What a wonderful idea. While they were still living in Dillon Montana, a little town located between two beautiful mountain ranges, my Daughter Meredythe and her husband Joey Wedding decided that when they made the trip back to Ohio, they would purchase a 30 foot long trailer to park on their grandsons property just outside York Center. Their summer home is 2 hours north of there.

Their plan was to stay four days each week in that trailer and three days at their home on Catawba Island in Lake Erie where Joey keeps his fishing boat parked.

As luck would have it they found a 32 foot Fifth wheel trailer that was ideal for them and they purchased it. It is now parked with a view of the lake on Levi’s land just outside of York Center Ohio and a short drive to visit their daughter and my granddaughter Jodi Wedding who has multiple sclerosis and is in Gables Nursing Home in Marysville Ohio.

Let’s take a look at this four days a week home of Meredythe and Joey’s…

Living room and the bed room each have a pull out to make those rooms larger.


The dining room has a table with chairs not a booth, lovely!

How about that king size bed?
And…. a walk-in shower with glass doors.
What a beautiful way to live in retirement, a home in Dillon Montana, Catawba Island in lake Eire,
and add to that this fantastic fifth wheel home. DREAM AWAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

FRF ❤️

Joey and Meredythe Wedding, Tracy and Pamela Drake, Carole (Susie) and Terrell Smith

My three daughters, each with their husband in Baltimore Maryland where Tracy and Pamela lived.

Meredythe, Susie, Flo, Pamela the last picture taken of the four of us together before we lost Susie with Lymphoma cancer

My brother Burl Rockhold and his convertible

My brother Howard Rockhold with his niece Martha Pearl Patrick

My sister Mable Eastman holding her niece Martha Pearl and her brother Howard

Paul Hoffman Junior (Pete) and my little Susie

My little Susie with Karen Rockhold daughter of Bee and Alice Rockhold

Howard Rockhold standing on his black pony

Little group is cuties at family reunion, Bill and Geneva DeWitt’s home in Summersville Ohio.

I want to finish with my favorite Florida restaurant on moving to Florida the year 1978

After moving to Florida I ate at the Flying Bridge four evening a week for many weeks. Sea food is my favorite above all others!!!!!!!!!

FRF ❤️

My eyes opened to see the bright Florida mid-morning sunshine coming through my bedroom  window. I normally would then close my wood shutter blinds to make my bedroom dark, put on my night blinders and go back to sleep?

It only took a moment  before I realized, ” Hey, Flo, you gotta get ready to go out for Mother’s Day dinner by 12:55. Tracy, my always there for me son-in-law, had just made a fresh pot of coffee for me. While I’m enjoying a cup, my daughter Pamela says “Would you like to have one of your present early ?”

Who do you know who could say anything other than  “yes” to that? She brought out a multicolored striped bag with rumpled colored tissue paper topping and handed that to me as I sat at the kitchen table. I removed the pretty colored tissue and “Oh my goodness” as I pulled out a wide brimmed beautiful hat, oh but there’s more, and I quickly unwrapped a beautiful bright colored blouse. Hey, thank you so much, I can wear these when we go out to eat today. How lovely!!!

Before in the mail I had received this beautiful card from my daughter Meredythe Wedding

And this adorable card from my great, great grandsons Jayden and  Isaiah, their momma and daddy Diana and Darren wedding
This adorable potted flower came via UPS from my granddaughter Terri Doss, her husband Gary and their sons Samuel and Joshua who live in Lawrenceville Georgia. Terri’s mother and my daughter who was Carole Suzanne (Susie) smith, we lost with cancer in 1998.
And this beautiful bouquet from my thoughtful son-in-law Tracy Drake.

At FISHBONES restaurant in Sarasota. After walking past their “Pub” we are seated at a table with white table cloth, in their dinning area. I had never been here before. This restaurant is a chain so perhaps wherever you live you have one close by,

We always start our dinner with a sparkling cocktail. Pamela ordered a “raspberry martini” , Tracy and I ordered our favorite wine, mine was White Zinfandel which actually is pink. I tasted Pam’s martini which was red raspberry and delicious and the reason I didn’t order It is Tracy said “it would knock me on my butt” .

Of our appetizer coconut shrimp Pamela and Tracy each ate one and I had four.

Tracy’s rainbow trout with French fries and broccoli

Pam’s rainbow trout with spinach and slaw

Flo’s salad after eating four coconut Shrimp

Coconut custard pie with whip cream and three spoons (we share) to add a little of the sweet sauce around the pie as we each take a delicious bite. YUM!

My wonderful daughter and son-in-law Pamela and Tracy Drake

Back home again I still have another gift from Pam to open,,,,,,,,,,

Surprise of surprises!!!  Everything I need to raise fresh strawberries is in this bag plus a movie and two boxes of greeting cards to mail to family and friends.

At age 94 this has been MY BEST MOTHER’S DAY EVER!!!!!

PS: I dedicate this blog to my lovely neighbors and friends Lee and Norma Althouse.

FRF ❤️

Her airplane landed in Columbia South America  airport. She had just won the Most valuable Recruiter award for 2016 with the Company “Just Energy” and was there to attend the Awards Ceremony held in a theater inside the old town walls of Cartagena Columbia South America.

Sarah Drake, my granddaughter, recruits people to work for Just Energy. She screens resumes,

calls them, sets up an interview, interviews candidates and makes the decision to hire them or not as energy recruiters.

Having won Most Valuable Recruiter she is there for the ceremony to receive her award. So…….here she is walking the red carpet.

Now you see her on stage as she speaks……

Having received her award now it is fun time……

She sails to an off shore island to compete this wonderful trip where she gets a massage on the beach and goes snorkeling her first time ever. She described it as a wonderful experience to live like a fish for an hour in that beautiful clear blue water.

After that fabulous finally to her trip she flew home completely rejuvenated. Life can’t get much better than this.

THAT IS MY GRANDDAUGHTER SARAH CHRISTINA DRAKE

FRF  ❤️

Have you ever done something really dumb???? Well……..I did. No way did I have any idea of what could happen after.

We had some red grapes that had gone bad so I put them down the garbage disposal. That was supposed to be the end of that.

However, low and behold, what I didn’t know was that kitchen drain runs through to the drains of my private bathroom. Like my lavatory and my bath tub drains. Within one day there were several fleas in my tub.

Oh my Flo, what to do now? So…..after some serious thought I poured a half gal of Clorox  down the tub drain. That didn’t work. I still had fleas come up into my bathtub.

Now after more thought I ask my son-in-law Tracy to purchase a can of flea spay. Great !!! So this is gonna work for sure. I’m gonna get those nasty fleas this time and I joyfully sprayed the lavatory drain and bathtub drains with a big sigh of relief thinking I had them this time.

What in the world am I doing wrong?   Between times of using my tub and lavatory I had to pray again and soon the can was almost emptyp, and it was a big can, but there were the nasty fleas again.

What to do? So sleep on it Flo and perhaps you will dream up a good idea! And you know what?  I should have thought of that before waisting half gallon of.clorox and a can of spray.

So here goes zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

That is it! What a bright idea. I remembered Tom Winters, my good friend and neighbor in Bird Bay, telling me how to clean all the drains in my condo.

So here is the secret method. Put a big kettle of water on to boil, add white vinegar and bring back to a boil, pour baking soda around the drain and pour the boiling hot water over the soda . I had cleaned all my condo drains periodically.

On the range I put two big kettles of water to boil, added the vinegar, brought back to a boil and used all of that in the tub. Then repeated the same routine and did the lavatory.

THAT WORKED!! Now it’s a big THANK YOU to my smart neighbor TOM WINTERS an another thank you to zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

YOU WANT TO SEE HOW HAPPY THAT MADE FLO?

FRF  ❤️