Author: Susie

My dears! Has it been since February that I wrote? What a fierce snowy blowy winter for many of you! I wrote individually to people who were buried under snow drifts. We are now in the midst of sweaty summer here in Miami (and it is only April) and Chuck and I are preparing for The Grand Adventure. Based on having some credits for 2 RCCL cruises, we ordered a veritable bunch of cruises (3) and land jaunts that keep us on the high seas (Atlantic, North, and Baltic) or on the roads of England and America until late September. We will not be accessible for pontoon boat rides or dinner parties, but we will be answering emails and blogging. So please tune in occasionally to find out "Where are Sue and Chuck? With How Many Suitcases??? Again?????" God bless you!

I wonder sometimes why there are winter blues… and watching the weather channel I see the big snows are colored blue… brrrrr. It’s even chilly on Big Pine Key. I’ll try to blog as we go through the move to Miami and then the great packing experience… Have to pack for a month and 1/2 on cruise ships, a month in England, and then definitely we will take the Amtrak train from Penn Station back to Tampa to pick up our car from most kind cousins Dennis and Laura… and then head north again to visit visit visit until submarine convention in Pittsburgh (Labor Day) where I hope to see Mccarthy cousins and visit McCarthy and DeNino cemetaries. October is still the date planned to start to unpack all the stuff we have literally stuffed in the Miami Lake house… Suffice it to say, we have practically emptied the big house (Loretta’s) into Miami. We seem to be throwing nothing away. About two years ago when Aunt Trudy died, we emptied her house and rented it… We took a lot of Trudy’s things into the Keys and Lake houses and now… we are doing the same thing with stuff from the big Keys house… So I’m not joking when I count a total of 17 spatulas, 3 kitchen’s worth of cooking pots, corning ware, 4 sets of dinner ware, hundreds of cooking knives… amazing volumes and varieties of sheets, dish towels, pillow cases, etc etc etc. And furniture!!! Can’t get rid of some of the antiques so literally have stacked Miami sometimes 3 deep… We will be driving up to Miami tomorrow with a van load and then the movers come to the Keys March 9. The Keys house will be empty of Peabody stuff and a renter will move in. She is lovely, a nurse from the Lower Keys Medical Center. We got a good rental rate and hope to pay taxes and insurance and make a little bit. We still have our friend Sparky watching over things. In a few years (hope the housing market heals a little more) sell the big house and keep Trudy’s house (which also has a renter) for a while until…. who knows the future? The sun is shining and I wish my dear northern family and friends a warm spring! Love and God bless you!

My dear friends. Winter is freezing much of the nation from Maine to Jacksonville, Fla, and friends in the north of England tell about hurricane force winds in northern Scotland. And we are getting sun and wind burn here on Big Pine Key. We have a friend visiting from Buffalo and he is bronzed with riding the kyack across Bogie channel without a shirt on. The Keys house is half packed up and Miami house is full of stuff from the Keys. We will go through our duplicates in late October after we have had a chance to take a long and involved "summer" hoiiday. We are actually toying with the plan to get off the train that brings us back to Tampa to get our car after we get off the cruise ship that brings us back to the states and we will head north. To Atlanta to Lisa Paparelli’s wedding, to visit friends in North Carolina, to visit visit visit… until we land in Pittsburgh for the submarine convention labor day. So… October ought to be a time of unpacking. Literally. I hope my dear friends can find a nice warm spot to rest and play while Mother Nature whirls her snowy wrath around. God bless you!

Listening to CD audio books on long trips is wonderful! We ate sandwiches and the picnic goodies that Renee insisted we carry (actually I ate the 2 pieces of chocolate rum cake….) and we have unpacked into the very messy Miami house! Pontoon boat will be floating at 4pm on a beautiful sunny day! God bless you and fill you with the joy that is Christmas!

Hi dear ones. It is a very quiet time… Between Christmas and New Years. I hear a lot of kids outside playing and harried Moms taking them in for much needed naps! We will be on the road again today going home to put the pontoon boat in the water and enjoy some Miami weather and maybe make some noise on the lake New Years Eve before heading south for Dr Hill’s big New Year’s Day luncheon! Chuck wishes we could be on the road all the time as he found a cowboy movie channel at Renees and we watched the Alamo twice. One Alamo was directed and produced by John Wayne with John Wayne as Davy Crockett…. that did not work for me. John Wayne is not Davy Crockett. Billy Bob Thornton is. We watched a wonderful movie called The Christmas Cottage about Thomas Kincade and why he fills his paintings with light. Renee and I enjoyed it, and Chuck watched quietly…. (no guns, no horses, sigh he said). This is the end of movie time. Chuck said it is rainy outside… We watched the weather report last night and apparently there is some cold weather up north and on the national weather map, Florida was green… So dear friends, once again, stay warm and safe. Hope you do not get "the winter cold" I’m feeling much better and am relieved I did not have to fight the bronchial coughing and take antibiotics. My white blood cells listened to me. We’re still in Christmas until the Wise Men come so… stay vigilent! God bless you! Love and Happy preparation for New Year.

I sat outside after Mass this morning in Orlando; a wondrous circle of sunlight and high white clouds encircling me. The warm breeze filled me and I prayed that my cold would be healed! I’ve been snorting and coughing since we left the Paparellis and I hope I haven’t infected too many people! Today, Sunday of the Holy Family, we thanked God for showing us the beautiful Holy Family we will one day join when we will enjoy “the rewards of your house.” I pray today for those families who have been broken by death, by anger, by meanness of spirit, and I pray that we will know that we are destined for the arms of God. How do we know our destiny? Prophets, Apostles, and Jesus himself said so. Read psalm 98: “All the ends of the earth have seen the saving power of God”. So, all we have to do is look! One of the readings in Mass was from Saint Paul to the Colossians and it described us as if we were dressing in layers: “put on …compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving one another, if one has a grievance against another; as the Lord has forgiven you, so must you also do. And over all these put on love, that is the bond of perfection.” Beautiful, yes? When Simeon saw the child Jesus, Simeon said: “Now Lord you can let your servant go in peace, according to your word, for my eyes have seen your salvation…which you have prepared in sight of all the peoples” Let us today bear witness to what we have seen and what we know in our hearts. Dig around deep if you need to, and come up with the love and warmth that is there. Let the darkness go; let the light shine! Happy Christmas and happy hearts. God bless you.

Tonight Mark’s sister Mimi is visiting for dinner! Dog is very exited and ham and sweet potatoes are on the menu.  I’m excited too for that is a fav food of mine!  It’s cold out there and we will be packing up to go visit Sarah at her gallery in Neptune Beach tomorrow. God bless our dear families!  Love Susie

Merry Christmas week to my dears from Hilton Head, South Carolina! Karla, Chuck and I were mentally going through the fridge and freezer and Chuck said we should make chicken soup with the chicken we took as left overs from the fried chicken at Dillard’s restaurant.  "Add a little onion," Chuck said "and that will do it!"  So Karla and I went out to the kitchen and poured a little wine and began to assemble "stoup".  I fried up some chopped onion and celery, defrosted a little bit of left over soup from the freezer, chopped mushrooms, added broth and the leftover little bit of macaroni and cheese from last night…  some spices… stir and drink the wine.  When I next opened the lid, Karla said, "This is what Rachel Ray calls ‘Stoup’".   It’s thick and smells wonderful.  There is a bald eagle in a tree right outside and 3 merganser ducks swimming in the rain.  We went out to lunch at a lovely french restaurant with a fire place and ate beautiful food!  Lucky me, I have jeans with elastic in the waist!    Happy Happy Christmas!

We arrived at the "cabin" where the bride slept on the night before her wedding and we began to set out plates and things for the wedding and then there was some screaming and the able groom rushed into where the ladies were and he valiantly killed a spider. OUT! the women shouted and off he ran. He disappeared and then the bride disappeared to get into her amazing wedding dress at a room with a fire place. Pictures, pictures, pictures as Kerri made the grand entrance. Kerri was a vision in a flowing white dress with a red sash and a red bow with streamers down the back. And red heels! Abby was lovely as maid of honor in a red dress and the groom and his man Nathan were resplendent in beautiful tuxes with red vests and black converse sneakers. Aunt Susie read the "unity cross ceremony" and then I read a meditation based on a verse from the 1st letter of Saint John; "Beloved, let us love one another as love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God." Chuck said I projected well and all the rest of the ceremony was beautiful. We ended the day with another "all you can eat" dinner… burp and then Chuck and I went our separate ways back to our room. God bless the new couple! today we drive down to Hilton Head to visit Karla and Mark until Christmas Eve. Stay warm my dears. Love Susie

We’re in "a meadows room" at Dillard House on the North Carolina line. We look out over a fenced meadow, then pine trees and some other leafless, brown trees, and then mountains! very beautiful. We left the heat off and snuggled, but Chuck had freezing feet this morning so I put on the heat. My sister Donna is due to arrive soon and then we are going to "all you can eat" lunch….. brrrrrr and Yum!

Say a prayer for my step Brother Bill Harlan who passed away yesterday surrounded by his children; angels sang him to his rest. He had colon cancer and survived about 10 years. Bill was a very happy man and he loved his children very much. God bless you Bill.