Saturday, October 31, 2009

10/31/2009 ….And the Gang Rolls In!

The “gang”. It seems strange to use the word gang when you are talking about a group of seniors. Seniors! I don’t like that word. Well, I don’t like it until it means I get a discount for something. Heck, if I’m with a group and everyone is getting a “senior discount” I may even age a few years if need be. I’ve been known to age from 55 to senior status in a blink of an eye. I especially like it when Bob goes to buy our tickets to whatever function we’re attending and he gets the two senior tickets. Of course with him being five years older than me I have to blend into the background so no one takes notice of the young chick he’s with.

So as the title says, the gang is rollin’ in. Chuck and Janet arrived today as did Bill and Judy. Keith and Lorraine came in a few days ago and Dan and Bonnie are here. Sandy and Carl have been here a few weeks and Marlene and Garry came in last week. So day by day the another RV spot fills, another park model gets opened up and we’re all happy to be here and together again. Yep, the gang is rollin’ in. Let the winter season begin!

Bob has been very busy around here as he is running new electric lines and adding electrical outlets where we had none.

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He’s been busy running wires and connecting this to that.

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A lot of women may be extremely nervous when their husbands start cutting holes in the side of their homes but I have no qualms at all. In 29 years, Bob has never messed anything up, not once. Yes, ladies, I know how lucky I am!

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I’m showing you this picture of what I now view as a dismal “backyard”. It won’t be this way for long. I’ve seen Bob just stand there at one end, just looking, and I know from experience the wheels are turning. I watched him measure yesterday, side to side, front to back, oh yes, the wheels are turning and I know a mini paradise isn’t too far off in the future. So here is our before picture.

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We had a slight breeze today so our silverware chimes were making beautiful music for us.

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Bob found this skeleton of a cactus in the yard. Oh yeah, and look at that temperature! In the shade no less.

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Our cactus is having a hard time. We don’t know what’s wrong with it. It seems to be dying but we don’t know why.

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Our oranges are starting to ripen.

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We had a Halloween party in the park tonight but Bob and I opted to stay home and watch our Phillies play. I wish the game had a better outcome but there’s always tomorrow’s game. I sure wouldn’t want to be in Philadelphia on Sunday. The Phillies are playing in the World Series and the Eagles have a home game. Can you imagine the traffic? Here’s hoping our hometown teams have winning days tomorrow.

I can’t wait to see what tomorrow brings.

Friday, October 30, 2009

10/30/2009 88,000 is Right Around the Corner

Today the counter should roll over to 88,000. Will it be you? If so, leave a comment please.


thanks!

Snookie

We know who turned it! It was our friend Marilyn in Calgary, Canada. You may remember that we visited with her and Wilf when returned from Alaska. Thanks for letting me know.

Snookie

Thursday, October 29, 2009

10/29/2009 Lovely Ladies Lunch

Its a tad bit warmer today, warm enough to wear shorts at least but I have to admit, most were in long pants until mid afternoon. Not me, I’m not giving in yet!

Today I had the pleasure of going to lunch with the girls. Since Nancy (Killer) Reid will only be in this area until Friday we decided to go out to lunch. There was Nancy of course, LaVon, Ginny, Donna and me.

It was decided that we would all meet at the Creative Cafe in Casa Grande at 11:30. Donna drove from Quail Run and Ginny and I rode with her. We arrived at noon. Donna said we would go the “back way” into town and Ginny and I agreed with her. We figured she knew where she was going. What we didn’t know was that Donna was counting on us to tell her the way. Now Ginny and I had been this way many times,,,,,as passengers. When you are a passenger you don’t pay attention, at least Ginny and I don’t. Next thing you know we’re on this dusty dirt road with no town in sight. Ok, turn around. We eventually got there but not without two calls from LaVon asking how close we were getting. Next time, we go the “front” way.

We finally arrived and LaVon poses by the sign.

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It’s my first time in this restaurant and I had no idea what to expect.

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This restaurant was started back in 2000 for a specific reason. The owners and their partner, sorry I forget their names, started this restaurant to give mentally challenged adults a place to get a job.

Everyone is greeted by Jimmy with his signature, “Have you been a good girl/boy today?” Jimmy’s job is to bus the tables and he was helpful in getting our waiter a few times when we needed him. Jim also refreshed out drinks…..with a huge smile!

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What struck me first when we entered was the splash of color everywhere.

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Anthony was our waiter for the day and he was very good.

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It was very hard to pick what to order because the menu carried so many choices and they all sounded sooooo good! We finally got everything ordered and then it was time to play.

Donna and Nancy

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Lunches arrived and I was sorry I didn’t get what LaVon and Nancy got. Three berry salad with chicken.

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I ordered……drum roll please……..a HAMBURGER!

At one point I had to go to the ladies room and was so taken with how nicely it was painted I went back with camera in hand.

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The water fountain area.

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When I passed the camera to show how pretty the ladies room is the question of “What does the men’s room look like?” came up. Wrong thing to say to this group! Donna and I took off for the men’s room. She knocked and when we didn’t hear anything she pushed open the door and called out, “Anybody in here?” When we got no response she pushed the door all the way open and I snapped one.

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Decorated with kokopelli’s, it figures.

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It was time for our group picture and all but one of us had a camera so Anthony, our waiter, was quite busy with the picture taking.

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Our delicious lunch was over and it was time to take our leave.

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We all enjoyed our luncheon very much. Good food, GREAT friends, a super way to spend a Thursday noontime.

Afterwards we stopped at the Chamber of Commerce to pick up lots of brochures for ideas for day trips. Readers, I’m going to be taking you to some pretty interesting places this winter season.

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

10/28/2009 Slugs “R” Us

A cold front came through this area last night and it’s windy and the sand is blowing and its cool outside. Neither one of us had any reason to go outside to we hibernated in our little home here in the desert. It will be nicer tomorrow and back in the high 80’s by the weekend. That makes me smile.

You all know how I feel about Christmas decorations being out long before Halloween is really on our minds. Well, let me tell you! This past Saturday I was welcoming a friend back to Quail Run and she had just gotten her mail out of her mailbox. She was rifling through it and said, “Oh my gosh, MY FIRST CHRISTMAS CARD!” Have any of you sent your cards yet? Granted my in-park cards are already addressed but certainly won’t be put out for A LOT of weeks yet. Christmas cards mailed the week before Halloween! That’s wrong! That’s soooo wrong! I don’t care who you are, you don’t have Christmas spirit the week before Halloween. I think its even a law that you can’t have Christmas spirit before Halloween. Those cards were sent out as a chore! How do I know that? Because my friend made the remark that the sender was leaving on a road trip and probably sent them out early so that it would be done. Would it have been so hard to take a box or bag of addressed, stamped cards with her and mail from the road in, oh, say,,,,,DECEMBER???? So is the recipient supposed to display the card, this week before Halloween, if it is her normal thing to do so with Christmas cards? It’s wrong. Just wrong. Ok, I feel better now.

I am happy to report that I can make a tight fist! My water retention is gone! Hooray!

This next little bit is for my friend LaVon.

Lavon, I haven’t given you a picture of a dead tree in quite awhile. Sorry for that but there just aren’t many trees in the desert, let alone dead ones. So instead, I have THIS for you!

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Not 7.5 for you LaVon…..EIGHT!

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

10/27/2009 A River Runs Through It

Line dancing started this morning! But before I get into that let me tell you that I had a pretty good night’s sleep. I only got up three times but I think got rid of GALLONS each time. At one point, at around 3 a.m., having nearly fallen asleep while sitting there, I thought to myself,,,,,is there water running??? and then I realized it was still me! Like I said, GALLONS!

First thing this morning I stepped on the scale happy to find that the number had fallen by four. I’m still retaining a lot of water but it is starting to go away. I can make a fist much better now than I could although still not a tight fist but my shoes are still tight. Its going to take time. BP was still good this morning but the pulse is still at 96. I did find out (later in the day) that the "normal" pulse rate for an adult in my age range is between 50 and 100 so I'm not going to worry about it.

Back to line dancing. Darn, It felt good to go there. We used muscles we haven’t used in awhile so there were a few groans heard during the class….or maybe I was just listening to me. We had a small class compared to what we will have in a few months.

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Today the pool was emptied. There needs to be some work done to it and evidently it couldn’t be done during the summer when no one uses it due to the heat. So it will be down for two long weeks. I imagine some will still get sun time around the pool for the company if nothing else. Time will tell,

So we’re saying goodbye to this,

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It won’t take long to drain at this rate.

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It’s making quite a waterway in the street.

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It didn’t take long for Marlene to start having fun.

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After every season Marlene makes a collage of pictures of the people who stayed here during the season. I’m in here three times, can you pick me out? (Double click to enlarge)

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We found a decorative pomegranate, I’m not sure about that spelling, and Marlene “tasted” it, she is so much more braver than me!

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……and the pool keeps draining.

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At 4:30 we met Wendy and Rick and Don and LaVon came over from Sunscape and brought George and Nancy with them. Remember, we saw George and Nancy in Salt Lake City just a month ago. The special people just keep showing up in our lives. We were all supposed to have a cookout at Wendy and Rick’s but the wind kicked up big time and along with a sand storm. Nix eating outside. So we all met in the Cantina, pushed two tables together and we ate, and ate, and ate. Hot dogs and hamburgers, potato salad, cole slaw, green bean salad, devilled eggs and the list goes on and on and on.

We laughed more than we ate and that’s a good thing!

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LaVon, such a sweetheart!

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George.

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George and Nancy (Killer)

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This was so much fun, we laughed and had a great time. Good food, good laughs and good friends. What more could you ask for?

The pool is now empty, you can see by the sand in the bottom what kind of sand storm we had.

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What a good day! Life is good! GREAT!

Monday, October 26, 2009

10/26/2009 I’m Going to BUST!

Picture this. A rubber band pulled just to the point that you think its going to tear apart. Or this. A balloon being blown up and you think if you blow into it just more time its going POP! Well, that’s just how I feel. My skin is being stretched to the max and its tight. Very tight. I don’t like this and I’ll be glad when its over. I’m just waiting for the “good” water to kick in.

I went to Marilyn’s to have my blood pressure taken this morning but she wasn’t home. She has this nifty little machine that does all the work so her husband, Earl, was able to step in and get it taken care of for me. Blood pressure was good mid 120’s over 76. Pulse: 79! Hooray, its down. I was really concerned about this because last evening it was 110.

I sat with Marlene at her place this afternoon and she offered me a prescription diuretic. I know, I know, I shouldn’t take it but YOUR skin isn’t stretched to the limit like mine is. I just want relief. I did take it and the name and all information about it to a nurse practitioner we have here in the park and she saw no problem with me taking it. She did advise that I wait until tomorrow morning to take it otherwise I would be up all night running to the bathroom.

At three o’clock I was just so uncomfortable that I didn’t care if I was going to have a lousy night’s sleep or not, I just wanted that pill to start doing its job. So I took it.

Bob played pool for a little bit today, getting practice for the men’s pool league that will be starting soon.

After dinner I went visiting and to have “my numbers” run for one last time today. BP – good Pulse –96 Maybe it is my normal. I can see a visit to a doctor in my near future.

Sunday, October 25, 2009

10/24-10/25/2009 It IS in the Water!

Ok, I’ll admit it. I’ve added a pound or two, a couple, a few, SOME pounds since we left here last April. We were driving so much and therefore just sitting for the best part of a LOT of the days we were gone that it was inevitable. Do you hear me??? It was INEVITABLE!

So now I’m working on getting these pounds off. I’ve been riding my bike, walking the perimeter of the park (I’ve been told its 8/10’s of a mile around and we go twice) with my friend Wendy in the evenings and I’ve cut out HALF of my Pepsi’s….which is HUGE! I”m drinking Crystal Light Iced Tea like crazy. I’ve cut out a lot of the chips and salsa that I had been eating. There used to be two sittings each day with the chip bag and salsa jar, now I have some for lunch on some days and that’s it. My M&M consumption is waaayyyy down, so I’m trying, really, really trying.

On Saturday I was out riding my bike and stopped at Sandy & Carl’s for a minute. I never got off the bike, just sat there and balanced myself with my tippy toes on the ground. Hey, I never said I was TALL! So I find out from Carl who was sitting on the porch that Sandy went to town and he was sitting there with his neighbor. We talked for a minute and it was time for me to take my leave. There is a very small decline in the their drive way, very small, barely noticeable, until…..until one tries to back down the driveway while sitting on the bike, balancing with tippy toes and turning the wheel on the bike all at the same time. Do you know where this is going? The next thing I know I’m flat on my back in the street and the bike is laying on top of me. It happened like it was in slow motion and there wasn’t anything I could do to stop it. Carl and his neighbor come running and get the bike off of me. I laid there for a minute or so feeling soooo stupid! They helped me to a sitting position and I sat there for a minute. I felt a small twinge in my back and I thought to myself, “Oh no, please, not the back” They got me up the rest of the way, we talked a minute more and off I went. I was a little sore if I turned too fast or too far so I had made up my mind that some hot tub time was in my future.

I spent some time at the pool working on my tan, the farmer’s tan I had going is now officially gone! I’m pretty much evened out.

After dinner I met Wendy at the hot tub and spent about an hour sitting in the front of one of the jets on the small of the back. Oh, that felt good!

Now I haven’t mentioned Bob at all so far. He was having a “computer day”. He spent the entire morning, afternoon and evening on the computer. He was researching this and that and playing poker and just having a needed day of rest. A lazy day. He was certainly entitled to that.

After my time in the hot tub I decided to go for another walk and ended up at Earl and Marilyn’s for a visit, While I was there Marilyn took her blood pressure which she has to do several times a day and when she finished I asked her to take mine, just for the heck of it. My numbers came out good, low 120’s over 79 each of the three times she took it. What had me concerned was the pulse rate. It was 95. I visited some more and went home.

SUNDAY

I got on the scale this morning and was dismayed to find that the number was going UP rather than down. This didn't make sense because I can see in my face that I'm losing. I thought about it and remembered that muscle weighs more than fat and I’ve been walking and riding my bike and attributed the higher number to building muscle. It sounded good at the time.

I found that I was having a hard time getting my shoes on where I normally just slip my feet into them and go. Then I tried to make a tight fist and found that I couldn’t and that I could “feel” my wedding band and there was a snowballs chance in hell that I was even going to get it off. Yep, you guessed it, I’m holding water, big time! I thought about it and realized that I had not gotten up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom for the last two nights and was barely going during the day, I couldn’t figure out why this is happening, especially since I’m drinking so much water.

I went for an afternoon walk and stopped in to see Marilyn to have her take my blood pressure again. Good numbers, but again my pulse rate was 95. Maybe this is my normal. I really don’t know.

After I left there I walked over to visit another friend, Ginny and found our friend Donna there too, I told them what was going on with the water retention and my pulse rate and they asked me what water I was drinking. Ahhhh,,,,,found the problem! I’ve been making my iced tea with tap water instead of the water from the reverse osmosis machine in the Cantina. I had heard to use that water instead but I thought it was because of the taste of the water, which I didn’t find bad at all with the Crystal Light powder for flavoring. I guess since I’m not normally a water drinker I didn’t pay any attention as to the WHY of not drinking it. Come to find out, the water here has a very high sodium content. Salt! No wonder I’m retaining water. Now I’m going to be using the machine water so I should start losing this water retention within 48 hours. I’m hoping so because its at the point that if my skin had seams they would surely tear and I would just leak water all over the place.

As far as my pulse rate goes its the thought that since I’m holding so much water that my heart is working harder and therefore my pulse is faster. I don’t know, I’m gonna give it 48 hours for the good water to kick in and keep an eye on it. Marilyn told me to come by everyday and she would take my blood pressure and get the reading for my pulse.

Sunday evening we took advantage of the Domino’s $5.99 pizza special going on and had pizza while we watched the last of the Yankee’s/Angel’s games. It looks like our Phillies will be playing New York in the World Series. Bring it on New York, bring it on.

Up to date again. Whew!

Friday, October 23, 2009

10/23/2009 Dinner with Friends

We’re up early today since a repairman from Directv was coming anywhere between 8 and 12. The bedroom TV is only picking up half the channels so this has to be fixed.

He showed up at a little after nine and had the problem fixed in no time. Seems some kind of switch went bad. It’s been installed for less than a week, I’m second guessing my decision not to get the service plan for an extra five bucks a month. I’m going to have think about that a little further I think.

It was a lazy day of sorts in the desert today. Neither one of us did too much of anything.

Our friends, Al and Carol picked us up at 5:30 for dinner at the local Moose Club. Friday night Fish Fry! Actually, only Carol had fish as the rest of us opted for the shrimp and crab cake. I was a little leery of the crab cake but i was pleasantly surprised to find out it was pretty good. In fact, good enough that I ate Carol’s too since she doesn’t eat shellfish. Hey, they were SMALL crab cakes.

Thursday, October 22, 2009

10/22/2009 WHITE….but NICE!

Bob painted our steps today and they look so nice even if they are WHITE.

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He put our little quail family back up….

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He even hung our decorative bell. This is what we’ll use to announce happy hour on the Quinn patio.

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While Bob was slaving away at painting I was at the pool working on my tan. It never ends,,,,he’s making things WHITER and I’m trying to get color.

Of course when I got back from the pool at THREE, I found Bob was taking our little flag seriously.

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See what I mean????

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Wednesday, October 21, 2009

10/21/2009 Picking Out Paint

When we were at Lowe’s the other day I had picked up those cardboard paint sample thingy’s in all colors of green. From lime green to evergreen, from mint green to kelly green. Enough little swatches of green color to be sure to be able to match one of the green colors on our park model. Our two sets of steps need painting and since EVERYTHING about this park model seems to be WHITE I wanted to paint them to match one of the green stripe colors. I need some color! So we have all these little cardboard thingy’s like I said and a bigger brochure with even more greens to choose from. Surely one will match.

I lost them.

I don’t know how. Bob said I had them when we got in the truck and we’ve looked everywhere. They have just vanished into thin air. So when Bob went to Walmart a day or so ago to get bike tires he picked up a green brochure from there. I matched one of the colors perfectly. I did the happy dance because we’re finally going to get some color around here.

Off to Walmart we go, we’re going to buy paint! Happy, happy, happy. Bob goes to the paint department and I head to fresh veggies to see if they got a new shipment in or not. They didn’t. I head back to paint and Bob and the paint guy are still going round and round about the paint color. Seems as though I folded the paper to get a better look at the color sample against the park model and paint guy didn’t realize it was Walmart’s paint chart to begin with and was trying to computer match it but the fold was messing things up. I picked up another sample paper, handed it to him and he then proceeded to pick the much bigger sample card up from the rack. NOT EVEN CLOSE! I was so disappointed I just told Bob to get white.

White. I don’t like white. Right now I’m living with white walls, white counter tops, white appliances, white table, sofa with a near white background, carpet that is so light beige it might as well be white! White, white, white! I’m sick of it. I need some color!

So Bob spent the day scraping the sanding the sets of steps and I headed to the pool. And laid on a WHITE chaise lounge.

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

10/20/2009 I’m Beginning to Scare ME!

Our weather broke here in Arizona so we had a pleasant 87 degree day with a cool breeze. Perfect weather to be sure.

I have never professed to be a wiz at housekeeping. In fact, if the truth be told, quite the opposite. I did what I had to do,,,,most of the time. Things have changed! We used to eat dinner at seven and after eating a full meal who felt like doing dishes? Solution to that? Scrape, rinse, put in the sink till the next day. Worked for me. Not anymore. Now we eat between five and five thirty and before dinner even has a chance to start digesting I’ve got the dishes washed, dried and put away. Dried and put away! This is the first time I’ve ever done this! At most, I would let them air dry! What’s happening to me?????

Other things have changed too, I take something out, I put it away, right away. Four days lapsed between vacuuming! That is unheard of! I don’t wait till we are out of clothes to do laundry, if I have enough for a load, I do it. I have turned into Helen Homemaker and I don’t know how,,.,.,or WHY!

It gets scarier yet. My in-park Christmas cards are addressed already!!! I’m beginning to think aliens came and injected me with some kind of efficiency serum.

Wait, there’s more! I made something today,,,,from scratch! No cans, no boxes,,,,all from scratch. LQQK!

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Do you know what this is????? Its an APPLE CAKE! I failed miserably at making it and I was sooooo glad I did! I was beginning to think I had turned into a clone of Bree Hodge of Desperate Housewife fame or even, oh my gosh, do I dare even say it? MARTHA STEWART! I don’t have to worry about that now! No sirree! I failed miserably at cake making. I don’t know what went wrong as I followed the recipe to a T and it was one mess! It still tastes great but in no way resembles a cake. I think I’ll stick with box cakes, I know I can do them.

On a serious note now....

For those of you who contributed to my sister-in-laws effort for the Making Strides walk and did not get an email from her,,,,possibly it went to your SPAM folder and because you did not recognize her email address, deleted it, here is a message from Michelle.

Thanks again for supporting me in this year's Making Strides for Breast Cancer Walk. The walk took place this past Sunday morning in Rodney Square, Delaware. I'm happy to report that I not only met my goal of $2000.00 but surpassed it by $1000.00!! This is my best total yet and I couldn't have done it without you. It was a cold wet walk but well worth it.
Thanks again,
Michelle

GREAT JOB MICHELLE!