One of the many beautiful lakes near my house...they are teeming with turtles, fish and birds!

Hello everyone!! I know it has been a long time since I last posted on this blog, but I have been in the midst of a HUGE life change.

Most of you know I was born and raised in the deep south...Alabama to be specific....but when my family moved to California in 1959, I followed them there after finishing my sophomore year at Auburn University. THAT was a huge change, and sent my life off in directions I would never have imagined. I ended up spending 50 years in the west, living in California, northern Nevada and finally in Arizona. And what a life it has been so far!

I truly thought I would spend the rest of my days in Arizona, but there was a restlessness and longing in my soul that kept trying to tell me something wasn't quite right. I didn't realize it, but the south was calling me home. When, out of the blue, my sister, Jane, called me from Florida where she has lived for over 30 years, and asked me if I would consider relocating to Florida so we could spend our "golden years" together, the light went on in my head! I was supposed to go back to the south. I knew it was the right thing for me to do.

I wasted no time. I put my Arizona house on the market, and with Jane's help, started searching for new home in Florida. Through sheer doggedness and optimism and LUCK, we found the perfect...and I do mean PERFECT... house for me. It is in a lovely neighborhood just 2 miles from Jane and my brother in law! We can walk to each other's houses. I call it The Yellow House. It is smallish...but so charming, with four peaked gables. The sunny yellow color is trimmed in white. The house tucked away from the street and is surrounded by old oak trees draped with Spanish Moss. With 2/3 of an acre fenced for the dogs, there is plenty of room for my beloved Australian Shepherds to run, play and chase lizards and squirrels.

It took four and a half days to drive here from Prescott, Arizona with my three dogs and a dear friend to help with the driving and the dog wrangling, but we actually loved the trip. And when I arrived here, I fell into the warm embrace of my "east coast" family. Thank God for them....they have made this transition as easy as it could possibly be.

Everything here could NOT be more different from my life in Arizona, and I will have more to tell you about that later. In the meantime, my niece, Caroline (who lives just a 30 minute drive away), and I have been putting finishing touches on my upcoming memoir, due out in the spring. At the behest of my publisher, I have begun TWEETING, if you can believe it!!! Caroline has been helping me figure out how to do it. If you tweet, please follow me on Twitter! (I'm @ToniTennille) We are also working on a Facebook page, THE REAL TONI TENNILLE (there are other Toni Tennilles on Facebook that aren't me). We should have it ready to go soon, and I will let you know when it is up.

And for those of you who have been wondering about Daryl, let me just say that I chat with him by phone every couple of weeks. It is funny, but the divorce seems to have been better for him as well as for me. He sounds stronger and more positive on the phone. I am happy for him.

When the memoir is published, and you read my story, I think you will understand why things turned out the way they did.

Until next time...."Keep a Song of Joy Inside Your Heart".