Friday Foto Friends...

Not sure how Friday arrived so quickly, but here it is! That means it is time to link up with Debbie at Breathing In Grace for her Friday Foto Friends link-up!!  Join the fun HERE!  Thanks for hosting, Deb!!

Our friends (my BFF) Elaine and Jim had to leave on Wednesday morning. They headed for the Orlando airport at the same time we left for the farm/ranch. Their flight was delayed (like so many) due to weather. They did not arrive back home in Illinois until after 9:00 p.m.  Nearly 12 hours! They could almost have driven it in that amount of time.  (I HATE flying... delays, airport security, baggage rules... hate it. Rant over.)

We sure had a good time while they were here, and we had that good time by not doing much of anything!  I posted about our Mexican dinner on St. Patrick's Day and that we watched basketball (March Madness) most of the weekend.

On Monday Elaine and I took Helen to a doctor's appointment. Helen doesn't drive so Joe and I help her out when we can with transportation.  I made pasta with homemade 'gravy' and Italian sausage for our dinner.  We also had a salad, some garlic bread and strawberry shortcake for dessert.

On Tuesday, Joe had a doctor's appointment with his VA doctor. I went with him for that. In the waiting room, there was a beautiful artificial flower arrangement.  I had to take a photo!  I should photo-shop out the empty coke can and the two magazines...but it is what it is.  I loved the purple Irises.

When we got home from there, we all loaded up in the car and headed for downtown Lakeland for lunch.   Elaine and Jim took us out to lunch at Harry's and we asked the waiter to take our picture...

I had a yummy spicy chicken sandwich and sweetcorn grits. Joe had jambalaya.  Elaine had salmon and Jim had shrimp and scallops over a grits cake. It was yummy!!

From there, we went to the Museum to see the new exhibit "Painting a Nation" Hudson River Landscapes from the Higdon Collection. I really enjoyed seeing those breathtaking landscapes. The detail in some of them is so fine you might think it was a photo.  We posed in front of the Museum for the required 'I visited the Polk Museum of Art' photo with the John Henry sculpture we fondly call the French Fries.

Jim and Elaine above/Elaine and me below.

From the Museum we all went to Bealls, which is a Florida department store with great buys and Tuesdays are senior days with an extra 15% off your total purchase!  We were there for an hour or so.  Yes, Elaine and I both found things to buy.  Joe found a shirt he liked but not in his size. Jim had some good self-control and only looked and waited patiently for the rest of us.

Our son and daughter-in-law were to come Wednesday afternoon, but they had to delay that until Thursday morning and Darlene wasn't able to come. Joe and I went to the farm, stopped at Lenny's for lunch and then Sam's Club for gasoline and groceries.

 Can you see Joe pumping gas...

On Thursday morning, we were happy to see Joey, and thank Darlene for sending him to us even though she couldn't come because of some issues with their horses. Joey is being deployed for a year, leaving on Tuesday next week for the middle east. He will be missed!!  We have him until tomorrow morning though, and we will have fun watching the Villanova basketball game tonight. Both of my Joes graduated from Villanova.

So there you have my update for the week and my photos for today's meme.  I am still working on visiting the blogs I have missed this week. I'm making it to most of them, even though I don't comment on some of them. I really do miss you when I can't visit!

Thanks for peeking in today!! Thanks for all the offered prayers for Joe and his coming TAVR procedure April 3rd.  Your prayers are very much appreciated!!

Peace & hugs!!  Happy weekend!