I Had Fun Yesterday

The pictures above are of Angie's family, Mario and McKinley and Chip with Mario and McKinley.

My sister-in-law, Angie, called me the other day and asked if I would meet her family at the beach to take pictures. The whole gang would be there. I said, of course, I love doing family pictures. Especially for people that I know and love. I haven't seen Dale (Angie's sister) in years. It was so good to see her.

As I drove down Front Beach Road, I started crying. I couldn't help myself. It's just not the beach anymore. Too many condos; you can't even see the beach. It made me so sad for the way things used to be.

They were all staying at one of those condo/motels. The rooms were really nice. I got there around 12:30 or 1:00. They were all out by the pool, so Angie walked me up to the room to change into my swimsuit. Only the second time I've worn one in years. I made sure I put on sunscreen, cause I have two places from last week that have turned into sun poisoning. We stayed out by the pool for a couple of hours, then everybody took showers and they all got dressed to have the pictures made.

We went back down near the pool to take the pictures. I was not pleased with the shadows, but I managed to get a lot of pictures and was able to lighten them up on my computer today, so all was not lost. I took about 300 pictures. There were two that were exceptional - one of Mario and McKinley walking in the saw grass and another one of Chip leading them out of the saw grass. I used my new HP compact printer to print up a bunch of the photos. There is an antique feature on there that is just beautiful. It's a cross between sepia and black and white leaving a little touch of color. Those two pictures turned out beautiful. They look like something you would see in an art show. I was so pleased. My computer won't do that feature. Maybe the software that came with the printer will let me do it on my computer. I haven't installed it yet. I sure hope so, cause I need to erase the pictures on my memory stick before next Saturday. I've got a wedding to do.

The water was really rough - double red flags flying. But, people still went in the water. They made over 100 rescues yesterday, but at least two people drowned. We watched the helicopters flying over and a Coast Guard jet flying low over the beach searching for two people who drowned. Even after dark, the helicopters had search lights and were flying back and forth. It was really sad and creepy. I would hate to be the one to come across the bodies after they washed up on shore.

I ended up staying and having supper with them and leaving around 10:00. The beach was packed; traffic bumper to bumper, everybody cruising the strip. Reminded me of the old days when Vance and I used to drive down the strip in our '64 red Corvette convertible. Good memories....... I went down Middle Beach Road to avoid most of the traffic. It would have been midnight if I had stayed on Front Beach Road. Vance called me to see where I was. He never stays up past 9:30, but he was concerned about me. He waited up till I got home. What a sweetheart!

Fran called as I was getting ready for church. She is selling her refrigerator to us for $200. She paid over $2000 for it. Ours leaks, so we need one. That's better than spending $800-$1000 on a new one. Now, all we need is a trailer to put it on to get it from her house to ours and some strong backs to unload it. Not a good weekend to do that; everybody has plans for Memorial Day. I guess she will just have to put it in her garage until we can get a trailer and people to help us.

Today was great at church. Pastor Sammy is preaching on the Holy Spirit and he is on fire. Things are changing in the way he preaches and it's wonderful. Steve told me I couldn't take off anymore from the Praise team. He said "I know you were away on a girl's weekend, but if I'd had a helicopter, I would have gone after you and taken you back after church. We really miss you when you're not here." He just doesn't know how good that made me feel.

There were two young girls (looked like twins) who came walking up into the parking lot in short skirts and pentagrams around their necks. Gloria and some of the youth managed to talk them into coming in for service. We've been praying for those who nobody else would want to start coming to our church. They didn't stand up during Praise and Worship, but I noticed one of them singing. They stayed through the whole service. Everybody was so nice to them and invited them to come back. They were walking down the road whenever I went to my car and Kyle was calling out to them to come back Wednesday night. I hope they start coming.

Came home and spent the whole afternoon working on the photos I had taken. Lightening some of them, turning some into black and white and some into sepia. I ended up with over 400 pictures and put them on three CD's. I've promised to give a set to each family, so I'll be busy tomorrow, too.

Well, I'm getting really tired and Vance just went to bed, so I'm going to bed. God bless you all............... HAVE A HAPPY AND SAFE MEMORIAL DAY