Where does the time go

Can't believe it is the 19th already. I guess keeping busy really makes the time fly. Yesterday we went to an Iowa potluck for people here in the park. Really nice, six- 8 foot tables and lots and lots of food. They were giving door prizes for different things, you know, oldest.......came the furthest...........well when they came to most grandkids, we thought we had a prize. I told them, 13 and no one else spoke up..........wow, were going to get something. No such luck.............the old guy (82 years young) sitting next to Roger took it. Someone asked him how many he had.............he said he wasn't sure. They asked him if it was more the 13...................he couldn't remember...................so they gave it to him. Guess that's the way it goes. He has been coming to this park a long time and we are new. It wouldn't of been so bad, but he had already gotten a prize for coming the furthest. Oh well, you win some and you loose some.

Computer club was this morning and I think there must of been about 40 or 50 people there. They always have a beginners class first then, the advanced. I go for both..........not that I feel like I am a beginner, but I always learn something new, and I can help some of the others. After club today, everyone took off to go to "Peter Piper Pizza"..........Not great pizza but the fellowship was good.

We have to take a day and head back to Mexico...........Roger wants to get his teeth checked and fixed, so one of these days we will be heading out to do that. The other trip we want to do is go to South Padre Island. It is about an hours drive from here, and we want to go before all the spring breaks start and it fills up with collage students. I will be sure to take camera with me so I can get more pictures in my albums.

The line dancing is coming along good. I am learning a lot and I think I will be ready for some new dances before long. The problem is there are new people arriving every day and every time they get someone new, it is start at the beginning again. It is good review, if you need it, but I think I am getting most of it. We are doing "Waltz Across Texas"............."Ti-Na's Waltz" .............."Country Boy".........."Magic Moments"........."This Little Light of Mine" ............
"The Twist".............Ten Step Polka...................and "Cotton Eye Joe". The big problem is remembering which steps go with which song. As a matter of fact, we have T-shirts that say......
"I know this dance....................now how does it start" I even went shopping on Saturday and got myself some new tennis shoes and some shoes I can wear that will move across the floor, the tennis shoes are not great for that.

We have been watching the news and all the cold weather everyone up North is getting, what can I say but we are sure glad we are here and not there. So with that said.............Stay warm ............Drive safe ..............and.....................Happy Trails

Time goes on

Hello all, we are still missing Keota, but time does go on and we are keeping busy. Seems like we have had something going on every day. Last Friday we went back to Sleepy Valley and said Hi to everyone. I was suppose to have a table a craft show, but bowed out due to Keota. We then went to vet and paid up our bill, it wasn't as bad as we thought it was going to be. Then it was off to lunch and shopping for a new recliner for Roger. His broke, he thought he was going to be able to fix it, but saw the BIG spring under there and knew he wouldn't be able to get it back on. We ended up getting a new Lazy Boy and he really likes it.........I am jealous now.

Saturday we got a phone call from friends, Dick and Darlene to meet them at a flea market north of town, so off we went, we then went back to there place and went with them to their parks pot luck. Very good food, and we really enjoyed ourselves.

Sunday we met up with Dick and Darlene again and went out to eat for Chinese. It wasn't as good as we have had in Cedar Rapids or Tipton, but all in all it was a fun time had by all. We returned to their place and sat around a visited with them and their friends Dolly and Mike who also went to eat with us.

Monday, I started off the day going to my computer club. It runs from 9 - 11:30 am so it takes up most of the morning. I think there must of been about 20 or so lap tops all set up and believe it or not, we all got on the Internet at one time this week. It was back home for lunch then off to my quilting. I volunteer there and sew quilts for the needy.

Tuesday.............I thought I would try a new activity so off I went to Line Dancing. Many of you know I use to teach dancing many.........many..............many years ago, so I really don't have too much trouble in that field. The hardest part for me is getting use to it. My hips really get to hurting..................I'm just not use to it any more. I left there after an hour and 45 min. of dancing with a very red face and sweat running off my body. Guess I got a work out.

Wednesday..............We decided to make a trip to the flea market at Don Wes and so off we went. We ended up getting an area rug to put between the couch and our two chairs. That area gets alot of foot traffic so thought a rug may help. I must say it looks quite nice. Got a brown/tan one with a western theme.

That brings it to today...................Once again I took off for line dancing and this time went a little better prepared. I wore shorts this time, got out my head (sweat) band and my neck cooler and took my water and a towel. The head band was soak and wet but I fared better then on Tuesday. My hips still hurt but I think every time will get a little better. They meet 3 times a week (Sat too) but this Sat I will not be able to go, as I am having a table a craft show here in this park.

Thanks to everyone who sent messages about Keota, I received many emails, phone calls and cards. It has been a week now, it seems funny not to have him here, but we know he was suffering and we didn't want that. He will always be our loving Keota.

Keep warm...............drive safe................Happy Trails

Happy New Year - Good by Keota

This was a bad start to 2009, we made an emergency trip to the Vet in the middle of the night. Our beloved dog (Keota) has congestive heart failure and started gasping for breath in the middle of night. Vet ended up giving him a shot to help reduce fluid and sent us home, telling us to return in morning at 9am to see how he was doing. Returning this morning, Keota seemed to be doing better, but was not eating and we couldn't get his pills down him. The vet forced the pills and thought he might improve some more and give it till five PM and return then. By 4:15 Keota finally ate a little, but would not drink any more water. The Vet said there was not much improvement as far as fluid, and we could go home an give it more time. We made a very hard choice to not have him suffer any longer and have him put to sleep. It was one of the hardest things we have ever had to do. Our beloved Keota was our best friend...........our companion....... our joy. We will miss him. Good-by Keota.............we love you...........my God be with you.

From Keota

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to all our friends and family.

We just got back from having Christmas dinner at the hall. If I remember there where about 437 people. Everyone takes a dish and there is plenty to eat.........boy am I full. Now I am thinking of a nap. I have had a cold, started feeling bad around Sunday so have been doing fluids and popping pills. Starting to feel somewhat better.

On Monday I went with the Bentsen Grove Auxiliary to deliver Christmas goodies to the 11 needy families. My family had four kids, boy 13, girls 10 - 7 - 4. I have posted pictures in Web
Album so be sure to click on the picture to view all the photos.



Their isn't much more news, we had a nice Christmas here. Roger and I still do stockings for each other and we got things that we needed for our new place here. I called it our practical Christmas. Our street did take first place in decorations, so I guess maybe my going the extra mile helped. Last night we took a bike ride around park to check out all the lights. Every street had luminaries lining street. Looked really nice. Here is a photo of Keota waiting for his bike ride.
Don't forget to click on photo to view the rest of them.





Hope everyone had a joyful Christmas, stay warm, drive safe and Happy Trails.

Keeping busy

Gosh, where does the time go...........seems like it was just Thanksgiving and we had just moved into our new place. Here it is a 6 days till Christmas. We are both keeping busy, me more then Roger. The weather here is up and down or hot and cold........which ever way you want to look at it. When it does get cool, we just keep reminding ourselves it is nicer then it is in Iowa.

I have been going to computer club here at the park on Mondays. The first part of class is directed towards beginners..............I find myself helping some of those new people who need the help. I have learned a few things in that class, but the advance class has helped alot and I am getting quite a bit out of it. They are having problems getting everyone on line during class. I guess the server here at the park is bogged down (too many people using it). There are about 16 laptops trying to get on during class. I have been taking my Verizon USB and connecting with it. It is slow.............not a very good signal around this park. I had a great signal at Sleepy Valley and it isn't that far away.................not sure what the problem is. I hang it in the window to get a better signal as I have a 10 foot USB extension for it.

As I wrote about before, I have been going to the park Auxiliary on Monday afternoons. They make quilts for the needy and are under a huge project of helping 11 needy families. It includes quilts, heater for each family..........they go shopping for each of the kids in each family and buy them each, PJ's, undies, socks, shoes, one toy, and a complete outfit. They also furnish them with a donated coat, hat and gloves. I went to hall on Wednesday and wrapped all the bought items for the 4 kids in my family and got it all sacked along with Christmas stockings for all of them. On Sunday I go with everyone else to pick up a large box of food for family. Then Monday morning we will car caravan to their homes and deliver everything. I am planning on taking my camera so maybe I can get some pictures posted.

One of our neighbors complained about Keota last week, so we have been working on his no barking. We got out the no bark collar. Had it on him for about 5 days strait and he seems to get the idea. Haven't had it on him for 2 days and he still is not barking. I do keep it close buy in case I need to remind him. The sad part was the neighbor told Roger " it was a good neighborhood before we moved in." I thought that was quite mean...............but maybe he was just having a bad day. I just felt he could of been a little nicer on how he told us. We have been careful on leaving Keota home alone. Don't want him barking and after taking him to vet and talking about the problem, it was brought up if we did leave him and he had on no bark collar..........and someone came to door..............he could have a heart attack.............do to his heart condition. Guess we will just have to keep the training up and hope for the best.

I ventured out yesterday and did my Christmas shopping for Roger and Keota. Boy was I tired when I got back. Today Roger went shopping and I wrapped all his gifts. The tree now has some gifts under it. Guess Roger is going to work on wrapping on Monday while I am gone. He sure misses my daughter, Sandy as she always did the wrapping for him.

We are still walking in the mornings and biking in afternoon. Keota wouldn't let us forget the bike ride...............he loves it. Roger and I also like to go to the pool, but once again, hard to get way both of us at once.........and it is not always fun to go by yourself.

Hope everyone is enjoying the holidays............try to stay warm.............drive safe and Happy Trails.

Wow, December is here!!!!

I can't believe it is December 7th already. If my brother were to read this..............Happy Birthday Keith.

This past Friday was the Craft Sale at Sleepy Valley (were our RV still is) so I had a table. I guess with the economy the way it is, people just don't seem to be buying. Last year at the December Craft Sale I made about $30 more then I did this year. I did have two different ladies ask me if I could make them something different, so will be working on that. This next Saturday, I will be having a table at Bensten Grove Resort where we are now living. Hope I do a little better here.

We finally got our deck cleaned off. It had stacked on it things we did not want. The two recliners went to our friends, Dick and Darlene. They came by last night and picked them up. They were glad to get them, as they just bought a place to and are going to put them in their Texas room (sun porch). The rest of the stuff was in sacks and stuff we took out of this place and didn't sell at the yard sales at Sleepy Valley. We donated that to the Bentsen Grove group and it will be used to give to needy families here in the valley. It is so good to set the deck up the way we want and be able to use it now...............we need visitors now. LOL

I finally got around to giving Keota a hair cut, he hadn't had one since before we left Iowa. I must say he looks pretty good, we have had to put his sweater on him a few times when I got down into the 50's here.

Last Monday, I went to the computer club here at the park and boy what a large group. It was pretty basic stuff for me, but I am sure I will get something out of it, even if it is to help someone else. I also made it to the Bentsen Grove Auxiliary to help with making of quilts for the needy. I was surprised when I arrived and told to pick a family then go and pick out coats that would fit kids. This was all new to me.................so wasn't sure what it was all about. They then told me I would be buying each child a complete clothing outfit for Christmas. I said Wooooo........I can't afford to buy outfits for four kids. No...........the club pays for it, they all go shopping together to pick it out, then each member takes their stuff home and wraps it up for each kid and everyone goes the week before Christmas and meets the family and delivers their gifts.

Roger went to the Rock Club here in park on Tuesday. He seemed to like that, they have their own saws and polishers here and make all kinds of things. On Friday's they go to a ranch and hunt for rocks. Sounds great.

That's about all the news.............stay warm........drive safe........and................Happy Trails

Decorated for Christmas

On Friday I decided to get out the Christmas decorations and set up the tree. When in the motor home, one is limited to what you can store for decorations, so after getting tree up and what I had for decorations, I made a trip to the dollar store to get a few more items. We were told, the street we are on competes for best street at Christmas, no pressure there. We have a car port out front so I got 3 stands of the icicle lights to hang there. The hooks were already there, so it was quite easy. Next I wrapped colored lights around the poles on each side along with a large red bow. I had some snowflake lights and a string to go on front of mobile home as well as a Christmas Tree I had crocheted years ago. I must say it does look pretty good. With the storage I have...........who knows, I may be able to add more next year. I put the tree under the big mirror in living room and outlined the mirror with lighted green garland. Then got two nice holders for the stockings and set them on shelf and presto, done.

The park where our motor home is still sitting had their yard sales yesterday..............so we took over everything we had from this place that we didn't want. The sale is only in morning, but we got rid of some things and made $40, not too bad, considering it wasn't even our stuff. We wanted to sell it cheep to get rid and not have to move it back here.

I decided it was time to give Keota a hair cut...............he hasn't had one since leaving Iowa. Come to think of it, neither have I. When I cut his hair I do it in at least two different settings and we both get tired and grumpy. I have to finish up today. I got his back, belly and face done, but his legs, feet and back end are still long. He looks kind of funny right now.

Tomorrow is the day I am going to try a few park activities. In the morning I am going to check out and see what the computer club is all about. They have a beginners and regular meeting. I think I am past the beginners, so will try the regular one. Who knows, I may get there and decided they are all way beyond me and end up at the beginners club. The afternoon, I am going to the Bentsen Grove Auxiliary, there I will work with the quilts for the needy. I did that last year at Sleepy Valley, and really enjoyed it alot. It will be a full day for me, guess Roger is on his own.

Thats about all for now................hope all our friends and family are staying warm and.........................Happy Trails to all.