Home Grown Veggies!

Hello, Everybody!

Can you say HOT? We have had such hot weather. The days have been over 100 degrees for several days now.

We thought you might like to see our cabbages! We decided it was time to pick them. Since we have never grown anything "to eat", we weren't sure if we should try them. But we did our picking and got them all cleaned up.


Here they are! We decided they looked and smelled good, so we would give them a try. Our first bite was quite tasty, and nothing bad happened to either one of us! We were safe! We tell you, they made the best coleslaw! Besides tasting so good, we were quite proud of ourselves.

We have a friend, Jenny. Now, she is quite the farmer! She grows a huge garden at her home! We are fortunate to be the recipients of several of her vegetables. These are tomatoes, zucchini, squash, green pepper and jalapeno fresh from her garden. Our cabbages enjoyed the company!

We have harvested a red pepper from our little pepper plant, and another one is on the way! Remember our tomato plant disasters from the past? Well, we didn't even try this year. But if we get brave, we may give it another chance next year!

Almost forgot to mention our basil. Now, this we have grown from seeds. We didn't take a picture, but it has become a little bush! It smells and tastes wonderful!!

We hope you continue to enjoy your summer. We leave for Amarillo this coming Friday. We will also be in Tulia over that weekend. Now, that is farm country! They would laugh at our little attempt at growing crops! Oh well, Sharon hasn't lived on a farm in a long time and Ellen grew up in the middle of St. Louis!

Until next time. . . . . . .

Another Summer Project!

Hello Everybody!

Our summer project has been Ellen's master bath. There were two layers of wallpaper that needed to be removed. "Spare time" has been spent scraping off all the paper! The first layer was easy to remove. The second layer has been there since the home was built in the early '80's.

Ellen bought the house in August, 1998. One of the first things we did was to put new wallpaper in the Master bathroom. When Sharon removed one of the medicine cabinets, so that we could get all the paper off, this is what we rediscovered!
We both laughed out loud, because we had forgotten that we did that! Sharon got out her trusty pen and added to the note. You can see there is still a little room left, so if we need to remove the medicine cabinet again, be sure that we will leave another message!

Most of the paper has been removed. There is just a little left to do. We went to Lowe's this morning to find out about texturing the walls. We talked to the "expert" whose name is Joe. We got joint compound and directions on how to apply it. The final step will be to paint the walls.

Please pray for us!!

Until next time. . . . .

Finally- Albuquerque!

Hello, Everybody!

We had rain, glorious rain in El Paso! It all started on our way back from Albuquerque. Ellen drove through blinding rain on Sunday afternoon. That was scary! Thank goodness it didn't last too long.

We thought we would show you where we stayed. It was okay, but we still prefer Residence Inns.

This picture shows the lobby area.

This is a picture of the breakfast area where Ellen would come to get our breakfasts each morning. It is a very nice place, and they had biscuits and cream gravy!!

Below is the little computer room. They do have wireless Internet, so we didn't have to use this as we took our laptop with us.

This next picture shows Ellen looking at a book of restaurants in the city. We didn't need to use that either. We had lunch on Saturday at one of our favorite places, Marcello's. We just can't pass up the Lobster Bisque!

One of the days, we decided to go to Sandia Hotel and Casino. It is a beautiful place if you haven't been there. They have a very large non-smoking area of slots. Ellen won as she usually does. Sharon didn't, but she has a limit of twenty dollars to lose. She didn't lose all of that, but it was wonderful fun for us.

This next picture shows the entry way to the hotel. It really is a lovely place to stay.

This is one of the statues that are in the lobby of the hotel.

Would you believe that this is a fountain? It is really pretty.

Susan and Ada gave this gift to Ellen for Nurses' Week. We decided to take it on the trip with us. As you can see, there is nothing left in the bottle! It was wonderful.

When we were driving through the pouring rain on the way home, the outside temperature began to drop. Even after the rain stopped, the temperature kept going down. Sharon took a picture of the temp after it began going back up. The lowest it got was 63 degrees. That was about 3:00 o'clock in the afternoon! It was lovely!Our next adventure will be to Amarillo in three weeks. More on that, later.

Until next time. . . . . .

Lazy, Crazy Days of Summer!

Hello, Everybody!


We hope that you are having a wonderful summer vacation. It has been trying to rain all week, but nothing has dropped out of those skies on our yards. Ellen took a chance and had her car washed! Silly girl.


Ellen loves this short job she has for summer. It is with the Early College High School. It is this special program that allows the kids who complete it to graduate high school with two years of college under their belts. Besides their high school diploma, they will also receive an Associates Degree in their chosen field of study. During these two weeks of summer, the students are exposed to the programs they may take at the Community College. They also are learning about the high school and are doing various "team building" activities. The program is funded by the Gates Foundation. What does every student who attends this high school get? A laptop computer, of course!!


Sharon continues to go to physical therapy for her shoulder. The doctor is impressed with her progress so far. The therapists are also pleased with the gains she has made. Therapy will continue for a few more weeks. They will miss her when she finishes!


This weekend we are headed to Albuquerque. Maybe it will be cooler. Last year, we got an upgrade for a free night at the Homewood Suites. Some of you may remember that we had an awful time there last year.. We usually stay at The Residence Inn. It remains our favorite place to stay in any city. We just couldn't pass up a free night. Since it was about to expire, we decided that we should take advantage of it.


More from Albuquerque this weekend.

Have a great rest of this week!


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

Summer Stuff!

Hello, Everybody!

Happy Summer vacation to you all! Aren't these roses gorgeous? Joe gave these to Ellen for Mother's Day. This is what they looked like TWO WEEKS LATER!!! They provided many moments of enjoyment. Thanks, Joe!

Our summer gardening is beginning to bear fruit. For a couple of weeks this pepper has been green. We have waited impatiently for it to turn red. It finally happened! It is just about ready for picking. We hope that the plant gives us more than just this one.

For Ellen's birthday, Nichole and Joe gave her a fountain that will hang on the wall. It took a while to decide where to put it. Since Ellen has been on vacation this past week, it was project #1 to finish. It sits outside the dining room window. The fountain has a light in the bottom of the bowl. It looks so pretty at night, especially.

Sharon was in charge of running the wires for the electricity and making sure that everything was waterproof. She used her trusty liquid nails to adhere the fountain to the wall! This was really her first project since surgery. She said that it felt good to be able to work again.

After moving plants around from other places and running inside to see how it looked from the dining room, this is the finished product -- for now, anyway! :o) One never know what these two ladies will think of next!

It really is a spot of beauty.

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

Polk'sEnd of the Year Party!

Hello Everybody!



A week ago Friday was our end of the year party for the faculty/staff. It was held at the El Paso Country Club. Here we are before leaving Sharon's house. Notice Ellen's new haircut!

It was a fun evening. This is Lettie and her husband, Eric. Out the window you can see the golf course. The view was lovely!

These three ladies are fifth grade teachers. In the background, you can see the serving table for the buffet. There was prime rib, chicken and tilapia. There were mounds of fresh vegetables; plus what dinner is complete without potatoes?? We had a great turnout. There were 73 people in attendance. That made for great conversation and lots of laughs! We knew there were only four more days of school ahead of us!

Rosa is a second grade dual language teacher and Lynda is our counselor.

Grace and Susie work in the office. These ladies help Ellen out when she needs something.

Below are Ada and Susan. One is the computer clerk and the other is the Principal's secretary. All four of these ladies (Grace, Susie, Ada, and Susan) make quite a team. They keep Polk running and make a wonderful first impression on visitors to our school. Ellen's office is right off the main office, so she works closely with them. We can't even imagine Polk School without them! Since part of our student body will be attending Lundy School when it opens in probably January or so, some of our staff will also be leaving Polk. Many parents have asked the office ladies if they are staying or leaving. The answer is always the same. " We are a team. It is all for one and one for all. We are all staying." You can't imagine what a smile that has put on so many faces, including us!!

Yes, the one holding the plunger is our new principal. She officially takes the reins on July 1st. She has been our AP for the past four years. We know Polk is in good hands! As for the plunger, that may have to be a post all of its own. For now, just know that Polk had a "dance group" called the Plungerettes. :o)

Ina, our outgoing Principal, passed the plunger to Micaela. Don't you love their tiaras? They were complete with blinking lights.

We always have a great time when we get together. It is good to laugh and relax with friends. Sharon won a door prize for Andre's Pizza, and Ellen won one for Golden Corral.

Until next time. . . . . .

Memorial Day Weekend!

Hello, Everybody!


We hope you had a wonderfully relaxing weekend this past Memorial Day. We did. We cooked out hamburgers on Sunday and hot dogs on Monday. Ellen is a gourmet cook. (Hee, hee, not really, but Sharon thinks she is.) She whipped up this most marvelous strawberry shortcake for dessert. We added a few blueberries to make this delicious dessert red, white, and blue.

As of today, there are seven more days of school! That seems almost impossible. The children are getting tired and are ready to begin summer. It seems that their place of "refuge" is the Nurse's Office! It has been quite a busy place these days. Sharon has now been retired for six years. She will continue to volunteer at Polk as long as she can.

Her progress continues to be steady thanks to the wonderful therapy she receives. Sometimes it brings tears to her eyes, but as they say, "NO PAIN-NO GAIN." Her range of motion measurements keep improving, so the therapists keep encouraging her to do more and more. Ellen is quite proud of her.

Until next time. . . . .

UTEP Graduation Weekend!

Hello, Everybody!


Graduation season is upon us, and ours began this past weekend with our UTEP graduation. Joey Charter graduated with a B.S in Psychology and a Minor in Biology. He is headed to Graduate School this next semester. Graduation was at 7:00 PM, so we had a fun cookout/swim party in the afternoon. Joey was one of the first in the pool!


Joey's brother, Jonathan, is on the left. His cousin, Seth, is on the right. Seth flew into Dallas and then drove to El Paso with Nichole and Michael. Teresa, Joey's mom, is looking quite proud! We were all celebrating Joey's achievement!

These are the "muscle people" of the family!

The graduation was quite impressive. We were able to see Erin Eastman carry in the banner for the School of Nursing. Brian Ibarra received his degree in Civil Engineering. They are the daughter and son of our two secretaries at school. We were proud of all of them!

This is always such a busy time of year, but it is usually a very happy time, too! The excitement these young adults exhibit just has to make one smile. Good luck to all of them. May they be successful and enjoy their life's path!

Until next time. . . . . .

What A Twenty Dollar Investment We Made!

Hello, Everybody!


If you aren't tired of seeing pictures of our pretty flowers, can you stand just one more? This is the Hibiscus tree that we bought at Sam's one Saturday for $19.97.

This morning, Sharon's tree had seven beautiful blooms on it! You can see for yourself.


Yesterday, we went to one of our PTA lady's home for the annual Teacher Appreciation Luncheon. They caravan the different grade levels to the home, and then bring them back to school. They (the PTA ladies) have all of the classrooms covered at all of the different times of lunch. This has been a tradition since Polk began. The theme of this year's luncheon was Chinese. They had everything decorated beautifully. It was delicious and a good time was had by all. They had a door prize and favors for all who came. Thank you, Polk Precious PTA ladies! We had a great time!

Our weather has become HOT!! We're not sure what the actual temperature is today, but it was predicted to be 99! It's only the beginning of May! If the summer is this hot, then we will be sending lots of time indoors. We haven't had rain since before January. Perhaps our Oklahoma and Dallas friends could share some of what they have had. PLEASE!! We know you would share if you could.

Tomorrow is Friday. The thought of it just puts a smile on your face, doesn't it?
Have a good one.

Until next time. . . . . .

Almost Back To Normal!

Hello, Everybody!


Yesterday at school was the annual Volunteers in Public Schools Breakfast! The Polk Staff, along with the teachers really outdo themselves to say, "Thank You" to all of those people who help at school in any avenue. It was Sharon's first day back to Polk. What a thrill it was for her to see the kids once again. The classrooms put on a little program of singing and dancing for the volunteers. It was a wonderful day for Sharon. It gave her morale a giant boost. She has been in lots of pain trying to get all of those muscles to learn to work together once again. But she is coming along quite nicely. Everyday she seems to be able to do a few more things by herself.


Next week is Teacher Appreciation Week here. Thank a teacher if you can read, write, or do anything mathematically.


Swine Flu is doing its best to rear its ugly head here in El Paso, but so far, we only have some suspected cases--none confirmed. That is miraculous in itself when you consider how close we are to the border. Ellen had a crazy, busy week in her office. Parents were calling and stopping by to ask many questions about the Swine Flu. There were several requests to "Please call down my son/daughter and check him/her out. He/she wasn't feeling real good this morning." We made it through the week; hopefully, the coming days will be a bit slower and calmer.

Did you all watch the Kentucky Derby? A horse from Sunland Park Race Track won!! He was a 50 to 1 shot. That means anyone who bet $2.00 on him won $103!! It was fun to listen to the hype after the race. No one could believe that this little race horse that cost its owners only $9,500 could win the Kentucky Derby! It was fun to see his trainer in a cowboy hat and on crutches instead of the traditional white shirt and tie!! Be sure to watch the Preakness in a few weeks. Hopefully, this little horse, Mine That Bird, will do well.

Until next time. . . . . .