Christmas, our 46th Wedding Anniversay & the end of 2013

Monday of last week (Dec. 23) we drove back up to Melbourne to Mary Lynn's (Mike's cousin) house to finish up a couple of repairs that we said we would help her with. While I painted a place on the back wall of the house that had been repaired but not painted, Mike cut away part of a concrete walk that was blocking the side door of the garage (the door opened outward).

Mary Lynn went back home last week, so we packed up the air mattress and linens and folding chair that we had brought for her to use while she stayed in the house.

Christmas Eve we went across the street to our neighbors Tom and Kay's for cocktails and hors d'oeuvres. The other neighbors there were Bruce and Jane (next door to us) and Barb and Bill (across the street from us). We had a very enjoyable evening and are glad we have such great neighbors.

Christmas Day we drove over to Kissimmee to spend Christmas with my brother and family. Unlike last Thanksgiving when we were visiting with them, we DID take photos of our family gathering.

From December 2013

Friday we drove down to Sears in Vero Beach and bought a queen mattress set and bed frame for one of our guest rooms. The mattresses and box springs are so tall any more, that we opted for

Mary Lynn's Visit

Last Monday evening Mike's cousin from California flew to Orlando, picked up her rental car and drove to our house. Her plane got in later than scheduled, so it was almost 1 a.m. Tuesday morning when Mary Lynn got here.

Tuesday morning Mike and I had an appointment at our doctor's office for routine blood work and by the time we got back home, Mary Lynn was up. We had a quick breakfast before heading up to Melbourne. Mike rode with Mary Lynn in her rental car and I followed them in our car with Tinker. We drove over to A1A and then north to Mary Lynn's property on the Atlantic Ocean a few miles north of Sebastian Inlet. After looking at the vacant lot and ocean view, we drove north to Melbourne to her rental house on the Indian River.

From December 2013

Her house is on the Indian River and the views from her house are great.

Visit to the Dentist; Mexican Restaurant

Last week we went to our new dentist here in Sebastian. We had found out that the grandson of Mike's childhood dentist in Lake Worth had an office here in town. I had downloaded their new patient forms from their website, so we already had the paperwork already filled out when we went in for our first appointment. We had X-rays taken and a complete dental exam. Dr. Patrick Pirkle is in his late 30's and we are pleased with our choice of dentist.

We went out for lunch after our dental appointment and had lunch at the Sandwich Shack here in Sebastian. I had their turkey and avocado wrap and Mike had the Philly Steak which are our favorite sandwiches there.

Last Saturday we drove up to Melbourne to do some shopping. We have been looking for a good Mexican restaurant and I found one in Melbourne on the internet that had some good reviews. We left Sebastian and drove north on US-1 to Melbourne and got to the restaurant in time for lunch. El Indio Mexican Restaurant is in an old gas station building and seats about 50 people. We both ordered the burrito supreme with ground beef. The salsa was spicy and the burritos were very good. We'll definitely go back - just wish it wasn't 25 miles away.

After lunch we did some shopping at Harbor Freight, Home Depot and Old Time Pottery. We stopped at the Dairy Queen in Sebastian for a couple of peanut butter cup Blizzards before going home.

Dead Car Battery, Lots of Rain & Thanksgiving

Since we went to the Navy Seal Muster earlier this month, we've had a quiet month.

One morning I got in the car to go out shopping and the battery was dead! Mike tried charging the battery with our charger, but the battery wouldn't hold the charge for very long. After charging the battery again, Mike went over to WalMart to buy a new battery. According to our paperwork on the old battery, it was out of warranty. WalMart honored the warranty and we got a good price on a new battery.

On the 21st we had a LOT of rain - 4½"! A good day to stay inside - the grass and plants liked all of the rain.

Fletcher drove up from Ft. Lauderdale the day before Thanksgiving to spend a couple of days with us. He brought Vala (his rat terrier) and Doug's 2 dogs since Doug was spending Thanksgiving with his family.

Thanksgiving Day we drove over to my brother's house in Kissimmee for dinner. My nephew David and my niece Kathy, her husband Doug and their 3 sons Joshua, Benjamin and Matthew were there, so that made 11 of us for dinner.

We had a great time visiting and eating the turkey dinner with all of the trimmings. Elaine had made her fruitcake (this fruitcake is moist and tastes great) and I had brought an apple cobbler for dessert. I had mentioned that we had a good time visiting with everyone - it was such a good time that we

2013 Navy Seal Muster at the Navy Seal Museum

We left the house this morning a little after 9:00 and drove 25 miles south to attend the 28th Annual Navy Seal Muster and Music Festival at the National Navy UDT-Seal Museum on North Hutchinson Island at Fort Pierce. We parked a few blocks away and were seated in the bleachers by 10:00.

The ceremonies started at 11:00 with the SEAL Parachute Team "dropping in"

From 28th Annual Navy Seal Muster

followed by the American Rogues Celtic Band and the Honor Guard.

From 28th Annual Navy Seal Muster

The guest speakers were Medal of Honor recipients lieutenants Tom Norris and Michael Thornton, Congressman Patrick Murphy, H. Ross Perot and the Keynote Speaker was Adm. William H. McRaven, Commander USSOCOM (US Special Operations Command).

After the speeches the St. Lucie County Sheriff's K-9 unit put on an impressive demonstration.

That was followed by a SEAL sniper demonstration

Home & Garden Show and Halloween

On Sunday October 20th we drove down to the Port St. Lucie Civic Center to go to the Treasure Coast Home and Garden Show. We stopped at several vendor booths to look at their products and pick up copies of their brochures. We saw a garage door screen that retracts up instead of sliding to one side (keep that in mind for later), cleaning products, windows, hurricane shutters and home insulation products. After the home show, we stopped at the Perkins restaurant near the civic center for lunch.

We called American Home Base to cancel our mail service with them before it was time to pay for another year. All of our mail went to them and they would send us our mail when we called and gave them an address where we were staying. We had been paying $162 a year (cheaper than paying the fee monthly) for their service. Because our mail has been going to a mail service, we can't put in a change of address form with the Post Office. We were told that they would forward our mail once a month for 6 months and the fee would be $20 to cover the cost of postage.

This last Wednesday was Fletcher's 44th birthday! It's hard to believe that

"Gravity" the movie & Vero Beach British Bash

Last week Mike took down the old ceiling fan in the family room and put up the new one we bought in Vero Beach. I took a photo of Mike on the ladder getting ready to put up the new ceiling fan.

From October Photos

We went to the movie theater in the Indian River Mall in Vero Beach last week to see the movie "Gravity" with George Clooney and Sandra Bullock. We really enjoyed the movie and it kept us on the edge of our seats. After the movie we stopped at Dairy Queen for a couple of Reese's Peanut Cup Blizzards - our favorite.

We didn't do much of any interest this week unless you call grocery shopping, doing laundry and housecleaning interesting - necessary but not newsworthy.

This morning we drove down to Vero Beach to go to the British Bash at Riverside Park. British Bash is a British car and motorcycle show sponsored by the MG Car Club Florida.

Most of the cars and motorcycles were parked