A tribute to my Forever friend!

A week ago tonight my forever friend went home to be with Jesus. I know she is well and happy but I sure miss her. I posted some pictures on Facebook and I found these pictures today. We had so many happy times together. Some I had even forgot about. Anita was the happiest most upbeat person I know. Wherever we went we had fun. She was all about making memories with her family and friends. And we sure made some great memories. I met her over 14 years ago. We worked together at church doing Ladies night out ministries and we did weddings, showers, class parties and we just had fun. When she was no longer able to do that we just had fun. We both loved to eat....a lot and we loved going out to eat or sharing a meal at each others house, playing phase 10 and of course we loved doing anything with our grand-children. These pictures below are of her when Tanek was so little. I am not sure if this was his 1st birthday or Easter. She brought her grand-son Kyle with her. We had also taken them to Chunky Cheese for an outing after Kyle had surgery on his shoulder. They had a great time and both grandmothers forgot their camera's if you can imagine that.

These pictures are when we went to Jacksonville to hear Beth Moore. As always she kept in touch with her hubby to let him know she was doing ok and where she was. We had a great time at the conference.

After the conference that night we all went out for a late night dinner. I can tell you there was a lot of laughter that evening. We always had fun and lots of laughter with her. She was so joyful

all the time. These were the ladies that got out of the conference in time. The other half of our group got left behind and they had a long wait getting back. It got pretty scary for them in Jacksonville by the Coliseum.

Here is the whole group that went.

Last summer Anita and her mom came over with her grand-daughter Morgan for lunch and swimming. It turned out to rain that afternoon but we had a great lunch and a game of cards and Tanek and Morgan had fun. Look at the food. I told you we liked to eat....a lot.

Below are a few picutres of our Sunday night outings after church to go....EAT. I think I mentioned that we like to eat. Actually most of our activities somehow always ended up or started with food.

These were couples for our SS class. I guess maybe when you become our age eating is just one of the more fun things to do. We sure seemed to do a lot of it.

Anita and her mom stopped by one afternoon to see how I was doing with getting my Christmas decorations up. She always had time to spend with Tanek. Not a wonder she was such an important Meme to him. He loved her so much.

He loved meme and memaw. He loved it when they came by to see him.

Below are the first pictures of our first Disney trip together. This was to "A Not So Scary Mickey". We went with her sister-in-law, and neice and nephew, their children and two of Anita's grand-children Morgan and Garrett. Up til this time I really Did NOT like Disney. She showed me how happy it really is there. She loved Disney and would go anytime she could. It was just such a "happy" place and we had a great time there.

I love Disney and all their decorations. Fall is one of the best time to see Disney. The very best time is at Christmas and we were there for that too. They just do it up right.

I will always cherish the times we had together. We had promised that we would never let anything come between our friendship. We both in the past had people come and go from our lives that we thought were forever friends. Sometimes God sends people in your life for just a season and sometimes for a lifetime. We knew ours would be a lifetime friendship and it was. Wish it could have been longer but that is just my desire to keep her here with all of us that loved her so much. God had other plans and I know she is singing and dancing in heaven. She loved to sing and dance and now she can without ever getting tired. Our loss is heavens gain. I am trying to remember what my sister wrote on my fb. "Don't cry because it is over, smile because it happened". That is what I am trying to do. It would have never been enough time, but I am SO thankful for the time we had and that all the memories did happen. She was loved by everyone that knew her. I will always miss her and she will always live in my heart.

Of course it rained that night. It was a warm rain, so it was ok. Everyone got soaked but it didn't put a damper on the fun. We closed Disney down that night. We were some of the very last ones to leave. We then went and spent the night with her sister-in-law Carol and stayed up quite late, talking and of course.....eating.

Below is a picture of Anita with Tanek. She gave Stephanie and Tanek a shower at her house.

She was so giving and always doing for others. How blessed we are because of her.

THANK YOU ANITA FOR ALL THE WONDERFUL MEMORIES!!!

Tanek's 4th Birthday!

Saturday February 20th was Tanek's 4th birthday. It is hard to believe he is already 4. We had his birthday party at Keystone Beach Pavilon. It was a beautiful warm sunny day. You can see the lake in the background. It really was a picture perfect day.

Most of these pictures are in no particular order. This was near the end of the party when they
opened the pinita and collected all the candy.

He had a contruction birthday party with all the bulldozers, caution cones etc. Here the children are filling up their hard hats with the candy.

He is opening his gifts while the children watch

The children enjoyed riding the truck around the room. We had set up an obstical course, but the children quickly re-arranged it the way they wanted too. They had a good time and that was what was important. Children at the age are not really into planned play as we quickly found out.

Building site with blocks

We did manage to get them all together to play "put the caution gone on the bulldozer" or something like that.

Part of the obstical course was a slide to go down. In this case run down.

And there were lots of bolts to work with

I love watching children interact with each other. Most of them didn't know each other, yet they just jumped right in and played together. Everyone got along and shared and had a good time.

They were so much fun to watch,
Refreshment time.

The birthday cake

Blowing out his #4 candle

We missed Meme at the birthday party but she was and always will be in our hearts. She would have enjoyed being there with the children. She loved to watch children being happy and having fun. We will always keep your memory alive in our hearts and Tanek will know how much you loved him.

This picture and the rest are Tanek opening some of his gifts at home before the party. And this one of him posing for Nana.

Happy Birthday Tanek, You are LOVED!

Visit from the North!

Today the Ryans came to visit. Cary, Austin and Casey came by. This is Heathers sister's family. Austin and Tanek are good buddies and Tanek loves when Austin comes to visit. Austin had got a new hot wheels toy and he and Tanek played with that and Tanek's "cars" race track and some monster trucks. Austin is the one who introduced Tanek to Monster trucks and he loves them.
Austin is much older than Tanek but he is good to play with Tanek and then Tanek feels like he is a "big" boy.

Playing football in the house and Nana had to change that play.

Casey was a good sport and sat and watched the boys play and adults talk. She was very patient.

I had to get a picture of her feet in flip flops. I told her her friends in Minnesota would be so jealous that she was in flip flops in February. They just left a lot of snow in Minnesota. Casey always has very wild toe and finger nails. Love to see what she is wearing on her nails.

It certainly wasn't exactly warm, but to them it felt a lot warmer than Minnesota right now. We

enjoyed their visit.