Today I Miss Abby!

I woke up this morning thinking about Abby. I don't know why, just a random thing, I guess. OF course, I started crying. I've never met anyone like Abby... she has the most beautiful smile, huge blue eyes and a wonderful wiggle! I always knew where I stood with Abby. She always greeted me with a huge smile and was ready for me to pick her up. Abby has a wonderful family, but most of them are pretty good at keeping their emotions to themselves. Abby's sister, Clarissa, is a cutie too. Clarissa really likes Tom...so it always worked out well. Tom took care of Clarissa and I took care of Abby...on the days Caleb was at our house, he would quietly play..Caleb was usually quiet unless one of his sisters broke what he was building. I was talking to Clarissa the other day, she always wants to talk to Tom... so I put Tom on the phone and she asked him if she could come to our house. How do you explain to a 3 year old that you have moved far away and you just can't jump in the car and come pick her up? Of course, I miss Matt, Angie, Danny, Jake, Aaron, Caleb & Clarissa too! I miss those (quiet) Sunday family dinners, I miss the homemade rolls, homemade cinammon rolls, all the good food actually. I miss the hours we got to spend with the whole family. Today I'm also missing all those baseball games that will be coming up this summer.

Our new home is way toooo quiet...there are no toys in sight. There is no laughter of small children, no cartoons on the TV, no snack cups sitting around with goldfish in them. Clarissa & Abby would love our new house, I'm thinking I would never know where they are, because there are many places for them to hide here. We have a huge yard for them to play in, a quiet street that we wouldn't have to worry about speeding cars...now we just need the little ones back!

You are probably wondering? It's one of God's greatest mysteries! You can fall in love with a family that isn't even related by blood, marriage or anything like that. The Rogers snuck into our hearts, and they will remain there even though many miles now seperate us.

We do have 4 biological grandsons. They have always lived far away. So we have never got to spend time with them like we did our Michigan grandchildren. I do love my 4 grandsons dearly, and wish I could spend as much time with them as I have our adopted grandchildren. Lane lives in Orlando, so hopefully we will be able to have him spend time with us here in Georgia.
Kacy, Kyler, Lane & Brendan...we DO love you too! And we miss you all very much!

But Today I Miss Abby!
Michele

Tom's New Church Position

Today Tom was asked to be the 2nd Counselor in our Ward Bishopric. It was a big surprise for both of us. For those non member family and friends...a ward is our congregation and the Bishopric is made up of 3 men...they are responsible for running our ward. We have the Bishop, who is the main man in charge and he has 2 counselors...the 1st Counselor and the 2nd Counselor. If any of you would like to talk to Tom personally and find out more about his new Church calling, I'm sure he'd love to tell you. BUT, please give him a couple of weeks to really find out what exactly his responsibilities are! All I really know about it is this...I HAVE TO SIT BY MYSELF because Tom has to sit up on the stand every Sunday now. Boy how I miss my Michigan FAMILY!!! I wish they were here to sit by me!

We hope everyone had a Great Valentine's Day!
Love,
Michele

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

We hope everyone enjoys a very Happy Valentine's Day! Most of you know that today is also my birthday. I can hardly believe I'm the age I am. If any of you want to know that magic #, you'll have to ask Aaron Rogers. I don't think I want to admit what that number has climbed too! I can remember when my Grandmother was my age, and boy did I think she was old! I guess I will count my many blessings and be thankful that I'm still alive and Kickin' and in relative good health.

It's cloudy and rainy here today. But this past week was just beautiful.

For those that don't know my secret...it's always a good birthday for me IF I'm NOT SICK! February has historically been a sick month for me. But I'm well..so it's a GREAT DAY!
Love to all!
Michele

Doctors, Insurance & Meds

Well...yesterday was an amazing day in regards to Drs., Insurance & Meds. We went to our new doctor. He is CUTE, very young and very nice and he had no problems ordering blood work, which can be done right in his office. I have to say that our NEW insurance is SO much nicer and cheaper than our old insurance. We were able to go back to our old meds, at a cheaper price. Surprise #1 came when we had to pay at the Dr. office, $20 for both of us instead of $70. Then came surprise #2 at Kroger where we went to get some of our meds. We got generic 30 days supply for 3 meds, cost 80 CENTS! ( for all 3). Surprise #3 came when I was dealing with our online meds. The people were friendly, helpful and the meds. so much cheaper. 4 meds for $180 (90 day supply), compared to 2 meds for $160. And supposedly we will have NO hassle getting the meds we need! That will be another blessing too! And the last added blessing is that this new insurance is $50 cheaper per month than our previous insurance. It is hard for me to believe what a mess insurance companies have made for all of us. We are truly at the mercy of these insurance companies. I can't even imagine having to try to live without insurance! I am very thankful we found a company that has such amazing insurance! All I can say is this: I HOPE IT DOESN'T CHANGE anytime soon!

It was an amazing day, and we were BLESSED!

Birds

I thought I'd just bring everyone up to date on the birds we've seen around here. I haven't seen the wild turkeys since last week, that is disappointing. But yesterday Tom told me to look out the front window to see all the robins. There were at least 40 robins in our front yard. I've never seen so many robins together like that. Then about an hour later Tom hollered from the kitchen to ask me what I thought was in the tree. At first, all we could see was something bright red. When it moved, we decided we better take a closer look...so we went to the other door and sure enough it was a pretty good size bird. After it moved around the tree where we could see it better, we decided it was a red headed wookpecker. I'd NEVER seen a red headed woodpecker before. He sure looked like Woody. It was fun to see him! I've also seen cardinals and somekind of blue birds. Each day brings different kinds of birds to our yard. I guess that's a benefit of living down south in the winter? We get to see so many kinds of birds that head back home for the summers.

We hope ya'll are having a great day!
Michele

Face Book

Ok, so a friend asked Tom to join Face Book, which he did. So, I have a question. What are the pros and cons of Face Book? I know that a number of you do have Face Book accounts. So, if you'd please let me know what you think of Face Book, I'd really appreciate it. Tom actually got to type to his cousin in Phoenix, so that was cool. I guess you can see who is online and then do an IM like thing with them. I don't know if I want to take the time or have the energy to do another thing besides this blog...so any and all advice would be appreciated!
Michele

My Closet, The adventure continues

Back to My closet. I've finally gotten all my clothes and shoes unpacked. Since I decided I couldn't use the walk-in closet, I took over the smaller closet in our bedroom and the closet in the office. I am proud to say that I think it will work fine. Now I have a summer closet and a winter closet. And I must admit that I have a bit of stuff in Tom's big closet...but he is very kind and willing to share with me. I don't think he's ever had such a big closet, but he's got it organized really well. We are sharing my shoe rack, I figured since he let me put it in his closet I could share it with him.

I've been reminded lots lately of a thought my good friend, Dawn, shared with me long ago. It goes with my potted flower pens she gave me when I was released from Young Womens. The thought is this: "BLOOM WHERE YOU ARE PLANTED." I'm trying very hard to do just that. These past few weeks, I think I was acting more like a weed than a beautiful flower. I'm trying really hard to do better and be more creative on how and where I'm putting things in our new home. All seems to be more settled each day and our home is becoming more homey now that most of the boxes are removed.

Stay Safe & God Bless!
Michele

Spiders

I ABHOR SPIDERS!!!! They just give me the creeps, to say the least. I have killed 5 spiders since we moved in. These are those dark black spiders about the size of a nickel..including their legs. It's to the point that I just start looking in all the corners expecting a new spider to appear. I think I'll keep wearing shoes or slippers in the house, just in case I happen to step on one. In my younger years, I'd just start hollering for someone to come kill the spider. Usually one of my sons was around and could handle that for me. Now that I'm here alone most of the time, it's up to ME to kill the spiders. IT just seems like everytime I see a spider, Tom's at work, hence home alone! I haven't come to the point that I'm nice to spiders and just try to pick them up somehow and take them outside where they belong. If they are inside, they must die! If I could find a fly swatter, I'd use that, but no luck finding a fly swatter yet. SO, I just have to get them with a paper towel and squish. I hate that feeling, seems like I can feel that squish and it makes me tremble.

How is YOUR day going?
Michele

Water?!?!

Have you ever stopped to think about water? It's been on my mind since we moved here. I was hoping that we could drink the water, and we can...as long as we drink it from the side by side refrigerator. Thank goodness for that side by side! The water tastes kinda funky if you drink it from the sink. Sometimes it even smells! I haven't decided WHAT it smells like yet. It's NOT that sulfur smell I'm used to...but something entirely different. The water is very soft, we can really tell the difference in our hair after a shower. There seems to not be much iron in the water either. Hence no red ring in the toilets. When we went to Savannah to pay our deposit at the water company, we found out that this water company actually manages most of the water companies in the area, with over 10,000 customers. I wondered at the time how they managed to take care of so many different water companies. I am very thankful that we can drink this water and that it doesn't have that funky smell all the time.

So? The next time you get a chance, just take a few minutes and think about your water, please! It seems like a trivial thing to most Americans, but what a priviledge it is to just have decent water each and every day of our lives.

Michele

Boxes, and More Boxes & Wild Turkeys!

HI All,
There really isn't anything new to report...I'm STILL unpacking boxes and looking for missing things. I thought we'd labeled the boxes really well.....BUT, not well enough apparently! Seriously though, the garage is looking a bit bare, that has to mean that most of the boxes are already unpacked or else they are in the spare bedroom still waiting to be unpacked! I thought I'd gotten rid of A LOT of my clothes and shoes, but I still have way to much here. I still have 3 boxes that aren't even unpacked yet, mainly because I don't know where I'm going to put that stuff!

On the bright side...we have wild turkeys in the backyard! I first saw them Monday morning and couldn't figure out what they were. I saw them again yesterday at noon, so I went searching online to see what I was actually seeing. They are wild turkeys. And NO, I haven't been drinking the "Wild Turkey!". I saw about 10 of them, they just feed right behind the house in the dead brush and grasses. I tried taking some photos, but didn't get any really good ones, because I was shooting through the French Door...and when I tried opening the door, they took off.

For all our Northern Family & Friends...it's been cold here the past few days. I mean COLD! Lows at night...mid teens, daytime temps...high 40's. Tom even had to dig out his window scraper again!

We hope ya'll are surviving your bitter cold temps! Take Care & God Bless!
Michele