Update

View from the RV at Lake Pleasant

My friends and family, I apologize that I've not been very good about using this blog to keep you updated on our lives.  I promise to make the effort to do more updates.

January seems to have flown by.  We spent New Year's weekend at McDowell Mountain Regional park with some friends.  We had great weather - in the 70's all weekend - and had a very relaxing time.  For those of you who don't know, McDowell Mountain is near Fountain Hills on the east edge of the valley.  It's about an hour away from home - just far enough away, but close enough to civilization.

Our other trip in January was to Lake Pleasant Regional Park.  It's even closer to home.  We were both off Monday of MLK weekend, and we were going by ourselves.  We waited until Saturday morning to head to the lake.  Dennis was sick all weekend, but we had the most amazing site with a beautiful view of valley pointing towards the southeast.  We had a chance to spend the afternoon and evening with our friends Ron & Marilyn who live in their RV on the other side of the lake.  The weather was a little gloomy but we still had a nice time.  Dinner was fantastic!  Unfortunately, I caught Dennis' cold and the 2 weeks since then have been pure hell for me!

I truly hope no one catches the chest cold that we had.  It was viral and BAD.  We are both still recovering.  Not only did I cough my head off for over a week, but I've been completely drained of energy.  I didn't walk the dogs for 2 whole weeks and haven't worked out since before MLK weekend.  I was able to walk the dogs a few mornings this week, but I'm still not 100%.

We have a trip planned mid-February and we are going to Page Springs near Sedona.  We haven't been there in a LONG time - perhaps since we were there with Aunt Marie & Uncle Jim - I can't remember.  We were supposed to go there for Thanksgiving, but RATS, we didn't make it!

Next week I'm traveling to Des Moines for business.  Now that Home Equity is part of Consumer Lending (along with Home Mortgage) Des Moines is the place to be for business meetings.  I'm not really looking forward to the weather, but it should be a great opportunity to network, meet lots of people from Home Mortgage, and listen to what our leaders say about our 2012 strategy. 

I hope everyone has a great February, and most importantly want to wish my Mom a VERY Happy Birthday on February 5th and my brother a VERY Happy Birthday on February 21st.  Also, Happy Birthday to Lisa Crane, George Taylor, Jose Romero, Diane Taylor, David Taylor, Uncle Larry and any of our great-nieces/nephews who are celebrating a birthday in February (sorry we have not been able to "memorize" their birth dates!).

Sunday - the end of the week or the beginning?

I guess it depends on your point of view. For me, it's kind of both. I'm excited about this week because I get to go to Ohio to see friends and family. I haven't seen most of them since November. I'm really looking forward to it!

I've written a few articles this week. If you haven't already, please check out my Examiner web page. Please subscribe to e-mail and keep up to date on what I'm writing. I'm working on my next article now and hope to post it by Monday night. It's going to be a good one!! Here's the web site:

http://www.examiner.com/x-16754-Phoenix-RV-Lifestyle-Examiner

This was a nice weekend. Friday, we went down to Ron & Marilyn's for our final Friday night drinking at their kitchen table. I know this because they sold their table and chairs today. If only that table could talk!!! It was an enjoyable evening.

Saturday, we didn't have much to do around the house. We both did such a great job keeping the house picked up this week that we didn't have to spend all day cleaning! It was very nice! We contemplated going out to look for Jeeps (we want one to flat tow behind the motor home) but Jeremy and Brandon did all of the work for us! Well, Dennis did talk to our Salesperson at Power Dodge about a couple that she had, but we decided not to go look at them because they weren't what we are looking for. Saturday late afternoon, we headed out to Litchfield park to our friends Ron & Bob's house for a cookout. We had cocktails and appetizers with some pool time, then some fabulous burgers and brats. It was ice cream sundae bar for dessert. YUMMY! And the company and hospitality was even better than the very tasty food! We were home by 10, I was falling asleep on the way home. Fortunately I wasn't driving!

Today has been relaxing as well. We had coffee, then about 11:30, I decided to make pancakes after reading Facebook updates from a couple of friends who were making pancakes. I was inspired. They were very good! The rest of the day was spent feeding the laundry machine. I washed and dried and Dennis folded. I put everything away after the folding was done. We can start the week with clean clothes and towels. This afternoon, Marilyn called me to come get the knives from their motor home that she gave us. Taylor and her sweet adorable Chihuahua Terrier mix came while I was there. I think our boys would really like her!!

Tonight it was pizza and wings for dinner. I cleaned up the kitchen, got the coffee pot ready for morning, and watered the trees outside. I almost got in the pool but it got dark and it feels like a storm is rolling in. I'd hate to be zapped by lightning in the pool! We watched our 2 favorite shows this evening - True Blood and Hung. Both excellent shows on HBO. You can catch up on Hung as they are playing all 3 episodes this week. It's on at 10pm EDT on Sundays (7pm for those of us in AZ). This is Season 2 of True Blood, so you'd have to buy the first season on DVD to catch up!

I am going to the doctor tomorrow to have my knee checked out. It's the one I injured in 1987 while I was a Senior in High School. I've had a lot of pain recently and have put up with it long enough. My PCP referred me to the same ortho practice that did my surgery on my other knee in 2004. I hope it's easily fixable! Tuesday Bullseye comes back out to look at the motor home and do more troubleshooting on the jacks - and hopefully can order the part to fix it. We want to leave town 7/31 and leave the motor home up North for the rest of summer. Fingers crossed!

Wednesday I'm off to Ohio. Dennis gets to stay home and watch the doggies. And I might actually get some sleep! :-) I hope everyone has a great week and watch for my Examiner article Monday night or Tuesday. Take care!

Saturday afternoon

I just got back from an awesome ride on the Polaris. Ron & Marilyn took their Polaris, Chris down the street and his daughter Mia took their Polaris and Lyn and Dan came along with me. It was a beautiful, sunny day and we had a great time. It was slightly breezy and a little dusty, but we got by. After a couple of climbs uphill and subsequent decents downhill, we decided that Lyn needed to ride with Chris to balance out his weight a little. It gave Dan a little more elbow room. I think Chris and Mia had a great time, although we helped him get is pimped out Polaris all dirty and probably gave it a few scratches.

I made a great video of Lyn, Chris and Mia coming down a hill, but something happened and only the audio came through. It's not the same! So I won't post it.

I'm watching Uncle Buck right now, unwinding from the ride. Not sure what I'm doing tonight, but have some work to do in order to get ready for Dennis' return tomorrow. The boys and I are all looking forward to him coming home from Toledo!!

I hope everyone has a great Saturday night! Feel free to leave comments on my posts or react to the posts. It lets me know people read them! Thank you!!

Friday.....night

Well it's Friday night and much has happened since Wednesday morning. Wednesday evening I can't remember what happened. Thursday night, the boys and I went for a ride to Walmart to get some eggs and a Cardinals t-shirt. They love going for a ride in the car, even if they don't get to go inside once we get there!! I got some eggs, a Cardinals t-shirt for $14.82 and a "crock" for the boys' cage that fastens onto the wire sides so they can't tip it over.

The trip to Walmart was followed by me frying up some tofu, throwing in some spaghetti sauce, and cooking some pasta. Dinner was fabulous! I've officially decided to give up on the vegetarian eating style because of the effect it has on me. I tried for 2 weeks, and it really didn't work for me. So I'll eat meat but try to eat less of it. I threw in some falafel "meat" balls and my dinner was fabulous. After dinner, I made a pan of 2 boxes of brownies and another pan of 1 box of brownies for our "Cardinals day" tailgate on Friday. I sat down to Facebook with a glass of Glenlivet to watch American Idol and HDNet Fights. It was a fabulous evening!

Today, I bought pizzas for my whole team for lunch. I love CostCo pizza! The team loved it too. Who'd a thought that $97 could buy so much employee satisfaction! After work, I straightened up a bit and then Marilyn invited me and the boys down for wine. She made some (get this) pizza for dinner which was fabulous. We had about 4 bottles of wine (that was after the 1 they had before I got there). Ron's friend Scott, who's in town for business, stopped by to have some wine and pizza with us. The boys love Ron & Marilyn's back yard and their house. They definitely got their exercise! Now they are both sleeping like babies.

ADT's coming tomorrow, then we are going for a Polaris ride. I think Chris at the end of the street and Bondy on the next street over might be going with us. It'll be fun! I'm calling Lyn & Dan in the morning ot see if they want to venture out again. Last weekend was a TON of fun!

I hope everyone has a fine Saturday. Take care, and I'll blog more later!

End of the weekend

Well, it's late Sunday and another weekend is past. Friday we had a nice evening. After a vegetarian dinner, Ron and Marilyn came over and we drank a few bottles of wine and quizzed Steve on his experiences at Thousand Trails in Leavenworth and learned the details of why he left. Saturday, Steve and Dennis helped Ron and Marilyn move their broken down TV from the 2nd story to the 1st story of their house. Then, Dennis went to the Motor Home to get out the roof and windshield for the buggy. When he got home, he and Steve went for a buggy ride with Ron and Marilyn while I stayed home to watch the dogs and start packing for my trip to Dallas Sunday.

After the ride, we talked to Ron and Marilyn and decided we would have a potluck style vegetarian dinner Saturday night. I made tofu chili which was fantastic. Marilyn made some wonderful vegetarian meatballs that we had with pasta and red sauce. Marilyn also brought some garlic bread and Texas toast. It was a delicious, very filling meal! We had a bottle of wine with dinner, and watched the Barrett Jackson auction afterwards.

Ron and Marilyn left and we decided to watch the movie Juno as it was coming on one of the premium channels. Dennis surfed for a job while Steve and I watched the movie. I managed to finish packing before that so that I could go to bed stress free. I was up until about midnight and had to get up at 5am to be ready to be picked up by 6am. We had a nice journey to Dallas, and did some running around when we got here. We were away from the hotel during most of the Cardinals game so - thank goodness for Facebook - I received updates from Dave in San Diego and Ruthanne in Gilbert. I was very relieved to hear the Cardinals won the game! Woohoo!

Back to the hotel and it was time to open some wine. Did you know that you cannot bring your own wine into a hotel in Irving? We had to take it back out to the car and sneak it into the hotel in our bags. It felt like we were in high school trying to get away with something. I don't quite understand the law but I guess I don't have to. We had a nice dinner in the hotel restaurant and then came back to Lisa's room to inspect 200 binders to make sure the debossing was done right and the solar calculator inside worked. When we were done with that, we all came to our own rooms, and here I am. The next 3 days are going to be filled with a lot of hard work and long hours. I'm going to bed soon so that I'll be ready.

Take care, and have a great week! I most likely won't be able to blog much until the end of the week.