Larry's project - Grandsons boot - Ladies Pictures

Larry’s been working on a little project. As I mentioned before he has a Lionel Train set that he would like to get set up in the spare room in the house in Michigan. He’s been working on one of the scenes and I’m sure the family members will recognize this but for others this is one of the hip roof barns on the family farm. It’s not done yet but he would like to try and do a replica of the farm.

Daughter Brandi called and said our new grandson Dar’Relle dropped a weight on his foot at school. Darrell (dad) went and got him and off to the ER they went.  I should mention that normally our other grandson Darrius is the one who goes there but I think he has finally realized that yes Superman can do all these leaps and bounds without getting hurt but Darrius can’t. Anyway after the x-rays showed his big toe and the one next to it were broken the Dr. said he would have to wear a special shoe but would probably be ok to go back to basketball after xmas break. After trying every shoe/boot that the hospital had they had to send someone out to Michigan State Univ’s athletic department to get one big enough.

Thursday was the Ladies breakfast  and since it was at a place  I’ve never been I decided to go. Very nice local family owned restaurant that at one time was a house. I ordered their special 2eggs, hash browns, toast, ham and coffee for $4.50.  Of course have to share a picture of the group.

Another picture I want to share is a group one that was taken after the Ladies Luncheon in front of the fountain.

 

Last Saturday was my side of the family's Christmas Party. Some day all of the family might be able to come together for this party but for those of us not there it's always great seeing this.

 

 To all our family and friends where ever you may be, safe travels and may you all have a wonderful Christmas.

O-Pepper wants to share a picture she has of her friend Trash.

 

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

Busy Week

Half the month of December is over. What happened to Thanksgiving wasn’t it just last week. So let’s start right off with a couple of pictures.

Our grandson Darrius is in his glory in this picture. He was chosen to be a water boy at his big brother Dar’Relle’s high school basketball team. What 8 year old that lives, plays and dreams this game wouldn’t want this job.

Another picture from our daughter Renee’ is of our grand-dogs. Can’t believe these two would sit still for this. I can just see Pepper; she’d be in Santa’s lap playing tug of war with his beard. Renee’ and Brian are a foster home for a pet rescue called Love a Stray in Ohio.(check out the website, our granddogs are on the front) This is where Pepper came from. Each year they have this event of having a picture of Santa with you’re pets to help raise dollars for Love a Stray.

Since we allowed Brandi’s family to open their Christmas present early Renee’ called and wanted to too. Since she knew about this one and wanted to put it out I said ok.

Wednesday was the Ladies Christmas Luncheon that Marilynn and I hosted. From all the comments it was a great success. The men did a wonderful job on fixing our meal and serving us. Here's are chef and waiters.

 

Once the luncheon was over Marilynn and I turned our attention on to the next event for Saturday. Marilynn was in charge of the monthly breakfast and I convinced her it would be great fun to have an “Egg in a Bag” breakfast. And I have had to convince her almost daily that this is a good idea. But it turned out to be a great success and everyone seemed to have a good time. Lots of prep work to get this ready for 70 people but we had a lot of help. Here's a couple of pictures.

 

 

This afternoon we along with Marilynn and Gary treated ourselves to a DQ Blizzard. We earned it.

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

Bazaar - Rattlesnake

Another week has flown by. The good thing is I have my Christmas Shopping all done and it’s either on its way or has been delivered to the family.  The air hockey table arrived sooner than I was told so Brandi and Darrell picked it up one night. It’s a little too big to put under the tree or even hide in a closet so told her to go ahead and set it up.

Here’s Darrius and Dar’Relle having a little competition between brothers.

Monday was our 35^th wedding anniversary. Can’t believe it’s been that long. Seems like it was just a few years ago that we joined two families together and we all went on our honeymoon to Disneyland. We were both very lucky on not only finding each other but also having some pretty neat kids.

The residents here had a bit of a wakeup call recently. One of our friends was bitten by a rattlesnake. He admits he did a dumb thing, heard a noise in the bushes and moved the branch to see what it was. After three days in intensive care and five doses of anti-venom he’s doing fine and doesn’t have any long term effects. Trust me everyone is now using a long stick to shake the bushes before we start trimming them.

Marilynn and I went shopping one day to get the items needed for the ladies luncheon that we are hosting on Wednesday. The count is at around 60 so it should be a good lunch. Especially with the men fixing and serving it too us.

Last Wednesday we had a Clean out the Storage Room party. It had more crap in there from activity decorations that haven’t seen the light of day for several years. But it’s much better now with clear tubs labeled with the events so people will be able to see and get too the decorations.

Yesterday Donna and I hosted a Pre-Holiday Bazaar in the clubhouse and we really had a nice variety of items. We were both surprised at the number of people that came from our park and the one next door. Here’s a picture of the event.

 

We went out for pizza the other night with Bill and Kathy. They had their granddaughter Sabrina with them. Here’s Larry feeding little Sabrina her substitute pizza.

We lost two very dear friends.  We met Larry and LaVila about six years ago out in AZ in the middle of the dessert. Larry was a bull s****er (must be something about that name) and LaVila was an unbelievable hostess.  They purchased a RV lot not far from us and we enjoyed many times heading into Mexico together. LaVila passed away on the 26^thof Nov. and Larry on the 5th of Dec. We’ll miss these two special people

  That’s about it for this week. Till next time……………….

Border Patrol, Shopping, The Birds

Another week has passed and again I’m not sure just what I did to make it go so fast.

I have finished up the Christmas shopping or at least made the final decisions.. Don’t you just love on line shopping? We decided to do a family gift for Brandi’s crew and Sears had the item so we did go there on Monday to see what it looked like. Then I came home and ordered it on line to be shipped to the local store in Lansing. The rest will be ordered today and some sites even have gift wrapping. I enjoy shopping but not so much when I “have” to find gifts. I’m more of a walk around shopper and if something jumps out and says buy me I do.

Our neighbors Gary and Marilynn arrived on Friday from WI. So nice to see them, but I think Pepper was more excited to see Gary than anyone. I swear that dog is half human and remembers everything and everyone. We were heading out for a walk when they pulled in and she about pulled my arm off trying to get to him.

There was a meeting with a Border Patrol guy this week. He was supposed to come and just give an information talk but he sure blew it. A two hour meeting in a nut shell is he thought we were all basically dumb for living where we are and that illegals are coming here to do us harm. Oh and he also said we should never go in to the State Park next to us.  Boy the poop hit the fan when the owner of our development heard this and the people at the State Park notified the head of the Parks in Austin. We’re supposed to have another meeting with the head of the Patrol on Tuesday, Should be interesting. I forgot to mention that this guy kept repeating that his pay has been cut and some of the benefits. Hmm a little bitter maybe.

I only have one picture to share. This time of year we get hundreds of birds that use our area as a landing pad and fly overs. It normally only last a couple of weeks than they are gone. Our friend Bonnie took this picture from her place and posted it on Facebook so I have to give her credit on these.

Kind of reminds you of a movie doesn't it

 

I guess that’s about it for now. Till next time…………………

Thanksgiving 2012

What a week. Seems like all we’ve done is either fix food or eat food. I saw an article that the average Thanksgiving meal is 2500 calories. I have to admit I did my part of becoming part of that 2500 amount. I was able to talk with all my kids and some of the siblings. My sister sent us all a picture that is etched in all our hearts.

This is my father who never cooked a meal in his life until after mom died. Than he became the official Turkey Roaster and every year it was perfect.

We had a wonderful time with some of our friends here.

A perfect day to eat on the patio

We had 2 grilled, 1 smoked and 1 deep fried turkeys. All were wonderful

We were in charge of mash potatoes, Pepper’s doing her part by being the cleanup crew.

 The first of the week some of the ladies made treats to take to the Border Patrol Headquarters which is only just a few miles from here. As it turned out we had enough to take to the fire station and police dept. Everything sure looked good.

 Guess that's it for this week. Till next time.....................

 

 

I'm Proud to be called a Wimp - A Grandma Fix

My sister keeps reminding me that I’m a wimp when it comes to the weather. As I tell her I am proud to wear that patch and will continue to stand by this honor. I’ll admit there are times that I think I should be able to handle Michigan winter weather. Did I mention that while having these thought it’s normally during happy hour sitting outside on the patio. Luckily I come to my senses very quickly. But after a week of not seeing the sun and having temperatures in the mid 60’s I have come to the conclusion I could not handle Michigan’s winter where they go months with cloudy skies. And we won’t even go in to the temperatures. 

Can you believe how fast Thanksgiving slipped up on us? It seems like it should only be October. Of course the Christmas decorations have been out in the stores since the first of Sept. so why should I be surprised that Turkey Day came so quickly.

We have a visitor in our community and she is the precious little thing. Her name is Sabrina and she and her momma Sharon are here visiting her grandparents Bill and Kathy. You can only imagine the attention Sabrina is getting with a village full of grandma’s.

Even the grandpa’s are enjoying her just as much.

There’s nothing like a baby fix, especially this time of year.

Larry got our tires fixed on the bikes so we’re trying to get use to riding those again. Short trips until my legs get used to it.

Our friends Donna and Grant pulled in on Friday so good to see them again and then Al and Betty pulled in that afternoon. So our little corner is starting to have some activity.

I’m still getting use to my computer. For the most part I really like it but there are times I swear it has a mind of its own. Like the zoom. I’ll be typing along and all at once it goes down to 60%. Than down to 40% and I have no idea what I’m doing to make it do this. I thought it was just when I’m on the internet but it also does this while I’m in Microsoft Work typing this blog. Also I haven’t been able to figure out how to turn Spell Checker on. But I’ll figure it out eventually.

Marilynn and I have been working on the Ladies Christmas Luncheon for next month. Some of the Retama men will be fixing, serving and cleaning up can’t beat that.

I’m also involved in the Bazaar we’re having on the 7^th between our community and the RV Park next door. First time for doing this so hopefully we’ll have a good turnout both is sellers and buyers.

So that’s about it for this week. I pretty much have the things I need to make my part of the turkey day feast. I think there will be either 14 or 16 of us and we have 4 turkeys.  May sound like a lot but between Thursday’s dinner, Fridays left of dinner, and Sunday’s soup dinner we need that many.

We hope all our of family and friends have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Till next time…………………………

 

 

 

Flowers planted - ice cream social & hair cut

 I got my flowers planted this week and here is the picture I said I’d post. The only problem with having flowers is I need to water them sometimes twice a day with this wind.  But hopefully they will grow and fill out. 

Monday Larry and Bill worked on one of the washers and dryers. I guess they haven’t worked for most of the summer.  After spending most of the afternoon on it they got them both working and so far he hasn’t heard that they quit.

One night was the monthly social at the clubhouse. Of course any social includes food so I didn’t have to cook that night. It was a perfect night to sit outside by the pools and get caught up with summer events.

Every Thursday the women go out to breakfast and they try to find a local business to try. I don’t go each week but they were going to a place I wanted to check out. There were around 15 so not a large group and we were the only ones there. Probably a good thing they weren’t any busier, we got there at 8:30 and by the time everyone was served and finished eating it was close to 10:30.  Plus many didn’t get what they ordered but by that time we just ate what was brought to us. It’s too bad as this was a new restaurant and many said they wouldn’t go back. We might give them a few months than try it again. But the price was sure right, 2-eggs, ham (I ordered bacon), fried potatoes (which were cubed frozen) and tortillas for $4.50.

When we arrived we noticed a new salon next door so we had to check it out. Again a new business and since I needed a haircut I made an appointment for that afternoon. She did a really nice job and would you believe she only charges $7.00. Looks like our little community will be helping this business out.

Today we had the monthly ice cream social. They get it from Baskin Robbins and it sure was good.

Here is a little fellow who has been hanging around our place this week. He doesn’t seem to care about leaving, just moves to a different spot.

 

Guess that’s it for this week. Till next time………………..