HOME IN THE COLD

It was fall the last time I blogged, now we are in the depths of winter here at 1416 Holly Ln.
That is a picture looking out towards the shed (now our emergency power source). Since it is so cold out, I decided that it would be a good time to catch up on my blog - Wow it's been two and a half months since I was here! Lots of activities and adventures to report.

Thanksgiving was a blast! 23 of our family members gathered and played catch-up on each other's life events. Jeff took lots of pictures, but unfortunately I didn't. So I will just have to tell you about it and let you imagine the good time we had. Of course there was lots of food and games and the grand-kids (and great GKs) got to meet and play with each other. I especially enjoyed meeting Remi, my granddaughter Claire's son. What a cute character he is - and really sharp for his age. Another neat thing was that, on Friday, Dave, Jeanne, Al, and Jeff all came back to have breakfast with us before making the trip back to their homes in Texas.

During the holiday Jim did a project and finished up the roof work on the deck and enclosed it's north end. Unfortunately on Sunday, while finishing up the trim at the peak of the roof, I fell with the ladder and later on the injuries became infected, causing me so lay-up time while I took my antibiotics.

We sold the Casita and traded the van for a Chevy Aveo. We kept the solar power equipment to put on our shed to provide power for the shed and mowing the yard and also be an emergency power source for tornado season. I have an RV plug on the side of the shed for visitors as well.

Cathy and I have been spending a lot of our time juggling doctors appointments and hospital time. We are getting checked out and fixed up now. She has had back problems and has fixed part of it with physical therapy. Then she found out she had a urinary tract infection and, after the medicine fixed that, more of the back pain went away. Now she is waiting for a bone density test and the doctor's evaluation of what to do next. During all of this she also had her colonoscopy - I have yet to get mine done. Her's came out perfect with no problems in that area. Since I have changed cardiologists, I have had all of the usual heart stuff done - EKG, scan, nuclear stress test, and angioplasty. My arteries only were 60% blocked, so the doctor didn't put in a stent, but changed my BP meds and added a statin to the pile of pills that I take. We both still have a few more tests to do - just to keep the doctor happy.

During all of this doctoring we also had our property landscaped (leveled) and made ready for a carport. The landscape crew also made a large gravel parking area out of the front and side of the house. Now we have less lawn to mow and a lot of space for our friends and relatives to park. I think we have a good RV park started, if some of you want to come visit us in our new home!

Over the Christmas holidays we made an extensive trip around Texas. First we visited Jim and his family in Arlington. We spent Christmas at the Ingurgios' with Victor, Kristi, and the GGKids. Next, after an overnight visit to my Lake Texoma friends, we went to visit my adopted family in Kingsville (BFFs). Heading north, we visited Mary and Matt in Wimberley - then Jeanne and David and their family in Terrell. Lastly we stopped overnight at Jeff and Al's in Plano, and finally got back to OK in time for New Years.

Our latest projects have been finishing up the solar on the shed (see first picture), getting a carport installed, and Sunday I built an extension on the deck and step into the carport.

Well, it's still only 10 degrees outside, so I guess I'll go find a good book to read.