Harlingen Winter-time Fun in Sun

 After early January no rain - but the birds still come thru on their northbound journey in March and April.

















Since we water the native gardens there is always something blooming - and blooms bring butterflys!











First Saturday of March was this year's Community Garden Work Day.  For Marla and her friends (all boys?) it was Play Day.









Pa Gary helped Tarin and the big girls clean up the Fall/Winter garden and get Whits End ready for Spring. In the background you can see many others bent over working in the ground.  All those older  bent backs means a Bengay bedtime!

This Community Garden has been a great addition to the local work of the church; thanks, Marilyn and all the others who make it happen.

Winter 2013 in Harlingen

  This is our lot at Palm Gardens, we parked here for three months and had a fine time.  Rent was very reasonable, good neighbors (from Holland!) and lots of activities - cards, pool, hot tub, stained glass class and a good wood shop.  All this and exactly one mile from our door to Aaron&Tarin's.









 The woodshop allowed me to finally tackle the shelving solution in our pantry.  It was a lot of work but I enjoyed it.
















These 8 drawers (9"x24") are on heavy-duty, full extension slides and are solid wood.  We can finally really use our pantry and fully enjoy preparing the many meals we cook at home.  I didn't picture it, but I also built book shelves and DVD/CD shelves in the open area behind the flat-screen TV.  It was also nice to meet, and work with, other RV'ers who were doing simimilar remodel projects in their rigs. 

A house is a house- there is always some repair or improvement that needs doing.








Added this pic to show off (overhead) the powered vent we had added to the roof of the living room/kitchen.  That was the other much-needed improvement to our trailer.  I didn't tackle this one- I let the pro's do it.

Sunny Glen Sojourn - Jan 2013

 Our  first of two weeks of the Sojourn here in San Benito was made a lot more fun because a group from the AFC - Aggies For Christ - were also here and we worked as one team.  They are a super bunch of young people.










As you can see, they are considerably more supple than us Sojourners, and go 'above and beyond' to get the job done!  I thought I was the only one to really care that the top of the appliances and cabinets were clean, this young lady obviously had some good home training.






When the Sojourner team was thinned by bad weather and illness John and Karen joined us and helped a bunch.  The first week of this Sojourn had the worst weather the Valley was going to experience all winter!







Here we are at one of our devotionals with the Sunny Glen staff.  Ray Crowder (front left) is the new Director and will be a real asset to the home. 

Maybe the Lord knew (I sure didn't) when we signed up for this as Co-Leader that our familiarity with the area and staff would be so useful - but when our Team Leader had health issues and couldn't make it, I got a "battlefield promotion".  Still, the work was able to go right on, and was successful. 

Simple family fun

 Aaron was Santa and passed out the gifts; the pile is greatly dimenished by this time.











A recent addition from Becky is the Holiday Challenge that always involves several games.  Here you must suck M&Ms onto a straw and transfer them from bowl to bowl. Harder than it looks and takes an intent scorekeeper to referee the results.








The Games moved outdoors and looks like Gram Ava is excited about someone's throw.













 Poppa and Viv are enjoying the games and a pleasant night out (in the backyard!).  Wish I could remember who won The Games, but winning is the least important part of this Family Fun.

Christmas 2012 in Harlingen

 Couldn't drive thru Portland without seeing Roger, Beth, Colten and Laura!  Here Ava and Laura are sharing one of Roger's funny pictures.











Tarin had the house decked out for Christmas.  This was just before the family tore into presents and it never looked the same again!











The girls know how to make our traditional PullaPart bread; and no Christmas is complete without it.












Must be the Valley if you can go swimming on Christmas break.  Here Becky and Vivian brave the chill, all the girls got wet - the parents watched safely from the beach.

Florida Fun - a special pleasure

 We took a tour of NASA space center with our dear friends Mick and Gayle.


These two were the prettiest 'birds' - and birders- we saw on a nature walk as we drove to Cape Canaveral. It was like the years dropped away as we talked and laughed together.









Here
is
Mick
doing
his
part
to
keep
our
Space
Program
up.










It was so good to see these two together -















Good Friends make life better.

Florida Fun - two festivals

 We celebrated Thanksgiving all day long - and a highlight was Reed acting out Cassidy's Indians and Pilgrims first Feast.  She wrote it, built the props, narrated the story, sketched out the screenplay, and then had to take whatever the lead actor would give her - which was a smash hit for both of them!







This was the Thanksgiving group at its peak -- some had to leave about dark, some stayed until the last whistle sounded on the last football game, I think.  Of course no one left able to hold one more bite of food!








While Reed was away on a Webelos Scout campout, Ava and I took Cassidy to a Celtic festival in nearby Dunedin (pronounced, I learned, as "dun-eee-din") - about an hour's drive to the North.  It was better than expected with great bagpipe bands. This is their High School marching band which features bagpipes, drums and Irish dance, something Cassidy is learning.



Even the city has its own Pipe Band that competes in Scotland regularly - and wins awards.  Haven't heard such good playing since Tatoo in Scotland!