Kathy from Valrico, Florida, USA

Way To Go Kathy!!! You Did it... I know you would get there!!!

Good that your Frangipanis are going well... I have just sent you a email..

Kathy, I did get your email and message on my page.
Emily did really well in these ballet competitions, she managed to place 3rd in her classical, received an Honourable mention in her Neo/classical and Character (polish dance), and this weekend danced in the schools ballet classical troupe and they received an Honrable Mention also. Next comps start in July. In the mean time we have her Ballet Exam this weekend. I hope she does really well, as last year we only just missed out on getting a Ballet Scholarship, would be nice to get it this year, it will certainly help with the financial side of things.
Glad you got the smilie, if you need help on setting smilies up, I posted a 'how to' on my page (9).
Love your youtube. If you need any more help, just ask.

Hello Kathy, I just watched your Youtube, it brought tears to my eyes. A beautiful tribute.

Wow Kathy that is a powerful video, thank you for posting it

Kathy, You are very welcome. I would not have known that if it weren't for the other helpful people on this site! (CG for one).
No word on the job yet, I'm not expecting anything for another week...PA jobs work that way. Thanks for asking!

Hi Kathy, Thanks for stopping by my new place. Ebony sure is a beautiful puppy. Is he a labradore? You do have a very good memory. Yes, my oldest daughter, Tasha, and Jeff married April 7th. She is in the NROTC at Univ. of Washington (Seattle) and will graduate and be commissioned into the Navy on June 8th. She got her orders and will be going to Pensicola, Fla. for flight school (helicopters) in October. Jeff graduated last year (NROTC) and is stationed in Charleston, S. Carolina. And SaraLyn is our other daughter and will also be graduating on June 8th only from high school. She has taken computer and photography classes and knows a lot more about everything on the computer. I am somewhat 'computer literate'. (HeHe) I rely on her to help me do 'new things' until I get the hang of it. I'd love toget to know you better so stop on by anytime you want.

Kathy, I just wrote a response re. Tasha and SIL on my page by accident so please go there to read it. Also, SaraLyn is not academic inclined at this time. She has always been more of a hands-on person anyway. She is planning on going to beauty college near our house next year and will still live here. Then she and Mike (my hubby) plan to open a barber shop together. She will be his boss and she really likes that idea . Since he is on kidney dialysis, he will probably only have the strength to work a couple of hours a week. He used to have a barber shop until he started dialysis and then had to let it go, so it will be perfect for him. And he will be there to help her learn how to keep up her bookkeeping, etc.
But if she gets a job with AmeriCorps (also here in Hoquiam), she would wait 1 year to start beauty college. She also figures that later, if she decides to go to college, she can cut hair to help her through college. She also figures that if we ever go thru a recession or depression again, she could trade hair cuts for food, etc. We are just glad we got her thru HS, a few years ago her graduating was a far fetched hope, as she had ADHD (now ADD) and is meds for Bipolar Disease). It's been a hugh struggle since 2nd grade. But she made it and we are so proud of her.
When we adopted her, we knew mental illness was likely. We were both employed in that field and felt we could recognize it early on IF there was a problem. We figured we would be able to get her the help, and understanding of it, that she would need to be successful in life.

I meant to say that Mike would be able to work 2 hours a DAY, not a week.
How about your family? How old are your kids and what are they doing now? Do any of them live near you guys? And what kind of work did your husband do in the Navy? Was he on a destroyer, aircraft carrier or sub? I'd like to know more about you.

Hi thanks for visiting my page and my flickr,
sunset in Honduras was after a day of rain and no diving (why we went there) but as they say every cloud has a silver (and Gold) lining, Our dog is a long haired Akita but my wife just had her shaved so she looks funny now, don't know about' Our Pets' page tell me more, well ttfn

Hi Kathy and thanks for visiting my page. You are right, I do enjoy traveling and I love taking pictures. Speakig of which, I really enjoyed looking at the pictures that you posted on flickr. Come by and visit again some time soon.

Hi Kathy - Thanks for your visit. We are only an hour east of Lansing. Yes, I am doing the food. My older daughter came over this morning and we made the salads. Sunday we are going to be busy. My oldest son will be here to help me. We have invited about 100 people so it won't be too bad. Our power had just gone out and came back. I suspect it is the heat. There are other problems in the Detroit area. I just hope we can get the food cooked on Sunday. We have several sterno heaters we are using to keep the food warm.
Thank you for the nice comments.

How is Ebony? I love that name....

Hello Kathy, whew I am finally back on line. the internet bonked out last week and the repairman finally came today. i've been having withdrawals and am glad my pda/phone has sudoku on it or i'd be over the edge! lol.

i will get a pix of murphy with his doggles soon and get it posted. i hadn't even thought of that. glad you suggested it. he is still getting used to them. he is using both paws to push them up over his eyes or somehow he can get them under his chin. haven't figured out how he gets that done! what a hoot.

i'll start the Mac/Murphy story under this msg. and will give you the condensed version. If i leave out any pertinent info, please ask.

We had 2 dogs - His, a jack russell named Maggie and my Maltese, Mac. Mac was trying to jump on my lap (he's under 5 lbs) and something happened, we have no clue what. a seizure or he slipped on the floor, no clue....anyway, he saw the vet next a.m. and was to be watched. hubby came home that nite and let them outside and he came back to put on clothes to go out w/them and Mac was already gone. we searched until almost midnite and no Mac. we did everything we could to find him. hubby felt so badly about losing my pup that he wanted to get me another. i really didn't feel like doing anything just yet, but he was so pathetic that my sister (who worked for me as office mgr) found a maltese on the net. i said no, find a westie. so she did and we got him at 4 wks old on a friday nite. i couldn't play with him or name him or anything that weekend. monday at work, a neighbor called and said they had our dog but he was quite weak. we zoomed after him, took him to the vet, where he stayed overnite, then was transferred to purdue U. animal hospital and in intensive care for 4 days. he had lost almost 30% of his body weight and was starving. he was bones and white fur. they nursed him back to health, but he has never been quite the same. there has been some neurological damage, but nothing has been named. i just can see the difference. he is quite fragile and still have a 'tic' with his back leg. he scratches, but never 'connects' (does that make sense?) so, now what to do about the new pup...of course, hubby couldn't part with him. (he has always brought home strays). so a neighbor and my sis both said 'Murphy', sis said, it's gotta be murphy since the lost dog was found, right after it was replaced - a form of murphy's laws. and it began with M, a requirement for maggie and mac. so we now had 3 dogs. that put me over the edge. can't deal with 3 in our small small small space. just a month ago,i took maggie to my sis's and she now has a new home. maggie is so thrilled. she is the queen of a mini farm, with several kids(sis's grandkids), horses, and lots of critters to chase. she's in heaven and spoiled rotten. and i'm thrilled with only 2 again! much much better.
whew. that was lengthy! and now you know the rest of the story. lol

Mac was gone 8 days. it was in January in Indiana and the first nite was in the 60s, but next nite dropped to 18 deg. and stayed cold the rest of the week. Mac somehow found his way across the road and into a neighbor's garage. he never made a sound so they didn't know he was even in there. the garage was unheated. i guess the breeder thought 4 weeks was old enough. he's been a great pup now that maggie isn't around to agitate him. 2 terriers are more like a tornado.

Hi Kathy, thanks for your comments on my page, Scottie is my mother in law who just left to go home to California, Keno is the dog, and Claudia is my wife. Posted more about Keno on our pets page. Smilies were kind of tough to get on page but the final effect was worth it.

Hello Kathy , what about the dance yesterday , did you do it ? and did it give any results ?
i wonder why do you want rain now , i thought it is the end of winter everywhere except in Australia of course . anyway tell me if you need help with dancing

Kathy, The dr's appt was for something else. Won't be going back to that dr. not quite sure why I was refered to him. Anyway the knee is about the same, some days better some worse. I don't see that dr until 11 June, who knows when surgery will be. They seem to have a 2 to 3 week wait for surgery.
We love the sunroom, have had it for a year now. I have even more plants than what the pictures show. Have been getting cacti they are easy to maintain. Kevin waters when we are away.

Hello Kathy , so , it happened then ,''the rain'' i wish i live near so i can see you both . Winter here is over , on the twenty first of June we start our summer , until September .where we start fall .We are enjoying spring time now , it is hot thou , people started to go swimming . I didn't go yet .How far are you from Los Angeles . Have a nice time Kathy , come visit anytime .

Hi Kathy,
I have been very busy with my sick mother. She is stable, but can no longer walk and is using a wheelchair. She has 24/7 caregivers from hospice. She is comfortable, but the progression of the cancer will continue and there will be no stopping it.

I have not kept up with the goings on at Marinelife Center in Juno Beach, I have had a hard time getting on line or time to check. I know that we were having a good number of nests but that some had been washed out with all the high surf in the last few weeks. Check nest count at floridaleatherbacks.com

The biggest reason I am not posting on Sudoku is my life is just too busy right now. I filter out all the you tube and avatars, I do visit personal pages.

Mom very much enjoyed the pictures you sent of Harrison Howe 'at Machu Pichu'. She said:

'Looks like he finally made it there after all. He would be extremely pleased. Thank you very much.'

Jim

Hi, Kathy! Thank you for visiting my page, and I, too, am glad there's another tennis lover in Sudokuland! Although I played in USTA leagues in Richmond, VA before moving to St. Simons, the league I started here is not affiliated with USTA. I wanted to get as many people involved as possible, and many of the novices didn't feel they were ready to play 'serious' tennis. So, we have men and women from 18 to 87 in the league! We have an A division (4.0 and up) which plays their team matches on Sunday afternoons, a B Division (3.0 to 3.5) that plays on Saturday afternoons and two mixed level divisions that play on Thursday nights or Friday mornings. In the mixed level group, each match consists of 4 doubles: the #1 doubles is A level; the #2 doubles is B level; the #3 doubles is B/C level; and the #4 doubles if C/Novice level. We are having a lot of fun! We also have lots of social activities and round-robin tournaments during the off season (summer and winter). Needless to say, this is keeping me very busy, but I love every minute of it!

PS: Thanks for the orange juice! I'm leaving some peach nectar for you!!!

Hi Kathy - Thank you for your visit! I remember when our dog was a puppy, she caught a cold. They called it Kennel Couph. It is just like a baby. You want to help them feel better. Can you give her an antihistamine to dry her up?

I don't feel ambitious. It is hot and humid up here. I found chicken breasts on sale a few weeks ago. We are going to cook them in celery soup with cheese and bread crumbs on top. Easy right? We are going to have Mostoccoli (Sp) in a big pan with a side pan of meatballs and extra sauce. (Easy) Then we are fixing a pan of SourKraut/Sausage. I had done this dish at another party. It was gone in no time. You add a couple of apples, brown sugar, and cinnamon. It is yummy. We made salads yesterday. We are cutting up a fresh fruit salal tomorrow and we have two fresh veggie trays from Sam's Club. I have ordered an ice cream cart and a full sheet cake from Sam's.

Oh yes, tomorrow we are making a big Greek Salad and a friend is bringing potato salad. I have a tortolini (sp)/Havarti salald, oriental cole slaw, confetti beet salad and a creamy cauliflower salad. Have I made you hungry yet? I think we are in good shape. My daughter is bringing dinner rolls tomorrow. There should be something here to please everyone! (I will be glad when it is over.)

Thank you for remembering and the well wishes, even though a bit early. We did last minute stuff today but weren't frantic because we felt like it was pretty much done. We had time to go catch the latest Pirates movie. It was ok, but not as good as the other two. I'll be sure to post pictures and let you know how it went after the show is over.

Hi Kathy. It is funny because when I was growing up I didn't know any other Wendys but now I know about four. No he is not my first nephew. I have three neices (20, 8 and 5) and one (other) nephew (18).
The picture of the cat everyone was talking about was a photo of a tiger. I was learning how to make my page and used a photo that was not one I took. So I could continue using it.

Ooops I meant couldn't

Hi, Kathy! Yesterday was a wonderful day to watch the French Open on TV. It rained for hours! Thank goodness!

Regarding my league, each of our four divisions has four teams, each playing each other twice in the spring and twice in the fall. We tally the total number of sets won so that there are fewer ties. Then, the spring scores are added to the fall scores to determine the winning teams at the end of the year. If there are any ties, we'll have a playoff. It seems to be working fairly well. We play on the four public courts on St. Simons and on eight public courts in Brunswick. Plus, Sea Island just joined with a team in the A division, so when they have home matches, we get to play at their clay-court facility. (The public courts are all hard surface). We also schedule several round-robin tournaments throughout the year at the Jekyll Island Tennis Center (they have 12 clay courts).

You should stop by and see St. Simons Island on your trip to Fripp Island. We're not far off 95, and there are lots of great places for lunch (or whatever). It's a lovely island - and it's not private like neighboring Sea Island. Let me know if you're stopping by, and I'll meet you for lunch if I'm in town!

Take care!
Jane

Hi Kathy, saw your comments today (6/4) sunday here - that ebony is growing. i'd been wondering, so was glad to see your post. looking forward to more and current pictures as she grows.

Hey Kathy ~ I have a tip I got from a training book for you on Ebony,when you take her out to potty ,make a little chant just loud enough for her to hear ...go potty ...go potty and she we go potty on command ! It really works all I have to do is whisper it and he will go. I saw this trainer on Oprah years ago and she was amazing so I got on amazon and looked to see if I could still bet her book and I did ,I think I payed less the shipping and a few CENTS for it!its called -
Shelby Marlo's New Art of Dog Training I recommend it

Hello again - it's me again. just wanted to let you know my Mac is on the 6 X 6 hard puzzle today (6/4)

Hi Kathy (and say hi to Rob and EBONY)! There are so many page to get around now that it gets difficult to visit on a regular basis. Sounds like Ebony will grow to be a BIG dog. Sounds like you're enjoying your new family member and having fun with your tennis. Thanks for your support of the Senators. Uphill climb still, but not impossible.
Cheers, and stay smiling!

Unfortunately Kathy the cat in my avatar is not one of mine either. Looks like I will have to have a pic of mine...

Yes Kathy, I teach third grade. It's a good age, they're still respectful and still need the surrogate parent but they're beginning to think and are expected to apply analytical thinking. It means I can use humor for disciplinary actions. Much more fun this way! Thank you for remembering me!

Kathy, just watched your YouTube - it was wonderful - thanks

hi Kathy! woohoo, i finally got a new avatar working. it's murphy. hope it pops in with this note!

Hello Kathy , the fighting is still on , although the army took 2/3 of the camp till now , but the terrorists are of th kind that do not surrender ,and they intend to fight util they die .Yesterday evening , there was shooting on the army in another place in the south , but today it stopped . What is going on is awful , we don't know what is going to happen ,the army cannot stop without capturing or killing them ,i don't know if you 've read hoe it started two weeks ago , they slaughtered 10 soldiers ,who were sleeping without reason , most of them were very young .
My son in LA , finished his Civil engineering BS , in the American university of Beirut , which is one of the best uni and went to USC and studied masters in construction management for one and a half year , graduated with honours .''proud mama'' and started working there directly .He is there since august 2002. I visited him on May 2003 , the first year was very difficult for me . And since he started working he comes twice every year , on Xmas and in summer .Did i bore you with my long story?? . i thank you again for thinking of me .

Hi again , i looked at Valrico on google earth ,i saw Tampa too . The world is small now , you can see everywhere . My oldest son's name is Tarek , second is Ziad which are old names , Michel is the youngest , we named him after my brother who was an officer in the Lebanese Army , and was killed during the civil war on 1983 . Tarek is working with Jacobs company .It has a website . He is doing fine , i miss him , if things are like now and he doesn't come , i will go and see him for sure . I can send you my email address if you wish , i don't mind you asking me about anything , on the contrary . I love people and like to have friends everywhere .Thank you for your concern .

Dear Kathy,
Teaching is not a thankless job because every day there's a child or two you reach and the overwhelming feeling of happiness that you made a difference in someone's life is worth every aggravating moment! Your daughter is someone very, very special. I've taught for Los Angeles Unified School District for 29 years and been a teacher for 31. I'll retire in 2012. I still am in contact with a number of my former students. The one I taught in 1986 and 1988, just got married and sent me pictures!

Kathy I'm in it for the laughs. Laughter keeps you young and a class of third graders can keep you chuckling daily. Your daughter will have a wonderful time of her dear life. Here in California we have National Board Certificated (this is a nationwide credential)teachers like me who are mentors for teachers just starting out. A teacher here cannot get a cleared credential without completing a 2 year Beginning Teacher program. We stay with our charges for the 2 years helping them in the classroom and with their portfolios, sounding board for their ideas and a shoulder for those horrendous days.

Hello Kathy , hope you are OK , i dropped by to tell you , do not be afraid of the Hurricane , it is here already , it hit more than one country in the middle east one of them is Oman and Jomaira , heard the news they said it is 240km/ hour . Thank God they were prepared . No , it didn't hit Lebanon we don't have a room for him now HeHe . We don't have them usually .