Yes we’re still around

I just realized when I went to do this blog that I never did one last weekend and I’m late on this one.  It just seems like I’ve got so many things in the fire that I don’t have time to do it all.

Just a quick run through of what’s been going on. Of course I have the Newsletter every week and that takes a good part of my time even with having some  people helping with some articles. 

I’m also the chairperson of the activities committee and wow that has turned into a full time job. I told the committee members several weeks ago I was stepping down at the end of this season so they will need to find a replacement.

I’ve also been asked to coordinate the Walk Through the Village Event that we did last year. I wasn’t going to do it again, but felt bad that these are new people who have never done this before. Of course that’s coming up on the 27th of January.

So don’t be surprised if you don’t see my blog every week. There’s not much to write about other then activity stuff and I seem to be on the computer all the time doing that.

You probably heard about the ice storm that hit parts of Michigan last weekend. Our little home didn’t have damage from down limbs and we never lost power. But other family members didn’t fair so well. Some just got power back, some are still waiting and they say it could be Saturday before all are back on.

Thought I’d share some pictures:

Above niece Tina took this, not sure where and the bottom one is the other niece Amy’s place.

Our little water tower in town

And here is our grandson Darrius. What is a 9 year old to do when there is no power for his TV,Play Station 3 and too icy to go outside and shoot baskets.

Since it’s Christmas Eve I will send my Merry Christmas Wishes out to you now. Hope all of you have a wonderful day with your family or friends.

New fridge, Craft Show that severs Margaritas

This week the new fridge was delivered. Our other one quit and since the trailer will never be moved we decided to go with a residential household one. Larry needs to do some trim around it but it sure if nice having ice/water again. Of course every time Larry needs a tool it’s up north.

We were suppose to have 65 people coming to the patio this morning for Egg in a Bag.  The weather channel was using words like “wind chill” which in the last seven years we’ve been coming here I’ve never heard them use. With that said we decided this probably wasn’t the best day to have a breakfast on the patio and postponed it to next Saturday. Hopefully much better weather. As it is, it’s just 43 degrees right now.

I went to a craft sale with a couple of other woman at the McAllen Art Center. Most of it was jewelry and clothing, not too many crafts like I see up north.  I won’t mention names but two of the woman I went with today had a little more fun than the rest of us.

Some ladies just should never be allowed to leave the park.

You know your in a Texas Craft Sale when you go to the concession stand and you have a choice of coffee, pop, beer wine or margarita. Now that’s my kind of craft show. (and no the ladies above only had coffee)

We took another couple down to Mexico on Monday who have never been there before and were a little uneasy about going by themselves. It’s always fun taking new ones there and just watching their faces. They had a nice time, I got what I needed, we had a good lunch and back home by 2ish.

So that’s about it for the week. The weather is suppose to be cold for much of the week so I’ll be staying inside unless I “have” to go out.

Till next time…………………

Thanksgiving in San Antonio

We did something different this year for Thanksgiving. We meant my sister, niece & nephew in San Antonio and spend the holiday on the River Walk. What a wonderful time we had.

Nadene came in from Michigan and her flight got in about 11:30, she waited for Marcey and Phil (who came in from Albq.) as they arrived at 12:30. We drove up and somehow we worked it that we all ended up at the hotel within a half hour.

After checking in we took our first of many walks along the River Walk. That night we had reservations at a very nice restaurant with the intention of having a Turkey Dinner. But then the waiter said they were offering Cajon Prime Rib and we decided we could fix Turkey ourselves.

Friday was sight seeing, eating, more sight seeing, more eating and finally the Christmas Parade on the River. And of course more eating after the parade.

Saturday we took the boat ride in the morning then they had to leave for the airport and we headed south again.

Hopefully next week I’ll have pictures to share with you.

Last week seemed to fly by with getting things ready to go there, activity meetings and doing the weekly newsletter. I told the committee that after this season I would be resigning, I just have taken on more then I wanted to. The newsletter does take up a lot of time and it’s time to let someone else be on this committee.

That’s it for this week. Hope all had a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Till next time…………………………..

New Purchases and a vacation

They say everything is bigger in Texas.  Can you see the Walking Stick that came to visit.

The week has been full of meetings, activities, and the newsletter. There’s been times I wasn’t sure which thing I was working on. Good thing I have Kathy to proof read the newsletter or there might be activity minutes in it.

We’ve had to extend our paper to three pages as I kept adding things and just couldn’t fit everything on two. Again, I forgot to ask Kathy if I can attach it to this blog.

The weather was forecast to have a horrible drop in temperature and today we had it (Friday). By 3pm we were at 89 degrees, by 3:20 we were at 60 and kept going down. They say tonight it will be down to 41 and our high all weekend is 49.

I’ve wanted to get one of those electric fireplaces for the trailer. The furnace in the living area is loud and you are either hot or cold. So today when we were out we came across one that I liked. Larry’s going to mount this under the TV but for now it’s on the stand.

Another thing we had to do this week was order a refrigerator. The one in the trailer has quit then started again several times. Luckily I have another one out in the shed when this happens but when we were in Lowes they had a sale on counter mount ones. I mentioned I never liked the furnace so Larry is taking that out so the fridge will sit on the floor. 

One of the things I miss the most if the water and ice so glad we’ll have that again. Larry will have to do some carpentry stuff with having to take the furnace out, that currently sits under the fridge. If he didn’t I would need a footstool to reach the top shelf.

I’m so excited. This Thursday morning while everyone else might be fixing a bird we will be driving to San Antonio. My sister Nadene is flying in from Michigan and my niece/nephew Marcey/Phil (Nadenes kids) are flying in from Albq. We are going to spend Thanksgiving weekend on the River Walk. Marcey found us a place to have a turkey dinner that night with all the fixings. Then Friday night is the official Christmas Parade on the River and I was able to get us some front row seats. Here’s a picture I found to give you an idea but next week I should have my own pictures.

Speaking of next week the blog will be late, probably won’t post until the first of the week.

Till next time………………………

Mexico Trip, New Family Member

Last Friday we made a trip down to Mexico. It’s so much nicer going before all the Winter Texans arrive. Which is usually the first of December. Larry found a pair of ostrich boots that we got for a whole lot less than the other pair he got in the U.S.

Thought you like to see the crossing. We always park on the U.S. and walk over but many drive.  

One of the things I got, well actually I bought two of them, are the rope type swings for a porch. I got the brightest colors they had and plan on putting them on the front porch. You’ll have to wait until spring to see pictures of them.

Last Saturday several of us got together on the patio and did our annual scrubbing of the chairs and tables. There is a cleaning crew that comes weekly but we like to give everything a good scrubbing before the main events start. In two hours we cleaned every table and chair used in the clubhouse, all the patio’s chairs and tables, power washed the patio, swept out the storage room and everything put back.

The other day one of the residents here took a picture of the sunrise. That same day our niece posted one taken in Michigan.

Grand Ledge Michigan

Mission Texas

Meet little Madison the newest member of our family                   Born 11-12-13

One proud Grandpa holding her

Still haven’t asked my computer lady Kathy if I can post a link for the newsletter.

That’s it for this week. Heading over to have lunch with friends Marilynn and Gary (finally arrived) and Linda & David.

Till next time…………………………………….

A Baked Potato, Newsletter, Texas Residents

We finally got over to Excalibur Bar last weekend.It has the best Margarita’s and loaded bake potato’s around. We normally only go there early in the fall and late in the spring as they have entertainment every night which is loud plus your allowed to smoke there. Yes there are States that aren’t smoke free. Although I did see a sign that said “Smoking at the Bar only” which is less than 20 ft. from the farthest table. But at least they are trying. This is the “Small” order, have never been brave enough to try the “Large”. We both get two meals out of this.

We got a sample of winter here Saturday night. OK, maybe it’s not the “real” winter but after having heat index’s in the upper 90’s for almost a week and lows around 80, getting up to 53 degrees felt like winter to us.

Kathy and I got the first addition of the season’s newsletter Retama Connections out last Sunday. It’s just a short two pager of things happening around here. I’ve re-read it several times and just not happy with it, so I’ve come up with some new idea’s that I want to try. It just seemed a little boring. If I can figure out how to attach it to this blog I might start doing that so you can read it. Guess I need to ask my computer guru Kathy – she knows how to do everything.

One of our residents here took this picture on Sunday morning. No these aren’t Texas Cowboys, it’s actually our Border Patrol Agents. They were out looking for some uninvited visitors early Sunday morning in our park.  But this is just a awesome picture that I wanted to share.

Here’s a picture that daughter Renee’ took in their back yard of the white deer.

We’ll we are officially Texans now. Wednesday we went and got our drivers license and I think we’ve notified all the places we need to with our Texas address.

So I took my sister Nadene’s advice when I told her I was thinking about not doing the blog and started writing things during during the week and not wait until the weekend. I’d sit down on and could never remember what we did that week. Now by doing this I may be making it too long.

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

Becoming Texans, Uninvited Happy Hour Visitor

A busy week for us. One of the things we wanted to do this winter was become Texas residents. It gets confusing sometimes trying to remember which zip code we need when you have three of them. One of the weird things about this State is you have to go to two different locations to get your tags and driver’s license. And you have to do things in a certain order. So step one, had to get Texas Insurance for the vehicles. That one was simple stopped in at the agency we have the trailer insured at and they had us all taken care of. A little bit of a sticker shock going from one of the lowest cost State but we knew this was going to happen. Once that was done we decided to stop in at the County Tax Assessors Office to find out just what we need to take care of registration the vehicles. Since we have the truck in Michigan and Texas requires a vehicle inspection we have to send a request to Austin Texas for a waiver before we can register that vehicle. So the next day we gathered all the needed papers, filled out the forms and went back to the Assessor’s Office to take a # and have a seat. This is where we’ve heard stories of waiting for hours and the people behind the glass windows not being friendly. But we were in and out of there within an hour and the people there were very friendly and helpful. As of today our vehicles (or at least one of them) are Texas Residents. Now on to getting the driver’s licenses – but that will be next week’s blog. Hopefully that will run as smoothly.

Another thing we needed to do is get our flu shots so we stopped into the County Health Dept that’s by us and got that taken care of for $15 each.

My friend Kathy and I have been working on the Retama Connections Newsletter to get this up and running each week. It’s only two pages but I’m a little nervous on finding things to fill these pages up with. But the first one is almost ready and we’ll put it out on Sunday.

The first official event here was last night with the Oktoberfest. The activities committee hosted this (did I mention I’m on this committee) and we had a great turn out. The weather has been pretty warm (90s) most of the week and they were calling for rain so we set the tables up inside the clubhouse where people could be in air conditioning. But just before people arrived the sun came out, the humidity went down and a nice breeze (and not the wind storm we’ve had for two days) came so the majority sat out on the patio. It was just a nice evening of seeing people who came in during the week and getting caught up on summer activities.

OK, can’t have a blog with at least a couple of pictures. This one is what showed up at our happy hour one afternoon uninvited I might add. These are called Cane Toads and they can be deadly to dogs if they come in contact with the toxin that is released. Luckily we caught Pepper before she got close to it and Larry took care of the unwanted happy hour guest.

This is our favorite picture of the week. Grand-son Darrius went all out on his Halloween costume.

So that’s this week. Till next time………