Tom & Brenda's Family Journal

We are having a great time in Sebring Florida. Our days seem full yet relaxing. On Wednesday, we traveled the 80 miles to Orlando to visit Epcot Center. March is their flower festival and as everything is at Disney, it was overwhelmingly beautiful. We went with Tom's cousin Dianne and her husband Charlie. I think that was the most fun part being with them. We hope to do more things together while we are here. This is the Canadian exhibit. We wanted to eat in their steakhouse but their reservations were taken for the entire day. We learned that you should make your food reservation first and then start doing the activities. The topiaries were outstanding. This is from the movie Lady and the Tramp at the Italian exhibit. Although this looks like an English country garden, this is the Norway exhibit. This is the week of the 12 Hours of Sebring-an American LeMans Series race that I am covering for Insider Racing News. Should be an exciting week.

Tom and I have now settled into our rental unit in Sebring Florida. It is a duplex and the other half is rented to a lovely couple from Manchester England. They are recently retired and just loving the weather and golfing here. Last weekend we spent time at Sebring International Raceway which is about 7 miles from us. I will be covering the 12 Hours of Sebring on March 19 for Insider Racing News. The race this past weekend was vintage sports cars-a new type of racing but we really liked seeing the old cars and the old drivers. They were very friendly and open to questions. One thing I've noticed here is Bunny Bread brand is available. That brand was very popular in the Soo when I was growing up but I haven't seen it in years. Do any of you remember Bunny Bread?

After two longs days of driving, we spent yesterday getting settled and resting up. Our home here is quite comfortable but we headed out to Walmart to get groceries and a few supplies. The coffee pot provided with the house was a 4 cup model. Definitely not big enough to get us through a morning. We replaced it with a 12 cup model. That fits our style better. We stocked up on groceries and then stopped and bought new walking shoes for Tom and I. We hope to do lots of walking while we are here. In the evening, we stopped for a bowl of soup at Panera. Then we headed to Sebring International Raceway. It is the home of the 12 Hours of Sebring- a LeMans race to be held in two weeks. I hope to cover the race for insiderracingnews.com. There is already lots of activity there with the Jaguar team setting up. Maybe today we can get back to watch some testing. On the way back into town from the track we saw some ball field lights. We followed them to a sports complex where there were...

I love traveling and having all kinds of new experiences. Sunday was one of those days. We are on our way to Florida. Luckily, we have two daughters who live convenient distances and stopping points for travels to Florida. We stopped at Jen's in North Carolina on Saturday which allowed us to recharge our personal batteries before setting out on the road again. We're planning to see Kristen on our return trip. We attended church with Jen at High Rock Church. The worship service was high energy and we loved the music and the friendly people. Tom talked for a while to the small-group pastor who is also a high school football coach. His son is also a football and baseball player who is starting college this fall. They had lots in common. Jen has several friends at the church including a teaching colleague. I met her son who is one of Jen's students and got the real scoop on Miss Benedict. It was all good! Sunday afternoon we visited the NASCAR Hall of Fame. It is a...

There hasn't been too much going on around here this month. Snow seems to be the consistent theme of the month. We started out with a blizzard and yesterday received our second big snowfall. Last week our temperatures warmed into the 50's, so we lost all our snow. It seemed wonderful. But yesterday the snow returned. 12 inches of it here in Alto. New snow is beautiful but I believe no snow is even more beautiful. Early in the month we had a reunion of women who attended Shiloh Church. Our church group was very close but since the church closed in 2009, we have not had a chance to see each other very often. We met at Essential Bean for a wonderful time of sharing and loving each other. This past weekend we watched our 4 grandchildren. It was a fun time and we made many memories including a visit to the library, baking brownies and cookies, lots of Disney Channel, and playing games. The boys enjoyed playing basketball with the hoop on the side of the barn. This is th...

This had been a very easy winter up until this week. Tom and I are very happy about that. I drive many miles every day to the schools where I work. So I have really appreciated the good roads. Tom's job is to keep my car on the road and the drive way cleared. For Christmas gifts this year for each other, we had remote car starters installed on our cars. After 25 years of attached garages, we were struggling getting used to walking out to a cold car across the driveway. We were thankful that we have a garage but the remote starters now mean that we get in a warm car. It has changed my attitude toward winter. Even at work, I simply start my car about 15 minutes before I leave for the day from the warmth of the school. The snow is cleared off when I trudge to the car and off I go warm and happy. But this week we had a 'blizzard'. It actually worked up to a big storm but it came during the middle of the night and so we missed seeing the fury of God's handiwork. I...

We had a logger come in and take some of the largest trees on our 60 acres and there were some amazing trees. It was sad to see them cut down but it is making room for the smaller trees to grow and mature. We also had many ash trees taken out because the emerald ash borer is just starting to ruin trees in this area. Tom is examining the work of the loggers. We were happy with the way they were careful not to damage our fields or the trees that were left standing. It was amazing to see the trucks of trees leaving and yet our woods still appear full without bare spots. Tom and I had planned to head to Florida for the month of January this year but it didn't work out for us. So we are spending our January here in Alto. We are hoping to leave for Florida on February 26 and stay there until the end of March. We have had an easy winter so far. I haven't had any snow days at school not even a 2 hour delay yet this year. It hasn't been the case for Jennifer in North Carolina...