NEW!!!

OK, so I'm futzing around with a whole new look. As you may have read, in the last Bloggy Giveaway Carnival I won a new header from Momof3Girls. Her hubby, Ron, designed me a whole new header. I had wanted to incorporate Sanibel, wildlife, the beach, the kids and grandkids. I sent him some pictures and this is what he came up with. I think it pretty much says it all. Then I decided I needed a new look to go with the new header. If anyone has tried reading my blog in the past hour, they have probably wondered what the heck was going on!!! Anyway, this is what I'm going with for now. I may decide later that I'm not that thrilled with the way it looks and change it again. Afterall, a woman can change her mind can't she. And when you are my age, you change it a lot!! :)

Anyway, Deb and Ron, a BIG THANKS.

Wordless Wednesday-Sunset on Sanibel

This is just one of the things I love about Sanibel Island.

Also, I know you are all busy checking out everyone's Wordless Wednesday but take the time to bookmark me and drop back to check out my blog. I am a retired Special Ed teacher who now spends most of her time on Sanibel Island, Florida volunteering for a Wildlife hospital rescuing and rehabbing wildlife. I even dumpster dive for injured Raccoons!! I am also the proud grandma of 5 wonderful grandkids and brag about them often!! OK, enough about me. Back to Wordless Wednesday.


Enjoy more Wordless Wednesdays at Wordless Wednesday and 5 Minutes for Mom

A New Blog

I have been a Genealogy Nut for over 40 years now. I was interested in my roots way back in high school (and that was many, many, many years ago!). My dad's cousin, Eliza Brooks, got me interested and even gave me a few things belonging to my great grandparents. But it wasn't until 1967 when my dad died that I really got interested. He was the youngest of 8 boys and 2 girls. When he died 4 brothers were still living and all came to his funeral. It was so neat to listen to them talk about family and all the good times they had growing up. My uncle Earl's wife, Geneva, got me interested in tracing my "roots". She took me to the library and set me on my way. And the rest, as they say, is history. Because of this I have started a new blog about my family history. I probably won't be posting everyday but will try to post from time to time. If anyone is interested in how this being called Snowbird came to be, you might want to check out my other blog titled Branches and Roots.

I'm a Winner!!!

Hey, one doesn't get to say that about themselves very often--but I am. I won something on the Bloggy Giveaways. I am the proud owner of a soon to be new header courtesy of Deb at Mom of 3 Girls(maybe she should get together with my daughter who is the Mom of 3 Boys!). Her hubby will be designing it. Hopefully it will show my love of my family, wildlife, and Sanibel. Can't wait to see it. Stay tuned.

We Have a Winner!!

OK, I will admit it. I said that I would pick a winner at 6:00. Well, actually at 6:00 Mr. Snowbird and I were watching last night's Grey's Anatomy. Hey, at least I didn't wait until we watched Lost!!

Anyway, I had 68 entries in my contest. I put 68 folded up numbers in a bowl.

Then I had Mr. Snowbird pick out one number.

Then he opened the number.

Then I counted down to number #21 on my Bloggy Giveaway post.
And the winner is-----------

Way to go Qtipies. Congratulations. I will be emailing you to get your address and will be sending you your goodies very soon.

If you want to see who won other contests go to Bloggy Giveaways Carnival

Sssssssssssss

I LOVE my deck but sometimes I look over the rail and see things that don't turn me on a lot! Yesterday as I sat out there reading my latest Randy Wayne White while sipping on an adult beverage, something caught my eye out in the water. So I got up and looked over the railing. I saw what I assume was a Black Racer swimming around. Ok, so even though I am willing to get in a dumpster with a raccoon and will pick up a juvenile Northern Gannet while he is biting the heck out of my arm (that happened Wednesday and I still have the wounds to prove it!), snakes tend to creep me out. So while I'm watching the one snake, I see another one swimming around and then another!!! They were "snaking" their way from one side of the creek to the other, back and forth, up and down, sometimes crossing each other. One of them even came up on shore in front of the deck. I have to admit that I made a LOT of noise hoping he would return to the water. Thankfully he did. They "played" around out there for about an hour and then disappeared. I can only hope they didn't disappear to under the deck.

One neat thing, though, was we walked out on our deck yesterday evening with our friends who were here and there was a little raccoon getting a drink. He didn't seem to be scared but did wander up the embankment and back into the woods.

Wordless Wednesday--Ah, The Good Life

Mr. Snowbird enjoying a restful moment at the beach.

Also, I know you are all busy checking out everyone's Wordless Wednesday but take the time to bookmark me and drop back to check out my blog. I am a retired Special Ed teacher who now spends most of her time on Sanibel Island, Florida volunteering for a Wildlife hospital rescuing and rehabbing wildlife. I even dumpster dive for injured Raccoons!! I am also the proud grandma of 5 wonderful grandkids and brag about them often!! OK, enough about me. Back to Wordless Wednesday.

Enjoy more Wordless Wednesdays at Wordless Wednesday and 5 Minutes for Mom

How Cool is That?

Since we will be heading north in a couple of weeks, I have been spending as much time as I can on my wonderful deck. This morning I was out there, soaking up the sun (but not too much since I have had skin cancer) and reading my latest favorite author (local author Randy Wayne White)(remember me telling you about the booksigning) when I heard an Osprey screeching. Now, believe me, these birds are LOUD! They can be waaayyy up in the air and you can still hear them loud and clear. I finally spotted the one making all the noise, then I heard another and another. There were three Ospreys flying around in circles. One of the birds was considerably smaller than the other two and instead of soaring on the wind was madly flapping his wings and doing a lot of diving. What I was observing was a mom and dad Osprey teaching their offspring to fly! It was pretty amazing. Finally the little one had had it and with a lot of flapping and diving, headed back to the nest. I love hanging out on my deck!

Oh, and if I ever see him I will try to get a picture of the bullfrog (or whatever kind of frog he is) who keeps me awake half the night croaking! That is the downside to my beautiful deck.

Bloggy Giveaway Carnival

Sorry folks. It's after 6:00 on Friday. My contest is closed. I will be choosing a winner very soon and will let the winner know. I will also announce it here and at Bloggy Giveaways.

Bloggy Giveaways is holding another fantastic Bloggy Giveaway Carnival. I signed up for a bunch of free giveaways last time (and actually won something) but have never, ever, hosted a giveaway. I guess that makes me a Giveaway Virgin!

Anyway, since I live on Sanibel Island, a barrier island on the Gulf Coast of Florida, 8 months out of the year, I decided that I would give away some Sanibel Souvenirs. I am offering a gorgeous little silver bracelet which has dolphins on it. But, before you don that bracelet, you will have the opportunity to bathe with the most sumptuous soap you will ever hope to use. It is called Sunrise Sunset (both of which are fantastic on Sanibel) and is made by Primal Elements. The fragrance is a combination "citrus and a floral finale". And boy does it smell good. I use this soap myself (well not this particular bar! You get a brand new unused one.) and I LOVE it! And while you are bathing, you might just want to put an assortment of shells that I have picked up on the beaches here around your bathtub. Did you know that Sanibel is the third best place in the world to hunt for shells?


OK, now down to the nitty gritty. I am paying for shipping, and I will ship anywhere in the US or Canada. Sorry, you guys overseas, but it's a bit too expensive. Also you do not need to have a blog in order to enter, but you do need to provide an email address. If you are the winner, I will need your name and mailing address so I can mail the prize to you so I need your email so I can contact you. Understand? So, leave me a comment. If you have ever been to Sanibel, let me know that too. If you haven't been to Sanibel that's ok too. And don't forget your email address or URL or some way to contact you. And please, only leave one comment per person. Let's make it fair so that everyone has a chance, okey dokey?

OK, here is how this is going to work. On Friday, April 25th at approximately 6:00 PM, I will put a slip of paper in a hat--or bowl--or bucket--or whatever-- between 1 and however many of you have left me comments. Does that make sense? I will then have Mr. Snowbird draw a number. Then I will count down the posts to that number and that lucky person will be the winner. I will then email you and also post the lucky winner here. But check back at Bloggy Giveaway Carnival too, if you want. I will post it there as well.

And, I know that you are in a hurry right now to get back to Bloggy Giveaways to sign up for more goodies. I can't blame you. I'm probably doing the same. But, do stop back here sometime soon and check out my blog. I am a retired Special Ed teacher who now spends most of her time on Sanibel Island, Florida volunteering for a Wildlife hospital rescuing and rehabbing wildlife. As you read this, if I'm not signing up for Giveaways, I am probably at CROW feeding baby birds. I've even been known to dumpster dive for injured Raccoons!! I am also the proud grandma of 5 wonderful grandkids and brag about them often!! OK, enough about me. Back to Bloggy Giveaways.

Dinner with Friends

We had dinner with friends tonight. I have known Cathy for about 6 years now. She was one of the first people I met at CROW. She was the one who sent Mr. Snowbird and I to Lehigh Animal Medical Center twice in one day! That is about 2 hours round trip! Anyway, she was recently married to Paul Cola, a wonderful man who I've met before but got to know better tonight.

Cathy invited us to dinner at their house in Cape Coral. They live on one of the many canals in CC and have a gorgeous lanai overlooking their canal. We sat, drank, reminisced, drank, ate, drank, talked, drank--well you get the idea. But, before we did all that, we had a tour of their house. They are collectors!! And I do mean COLLECTORS! Would you believe a signed Babe Ruth baseball? Would you believe a signed Abraham Lincoln document? Would you believe a signed Barbra Steisand shirt? etc etc etc. Their entire house is like a museum!! I could have spent the entire evening just looking at the items hanging on their walls. And with a name like Cola, you know that they had tons of Coca Cola items on the walls too!

They do have a lot of their items for sale. Sooooo, if you are interested please check out their blog and their website.

And Paul and Cathy, thanks for a great evening. We had a ball!!!

Did You Feel That?

There was a 5.2 earthquake early this morning with the epicenter near Allendale, Illinois with a 4.6 aftershock at about 11:00 AM. Allendale is where my great grandparents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins lived out their lives, where my mother and brother was born, and where my dad and stepmother lived until they died. This is the same little tiny town of about 500 souls that was practically wiped off the map in January 1989 by an F4 tornado. I'm thinking this poor little town is jinxed! Jinxed because of the earthquake and tornado not because all of my ancestors were born there!! :-)

Wordless Wednesday--Gently.

My twin grandsons are fascinated with flowers. I couldn't pick just one picture so went for several.

Enjoy more Wordless Wednesdays at Wordless Wednesday and 5 Minutes for Mom

Also, I know you are all busy checking out everyone's Wordless Wednesday but take the time to bookmark me and drop back to check out my blog. I am a retired Special Ed teacher who now spends most of her time on Sanibel Island, Florida volunteering for a Wildlife hospital rescuing and rehabbing wildlife. I even dumpster dive for injured Raccoons!! I am also the proud grandma of 5 wonderful grandkids and brag about them often!! OK, enough about me. Back to Wordless Wednesday.

YUM!!

Yesterday was CROW's 28th Annual Taste of the Islands. Approximately 4,000 people entered the gates to partake of fantastic food, marvelous music and of course, adult beverages. (There were also beverages for those who don't partake in the adult variety).


14 of the island restaurants took part. When you entered the area, you bought tickets which were $1 each. Then you use these tickets to purchase food and beverage. Each restaurant had a booth and had one or two of their specialties. To name just a few: Shrimp Burritos, Clam Chowder in a bread bowl, Crabcakes, watermelon, ice cream, and desserts to die for.

I worked in the CROW Gift Shop booth and Mr. Snowbird worked in the beverage tent from 11:00-3:00. I sold stuffed animals. He served up beer--and got to sample as he served. I had to buy my beverages. Hmmmm. Not quite fair here.


The Gift Shop booth was next to the judges area so we had to watch them get to sample each and every one of those delicious goodies. After we got off work we bought some food and sat at a picnic table right behind the judges area. Another couple was there who knew one of the judges. They had been there all day getting the leftovers. Geez, I wish I had known this earlier!! Anyway, they let us sample one of the desserts. It was melted chocolate and peanut butter pressed between what looked like two very thin slices of bread and then was grilled. OH MY!! My mouth waters just thinking about it. We only got a bite then but later when they were cleaning up, they brought two more slices over to us and asked if we wanted them. Are you nuts?? Of course we wanted them. And we gobbled them down.

It was a great day. The sun was out for part of the day but then it became cloudy. Even though rain was predicted, there was no rain. (Weather here is practically impossible to predict.) People seemed to really enjoy themselves. And of course, all of the proceeds went to help our patients.

What To Write When You Can't Think Of Anything To Write About

This has been kind of a lazy week. Monday morning, Diana and her friends, Kitty and Vicki who are visiting from Louisville, picked me up and we went to the beach. That afternoon, I did laundry. Since I don't have a washer or dryer, this means hauling it down to the laundry room, hoping to find some free washers and then fighting for a dryer or two. Monday evening we went on a boat cruise on Tarpon Bay with Diana, Steve, Kitty and Vicki. This was pretty much the same trip we took a couple of weeks ago except that it was just before sunset and all of the birds were returning to the rookery islands out in the Bay. Pretty neat. We then went for dinner at Jerry's which is a really great restaurant and the most inexpensive one on the island. Great food, great service and great prices. Where else can you get a $2.00 glass of Cabernet?

Tuesday morning we went to Rounds at CROW and had breakfast at Jerry's. Again, great food, great service and great prices. We were VERTS on Tuesday afternoon and drove about 100 hours going to Lehigh for a mama Opossum and her 5 babies, to Miracle Mile in Ft. Myers to drop off a couple of cages, and to Kindness East on Cape Coral to drop off some cages and pick up a baby Grackle. We dropped our charges off at CROW, headed home, changed clothes and headed to the Community Center. Tuesday night was the CROW Volunteer Appreciation Dinner. Diana and I were both on the committee although all I really did was pass out Volunteer shirts. Diana did a lot more work and even roped Kitty and Vicki into helping. We all sat together at the dinner along with Dr. Amber, Robyn Johnson who used to work at CROW but went back to people nursing and Cathy, another friend of ours from CROW. Robyn was the recipient of the 2nd Annual Staff Award. She worked there for about 10 years and is missed every single day!! Each of the volunteers received, along with the thanks, a Volunteer T shirt, a video of some patients which Dr. Amber filmed a couple of years ago, a jar of candy and some artificial roses with a not saying "Volunteers are unpaid. Not because they are worthless but because they are priceless." They also had a raffle and I won a bottle of wine. Yum! The band was great. I really wanted to dance but no one else was so I'm not about to be the only one!

Yesterday, I cleaned out closets getting rid of things I haven't worn in a year--and making room for any goodies which I might want to add to my wardrobe:) And of course I enjoyed my deck and all of the critters coming and going--mostly fish and turtles. But the snake was back as was the little Cardinal.

Today was my six month trip to my dermatologist. It was just a year ago that I had a malignant skin cancer removed from my shoulder. This means every six months I get a chest xray and trot off to see my dermatologist and oncologist. I was all clear today!! Yay!! I have a huge 10 inch long zig zag scar on my shoulder since my surgery last year but as Dr. Harris said today, "It is better to have a big scar and be alive than to have no scar and be dead." I couldn't agree with him more!!!

Starting tomorrow my life will pretty much revolve around CROW. Tomorrow, we pick up bins at Annie's. Saturday afternoon, I feed baby birds and work in the clinic. Sunday, is CROW's Taste of the Islands. I'm working the CROW Gift Shop Booth and Mr. Snowbird is working in the adult beverage tent serving up beer and margaritas. Monday, we are subbing and picking up bins again. Tuesday, we go to rounds and are VERTs. And Wednesday, we are working in the Gift Shop. Of course Friday we pick up bins and Saturday it's back to baby birds. So, I guess for the next few days, my life belongs to CROW.

I started this out saying it has been a lazy week but when I look back I guess it hasn't been so lazy and obviously the week ahead won't be lazy at all.

This and That

OK, so I haven't written for a few days. I've been busy. I've been relaxing. I've been lazy. Take your pick.



THIS:
Dave, Sam and Erin left Tuesday night from the Punta Gorda Airport--probably the tiniest airport in existence! Even so, their tickets told them to get there 2 hours early. The kids decided they wanted their last meal to be at Schnappers-a great hotdog, burger, pizza, you name it--take out place on Sanibel. Yummy food. We ate, went back home for them to change into their winter togs, and headed for the airport which is about an hour's drive. We got there about 2 1/2 hours early. Dave went to check in and found that his suitcase was 10 pounds too heavy. Apparently some wet clothes, shoes, and Sam's X Box added a bit of weight. So they did some creative re-packing. The X Box, controllers, games, etc went in Sam's carry on. And whatever he had in his bag went in the big bag. They figured they might get checked at Security but they couldn't help it. And sure enough, they pulled Sam's bag out, opened it up, took out the X Box and ran it through xray. They finally decided that he wasn't a miniature terrorist, just an avid game player. Then they checked Erin's bag and opened it up looking for something. I have no idea what but they finally let her go through. Dave had no problem since he only had his computer. Anyway, the last we saw of them, they were headed to the tiny waiting room in the tiny airport to wait 2 hours to board their plane. Last I heard, they made it home safe and sound. We had a great visit with them. The kids were not looking forward to going back to school. They have been coming to Sanibel since they were infants and look on this as their second (or third if you count their other grandma's) home.



THAT
I've been watching the scale a lot this winter and I've noticed that it has steadily gone up since I arrived here last October. Could it be eating out too much? Could it be that it is only a few steps from the computer to the fridge? Could it be that we haven't been doing any exercising whatsoever? So Wednesday morning I decided enough was enough! It was time to start walking again. Afterall, we have a beautiful beach to walk on. Granted it has been very crowded lately since half the world has discovered Sanibel and tend to flock here by the droves in the winter. But crowded or not, we went walking. There are mile markers on the beach which makes it handy to see how far you have walked. Lucky because my pedometer gave up the ghost! Anyway, we walked a mile and a half up the beach towards the lighthouse. That means that we have to walk a mile and a half back, right?? My back was grumbling a bit when I got home but I made it. Yesterday, same 3 miles. Back grumbled but not too bad. Today, I decided I wanted to see more of the nature around here so we walked down Bailey Road to Bay Road. Bay Road goes through the Mangroves. Lots of wildlife--Ospreys, Marsh Rabbits, Ducks, Piliated Woodpeckers, Boattail Grackels, etc. Since we were walking on pavement instead of sand, it was my legs that started hurting today. But we managed 3 miles again. And did I mention that it is in the 80's here with HIGH humidity. And did I mention that the very thought of humidity makes me sweat--oops sorry--perspire. Profusely!! So, I was a sopping puddle when I got back home. I've been cutting out snacks, no sweets, drinking lots of liquids, eating lots of veggies and fruits. And guess what? I stepped on the scale---and---I haven't lost an ounce since Wednesday morning! Grrrr. I know, I know--stick with it. I will but I sure would like to see that scale drop a few pounds.

So, there you have it. As you can see, we have been doing this and that this week.

Wordless Wednesday-Baa, Baa, Black Sheep

Enjoy more Wordless Wednesdays at Wordless Wednesday and 5 Minutes for Mom

Also, I know you are all busy checking out everyone's Wordless Wednesday but take the time to bookmark me and drop back to check out my blog. I am a retired Special Ed teacher who now spends most of her time on Sanibel Island, Florida volunteering for a Wildlife hospital rescuing and rehabbing wildlife. I even dumpster dive for injured Raccoons!! I am also the proud grandma of 5 wonderful grandkids and brag about them often!! OK, enough about me. Back to Wordless Wednesday.