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.

Hero Makers Ministry Making a Difference in Children's Lives

Sunday
November 15, 2009

We woke up at seven o’clock this morning and enjoyed our coffee together outside. We are really enjoying this weather here in Mission. After we finished our coffee we went inside and took showers. Around 11:30 we went over to Rocky & Sheri’s to drop off their vacuum cleaner and asked them if they would like to ride with us over to the flea market that the girls went to yesterday. They said sure and with that we were off. The flea market is located in Donna, Texas. It’s neat in the since most of the vendors cater toward snowbirds / winter Texans. We looked around for awhile but really we were only there to buy some vinyl lettering for our truck. The lettering we got was our name for each door and the truck’s name. We’re not sure where that will go yet. However, we still got it. After that we decided that it was time to leave the flea market. We headed back home and dropped Rocky & Sheri off at their home. We then went back to McAllen so I could find a Radio Shack. While I went into Radio Shack Gina went into Marshalls. Neither one of us bought anything so it was off to Wal-mart next door. We went into the store and without going into detail we left there and headed toward another one. I had been debating whether or not to fill up with diesel since the prices seem to keep rising. I saw an HEB and their diesel was only 2.55 and they had a high flow pump. I decided what the heck just fill it up. It only took 182 gallons. From there we stopped at another Radio Shack and they had the antenna mount that I was looking for. We finally stopped at Wal-mart in Mission and picked up a few items. We mainly did a lot of looking around. We made it back home and ate dinner around seven o'clock. We chatted for a few minutes with Ashley our daughter and then called it a night since we both would be getting up early in the morning.


Monday
November 16, 2009

We both woke up at six o’clock when the alarm went off this morning. We had a big day planned. Rocky & Sheri were picking us up at nine o’clock for a tour of the work their minstry Hero Makers is doing in Mexico. We made it through the border crossing without being stopped. Then we were off to the Refugio orphanage. Their ministry does so much for these children but for the most part they build houses for orphanages. They have a standard floor plan which houses twelve children along with a separate room for the host family who oversee the twelve children. They have one house at this orphanage that is almost finished and should be finished by the first part of next year. Even though these orphanages are controlled by the city they get no funding from them. They place the children and then expect the orphanages to find a way to support themselves. There are fourteen orphanages in Reynosa which is a big city across the border. Here are a few pictures of this orphanage.

One room in a house they're building


Kitchen area in the same house


Bathroom


Playground


Living room in the Girls house

From there we headed to Rio Bravo orphanage. This is the best orphanage in Mexico. Ray Hansen is the man behind the success here. They have a building here that can house 90 people. This building is used by volunteers when they come down to do mission work. This is also the building that Rocky uses to house people that come down to do work with Hero Makers. Ray has a very interesting story about what all he has gone through. God has blessed his ministry. In addition to building this orphanage he also started a private school for the children that live at this orphanage. He has been able to expand this school so other Mexican children can attend. This has provided additional funding for the orphanage. Here are a few pictures of this orphanage.

Entrance to Rio Bravo Ministries


One classroom in the school


Gina just loved these girls


Especially this one


The girls making dinner


One of the girls showing Gina her bed

Once we left there we headed to Pilar de Esperanza (Pilar of hope) which is another orphanage located south of Reynosa down a long dirt road. This orphanage is more typical of what you will find in Mexico. Hero Makers has another building here that should get finished next year. We toured around the grounds here where they have chickens and pigs to help support themselves. One of the teachers here came to Mexico thirteen years ago from the Netherlands and has been at this orphanage ten years now. It is so obvious that everyone here has so much love in their heart for these children and endure some pretty harsh living conditions. Here are a few pictures of this orphanage.

This is the House being built by Hero Makers Ministries


One of the older homes


This house has the kitchen & both a room for girls and one for boys


Playground


The Pig Pen


The girls room


The boys making dinner

By this time it was two o’clock and all of us were hungry. Rocky & Sheri took us to one of the finer restaurants here in Reynosa. We had both chicken and beef fajitas for four and they were delicious.

Rocky & Sheri at lunch

Once we left there it was time to head back home. However, we had to cross the border first. Rocky let the three of us off so we could walk across. Rocky has a sentry card which allows him and his truck quick non-stop access into the United States. Without the card it would have taken over an hour to drive back across the border. The only down side is that only Rocky can be in the truck when it crosses the border. To let you know how fast he crossed the border. He was waiting on us and we didn’t even have to wait in line to show our passports. After Rocky & Sheri dropped us off at home we decided to just chill out at home. Gina got on Facebood while I took a short nap in my recliner. While I was napping she also baked a homemade cheesecake. However, it will not be ready until tomorrow. After I woke up from my nap we watched TV until around ten o’clock when we called it a day and went to bed.


Tuesday
November 17, 2009

We slept with our windows open last night and we were awakened by rain this morning. I got up and closed all the windows to keep water from coming inside. Since I was awake, I got the coffee brewing and decided to get back in bed. When I heard the coffee finish I got back up and fixed both of us a cup while we enjoyed it in bed watching the morning news. This was going to be a lazy and dreary day due to the rain and the fact that we had no plan for the day. We did finally get up and by the time I took Angel and Zoey outside it was eleven o’clock. I took a rump roast out of the freezer yesterday so Gina could cook it today. She first browned it then took the drippings and made a roux to make a gravy. Once all of that was done she placed it into the crock pot and then let it cook all day. We had leftover pizza for breakfast / lunch. After which I made some more phone calls to a few other solar stores trying to get price quotes for our solar upgrade. We then just sat outside relaxing the afternoon away. At four o’clock we walked up to the club house for happy hour to chat with everyone. After we walked back home at five o'clock we watched the news and enjoyed dinner together. I checked my email and I finally got an email back from one company with a quote. I’m still waiting on two others. After dinner Gina got on Facebook and while I read a few blogs to catch up with what everyone has been doing. We then watched a movie together before heading off to bed.


Wednesday
November 18, 2009

We slept again with the windows open and enjoyed a cool morning together outside drinking coffee. Gina went inside around eleven o’clock to take a shower and get dressed for the ladies luncheon at twelve o’clock. She took the roast and gravy for her dish. However, I did manage to sneek small slice of meat and ate it for lunch.

A lot of food for just ladies


The ladies socializing


Pat, Dale & Gina

While Gina was gone I hooked up our wireless router with our air card. After that I did some test on using the external antenna to the air card. Without the antenna I was getting speeds of 0.68 Mbps and with the antenna it jumped up to 1.7 Mbps. It definitely made a big difference. I mounted the antenna up on the roof luggage rack and ran the cable through the slide out.

Gina made it back around two o’clock and we talked about flying Thomas over here for Thanksgiving. He called saying that he could come. I tried to find a flight on Wednesday but could not find one that he could get to after he got off from school. I then asked Nicole, our daughter for a little help and she found a flight leaving Thanksgiving morning which gets him into McAllen, Texas at 2:30. He’ll be with us until Sunday morning when he'll fly back to Palm Springs, California. We are so excited that he'll be spending Thanksgiving with us. By the time we got all of that taken care of it was four o’clock and time for happy hour at Mike & Pat's. We really enjoy and look forward to happy hour each day. We have such a hard life but I keep telling myself someone has to do it and it might as well be me. Anyway we walked back home at five o’clock and just chilled out for the night. We watched Mercy and Law and Order before heading off to bed.

We are really enjoying ourselves down here in South Texas. The weather has been absolutely beautiful and being around our friends makes it even more special.


Thursday
November 19, 2009

We slept again with our windows open last night. However, we woke up with our home feeling very muggy inside. I closed all the windows and turned the AC on to dry the air out a little and hopefully get the mugginess out. Since Gina was still in bed I started writing this entry and while I was uploading pictures I ran out of storage space on Picasa. I purchased more space. However, that additional storage space didn’t immediately show up so I couldn’t finish uploading my pictures. I was getting frustrated so I just decided I would finish and post this entry tomorrow. Once Gina woke up I fixed her a cup of coffee and we both went outside to enjoy our coffee together while trying to decide what we would do today. We didn’t have anything really to do other than Gina wanted to go out in town. However, around ten o’clock we rode our bikes over to Rocky & Sheri’s to say goodbye before they left for East Texas to spend Thanksgiving with Sheri's family. They were not there so we then rode over to the club house so Gina could look at some books in the library. Around 11:30 I was getting hungry and I wanted to go home to eat. She said, "ok" let's go get some lunch. I put some hot dogs on the grill while she heated up some chili. While I was grilling, Rocky stopped by to let us know they would be leaving in about 20 minutes. Gina and I hurried up with our lunch and then rode our bikes back over to Rocky & Sheri’s. Gina and I wanted to tell them goodbye but more importantly we wanted to pray for and with them before they got on the road today. After we prayed it was some quick hugs and a see you down the road.

Gina & Sheri


Rocky & Sheri just before they left

We rode back home so I could wait on the mini split AC unit being delivered today for Mark & Dale. While I waited I ran a coax cable from our satellite dish down to Mike & Pat’s since he’s having a problem with his dish. He has a guy coming out tomorrow to look at and this is just a temporary fix. Gina decided that she wanted to cook a stew so she did that while I was helping Mike. The truck arrived at 2:30 with the AC unit. As soon as the truck left I got a phone call from Tom who owns a company thesolar.biz. We spoke for over an hour about the solar system I want to install in the truck. He was very informative and I learned a lot in that hour or I could say that I’m more confused. He recommended to me that I should consider some other items before I make final decision. I told him goodbye and then it was off to happy hour at the clubhouse. Another great happy hour. However, as everyone left Gina continued on with her conversation to Kathy until 5:30. We then walked back home so Gina could continue cooking her stew by adding fresh potatoes and carrots while I jumped online to do some research on everything I learned early today from Tom. Gina jumped on to Facebook while she waited for the potatoes and carrots to cook before she added green beans and corn. Finally around eight o’clock the stew was done. We ate dinner while watching “Fringe”. The stew was delicious as I knew it would be. Gina is a wonderful cook. After we ate we just sat back in our recliners to let our food digest.

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