February 2025
February was the startup of many high school spring sports, with Daylin and Braden running track, Skyler pitching for the softball team, and Braden also playing lacrosse. Joyce's friend Della from Texas flew into the Tampa area later in the month and that was certainly a good time for each of them.

January 2025
This month included the annual tournament for Jay's golfing group and the annual Gasparilla Pirate Parade, which is always a whole lot of fun. The beads that we catch from pirates tossing them from their floats now occupy six large glass bowls around the house. Up in LaGrange, Georgia, Alice and Thatcher celebrated their 3rd birthday.

December 2024
December was a pretty good month. We had lots of activities, including our church Christmas party, a high school concert with Daylin playing first chair violin, a Hillsborough High School alumni Christmas party for Joyce and her HHS friends, the Christmas tournament with my golfing group, Everett running in the 2024 National USATF Cross Country Junior Olympic finals., a nice Christmas at our house and then Jay wnent with Karen and her family to join Robert and his family for three days at the Marriott Cypress Harbour November 2024
This month began with Jay's visit with Tom and Ellen in Indianapolis, followed by the National Elections, two Veterans Day celebrations, Jay and Joyce helping pack Thanksgiving Baskets for the needy, and Thanksgiving at Michelle's home. And, oh, yes, Jay turned 80!

October 2024
This was the month that Hurricane Milton hit Florida and a number of other southeastern states. Terrible damage. Joyce also was one of the leaders on a Breast Cancer Awareness program at church.

September began with Jay plus Robert and his family plus Karen and her family at Callaway Gardens. On September 12 the Alvarez triplets were involved in an auto accident. There were some scary times as we all wondered about their injuries, but - fortunately - they were all fine within two days. And on September 26, Tampa caught a part of Hurricane Helene. Our home was fine, with just leaves and limbs in our yard, but Michael Kernohan, Joyce's son, had five feet of water in his home - a second flooding with 13 months and with lots of damage. So sad.

August 2024
The highlight of August was Jay and Joyce’s 80th birthday Alaskan cruise celebration. They flew into Seattle where they spent the night and then they departed the next day for a seven day passage aboard Princess Cruise Lines, Majestic Princess. At the end of the month, Jay and Joyce went their separate ways; Jay to Callaway Gardens with members of his family and Joyce to Texas to visit some old friends.

July 2024
In retrospect, July was the mostly quiet month though it did not seem that way at the time. Jay and Joyce joined Michael and Karri and some of their friends and family at Kernohan Cove in Hudson for an Independence Day celebration, which was nice. Beyond that there was just, what I would call "Every Day Living;" Shopping, taking care of the house, preparing meals, communicating best wishes to friends, celebrating birthdays and anniversaries, attending routine medical appointments, preparing for and attending our church Life Group on Sundays followed by the service in the sanctuary, Jay with his golf and PickleBall, and probably much more of the same.

June 2024
June was an eventful month. Jay learned from Sandra that Savanah is pregnant and the baby is due in January. Prayers and blessings! Outside of that, probably the top event was spending three and half days at Universal Orlando with Robert and his family. We had tried to find some activity where both Robert's family and Karen's family could jointly participate, but the summer activities of Skyler, Braden, and Daylin just did not leave a near-term opening where we could all get together. (Karen has an open invitation to find a day or so when her whole family is available and we can do something locally perhaps Busch Gardens or Adventure Island.) Daylin traveled to Tallahassee for a one week music camp that she loved; Braden's baseball travel team won a large tournament in Auburndale with a huge comeback in the championship game; and Skyler's softball travel team participated in a tournament in Gainesville that was bringing in college coaches to scout out prospects. Unfortunately, Skyler came down with appendicitis and she had to have an emergency appendectomy, which meant the college coaches didn’t get to see her play, but she was soon home recovering without complications. (By the way, the music camp, and the two tournaments all came at about the same time, so you can imagine what Karen and Cathy had to go through to coordinate travel and lodging.). Joyce continued to stay in contact with her many lifelong friends, and was there for them when they needed medical advice or assistance. This was often hard to do while she was trying to manage her own excruciating back pain. Jay continued with his Pickleball and Golf, and also did some work to improve the family website and keep it current. And, yes, we watched the First Presidential Debate and listened to the post-debate commentaries.

May 2024
May saw granddaughter, Daylin, being recognized as Most Outstanding in Chamber Orchestra for her violin accomplishments. Plus we got to see her play in a select orchestra this month. Meanwhile, Skyler's Bloomingdale High School Girls Softball team was progressing through the district tournament and into regionals, which they won and earned them a spot in the statewide competition. Unfortunately they lost a close game at State, but we were proud of Skyler and all her teammates. May was Mother's Day, and we had a nice celebration, both at the Fellowship Baptist Church service and also at the Classico Chophouse for a wonderful meal. May was also a big day for Joyce, as she celebrated her 80th birthday. She had something like 200 Facebook messages from those sending her best wishes for the day and the future, and thanking her for all she had done for them in the past.

April 2024
April was a good month. Lots of activities involving sports with Karen and Cathy's children plus Jay and Joyce were the recipients of a wonderful roasted short ribs meal cooked by Joyce grandson, Tyler; plus Jay and Joyce celebrated their sixth anniversary with a nice dinner at the Sacred Pepper restaurant in downtown Tampa; and they attended Joyce's Hillsborough High School 80th Birthday Party celebration. Musically, Daylin (now First Chair) played in her high school's Spring Concert and Braden did similarly in the Spring Band Concert a few days later. A fun and yet another busy month.

March 2024
March seem to be a fairly busy month. It began with Jay and Joyce attending the Beach Boys Concert at the Florida Strawberry Festival. A few days later Jay and Robert hooked up to watch a demonstration of Chick-fil-A food delivery by drone, a concept being tested in the Valrico area. Very interesting. The month also included visiting the first day of the Valspar Golf Tournament held in Palm Harbor. Also a good time. And a few days later Jay got away to visit Robert's family in LaGrange for a fun weekend with him and his family.

February 2024
February was a pretty active month in the Braden household. The seniors group in their church had a Love-a-Palooza night featuring music from the 70s, and Jay and Joyce dressed for the occasion. This was also the month that Florida State Fair and its Horticulture Competition. Joyce’s entry was better than any other of the 300+ submissions to the competition; her cactus won Best of Show. (Ooops, need more wall space for all her ribbons.) Jay also continued with golf and participated in his men's group tournament. He would say he did not play well individually, but his team came in third place and won six other individual prizes that came with financial rewards, so that was good. Yes, Pickleball remained fun, playing with a nice group of people. Joyce continued to serve "a bunch" of friends as a Patient Advocate. As always, this required lengthy phone calls and a lot of time spent reading her medical books. She would not let up, even though her back showed no relief from her latest procedure.

January 2024
January included Jay and Joyce again participating in one of their church's senior ministry events; a Chili Cookoff, where Joyce's Wild and Crazy Chili won First Place over ten other entries. And pirates Jay and Joyce - in costume, of course - were again at Tampa's Gasparilla Pirate Parade, now the third biggest annual parade in the USA. A very good time with lots of fun and many more beads to bring home.