Yard Sale and Picnic on the River

I know I'm a day late on this but the week has been full and yesterday I was just plain tired.

So what's been going on. Well one day I went shopping with Marilynn, Bonnie and Cathy. Cathy is a renter here and it's her first time in the area so we had to introduce her to a place called Quips N Quotes and another one called Renee's.

During the week I worked on cleaning out things and getting them marked for the Yard Sale. Larry had a few things to add plus we had some things here that a friend wanted to sell.

Oh I forgot to mention in the last blog that one night we went up to the DQ for dinner and of course some ice cream. While standing in line there was a man with a Spartan hat on and of course we got to talking. Come to find out they both grew up and went to school in our little town of Grand Ledge and in fact the woman went to school with my brother Bob. Small world.

One of our Happy Hours was a birthday party for a neat lady that comes down every year to visit our friends the Bevingtons.

Here's Joyce saving her 90th birthday cake. Reflexes are still fast.

Saturday was the Yard Sale and from what others have said it was a huge success. There did seem to be more people than normal here and I think that was because we put fliers all around during the Walk Through the weekend before.

That afternoon we worked on getting things around for the picnic on Sunday down at the River. There was quite a few hot dogs left from last weekend so it was going to be a simple, easy, no cook picnic. There wasn't an official count but some one guessed over 125 which would be about 3/4 of the park attending. You'll notice everyone has jackets/sweat shirts on. It was cloudy and the temperature was 69 degrees which those of you looking out at snow might think is a heat wave but we're use to the southern temperatures. So this 69 means long sleeves.

First let me assure you that even tho we were sitting on the southern tip of the U.S. and

looking at an Mexican Cowboy
We were protected by Air
By Land

And by Water

I uploaded all the pictures of the picnic on our Webshots site so you can check them out there.

So that's about it for this week. Till next time..........................

Dryer- Mexico- Open Houses

Another full week, lets see if I can remember what we did. Monday we had a meeting. The annual Walk About was this week and we volunteered to help. The rest of the day was just doing laundry etc.

Tuesday we went to Mexico. Two couples here that are renting lots have never been down there and the woman wanted to go. Larry was our driver so we could enjoy a margarita with our lunch. Seems about half of our park decided to go down there that day as we kept running into residents. There were quite a few people there that day, haven't seen the streets that busy in a long time.

That night there was a social hour at the clubhouse and they rented a margarita machine. Lots of snacks and the drinks were good.

The new dryer Larry ordered for the laundry room (at clubhouse) arrived this week so once that was set he finished up on some of the installation. Normally when you need some thing done around here it takes forever. A new gas line had to be run which surprisingly the plumber came within a few days, dryer came two days ahead of schedule and Larry was able to finish it up the next day. So from the time he got the ok to purchase and install to having it completed was 11 days, that's a record for this area.

The Walk Thru the Village was on Friday and even tho it was in the 80's there was a good breeze. The developer puts this on every year to help promote interest in our community. Residents here can open their carriage houses/homes if they choose too so people can see them. Larry and I don't open ours as we have a shed and it will always be a shed so we helped up at the clubhouse. People were directed to a parking area, brought up to the front door of clubhouse on golf carts, could register for door prizes and see the inside than out to the patio for hot dogs, pop corn and water. Once done there they could catch a golf cart and were dropped off at different points to walk around. Last year they let the people drive vehicles and it was just way to congested. This really worked out good. I'm not sure how much water they purchased but they had tubs of it all through the park which people sure needed. They figured about 200+ attended. Sorry no pictures, forgot the camera and I was busy.

Only have a few pictures to share and they all pertain to Pepper. Donna Zinnecker made a place mate for Peppers food dish. Not sure I want to put this on the floor, thinking I'll take it back to Michigan and maybe hang it just above her water dish,
One day when I was sweeping Pepper kept biting at the hose. Found out she really likes this and now she expects it every time I get the sweeper out.

Here's another place she really seems to like
This is where she waits for us when we leave her. Look close in the bottom of the window

So that's about it for this week. Our annual yard sale is next Saturday so I'm getting ready for that. Don't have much but it's always fun. Than next Sunday four of us ladies are organizing a picnic down at the River. I'll remember the camera next week for that.

Till next time.................................

Busy, busy, busy - week

The week has flown by. I worked Sunday and Monday up at the library along with some other ladies and we got both all done. It looks really nice so with several of us keeping a eye on it and putting books a way it should stay that way.

Tuesday was the monthly meeting. I needed to do earns so didn't go but Larry had to since he was on the agenda to talk about a new dryer. It turned to be almost a two hour meeting and those chairs up there are only good for about a hour of sitting on. But I guess there was quite a bit to go over.

Wednesday Marilynn and I hosted the ladies luncheon so we had to get the tables and chairs set up. I think there was just under 50 ladies so a nice group.

Thursday, well I can't remember what we did on Thursday. And Friday we went to Lowes and ordered the dryer to replace the one at the laundry room at the clubhouse.

In the mean time Larry got the parts for my dryer and fixed that and there was some lights here that had to be replaced with the LED ones.

When we were at Lowes they had some heavy duty shelving on sale so Larry got two sets. Today we worked on cleaning out the shed, putting the shelves together and getting things organized. It looks so much better in there.

Things next week are starting to look the same way but that's fine. So this blog is a bit boring and sorry know pictures. Till next time........................

Some repairs, Yard Sale, Library

Another week has passed and not to much excitement to talk about. Of course Larry watched all the MSU games this week and was please with the turn out.

• Daughter Renee' had this picture on FB a while back, Larry loves it
• 

Had a light frost on Tuesday morning that was a bit of a surprise to everyone, especially the weather broadcasters, didn't see that one coming. There wasn't a lot of damage to the flowers and plants so that's good.

One day I went to the mall with Marilynn, Pat and Helen and we met up with Linda there. It was a little disappointing, the sale items looked like they were left over from last Christmas. It was nice to not see any empty stores in the mall. Our poor one back in Lansing looks a little sick with so many boarded up. There were quiet a few people out shopping. The public schools here are still off for xmas break, they go back on the 9th. I'm sure my grand kids would love to have that much time off. So we had a good time and a nice lunch there in Luby's.

Been working on things for our annual yard sale here that will be Saturday the 28th. I need to get busy and start checking my stuff out. Each year I wonder if people will have enough to even have one but they always surprise me on the amount that is brought out.

The park is also having their Walk Thru the Park on the 20th. This is where people can open their carriage houses, homes or RV ports to the public and the developer provides hot dogs etc. There have always been several hundred people that come . We'll be helping out on what ever is needed so it should be fun.

With that coming up there are several of us that got together to get the library spruced up. We are over flowing a little with books and some are starting to look pretty worn so we're pretty much going through them all. Going to be a big job but there's five of us. Will post a picture of library's when we're finished. There are so many books that we had to expand and build shelving on one wall in one of the card rooms.

Larry's been busy with repairs this week. My dryer quit and it's the same problem that it was last year. So a new part was ordered. If this happens again next year we'll just replace the dryer. Also the light above the sink quit and because I wanted more lighting on the counter he put LED strip lights there. Gives me just the right amount of light when I'm working there, may have to look at doing this in the kitchen up north.

Pepper is doing good. She loves to sit outside and watch people/dogs walk pass. There's this one puppy that's a few months younger and those two act like two best friend kids. Both try to pull the owners up to the trailer when they walk pass and they just totally ignore other dogs when their together. There's this one Scottie that Pepper does not like. One night when we were walking this dog started growling and parking at us. It wasn't just us from what I understand, he's not a very friendly dog which isn't good for these close quarters. But anyway ever since then if Pepper sees him walk pass her hair goes up and this deep growling comes out. It's the only time I've ever heard her do that.

• Thought I'd share Peppers new coat and her favorite toy that she carry's around on walks.
• 

Weather this week has been wonderful except for the one morning of frost. Been in the 80's with lows in the 50-60's. I've been watching the weather up north and it's been rather mild there too.

So that's about it for this week. Till next time............................................

It's been a uneventful week

Happy 2012 Everyone

Our New Year started out with warm temp's here in southern Texas of 70 degrees. But the cold front went through around 10am and the temperature has been dropping ever since.

The last week gave us more sun and warm temperatures which always brings more people out and about. We enjoyed the Paella that we had at Jack and Danielles so much last week that we decided to give it a try. We really didn't want to buy the whole grill thing so we went to this restaurant supply place and found just the Paella pan. Than off to the grocery store to get the fixings. Needed chicken, Chorizo Sausage, Shrimp, Spanish Rice, onions, lots of garlic, parsley, tomatoes and chicken broth. It takes awhile to make this but for doing it on our grill it really turned out good.

Doesn't this look yunmy

I think we have a new type of meal that we'll be making a lot more of. You can pretty much toss any ingredient you want and it's open for any kind of meat or sea food. Only thing it does make a lot and we cut the recipe in half. The last 15 minutes you leave it alone and the rice caramelizes on the bottom, Larry said it was just dump luck that it turned out the way it was suppose to. It's a bit spicy but leaves you for wanting more.

Every Tuesday there is a vendor that comes to the park next door. I try to remember to go there because his prices on veggies are normally a lot less than the store. Larry wanted a pineapple (they core it while you wait) and I picked up some peppers along with these unbelievable sweet cherry tomatoes.
Our renters Joe and Gloria arrived yesterday afternoon from IL. They were so excited to get down here where it was warm. Well at least they had one day of it. But don't worry the 70's will be back on Tuesday. They are a really nice couple and I hope they enjoy their time here in the valley.

Last night we went over to Gary and Marilynn's for dinner. Yummy ribs, Marilynn out did herself on them again. It was a fun quiet evening with special friends.

Lots of fire works going off last night. Started around 9pm and didn't stop until after midnight. And oh what a racket at midnight. I'm hoping all the pops I heard were fire crackers but I'm afraid they all weren't. Texans seem to think they have to shot off guns on holidays. But it quieted down by 12:30.

So that's pretty much our week. 2011 has been good to us and hopefully 2012 will be the same.

Till next time...............................