Baby Lorelei- continued

Lorelei is much happier now that she has been in Florida a few days. Here are some pictures of her adventures:

She was a good girl while Mommy went shopping in the morning on Black Friday.

After lunch Mommy & Daddy went to a movie with Aunt Marie & Uncle Brian. We went for a walk with Hallie pushing Aiden and holding Iris's leash and Grandma pushed Lorelei. 

There is a Little Blue Heron behind cousin Hallie in this picture. Grandma forgot to bring her good camera and had to use her phone camera.

If you look closely you can see an Anhinga on the rocks.

After the walk Lorelei and Aiden took naps.

 Saturday morning Lorelei played with Grandpa and then played on the play mat.

Baby Lorelei

     We are delighted to have Ruth, Jimmi, and Lorelei here for Thanksgiving. So far,  Lorelei has been a fussy baby and doesn't like to let anyone but her Mommy hold her. Now I know why Ruth has called me and told me she can't get Lorelei to stop crying. She screams so loud you are afraid she is going to hurt herself.  We were at my sister Cindi's on Thanksgiving. Cindi usually has a magic touch with babies, but even she said, "This is a tough one."  When she finally got Lorelei to stop crying, Cindi said to look at the positive side. "She is very strong and kicks her legs very hard. When she grows up it will be good that she is so strong." 
     In the meantime, she is challenging us, but we still love her very much. She likes to go for walks and hopefully soon, she will like to be held by Grandma.

At the park with Grandma.

Aunt Cindi's "baby girl" turned 21 this week!

Thanksgiving Day at Great Aunt Cindi's home.

Thanksgiving Thanks

     Thanksgiving is this Thursday and we have a lot to be thankful for.  
     We have a new grandson, John Paul Giorgis, who was just born on Saturday in Maryland. He is grandchild number 4.  Lorelei Elizabeth Thomas, in Pennsylvania, was born 2 days before my birthday in August. Then we have the Elys, Aiden, age 2, and Hallie, age 5, who are lucky enough to live only 3 miles from us. We are thankful for 4 healthy grandchildren.
     Our restaurant, Treasure Coast Hot Dogs, opened October 19. It was a lot of work to get it opened and business is still too slow to pay the bills, but we are slowly getting more customers and the response from people who have eaten with us has been very favorable. It is a great home town restaurant where people on a fast food budget can enjoy a meal with their family in a pleasant atmosphere that even features live music at certain times. We are thankful to have our own restaurant and continue to pray for its success.
     The weather in Florida is beautiful now! We do have seasons, but not as pronounced as in the north. Our weather now reminds me of summer in Buffalo. High temps in the low 80's and in the 60's at night. We use the A/C some days, but we don't need it 24/7 like we did in the summer. Our summer electric bills were not as bad as I expected- no wheres near as high as heating costs in winter in the north. I have fresh tomatoes now- our growing season is September to May. I don't know if my tomato plants will last that long, but we will see. The sand hill cranes and ibis that wander our neighborhood and the cormorants that fly overhead continue to delight us. We are thankful to live in such a beautiful place where we were able to buy a beautiful home at a reasonable price.
     Ruth & Jimmi & Lorelei fly in on Wednesday. Thursday we will drive down to my sister Cindi's home in Fort Lauderdale for Thanksgiving dinner. The Elys will be in Ocala with Brian's family.  On Saturday we will cook turkey and have Thanksgiving again with Ruth and Marie and 3 grandchildren. John Paul is not ready to travel yet, so his other grandparents from Pennsylvania will get to enjoy him on Thanksgiving. We are looking forward to traveling to Maryland and Pennsylvania the last week in December for a joint Baptism for Lorelei and John Paul on January 2. Our family friend, Father Jeff Rott will baptize the 2 babies.

All Saints Day

All Saints Day is always a holy day, but it was not a holy day of obligation this year. Our church was having an extra mass at 10 am, but the music director would not be playing since it was not a day of obligation. I offered to play and I am glad that I did. I thought the priest would say to just play a few songs, since the people wouldn't be expecting music, but instead he said to play all the mass parts too. After mass, a woman came up to me immediately and said, "Thank you for playing. It adds much."  It made me feel right at home- I had often heard the same words at my old church in Pennsylvania. As I packed up and was leaving, several more people and the priest thanked me for playing.  I had played several days a week in Pennsylvania, but mass was at 9 am and the church was 5 minutes from my home. It really would be pushing myself too much to play at their 8 am mass more than once a week when the church is 25 minutes away. However, they have a 9 am daily mass for the snowbirds beginning in December. I told them I will play for 9 am mass on some feast days. Now, if only it would lead to some paying jobs.

Treasure Coast Hot Dogs

Treasure Coast Hot Dogs has been open almost 2 weeks now. Business is still slow, but it will take time. I think we have a neat concept- an inexpensive place to eat out with live music and a friendly ambiance. We have some great employees that are very dedicated and working hard to provide good service to the customers. 


The ladies from my tap dance class came on Friday and enjoyed having lunch while listening to Bob play his accordion. The staff is still learning how to handle a large group that comes in at once, but they did OK.  I had Aiden with me and he spilled his soda, which didn't help.


I enjoy playing my guitar at the restaurant. It is nice to have an outlet for my music, even without getting paid. The nice thing is that I have the flexibility to set my own hours and take breaks when I need to.

Aiden claps when the song ends.

Sunrise Park

I met with Chuck Proulx and Bradley Keen from the Parks Department last Thursday. They are glad I have come forward to help them create a new park in the Becker Road area of Port St. Lucie. The city already owns land that is zoned for a park, but in these days of budget cut backs, we have to find new ways to fund parks. That includes getting the community involved and applying for grants. The grant that I found online from the state of Florida will be a good one for us, but we did not have time to apply this year, so we will have to apply next September.  They agreed that my grandchildren will be grown by the time there is money in the city budget.


The first step is to find people in the community that want a park. This will be a "pocket park" which will typically draw people within a half mile radius, who can walk or ride a bike to the park. The only problem is that the location of the land the city owns is 2 miles from my house by road- less if I ride my bike along the canal. So, I don't know the residents in the area and I need to get at least 50 names of people that are in favor of a park. I have started talking to a few people that I have seen outside and have gotten them to give me their names and e-mail addresses.