Alabama Snow, Beaches, & Our Fur Babies

                               Saturday December 5, 2015

The first weekend after our arrival, we went with the kids and grand kids to Foley, a town just 5 miles north of us. The town was having a Christmas festival in the city park. One of the activities was making Alabama snow.

I was glad Lennox (7) had bright orange on, as there were tons of kids running every which way, and I could keep an eye on him among the crowd.

It was really dangerous being in the middle of all these kids with once a year Alabama snow. I would turn around and a little boy, who I didn't know, had an ice snow ball slinging it at my chest or my head from another direction. I had to tell one boy he couldn't be throwing them at me!

Noah and Maddie showed up and got in the action too, though Maddie fell down immediately and started to cry. These southern children have no clue what snow or ice is!

There were other activities like a giant slide. There goes Lennox, jumping off from the top of the slide.

Santa was not there when Alisha and her kids stopped for picture in the pavilion.

As I approach, Maddie points to me and says look Mom there comes Nana. (I had been over at the giant slide with Lennox).

Alisha, my oldest daughter with two of her children Madalena (5), and Noah (7).

There is a train in the middle of the park. The kids can climb and explore it any day of the year.

As Joe and I left, I took this picture view of Foley City Park and the festival going on that day.

After lunch, Joe, Mallery and I decided to go to the beach for the first time since arriving in Gulf Shore. As we approached the beach from the parking lot, Joe and I both started coughing. We couldn't figure out what was causing this as it had never happened before. Mallery seemed to be fine.

Mallery didn't seem to enjoy the beach like she had last year. She kept heading away from the ocean. Maybe what had caused us to cough, was making her uncomfortable also.

We had just got to the beach as the sun started to set.

As the sun was setting, I got a call from my daughter Alisha. Maggie her 14 year old dog, had got into Madalena's bag of candy, that Madalena had got the night before at the Christmas parade. Alisha wanted me to go with her to take Maggie to the nearest veterinary on call. Joe dropped me off, and I jumped in the back seat of Alisha's car to comfort Maggie on the long drive to the veterinary on call. Below is a video of Maggie in pain at the vets, while waiting for treatments. Maggie had to be incubated, and put under to be degassed. Her stomach was severely bloated from the ingestion of huge amounts of food
 her digestion system was not custom to! Always be careful to put candy up away from dogs or you might find yourself with a $800.00 bill like Alisha did. Maggie had to spend 2 nights at the animal hospital until she was stable enough to come home.
I warn you the video is hard to watch. I shortened the video, so you wouldn't have to listen to her pain very long. This is what she did the entire time on our drive to the animal hospital, as well as pooped on the back seat floor.

                                         

                                      ( If you can not get this video, I am sorry. When I put the blog up for
                                        preview, it shows it working. But when I published the blog, I get
                                        just a white box. Not sure if my internet connection is just not strong
                                        enough to bring it up on my end. Let me know if you get it or not).

Mallery has done exceptional well with her move to our new Nest in Gulf Shores. On the second day of our arrival, she had figured out where her kennel was in our bedroom, and where her day bed was in our living room.

All my worrying was for nothing. She seems so much happier here with the warmer weather, and enjoys going out, if nothing else to smell all the new smells in the new neighborhood. When we first arrived, I made an appointment with her regular vet to get more fluids, only to fine they had no problem giving them to me, but at $50 a bag! When we first started giving Mallery fluids in Iowa, I was charged $12 for the bag of fluids, tubing and 10 needles. In Michigan, the price went up to $18 for everything, and I thought they were high, until I came down here. I shopped around and found the best price down here is $28 for the fluid, tubing and needles. Mallery has also done exceptional well with getting her treatments. She acts like its no big deal anymore, which has made a huge difference on Joe and I, when giving it to her. I guess, through practice, I have gotten better at administering it, which has made me feel less stressed, which makes Mallery less stressed. We give Mallery fluids daily, so the bag lasts for 10 days. With the higher price it has gotten pretty costly at $28 a bag and accessories.

Here is Maggie back home after her episode of eating a bag of candy. (Luckily the bag of candy didn't have any chocolate in it). Maggie is also blind. She got glaucoma a few years back, and the treatment was the removal of her eyes, because of the pain from that eye disease. Senior dogs can be very expensive, as well as high maintence.
We found out a few days later, after our beach walk, that the Gulf was having Red Tide which occurs about every 10 years. That is why Joe and I were coughing so much as we approached the ocean. Our granddaughter Hayleah told us, when she went down to the ocean, she sneezed continuously. Reports on the local news told people who had allergies, weak immune systems, or weakness to bronchitis and pneumonia, to stay away from the ocean because of the Red Tide. Red Tide is an overgrowth of algae. Two nights after our walk on the beach, I developed the worse cold I have ever had. I had excessive coughing jags day and night, which hung on for 3 1/2 weeks. This of course didn't help my on going sleeping problems that I have been dealing with for the past 7 months.

Emeral Greens - Our Winter Snowbird Condo

Wednesday 12/2/15

I thought I would show you around our winter Nest for the next few months.

Our 2 bedroom condo is in the lower left as we face this unit. There are 6 units on this side of this building. Four of the units are 2 bedrooms and the 2 middle units are 1 bedroom units.

Our little patio before we enter the condo. Unfortunately, we never have sun in the morning or afternoon. I guess this unit would be great in the summer when the heat is unbearable.

When we viewed this unit last winter, it had an older couch and chair. The leather sofa and love seat are brand new. Both ends of the sofa and love seat have recliners. Love that!

View into the living room from the dining area.

View of living room to the second bathroom and bedroom to the left and to the laundry on the right.

The second bedroom has a queen size bed and two nice size dresser drawers.

The second bedroom has a door to the hall and to the bathroom. The second bedroom is for guest and when the grand kids spend the night.

The shower/tub has a pocket door to the sink/toilet area.

Now back out in the living room, I am looking toward the hall to the second bath and laundry and to the far right to our bedroom.

Laundry- I had to move all the stuff that was on both shelves to the top shelf so we had room for our stuff and paper products. Owners have too much stuff in the kitchen and laundry, so we had to do some rearranging.

Next our bedroom.

Our bedroom has a king size bed. We have never had a king size bed. Joe seems so far away in this bed. Too bad Mallery doesn't sleep with us anymore. There is tons of room for her in this bed.

Our bathroom is a single sink shower/tub bathroom. We miss our 2 sink bathroom up north.

View from our living room to kitchen. Because I have no vanity, I use the bar to put on my makeup, hence why my makeup mirror is on the peninsula bar.

I spent the first two week, cleaning and wiping out, every single cabinet and drawer in the kitchen and bathroom and our dresser drawers. On top of that I pulled out every single thing, out of every single cabinet and drawer, and ran them through the dishwasher. I found a few kitchen utensils and pans that still had food on them. I did tell you I can be anal about certain things didn't I!

Up a block or two is the Emerald Greens Office, Pro Shop, and guest activity area.

Joe opens the door for us. Thank you Dear!

The front door was decorated for Christmas.

Nice place to hang out on the front porch.

Joe walks up to the pro shop every morning to get his free cup of coffee. The pro shop has a grill also for snacks and sandwiches if you don't want to cook. You know we don't take advantage of this luxury.

On the side of the office/guest activity building is the outdoor pool. Unfortunately it is unheated so no good this time of year. We are hoping the grand kids will be able to use it in March when the weather warms up.

The kids will really enjoy the swim gym when it finally warms up.

Next to the pool is a picnic area for the adults while the kids play. Joe enjoying some popcorn I picked up in the Pro Shop that I asked him to hold while I took pictures. I hope there is some left when I get done taking pictures.

On the other side of the picnic gazebo is a beach area where the little ones can play in the sand and the adults can lay out in the sun. No one around now though, as even though it was a nice day, not warm enough for sunbathing!

Anyone wanting to tan, it's free also. I haven't tanned in over some 25 years. At some point I developed a rash all over when I entered tan booths, that caused extreme itching. No tan is worth that pain!

If you want a lay down tanning bed, they have that too.

One day when we watched two of our grand kids I brought them to the game room for about 30 minutes to find some way to entertain.

In this building there is also a gathering/TV room where you can always find free cookies and lemonade.

Gathering/TV room.
 My grandson Noah loved the big chairs.

Upstairs there is a fully equipped workout gym that is also free. Joe and I have been too busy to use these facilities also! When our granddaughter was home for her Christmas college break, she stayed with us a few nights and use the gym. Glad someone got some use from it.

As you exercise you have this great view of the golf course down below. We can play golf every day free, as well as get a free golf cart with our monthly rent. This condominium is 6 miles from the beach, which makes it much more affordable, though we are still paying $1,400 a month for the four months we are here in Gulf Shores, Alabama. A bit pricey, but much more affordable than Florida.

On The Road To The South

                                          Sunday 11/29/2015

The day we left and become official snowbirds was a gloomy day. All the leaves had fallen from our trees, so it was time to hit the road again.

One last walk up the alley behind our house.

The Beast was filled to overflow, with a tunnel view out the back window. Joe had wanted to leave at 10AM, but we didn't leave the house till around 2PM. There was just too much to do before we left for 4 months, like vacuuming. You know you just can't leave the house a mess when people are coming in to do construction. Once anal, always anal and more so, as you get older. I just frustrate Joe to no end with my idiocies! Then we had to stopped at McDonald's for lunch on our way out of town to further slow our exit time. Joe said, "We might as well stay here for another night".

We only made it to just east of Grand Rapids, MI (3 hours away) that night, as old fogies can't drive with their bad night time eyesight. If you know "LaFontaine's" they are very frugal! My hubby bought, just for this trip, a hot plate, so we could save money by not eating out.

It was a really good idea, as we didn't do very well at eating up the refrigerator, and everything had to be removed, with construction being stated in a month or so. Besides, we personally don't like to eat out much, as the quality of food, is never worth what you pay for. And then there is Mallery, who doesn't eat dog food any more, and it can be a real production making her food.

I had really cooked up all her meals and put them in baggies, and then put in the cooler. At lunch time I would pull out a baggie and put it in a bowl at rest stops, when she finally got hungry enough to eat it cold instead warm. The 2nd night we stopped at the Red Roof Inn in Bowling Green, Kentucky, after driving in the rain and the dark for an hour. We normally don't drive in the dark, but Joe was trying to make up time, that his wife took away on the first drive day. Mallery did really well both nights, sleeping attached to me by a short leash. She normally slept in her kennel, but since it was buried under a ton of stuff in the SUV, it was her only choice. After roaming the hotel room in the evening, she realized there was no kennel to be had, so it was cold floors in a strange place or next to mommy.

The next morning it was driving again in the rain through Nashville, and all the way to Birmingham, AL. As we left Birmingham, we finally drove out of the rain storm.

After a long days drive and driving once again in the dark for an hour and half, we arrived in Gulf Shores, AL. where our rented condo was. The picture above is of a sunset the next evening from our condos front yard.

The evening after we arrived, I went with my girls and the kiddos to the Christmas parade.

My handsome little Lennox watching the parade.

Madalena with sack in hand ready to catch some of the candy being thrown. Being shy, Nana and mom had to help her scramble for the treats.

The evening was really cold. The day we drove from Kentucky to Gulf Shores, was in the high 70's, but the weather turned cold, with hats and mittens weather the next night. The girls accused us of bringing the cold weather with us.

After the parade there was a few fun things to do before heading home, like riding the cow train.

Maddie and Noah in the cow behind Lennox.

And of course Hayleah and her friend Chelsey are still not too old for a little fun.

So good to see my Nana's kids after being gone from them 7 months. Lennox -7, Noah- 7, & Madalena-5

( So sorry I got so far behind "ONCE AGAIN", but life just got in the way. I am hoping to get caught up again, with kids back in school, and the holidays over).