A New Kitchen for Sharon!

Hi, Ya'll,

This past week has been sort of a blur for us both. For Sharon, it was a blur because of all of the work that was going on at her house. For Ellen, it was a blur because the new computer program for the nurses was not ready to use for the new students. Sharon wanted to be at school for Ellen, but couldn't be every day. Since she helps screen the children, she wanted to learn as much as she could about the new program.

On Tuesday, the company that made her counter tops for the kitchen called to set up an appointment for Friday to install them. In order to be ready, Sharon had to first set up things with the plumber. This first picture shows one side of the kitchen after the work was done.

This shot shows the old 250 pound cast iron sink that had to be removed before the counter people could do their magic. (We know, the sink was ugly, but Sharon loved that sink. It had the disposal right in the middle. ) But it was time to get rid of the avocado green!

The plumber arrived to disconnect on Thursday. The two man crew that the plumbing company sent could not get the sink out. They called another crew to come help. Would you believe that it took four men to get that sink out? Two men had to push up from the bottom while two others grasped it on top. It was a sight to see. Sharon was just praying that they didn't drop it on her new kitchen floor. Here's the hole that was left after it was finally removed.

It is going to take some getting used to--this new sink. Here it is before the plumbers came back to hook it up. The sink is an under mount, and was installed at the factory. When the men came to install the counter, the sink was already in place. Sharon found that to be fascinating. The picture below shows the sink before it was hooked up by the plumbers.

We are going to love the new counter. It is really pretty. It is called LivingStone. The color is called Sedona. Sharon chose the beveled edge, as you can see.

It has been a wild week. We discovered that Ellen's refrigerator was not cooling as it should. Nor was it keeping things frozen solid. Sharon took her refrigerator thermometer up to Ellen's. Sure enough, something had to be done. We went to our favorite place--Daw's. Ellen picked out a new refrigerator. It will be delivered on Monday--Labor Day. She is going to go ahead and have the old one fixed. Sharon thinks that it is just the refrigerant that needs to be fixed. We will see. The old one will take the place of an even older one already in the garage. We are going to play musical refrigerators! We are wondering just what will need replacing next.

The good news is that both our new roofs have performed magnificently. It has rained numerous times and NO LEAKS!

Until next time.. . . . . . .

First Day of School 2008-2009 !

Hi Ya'll!

Monday brought many familiar faces as well as some new ones. Ada, our computer clerk, now has both of her grandchildren here at Polk! James is in second grade this year, and Addie is a new Polk Panther. She is in kindergarten!

Here's Ada with her two favorite people in the whole world!!
Everyone was in a happy mood for a Monday morning. The first day with children is always exciting! Here we have our AP, Micaela, our Principal, Ina, Ada and the principal's secretary, Susan. What a great group of women!!

Here's Ellen in her office with one of our cuties! She just came in to say good morning before heading to her class.

School is in full swing now, so we are off and running! Sharon has been going to school in the mornings and then she goes home after lunch. Guess what she is back to doing? Yep, naps are back on the schedule!! She is a happy camper. Naps are the best medicine in the world for the older crowd! It is nice to be half way through this first week. Everyone is looking forward to the three day weekend!

Until next time. . . . .

A Visit With An Old Friend !

Hello, Everybody!


Don't you love weekends? This week has really just flown by. We had orientation at school Friday afternoon. The school was jammed with new students, old students, their parents, grannies, aunts, uncles. (Not to mention--all of their brothers, sisters, etc.) It was great fun to see them all.


The week was filled with many things to do to get ready for this year's Polk Panthers. We are sorry that we didn't take our camera with us to enable us to show you. Sharon was still able to sneak in a couple of naps to help keep her going.


Friday afternoon brought us the chance to visit with a former Polk Panther, our friend Jose Francisco! What a wonderful young man he is. We first met him when he came to Polk during his third grade year. He was eight years old and such a wonderful young man to have on campus. He is now thirteen, and according to his mom, a typical teenager!

From the pictures below, you can see he is still a hugger!

This is his mom, Angelica. She is definitely the angel in his life!

We enjoyed catching up on all his activities. This summer, the Make A Wish Foundation sent Jose Francisco and his mom and dad to St. Louis. He took part in the behind the scenes taping of an episode of Animal Planet! Jeff Corwin and his entire staff treated him with great respect, but also played a few tricks on him with some of the animals! He said he had an awesome time! When he found out that NursiePooh was from St. Louis, they had a few more places to discuss.

Next weekend, if you watch the Jerry Lewis Telethon, think about Jose Francisco and all the other young people who are afflicted with Muscular Dystrophy. We have been blessed to know this young man. Besides, who else would let the two of us decorate his wheelchair for Christmas and other holidays???

Good luck in eighth grade, Jose Francisco!

Grillin' In The Rain!

Hi, Ya'll!

Happy Weekend! We planned to grill some chicken breasts Saturday afternoon, so we could have them for dinner and then have several to put in the freezer for future meals. We began hearing thunder off in the distance and could see the dark clouds slowly rolling our way. Rather than wait for the downpour to come, we decided to get to the grill a bit earlier in the afternoon. At least the meat was just about done before it began sprinkling. Here's Ellen getting the veggies on the grill.

Thank goodness for big umbrellas when food is involved!!

It was a yummy dinner and nothing got water logged ...... not even Ellen!

(As a postscript, Sharon was doing her favorite thing---napping!!!!) She woke up to take a picture of Ellen grillin' in the rain.

Until next time. . . . . .

Happy Birthday, Paul!

Hi, Ya'll!




Last night, we took the birthday boy out to the other side of town to celebrate his 69th birthday. He wanted to go to the Outback Steakhouse, and so off we went with Ellen at the wheel. We were cruising down the freeway in the left lane when all of a sudden Sharon saw a car up ahead spinning out. It was a scary thing. Apparently, another car clipped the one we saw spinning. Luckily, no one was hurt, and we continued on our way. As soon as we got to the restaurant, we were greeted by a really nice waitress who brought our drinks quickly.

Of course, Paul got his three olive vodka martini, and the girls got their glasses of
Chardonnay.

The food was great. As usual, we shared one entree. Paul needed a carry-out box for his left-overs. Here is the birthday boy with his birthday dessert. He also ordered a piece of chocolate cake with raspberry filling to take home!

After dinner, we headed back to our side of town and Paul opened his presents. It was a fun evening. Happy Birthday, Paul!

We haven't posted lately because Sharon had to take her computer to the computer doctor. Fortunately, the doctor was able to save her documents, pictures, etc. Tomorrow, she is going to pick up the computer and take it home. The doctor said that there was an operating system error. He was able to wipe the slate clean, reinstall the operating system, and maybe the wireless router will now work. Just maybe she will be able to use the laptop in the kitchen and the bedroom.

Ellen has returned to work, so she doesn't have as much time to get on the computer as she has had this summer. The air-conditioner at school is laughable. It is the old swamp cooler, otherwise known as an evaporative cooler. We are all hoping that the humidity goes away soon because the swamp cooler should not be called air-conditioning.

Until next time ........

On The Way Home!

Hi, Ya'll!!

We hope this finds you well and happy! We wanted to show you just a few pictures more from our vacation. These were taken on our way home. Just off Interstate 10, is the City of Rocks! It is a fascinating place, and we usually don't get off to take pictures, but this time we did. This first picture reminded us of someone we know and love. (Nichole, don't you think that this could have been a picture of a hippo?) We know, you do have to use your imagination a little, but we thought that it looked just like a hippo with its mouth wide open.
This was just a picture of the rocks that were rising from the earth.

This next picture shows the first thing you see as you come back into the State of Texas. We just like the Texas Star at mile marker 0.

Here we have the welcome sign that greets all as they enter our home state. It was great to be back on Texas soil!

When we checked the trip odometer, we had gone 1600 miles on this vacation! We did a complete circle on this trip! First we went north to Albuquerque, west to Flagstaff, south to Phoenix and Tucson and finally east to El Paso! Many of you probably think we go in circles all of the time, but this time we REALLY did!!

We had a wonderful time and enjoyed exploring areas we had not been to before. Ellen returns to school next week, so summer vacation will be officially over. :o( In just a few minutes, we will be leaving the house to go to the movies. We are going to see, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, Part 2! We saw Part 1 and enjoyed it.

Until next time. . . . . .

A Breakfast Befitting A Queen!

Hi, Ya'll!

First, we wanted to show you a picture of part of our breakfast this morning. Ellen went downstairs, as she usually does, to get our breakfast. She opened up one of the containers that said pancakes. Wow! It was pancakes, okay--pancakes which had been rolled up with fresh blueberries inside. She only got one which we split. She also came up with eggs, biscuits, and gravy! We have already planned our upcoming diet start date. We JUST have to do that!

Today was a sort of laid back day. We just explored the area around us. We had dinner mid-afternoon at The Olive Garden. Yum, yum. Sometimes, old favorites are in order! We were not feeling too adventurous, and the restaurant is right down the street from the hotel. It was delicious.

We are now back at the hotel and getting all of our things in order so it should be easy to pack the car tomorrow morning. Tucson is about 300 miles from El Paso, so the drive should not be too long. The news this evening talked about rain coming into the area during the night. Pray we have a safe and dry trip home. We have had a wonderful, relaxing vacation filled with many different activities. We have loved every minute of it. We still love each other, and we are still best friends.

Until next time. . . . . . . .

One Last Stop Before We Go Home!

Hi, Ya'll!

We got all packed up in Phoenix. The overnight low was 95 degrees, so by 9:00 AM, it was already over 100 degrees! As you can see from the following two pictures, it took several trips to get the car packed! By the time it was loaded, we were hot and sweaty. Fortunately, we did not take baths until after we got the majority of our things in the car! Ellen works such magic when it comes to packing.
The car trunk was beginning to balk when it came time to close. Before we got on the road to Tucson, we went to the Arizona Mills Outlet Mall. The JCPenney store there has the largest departments for nurses' scrubs that we have ever seen. Ellen purchased her back-to-school clothes. The line to purchase these items was longer than you could imagine. We finally made it to the front, and over two hundred dollars later, we were ready to get on the road.

We stopped at The Outlets in Casa Grande on our way to Tucson. We looked in a few of the stores, but since we did so much shopping yesterday, we didn't find too many things that we wanted or needed. Besides, it was really hot outside , so we did not spend too much time there. Sharon just wilts, blood pressure plummets, Ellen gets all concerned, and starts issuing orders like she is the QUEEN! (And she is.!)

We made our way into Tucson. Anyone familiar with this city knows that the freeway goes around the city rather than through it. So when you exit, you must drive through many streets to get to where you want to be. As one is winding around various neighborhoods, you begin wondering just where you are going to wind up! When we finally made our way to The Residence Inn we were pleasantly surprised! It is probably the biggest and prettiest one we have ever seen. The lobby is more on the lines of a large hotel. We have taken pictures of our room.

Everything in the room is dark wood. The table top is granite.

Yes, this really is a large LCD television! (It could be plasma for all we know.)
Another view of the kitchen. It is quite obvious that this hotel caters to the business community. There is just a different "feel" to this hotel. It is one that we are enjoying very much!!

We will be here for the next two nights. Then, we will finally make our way back to El Paso. We plan to just relax a bit tomorrow and investigate our surroundings. We think that we have shopped enough, but we will see.

Until next time. . . . .

A Hard Day's Work!!!

Hi, Ya'll!

What a day it was! We made our way up to the Outlet Mall at Anthem! We got a wheelchair for Sharon, and off we went! We covered a section of the Mall, and then stopped for lunch. Ellen got us a sandwich from Subway. We drank lots of
. . . . . . . water! (Ellen goes into her nursing mode when the temperature goes above 100 degrees. Today the temperature rose to 116 degrees!!!! )WOW! That is hot even for us El Pasoans!

We found everyone to be very helpful and cordial to us--everyone except the shoppers! People inside the stores were wonderful, but the shoppers would not help Ellen open the door. In fact, several men just walked on by knowing that Ellen could have used some help to hold the door open. Actually, more women helped than men. How sad, huh? As an interesting sideline, Sharon noted that the mothers of the world need to teach their children more manners such as chewing with their mouths closed.

We found some wonderful buys at almost all of the stores we shopped. Our final store was one named, "The Winery." There we met a wonderful lady, who let us purchase a glass of wine to enjoy as we shopped. We found some great wines--some we could afford, and some we could not. (Thanks, Paula and Jason, for the wonderful wine named, Cakebread Cellars!) We could not have afforded that one today. It was the perfect way to end our shopping expedition.

Below you will see some of the fruits of our labor! The trunk was full. Somehow, Ellen has to figure a way to get all of our things in the car. Sharon may have to sit on some of them. The sad thing is we still have another outlet mall to shop. (Boy, oh, boy.!)
Until next time. . . . . . . .