A Birthday Celebration

My goodness! What a change from last week to this week. The difficult traffic has thinned, the restaurants have seats available, and the horns stopped beeping. I couldn’t believe the difference! One flip of the calendar and things have calmed down. I know many are happy to be going back home, as they missed their family.

Our family has had lots of action this past week. Personally, it was my birthday, and my kids really pulled one over on me! I have five terrific kids, but only two live here in town, although all went to school here, one was born here and another was only eight months old when we moved here. But for this birthday, the two in town were here and with me (one had to work but called me) and the other finished work and was here, BUT one drove over from Ft. Lauderdale, and one drove five hours from Orlando. I was thrilled they were able to be here with hugs and kisses, and then I looked over again in all the excitement and saw TJ, my fifth child! He’s the one who lives in Albany, New York, and there he was, sitting in a chair in my house! We all hugged and kissed and laughed and hugged more. Then we went to a very nice dinner at Flemings Steakhouse, and what a dinner that was. They treated us like we were the royal family, and the food was more than outstanding. No matter what they did, it was perfect! The food was marvelous, and our waiter was terrific, to say the least. They did little special things to make the celebration even more festive. My kids already bought assorted marvelous mini birthday cakes from Mikkelsen's Pastry Shop in assorted flavors. Yes, that Mikkelsens! You’ve never tasted a cake like Mikkelsens. Over the top outstanding! But Flemings also had a small cake for us. It was a fairy book birthday. I am truly blessed with these kids (Well, they aren’t really kids anymore, but at my age, they LOOK like kids). All I can say is I love them so much! After that fun-filled evening, everyone went back to my home (don’t forget, I raised them there, so we had enough beds for those coming into town), and we had lots more to talk about.

The next day my daughter Sherri, who lives in Golden Gate, was having a baby shower for her daughter Samantha, who is pregnant with her second child (many of the guys went on their way to do other things). We arranged for the shower to be held at the Naples Elks Lodge on U. S. 41E, and what a great idea that was! I’m a 24-year member, so I could arrange it. It was a wonderful place to hold the event, and being a member, I was able to vouch for them if they wanted anything to drink. My daughter and her friends brought all the food, and the party moved forward. There was so much laughter and fun and games and prizes, and much more, it was hard to stop! We couldn’t have chosen a better place to hold the event, and those Elk members almost took it upon themselves to treat everyone like family! What a wonderful place to hold a happy event. The place was clean, and the atmosphere was happy. We were there for a few hours, but before we left, the partiers cleaned up and swept the place and brought it back to how we found it. 

I am a member of The East Naples Civic and Commerce Association. Their next meeting is Thursday, April 20th at Naples Players Club in Lely Resort at 11:30 AM. The speaker will be a biologist from Rookery Bay. Then for the Thursday, Mary 18th meeting, the speaker will be the new Code Enforcement Director, Tom Landimarino. I’ve heard many good things about this new man, so we’d like to hear from him and what he plans to do for us in East Naples and our community.

There is a potential item that may be on the Board of County Commissioners agenda for Tuesday, April 25th regarding 28 more multi units being added to the St. Matthews property at Justin’s place for affordable housing. For those interested in this subject, you can attend the meeting on the 25th or write your commissioner for more information. The county releases the Board Agenda on Thursday’s so stay tuned!