Having Fun With Thomas

Thursday
November 26, 2009

We woke up to a beautiful morning and sat outside enjoying it while we drank our first cup of coffee. We were so excited today. Not because it was Thanksgiving but Thomas, our son was flying over to spend the Thanksgiving holidays with us. He is stationed in Twentynine Palms, California and he couldn’t get a flight out yesterday so he’ll be arriving here today at 2:30. He called us at nine o’clock to let us know he was boarding the plane.

This will be our table

While Gina was up at the clubhouse to help setup the tables for our Thanksgiving dinner with all the other ladies here I wrote and posted an entry to our blog. After she got back I sliced up the turkey that I smoked yesterday while she got the homemade yeast rolls in the oven. I watched them while she took her shower. With only two ovens it was going to take us an hour to bake 32 rolls. After she got dressed I jumped into the shower and got dressed. While Gina was up at the clubhouse Mike and Pat McFall offered me their car to go pick up Thomas from the airport. They are such wonderful friends. It is people like them that make this lifestyle fun and enjoyable and are glad that we can call them family. I headed out to the airport a little after two o’clock to pick Thomas up. It was perfect timing as he just got out to the curb as I was pulling up. After I got a hug we headed to the clubhouse at Retama Village to enjoy our dinner. After the instructions were told to everyone by Jack he then introduced me so I could bless the food. Before I blessed the food I introduced Thomas to everyone.

A Very Thankful Dad and his Son


Retama Village Family

We then got our food and enjoyed a big Thanksgiving Day feast. I over ate like most I’m sure since I have a very low will power when it comes to good food. Around five o’clock we headed back home.

A Mom & Dad blessed to have their Son for Thanksgiving

We then just hung out with Thomas catching up on all the things he has been doing. We always get the overview on the phone and this gave us an opportunity to get all the details.

Thomas relaxing with his Angel

We didn’t get a paper today to look at the advertisements so Dale let us look at her paper. While Thomas IChat’ed with Ashley I looked through the ads. I didn’t see anything that told me to get up early and go shopping. I then got a turkey out of the refrigerator so I could inject it with a Cajun marinade so it would be ready to fry tomorrow. Gina then looked at the ads and she too didn’t see anything that told her to get up early. Not only was this our first Thanksgiving away from our house in Louisiana but it’s the first one without spending the day with Dana & Rickey, my sister and brother-in-law. We broke our tradition this year since we always eat Thanksgiving dinner at our house and afterwards we look at ads together and plan our black Friday shopping trip. All of us sat up talking until two o’clock in the morning. We just enjoyed hearing all the stories Thomas was telling. Thomas decided he wanted to sleep in the truck instead of the air mattress so he headed out to the truck as Gina and I went to bed.


Friday
November 27, 2009

Well, we didn’t wake up until nine o’clock this morning and Thomas didn’t get up until ten o’clock. He said he was sleeping too good to wake up. Gina and I enjoyed our coffee together enjoying Thomas being here with us.

Gina says you can't have to many hugs!!!


Thomas cuttin up with his mom

Around noon Thomas said he wanted to go shopping so he and I went to Academy sports and Sports Authority while Gina cooked another Thanksgiving meal. All the ladies decided to have a get together today at our place to enjoy leftovers from yesterday. Now I know there were a lot of leftovers. However, I asked Gina to make her cornbread dressing along with her sweet potato casserole. These two dishes are my favorites and it just didn’t seem like Thanksgiving without them. The ladies also decided that since we were eating over here that we should have happy hour at our place too. That worked out good since I would have to be here to watch the turkey frying.

Deep Frying a Turkey Cajun Style


Happy Hour at our place


Thomas and I waiting on the Turkey to finish

While everyone was showing up for happy hour I dropped the turkey into the pot of hot oil. It would be done at 4:50 just in time for everyone to enjoy some good Cajun fried turkey to go with the leftovers.

Mike giving me a hand


My First Deep Fried Turkey


Enjoying leftovers


Thomas enjoying his food with Dale

I’m not sure about everybody here but I over ate again. (isn’t that what the holidays are all about anyway?) After everyone left, Thomas, Gina and I decided to walk up to the clubhouse to play pool.

Thomas beating me at Pool


At least I won one game

While we played pool Gina was reading in the library.

Gina reading in the clubhouse

After Thomas beat me twice it was time for something different. We decided on Chess.

Thomas is thinking hard

That wasn’t a good choice since he beat me in less than 30 minutes. From there we walked over to the exercise room so Thomas could show off his muscles to us while Gina and I played ping pong and then Thomas and I played.

Gina missing the ball


No score for this game, we're just having fun

When we looked at the clock it was 10:30 and with that we decided to walk back home. We had another great day with Thomas.

Saturday
November 28, 2009

We got up a little earlier this morning since Thomas said he wanted to go shopping at the mall. We had to have our coffee first then we all left heading toward the mall around 10:30. We looked around for awhile and then left there and went to Cavendar’s western wear. Thomas was looking for a pair of boots and wrangler jeans. We finally left there and headed home since Thomas was hungry and wanted fried fish. While he was frying fish Gina and I walked over to Ron & Barb’s house for happy hour. We then walked back home at five and Thomas was finished eating. Gina rounded up Thomas’s dirty clothes so Gina could wash them. We both walked up to the laundry room and got his clothes going while he jumped into the shower. Once we got back Gina and Thomas got online surfing the internet. I went back up to the laundry room to put the clothes in the dryer and again after they finished drying. Around eight o’clock we all sat back and watched a movie. After the movie was over I kissed both Gina and Thomas good night and went to bed. It would be an early morning since Thomas’s flight departed at 6:25 in the morning.


Gina & I hope everyone has a pleasant and wonderful day, enjoying what our Father has so graciously blessed us with.

Happy Thanksgiving ! ! ! !

Monday
November 23, 2009

I woke up again at five o’clock and made a pot of coffee. Gina says that I need to stop taking a nap in my recliner at nine o'clock. I’ll try to stay awake tonight and see if that makes a different. The problem is everything on TV by nine o’clock is boring and I just sleep while Gina watches TV. Anyway, Gina woke up around eight o’clock and I brought her a cup of coffee. Getting up early this morning gave me time to write and post an entry on the blog. She finally got up around 8:30 and said, “can we turn on the air conditioner”? I told her we can do whatever you want. So with that we shut all the windows and turned the AC on. We really just needed to get the moisture out of our home. We sat outside for a little while drinking coffee while Gina read me what everyone was doing on facebook. We both decided since it was so gloomy outside that it would be a good day to wash cloths. We gathered up our clothes and brought them up to the laundry room. They only have two washer and dryers and we had about five loads so this was going to take a few hours. That was alright since we didn’t have any plans today. I should say I didn’t have any plans. Gina had made plans with Dale to go shopping today. They left a little after twelve o’clock while I did our laundry. I was taking out the last load from the dryer when Gina stuck her head in the laundry room to let me know she was back. She couldn't have planned it any better. I told her I would be finished in just a few minutes and that I would just see her back home. Once I got home with all the clean clothes she tells me that happy hour is at our place today and after she told me that she said I have a surprise for you. She bought me some white chocolate truffles. I love white chocolate and these are my favorites. Gina also told me she was cooking homemade spaghetti for dinner. I have been craving this for some reason. She spoils me way too much and beside that she's an amazing women and a fantastic wife. We had a great time with everyone here at happy hour. Everyone left at five o’clock at about the same time a few rain drops began to fall. It didn’t rain but it was trying too. We went back inside and Gina cooked some pasta to go with her spaghetti sauce. I put a loaf of French bread in the oven. After the bread was done we sat down at the table together and enjoyed a wonderful dinner. The food tasted great and hit the spot perfect. Gina washed all the dishes before we sat down in our recliners to watch “House”. We watched a few other shows including a movie called “Unlikely Angel” starring Dolly Parton. Gina went to bed around eleven o’clock to read while I watched “Highlander”. I finally made it to bed at midnight. We both said goodnight to each other and with that we were asleep.

Tuesday
November 24, 2009

Well, I finally woke up a little later this morning. I slept in until seven which felt good. I got the coffee brewing and then turned on the water heater. We both needed showers this morning before we met up with our rv-dreams friends Jesse & Ginger and Ed & Marilyn. They are spending their winter in Weslaco, Texas at Llano Grande RV Resort. We haven’t seen them since the beginning of the year. After we enjoyed our coffee this morning we got dressed and headed out the door at 10:20 heading east. About five miles down the road the clouds opened up and the rain poured down. Even though I had been to their park before I still managed to get turned around. However, we did make it there by 11:30. After we exchanged hugs we went inside Jesse and Ginger’s house to visit. A few minutes later Ed and Marilyn showed up. We all visited for a little while catching up on what we all have been doing. It wasn’t real hard since we all keep blogs and we all read each others. We then all loaded up in Jesse’s truck and went to have lunch together. We went to Arturo’s, a Mexican restaurant.

Entrance to Arturo's


A Very Nice Restaurant


Gina, Ginger, & Marilyn


Ed, Jesse and me

They hadn’t been there since it changed names so we were all trying it together for the first time. Everyone got fajitas except for Ed which ordered fish. The food was alright. It wasn’t great but it wasn’t bad either. The atmosphere was perfect for visiting which we did for alot of. The waiter kept looking at us like “are you all ever going to leave”. We finally left there around two o’clock. We stayed at Jesse & Ginger’s house for awhile but Ed & Marilyn left so they could go to Wal-mart and look at new cameras. They dropped their camera while at the restaurant earlier and it wouldn't work. The storm that we went through earlier finally made it there so while it poured down outside we continued our visit with Jesse & Ginger for a couple of hours. We said our "see ya down the road". We never say goodbye to our fulltime friends since we know our paths will cross again. We made it back home at 5:30 and decided that we just wanted to relax for the evening. That is exactly what we did until Gina went to bed at nine o’clock with her shoulder hurting. I sat up for a little while longer and then went to bed. Every day is a good day out here traveling. However, when we meet up with other RV-Dreamers it always turns out to be a real special treat for us.


Wednesday
November 25, 2009

I didn’t sleep as late as yesterday but it wasn’t five o’clock either. I grabbed a cup of coffee after it was finished brewing and then went outside. It was still overcast. I pulled out my smoker and then prepared our turkey. I started smoking it at 7:30 so it should be done around six or seven tonight. I sat outside for awhile enjoying that great smell of burning pecan wood.

I Consider This "Ultimate Relaxation"

As I mentioned two weeks ago the biggest thing I miss the most about traveling was not having the ability to smoke meat. Well that is no more since I bought this smoker.

My Smoker

I did find out today that the mini-split Air Conditioner I installed in our truck is a heat pump too. There is a story here but I would have to write too much to tell it. Let’s just say for the three weeks that we were in Kansas and Nebraska living in our truck without heat really made me feel dumb. Outside of discovering that I had a heat pump in the truck I spent the day sitting outside watching and smelling my turkey smoking. Gina spent her day cooking getting ready for tomorrow. I did pull out my big propane burner and boiled some sweet potatoes and a whole chicken outside. I didn’t get a picture of our propane burner but I’ll take a picture of it on Friday when I fry a turkey. By this time it was almost four o’clock so we grabbed our chairs and walked over to Mike & Pat’s. As always we enjoy the fellowship with our friends. We walked back home at five o’clock and Gina deboned the chicken that I boiled earlier. While she did that I checked the turkey since it should be finished smoking.

That's A Good Looking Bird

Gina was making chicken nachos for dinner tonight. This is something she learned from Ashley, our daughter. They tasted great. Gina is such a great cook.


Thursday
Thanksgiving Day

Gina and I, first and foremost want to wish all our family and friends a Very Happy Thanksgiving. We are so thankful for all the men and women who had dreams and were willing to pursue those dreams in creating this country we call America. Whether you are with family, friends or just enjoying special times together as a couple I ask you to reflect back on the history of the past 517 years since Columbus arrived here. But, more specifically the last 233 years since our Declaration of Independence was signed. Whether we agree with our elected officials or not, we as Americans have so much to be thankful for. We are able to enjoy what this country has because of those individuals who pursued their dreams to the extent of risking their life and many of them did lose their life because they believed that people should be free and have freedoms that only exist here. We take for granted so many things that we (Americans) just consider normal but for the rest of the world they will never be able to experience or comprehend the freedoms we have here. Our country was founded because people had dreams and we as its citizens still have dreams and the ability to pursue those dreams. I could write a lot more here but the point I want to make is we are able to live our dream because of men and women who pursued their dreams. All Americans are so blessed and Gina and I are extemely thankful for all the men and women who have served and are currently serving in our military. Without them we might not be celebrating today. Gina and I feel extremely blessed and with that we just want to tell everyone Happy Thanksgiving and wish only the best for you all.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!

Movie Time & Solving a Mystery

Friday
November 20, 2009

I woke up this morning to a dreary day. The weather forecast for today was rain and it looked like it would pour at anytime. First priority this morning was to get our blog updated. Once Gina woke up I fixed us both a cup of coffee and even though it was overcast we sat outside enjoying the birds chirping. We both wanted to go see the new movie “The Blind Side” today. We were trying to make the 11:45 show time. However, by the time we both had our showers and was dressed it was raining. We decided to put off the movie today. Gina heated up some of her homemade stew for lunch. It tasted even better today. Now we had made a plan yesterday to go to the movies and then go to the mall and Sam’s warehouse. Since we had already decided to skip the movie I kind of thought we would just hang out at home today. Plus my truck was clean and I didn't want to drive in the rain. However, Gina had a different plan. She didn’t want to just sit around today at home. She finally convinced me to leave with the bribe that she would wash my truck. Yea right, that will not happen but you have to keep your woman happy. She did at least wait for the rain to stop before we left. We were heading to the mall to look around. At least that is what I call it but girls call it shopping. We didn’t need anything. However, I think Gina was having shopping withdrawals. We were both surprised at how big and nice the mall was for being down here. We got some frozen yogurt to enjoy while we walked through the mall. We did buy Thomas a new shirt from Express so he would have a new shirt for Thanksgiving. When he left back in September he only took two civilian shirts with him and he said one of those got ripped. He has a lot of clothes back at our house in Louisiana but he will not be able to get those until he flies back to Louisiana for Christmas. Once we left the mall we headed for HEB to buy a turkey. They have them on sale for 40 cents a pound. We were going to go to Sam’s but decided against it today since it was already six o’clock. Once we got our turkey we looked for a few more items and then checked out. When we walked out of HEB we about froze. The temperature was in the fifty’s. We made it back home around 7:30. Gina heated up some stew for dinner while I wrote some emails. We both sat back in our recliners to watch TV after we ate and then around ten o’clock we called it a night.


Saturday
November 21, 2009

I had trouble sleeping last night and then around five o’clock I just decided to get up and put coffee on. I turned on the weather to see what the day had in store for us. It was currently 53 degrees and the forecast called for a high of 79 with clear skies. I do believe that it will be a gorgeous day. Once the coffee finished brewing I fixed myself a cup and got online surfing the internet. Gina woke up a little after eight o’clock and of course I brought her a cup of coffee. Around the same time uncle Jim called me to make sure Gina and I were still doing ok. We try to call him every week but somehow we didn’t call him last week. I guess we must have been having too much fun. My dad was over at his house having breakfast so I got to speak to him too. Around eleven o’clock we took off for the theatre. We watched “The Blind Side”. A fantastic movie and Sandra Bullock did an amazing job acting in this movie. This is a must see movie. Once we left there we went to Sam’s Warehouse and found some hot cheese and we needed to restock our supply of paper plates. I wouldn’t want to forget to tell you about the new chairs that Gina got so here is a picture of them.

We got two of these & there pretty comfortable


My happy bride enjoying her new chair

From there we stopped by Wal-mart to pick up a few items that HEB didn’t have yesterday. We had to head home fast since we were going to a "Mystery" dinner party tonight up at the clubhouse that started at five o’clock. We were a few minutes late but it really didn’t begin until 5:30 so we were ok. We had never done a mystery party before so we were really excited about going. Each table worked independently to solve the crime. Without going into detail each table had to figure out who killed the chef. We had a great time trying to piece each clue together and then ultimately we were wrong. That was ok since only one table got it correct out of ten tables. It was getting cold outside and even though we were having a great time we were cold. We finally left at 8:30 and walked home very quickly. We both jumped online for a few minutes before heading to bed. We watched a fantastic movie and then finished off the day with good food and great friends.


Sunday
November 22, 2009

I woke up early again this morning, that's two days in a row that I woke up at five o'clock. I’m not sure why but I have not been able to sleep in. I made coffee and then watched the weather channel waiting for the coffee to finish brewing. I have really enjoyed a unique feature of DirecTV. On the weather channel you can input your local zip code and at any time it will give you your local weather forecast. After the coffee finished brewing I got up out of my chair and fixed a cup. That first cup tastes so good. I heard Gina waking up so I brought her a cup of coffee to enjoy. It was foggy outside this morning so we just stayed inside until the fog burnt off before we went outside. Around noon we both got cleaned up and dressed before we headed out to Academy Sports to buy a pot to fry turkeys in. I have never been into frying turkeys since Rickey, my brother-in-law always fries them while I have always smoked them. I will add that he does an outstanding job at it too. From there we went to Target. Gina was looking for some Thanksgiving theme paper plates since Wal-mart and HEB didn’t have anything. She found some she liked. From there we headed to Wal-mart so she could get a manicure. (Note: She hasn't had her nails done in seven weeks). While she was getting her nails done I hung out in the truck talking to Jack Mayer about my solar system setup. I want to say thank you to Jack for his knowledge and the patience for answering my questions. We left there and headed back home so we could still make happy hour.

We walked down to Mike & Pat’s and enjoyed happy hour and met Ron & Barb. They just arrived here this week from Dallas. They're fulltimer’s also and are hoping to sell their house soon. We then walked back home so Gina could bake some cornbread to go with our leftover stew. I love her stew but we're both glad this is the last of it. We enjoyed dinner together and then sat back in our recliners surfing the internet while we waited for “Cold Case” to come on. Gina then watched “Three Rivers” while I snoozed. We had never seen the show before and it didn’t interest me which put me right to sleep in my chair. Gina woke me up when it was over and we both went to bed.

Gina & I hope everyone has a pleasant and wonderful day, enjoying what our Father has so graciously blessed us with.