We live in Southwest Florida. We moved here over 8 years ago, after retiring, and have enjoyed every minute of it. Well almost every minute of it, the 4 hurricanes we got in 2004, over a two month period did kind of knock us around but we made it through without any serious damage to our house. In early 2005 we had shutters installed and are very happy we did because during the summer of 2005, we had two more hurricanes, Katrina and Wilma. Although they didn't hit us directly they did come close.







Between us we have three daughters (Laurie, Jackie, and LaDonna), and a son, Michael. The family is scattered all around the USA. LaDonna and her family live in the Montana, Michael and his daughter live in Oregon. Laurie and her family just moved to North Carolina, and Jackie lives by us in Florida.






I grew up with my sister, Gayle, who lives just outside of New Orleans, La. I also have 3 brothers (Butch, Jack, and David) and a sister, Dianne through my fathers second marriage. They are pictured a few paragraphs down.





Dayna grew up in New Jersey with her two brothers, Stan and Donald. Stan and his wife live in Northern Florida, while Don and his wife live in the Northeast.






GRANDCHILDREN: We have 5 so far ... but we could use some more.

  • On December 27, '94 LaDonna and Craig gave us our first grandchild, a grandson named Levi Charles.
  • On January 7, '97, Michael and Janee gave us our 1st granddaughter, Kirah Dahn. Our son told us that she was a perfect baby.
  • On June 12, '97, LaDonna and Graig gave us our second granddaughter, Lindsey Jo.
  • On August 6, 1999, Laurie and Tom blessed us with yet another granddaughter, Karlye Ann.
  • On May 1, 2003 LaDonna and Craig gave us number 5, a grandson named Carson Allen.







A Special Event:
On December 12, '95, I received a phone call from a guy named Butch saying he was my brother. As it turned out, my real father, William, had remarried and to my surprise I found I now have 3 brothers, a sister, a new step-mother Phrone, and a long lost aunt Helen. My Aunt Helen knew me when I was a baby and remembered me as a Kissy little thing, HEY!!! still am. On a sad note, in Feb of 2004, Phrone died and in Oct of 2005 we lost our Aunt Helen. It was my good fortune to have known them both in their final years.  With the death of Aunt Helen one "Family" era came to an end and the start of the next begins. Pictured below is a photo of the 5 children of William, our dad.     (r. to l. yours truly, Butch, Jack, Dianne, and David)







In June of 2004 Dayna's mother passed away at the age of 96. She had lived with us for about 5 years and was Quincy's favorite.










 

We have two dachshunds, Quincy and Baxter. Quincy is our New Jersey dog. He hated the snow back in NJ, but down here in Florida he loves the sun. Baxter, our Florida dog, hates the sun but loves the air conditioning. Go figure.


Hurricane Ready


Both of them