Sunday Sunshine....

What a glorious day, here in Central Florida!  We have the AC turned off, all the windows are open, the ceiling fans are on and we are loving the fresh air and sunshine on this Sunday afternoon!  Of course, having the Eagles on TV makes it even sweeter for Joe, even though they played awful the first half (and probably will, the second).  We're always hopeful, however!  This is a bad photo, taken from my "nest" on the sofa.  Bright sun outside canceled out the light inside. 

A power outage caused our internet to be off when we got home Friday evening.  We called tech support, and they couldn't get a ping, so scheduled a service call for Monday afternoon.  Fortunately, they must have had some others complaining, because it was back on last night!  Whew!  The problem must have been outside, at the main box.  We canceled the tech visit for tomorrow afternoon.

I have to tell you about our Friday night!!  It actually started on Thursday night, with a call from a good friend of ours, Fran.  Fran is a retired Lieutenant with our Sheriff's Department.  We have been friends for at least a dozen years, and before her retirement.  She called to tell us a couple of things.

Some background for my new friends.... my husband, Joe, worked for our church for three years, as the business manager/finance person.  Joe is a CPA, who calls himself semi-retired.  He still has a dozen clients who won't let him quit, and as long as he enjoys it, that's a good thing.  Our Pastor, Fr. Matt, asked Joe to come to work for the church, because he needed someone who understood finance.  Joe had just closed his office and moved "home" with his dozen clients, so it was good timing for him to help out the church (and bring in some money for us, though he worked cheap).

Well, things were not good at the church, and most of it was due to the Pastor, who was out of control and out of his element.  Joe started communicating with the Diocese of Orlando, on some of the issues, and to make a long story short, Fr. Matt let Joe go when he found out he had been found out.  We left the church, and started attending another Catholic church (Lakeland has four Catholic churches).  Anyway, after two years, Fr. Matt has finally been transferred to another church, effective November 1st.  What Fran had to tell us was that the Diocese sent HR people to Resurrection and they fired everyone in the office - escorted them out after letting them gather personal items from their offices!!  I'm sorry for them, but we feel Joe has been vindicated.  Finally, everything he was trying to accomplish is happening.  Now our friends are asking us to come back.... not sure about that, but we feel good that the money will finally be straightened out and things will be good again over there!!

The other thing Fran had for us, was that our dear friend, Fr. Victor Ubaka, was in town for a couple of days.  Fr. Victor spent his summers at our church while he was studying for his Masters Degree.  He studied in Rome, and spent three summers here in Lakeland.  We got to know him real well, and Joe's office at the church was right next to his.  When we went to Italy (five years ago!), we got to spend an afternoon with Fr. Victor at The Irish College, where he was studying.  It was a wonderful afternoon, including lunch in a huge cafeteria full of priests and nuns.  He toured us through parts of Vatican City that we would not have seen on our regular tour.  It was wonderful.  When he left Lakeland, after graduating, we had a party for him, here at our house.  He has been in New York these past four years, and is now headed home to Nigeria.  We, of course, wanted a chance to see him.

Fr. Victor came to the house Friday night.  Joe left the Museum opening, before it even started, to meet him here.  I stayed for the lecture, and then slipped out so I could see him for awhile, too.  We sat at the kitchen table and just talked for another hour, after I got home.  He and Joe talked, of course, about the happenings at Resurrection.  Fr. Victor agreed that Fr. Matt has problems and should not be a Pastor.  Very sad.  I'm so glad we got to spend some time with him before he leaves.  He said he will come back when he gets vacation time and is able to make it here.  We will also be in touch by e-mail.  The internet does make it a small world, thank goodness.  I intended to get a photo of him and Joe, and completely forgot to do it.  Here is one from the going-away party we had.

Saturday, was the Museum's Halloween Event.  I went in to help with set-up, so I wouldn't have to be there when the kids came in.  I'm not one to endure four hours of a hundred or more little kids....  Set-up was fun, though!  I used the helium tank and blew up most of the balloons for decorations.  I also helped transport 'stuff' from upstairs to downstairs.  I was pretty exhausted when I headed home a few minutes before three.  Here are some photos of set-up.  High school student volunteers drew most all of the monster art you see!  Amazing!!

Sorry this is getting so long!!  I have a little more, though!  

Saturday, we went to church (4:00 Vigil Mass), then to IHOP for dinner, then to Sam's Club for a few things.  Today, just doing laundry, and I got the boxes of books, stuff, and clothing out to the garage, so we can take it to the church for the rummage sale.  Feel good about that little bit of purging.

Tomorrow morning, we will be up early and heading an hour away to the Webster Flea Market.  It is HUGE, and I went there for the first time with my parents, who were snow-birds (6 months in Florida, in the winter months), more than 25 years ago.  It has been there and growing for more than 30 years!  There is even a video about Webster:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Xb20uWYpx8  and here is a link to the Westside's website:  http://www.websterwestsidefleamarket.com/  and yet another:  http://www.websterfleamarket.biz/

So now you know more about the Webster Flea Market than you wanted to know!  LOL  It is big, and you really can't see it all in one day.  We have targeted spots we know we have to hit, so we do that first.  I'll try to remember to take some photos to share.  

Hope you are having a good Sunday, and I wish you a good week ahead!!  Thanks for wading through this!!  Peace, love & hugs.