - that's just the feeling I got when I looked at them........in reality I hope they keep her feet Hot when it is Cool outside.  While I've been keeping track of the temperatures where she lives - it hasn't been really cold (for Canada!), just cool!  Auntie Colleen picked a pair for herself and a pair for Uncle Shaun - though she didn't make any promises about giving Uncle Shaun a pair!  Hmmm.  She picked....

....Just Crazy...which as you can see are just that.....followed by....

....Snow Belts.   I guess the origin of that name is self-evident!  This left me with one pair of socks in the collection.  They went to a new person!  Do you remember Mommy's friend Kat?  I posted a picture of her with her "baby bump" when we visited Mommy's workplace on our way to Florida.  She is wanting a nice pair of socks to keep her feet warm in the hospital at delivery time.  So, she got....

...Tomato Pasta.  What can I say?  Tomato sauce, black olives, noodles and mushrooms!  Can you see them?  I received some delightful pictures from Mommy yesterday and I will be posting a blog regarding them soon.  Here is a clue....

........this is our Munchie with his blond hair and blue eyes - and perhaps a tattoo????