A Celebration of Two Events!

Hello, Everybody!

We actually can't believe that we haven't posted since Father's Day! We decided that we better get busy, and talk about some of the things that we have been doing.
You know that we spent quite some time on Ellen's patio extension. Just when we think we are finished, we find another block that needs to be leveled. ARGGHH! We took this picture yesterday morning, and we think that we will be done with that! It really is pretty, and we are proud that two ladies of our age have been successful without either of us having a stroke or heart attack.
On Saturday evening, we were invited to the Coronado Country Club for a wedding reception for a former student of Sharon's. Actually, we have been friends with the parents of the groom for years. We anticipated seeing many old friends, and indeed we did. The first surprise of the evening came when we saw this family as we finished the receiving line. They are the Gasser's from Arizona. Their son, Matt, and the groom were in the same third grade class of Sharon's. We actually traveled to Arizona when Matt graduated from high school. Matt is in the service and couldn't come. He was missed. His younger sister, Staci, was here. Sharon also had her in third grade. Staci is in college in Colorado. It was great to see them again.

This next picture shows Priscilla Foster and her two daughters, Lauren and Kellie. They were members of an Odyssey of the Mind team. Lauren is also a former student. Both girls are in college.

The lady in the following picture is Katie, the mother of the groom, in deep conversation with other guests.

Here we have Liz and Mark Daw, who are friends since Sharon had their son Bryan in third grade. They have been special people to us for many years.

Finally, we have the bride and groom, Anne and Sean. Their wedding was actually last week in Shreveport, Louisiana. Because many people from El Paso could not be at the wedding, the McCrory's threw a wonderful party for them here .

We had a wonderful time. Ellen has a story that she must share. When dinner was over, there was a power point presentation of the bride and groom. As Gary put it, "We wanted to embarrass them just a little!" Three of the pictures of Anne, when she was a child, included a familiar face. It was Sr. Genevieve, a Daughter of Charity! As soon as Ellen saw the picture, she leaned up and told Sharon, "I lived with her!" We were at Hotel Dieu Hospital together, here in El Paso. Afterwards, Ellen spoke with Katie and asked if she knew if Anne's family was related to Sr. Genevieve, or how they knew each other. Katie immediately took Ellen over to Anne's parents and said, "You're not going to believe this!" When Ellen explained that she had been in the Daughters and that she lived with Sr. Genevieve, they told me she had been a dear friend of their family for a long time. In fact, their first daughter is named after her. She was an instructor at the school of nursing in New Orleans where Anne's mother attended. Anne's dad was a resident at the hospital during that same time. Sr. Genevieve is now in her 80's and survived Hurricane Katrina. What a wonderful surprise to see that smiling face again!

We saw so many former Polk students and their families. It was quite a trip down memory lane. But even better than the memories, is seeing them become such wonderful young people. It brings to mind why we both love being in the field of education!

Until next time. . . . . .

Our Fathers Would Be Proud!

Hello Everybody!

Both of our fathers were "handymen" when it came to building things and fixing things. We thought this might be a good weekend to tackle a project Ellen wanted to do. We were going to expand her patio, using the 16 x 16 inch paver bricks. Ellen had already purchased fourteen of the bricks. Why fourteen? Because that is how many will fit in the trunk! Any more than that would probably be too heavy for the tires!! Here we are unloading these babies! This is a picture of the trunk of Ellen's car.

Little did we realize that this weekend the weather was going to be hot, hot, hot! The temperature on Saturday got to 104! The picture below is after we had several of them placed. Mind you now, these things are HEAVY!!

We stopped when it just got too hot out there, even though we had shade from the tree. We went to Hollywood Video and rented "The Bucket List" with Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman. It was a good movie! Sharon took a few little naps, but she got the gist of the story. Sharon spent the night on Saturday. On Sunday morning ,after moaning and groaning while attempting to get out of bed, we put on our work clothes and went outside before the sun had a chance to get too high. We are a team, and we could not have done this by ourselves. One of the men at Lowe's couldn't believe that these two old ladies were doing the work. (Anyone who knows us, knows that anything is possible when we do it together.)

Here it is after a little more progress. You have to be sure the ground is level under each brick, or you end up rocking back and forth.

We made two more trips to Lowe's to get additional bricks. When all was finished, we had laid down 42 bricks in all!

There are a few spots that need to be filled in with single pavers and some rock. After Ellen left school today, we went to Home Depot to find them. Lowe's did not have them in the red color. We got those pavers, but they are still in the car tonight. It was 106 degrees here in El Paso today! The heat is just unbearable. We both have refrigerated air conditioning, and boy, are we ever glad! We happily pay the electric bill!

After it is all finished and the pots of flowers are placed just right, we'll post a few more pictures of the finished product.

We thought it was a nice tribute to our dads. We hope they were watching us and were proud of our work.

After seeing the movie on Saturday, we decided it was good to have aches and pains from working too hard and accomplishing our goal. We think we will start our own "bucket list" and see where it takes us. . . . . .

Until next time. . . . . . . . . .

Just A Few Pictures !

Hello, Everybody,

Remember, we told you about Ellen's ottoman finally coming in? Well, we finally got around to taking a picture of it. This first one shows how it looks with the rest of the furniture.

This second picture shows you that it has some storage capability in it. The best part of the ottoman is how comfortable it is! When we put our legs up, it feels heavenly! We definitely are going to make good use of this addition!

This last picture is one of Sharon and one of her former students. His name is Gerardo (Jerry), and he was one of Sharon's third graders six years ago. (At least, Sharon thinks that is how long ago.) He will be a freshman at Franklin High School this coming year. It is the first time she has seen him since he left Polk School. He is a cutie, and his manners were impeccable. He kept saying things like, "Yes, ma'am", "Thank you, ma'am", and he was so sweet to Nursie Pooh and Mrs. Peeps.

The hardest part about the last day of school is saying good-bye to the kids because you don't know if you will ever see them again. Thanks, Jerry, for coming by the school. Good luck to you at Franklin.

Until next time. . . . . . . . .

School Is Almost Over!!

Hello, Everybody!

We decided that we had better get this post published or school would be over, and we would have to change the title.

Wow, these weeks are just flying by. By the end of the day, school will be over for the kids. Summer school begins on the tenth. Ellen barely has the weekend off. This is the end of her fifteenth year with the EPISD. Sharon remembers the day she walked into Polk School just like it was yesterday. WOW! Fifteen years already.

It is hard to believe that a week has gone by since we last published. Life seems to be super-busy during the month of May and this first week of June. There is something we must do every afternoon after school or in the evening. You may have heard how hot it has been in El Paso. Yesterday it was 104 degrees already! The heat just drains Sharon and her blood pressure plummets when she gets hot. Ellen keeps her upright when she can, and makes her go down when she knows she must. What is that saying about aging gracefully?? We've decided that there just isn't much "grace" to aging!!! Oh well, we guess it's better than the alternative.

We have so many little projects to do. Getting our flower gardens all in bloom seems to be at the top of the list. We are also going to extend Ellen's patio a little bit. We will both be getting new roofs, thanks to all the hail and wind damage from several months ago. Oh, the joys of owning a home!

The ottoman (that Ellen has been waiting on) has finally made the trip to Sierra Valle yesterday. We will take a picture to show you how nice it all looks now. We also found a really pretty pedestal on which to put her gorgeous arrangement.

Last evening was the Fifth Grade Completion Ceremony for the kids who are "moving on up." It was a nice affair, but gym bleachers are not exactly comfortable for any of our elderly citizens. Both of us had lots of trouble getting up into and out of those bleachers.

When Sharon got home last evening, there was a big box which FedEx had delivered. Paula and Jason had sent a nice surprise in the mail! You can guess what it was when I tell you that it was heavy and from a small winery close to Paula and Jason's home. Wow, that made our day worthwhile!

Have a great Friday!

Until next time. . . . . . .