Travels To Northern Texas Panhandle!

Hello, Everybody!



After the reunion stuff was over, we headed to a little town east of Amarillo near the Oklahoma border called Canadian. Sharon used to live there back in the 70's. She also has relatives who live there. This picture shows her with her first cousin, Sue Lynn. They both have those Cherokee cheeks, don't you think? We visited with Sharon's Aunt Fannye, Sue Lynn's mother. She has not been well, but was able to visit with us for a few hours and seemed to enjoy the company. We enjoyed Sue Lynn's margaritas! Aunt Fannye's sadness was that she couldn't have one, too!


Ellen finally got to see the storm cellar and "basement" of Aunt Fannye's house. She has heard many stories of how they would gather there during the bad weather that is so prevalent in the Northern Panhandle. When Ellen saw the big, beautiful bar down there, she immediately knew why this was also the gathering place when the weather was just fine!! Her Uncle R. E. knew how to entertain.




One of the little towns on the way to Canadian is White Deer! We detoured off the highway and rode down Main Street. Sure enough, they have a statue of a white deer in the middle of town!

Ellen fell in love with the rolling hills of the Northern Texas Panhandle. Here is a picture of them as we were headed back to Amarillo.

When Sharon lived in Canadian, she and a few of her friends would drive to Amarillo every few weeks to go grocery shopping. Ellen can't imagine having to drive over a hundred miles to do that, but the scenery is beautiful. It makes the time pass quickly!

We did quite a few things in our few short days! We managed to explore some different areas of the Panhandle and enjoyed a wonderful time.

Until next time. . . . .

Drury Inn And Suites!

Hello, Everybody!

Those of you who follow our blogs know that our usual and most favorite place to stay is The Residence Inn. This time, however, the reunion group secured rooms at the Drury Inn and Suites.

This is the hotel that we stayed in during our short time in Amarillo. It was a nice place, but it didn't have nearly the room that we are accustomed to having. We might add that it didn't have a full kitchen, either. It was okay, but. . . . . . . .......
A full breakfast was served each morning, and in the evenings they had beverages and snacks. Of course, we had our morning meal there, but our evenings were so busy that we really weren't at the hotel to enjoy their offerings.

This picture was taken from the car as we were going from Amarillo to Ruidoso. If you look closely, that is rain in the distance. In the past, we have made a few trips on this road between Ruidoso and Tulia/Plainview/Lubbock. Every time we went this way, we would encounter TERRIBLE weather. It was to the point that Ellen refused to take this route ever again. One time we were in the middle of tornadoes! It was raining so hard we could barely see out the windshield and the roads were flooding. Perhaps the spell is finally broken. This was as close as any rain came to us during the drive.

It was quite warm on the Monday that we left Amarillo. It actually got to 102, but Sharon wasn't fast enough with the camera.

Within minutes the temp began to drop as we got closer to Ruidoso. It was so nice.

Wednesday morning this was the view outside our window in Ruidoso. The temperature was 54 degrees and we loved it!!

There was quite a bit of rain the night before. It was so refreshing and smelled so good.

Wednesday morning we got the car all packed and checked out of the hotel. When we got into the car to leave, the car would not start. We waited a couple of minutes and tried again. No luck. Ellen called AAA, and they said it would be about an hour. We went back into the hotel lobby. The young man looked at us and wanted to know if everything was okay. We told him about the car. He called maintenance and a nice man brought his truck and jump started the battery. Sharon bought the car at Vision Lincoln dealership in Alamogordo. That is about 40 miles from Ruidoso, and we go through there on the way home. We stopped so they could check out the car. Here we sit in the waiting room of the service department. It's not exactly how we usually end our vacations, but they replaced the battery free of charge! After that, we made our way home without incident. As a side note, Sharon didn't even take naps while we were on the road at any time during the trip!! Perhaps she is secretly counting the days until Ellen goes back to work. She knows that nap time is coming soon!!

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

Tulia Time! Swisher County Parade and Picnic!

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In mid-July, we traveled to Sharon's old hometown for the annual Swisher County Parade and Reunion weekend. The parade started off with a fly-over of three old planes. Sharon was barely able to snap this picture as they kicked off the parade.

This is a really old fire truck. Tulia does have an updated model.

What parade is complete without tractors and equipment? The next couple of pictures show some of Sharon's favorites--John Deere tractors.

We have no idea what this piece of equipment is; nor, do we have any idea what it is used for. We do know that it is HUGE! Neither one of us would want to try to crawl into it!

Here is one of the floats that carried Sharon's sister's reunion class. It was their 50th reunion. Quite a few of them were there for the parade. For this to be a 50 year reunion, they were all able to hop onto that trailer and sit on the hay bales without a problem.

Here are the sisters--Janice and Sharon. Many of their friends remarked how much Sharon looked like her mom.

We drove by Sharon's old home place. The people who bought it have really fixed it up. It is beautiful. Sharon's family moved here in 1949. Her mom and dad lived here until 2002. Ellen visited this home many times with Sharon over the years. It holds lots of special memories.

In high school, Janice and Sharon sang with a group called, "Blue Stars." The Blue Stars got together for their own reunion to sing for the dinner on that Saturday evening. It was held at Lake Tanglewood Country Club in Amarillo. The picture below shows us in rehearsal. We started off a bit hesitantly, but after a few songs we got all warmed up! By the end of rehearsal, the Blue Stars were ready for the stage once again!!

The evening brought a special surprise for Sharon. Below is an old friend who came with her husband from Florida. She is Dana Rogers Bauer.

This picture shows Janice and her husband, Jim. They live in Plainview.

This last picture shows the Blue Stars. We sang about eight songs for the evening. People must have enjoyed us because they stopped talking and listened to us. What fun we had! We didn't discuss what to wear. It just so happened that we all showed up in black and white!

Ellen was the official photographer for the evening.

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

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!

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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!

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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. . . . . .