Brianna Lin - Our Granddaughter

On or about Dec. 2, 2007, our middle granddaughter, Brianna, flew back to where we were staying...Richard and I had agreed to take Brianna for 4 months to help out with daycare costs...It was her first flight on a plane and she did really well...It was a bit tough to get her to sleep on the plane but it worked out...Brianna was very good while travelling...We went from Dulles International Airport, DC to Houston, TX and then on to Fort Walton Airport in Florida...


At the time we were staying at Sunset King Lake Resort in DeFuniak Springs, FL,
located in the panhandle of Florida...It's a great place to stay put for a while and enjoy the campground's company...The company who stay at Sunset King are snowbirds and stay there for about 6 months or less...It was going to be a great place to help raise Brianna for those 4 months...


Brianna became the "granddaughter" of everyone who missed their grandkids...
All the older folks just loved having her there...She made everyone laugh...




During her 4 months stay, we had a blast...We got to watch many cartoons and even sang the themes to most of them...I'm not sure if she had a favorite cartoon or not but she did like to watch Go, Diego, Go and Dora...Brianna was potty trained while she was with us...It is amazing how Gummy Bugs worked...I just couldn't believe it...Brianna did really well and she even had a step stool that was her's to use when she needed to go potty...Another favorite thing that she enjoyed doing was riding in "Poppy's" golf cart when he had to go around and announce what was going on that day, for activities...See during this time, Richard was Activities Director...Brianna even like to go for walks and pick up rocks...She like to skim rocks in to the lake as best as she could...It was very cute on how she would just "drop" the rocks in to the lake edge...At Sunset King there is a putt putt course and on this course is a small bridge...It was perfect for her to run across on...During our walks with her, she knew exactly what RV had what food or drink...On one of our walks, she stopped by an RV and asked for a drink of water...I did not know this person but she got Brianna a drink of water...Our friends, Wendell & Sally, were on route of our walk...
One day we stopped by their RV to visit for a few...The first thing Brianna asked for was a piece of cheese...Then she would ask for a banana...Then she would ask for a drink...Of course, Sally would give her everything that he asked for...So when we went on our walks, guess where we stopped by...Guess what she ate...Yep, she always got what she asked for...Even on one of our walks, Brianna even stopped by the one RV where she got a drink of water from and asked for a drink of water, again....and she got it...She was very smart!!



Parties!!! Well, let me tell you about her party days...She made everyone laugh...
The things that this girl would do...She enjoyed her parties too...She went to a Christmas Party, a New Year's Eve Party, a Valentine Party, a Mardi Gras Party and a St. Patty's Day Party...She loved her music and her dancing...The parties would start at 7pm and end at 10pm...and during that whole time music would be playing and she would dancing...Brianna may have taken a break for drink or for a bit of food but all the while still dancing...Even at one of these parties, she even danced a "table leg" dance...It was so funny...and we have no idea where she got the idea to do it but she had everyone laughing...Even while the ladies did some line dancing, she was in front and it looked like she was showing them how to do it...Brianna was always the highlight of every party...At the New Year's Eve Party, she even had a "partner"...He was about 18 months old but she didn't care...They were doing their own dancing...This girl is going to love the clubs when she gets older...

While she was with us, I also had the extreme pleasure of POTTY TRAINING her...Well! I did find out what worked...Gummy bugs....Yep! Gummy bugs...Every time she told me she had to go, she got gummy bugs...Brandi couldn't believe it...Even when she was in the clubhouse, she would yell, Potty, Mommom...We were so proud of her...

Another treat was when she would learn new things...Like "I can't hear you" with you hand up to her ears...Or "Come here Mommom and sit, I've got to talk to you"...Or "Poppy, speak clearly and slowly"...She also learned who she could get food from...Or get chips from when she didn't eat her regular dinner...and she love her ice cream on Monday nights...with sprinkles on the vanilla ice cream...


Brianna had her first trip to Destin, Fl...We went to the Santa Rosa Beach...As you can tell, she had a blast...She even ran to the water a little faster than we wanted and got all wet...We didn't have a harness to help hold her back from getting soaked...She went in face first in to the water...Brianna also collected shells which are here at our RV for safe keeping...She liked it so much that we took her back to the beach this time with her swimsuit on...








Brianna was such an extreme joy to have and spend time with...We look forward to doing it again as she gets older...We also look forward to having her sisters, Kayla (4 yrs. old) and Lizzi (1.5 yrs. old) as well...Kayla we will have very soon and I are very sure it will be an extreme joy to have her...Brianna and Kayla are different...but what fun it will be...

G'night to my girls...Poppy and I miss you all very very much...All our love to our girls...

Threat Level of PURPLE!!!

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This Sunday, Jan. 18, 2009, the Threat Level is raised to PURPLE! I am ready...I've got my PURPLE TOWEL, PURPLE Ravens Socks, Ray Lewis PURPLE Jersey, PURPLE capris...The Level of PURPLE has been raised in our household...

This Sunday, JOE FLACCO goes against Ben Roethlisberger....

A Rookie vs a Pro

Will Joe Cool be able to take care of Big Ben? Will Ray Lewis, the leader of the DEFENSE, take care of BIG BEN? Will ED REED takeaway some of Big Ben's throws to his receivers? That is the PURPLE THREAT for this Sunday...

So everyone be aware...PURPLE is going to rule Sunday...Cheer and root on the PURPLE DEFENSE...Cheer and root on the PURPLE OFFENSE...We've come this far...Show the world that the Baltimore Ravens are the best in the AFC...Let's go all the way...to the SUPER BOWL in Tampa....

GO RAVENS!!!

The Florida Keys

Today is our day off from 10 days of working at the Miami Everglades Campground. Richard has been under the weather for 6 days now so today's trip wasn't so good. We wanted to get away from here.
The first trip down Krome Ave./Rte. 997 to Walmart was something else. We head past many nurseries. Then we drove through downtown Homestead. Very small streets. Very old stores. It looks like there are some old stores around but there wouldn't be much of a place to park our truck. Once getting to Walmart was another "treat". The parking lot is full and a mess. All kinds of "in" streets and little side roads. We pulled up a lane so that I could get out of the truck and Richard could go park the truck and wait for me. He didn't want to go in to Walmart feeling the way he did. I got in to Walmart and found everything that I had on my list very quickly. I also found Kayla, our 4 year old granddaughter, some cute shorts and tops for her trip to visit us. I stood in line for 45 minutes to check out. No more lines were open for checking out. But it is the only SuperWalmart around this area. Hopefully, I won't have to be back there for another 6 weeks.
After Walmart, we started heading down US Rte. 1. Heading down US Rte. 1 was very interesting. There are so many different trees and shrubs along the way. Some very interesting trees. We finally arrived in Key Largo. Don't know what I was expecting or wanted to see but it wasn't what I thought. We ate at Burger King around 2pm. We saw lots of boats of all sizes with one motor to four motors. We crossed over in to Islamorada and stopped by the Chamber of Commerce for some information. We did find out what there are no beaches along the Keys cause of the reefs. But we could go to a few state parks and see the beaches there. We travelled a bit farther down US Rte. 1 until we turned around to head back home.
The waters of the Atlantic Ocean was so green/blue that is was gorgeous. Richard tried to take some pictures but don't know if any turned out. There are plenty of hotels/inn/resorts to stay at. We are hoping to take a 2 day trip and spend a night at one of thoes hotels/inns/resorts.
The weather was a little cool and the sun was not out. But if Richard's pictures turned out, I will post some.
We picked up plenty of maps and hope to have a more outlined plan of what we want to see or do when we get back to the Keys. I can't wait to visit Key West, mile marker zero.