Pictures of Different Happenings

Hi All

Thought I would do some catching up with some pictures.  Sure hope you enjoy them.

First up was the graduation of our niece, Miriam Workentin from the US Air Force Basic Training.  We were blessed with being able to spend time with Ron's brother John, his lovely wife Fawn and beautiful Miriam.  We are happy to say that Miriam graduated in the top 10% of her class and with honors.  We are so proud of her.

Yesterday we went for a drive to Crystal City with a stop in Uvalde to have lunch with our good friends, Jerry & Lynda Clemons who were celebrating their anniversary.  It was so fun to sit and catch up with them, share some prayer requests and just be together, and me of course, forgot to get any pictures :)

We would have loved to have gotten some pictures of the blue bonnets that are in bloom but only saw them along the highway and it was too crazy on the road to stop and take pictures.  Hopefully we will get some this week.

Hope you have enjoyed catching up with us through our camera lens.

Thought I Should Do an Update

Well, it has been awhile since I have visited my own blog ~  so I will just do a rambling thoughts page ~ hope you enjoy catching up with us ~~~~ in no particular order

~ will be heading for WA/OR on 3/23 to see our 4 kids, 4 grandkids and tons of friends!!

~ found a new grocery store today in San Antonio: Sprouts, reminds me of Trader Joe's in WA; definitely will be heading back there next time we do a major grocery shopping which we think will be sometime toward the end of April

~ have enjoyed Skyping with Brandon's family especially the call Christopher made all by himself last Tuesday night.  He told his Daddy that he was calling Grammy and the next thing Brandon heard was Christopher telling me hi and me saying hi back.  We all laughed that Christopher knew how to call us using the computer and very thankful it was a free call

~ had a rough couple of weeks at work but think things have been resolved and straightened out and we are back in our happy space at work

~ have wrestled with some health issues but think I am back into a healthy frame of mind and have decided that I need to set some daily goals: tomorrow's are get up at 6:00 a.m., do my quiet time, walk for 15 minutes before work (working up to 60 minutes in six weeks) and do our laundry.  If still motivated will clean the bathroom from top to bottom or else that will be on Tuesday's goal

~ saw John (Ron's brother), Fawn (John's wife) and Miriam, their 19 year old daughter ~ who graduated from Basic training last Friday in the top 10% of her class ~ great job Miriam we are so proud of you!!  And so fun to see family here in Texas.

~ been busy planning some trips: our trip home on 3/23; then the middle of April getting together with a group of women/friends by Lynden Baines Johnsons ranch, then the end of April going to Wichita Falls, TX to spend a weekend with Miriam; and then Memorial Day weekend at King's Ranch.

~ and of course I had a bad cold thrown into the middle of life

~ celebrated long distance Opal's 4th birthday ~ said prayers of thanksgiving that she is the healthy little girl that she is; saw some great pictures of her swimming and enjoying a chocolate cupcake with lots of blue frosting

~ enjoyed a great concert by the Southwest Texas Singing Men at church one Sunday evening

~ been playing some great games of Mexican Train

~ enjoyed watching Ron win 3x at bingo and laughing when he yelled "bingo" and scared a couple of other players ~ not big pots but hey $7.00 pays for the next week :)

~ cooking some pretty tasty dinners

~ praying for friends who have had surgery/illness to deal with and seeing the Lord work in mighty ways

~ busy, busy days at work - the annual membership meeting was on 2/23 so lots to get ready for; lots of lots being sold and welcoming new members into the park

~ getting to visit with good friends Jerry, Lynda and their granddaughter Maddie as they made their way to San Antonio

~ trying a new restaurant in Castroville called Napoli's

~ reflecting on where we have been and where we might be heading

and through it all continuing to see the Lord's hand in our lives as he provides for us in so many ways with unexpected meals from friends, hearing from friends not seen in many months, good checkups with the doctor, phone calls from Jamie & Brandon ~ so fun to always connect with them and hear what is going on with their lives.

Hope you have enjoyed catching up with us.  Am going to try to get back in the habit of at least doing weekly updates and adding pictures along the way.

Weekend Happenings!

Greetings on this cool Sunday evening.  We have had off the last three days.  Friday morning was spent getting some much needed lab work done (Alice) and then off to see Dr. Emily.  Had to have a medication review and discuss an ongoing tummy problem that I have had for the last several months.  The outcome...time for another colonoscopy ~ oh joy!!!  We have decided to put that off till after our vacation the end of March.  For a couple of reasons: needing to save up the money to pay for it as the cost is about $1100 :( and time wise it will be better to take the two days off after we get back from our vacation.

After spending the morning at appointments we decided to take a drive on Friday afternoon.  Drove to Uvalde then over to Eagle Pass where we had lunch at the Kickapoo Casino and then drove toward Del Rio and Bracketville and then back to D'Hanis...a large circle.  It was a beautiful sunny day and a nice day for a ride.  We got home just in time to play bingo in the clubhouse...a good night for me as I won two games ~ won $14!!!

Then Saturday I did 4 loads of laundry and Ron cleaned up some in the motor home.  In the afternoon we decided to watch a few movies that we had recorded over the Christmas season.  All three were Hallmark movies - so fun. 

Sunday we slept in and then headed out to go down Texas 211 - found out it is a dead end road - no sign when you turn off Highway 90 to Texas 211...oh well, now we know there is nothing down that road :)  And then we made another large circle, this time going to Poteet, TX - which has a big strawberry festival each spring.  And this is what welcomes you into town:

Poteet's water tower painted like a giant strawberry!

And then we were off on more adventures.  And to the town of Lytle.  We saw a beautiful County Courthouse and the jail, both built in the early 1900's.

The Courthouse is the same on all four sides.  The jail is kinda obscured by the trees but beautiful none the less, the two signs talk about the history of the jail.  Both buildings were built and designed by the same man.

While in Lytle we had lunch at the Railroad Cafe...lots of pictures of railcars throughout the restaurant.  Ron had a jalapeno burger and I had a mushroom/Swiss burger with some delicious onion rings.  After our lunch break we made our way around many back roads to Sabinal and then back to the park.

All in all we went through two full tanks of gas, laughed a lot, sang some old hymns along with some crazy songs, saw lots of neat scenery, enjoyed the beautiful sunshine and most of all enjoyed each others company.

And often we shared about how blessed we are.  We are so thankful for our family and friends, near and far, and then we ended our day Skyping with Brandon, Danalyn, Max, Christopher and Treyson - can't wait to see them along with Jamie, Suzanne and Opal in just under two months!!!

Hope each of you have had a great weekend!!!

Nice & Relaxing Weekend

Have had a pretty laid back weekend. 

I had planned to sleep in on Saturday but no, the body was wide awake at 6:45 a.m!  So don't understand why on days I can sleep in I wake up early and wide awake yet come Monday morning I will be dragging my butt out of bed and just wishing for another hour or two of sleep...just don't understand that one.

But alas, since I was awake I got up and headed over to the laundry room.  Did two loads of clothes and then cut out some pictures from last year's calendar to add to a photo album.  Just love the calendar's that Danalyn has made the last two years.  So fun to see how the boys have grown over the last year.  Also decided it was time to get the cross-stitch out and do some of the many projects I have on hand.  I will show pictures after the  first five get sent off to their recipients - want them to be surprised.   Making five things that are the same but different.  Can you guess what they are????

And then we were off to the clubhouse for some good ole' fiddler music.  Twice a year the Fiddler's come to town for an all day jam session.  And of course there was  a potluck with lots of great dishes.  I took a salad and a bag of multi-grain crackers.  Was able to visit with one of my Women RV Forum friends, Sharon, who's folk have a lot here in the park. 

And then we were home for the evening.  We watched the movie About Schmidt...loaned to us by one of the members here in the park.  It was about a man who goes on a cross country trip in his motor home and living life at the same time.  It had some good scenes but not really a movie I would watch again or recommend. 

Woke this morning with another dang headache.  Took some of my migraine medicine and rested for about another hour then got up.  Laid around on the couch and Ron made bagels for breakfast.  It's funny I am not a raisin person but sure do like cinnamon raisin bagels ~ go figure.  Then decided to tackle the two long cupboards in the living room.  Got them cleaned out and organized.  Now I have another big project to do - take all my paper address books and get them into one Excel workbook.  Once that is done I will have about 4" more space in the cupboard above the couch.

Then it was time for lunch ~ made some chicken & shrimp pasta.  Pretty tasty if I say so myself.  And then it was time for some football ~~~ my Ravens lost :( and now the 49'rs are in overtime...hope they win!!  While watching football I finished my first cross-stitch project that I started yesterday and then graphed out the second one.  Will start stitching it tomorrow night.


For dinner we had cabbage rolls.  When I made my one and only batch in December I had enough for two pans so I froze one for a later time and that time was today.  The only thing I did to it today was added some more seasoning over the cabbage rolls and then another can of tomato sauce...they were much better the second time around.

So that's about it for our weekend.  Relaxing and productive ~ can't ask for much better.  Hope you all had a good weekend and have a terrific week.

Nothin' Much Happening Here

Thought I would just write  a bit to let y'all know we are alive and well, just working and hanging out and just kind being.

Since I last wrote we have been working - and it has been busy here at The Lone Star Corral.  Over Christmas and New Year's holidays the park has been full.  We have the First In/First Out rule...when the park gets full (all rental lots are full) we then have to bump the guest that has been here the longest.  We came close...the park was full and we had a guest come in and no sites open.  So off to boondock they went and we went and told the couple who has been here since the early part of October that they would have to move.  I thought it was 48 hours they had to move but really it is 24 - need to read up on those darn rules again :)  

Anyway, the day came for them to move and just before they were going to move a guest left opening up a site..yeah the first people in didn't have to move and the last person in got a site.  Hopefully we won't get that close to moving guests around again - it is such an uncomfortable position to be in to tell some one they have to leave because someone else wants to come in...but that is the rules and we are here to enforce the rules.

It has been pretty busy in the office for the past couple of weeks and it doesn't look like it is going to let up any time soon and that is fine with me.  I like busy days.  And no two days here are ever the same.  I have been working on all the end of year reports and finding out interesting things like Ron and I average doing three loads of laundry a week.  Some weeks we do two loads, some three and like this week we did six loads!!  Guess that's what happens when you don't do laundry for three weeks.  That and finding little mouse droppings...in a few places :(  so lots of cleaning went on today and decon got put out and the little emitters were plugged in in a couple of places instead of just one.

And we are dealing with cold weather in the late nights/early mornings.  It has been so cold that this morning our water hose was frozen this morning.  And it was cold in this rig we call home.  Down to 52...so guess who jumped out of bed, scurried to the living room and turned on the furnace and back into the bedroom and turned on the back furnace and then crawled back into bed for about an hour to let the motor home warm up - got it up to 71' in just over an hour.  And I spent that hour reading and relaxing - just what you are supposed to do on a day off - right?

We have been playing bingo on Friday nights here at the clubhouse.  And this week was a good week for me.  It cost either $3 or $4 for your cards, depending on how many you play.  I won two games at $8 each game so we came out ahead - now that makes for a fun night.  There is always lots of chatter and laughter going on during those bingo games. 

As I mentioned earlier I did laundry today and Ron worked on the water pump in the motor home.  It quit working so after some detective work he found out a wire and come undone some how...not sure what he had to do but whatever he did we now have water without having to use city water if necessary...like when it is supposed to get down to below freezing and the water hose freezes.    We also did some major cleaning  in the rig, cleaned out one cupboard, two drawers and worked on our plans to do some remodeling in the dining area.  And also just some regular cleaning.    One of those things that needs to happen whether you live in a sticks & bricks house or a house on wheels..regular cleaning needs to happen.

We also have been working on some vacation plans.  We are going to be flying to Seattle on March 23rd and heading to Blaine on Saturday, March 24 - hoping for lots of time with Jamie, Suzanne and Opal...Ron is worried she won't remember us, then to Northwood Alliance Church on Sunday where we will get in lots of visiting and sharing  a potluck meal.  Also planning a family gathering, just not sure when that will happen, a coffee date with my bestie, Dee and then later with others.  And more visiting on Sunday evening and Monday.  Tuesday, 3/27 we will make our way to Oregon with a stop at Northwest Labs to see Christie & Todd my ocularists - the ole eye needs a polishing job and I a check-up.  Then off to Oregon to spend some days with Brandon and Danalyn and the boys before driving back to Seattle on Sunday, April 1st (am trying to come up with an April Fool's joke - don't know if I can top last years:) to catch a flight back to San Antonio to start our second year here at the Lone Star Corral.  If you are reading this and want to see us while we are back in the Blaine area give me a shout out so we can see if we can make it happen.

So in a nutshell that's about all that is going on with us.  Hope you are all having a good weekend.

Welcome to 2012

Happy New Year to our family and friends.

We ended 2011 with a drive to Carrizo Springs, TX.  It was a great day with the sun shining and clear blue skies.  We met up with Rex K. at HEB and then followed him out to where their gate guard duties has taken them for the next four months or so.  It was fun to visit with Rex and Shirley and see where they will be working for the next little while.  One of the reasons we went out there was to hear about "gate guarding" as we are thinking that is something we may like to do in a couple of years.  In the three hours we were there they probably had 8 - 10 people in/out of the gate.

We left there about 4:30 and went the round about way to get back to D'Hanis...traveling through Big Well and then stopping for dinner at Brush Country Steakhouse.  It was a very relaxing time of thinking about the past year.  We cannot say often enough how blessed we have been and the many ways God has provided for us.  We are so thankful for our many friends who have encouraged us along this journey.  Yes we have had some deep valley's to climb out of this year but also some super duper mountain top experiences.  And we talked about 2012 and what it holds for us: a trip home to Blaine & Molalla the end of March, some more exploring of the Texas countryside, some remodeling to the motor home and of course spending time  with friends and sharing God's love with others.  After dinner we made our way back to D'Hanis through Yancey and Hondo.  Admiring the Christmas lights that were still shining in the different towns.

We arrived back to the motor home around 8 p.m. and had a quiet rest of the evening.  A fun and relaxing day to usher out 2011 and welcome 2011.  Not sure what today will hold for us.  We are thinking of maybe going up to Medina Lake but with the blustery winds that we are experiencing right now we may just hunker down in the motor home and spend the day just reading, watching movies and relaxing.

So with that we want to wish you a Happy New Year! and may this year may you see God's blessing's in your life!

Christmas Day 2011

After a late night on Christmas Eve waiting for hubby to go to bed so I could put his gift under the tree ~ he didn't go to bed till after 1:00 a.m.!!!  Doesn't he know that Santa doesn't come till everyone has gone to bed.Finally into bed and sleep we did ~ 

slept till almost 10 a.m. and so we decided not to go to church.  I made a breakfast of scrambled eggs w/cheese ~ definitely need to do that more often.  And then Ron saw his gift under the tree ~~~ you see, he has said over and over that he wanted a new rifle so I bought him one.  Well not  a real one, it is like fire starter/clicker.  The only bad thing is that the darn thing doesn't work ~ so now we will be planning a trip to Beall's to return it.  That will happen later this week.  But in the meantime this is what it looks like.

Ron and his new rifle.

Checking out the scope

Ron and his new Rifle

And then we took our tableware and silverware over to the clubhouse.   We visited for awhile and then headed back to the motor home to change and get ready for dinner.  We made our way back to the clubhouse about 1:30 p.m. ~ dinner was being served at 2:00 pm.  And what a wonderful dinner!!

Our table all ready for us to enjoy Christmas Dinner.

Margaret collecting $$ from Sue S.  Dinner cost us $5 per person...not bad for all you can eat of ham, scalloped potatoes, cole slaw, rolls & butter,  and peas & onions.  Topped off with peppermint ice cream.

Thank you Ruth, Don and the rest of your dinner committee members for all the hard work in giving all of our 110 closest friends at the LSC for a delightful Christmas dinner.

1. Kitchen Crew  2. Armando & his parents  3.  Max & Jerry  4.A view of the clubhouse 5. Euona (one of my adopted momma's here at the LSC)  6. Another view of the tables.

1.  Santa (I just love the guy!!)  2.  The peppermint ice cream   3. Marie, Larry & Louise at our table  4.  Jane L.   5.  Us from the night before - I really like this picture of us and 6.  Kay, Larry & Marie, another view from our table.

Our best gifts were talking with Jamie and Brandon and all our grands!  And just before we headed off to bed we got to Skype with Max, Christopher and Treyson thanks to their Grandma Lynda and Pop Pop Dan.  Definitely a great way to end our day!!!

Christmas Eve 2011 at The Lone Star Corral

Christmas this year was a little different for us in that we weren't attending worship services with our Northwood Family or spending the evening with our children or grandchildren but that does not mean we didn't have a great evening.  We joined our new Lone Star Corral family for Christmas Eve Festivities. 

Here are some pictures of the clubhouse all decorated for Christmas:

The large Christmas tree.

The Christmas Village

This Christmas tree has an ornament from person/couple who has owned a lot here at the LSC.

Snowman standing guard over the whole room.

And for our Jewish friends the Menorah is set and table decorated for Hanakkah.

Our MC for the evening was Kay, Treasurer of the Blue Bonnets here at the LSC.  You can read her view of the evening by clicking on her name.

Kay reading a Christmas story to the LSC family.

 We began the evening singing Christmas Carols led by Ruth & Don K.  They did a great job and at one point I led the group doing the hand motions to Away in a Manger while Ruth & Don led the singers.  

Ruth K. leading us in song.  Mike L is chatting with his wife.

Ruth & Don leading us in song.  They did a great job!!

 And then came time for presents.  The way it worked was everyone who put a gift in the gift exchange received a ticket.  The first person whose ticket was chosen picked a gift from all the wrapped gifts.  That person then drew another ticket.  The 2nd person then either got to choose from the unwrapped gift (stealing it) or choosing one from the table.  And so on, and so on.  At first people were being nice and not stealing gifts but little ole' me got the ball rolling by stealing a stocking that had a Santa shelf sitter and some lottery tickets inside.  A little later it got stolen from me again and so I stole a beautiful candle and so I stole the stocking, Santa shelf sitter and the lotto tickets back - and after the gift has been stolen 3x it is that person's so guess what ~ I got to keep my stocking, Santa shelf sitter and lottery tickets and one of those won $1!!  I must say after I got the ball rolling there was lots of stealing going on - the most popular gifts were the many bottles of wine and packages of lotto tickets.  Everyone had a great time!!

Faye not wasting any time opening her gift.

Sandra M. stealing a gift (M&M's and some lottery tickets), which were later stolen from her.

My lotto tickets, shelf sitter and stocking!

 And of course there was lots of food.  Each couple/person was asked to bring a finger food and boy was there lots on the table: meatballs, sandwiches, vegi's and dip, and of course multitude of cookies!!

And Santa himself!! was in attendance.

Ron aka Santa and Ali aka Mrs. Santa!

So glad to be able to spend the evening with about 65 of our closest friends here at The LSC.

Merry Christmas

 

Merry Christmas 

from our home 

to yours!