Sweet November

Wow, November is nearly gone!  We have had a great month, cleaning out the garage, having a very successful yard sale on the 7th, driving down to Jacksonville Beach to visit Larry's aunt and uncle and getting ready to host Thanksgiving next week!

Our yard sale went better than we had even hoped!  We sold almost everything and what we didn't, we donated to a local church that has its own thrift store. 

I made these signs Friday night and Larry and I went around the neighborhood and put them out!

Saturday morning, we had folks out there at 6:30!  We had Tom the Turkey up early!

It threatened to rain all morning and did sprinkle on us once but I started praying and the rain clouds blew on away from us, the sun came out and it got HOT!!  Thanks to all of y'all who came out to see us and buy our junk!  :)  We had some pretty cool stuff.  And now the garage is empty and I can park my car in there again.  Yay!!

Sweet Cleo

Last weekend, we went to Florida and had the best weekend with Aunt Ruth and Uncle Don.  Larry had not seen them since he was a teenager and I had never met them.  They greeted us at the door with big smiles and warm hugs.  Aunt Ruth had homemade chicken salad and crackers waiting on us for lunch and she made a delicious lasagna for supper.  Then we had brownies and butter pecan ice cream at bedtime.  We were so tired and so dang full but we still got the best sleep that night in their guest bed and then we got up and went to church with them Sunday morning.  I made friends with their cat, Cleo, who has the most adorable black "ink spots" on her face!  She's an old girl, born in Germany about 13 years ago.  When raccoons started eating her food, she found her way to Aunt Ruth and Uncle Don across the street and they adopted her.  Her owners were okay with it so now she's theirs.  And she never has to fight raccoons for her food again!  And she likes to play in Aunt Ruth's hair at night.  :)

They gave us lots of old family photos and told us the stories that went with them.  Like this one of Larry's grandpa, Herb, and his cat, Smoky.

I loved this one of Larry's aunts and uncle, Carolyn, Wilma and Hal, Jr.  I LOVE that Wilma has her eyes closed!  We are kindred spirits.  :)  They were all very talented children and all played musical instruments, were actors and sang.

This handsome boy, Hal, Jr. has such a sad story.  Days after this picture was taken (he's the one on top) and hours after his performance as Huckleberry Finn in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer at Jacksonville Beach's Junior Little Theater, he went to his job at the boardwalk amusement park and was killed trying to retrieve a lady's pocketbook from the roller coaster she had been riding.  He was only 15.  I'm thankful for all the photos we were given but the ones we have of Hal are special.  What a smart, talented, handsome, sweet kid.  He died helping somebody out.  So very sad. 

 

Aunt Ruth and Uncle Don are models, too!  We got to see this Winn Dixie circular they did several years ago.  :)

Sunday morning at First Baptist Church, they voted on their new pastor and we were there to welcome him in!  We made a new friend at church, too, a guy named Zach, who had the most awesome t-shirt on.  It said, "Pirates, Terrorists, Sex-Traffickers.  They need Jesus, too!"  We were immediately drawn to this guy and made fast friends with him, "friending" him on Facebook so we can stay in touch.  He shares Jesus with the homeless on the beach and we think he's just awesome.  If you're reading this, hey, Zach!  :)

We had lunch together at Longhorn and then Larry and I went to the beach!  Lannadoo was going on at the Seawalk Pavilion on the beach and we enjoyed the beautiful Celtic music, the dancing and the arts and crafts festival.  We even saw a guy walking around in a kilt! 

The beach was absolutely glorious!  Windy, with strong waves and a few clouds but I've never seen a beach day I didn't like.  

Now we're looking forward to hosting Thanksgiving here on Thursday with our family and some friends.  When we found out a few neighbors and friends didn't have anywhere to go for Thanksgiving, we invited them to join us.

It's almost Christmas.  Eeeeek!!!

Garden update!

Summer is winding down and I am ready to see it go.  While I hate cold weather (winter's snow and ice are not my thing!), I lovelovelove fall!!  I love everything about fall.  The cooler air after a long hot summer, the lower humidity (yes, thank you, Jesus!!!), pumpkins, the fair, seeing the leaves change colors, putting on a warm pair of yoga pants and a long-sleeved tee shirt, turning back the clocks and getting a little more sleep, yep, pretty much everything.  It's my favorite season.  I do love a lot about summer, too.  The beach is obviously number one in my heart and I've enjoyed my little garden, too, going out every day to see if there was a tomato or a cucumber ready and picking pepper after pepper after pepper but to me, fall just feels like the prize at the finish line.  I'll continue to use my clothesline as long as I can (I remember my mama telling me she used to hang our diapers out in the winter and they'd freeze stiff with ice as they dried.  I ain't going that far with it.  Ha!) and I'll continue to do some kind of gardening as long as I can. 

Here's where we are with our wild onions, spinach and lettuce on the porch.  I love that Tabbie Hoffman was right there.  :)

 

 Our Spanish yellow onions are just so cute to me!

The pumpkin patch is coming along nicely, too!  They got sprinkled with a little diatomaceous earth early, you know, just in case some pumpkin bug wanna start something.

  

The mammoth sunflowers are coming up, too!  I can't wait to see how big and tall they get!!  (We had a bad thunderstorm with heavy, heavy rain yesterday.  That's why they're kinda just laying there.  They are just beat down.  Ha!)

The flowers and herbs are just thriving on the front porch!  There's sweet mint, parsley and chives, a climbing jenny, a foxtail fern, a dwarf morning glory, a heather and my Christmas cactus that I'm going to bring in next month and stick in a closet to hang out during the fall months to encourage it to bloom.  Cross your fingers!!  It's nevah bloomed at Christmas.  Valentine's Day is when it usually gets around to it. 

But summer's not going away completely, at least not here at the Schneider Homestead.  I hung a few more things on the fence yesterday while Larry worked on his patches wall.  We picked all of these up at the beach.  I just love how they look together.

Beachy weekend!

Larry and I took off to Tybee Island last weekend for a much-needed break.  Life has been super crazy for us this summer!  We could easily go to Florida but we just love Tybee.  It was the first beach we went to as a real-life couple so it's kinda a special place for us, not to mention a much shorter drive.  Plus it's close to my Aunt Linda and this time, we got to stop by her house and visit for a bit!  When we got close to her house, we called and Uncle Don came and met us.  We had stopped at a peach stand so we picked up a jar of preserves and a loaf of peach bread while we waited for him to get there.  Then we followed him way out in the country (I loved that!) to their house.  Aunt Linda had cooked a spread for us for lunch!!  Baked chicken, corn, macaroni salad, veggies and not knowing what we wanted or felt like eating, she also fixed hot dogs and had chips and homemade pimento cheese for sandwiches.  Pimento cheese like Maw always made, made with sharp cheddar cheese.  It was all so delicious and hit our hungry spot!  We visited for a little while, us girls in the house and Larry and Uncle Don outside talking man stuff.  Jennifer was there, too, with her two stepdaughters and it was so good to see everybody.  And I got to see a side of Savannah I had never seen before!  Every other time I've been, I've just taken I-16 and took it to the end, got off in Savannah and ended up at River Street.  Then took Victory Drive all the way out to the beach.  This time, though, since the road Aunt Linda and Uncle Don live on goes into Savannah, we went that way.  It was so nice to just be out in the country again!  We took that highway right onto Abercorn, stopping at a multi-family yard sale where I got a little white folding garden fence for four dollars and then we hit a few military surplus stores so Larry could get some patches and we went to a thrift store called Blessingdales that I really, really liked because it's owned and operated by Christians, The Living Vine, who help and shelter pregnant women in crisis, whether it be protection from abuse, addiction or just pure need.  It's pretty awesome.  Not one piece of Pyrex was to be found in there but I got the cutest Mud Pie jute tote bag that will be perfect for carrying around my treasures at estate sales. 

We got out to the beach and it was sooooo crowded!!  It was like that all weekend.  We checked in, threw our stuff down and took off.  We wanted to eat at Sundae Cafe, since it recently made a list of the best restaurants in Georgia (I wanted to try that Lobster Mac and Cheese!) but we'll know next time to make a reservation.  Seems everybody saw that list.  We ended up eating at Fannie's and it was awesome.  It was right on the beach, had great seafood and then we walked on the beach with the ice cream cones we got for dessert.

 Only about a bazillion footprints in the sand.  :)

I really, really wanted a mermaid for our master bathroom and a glass float.  That's all I wanted out of this trip!  We went to Seaside Sisters and quickly realized we were waaaaay out of our element.  They may get their stuff from estate sales but they sho' don't resell it like estate sales!  I posted on Facebook that estate sales have ruined me.  I'm used to paying $10 tops for something.  I found a mermaid there, a beautiful metal folk-artsy mermaid that I loved but for $75, I couldn't do it.  We also found the extremely rare Pyrex hot air balloon 4-quart bowl from the chip-and-dip set for $75 at Two Women and a Warehouse and I had to just physically stop Larry from getting it.  We are not paying $75 for a BOWL.  I'd be too scared to use it!!

I got my mermaid (and my beach sign with the hook) at T. S. Chu's.  I absolutely love Chu's.  If you have a minute, read this article about it.  It's been there since the 1930's and has pretty much anything you need for a stay at the beach.  If it's something you use, you'll find it at Chu's!  :)

I ended up with two glass floats.  A big blue one that we're going to hang outside from Fish Art and this smaller green one from Christy's on the corner.

We ate breakfast Sunday morning at The Breakfast Club.  I had a ham and cheese omelet, Larry had the veggie omelet and we both had grits, toast, juice and coffee.  The best breakfast in town, that's for sure!

We enjoyed the most beautiful (albeit a tad cloudy!) sunrise and later Sunday morning, some really cool storm clouds and when the storm passed and the sun came back out, we played and jumped around in some really huge waves!

We stood out on the pier and watch the fishermen cast their lines, in search of that elusive Spanish mackerel.  We never saw 'em catch a mackerel but we did see a trout get pulled in and that was pretty exciting.  :)

I saw this little flower pot stand on a porch near the beach and I just fell head over heels in love with it.  The plants, the pots, the heart-shaped plant stand, the simple way it just all comes together.  I thought it was beautiful.

Your heart always knows the way.  

 
It truly does.  Whether you're discovering a new way to get to your favorite beach or if you're holding on to a dream for dear life when everybody, everything, is telling you it'll never happen.

It will happen.  

You follow that heart, trust its path, and never, ever give up.  

Our trip to Jekyll Island with a side of St. Simons

We left out early Friday morning and went to Jekyll Island for the weekend.  Banjo went with us and we had our very good neighbor, David, babysit Tabbie Hoffman for us.  

We had so many wonderful experiences that I hope I can do them justice here!  We took over 400 pictures in three days!

Jekyll Island is such a beautiful, quiet little beach town and we met some really good people there.  The lady at the gift shop, Nana, who told us about the huge convention center "they" just built there and the monstrosity of a hotel that's going up, too.  There was an estate sale Saturday on the island that we went to and I found a Le Creuset French oven that I wanted really, really, really bad but wouldn't get it because it was $75.  A great deal, I know, but I'm like that.  I won't spend a lot of money if it's something I want.  If it's for the house or for Larry or one of our babies, I'll do it in a heartbeat.  I thought it was just a little self-indulgent so I wouldn't get it.  Larry went back Sunday and got it for me.  That's an amazing man I married.  But, hey, I knew that 26 years ago! Standing in line to get in to the estate sale, Larry talked with a lady who was also furious about the convention center and the hotel going up and she even told him that Governor Deal has made a deal (grrr!) to bring some hunters in and kill the "excess" of deer there so that they can build more stuff.  Larry and I encountered a beautiful small deer in the woods at the beach and he came right up to us (but of course, that's when we were frantically trying to find Larry's wallet and didn't have a camera with us!) and we just cannot bear the thought of them being killed.  We got her name and we're joining the cause to save those deer.  That's what we liked about Jekyll.  It was quiet and peaceful, natural and full of wildlife and the people who love them.  We ran into another lady on the beach who feeds all the feral cats on the island.  We have activism in our souls and while we realize that tourism brings jobs and money, what's more important is what the people who LIVE there want and from the very outspoken folks we talked to, this is not what they want.  Bringing things to a vote seemed fair to us.  "They" didn't do that.  If there is an excess of deer there, looks like we would have seen more than one since we combed every inch of that island, beach and river side.  Hmph!

Saturday afternoon, we discovered that Larry's wallet was missing.  He thought he'd left it in the truck and I couldn't remember if I locked my door or not so we were convinced that it was stolen.  I told Larry when we first discovered it missing that I believed some good person had found it and would mail it to us.  I said we were going to trust God with this and even if we didn't get it back, if someone had stolen it, there was nothing in there that couldn't be replaced.  I had $14 in cash in my wallet.  Every other dollar we had was in that wallet!  Of course, we had my debit and credit card but still, we had a chuck of money in that wallet!  We backtracked our steps, went back to Driftwood Beach where we had gone that morning, looked everywhere and just could not find it.   We went to SeaJay's and had lunch and I spent the entire time trying to get Larry to perk up and stop worrying about it.  He felt awful.  We prayed about it and decided that we were going to see God working in it NO MATTER WHAT.  We went back to our room and no sooner were we done with our showers when Larry's phone rang.  He answered and I could hear the voice from the other side asking if he was Robert Schneider and when he said yes, she said, "I have your wallet".  I just broke down and started squalling!  Not because of the money, not because of the many cards and things we would have had to replace, but because I KNEW without a doubt that God had done this.  We had been strong, we had gone to Him with it and we had trusted that He was in control.  And He was.  Larry gave me the phone and I got the lady's name and directions and off we went to St. Simons to meet her.  It took us about twenty minutes to get to the Sea Palms Resort but we met her in the lobby and got it back.  Not one dollar was missing.  Not one thing touched.  She'd found a card in there that had the phone number of a friend of Larry's, called the friend, got Larry's number and called him.  After she'd googled us and found us in Warner Robins, called the house and got no answer.  :)  It was truly an amazing experience, one that still has us in absolute awe.

Banjo was super good all weekend but he was a little afraid of the water at first.  He didn't realize he could swim!  By Saturday afternoon, he was running to the ocean!  It was so sweet and I'm so glad we took him with us.  We enjoyed him so much!

We bought a beach umbrella and anchor from a little souvenir shop and that was the BEST thing we could have gotten the whole trip!!  It was SO hot and we sprayed each other down with Banana Boat and I am happy to report that this was the very first beach trip of my life (except when my mama was keeping me covered!) that I didn't get sunburned!  We both got a little pink on the shoulders but NO BURN.  Not even our heads or feet.  We might have figured this thing out!  Ha!  

We had a cooler full of ice and drinks and a big bag of cheesy poofs.  We just hung out at the beach all weekend and life was pretty much perfect!

Sunday morning, we went for a sunrise walk on the beach and found a washed ashore jellyfish.  I wanted to pick him up and throw him back in but Larry was afraid he'd sting me.  We noticed he didn't have tentacles but we didn't know if he was storing them inside or what.  We didn't know what to do!  Just then, a Jeep belonging to the Georgia Sea Turtle Center comes by and Larry flags them down and we show them the jellyfish.  One of the interns there picked him up and told us that he was a cannonball jellyfish and was totally harmless to people.  We noticed a tiny crab had latched on to him as well.  I took them both from her and headed out to sea with them.  I can't even describe how it felt to give an otherwise doomed jellyfish back to the ocean at sunrise but I can say that it was a beautiful experience and one I know God had a hand in, too.  I kept talking to them, "we're almost there, y'all" and "hold on, little buddies".  :)  It was pretty amazing.  God was all around me, in the beautiful colors of the sky to the cool water around my feet to the cold little rubber ball I was holding in my hand.  No church service I've ever been to could compare.

We spent the rest of Sunday morning at Driftwood Beach and pretty much had the whole place to ourselves until some folks showed up to get married!
  

  

We made it a point to go to the Sea Turtle Center that afternoon!  We got to see a little bit of the work they do to save little sea creatures and their habitat and how we can all help.  This little girl's name is Glory.  She swam around to look me right in the eye.  :)

We checked out the historic district on the river side of the island, too.  The Horton House that's been there since 1746!  If you want to build a house that'll stand the test of time, build it with sand, water, lime and sea shells.  Sounds like my kind of house to me!

We'd had to cross the Sidney Lanier Bridge going over to St. Simons to pick up Larry's wallet so we went back and hung out at the park under the bridge Sunday before we started home.  

We had such a great trip full of sunshine and breezes, salty sea air, laughter, a few tears and a whole lot of love!

What we've been up to

We have been so busy here at the Schneider Condostead!  We are looking forward to May, when we're going to slow waaaaay down and smell the roses (or the daisies or the hibiscuses!).  

Larry restored my old baby chest of drawers.  My daddy cut it down from a chest that my grandparents had when he and Mama were expecting me, 47 years ago.  I used it right on up until about five years ago, when the drawers were just falling apart and I had to store it for Larry to fix.  I always knew he would be here to fix it!  And so he did.

Here's a before, all sanded down and ready to paint.  I wanted it painted exactly how my daddy painted it, white and trimmed in blue. 

And here's the after!  And it's back in use, in our bedroom.

We went to the Cherry Blossom Festival with Ami and Brian a couple of Sundays ago and had so much fun!  Although we have probably had our first and last experience with a food truck.  :)  

A photographer from The Macon Telegraph was there and he asked us if he could take our picture!  We said yes, thinking there was no way we'd ever make the paper.  But we did!  This was in last Monday's Telegraph.

Larry and Ginger Schneider of Warner Robins enjoy their food from the Texas Tacos food truck along Third Street Sunday. JASON VORHEES — jvorhees@macon.com 

Read more here: http://www.macon.com/2014/03/30/3021102/last-day-for-cherry-blossom-fest.html#storylink=cpy

I joked on Facebook that OF COURSE he'd have to use the one he took of me trying to eat my taco in one bite rather than one where I was eating a lime fry.  Ugh.  But still, we were excited to be in the newspaper!

That crowd?  Is why we've probably done our first and last food truck.  And two quesadillas, two tacos and two canned drinks for $29 is another reason.

We bought this beautiful handpainted gourd at the Cherry Blossom Festival and Larry hung it in a backyard tree.  I just love it and can't wait for a birdy to move in!

 
We went bowling at the base's bowling alley, too, and Larry totally mopped the floor up with me.  We grilled hamburgers and hot dogs and fed our Family Promise families at church last night and he played basketball, volleyball, foosball and shot pool with the kids.  There is NO game Larry cannot play and he's so good at everything!






Larry was on spring break from school last week and he laid a walkway for us from the patio out to the shop...

 

Annnnnd you see all those little things on the ground?

 Grass seed! :)

We bought some flowers at Lowe's and I planted purple petunias in a front yard bed and was SO happy to see that my Uncle J.B. (amaryllis) has a little bud!  It didn't bloom at all last year.  I have a pink impatien, orange Gerbera daisies and a gorgeous hibiscus to repot and put out on the patio and after Easter, we're going back for a big flower, veggie and herb trip to Lowe's.  :)  I've put a bloom booster around everything so we should have a beautiful yard this year!

We went up to Forsyth to Cash Liquidations and bought a beautiful lamp and sofa table.  We'd been trying to thrift a sofa table and hadn't been able to find one we liked and we even looked at some brand new ones, although I really didn't want a brand new one.  I wanted one that had been "loved" a little bit.  We rode up to Forsyth one afternoon and found one and a cool boho lamp, too!

This past weekend, we went back to the beach and had a wonderful time!  Saturday was gorgeous, warm, sunny, the water didn't turn our feet blue this time and we actually got to get out in the ocean and enjoy it.  I think Larry enjoyed it a little more than I did.  :)

Our friend, Lissa, told me on Facebook that we were eating life by the second, enjoying every bite.  That's a good way to put it!  We waited a very long time for this life and we are certainly not wasting a minute of it!!

Beach weekend

We had a wonderful time at the beach!  The sun was warm and the sky was amazingly beautiful and blue the entire time.  It was around 50 degrees Saturday with wind at 18 mph but Sunday was better.  The wind had calmed some and the temperature was a little warmer.  February may not be the best time to go to the beach but it was the best time for us!

We went over to Tybee Island, a short three-hour drive from here.  It took us nearly six hours to get there, though, because we went adventurin' off the beaten path and ended up in a little town called Collins, where we found the most awesome thrift/junk store.  Memories Rendered is the name of it.  We must have spent every bit of two hours in there.  I found another vintage Pyrex mixing bowl, a FireKing casserole and the most awesomest of 70's glassware, a smiley face glass!  We had so much fun going through all that stuff!

We finally got to Tybee around 3:00 and as soon as we checked in at the hotel, we hit the beach! 

We ate supper at StingRay's, had some awesome crab legs and Low Country boil and listened to a very good Jimmy Buffet impersonator performing outside.  

Saturday night, I got a message on Facebook from my childhood friend, Brenda (Cox) Northern, who now lives in Tybee, and she said she wanted to come see us!  So she did!  She came to our hotel room and we all sat and talked for a long time.  It was so good to see her again! 

Sunday morning, we got up really early and watched the sun come up.  I have always loved the beach.  Ever since I was a baby girl and Mama and Daddy would take me and my brother to Florida every summer.  I feel pulled by the sea and I believe that the ocean is God's greatest creation.  I joke that He just showed OUT the day He separated land and water but seriously, if you have any doubt that there is a God, go spend some time at the sea.

It is without a doubt my happy place and where I feel closest to my God.

We went to the sweetest little Baptist church for Sunday morning worship.  Chapel By The Sea.  We loved everything about it and I was reminded of that little Baptist church I grew up in, from the hymns they sang to the quietly ushering out of the children for Children's Church just before the sermon began.  I loved it.  We were welcomed so warmly and they even sat us next to a sweet little couple from Warner Robins!  Both retired from the base and now living at Tybee.  Such a wonderful, loving experience.

Larry had the best time feeding the birds!  He fed them off the balcony of our room and he fed them several times on the beach.

Peace, love and the ocean! 

Sunday after church, we had lunch at The Crab Shack where I had the best clam chowder I've ever had!  We played with and talked to the exotic birds and the many kitties they have there and looked around in the gift shop.  Then we went over to the lighthouse and were disappointed that it was closed to the public for painting but we took a bunch of pictures and hung out at the Battery Garland at Fort Screven.

We hit some surf shops after that then went back to the beach for a while before we started home.  

We took long walks on the beach and laughed so much, my face ached.  Sandy toes, salty kisses and wind in your hair.  I just don't believe it gets any better than that.