Tuesday, March 30, 2010

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PAUL

Saturday, March 27 – HAPPY BIRTHDAY….PAUL. It was a beautiful day. We took a ride to the Alabama-Coushatta Indian Tribe reservation. The Reservation is located 17 miles east of Livingston. The Alabama-Coushatta Indians are a proud people who have occupied the area since the late 1700's, before Texas became a state.  Its location is on a 4,600+ acres of virgin timberland called home by some 500 members of the tribe. They are members of the Upper Creek Confederacy of Indians and are of the Muskogean Nation and their languages similar to the Muskogean dialect. The tribe migrated from southeastern United States (Alabama and Mississippi.

 

sign

In the early 1800’s, Sam Houston recommends that the state purchase 1,280 acres for the Alabamas and set aside 640 acres for the Coushattas. The land for the Coushattas is never plotted nor surveyed; and so, either through marriage or special permission, they come to live on the allotted land with the Alabamas - uniting the two to become the Alabama-Coushatta. Many other Coushattas move to an area near Kinder, Louisiana, where a majority of whom still reside today.

The Alabama-Coushatta have  lived for 74 years without any assistance. With their land being unsuitable for raising crops or grazing cattle, they are forced to roam the Big Thicket area in search of food. When hunting becomes prohibited during certain seasons, malnutrition and disease strike hard. At one time the Tribal population was reduced to less than 200.

The picture below is the community building. Activities such as meetings, dinners, special events are held here. The public may also rent the facilities.

rec-bldg

The Reservation also has a campground, Lake Tombigbee, which open to the public. The campgrounds have complete camping facilities available - primitive sites to RV stations with full hook-ups, new restrooms equipped with bathhouses, covered pavilion, picnic tables, fire rings, swimming areas, hiking and nature trails which are centered around the 26 acre Lake Tombigbee.

The reservation is located 17 miles east of Livingston and 15 miles west of Woodville on U.S. 190.

campground-sign

water-2

water 

After our ride, Marsha made my favorite dinner, meatloaf. She got me a delicious carrot cake. I opened my gifts which included a battery voltage monitor that will tell me how much charge my house batteries are holding and a remote monitor for our electrical management system. EMS tells our electrical usage and will automatically shut down if an electrical problem happens. It was a great birthday. We even went out to the Mexican Restaurant for a drink. The girls tell me that they have something in store for me when they come Easter Sunday.

Sunday, March 28 – The weather has been beautiful!!!

Last night Jackson High School, the school Marsha and I taught at and the high school the girls graduated from, won the Boy’s State Basketball tournament. It is the first time any team from Jackson has won a state tournament. Congratulations Jackson!

We went to Ice Cream Social with Ed & Linda Levin. We met this couple in Quartszite, AZ this winter. They will be here for about two weeks and are parked right next door to us! After talking to Ed this evening, I realized they were parked a couple spaces up from us this fall here at Rainbow's End. We didn't know each other, at that time. What a small world we live in sometimes!

Monday, March 29- I hate to keep repeating myself but……another gorgeous day! Paid our rent here at Rainbow's End. Comes out to $14/day which includes utilities! Not bad.

We played a new domino game tonight...Spinner. Lots of fun!.....Old People and their domino....jeesh!

That is all for now. Hope you all have a Blessed Easter.

Thursday, March 25, 2010

WE ARE STILL HERE!

Monday, March 22 – Spring has returned to East Texas. It was a little cold Sunday but we are back to bright sunshine and warmer temperatures.

flowers-3

Marsha spent the day at the hair salon. I mean the ENTIRE day. Boy does she look “HOT”!!!

Tuesday, March 23 – Went to Houston for my first post-surgery check-up. I was hoping to get an early release from wearing this back brace. Instead the doctor said he wants me to wear it for 8 total weeks instead of 6. This is due to the amount of muscle that had to be moved, and the location of the fusion.....darn! Other than that, the doctor was pleased with my progress. He had ordered an electrical bone stimulator to encourage growth but my insurance company is refusing to pay for this device....hmmm? The x-rays looked very good and shows better than a 90% correction of the spinal offset.

Main Street, the location of Texas Orthopedic Hospital, is a beautiful road. As we turn onto the street, there is a mall with water-fall towers. The yard is perfectly manicured.

water-falls-1

water-falls

On the way home, we have to drive down a street that is shared by the Metro. The tracks run along the side of the road.  According to Carrie, who used it to go to the Rodeo….three times, says it is really a fast and economical way to get around the city. This is the first time we saw it, but only for a moment. We never heard it coming, and then it was gone.

metro

metro-1

So, we are looking at May until I am permitted to drive. My next doctor appointment is June 10. We are considering a trip to Red Bay, Alabama between these two dates to have some service work done on the motor home. We have to look at travel time and distance.

While in the Houston area, we did some shopping (I napped in the car....ha ha!). Marsha stopped at Target, Kohl's, Bed Bath & Beyond, and Pet Smarts. None of these stores can be found in Livingston.

Wednesday, March 24 - Back to work cleaning up winter debris at the activity center. We've already cleaned up over 30 leaf bags of trash, just in this area. I think we cleaned up over 10 additional bags around the laundry room. JEESH....this place needs a garden club!

The birds are driving Bella CRAZY!!! We put up two bird feeders. We have to fill them just about every other day. The squirrels are climbing up the pole and dumping the bird feeders. So, Marsha has to spray the post with Pam and they slide right down. We have a window bird feeders also. Birds fly in, and Bella flies up to the window. It is so funny to watch her tail go back and forth at 50 mph. She even tries to catch the birds but jumping at the screen. What a hoot!

bird-2

bella_bird

Thursday, March 25 – Marsha has a friend here, Louise, who makes tons of quilts for her family. She is making what she so fondly calls her Memory Quilt. She explains that it contains squares from all the quilts she has ever made. Louise asked Marsha to help her lay out the squares. They went over to the Activity Center about 9:30 a.m. and Marsha got back about 11:45. How can it take that long to put some squares….whatever those are….on a sheet? I don’t get it. All that matters, is Marsha had a good time and said she learned some more quilting tips from Louise. They are going back sometime next week to look at it again. Glad they know what they are doing because I sure don’t.

The Memory Quilt.

quilt

This is Louise with her quilt.

Louise

Took the motor home out for some exercise today. We drove about ¾ of an hour to get the engine exercised, fluids circulated, slides moved, generator exercised, etc. Everything seemed to run smoothly.

Marsha gave the inside a good cleaning. It's amazing the amount of dust that blows in and settles on things. She dusted and ran the sweeper real good. Of course, she ran the sweeper just two days ago.

The rest of the day was spent doing nothing…..so we had planned. Marsha went in and put on shorts. As she was sitting in the sun, she looked down and saw what looked like…sort of….poison ivy on her leg. On her right arm, it looked like she had gotten bitten by fire ants. Well, off to the Urgent Doc office. Two hours later she returned saying, “The doctor isn’t really sure what I have. Since I don’t itch and nothing burns, she can’t believe it is fire ant bits. The leg stuff doesn’t resemble poison ivy either. So, we are just going to treat you with anything that would be poison. They gave me an injection, just in case. I went to Walmart to pick up a prescription for suave and a Presidion pack.”  So much for the rest of the day.

Thanks for stopping by. See you next time.

Saturday, March 20, 2010

SPRING IS THE AIR

Monday, March 15 – The weather here has been beautiful! It is great to sit outside all day and into the early evening.

Marsha is having the biggest time seeing everything blooming in the middle of March. She takes the camera everywhere she goes and snaps the trees and flowers in bloom.

red


yellow

trees-in-bloom

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white

She even takes the camera to Walmart!

walmart-flowers

Thursday, March 18 –
Took a ride today and happened upon a Chain Gang working along the road. Maybe that's one of the reasons Texas has such nice roads....cheap labor! Marsha made me take the picture way before we got there. She was afraid they might get us….LOL

chain-gang

Marsha has been cleaning up the leaves around the Club House about everyday. She even made announcement at the Social Hour last night trying to convince people to come and help her. She got lots of laughs. One of her friends, Louise, did come and help her for two hours. That was so nice of her. 

                        Marsha                       Louise
marsha_louise

                                    Before
louise

                                After
after

Of course I am left holding the bag…..so to speak.
paul-and-me

We finally got to play Mexican Train. Peggy, a good friend, Dottie, Fran, Marsha and I had a good time talking and playing. We are going take over organizing Mexican Train on Thursdays at 6:30. There are few other people who want to join us next Thursday.

Friday, March 19 – Went up to Palestine, TX to watch high school softball. Our daughter, Kelly, is the head coach. It was fun to see high school softball again. She has some really nice girls. They played hard. They lost 3-1, but it was a fun game. We are very proud of her.

kel


kel-2


kel-3


team


After the game, we took Kelly out to lunch. We enjoyed catching up and talked about what she wants to do in the future. She's considering moving to a different school district next year, and we talked about different options. She has some decisions to make!

Got back home (Livingston) and settled down to watch March Madness basketball.

Another week, more beautiful weather! Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see you again soon.

Monday, March 15, 2010

MARSHA HAS TO BE DOING SOMETHING ALL THE TIME!

Thursday, March 11 – Marsha is getting antsy looking at all the leaves and weeds. She went over to the office and ask the Campground Manager if she could do some weeding. The Manager had to check on liability but told her later it would be OK. Matters of fact, she told her anything wanted to do around the campground would be appreciated. Marsha came back with a big rake and tons of big plastic bags. Away she went to the laundry room to weed the front. It was a mess. I wish I would have taken a picture of the bed before she started to weed. Here are few pictures of her weeding.

The weeds you see around the fern were everywhere in the flower bed.

weeds

 

weeds-2


One part of the bed looking soooo good!

finished-bed

Saturday, March 13 – Kelly came down to visit today! It was good to see her. We last saw her over the Christmas holidays. We took several walks around the park to show her the different area and to get some daily exercise. We then took a ride around Livingston to see what little is here. Next it was dinner time, and we grilled some sausage and Marsha prepared some fried potatoes and glazed onions. Very good.

After more talking and visiting, we watched a movie in our new DVD player and it was time to hit the sack.

Sunday, March 14 – Carrie arrived pretty early this morning. Surprise! We had a wonderful day just sitting around and talking with one another. The girls wanted to teach Marsha something new on the computer. They had more fun laughing than teaching.

computer-1

computer-2

computer-3

We grilled some chicken and Marsha made her potatoes the girls like. Lee stopped over to meet the girls. They really enjoyed his visit. Kelly hit the road around 2:00 and Carrie around 3:00 so they could get their home chores done before work on Monday morning. Actually Carrie will be the only one going into work. Kelly is on Spring break.

family

We sure have two wonderful girls. They are so delightful to be around. We sure enjoy visiting with them and miss them when we're gone. Marsha made plans to go to the Rodeo with them next weekend, and we made plans to get together for Easter. Sounds like some more fun coming up!

Kelly                          Carrie
girls

Monday, March 15 – Marsha is working out each day at a place called the Sweat Shop. She takes two classes, one for toning and one step aerobics. She hopes to get her youthful figure back. Of course, I think she looks just fine as is but you know woman! Before she got back to the motor home, she stopped at the office and came home with another rake and 15 bags. I said, “Oh no, now what?” She was in the leaf raking mood. She raked and I held the bag. We did all the laundry area and all around the motor home. When we were finished we had 4 huge black bags filled with leaves and 6 clear bags. Dwayne came to pick the bags up and told Marsha to slow down. He had to make three trips on the golf cart to get rid of all the bags. It sure does look nice!

leaves

leaves-2

She also took this picture of me. Can you guess if I am reading or sleeping? I will never tell.

sleeping-or-reading

Thanks again for stopping by. Hope to see you again soon.

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

HOUSTON RODEO

Wednesday, March 10 – In the last post, we mentioned that the Houston Rodeo is going on right now. It is really called the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo.

image

They say everything is bigger in Texas and this is just another example. First of all, it is held in Reliant Stadium, home for the NFL Houston Texans, which can be configured to utilize a 125,000 square foot space for general sessions, catered functions, exhibits, concerts, and much more. The Houston Rodeo runs from March 2-23. Each day has a special focus. Examples are SALUTE TO OUR TROOPS, GO TEJANO DAY, VALUE DAY WEDNESDAY, SPRING BREAK STAMPEDE, etc.

There is a concert everyday with the biggest names in music. Here is just an example of the lineup of entertainers……Alan Jackson, Dierks Bentley, Kenny Chesney, Mary J. Blige, Jason Aldean, Jonas Brothers, Tim McGraw, Darius Rucker, Rascal Flatts, Brad Paisley, Toby Keith, Blake Shelton, Black Eyed Peas, on and on. Wednesdays are Value Days with all tickets only $10.00.  Regular tickets range from $16-$300.00. The cost of admission to Reliant Stadium, Reliant Arena, Reliant Center and the carnival is included in the Rodeo ticket cost.

Carrie went to the Rodeo this past Saturday and heard Jason Aldean. She said it was FABULOUS! They have the Rodeo and then set up for the concert. Marsha and Carrie hope to go to the Rodeo on Saturday, March 20. It is the Super Series Championship. Brooks and Dunn are in concert.

image

The country music duo of Kix Brooks and Ronnie Dunn announced that after 20 years of making music together, they were going their separate ways, following a 2010 tour appropriately titled "The Last Rodeo Tour." The reason they may not get to go is that Carrie’s new furnace may be ready for the new catalysts. Since she is the Chemical Engineer in charge of the project, she has to be there for the installation. She is hoping the timing will be right so she and Marsha can go to the Rodeo and concert. Marsha is so fired up about this. She loves Brooks and Dunn. And to see their last concert together would be so sweet for the two of them.

Each night the Nightly News on Channel 2, Houston channel, has an update live from the Rodeo. Yesterday the youth brought their steers to the show. The reporters were talking about how much last year’s auction brought for each of the Champions/Runner ups, etc. in all the categories. Now listen to this….The Grand Champion Junior Market Steer sold for $300,000.00. YES, you read right. Marsha and I looked at each other and couldn’t believe it.  Marsha said….”That can’t be…..$300,000 for a steer?!?” So of course, she had to go on line and see if we heard correctly. We did. She found all the winners from last year. Click here to see all the results, but let me just list a few. 

Reserve Grand Champion Junior Market Steer…$100,000
Grand Champion Market Turkey…..$95,000
Grand Champion Market Goat….$120,000
Grand Champion Market Barrow (pig)….$140,000

This is just amazing. Check out the link, you will find a ton of other winners.

She then had to go a step further and see what a the Grand Champion sold for at the Stark County Fair (Canton, OH…our old stomping ground) last year. It sold for $6.50/pound.. .weight: 1,405 pounds, so that is about $9,132.50. Compare that to $300,000. She then went to the Ohio State Fair. She thought that might be more apples to apples comparison. She found that the Grand Champion Steer sold for $65,000….better. The Grand Hog sold for $31,000 compared to $140,000.

The judging of the livestock for this year is on Friday. We can’t wait to report what this year’s prices are. Again, Texas does it BIGGER.

Paul is doing great. Still some pain and stomach pains but getting better each day. The weather is absolutely beautiful. Marsha will share some photos of the flowers in the next blog.

Thanks for stopping. See you again soon.

Sunday, March 7, 2010

RECOUPING FROM BACK SURGERY

Thursday, March 4 – Home from the hospital today. Marsha picked me up about 10:00 for our trip back to Livingston. It's good to be home. I feel pretty good. I enjoyed sitting outside in the beautiful sunny afternoon. Hopefully that will be the case for most days. Texas is warming up....It's Spring in Texas!

 
Friday, March 5 - Boy! Sleeping in this brace is going to take some getting use to! I feel like one of those circus clowns in the Bull Riding Contest wearing a barrel.


Paul_brace_front

 

Paul_brace_back


Just about impossible to lie in one position for more than a few minutes. Constant changing of position.....betcha' Marsha is lovin' all the moving around all night! I end up taking a bunch of short naps all night and then all day. Sitting in a chair reading is not bad at all

Paul_reading

and even walking, although tiring at this point in the game, doesn’t give me any pain.

paul_walking

Hopefully sleeping will come after a few days!

Eric and Karla, a couple we met in the desert of Quartzsite this winter, arrived at the park today. Eric was one of my morning walking companions. They've been in southern Texas at Port Aransas. They weren't too pleased with this year's weather down there......a constant wind. We've heard this about south Texas. We considered going there for a winter, but if it's always windy, we may have to re-consider the idea.

Eric & Karla are on their way to Eunice, LA to experience the Cajun lifestyle and stopped to visit for a couple of days. They are originally from Michigan. We plan on traveling around Louisiana on our way East, so we’ll have to follow their travels for some ideas.

Saturday, March 6 - It is Texas rodeo time in Houston. This is a big event. It runs all through March.  They even have a group of trail riders that rode in from other parts of Texas on horses and wagons.  Every night on the news they have a Rodeo report. It is held at Reliant Stadium. They have all the typical rodeo events like bull riding, and bronco riding and then of course concerts by many popular country singers. We had plans on attending some events but may have to wait until next year due to my back.

Marsha, Eric, Karla, and Lee went out to eat at Florida's Kitchen. It is located on 796 FM 350 S, in Livingston. I wasn't feeling well and stayed home. The group had a good meal and a good time talking. Marsha did bring me home a carry out and it was great.

signs

It doesn’t look like much from the outside, but boy is the food good inside.

outside

Inside Florida’s. It is huge.

inside-2

inside

Part of the kitchen.

kitchen


From left front around the table are…Lee (IYU), Me, Karla, Eric

us

Some one was hungry…LOL

someone-hunger

Sunday, March 7 – Pretty quiet day. We did some BBQ chicken on the grill. Excellent! Attended the Ice Cream Social. We sat with Eric and Karla. Eric and Karla are leaving tomorrow. We really enjoy taking with them. Well, another week bits the dust.

Thanks for stopping by. See y’all soon.