Thanksgiving....2006

Last week our family celebrated Thanksgiving.

The first picture is my son, Danny and me. The second picture is my son's FIRST plate!!

Unfortunately our daughter, Jessie, could not be with us. I cooked turkey and Debi made the pies this year. She cooked her Halloween pumpkin and made the pies from it. She helped me make the stuffing also and all around, was a big help!

Go to the link below to see more pictures.

http://s99.photobucket.com/albums/l300/jolylady/Thanksgiving%202006/

Flying Off to New Experiences!

Our daughter, Jessie, will be graduating on December 15th from the University of Florida in Gainesville. As many of you know, Jessie is a neonatal nurse at St. Joseph's Women's Hospital in Tampa. While working many hours on regular shifts, doing transport and doing clinicals with Dr. Lance Wyble, Jessie has earned her degree and will become a Neonatal Nurse Practicioner. We are so proud of her!

Here is a picture of Jessie in the helicopter and also a picture of the fringe benefits of being a flight nurse...a beautiful sunset over the water!

Welcome to Colombia!

We have returned. Elias and I traveled to Colombia, South America this past week, along with his sisters, Magnolia and Ofelia and cousin, Diana. We visited the Island of San Andres (water pictures)for three days and the city of Medellin also. It was wonderful to meet so many of Elias' relatives...some he didn't even know and to see the love they had for us.

It was extremely hard for me to get used to people staring at me. A red head with blue eyes is quite a novelty over here.

The only thing I did not like was the traffic! Stop means go very very fast over there and there are no lanes so everyone jockeys for position within centimeters of each other. It is so bad...how bad is it? It is so bad that the gas trucks have a man in the passenger seat pulling on a string that rings a miniature liberty bell at the top of the truck so they know it is a gas truck coming through and if they hit it, it will explode!

In one of the pictures above, you will see a view down the mountains from the Metro Cable. The city of Medellin has an above ground monorail type transit called the Metro and then there is a part of it called the Metro Cable which is gondolier cars that take people to their homes that are set into the mountains surrounding the valley where the city is located. What a view! The mountains are gorgeous. The balcony picture with Elias and I is from the first day we arrived. The place we stayed was up the side of one mountain and we could look out over the other mountain.

The bus picture is from San Andres. Notice the bus drivers seat and the cleaned out bus....no dash, etc. There are also a few pictures of their Christmas decorations which they are putting up in the city now. Medellin is known for their decorations in the city and on the river and other countries bid to buy them after the holidays!

I am so thankful that I had this opportunity to take this trip. My sister-in-laws, Magnolia and Ofelia, and cousin, Diana, made sure that we had a wonderful trip! I can't thank them enough.

More later!

FOR MORE PICTURES I THINK THIS LINK MAY WORK....

http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLandingSignin.jsp?Uc=17jya947.6j8xpzf&Uy=3126u0&Upost_signin=Slideshow.jsp%3Fmode%3Dfromshare&Ux=0

SCANDAL!!!

THE SIN...

WHAT WAS NANCY THINKING???

Was she nuts? Here Nancy Kirmani brazenly shows her

white shoes after Labor Day! Only in Florida!

Mt. Dora Craft Fair Weekend..

Last weekend was my annual trip to the Mt. Dora, Florida annual craft fair. If you have never been there, it is a must for crafters. The entire downtown is closed and the streets are all filled with vendors from all over the United States. It is a wonderful event and we spend two days there. Here are some pictures including my friends Barbara Helms, Nancy Kirmani, my sister-in-law Noehmi, Barbara's friend Judy Hand and Barb's mother-in-law, Mrs. Helms.

Pictures from the Palma Maria

See story below!

(L)Doris, Nancy, Maryann and Anna seaed.
(C) Jennifer Heese (my Bopper) exits the Palma with her belly and hands full!
(R) Anna of the Palma.

REMEMBER THE PALMA MARIA ON BROAD STREET IN TAMAQUA, PA?

When I was a child, I lived behind the main street in Tamaqua, Pa. I would often go through the back door of a restaurant called the Palma Maria that was owned and operated by the Rosinola family.

The family moved south to Florida and opened a restaurant in the Orlando area called...what else...the Palma Maria! One day I told my sister-in-law about it when I was visiting her in Castleberry. Lo and behold...the restaurant was 2 minutes from her home.

It has become a tradition that the last weekend in October is a girls' weekend where a bunch of my friends get together and go stay with my sister-in-law and attend the annual craft fair in Mt. Dora. My childhood friend, Nancy Fenstermacher, has flown down from Maryland three years in a row for the weekend. Friday evening is always spent at the Palma Maria for dinner and reminicing with the owners of the restaurant. This year my friend Marcie's daughter also attended dinner at the Palma as she lives in Orlando.

I cannot thank Anna, Maryann, Palma and Pete enough as they always make my friends feel like they knew them for years. We talk until we close down the place! Oh....they also make a mean peanut butter pie as well as everything else!

See the pictures below!

Nancy Fenstermacher Kirmani at the Palma Maria