Lots of food this week

This seemed to be the week of food. Which would be ok if I didn't need three weeks of no food to make up for it.

Monday I went out with Marilynn, Helen and Sally. We went to Hobby Lobby to find a craft book that Marilynn wanted, which they didn't have. Then we stopped at this shoe store called SAS cause Marilynn wanted to get a pair, which she didn't get but Sally did. I'd never been to a SAS store, They really had some nice looking ones but a little rich for my blood. I'd feel like I'd have to wear them for at least five years and from what I hear they last a lot longer than that. From there we went to Shroup's Market than had lunch before heading home.

That night after happy hour we went over to Pizza Hut with Bill an Kathy. Always enjoy spending time with them.

Larry went down to Mark's to help him install a base plate so they can tow their new car. His wife Dale flew to Atlanta to spend some time with her father and Mark always tries to get projects done that make her nervous when she's away. Some woman get really nervous when they come home and find things like the side of the trailer cut away but it doesn't usually bother me. I always figured Larry tore it apart he's the one who has to get it back together.

We had about two weeks of cloudy and rainy weather but you should see how green everything is and the roses are all starting to really come out again.
Not sure what kind of flowers these are but they are pretty and the butterflies love them

This is in our flower bed. It should fill out soon with bright red flowers.

Even the aloe plants have pods on them and hopefully will open up soon.

The orange trees behind us are are blossoming and the fragrance is awesome. Of course with all the new growth it also brings out the allergies but we'll put up with it. Better than the snow up north.Fridays Happy Hour was at Dave and Sue's place who finally returned this week. They left right after Thanksgiving for Calif. to spend the holidays with their kids. They are the ones that have a actual house here in the park and it was nice to gather in their livingroom.

That night we had tickets to see The Punches Family who were playing next door. It's was a good show and the kids in that family have a lot of talent. I was looking at their schedule on their web site and I don't know how they can do it. Their kids are 15, 13 and the twin girls are 10. I always wonder what kind of life that is for them. Not much time for them to have friends their age.

Saturday we went to a surprise anniversary party for Gary and Barb who have spent the last month here. They are from St Charles MI. Nice people (of course they're from MI) and they try to come here for a few weeks every year. Of course the ice cream cake was yummmy.

That night we had dinner at Gary and Marilynn's with Dave and Linda. Pizza on the grill and I made a choc cake and Marilynn fixed a cherry pie. Again more food.

This morning I took Pepper over to the puppy park for play date. She always gets so excited when we head that way. Here's her and Rusty (from Battle Creek MI) playing tug of war.
Than there's the "catch me if you can" game. Which Pepper almost always wins since she can run faster than most and especially able to turn on a dime.
So that fills you in on the past week. Till next time..................................

A pretty slow week

How can one week can have so much going on and the next very little so this will be a shorty.

We went to a birthday party on Tuesday for Geri who is one of our neighbors. Geri and Hoby are the couple who adopted Foster who was a stray that showed up in the park one day. Little Foster who was only about 8 weeks old at the time has become almost the village pup. He's such a cutie and he and Pepper are so much alike it's unreal. They seem to be best buddies and have these games like keep away and tug of war that it seems no other dog around plays it like they do. So its fun watching them.

Wednesday was pizza night. I normally forget to sign up and get my order in but finally remembered. But before pizza we had our Wednesday night happy hour over at Bonnie and Gails. It was a bit chilly but the wine helped.

Friday Marilynn and I met with Linda and her sister Alice at Sweet Temptations for lunch. This is such a neat little cafe and have the best soup. Of course we couldn't be out and about with out a stop at Walmart and than a quick trip into Hobby Lobby.

So that's about it from here. I only have one picture to share. I had one of those wide awake at 2AM this week so went out to watch TV in the living room. It seems Pepper isn't like Larry where having lights on in the middle of the night doesn't faze him.

Like I said not much to write about this week. So guess that's it. Till next time............

Lots of pictures

A lot went on this week so I'll get right into it. Tuesday there was a gathering to celebrate Bob Elliott's 70th birthday up at the clubhouse. A white cake with fruit frosting, really really good.
Wednesday was the ladies luncheon which the menu was "salads". I never saw so many different kinds in one place. Everything was good. One of the special things on this was a little speech given by Joyce who I have mentioned before in the blog. She was leaving that afternoon to go back to Windsor to that cold snowy place. I have to share some pictures that Bill B. posted. A little back ground on Joyce is she was suppose to leave a week ago but decided she didn't want to so rescheduled her flight.

Here's Joyce after lunch with a few of us who adore her
Soon it was time for her to leave
Bill had a hard time keeping her in the car
But Bill and Kathy did get her to the airport and she was on her way

We all enjoyed the last month with Joyce and look forward to her coming next winter.

One morning while I was sitting at the table I noticed the Border Patrol driving through. This isn't anything unusual as we see them quite often. But pretty soon another vehicle and the Border Patrol car were sitting out front. Seems the passenger in the van was an illegal.
Did you notice the rain drops on the window. This is something we have been seeing for over a week along with cold temp's. Everyone is starting to go stir crazy.

As I mentioned in last weeks blog we had our Wine N Cheese on Saturday. The weather was chilly but at least it quit raining. And it seems the more wine you tested the warmer it got outside. Along with the Wine we had our First Retama Village Celebration of the Arts and what a turn out of talent.

Here's just a few things on display

There were 26 displays in all and it sounds like the residents want to make this an annual thing.

Oh another picture I'd like to share is of our daughter Brandi and future son in law Darrell.

That's it for this week. Till next time..................................

Cold days ahead of us

Our warm days have come to an end for at least a week from what the weather report says. It's been in the high 70's but today the bottom dropped out and we are currently at 55 degrees, strong northerly winds and rain. I can feel the sadness my family back in Michigan is feeling for us on having to deal with this cold and miserable weather here and I just want to thank them for their concern. I don't think Larry and I have enough cold weather clothes for a whole week.

One nice thing about cold weather is I get in the mood to bake so this afternoon I made a apple pie desert. I didn't have enough apples to do a whole pie so I took one crust and folded it. I had to guess on how long to bake it and how much sugar/cinnamon to add so I will let you know in the next blog how it turned out. Since I don't have a lot of picture's to share I took one of the pie.

Between this and the short ribs in the crock pot it should be a good warm comfort food dinner.

Yesterday Larry and I went over to this place called Feldmans to look for some saffron, which is a spice that you add to Paella dishes. It's very expensive but you only use a pinch. Larry made another dish last night with shrimp and sausage and we found a smaller paella dish at this place so we're not eating it for three days.

Now that our daughter has told the family I can announce that we have a wedding coming up in Sept. Brandi and Darrell have been together for about 10 years so like Brandi say, "it's about time" wedding. The summer will be full with the high school graduation for grand-daughter Anissa in June and wedding in Sept.

Friday Cathy and I went to down town McAllen to look around. She's a renter here and has never been there. It's mostly shops of clothing, perfume, and flea market stuff. It does have this huge store of artificial flowers and that alone is worth going down there for. I didn't think one place could have so many different ones and most of them were made in China.

Thursday we made a quick trip down to Mexico to look for some wedding things and Larry wanted to get a hair cut. Of course we had to stop at our favorite place for lunch and my margarita's.

Wednesday I went over to the other park to a Genealogy Class. I wanted to see if the person doing the class had new ways of getting information. It's for the next four Wednesdays and I'm not sure I'll do all of them but we'll see.

Next Saturday is the annual Wine N Cheese event, which hopefully we'll be able to have on the patio (weather not looking good so far). Another resident Kathy Detweiler (who isn't currently here :( , miss you Kathy) made a comment on FB about showing talents here in the park. So a couple of us thought this was a wonderful idea to have a Retama Artist Showing at the same time as the Wine N Cheese. We will transform the clubhouse into a gallery with the help of Pat Olson (another resident who is well known in the Art World) as our hostess. Marilynn and I will help with getting people to bring their talents up so the rest of the village can enjoy it. So far we have a wide range of crafts and arts and trust me I'll take lots of pictures for the next blog.

We went to Petco this morning to find some new toys for Pepper. It's always fun taking her to these stores that allow dogs. Her poor sniffer was going a mile a minute. We picked up some rawhide bones and here's a picture of her enjoying it.
She looks a little tired here and it wasn't long and she was doing her other favorite thing.
So that about fills you in on last week. Sure hope when I'm writing this blog it's a whole lot warmer than it is today. Till next time.................