My Birthday Surprise

My adult kids totally surprised me !!!  I am usually hard to surprise cause I'm nosy.
For birthdays - birthday person chooses their meal - so a few weeks before my birthday - my daughter and daughter in laws decided we should go to my favorite BBQ place for dinner (LOL) - it is 45 minutes drive from here and we usually only go there when we are going to or from Orlando to the outlets.  But they convinced me that on a Friday nite it was not nuts to drive 45 minutes in rush hour traffic to eat at my favorite place - so that was the plan.  So Friday morning my daughter calls, says I took your birthday off and I'm doing something with  2 of the grand-kids (normally I babysit them everyday) She says you will only have the 22 month old granddaughter. I found out later that they left her with me to keep me from spoiling the surprise by going home after I took mom to the doctor.  (ahhh they know me well) - So my daughter slipped into my house and packed my bag while I had mom at the doctor - then she and my son and 2 of the grand-kids drove to Kissimme(Orlando) - and checked into the Star Island Resort and Club in Kissimme, Fl. Then went and stocked the suite with groceries for the weekend. And she made one of my favorite meals Baked Chicken Supreme. Also behind the scenes, my oldest grandson was being dropped off by his aunt (he had spent the week with her), but she drove him to the hotel and dropped him off (1/2 hour in other direction) Meanwhile, I was at DIL's house babysitting.
When my son and dil arrived home - we took granddaughter and my husband and I and headed for the restaurant (or so I thought)- My other son and dil were only a few mins behind us. And for those of you that don't know - I'm a backseat driver - even when in front seat. So as we approached the exit, I'm telling my son you need to get off here - he's like good thing you told me I've never been to this restaurant before, my dil asked me a question and I turned to answer and HE DROVE RIGHT PAST EXIT.  I turned around and about freaked - you have to drive 41 miles north to next exit - it will be closed - he's like relax giving my brother time to catch up LOL  - as he passed the next exit I realized something was up and was told to stop asking questions.
When we were just 2 blocks away I had to close my eyes until they parked and led me in - What a cool place this was - 3 bedrooms, 2 bath - fully setup kitchen - and dinner smelled and tasted awesome.  They had decorated and even got me a pinata! - My 4 year old granddaughter last year made her parents buy each birthday person a pinata - she is relentless when she decides something and sometimes we just have to give in. So this year she asked what kinda pinata did I want - I said one with money!  Well - they went to dollar store and bought fake dollars and coins and filled that pinata with money ! and of course lollipops.
After dinner we headed for the pool.  The pool at Star Island Resort is family friendly - it has an area within the pool that little ones can play in - and goes to about 6 foot deep on far end.  It was not overcrowded so it was easy to keep an eye on the little ones and it is open til midnight.
Later we needed a couple blankets and something in the kitchen - called and within 5 mins they were knocking on the door.  We will go back there again - I'm thinking we liked this better than Nick hotel - which can get really really crowded.
Breakfast the next day was my son's bacon - he even brought his grill - and waffles
Lunch - my daughter in law made pasta salad and my daughter got this cool package of lunchmeat for subs that is a kit - for italian subs - 4 meats laid out on paper and stacked for 8 people - awesome kit.
Dinner - my daughter and daughter in laws made homemade tortilla's - and my other son made his delicious salsa
Breakfast the next day was eggs .......delish - then we had to pack and leave but not before going in the pool one more time.
Dessert - a huge chocolate chip cookie cake .........yum

So just when I thought the surprises were over - they gave me a Kindle and a Vera Bradley case for it.
I felt so so special that weekend- nothing is better than hanging out with your 4 adult kids- 2 awesome daughter-in-laws and 4 grand kids.  

Fundraisers and helping others

I've been trying to share the fundraisers that some of my online friends are having.  I wanted to thank you for taking a look, maybe ordering or just sharing the post about the fundraisers.  I can remember when I worked I would be overwhelmed at all the fundraisers that were happening, and sometimes felt obligated to buy.  Just wanted to let each and every one of you know - I will never know if you bought something or not. -
no obligation, no feeling bad !
A little information about Madison (Amanda Woodard is her mother) She has Spinal Muscle Atrophy - she lost her ability to swallow at age 10 months.  Recently Amanda posted a video of Madison using her 1st switch toy - her mommy holds the device which looks a lot like a snow cone only larger - the snow cone part is a globe that has lights that will spin if Madison squeezes the little switch in her hand.  And she was able to make it spin 4 times on the video - 
And some information about Mandy Rhodes- She and her husband are adopting 2 orphans from overseas that have Down's Syndrome.  Her fundraiser is to raise the 30,000 for the adoptions.  They already have 2 bio children and feel called to adopt these boys.
Most important is please PRAY for these families.

Old people coupon also

I was shocked to see how many "old" people were in line at Beall's last weekend. Beall's emailed me a $10 off $10 or more purchase and I went with my daughter to get a "Gator" shirt for watching the game.  Well, I'm old - 57 - but these people were older than me and they had HANDFULLS of the $10 off coupon.  I had printed 1, thinking that was the rule - but some old lady in the 15 people deep line said - honey you need to go copy that coupon - there is a place right across the street.  HMMMM - tempting - then she went on to explain that yesterday the cashiers were letting you use as many $10 off $10 coupons that you had in separate transactions, but "today" they were only letting you do 3 transactions - then you had to go to back of line. She had 9 boxes of K-cup coffee - on sale for $11.99 - she was bragging $1.99 for each.  So let me also tell you there were 3 sets of 2 cashiers and each had lines 15 deep.  I'm always the line stander when we shop on Black Friday, I hold the place in line and my daughter and daughter in law's shop and bring it to me. So I'm standing near the Tervis cups in line and wishing I had the time to go copy some of my coupons - so another line-stander - hears this "old lady" tell me to go copy mine - I said I don't have time to - she says well I used 15 yesterday and this is the last of what I want - so I will give you what is left - WOW ......
she gave me 4 more - so I got out of line and went shopping - I bought a box of sweet southern ice tea K-cups for 1.99 - and a couple infant toys - My daughter bought 2 "Gator" shirts and a pair of "Gator" shorts the shorts were on sale from $40 to $24.99 then $10 more off - the shirts were $20 - on sale for $12 - then $10 more off - When it was our turn at the register - I asked the cashier before I used them if we were allowed to copy and use several coupons and she said yes, all day yesterday they had people with 10 or more holding up the line - so the only rule "today" was only 3 transactions per person then you had to get back in line. Amazing cheap shopping day !

What is left of Ryan's truck

I would like to start out saying God watched out over my son, it is a miracle that he walked away with only 2 scratched knees, couple small burns from air bag deploying and soreness. His truck bed shifted forward kinda off the frame - What you cannot see in this picture is the broken windshield with the indent of my son's head :(
The Lincoln looks worse. The easiest way to describe it would be - had he hit the front passenger door - his bumper would've been touching the driver - BUT he hit the back passenger door - it actually pushed the "car" off the frame. We've been unable to get anymore information about the man in the car, at the hospital we heard he had some broken ribs - please keep praying for him, but we don't know his name, it is on the police report which isn't ready. The man driving the Lincoln was ticketed.
So here's what happened:
My son was driving east on a very busy 6 lane highway (3 east/3west) - speed limit is 45 - the man was coming west and had pulled into the turning lane to go south into his development - he did not see my son's truck and turned smack dab in front of him - Ryan tried to stop, it was lightly raining, but even in the best conditions there is no way he could've stopped his truck even going 25.
Accidents happen - sometimes there is just no way to avoid it -