And We're Off!

Hello, Everybody! This is the first installment of our wonderful trip to Northern Nevada. We arrived early Wednesday morning, Nov. 7 th. Ellen dropped Sharon off with the luggage, and then took the car to the Sheltered Parking. They then dropped her off back at the airport where Sharon was waiting (and shaking, and shaking). Everyone at US Airways was wonderful. The personnel from the airline and the skycaps took care of every little detail. Because Sharon was in a wheelchair, we were taken to the front of the security line both going and coming home. It was great to bypass those lines!!

Don't let that smile fool you! By now the anti-anxiety med was kicking in. Ellen could have told her that the plane just crashed, and she would be sitting there saying that everything was just fine!

I think Sharon was shaking a little bit when she took this picture!

This is a picture of Regina. She was the flight attendant on our flight from Phoenix to Reno. This is when we flew first class. Every time the glass of chardonnay got a little low, she would show up with another one. She said there was a little siren in the galley that would go off and say, "Getting low on Chardonnay!" She helped Sharon stay calm.

This is Ellen before the plane took off. (She's thinking about plastic surgery on her left eye to keep it open for pictures!) Joe, I don't think you could have helped this eye!

Sharon and her first glass!

Sharon was sitting next to the window. She got brave enough to look out and take a picture of Lake Tahoe as we flew over.

We arrived just a short time later. The flights were sooooo smooth! Nichole had told Ellen to take Ginger tablets or Ginger Chews for motion sickness. Nichole said they work great and of course they don't make you sleepy like dramamine does. Thanks, Nichole! They did work great!

(They even work good on an upset stomach -- instead of using Pepto Bismal, etc!)

Until the next installment. . . . . . . . .

Ready Or Not, Here We Go!

Hello Everyone!

As you can see, the countdown clock is to the final hours! Our suitcases are packed and ready for the car. Ellen will be picking up Sharon in just a short time and then we will head to the airport. Sharon checked us in and printed our boarding passes yesterday afternoon. We are both very excited about seeing Paula and Jason. Paula is going to take the afternoon off so that she will be home when we get there. She has promised us snacks and liquid refreshments! We will take lots of pictures and share them with you after we return home. Wish us well on our latest adventure! Up, up and away we go!!!


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

Trial Run!

Hello, Everybody! Today, after church, Ellen decided she was going to take Sharon on a trip to the airport. Sharon was a RELUCTANT passenger! Ellen had the keys to the car, so Sharon couldn't do anything about it. We stopped for lunch at one of our favorite places. (Sorry, Nichole, no pictures of our food!) We were on a mission. After lunch, we headed down the street to the airport which was only a few blocks away.

Upon arrival at the airport, we went to the US Airways' counter. One of our Polk moms was working there, and we waited to talk to her. She also happens to be a former Polk Panther herself. Sharon only had her for the fun stuff--music. She answered all of Ellen's questions. (Sharon didn't know enough to even ask one thing!) She told us exactly what to do, how to do it, and when to do it. Then she told us to wait a minute; whereupon, she went to another section of her counter, and came back with the news that she had upgraded us to First Class! Wasn't that sweet? She also filled out the necessary paper work for Sharon to have a wheelchair at both airports. You just never know what former students can do for former teachers.

We forgot to mention that at the Christmas Fair yesterday, there were two vendors from Plainview, Texas. Just to show you what a small world it really is--there were over 150 merchants there. We stopped at one of the booths called "Yellow Daisy Crafts". Sharon asked the lady there if she lived in Plainview, and then told her that her sister lived there. She knew Janice, and talked about always seeing her at the "Far East" restaurant. The other vendor was Copeland's Clay. They were very busy and we didn't take the time to ask them if they knew Janice.

Tomorrow is Monday. Our countdown clock continues, and Sharon's heart continues to beat faster, and faster, and FASTER! Here's hoping the medicine works! Pray for us both. Ellen will need all of the help she can get just to get Sharon on the plane. Until next time . . . . . . .......

A Christmas Fair and Puppy Presents

Hello, Everybody! We hope you are having a wonderful weekend. Today (Saturday) we went downtown to the Civic Center for the Junior League Annual Christmas Fair. What fun we had!



There were more booths this year than usual. (At least it seemed like it.) There were the usual things that you would expect such as candle places, jewelry places, food mixes, children's things, clothing, etc. You get the picture, I am sure. Half the fun of going to fairs like this is seeing so many of your friends. By the time we had gone about halfway through the fair, we had so many things that we decided to take them to the car, eat a little lunch, and get a little rest all at the same time. Ellen has the neatest backpack that she packed with cheese, deli turkey, crackers, yogurt, strawberries, water, AND (you guessed it) a glass of Chardonnay. We ate in the car parked on the second lower level of the parking garage. We listened to beautiful music, and it was very relaxing. As you have probably guessed by now, we try to thoroughly enjoy whatever adventure or misadventure we find ourselves in!



After that brief respite, we headed back to the fair. We got our jewelry cleaned, bought several different items for Christmas, and bought Sharon's granddogs a little present. Here is a picture of the little Texas Tech bandanas for them to wear. Aren't they cute? We will try to get a picture of them next week wearing them. Jaxon and Sedona won't know how much fun they are going to have when the Grandmothers come to visit.



Ellen bought them some special treats. By two o'clock in the afternoon, we were exhausted. We headed for home where we promptly took a nap. Sharon's nap was longer than Ellen's. (That is because Sharon is much older. Hee, hee.)

After that, we just enjoyed the rest of the day. Ellen prepared a wonderful dinner, and we watched a little football on television. We hope you enjoyed your Saturday as much as we did. Now we have to get really serious about packing for our trip to Nevada. The countdown clock is driving Sharon bananas. It won't be long now. Until next time. . . . . . . . . .

It's November Already!

Hello, Everybody! Wow, what a week this has been! Happy Friday to you all.


We finished screening those darling little kinders this week. The last class we screened was absolutely the best. We had no idea that we were saving the best for last. It is amazing to us both that there can be so many differences in five year olds. They have had such different life experiences up to this point in their lives. You can already tell just who is going to be on top of the world. We can also tell how successful they will be by just watching their interactions with each other. Ellen is going to look today at just how many little ones we have helped to get glasses.When they come back in for rescreening, it is just wonderful to see the smiles on their faces when they can see what they could not before. We have screened a total of 474 children. There were 32 who failed the vision screening. Out of those, 23 have already gotten glasses.

Halloween came and went without incident around our neighborhoods. We didn't even have very many trick or treaters.

You can tell by the countdown clock that it won't be long before we take off for Nevada. Can you say, "Heart Palpitations?"

Tomorrow is the Junior League Christmas Fair! Guess where we are planning to spend our Saturday, when we really should be getting our things ready for our trip! Have a good night. We are off to bed! Until next time. . . . . .......

Under The El Paso Moon!

Hello, Everybody! It is time to post another blog! After having a very strange week at school, you won't believe everything we have to tell you. This is probably going to be a long blog, so pour your favorite beverage and read on!!

The week began with Sharon going to the dermatologist. It was just a check up visit (at least it was supposed to be). The doctor, however, didn't like what she saw on her hand. It is the same hand that has been giving her problems for years. A growth has been removed, grown back, removed again, and grown back again. This time the doctor biopsied this growth and called Sharon at school on Wednesday to tell her that it contained more squamous cells. She is not certain that she got them all, so we will watch this hand and arm very closely in the future.

Now on to better things--we began the screenings for the little kinders this week. They are so much fun to do. We see all kinds of little learners. Some are very hesitant in new situations and others just go full steam ahead!! The biggest challenge is for them to take off their shoes so they can be weighed and measured. Actually, it is when the time comes for them to put the shoes back on that is the challenge!! It's amazing how many ways they can figure out to get those shoes on their little feet. It keeps us laughing!!

Ellen had a meeting on Tuesday afternoon at Ed Center. About 45 minutes before she was going to leave, one of our fifth graders slipped off the playground equipment and landed on his back. After a thorough assessment, she deemed it safe to move him to the office. He was quite sore the next day, but is doing fine. Then it was off to the meeting.

Wednesday we continued our screenings. At the beginning of school, Ellen made arrangements to have a Flu Shot Clinic at school. This is open to the public and also open to children 6 months and older. Needless to say, there was an excellent turnout. By the time it was all over, Ellen was exhausted. Even though she is not giving the shots, she feels responsible for making sure all goes well without any problems.

Thursday we continued our screenings. Then it seems like tons of kids began coming to the office because they were not feeling well. A few were sent home and the others were convinced they were well enough to stay in school. The trouble began when one of the first graders who was being sent home returned to his class to get his backpack, etc. After about 10 minutes, Ellen realized he had not returned to the office. After calling the class, making a general announcement, looking out the front doors and several people searching..............HE HAD WALKED HOME!!!! It is one of those minutes when your heart stops and all the possibilities of what COULD happen flash in front of your eyes. All turned out well and we knew he had a Guardian Angel walking with him. But by the time school was over, we were both ready for a glass of wine!!

Friday we continued our screenings. By now, we have done 100 kindergartners! This group was quite interesting. We take five students and as one is finished the teacher is supposed to send one in his/her place. Well, somehow those instructions weren't quite clear. At one point we had TWELVE five year olds in my office.......which had FIVE chairs to sit in. Thank goodness Sharon had 36.5 years experience teaching. She was able to corral all those little critters and they behaved quite well.

Sharon went home for a nap, and then Ellen had an exciting time. The door to the office opened, and in came two people with an eight week old white TIGER on a leash. Being ever proper to follow school policy, Ellen politely told them, "Sir, excuse me, but warm-blooded animals are not allowed in the school." He looked at her and said, "That is the nicest way anybody ever told me to get out! (Hee, hee.) As it turned out, they were from the San Antonio Zoo, and had special permission from our superintendent to go to Polk in order to make arrangements for a special assembly with our students. Ellen got to play with the tiger, and took several pictures on her camera phone. The only thing is that we do not know how to transfer them to our computer. On Friday, we will take our camera so you can see! A white tiger is very rare in captivity. We lead such exciting lives, don't you think?

Friday evening when Sharon was leaving my house we immediately knew why the week had been like it was. There was a HUGE full moon shining over El Paso! :o)
We just smiled when we realized that all the parents had their darlings at home for the entire weekend!! Are we bad????

Saturday brought Ellen's visit to the dermatologist. We both go to the same dermatologist. We both like her very much, and she treats us like family. Ellen knows her mom because she used to be a school nurse. Her dad graduated from North Texas, and was there at the same time that Sharon was there. Now, back to Ellen's visit. She has numerous moles and keratoses. Well, her back now looks like the Little Dipper! We counted eight places on her back, two on her face, and one on her arm. What a pair we are, huh?

The sad thing is that it isn't over for Ellen just yet. She has to go for an endoscopy on Monday morning. We absolutely HATE the aging process. It certainly isn't for the weak!

On the brighter side, we have both begun the process of selecting our wardrobes for our trip. Things are beginning to get exciting. Paula called and said that the meds we both sent on ahead arrived safely. We have been shopping in order to take her staff a little something from Texas! They have been so nice to take care of Paula as she has made the transition from fast paced Vegas to a much slower lifestyle of northern Nevada. It won't be long now.

If you made it to the end of this blog, we toast you with a glass of Chardonnay!Until next time. . . . . . . .. . ..

MUSIC, MITZVAH, AND MARRIAGE !!

Hello, Everybody! What a weekend we have had! This was "Symphony Weekend", and our season tickets are for Saturday evening. This month, however, we switched our tickets to Friday for this performance because of an invitation to a Bar Mitzvah on Saturday. (More about that, later.)



The symphony was wonderful! The guest artist, who was a violinist, was a young woman from England. She performed the score from "The Red Violin." We were also treated to the premier performance of a new arrangement of a work by Liszt. There is nothing like music to take your mind and heart to "another place" and make you feel like all is well with the world. We enjoy the symphony concerts very much. They moved the venue from the Civic Center Theater to the refurbished Plaza Theater. It is a magnificent work of art--the entire theater!



The Bar Mitzvah celebration was for a young man who attended Polk. We get the best invitations from former students. We try to attend as many of then as we can. (Indeed, we are just happy that they remember us!) This is a special family, and there was a very special service at the Temple followed by a luncheon there.

Below is a picture of Craig and two of his friends who came back from the Lubbock area to celebrate the special occasion. Craig is the shortest one of the three. Jeffrey and Matthew Anderson are brothers who have the sweetest mom in the world. They all looked very happy. (We are sorry that this first picture is a bit blurry.)

This picture is of the cake. Craig has a special love for baseball. He is a catcher; thus, the cake is a catcher's mitt, along with a baseball, and bats. Isn't it cute?

This next picture is of Margaret (Nichole's sister) and her husband Scott, with Ellen in the middle. The party was at a local bowling facility, the Fiesta Bowling Lanes. Craig's parents had reserved the ENTIRE place for the celebration. They changed the name to Craig's Lanes. It was great fun. Both of us would loved to have bowled, but painful joints plus not wanting to ruin a perfectly good knee replacement kept us from doing so. We decided that socializing was much better for us! :0)
There was something for everyone--food, dancing, bowling, games with free tokens, and pool. It was a young person's dream of an evening.

Our third event of the weekend came on Sunday afternoon and evening. It was the wedding reception for Joey Charter and his new bride. The entire El Paso Negrete clan was there to celebrate. The picture below is of Mary, Mark, and Ellen. Mark is the oldest of the six Negrete kids. Mary is the mother of four of them, and Ellen is the mother of the youngest two.

Next is a view of the bride and groom with her parents.

Sharon, Monica, Joey, and Ellen look like they are having a good time.

This picture has Alex, Teresa, and Daryl showing off their smiles. Teresa is the mother of the groom. The young ladies are the daughters of Margaret and Scott.

Here are the girls with Ellen. Please notice that Ellen's eyes are OPEN--both of them. That is something special.

You have already seen Margaret and Scott from the Bar Mitzvah party.

This one shows Mary, Scott's mom, Sharon, and Joe, Ellen's son.

This is another shot of the girls with their grandmother, Sharon Stein.

Here we have Joey Negrete and Joey Charter.

Here we have the groom's father, Michael and his wife, Coral.

Ellen and Mary have always gotten along, and both should take credit for seeing that all six Negrete kids have become wonderful adults.

We call this next picture the "Six Minus One" picture. Every time the Negretes get together, they take a picture together. This time it was six minus one. Nichole, you were greatly missed, but we all felt your presence. From left, Joe, Mark, Paul, Teresa, and Margaret. Anytime this crew gets together, there is much laughter.

Here we have the happy couple, Monica and Joey.

We saved the cake for the last picture. It was delicious!!!

We hope next weekend won't be so busy. We are POOPED! Until next time. . . .. ......

No Chardonnay and Chick-Fil-A This Weekend!!

Hello, Everybody! We hope you are having a great weekend! We have had a rather relaxing one. That is, if you want to call cleaning your house--RELAXING!

Oh, well, we didn't want to join the throngs at the new mall. Today we heard that not all of the stores are open, so we think we will just wait for a little bit before gracing them with our appearance! (Hee, hee!)

Ellen was NOT chosen for a jury on Friday. That is good.

Those Texas Tech Red Raiders beat the Texas A & M Aggies. That is very good.
Ellen flew her Texas Tech Flag as she does on the game days that we are here. We love football, just in case you can't tell. We are really glad that we both love football. Today, it is the Dallas Cowboys that have our attention. They are playing the New England Patriots. We didn't think that they had a snowball's chance in you know where. Actually, they are giving them a run for their money, but it is still the third quarter as of this writing. Go COWBOYS!!

Have a great week this coming week! Until next time. . . . . . . . ......

Boy, Oh Boy, Oh Boy! Open, Open, Open!

Hello, Everybody! These are very exciting times for us! Guess just what is opening right here in our own back yard? We have been waiting for this outlet mall to open. Oh, my, we can hardly restrain ourselves. (Be still, my heart.) There are 96 shops---96!!!! They are expecting something like thirty thousand people today. We will not be among those. (Our mommas didn't raise any dummies!) Here is a link for an interactive map which tells just which stores there are.

http://extras.elpasotimes.com/content/firestone/outletmall.html

Last week Chardonnay and Chick-Fil-A........This week ............... :o)

We hope that you are having a good week. It is passing by pretty fast for us.

Ellen has Jury Duty tomorrow. We'll let you know what happens with that!

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

Shopping, Shopping, And More Shopping!

Hello, Everybody! Okay, okay, we WENT shopping--not just one day, but both Saturday and Sunday! Yeah, yeah, go ahead. Call us shopaholics! At least we went to church on Sunday morning. Yesterday, we did go to the new JC Penney store on the other side of town. It is far away from where we live, but we went the back way. We went over TransMountain Road. That way, we can pretend that we have really been out of town, and we are returning. Is that crazy or what? We first went to Penney's and then we had lunch at Chick-Fil-A. We sat in a parking lot and ate lunch, complete with a glass of Chardonnay! (Hee, hee.)



After that we went to Hobby Lobby, where we enjoyed seeing what new seasonal things they have and what is on sale. Next, we went to the brand new Super Target! We don't have one of those on our side of town. We enjoyed adding new wines to our collection. This new super store has a beautiful grocery section. We were very much impressed! If there were one on the West Side of town, we would probably never have to go to Walmart ever again!!



Well, then we decided that we had better get back to our side of town. We remembered that our brand new outlet mall is planning to have a grand opening soon, and we thought that we might be able to drive around the area to see what stores are going to be there. So instead of turning off TransMountain to head home, we went straight and turned into the Outlet Mall. Well, there was a line of cars and a Security Officer stopping each one. Some were allowed to go on and others had to U-turn and leave. When it was our turn, Ellen rolled down the window and the conversation went something like this . . . .
Security: Good afternoon, Ladies.
Us: Hello! We thought maybe we could drive around just to see what stores
were going in.
Security: (laughing!) Not today, Ladies.
Us: When are they going to open?
Security: They have said Oct. 11th, but I don't think it is going to happen.
Us: So, we can't go in? Do we have to be one of the cars that makes a
U-turn?
Security: You two are really Shopaholics aren't you?!
Us: Guess so. Oh well, we'll be back. Have a good afternoon!!

And so we made the U-turn and headed home. Maybe we'll try again next weekend!!

Have a great Monday! Until next time. . . . . . .