Archive forNovember, 2013

Ok, So I’m Different

Unlike most women, I don’t like to shop for clothes. I’m always disappointed by what I find and the whole process discourages me.

I’d much rather buy stuff on line and take my chances on how it fits. (Yes, I ship lots of stuff back and many items I buy on eBay end up being donated to my favorite thrift shops.)

But on January 4th, 2014, my grandson, Kris, is getting married at Hidden Valley in Carmel Valley, CA. I’ll be leaving for California January 2nd. (John won’t be going with me.)

The ceremony will start at 5 o’clock in the afternoon immediately followed by the reception. It’s going to be a rather intimate outdoor wedding with about fifty guests and five bridesmaid/groomsmen couples.

The bride, Lauren, has created a website on weddingwire.com where she states, “The suggested attire is Semi-Dressy Casual. Men: Dress pants, button-up shirt with tie or bow tie. Women: Cocktail or Summer sun dress..”

Without success I’ve been trying to find something to wear to the wedding. I have recently purchased two new dresses – one is a hot pink but it’s probably too youthful for the “grandmother of the groom” (plus it’s a little more snug than I would like it to be) and the other (turquoise and green chiffon) just doesn’t seem classy enough. I have been looking for something dressy that would also work for our big January SnoBall dinner-dance so it needs to be fun and not stoggy. (I rejected several jacket dresses because they looked like something an old lady would wear.) Today I went on line and determinedly searched. I ended up ordering the one below which I hope will work. (I’ll know when it arrives from Overstock.com next week.)

In the photos, it looks black but it’s described as a deep gray. I have silver or black (sandal style) heels with about a 2″ heel and a small silver or black purse. (I’ll decide when I decide what jewelry to wear.) Best part about the dress is that John likes it. If worse comes to worse, I have a burgundy, sleeveless, v-neck chiffon dress that I got a couple years ago, or I have a couple plain black dresses with jackets (but I don’t like to wear black to a wedding). I hoped for something sort of sophisticated. This one is.

And, if I don’t like it or what I have, I’ll still have time to shop.

Comments off

We’ve now been here nearly a month

Let’s see.. the highlights this week included: attending lawn bowling lessons, finally having our golf cart batteries replaced (so we can now go places), going to an RV storage club meeting, attending a Michigan Club organizational meeting/dinner with friends, attending our country couples dance lessons, attending a “Sunshine Kids benefit” dance with two tables of friends from our group and today John had his chorus practice and I went to line dance classes. We even found time to go shopping a couple times and enjoy some wonderful home-cooked meals. (And of course on Saturday and Sunday, John took in several football games.)

It has all been fun! And that’s just the past week.

You may notice the absence of much swimming pool time. I don’t know how it happened but I only got to the pool ONCE this past week!! Tomorrow I hope I can spend the day in the sun. We have karaoke tomorrow evening, but I’m hoping that tomorrow morning/afternoon I can get to the pool.

Our week wasn’t all fun. There were also productive/work hours. I spent several hours up-dating the membership list for the Michigan Club as well as their website (http://michclub.com). AND I sold two hammered dulcimers from my http://dulcimers.biz website! And I spent quite a bit of time balancing our budget, paying bills and doing laundry and housework.

Yup, it is paradise! We totally enjoy the view from our great room.. watching the birds and enjoying the sunsets. It’s all so incredible!

Comments off

Enjoying everything!

Our three weeks here in Florida have been filled to capacity with dozens of fun activities. John often says that he wishes we didn’t enjoy our time here so much because it makes time fly! I cannot believe that we’re nearly through our first month!

We are settling into a routine. John has his interests: Weekends he finds time to watch his college and NFL football games, but he also has played a little pickleball and goes to chorus. I like line dance classes on Mondays and pool time (especially when John’s watching football). I’ve also had to do a lot of work on my on-line business. Together we enjoy shopping, dance classes and dances, gathering with friends, parties (there have been several), and we’ve attending lawn bowling classes. With lawn bowling, I’m very bad but improving. John, as usual, is good at most athletic endeavors. Hopefully I can continue to make progress. It’s fun, but it is more tiring than I’d guessed.

So Monday mornings you might find us at lawn bowling, afternoons John enjoys chorus and I go to line dance classes. Tuesday evenings we are generally at karaoke, although we missed last night’s because we were at a street party featuring Elvis at our friends’ (the Markland’s) condo. Wednesday more lawn bowling, and a country couples dance class. Thursday we generally have Rockin’ Rendezvous, but tomorrow instead we’ll attend a Michigan Club organizational dinner and another meeting. Friday it’s more lawn bowling. Weekends I try to enjoy pool time and John watches his football games. (We will probably get lawn bowling down to a couple times a week, but it is available five-days-a-week.)

We enjoyed an evening in Bradenton with the Coopers for an art festival, and the Kings Point “follies” last Friday night. There was an Oldies but Goodies dance, a Halloween Party, and a huge community garage sale. Last night it was a neighborhood Elvis street party and potluck.

Unfortunately a week ago, I have been under the weather. Missed a pool party and didn’t perform up to speed on other activities. But today I finally feel I’m back to normal (except my stamina needs to be re-built).

Hope this lawn bowling activity works for me. It doesn’t require balance (which eliminates so many sports for me). I have a long way to go before I can play decently, but I’m trying really hard. John’s a natural. I hope folks understand that I put forth all the energy that’s in me. I have yet to really try a “game.” So far it’s just been practice. We’ll see how it works when I actually play with a “team.”

Today it was cool. Didn’t have time for the pool anyway, but I would really like some sun time.

I have yet to figure out how folks get their housework done. I have laundry and house cleaning that is piling up. Oh, well… Life is good and too short to worry about housework.

Comments off

Click here to go to the Skaryd's Biography and a link for emailing.