Florida bribery

I've been MIA lately because we made our annual trek to Florida last week to spend time with Clarence's folks.

While there, we were talking about some of the things we used to do during our visits when the girls were younger...we used to take bread and feed the birds down by a lake (have I ever mentioned my bird phobia? Yeah, that wasn't really my favorite thing ever), the girls always had to go swimming, we went to the playground, they went bike riding on the big three-wheel bikes, they helped Grandpa pick grapefruit from his tree, and we always went to Parkesdale's in Plant City for strawberry treats. Each year, they'd climb on the strawberry "throne" and get their picture taken.

Somewhere along the way, things changed.

Julianne now shares my bird phobia so we don't go feed the birds anymore. They still ride the big three-wheeled bikes and go swimming but Clarence helped his dad cut down the grapefruit tree this week because it was diseased. We still went to Plant City for strawberries but, imagine this, the girls did. not. want. to get their picture taken on the strawberry throne. Even though they get to wear crowns!



A little...hmm, let's call it...negotiation..made them willing to pose for me again this year. And am I ever glad for the successful...um, negotiations. Imagine how incomplete my life would be without a picture of Julianne wearing a tiara with fuzzy, pink pom-poms dangling off it!

On a more serious note, Clarence's dad, Carl, had some testing done while we were there last week. He has a consultation with a surgeon scheduled for Wednesday. We'd appreciate prayers as we don't yet know if he's a candidate for surgery to fix the heart problems he's been having.