The Wandering Workentins

The Wandering Workentins ~ Ron & Ali: God loving, couple with two great sons, two delightful daughters-in-loves and five wonderful grandchildren, Max, Opal, Christopher, Treyson and Alexander. Following the Lord wherever He leads. Travel along with us as we visit family, friends, work wherever He lands us all the while trusting Him every step of the way. We enjoy meeting new people and seeing new things along life's journey.



Sunday, January 29, 2012

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!!!


Sunday, January 22, 2012

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.

Saturday, January 14, 2012

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.




Sunday, January 01, 2012

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!