Shopping Cart Surprise

Tyler has a great sense of humor and he tends to share it with us no matter where we go. For instance, he uses it to keep himself occupied when we go grocery shopping. On more than one occasion he has surprised me by throwing random food products in my cart while I wasn't looking. And, I normally don't find out about it until it's time to check out. I hand things right back to him and then he goes and returns stuff from where it came from. One day, he surprised me by filling my cart with all sorts of hot dogs, bacon, spreadable meats, sausages, and any other packaged meat he could find.

I walked away from the cart for a few moments to look at something that I wanted to buy, and then walked back to my cart to find that it was a bit harder to push. I looked in the cart to find piles of packaged meat! I thought it was hilarious! It was such a ridiculous amount of meat! I was impressed by the amount he was able to throw in there in such a short period of time. We both had a stomach ripping laugh. Afterward, we got to work putting all the meat back. As we emptied the cart, some old woman strolled by trying to figure out why we are unloading all of this meat. Of course, all I could do is smile and nod my head at her. We had a good time and I know now to keep an eye out for any other surprises Ty might have up his sleeve. I wouldn't be surprised if I turn around one day to find my cart full of frozen turkeys!

He is OK

My youngest brother Adam was robbed while at work a few days ago. He is doing just fine, but was shaken up a bit. He no longer works for Dairy Queen and has started a new job in construction. When I found out about him being robbed, I felt my knees almost go weak. My poor mom found out when she was at home in bed watching the news. She flew over there in her pajamas to meet up with Adam's new wife Shani and her parents. When she arrived, Adam was giving his statements to the police trying to describe what had happened to him and the others during the robbery. The four robbers came in through the back door and forced Adam along with his co-workers into the freezer at gun point. I talked to Adam the next day, and he said, " I was just coming out of the restroom, when all of a sudden I felt one of the robbers put a gun behind my head. The robbers forced me into the freezer and had me lay down with my face to the freezer floor, and then the punks locked us in the freezer while they robbed the place. All of these thoughts were going through my head. I thought about Shani and the family... if I were to die. I'm not afraid to die, I'm just afraid of what the family would go through." I told him he was lucky he went to the restroom before all this had happened, because he would have messed his pants up. We had a good chuckle about that and then took a deep breath. It really has made us stop again and think about how precious life is, and who we have in our lives, and you never know what your day may bring. Thank God in the heavens he is o.k.

Here is a link to a short story of what happened.
http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2008/oct/14/4-men-rob-dairy-queen-fort-myers/

I'd Rather Be....

Quality Time with Uncle Grant

Grant and Penelope visited with us for a short while yesterday. Becky was out conducting business with some of the local doctors, so Grant came over to see what we were up to. Steve was at work and Tyler wasn't home at first. Ty was at the YMCA working out and hanging out with some of his friends. In the mean time, our dogs got acquainted with one another. Grant showed me all the tricks he has taught Penelope, and then I showed him all the tricks my dogs know. Penelope is such a cute dog and we were happy to have finally met her! Grant and I talked for a little bit before Tyler came home. Once Tyler was home, the two of them were in the zone talking about video games. I don't play video games, so I sat and enjoyed listening to them talk. It wasn't long before the two of them were playing Guitar Hero and Smash Bros. Brawl. Tyler was a great challenge for Grant. Now, they plan to play one another through wi-fi. I know Tyler will be contacting Uncle Grant very often to play games. He already has his Uncle Adam lined up and ready play. I think it would be great for everyone to join in!

A Quick Glance at New Smyrna Beach

We took a trip to the New Smyrna Beach area a couple of weekends ago to see what the place was all about. New Smyrna is about twenty to thirty minutes south of Port Orange, and is surrounded by bodies of water. The Atlantic Ocean is to the east, the Intracoastal Waterway is to the west and Mosquito Lagoon is in between the two. This place a has such a small town feel to it. There are a bunch of boutique shops that I have to go to and check out the next time we visit. While traveling over the intracoastal, this draw bridge had us wait before we were to cross over. We thought that maybe a huge yacht was passing through.
No, it was a small sail boat with a really huge sail! We were eager to see some monstrosity of a boat, but instead this is what we saw sailing by.
After we passed over the intracoastal, we headed toward the beach. It was pretty busy because there was an art show going on at the time. There was no where to park, so we decided to keep looking around to see if we would come back for another visit. I don't know if we will go back anytime soon, but I definitely want to go back and see what the beach is all about. Maybe we'll go the next time family visits.

IS MY MONEY SAFE?

I work for a very well known retail bank that is in the process of being bought out. December 31st, 2008 will be the official date of purchase. Once this takes place I will be working for the number 3 ranked bank in America and the biggest in total deposits. What does this mean for me? At this time, nothing at all. Things are going to pretty much stay the same, because this new bank is going to incorporate/adapt to our current banking procedures and operations. I've read and heard from some of the bank "big wigs", that this merger is going to take at least one to two years before we are all working as a whole. In the mean time, I get to work with the confused and frightened account holders. It seems as if everyone and their mother has come in to the bank to ask the same question, "Is my money safe?" So, I respond with all the "warm fuzzies" of my expert customer service, and say, "No!" Actually, I let everyone know that their money is safe at this time, and not to take any risky actions by withdrawing their money. Keeping your money stuffed in a mattress isn't going to keep anything safe.