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Wednesday, March 6, 2024

Marching Ahead!

 

A bunch of us went to see "Fiddler on the Roof"
at the Harlingen Community Theater on March 3rd.
Bob rode his bike from the south end of South Padre
Island to Clayton's on the north. Spring breakers
were just beginning to come south!
I found Bob on the walkway over the Gulf.
My friend Jane and I went to the Livestock
Show parade in Mercedes--its 85th year!
Bob went to the fairgrounds the next day. 
Middle school drum corps
Texas float
Cotton harvester
South Padre Island float...the parade was a little
over an hour long. There must have been 500 horses
different groups!


Friday, February 2, 2024

February: A Bad Start (Actually, No Start)

Well, for the first time I drove myself
to physical therapy because Bob had
a Farmers Union thing on his computer.
When I came out, the car wouldn't start.
Nothing, no power. Bob found his brother
Jerry and they came to help.  Seems
like a problem with the battery cable.
Annika and Trina were in Miami
for a gymnastics competition.
They stayed with Donna at her condo.
Claire's winter orchestra concert...she's the tall
blonde with her bow on her toe on the left
RJ won the 13 and under ski race at Whitetail
a couple days after celebrating his 12th birthday.
Cousin Leon and Lisa came from ND, 
so we took them to the Ranch Festival
at the Southwest Texas Historical Museum.
The Mastodon is the oldest thing there. 
Conjunto music (accordion and guitar)
by a middle school group performed 
in the courtyard along with roping, rope
making, a food court, and vendors.
From the museum we went to the DonWes Flea Market
where our artist friend Alfonso has set up shop.
He was formerly in Nuevo Progreso, Mexico,
just across the border, but has moved to Progreso
and has his green card to work in the US. His four 
children were all born in the US. His oldest son
is an engineer; second son is in an engineering
program at the University of Texas in Austin, 
and the younger two kids are in school in Progreso.
Leon and Lisa bought several paintings.
Later we went to Dave's BBQ for supper.
,
Jerry and Wendy hosted the Super Bowl party,
and everyone brought something to add to the buffet.
Bob got a little crazy with the balloons this year.
We celebrated on Tuesday, so I could
eat chocolate!
We did have cake and ice cream and
other goodies with Jerry and Wendy,
 Kathy, and Dennis and Nancy.
My friend Irene baked me a cake
and brought it over before church on Wednesday.
After ashes, we headed to South Padre Island. First, 
Bob rode his bike down the beach. Then, we
went to the sand castle tent.
I was queen for a few minutes....
Laguna Bob's featured The Castaways
from 1 to 5, so we stopped there 
for a beer (Bob) and lemonade (me).
Supper at The Brewery--Bob had fresh walleye.
We stayed on the island overnight,
and enjoyed a Texas waffle the next morning.
William Florian has performed in the Valley
for several years and has also been in North
Dakota for the Allied Concert Series and at
the Norsk Hostfest in Minot.  He did his
John Denver show in Harlingen on the 17th.
Well, so far, Sara is the only one to send me
a family photo with their Christmas shirts.
Milestone! George's first haircut on the 20th.
Kelly said it was not fun.
My last day of physical therapy.  This is Ivan's team:
Augustin and Arnold (PT Assistants), me, Ivan who
has a doctorate in Physical Therapy/Rehab!  
On the 25th, we went to the Camille Playhouse
in Brownsville to see "Anything Goes,"
a funny musical.
Feb. 27th: I took this sky photo on my way to play Dominoes.
Jett preparing food for a culinary competition.
When he was about five years old, I remember
him making pancakes for his siblings!
En route to South Padre Island on the 28th, we spotted these Yucca plants
This is a real close-up...the prettiest I have seen!
2/28: Bob trapped a huge possum in our back yards,
and he and his brother Jerry released it down south.
The next night, Bob caught two smaller ones,
but one escaped as he lifted the cage to 
load it in the car. End of the month excitement!
He's up to four critters, now. 










 

Friday, January 19, 2024

January 2024: It's Even a New Year!



Joe Vidales is a former history professor
who does presentations at the Weslaco Museum.
This was his first of the New Year on the 13th.
The next day we went to the Tower Theater
to see this parody of the kids' game
The Trail to Oregon.
Meanwhile, in Iowa, Trina took Annika
and Ariana skiing at the slopes near Dubuque
where Ari goes to Loras College.
Well, we watched Claire's (violin) 9th grade
orchestra concert,
Lydia's 6th grade choir concert, 
Cecelia's (cello) 6th grade orchestra, and
excerpts from the Middle School play. Do you
recognize Aunt Mary's clothes?
Luke served Mass for the first time
with Matthew and Grace. 
Couldn't sleep one morning, so I got up at 5:30
to bake muffins, buns, and cookies, and make
lamb stew (in the crockpot) and stuffing.
Janie comes twice a month to clean the house. 
She also works full-time for the Harlingen
School District! 
I finally got to Granny's Citrus to buy oranges
and grapefruits. The place is for sale....
any grapefruit lovers interested? (Doug?)
On the 21st we went to the Harlingen School District's
Performing Arts Theater to see "Into the Woods".
To me, the story would have been complete at intermission.
The second half didn't seem to connect with the first.
Of course the music, sets, and costumes
were as amazing as the high school students
who performed.
It even snowed in Virginia so Julia 
could draw a snowman.
Surprise birthday party for Deb at the pickleball courts.
We went into the clubhouse for cupcakes.
Deb is in purple  in the front row...the cupcakes 
had purple frosting, too!
We drove to South Padre Island on Sunday 
for breakfast at Yummie's. Then we went to the
monthly Marketplace and the weekly Farmers' Market.
At the end of the main road, we saw a lot of RV's 
and campers apparently enjoying beach time.
Several campers were also parked along the beach.
Later, I dropped Bob and his bike off at Clayton's,
and I went shopping until it was time to pick him
up at the south end of the island. We did stop
at the Davey Jones Locker, so I could get
some taffy and my mint chip ice cream.
To end the month, we went to the ABBAFab
concert in another park.  They did all the 
ABBA songs from the 70s.





 

Sunday, December 10, 2023

December Days

Our last home hockey game. Unfortunately,
the Sioux got "swept" by an unranked
Colorado College team.  Tied 2:2 both
nights, but Colorado won in overtime.
Claire's Golden Birthday
15 on the 15th of December 
December 17th 8 a.m. sunrise
as we left the farm for the winter
Kelly took this picture of their gang
loaded into the camper on the 17th for their
adventurous trip to Sara's for Christmas.
After two days at Ana's in Minnesota,
we flew to New York City to see Donna
and her new office with the view
of the Empire State Building
Took this photo of construction
across the street from Donna's
townhouse. They used a pulley and
a sack to lift bricks up to the roof!
Don't know why I didn't take pics
of the house...maybe I was too tired
from all the steps. :-)
On the 20th we headed to the 911 Memorial
and Museum but stopped first 
at the new World Trade Center across the road.
World Trade Center view from the entry.
There's an ice skating rink on the lower floor!
We went to the 911 Museum across the road, 
watched two videos, and spent an hour and a half
viewing the exhibits. 
New York view on our $63 Uber ride to the Neue Museum.
Our next stop was the Neue Museum
to see The Woman in Gold
(watch the movie on Amazon).
The museum has a collection
of Austrian and German artwork
repossessed from the Nazis.
St. George was in the entry to the museum
which was closed on Wednesday,
so we returned the next day.
After walking the entire length 
of Central Park, we stopped at the Met
which had a Manet-Degas exhibit,
but that was closed, too. Bob is searching
his phone to find St. Patrick's.
After the Met, we stopped at Bergdorf-Goodman
to warm up. The temp was 40 degrees with a cold wind.
I found a down jacket for Bob for $9,750 and 
a pair of cargo pants for $750. Needless to say,
I was just looking and trying to keep warm.
We did find St. Pat's...our second warmup stop.
And Rockefeller Center was just across the street
from St. Patrick's. An answer to our prayers.
Turning to leave the center,
we saw the Dior and Saks display. En route 
to the bus to Donna's, we discovered a little
coffee shop and stopped for brunch.
That evening, Donna took us to the Lebanese Restaurant
where we met Cousin Bud and Donna's friends
Victor and Sarah. Not sure the waiter knew
how to use a camera on the phone.
After revisiting the Neue on the 21st,
we headed back to Donna's and
we all hopped Amtrak to DC.
Donna was a super help at the
train station, got us a Red Cap 
to load us and our luggage on the train,
and found sandwiches and cookies
for the trip. It is a great ride!
Photo is at Union Station in DC
while waiting for Sara to pick us up.
Bob and I visited the Victims of Communism Museum
which showed what Communism has done to people
all over the world. There was a special section about
the Ukrainian victims.
Doug, Bob, and Tom went to the Air Museum
at Dulles airport which houses the Enola Gay,
the plane that dropped the atomic bomb, the
Concorde, and lots of other planes.
Some of these clowns won a few coins
playing Mexican Bingo
Lucy and Emilio sent us Joe's Stone Crabs...
which got devoured on Christmas Eve!
We all had Christmas morning breakfast at the motel.
Jimmy's gang--Andrew and Matthew
actually got up to eat that morning!
Trina's bunch with exchange student Carmen
Ana and Sara's...the kids had enough extra tickets,
so everyone could have breakfast at the motel.
Picture time after breakfast. Trina's in pink: Annika, Carmen (exchange student),
Ariana, Jett, and Caiden. Jimmy's in orange: George, Matthew, Luke, Grace,
Andrew, and Mary Kate.  Sara's in "Duke blue": RJ and Julia. Ana's in coral blue:
Cecelia, Lydia, and Claire. (or Lydia, Cecelia, and Claire) :-)
Donna and the kids..the photo
gets blurry when enlarged.
Us and our four...in reverse birth order
Jimmy doesn't look like "the baby" anymore.
The gang's all here!!
Santa showed up at the house after breakfast!
Santa and the kids!
Meeting of the minds:  Grampa Bob and Granddad Bob
(In case you are wondering...RJ's name is
Robert James)...  Doug's dad and sister Debbie
joined us for Christmas dinner.
Trina's gang left before 5 a.m. on the 26th,
but we caught the campers loading up later that morning.
Ana and the girls stayed at Sara's until the 30th.
Flowers at the Holiday Inn...a treat for me in December.
We were on a 6 a.m. flight out of Dulles on the 27th,
but when we got to the airport at 4:15, we were
informed that the flight was delayed until 11:45.
They did give us each $30 worth of food vouchers,
so we ate breakfast at the only restaurant,
and Bob took a nap.  I bought two chicken Caesar 
salads for later and we ate them for supper
the next night in Texas!
At 5:30 p.m., Jerry and Wendy picked us up at the 
Harlingen airport which always has some 
"nature" displays. Bob is on the right waiting
for our luggage to arrive. Wendy had supper
ready for us and Jerry had our mobile
home ready for us to move in.  And, fyi,
the 14 packs of lamb chops in my suitcase
were still frozen!
Bob wanted to go to South Padre Island
for breakfast at Yummie's Sunday morning,
but it was so foggy on the highway that
we had to change our plans. This 
place in Harlingen has great breakfasts.
Later that afternoon, we joined the party
on the next row, played "Cornhole"
for the first time, and ate a lot of food.
Happy New Year everyone! :-)