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 Christmas
2010
Wow!
What a year! Go get yourself
a steaming cup of hot chocolate, sit down in your recliner & put your feet
up. This is going to be a long
letter. We have lots of news
to tell!
Lucy,
our precious
Chihuahua
, started the year off with hernia surgery. BJ
tried to take the stitches out which resulted in an emergency trip to the vet.
BJ’s ski trip in January with friends was cut short because there was just too
much snow! She came home and the
snow followed her in February! Snow
in
Georgia
is so rare that it is a real treat. Lucy
frolicked in the snow in her new leopard skin coat!
BJ
and Lucy went on a girls’ weekend to her friend’s cabin
in
North Georgia
in February. Later in the month, we enrolled
Lucy in
Obedience
School
which she passed with flying colors!
Sadly, the school did not cover house-training.
Sorrento
,
Italy
was our destination in March.
We took a ferry to the Isle of Capri and toured the Blue Grotto.
We were fascinated by the sights of
Pompeii
, imagining what it must have been like when
the volcano erupted. We finished
the trip in
Rome
. Oh,
and we also bought a condo in March. It was a foreclosure that we had tried to
buy the year before when it was a short sale. It’s an adorable little place
above one of the shops in
Smyrna
Market
Village
. The plan is to sell our house when the market
recovers and move to the condo.
BJ’s
company golf tournament took us to
Panama City
in April. Later in the month, BJ and her
sister attended an Embroidery Conference in
Marietta
. BJ bought a new embroidery machine which she
hopes to be able to use for profit in her retirement.
Retirement, you say? Stay
tuned... Tony’s mom turned
90 in
April too.
We are so thankful to have her living close by.
In
May, we flew to
Spain
and took a driving trip along the same route
we had biked the year before. We
had wanted to buy some pottery in the tiny town of
Pals
but could not carry it on our bicycles.
We loaded the car with colorful HEAVY bowls on this trip!
We made stops in L’Estartit, L’Escala, Cadaques and Girona before
heading back to
Barcelona
to fly home.
Later in the month, BJ and some girlfriends rented a house on
Fernandina
Beach
. We
finished the month by judging the first annual Brenau BBQ Championship in
Gainesville
,
GA.
In
June, Tony flew to
Germany
with some friends to watch World Cup Soccer.
No, the World Cup was not played in
Germany
, but Tony wanted to watch the game with the
Germans who were predicted to win. They
found lots of soccer fans in
Heidelberg
.
In
July, the Germans were still in contention for the World Cup, so we flew to
Frankfurt
again. Our German connections found us a great
beer garden where we could watch the game (and the fans).
Walking back through the park to our friend’s apartment, BJ got hit by
a bicyclist and messed up her rotator cuff.
A few steroid injections helped fix her up but she won’t be able to
compete in the Olympics. When we
got home, we took the animals and drove to our friends’ place on
St.
George
Island
. It
was there that BJ made the decision to retire!
She decided to take the rest of her vacation in July and make her
official retirement date August 2! The
timing was perfect for her to be able to help our friend who has Leukemia. Our
friend who was at MD Anderson in
Houston
was in need of daily white blood cell
donations. It took a lot of coordination to get enough donors so after a couple
of day trips out there for both of us, BJ flew out to Houston and stayed for a
week to shuttle donors from the airport to appointments.
Tony drove our car to
Houston
for BJ and the other donors to use and then
later flew to
Memphis
to pick up another car and drove it out so the
patient would have some wheels. He
drove our car home the next day. It
was a couple of long driving days for Tony. Thankfully our friend has had his
marrow transplant and is recovering now. While
BJ was in
Houston
, she reconnected with a high school friend
whose husband works at NASA so she got a private tour!
BJ
went back to work on August 2 to pack her things and say goodbye to her friends.
After work, there was a nice party with over 100 friends in attendance!
If
you thought we traveled a lot before BJ retired, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet!
BJ
made one more white blood cell donation run to
Houston
and then the next week, we flew to
London
with friends who wanted to tour the British
Soccer stadiums. We saw
Stamford
Bridge
, Craven Cottage and Emirates. We took in some
of the touristy sights as well. We
particularly enjoyed the beautiful flowers in
Regents
Park
! Tony
made two more trips to
Houston
for a white blood cell screening and donation
when we got back.
BJ
decided she needed to make some money now that she is retired, so she started
listing items on Craig’s List. She
sold a few things from the basement and while she was on a roll, she sold 2 of
our vehicles. She really didn’t
expect them to sell so quickly, but we needed to downsize the fleet anyway.
The motor home still hasn’t sold though. Want to buy it?
We
took another trip to
St.
George
Island
with our friends in September.
Lola (the cat) is quite the conversation piece when we take her to the
beach on a leash. She doesn’t do
too well on car trips though. She gets traveler’s diarrhea before we get out
of the neighborhood. BJ went to the
Delta Ladies’ Golf Tournament in
Palm Springs
. She
commented that she felt much more relaxed about the flight home, knowing that
she didn’t have to go to work the next day.
Later
in September we took a quick trip to
Houston
to have a pre-transplant lunch with our sick
friend. The following weekend we
rented a cabin in Dahlonega with BJ’s
North
Georgia
College
buds for their 30th reunion.
We had to take the motor home because the cabin didn’t allow pets.
Over a hundred classmates attended the reunion!
The following week, BJ and Lucy went to
Sardis
Elementary School
where BJ’s sister teaches.
The first graders loved Lucy!
Tony’s
40th
Woodward
Academy
High School
reunion was in October.
Only 8 people from his class attended.
We
had wanted to go to
Munich
for Oktoberfest but had too many things going
on so we settled for Oktoberfest in
Helen
,
Georgia
. It was really quite fun!
We
packed our bags for a flight to
Fort Walton Beach
for a friend’s birthday but at the last
minute decided to drive down. Lucy
still has not gotten to try her luck at flying.
Tony
decided we needed to replenish the fleet so he found a few vehicles he was
interested in. One of them was in
New Orleans
so we flew down for the day to test drive it.
We didn’t buy it, but we had a nice lunch in the French Quarter at
Coop’s. We also did a day trip to
Houston
to look at another vehicle.
We finally ended up buying a Honda Odyssey right here in
Atlanta
!
BJ
visited Burt’s Pumpkin Farm and
Amicalola
Falls
with friends.
Lucy trotted her little legs all the way up to the top of the falls but
they wouldn’t let her go on the hayride at Burt’s.
The
annual Thanksgiving trip was to
Madrid
and
Toledo
this year. We had a large group with 4 adults
and 6 “children” ranging in age from 15 to 23.
We
were able to fit in one last trip of the year to
Navarre
Beach
. Six
of us rented a house and hooked up with our four friends who live there.
It was a bit cold for anything more than looking at the beautiful view,
playing cards and enjoying each other’s company.
Lola
has become quite the hunter. She
has brought us 10 birds and 2 mice this year. Most of them were dead or nearly
dead when she presented them to us. Even
birdie or mousie CPR would not bring them back.
Back
in the heat of the summer when the air conditioner failed, BJ went out with the
repairman to look at the unit. She
happened to glance up and see that the stucco on one end of the house had
cracked and buckled. We are finally
getting around to having that fixed in December along with new hardwood floors
to replace the soiled carpet. Did
we mention that Lucy has not gotten the hang of house-training yet?
She’s a slow learner.
We
had to move out of the house this week so the hardwoods could be installed.
We didn’t want little paw prints in the polyurethane. We’re
“camping” in the condo until everything is done.
Lucy had a close call while we were here.
BJ was walking her in the common area when Lucy saw some ducks. Lucy took
off, yanking the leash out of BJ’s hand.
BJ chased after her screaming for cars to stop as Lucy crossed 3 streets.
BJ fell a couple of times in the grass and on the
concrete. A teenager in one of the cars took pity and got out to help with the
chase. Lucy ran down to the frozen duck pond and skated across until the ice ran
out near the fountain. Then she turned and ran into the arms the teenager who
was helping with the chase. Thankfully
everyone was alright with the exception of a few bruises and scrapes.
We feel awfully lucky to still have Lucy, little stinker that she is!
Hope
you and your family have had a blessed 2010!
Read more about our adventures at www.bjandtony.com!
Click
here to download a printable copy
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