Thanks Uncle B B for the delightful video!
While Kim and Mary graciously entertained William and picked up dinner (THANK YOU, LADIES!), Molly, Em, Morgan, Is and I picked out pictures we liked and, with the help of our art teacher, Ms. Charlene, proceeded to paint. Emily chose her favorite cat picture, she just loves animals! Morgan selected a beautiful orange seascape at sunset. Isabelle chose Irises in the style of Vincent Van Gogh. Molly did a seaside landscape; and I started a still life of daisies in a kitchen window. We could have used another hour to finish our masterpieces, but boy did we create…paintings, friendships, togetherness, encouragement and laughter…and that’s not all…
Together, in the upstairs garage apartment behind Shannon and Molly’s house, the YaYa’s (minus Kate) spent the night together! The front room, with its wide screen TV, holds huge lime green and pink pillows…that’s where the girls giggled and slept. I had a room of my own, complete with a/c and leopard sheets! I was in heaven. In the morning I found coffee and a coffee maker in the kitchen and room service (with a smile, from Molly) of donuts, bananas and a jug of milk. 
Memories, memories, memories…can’t have too many of the good ones. Our thanks to everyone for making the effort to brave the traffic, to Kim and Mary for dinner, and to Molly and Shannon for the gift!*****************LATER***************
Except the Challenge!
"Good news! Although his wrists are still sore, Ford has resumed his pitching, batting and playing shortstop on 3/23. He will have to come along slowly, but does not seem to have any permanent injury. Keegan is pitching for his team, too. I hope to have more to report about his performances, in the future. Joe pitched, played right field, and first base on 3/23, while his team won, 16-6. Joe scored, hit a screaming line drive, walked and was hit in the ankle with a pitch. We surely do have a lot of baseball being played this season! Issy is playing softball. Aidan is playing soccer. Morgan is climbing. Emily is taking tennis lessons. What a busy bunch! "
Awesome picture!
A dear friend of mine sent this picture and explanation. Atlanta is still recovering and inconvenienced but it could have been so much worse.
Howell Mill Road is one exit South from our Moores Mill exit...Amazing.
As an EF-2 tornado swept across downtown Atlanta , one local photographer snapped the shot of a lifetime.Shane Durrance was on top of his condominium off Howell Mill Road when he saw the potential for a great photo of the downtown area. He took the photo just as 11Alive's Paul Ossmann was talking about tornado warnings in Atlanta .Durrance, who is an acquaintance of Ossmann's, sent the photo to 11Alive and said he believed he'd missed catching the tornado on film. But after Ossmann reviewed the picture, he assured Durrance that he had indeed gotten the shot.The picture shows a light-gray vertical strip of what looks like clouds connecting the cityscape to the larger clouds above. That is the actual tornado. Ossmann said it didn't look like the usual sort of funnel cloud because it was embedded in rain showers at the time of the photograph.
Just in case some of you didn't hear, Ford was at school 10 days ago when his PE teacher asked him and some of his classmates to roll out a very large floor mat. Well, I'm not sure how it happened, but Ford wound up with his hands caught in the roll and bent them all the way back to his wrist! OUCH!! They took him to the emergency room right away, thinking his wrists were broken. The x-rays were inconclusive, not ruling out small bones broken, but we know that he definitely has bad sprains and is in splints for a couple of weeks or so. Let's keep Ford in our thoughts and prayers.
On Mar 15, 2008, at 9:05 AM, Terrence L. Croft wrote:>>> Our house did not have any damage from the storm. Are all of you okay? My office building, the Candler Bldg, was hit, and several of the windows in my law office were blown out and others broken. I do not have an assessment of the damage to our files and furnishings, yet. Windows are being boarded up. We will not have access until Sunday. Let me know any information you get about the Candler bldg. Love, Terr.
glad to hear the house is okay, but so sorry about your offices. hopefully the losses will be minimal. keep us updated as you learn anything. we fared fine up here in roswell, other than plenty of rain, wind, lightening and the loudest clap of thunder i've ever heard that woke us up early this morning. i talked to my sister, cat, this morning. as you know, they are near your area. it sounds like they also fared okay in their neighborhood. hopefully all others are doing well. tom.
(The above picture was taken from Terr's partially boarded up office window looking at the Suntrust Bldg. across the way. Many windows are blown out.)
>>On Mar 15, 2008, at 4:57 PM, Michael G. Regas II wrote:>
Incredibly, mary and I were at atlantic station when it hit just > blocks away. We barely even noticed until we tried to drive home > in pouring rain.>
>>Date: Saturday, March 15, 2008, 11:46 PM > The path of the first tornado passed about a mile from our house. We toured the damage today on the roads we normally take to work and the destruction was spotty but incredible. It looks like it also ran directly in front of my office in Piedmont Hall at Grady. Two huge unidentified hunks of twisted metal sat by themselves in front of the building, which seemed itself unscathed. Wild.
So glad to hear everyone is OK
Shannon
>>Mar 16, 2008, at 7:42 PM, Terrence Croft wrote:
This is Dad, using Mimi's computer because mine is still out. I spent the day in my law office, today. We had seven windows blown out and six more that are cracked and will need replacement. The worst of the glass fragments had been removed, but nothing else had been done to secure or protect our offices. Strangely, there was little water damage, but a lot of papers were blown around. Carlton and I taped plastic sheeting over most of the missing window openings, and later the work crew screwed plywood sheets over them. There are many damaged and missing 
windows in our building and I can only guess how long it will take to replace them. Months, I suspect! Cleaning crews assisted us and our staff wiping down all surfaces which were coated with grit and tiny bits of broken glass. They vacuumed, too; but it will take many more cleanings to get all the bits of glass out of the chairs and carpet. We will spend much of Monday sorting and repositioning things, but then, after we get our 
computers up and running again, we will be back in action. It could have been much worse for us and for the Candler Building. Other buildings near us were hurt much worse and lost many more windows. The streets were closed off due to the risk of glass falling from 30 to 50 stories up. GP, Equitable, Residence Suites, Suntrust, and several others around us lost many windows. 
The streets were filled with workers in hard hats cutting and carrying plywood sheeting into the buildings. Blinds and curtains flapped out many of the missing windows. I am very surprised that no one was killed downtown. Love, Dad.
On Mar 16, 2008, at 7:50 PM, Kim Regas wrote:
Wow! So glad to hear you were hit with minimal damage. Praise God.
Bo
(The file room in Terr's office, the windows were broken but thank goodness files were intact!)
I share these local communications because they meant a lot to us during a time of uncertainty. These were just some of the e-mails and phone calls that we sent and received during these couple of days. Thanks to all who touched us with information or concern. Knowing that our children were fine made things a lot less stressful.
We were surprised at the damage that Saturday morning brought. Everyone knew about the Landmarks that were hit, the Westin, CNN Center/Omni Hotel, Philips Arena, etc, and we heard about the devastation at the Lofts near Cabbagetown, but we had not heard of the damage in the Equitable Building and the Candler (T's office) area.
The paper read that the city had an eight-minute warning before the tornado hit...The good news is that no one in Atlanta was killed...a miracle! This was an historic event - the first to hit down town since such record keeping began in the 1880's.
Terr said that plywood was stacked all over the streets today and crews for clean-up were everywhere. We'll be up and running in no time!
Issy was awesome! Went to ski school for a couple of days and was then skiing blues faster than me! She was soooo cute flying down the slopes.
Sitting at my computer I snap this picture and say "Have a good day!" to my handsome husband as he leaves to conduct a mediation.
Each day my husband gets himself out of bed around 6:30, leaves me to sleep a little longer, and starts his routine for the day. It doesn't vary much from day to day; perhaps that's why he does it so well. He never changes his course of action (like I do), he has a curtain call and never misses it. I get up while he is in makeup and costume, start the coffee pots (he likes flavored coffee from a dripped coffee maker, I like Folgers Breakfast Blend from a stove top percolator), empty the dishwasher, cut up the strawberries for his cereal, then sit down at the computer with my coffee to see if Kim has e-mailed me with any new happenings for the day. (Bless her, she is up early in her office and tries to touch me with bits of what is going on in her life. I delight in her contact.)
I am usually greeted with a cheerful, "Good morning, Lovie!" as Terr walks into the kitchen. He carries on with his business - fixes his cereal, pours his coffee and takes it all to the kitchen table. Then he goes outside to get the paper and sits down to eat and read until all is finished. He never says so, but I get the feeling that he gets annoyed if something happens to disrupt this routine, so I pretty much stay quiet in my little corner of the kitchen. We used to read the paper together, but since the computer, I catch the headlines online, check email, then turn on Good Morning America for the rest of the news while making the bed and getting dressed. My routine can easily go off in another direction - my thoughts scatter when I see something that needs doing, think about someone I need to call or pick up a daily Bible reading. But Terr...he has a direction. He likes what he does, doesn't want to change, doesn't want to go anywhere else. He is comfortable in his three piece suit, his early morning breakfast meetings, his telephone conference calls and every legal function he can attend. He is proud of what he does and I think very happy with the life he has made for himself.
It's important to love what you do day after day. Terr has a peace about him that I don't see in too many people, and this satisfying life of his sure has made the almost-68-year-old lawyer a handsome prince of a husband for me! 
As for me, on a good day (if I'm not off to Tennessee or the Mountains), I finish my housework, go down to my studio, throw on an old paint smock,
settle into my little chair in front of my easel, turn on the classical music...
and paint. Wow! this could be a dream job, don't you think? And it is, when I make it happen that way.
I might add that I would be a much better artist if Terr's routines were mine, my passion, my direction, my discipline. A little more discipline would benefit me a lot...although I must say, I love the freedom to explore whatever comes my way at any given moment... Now that I think about it, this is truly a dream job.
... if I only had that fountain of youth he is hiding somewhere between here and the office.
