DECEIVED & LIED TO--WHAT A BLESSING

Lied to, Deceived--what a blessing!

How could I know? There really was no warning and it all started out so innocently. Who was first?


Probably Jackie. Or maybe it was Jackie. No,that’s not a typo. I’m sure my loving wife had this all thought out, but oh the depths of deception she so deliciously served up.

The other Jackie (T O J ) emailed and said she was going to be in Jacksonville for work and could she come and stay with us a couple of days. “Sure, we’ve always got room for one more in our house.” Glynn and Bum were going to be here at the same time as they were traveling down to Palm Beach. So like I would never expect, they all lied and misled me so that I would have the biggest surprise I’d had in I don’t even know how long.


Right: Leah & Bum

And Nathan joined in to say he was
busy and would be down Sunday
some time because he was shoot-
ing a wedding and couldn’t come by
to see the others staying here.


Left: Bum, Glynn & Nathan

So Saturday afternoon comes along and Glynn and I go out to my deacon’s house to visit a little. He and his wife break out the fruit and some goat cheese & we start chowing down and get to talking and before too long it’s after 2:00 PM. and I get a text message that the Jackies are wanting to hit St. Augustine to do some touristing and I’m to be the tour guide. So we go to the museum for an hour and a half and had a good time looking at stuff and then head on home. When I pulled up to the house there was no where to park because the place is full of cars. I don’t know how the girls did it but they had people at my party that came from all eras of our lives. T O J was my girl friend back



Right: Hula Bob



when I was 14; Tom was a high school surfing buddy that shared my wild days in CA surfing and then coming to Christ; Rick was another surfing pal from our Mobile days and then there were people from our Baptist era; our Priest and Deacon from our Orthodox church; Fr Ted who was so instrumental in sharing the Orthodox faith with us; and of course Glynn and Bum here on loan from Thailand and many others that are so dear and vital to our lives. They dressed me up in the Hawaiian get up and I had more fun than a person should be allowed to have. I had no idea becoming a 60-year-old could be so awesome. What a blessing it was to have all these people with me in one place and how blessed I was that they cared so much to do something so nice for me. It was humbling. So that’s what it’s like to become a senior citizen. But as I’ve always said, “I won’t be ‘old’ until I can no longer paddle out and surf.” By that scale, I’m still in my 30s. And I constantly remind myself that Christ is my future so I’m heading in the right direction regardless of age, health or anything else. Thanks to all of you who showed me so much love.







My Favorite Jackies

Jackie, Bum, Bob and Jackie

Christmas 2009

Merry Christmas...Christ is in our presence!

Time has certainly flow by since we last wrote anything and before it flies completely by I thought it would be good to wish all of you a very blessed Christmas. What joy it was for those shepherds to have their lives invaded by the Angelic host shouting that Christ was born and what joy it is for us to know Him who was unknown for 1000s of years.

I'm writing this to you because Jackie is busy at work with her class of 3-year-olds (God have mercy on her) and I'm once again unemployed. I was again laid off but this time it was not such a shock. I had 2 job offers before I had to leave my last job so I accepted the one I think will be best. Problem is it doesn't start until the end of January. Oh well, guess I'm on funemployment! That's a new term I heard. I'm not sure what it means but it sounds cool.

We continue to live here in Saint Augustine, FL with Leah and our 3 grandsons. It's a bit crowded but we dare not complain with so rich and loving as our Father is and in the way He cares for us. Last night we were putting up the Christmas trees and I took a few photos so here they are...

That would be Leah to the left and Elijah below on the right.
He was having a good time looking at our collection of decorations that have been following us around for the last 37 years. Many are gifts from friends like you and always bring back good memories when we get them out.

Jackie is down there working on the tree too and when it got too late to finish we decided that it would have to wait until another evening to get finished. It's always fun.

The rest of the family eluded the camera so I'll move back to Thanksgiving and show you the rest of us. We went over to Orlando and had our meal together with Nathan and his fiancee, Becka. They plan on getting married next October in Italy. Sounds like a great excuse for Jackie and I to get out again. We'll have to see how that all comes together next year. Don't you wish money wasn't something that always had to be figured in to the adventure equation?

So here's a couple of photos from over at Nathan's place.
Can you see Nathan? That yellow shirt kind of screams for attention and Becka, on his left grabs your eye too. Zach is on the far left and is our oldest grandson. He's the computer genius of the family and writes his own computer games. Jake is the middle man and was at his football game. Leah is always running him to a practice or game of some sort. I don't know how she keeps up, but then I'm not in my 30s like she is. Oh, how the time does fly.




There's Jake now, the student of the year. Besides being a sporty guy he also does OK with his academics. He has already won a 100% scholarship to any State school in Florida. That's one paid for and two to go. Ha.

Thanks to all of you for your friendship. We'll look forward to hearing your Christmas news too. Much love to all...

Bob and Jackie