Bonus Days 11 - 16 (December 23 - 28)

Took a little time off writing.  Christmas came and went.

Connie was able to get out to Pioneer's Christmas Dinner.  Actually ate quite a bit for her.

We took a walk around the park with her in her wheelchair, which we'd like to make more of a habit.  We took a drive to the beach, which was short lived, but she enjoyed it.

The day after Christmas, we had a visit from her nurse.  She made it to the Parrotheads of Port Aransas 4th Thursday Happy Hour after visiting with Dan Sullivan and friends on the beach.  Dan was celebrating his 50th birthday.

Friday, the 27th, we made the decision to cancel our cruise in January.  It was just going to be too much for the both of us, and her time in the room and in bed was going to be greater than the time out of there.

After a visit by the nurse's aide to get her showered up, she made it to Moby Dick's for a performance by The Detentions.  Didn't eat much, but had two beers.  Afterward, she was pretty whipped.

The Buckeyes played in their semi final game against Clemson on Saturday.  She was in bed most of the day, tried to rally when some friends came over, but went to bed around kickoff.

She's beginning to know her limitations.  When she doesn't feel "it", she taps out and goes to bed.  She tries to dress herself, and is successful most of the time.  She's getting worse on the stairs.  That's probably going to be our immediate future.

December and The Holidays

We've been at Copano Bay RV Resort since December 20th.  Had a Happy Hour most afternoons with our friends here.

Connie has had two treatments since our last blog.  She seems to be tolerating them very well.  Her oncologist sees most of the cancer being stable and not worthy of being too aggressive, so that's what we've done.

Hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas.  We had a snacks and carols on Christmas Eve, then an afternoon potluck Christmas dinner here at the park.  All very good food, fun to be a part of.

Christmas Day we had a FaceTime conversation with our daughter, Bethany, and her husband, James (and dogs).  With the announcement that she's expecting in June, we'll probably be doing a lot more of this in the coming months and years.

We took our Christmas decorations down yesterday, the day after Christmas which is earlier than either of us can remember..  Its amazing how much space we donate to our Christmas decorations, but its something both of us enjoy.

Weather has been terrific (until today where its rainy and in the 40's) with the highs in the 60's-70's and the lows in the 50's-60's.  Going to be a bit of a roller coaster for the next couple of weeks.

We'll be following the Buckeyes to New Orleans for the Sugar Bowl.  Meeting our daughter at the airport in Houston, then on to Baton Rouge for New Year's Eve, then NOLA for New Year's Day and the game vs. Alabama.  Shortly after we return (with Bethany) to Rockport, we'll head back with her to Dallas where she's working the National Championship game (and hopefully to continue to follow the Buckeyes!)

Vacation is Over

It's been a while since our last post.  We have been busy enjoying my vacation from treatments.

As noted in our previous blog, we had a great time making our way to Texas.  It took us 7 weeks to get here!

Time to get back on the treatments.  The diagnostic scans were done in early November.  For the most part, they show that most areas are stable.  There are a few new areas in the lungs and minor progession.  However, the doctor feels they are not very concerning.

So, with that news, we are going to continue on the hormone pill that we started back in August and combine it with Herceptin infusion.  This is a drug that I had received previously and tolerated it with minimal side effects.

Going to get this started tomorrow.  Treatments will be every 3 weeks.

Hope everyone enjoyed the Thanksgiving holiday.  We had a good time and good food here at the park.  Met some really nice folks!

Had a couple of days of cooler weather.  It inspired us to get out the Christmas decorations.  We will be moving to our normal winter spot in Rockport on the 20th.

Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas!

Christmas Week, our recipes and more....

Well, the world didn't end on the 21st of December.  Damn Mayans.  They should be dug up and held on the charges of mass panic.

We spent a nice Christmas Eve with the guests in the park.  They do a Chinese Gift Exchange.  Everyone brings a $10 gift, gets a "random" number.  The first number is drawn, they open a present in front of everyone.  Person holding the second number drawn can either "take" their gift or open another one in front of everyone.  Process keeps repeating until everyone has been drawn.  That last person has the knowledge of every one's gifts, so they can "take" one unless it's frozen (been held by 3 owners).  The person who got drawn first ends it by having the choice of everything in the room.  We noticed that, just as last year, one person came in very late to get a last number and went looking for booze.  Some people get a little bent out of shape over people "taking" their gift.  It's a way to kill an evening.

Christmas Day, we called everyone and did a carry in with the camp.  Added a few recipes to the repertoire this year.  First is peanut butter fudge.  Couldn't be easier:

Peanut Butter Fudge Recipe:

1 (18oz) jar of smooth peanut butter

1 (16oz) jar or can of vanilla or cream cheese icing

Put ingredients in pan using wooden spoon and spatula.  Melt together both ingredients on low, stirring occasionally. When all melted like a thick gravy, pour into dish and refrigerate overnight

Variation:  use Chocolate icing instead of vanilla/cream cheese or try crunchy peanut butter instead of smooth

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Also added our daughter's sweet potato casserole:

3 cups mashed sweet potatoes (I've used the canned its easier/quicker to mash them)
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup melted butter

Topping:
 1/2 cup brown sugar
 1/3 cup flour
1/3 cup melted butter
 1 cup chopped pecans

Combine first 6 ingredients. Pour into a buttered 1 1/2 to 2-quart casserole dish. Mix remaining ingredients together and sprinkle over top. Bake at 350° for 30 to 40 minutes, until hot and browned.

Serves 6 to 8

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Christmas decorations are down.  The basement has been reorganized for the third time (at least) and it's time to start the week of watching College Football.

Not sure what the New Year will bring, but it will be fun! 

 

 

Merry Christmas!

Hope everyone enjoys their Christmas and is looking forward to a prosperous New Year!

We've Been Busy...Kinda

Hope everyone had a great holiday season.  Hard to believe it has been that long since our last post.  We will try and catch you up on what we have been doing.

Since landing in Portland, TX, we have been learning our way around and getting to know the neighbors.  Made some great friends that we have been hanging out with on occasion.  Unfortunately, they did not have a long-term reservation and had to move to another park.  Good news is that their new place is near the beach and within an easy drive.

We can now say that we survived the first Christmas alone.  It wasn't easy, but thanks to technology (video phones), we made the best of it.

The new year came and went with no big fanfare here.  Pretty much business as usual for us.

Bob celebrated a birthday on January 8th with a trip to Galveston.  We were supposed to have a luncheon and tour on Royal Caribbean's Mariner of the Seas, but due to fog in the harbor, that was cancelled.  However, he was surprised by a visit from our daughter from Ohio.  We had been secretly planning the visit for some time.  Sure was fun to spend a few days with her!

Now, why have we been so busy?  Well, for one of our Christmas gifts, we received a monthly golf membership to the local Country Club - Northshore Country Club.  We have been making the most of the membership and playing nearly every day.  Feels great to be back on the course again.

That, coupled with running our travel business, has kept us hopping.  Things are starting to get back to normal and we are feeling very settled in.  Hopefully, we will be able to post more regularly again.

See ya down the road!

Thanksgiving

We decided to go to the Arlington Elks Lodge for our Thanksgiving Day Meal.  They had a nice carry-in (we took hash brown casserole), with plenty of turkey, ham, fixins' and desserts.  Our best estimate was about 70-80 people were there -- mostly those with no family in the area, those with family coming in later, or those who brought their whole family.  And us.

Afterwards, Santa paid a visit for those with kids and hung around afterward at the bar to say Hi to the honeys.  :-)

After our 1p meal, we returned back to the rig and "the girls" for the rest of the evening.

The Dallas Metro KOA was actually pretty full for the weekend, starting around Wednesday and continuing through the weekend.  Today (Friday) we started thinking about decorating for the holidays at the Sea Breeze RV Resort in Portland, TX.  Seeing what we had kept, moving things into the rig.