road trip

Nolene and I hit the road on Sunday for a quick trip to see Sister Sue and family in Arkansas. We got home yesterday afternoon, and a good time was had by all.

We managed to get in some geocaching. Nolene and I picked up a couple of caches at a roadside rest on the way. Virgil has just recently gotten started, so we helped him hide a cache as well as we found a few. Sue's knee was giving her problems, so she didn't make it out with us, but we had a good time.

Troy's out and about on his wheelchair tending the lawn, despite having been in the hospital recently. But his lawn is looking really good...wish mine was doing that well. This is nothing new, he takes great care of it. And he doesn't let being in a wheelchair get in his way... he's been known to push the lawn mower with one hand, and steer the chair with the other. He's had a riding mower for awhile now, so that's not an issue anymore. :)

On the way home, we decided to take a scenic route rather than head straight in to Dallas. We got off on 259 to head over to Longview, then before we got there, took off on 154 to 155 through Gilmer and Winona to bring us out on I20 a little closer. I've got to make that leg of the journey again, it was so scenic. And full of history too. We stopped at 2 historical markers along the road, and would have stopped at more but Nolene was in a hurry to get to some facilities, if you know what I mean. I bet we passed at least 10 markers on that 20-30 mile stretch, and I'd like to go back and take a look at them.

I've discovered I'm feeling aches in places I didn't know could ache. I've been putzing around in the yard, and dug holes in the clay to plant a few things, along with pulling some weeds. Guess I'm starting to get a bit older, the way I hobble. You know, Sally Fields has been doing a commercial for Boniva. She's about my age, and as I see her sitting on the pier with her feet dangling, I find myself wondering how she does on getting up. They don't show that part. Does she have to hold onto something to get herself into a standing position? On the rare occasion I find myself flat on the ground with nothing to hold onto, it's not a pretty sight to see me rolling over onto my knees and trying to appear nonchalant while I get up.

Ah well, such is life.

we have a new cacher

Nolene and I took Elise out today and introduced her to geocaching. Well, as much as one can do from an infant car seat. The first one we weren't able to lock in on, so had to take a "did not find" on it, but we persevered on the next, and find it we did.

For all the excitement of seeing her first cache, her reaction seemed to be along the lines of....I'll just keep on holding onto my rattle, thanks...
That's ok, she'll catch the enthusiasm one of these days.

happy Thanksgiving

"How did you make that corn dish, David?" and "alright Mom, what did you put in that cheese ball??? are you trying to sneak something over on me??? oh wait, it's not bad." "I'm so full" and "show me the tv and a couch, and I'm good for the day".

Yes, another Thanksgiving dinner has come and gone. Fortunately for me my preparations were relatively easy this year, since Robert and Angela hosted the festivities at their house. Good company, good weather, good food. A nice day indeed. The cousins had a good time playing in the back yard, including the age-old favorite of hide-and-seek. Little Elise got to celebrate her first Thanksgiving, but she did end up sleeping through at least part of it. :)

This morning I did one of those little elf videos, using pics of me and my brothers and sisters. It made for a nice little family portrait, didn't it?

I also had some fun with my geocaching today. Last weekend Robert and I hid a cache in his vicinity, and today was the "first to find" on it, meaning someone was the first one to find it and post their entry. This cache is full of orange items, asking people to trade out with other orange items. I like having a variety of things in the cache, and will usually include a couple of toys, some fabric for a quilter who might come along the way, as well as something to appeal to adults. In this case, there was a sudoku puzzle book and a carabiner, among other things.

Yes, I'm thankful. I've got many blessings in my life.

Color my world...

Recently I started a series of caches for my geocaching, and they're in the "color my world" theme, meaning the caches are stocked with items of a certain color. So far I've hidden red and green. (Robert helped with the placement on the green one.) Yellow and pink are each ready to go, just have to find a place for them. Blue is not far behind. Go to the geocaching link, and look up GC19HK2. The most recent person to find it posted a picture of the container (along with his kids).

So now I've add the thrill of the hide to the thrill of the hunt!