Thursday, June 10

This morning I called Lucette, a long-time internet quilting friend, and we decided it was a good day to visit the over in Lutz, Florida, about 45 minutes from Lakeland. After we tried to get the oil changed (it did not work), we went over in the early afternoon. Our GPS found the house with no problem.

When I got out of the car, AJ comes running to greet me with a big hug and saying, "It is good to meet you!" Lucette and I hugged and we all walked into the house. 


We met Mark at the door; Daniel and little Lydia all said hi and gave a hug. Their front room was stacked with items for a Saturday yard sale (wish I could go—I love yard sales, but really have no place to put any purchases). Anyway, AJ kept hugging me while going hither and yon talking up a storm. Henry brought in my computer case and I brought out the goodies for the kids. Each one got a Japanese five yen piece on a ribbon they could hook to a backpack or other ring. Lydia was given one of my pink Sakura Beanie Buddies; AJ got a Tshirt with kanji for love on it: 愛 ai and Daniel was given one with a crane on the front and the kanji 元気 genki, meaning lively. on the back. I gave Lucette the last of my yukata fabrics. I have others in Japan, but may need to acquire some more. 

Today was the first day of summer vacation and the kids were in hyper-mode. They started a summer unit-study on the 50 states. AJ is all excited about this. He finished first grade and he reads at a fourth or fifth grade level and is also able to do multiplication and write his own stories. He read me a short story he wrote that morning. It was actually well done and funny in some places. We may have a budding author in our midst.

Lydia is a little lady. Her room is typical girl, loaded with stuffed animals. She has many on her bed and she said that if one falls off at night, she can't sleep. We lined them all up on the wall so they should be safe for now. 


Daniel is big brother. He likes recess and history in school, like any 10-year-old. He is into collecting those silly bandz which are the current fad of that age group. These are different shaped rubber band bracelets the kids wear on their wrists and trade with each other.

http://www.sillybandz.com/
 

We left about 4:00 pm; it was a really good visit and so good to meet after all these years.