Saturday - Friday, December 7 - 13, 2013 (Lake Havasu City, AZ)

Saturday

We started out our day with a fast food breakfast at McDonalds.  We had a coupon for their McGriddle sandwiches that we thought we'd try.  Well we are not fans of those, they were too sweet for our tastes.  We'll stick with our standard egg/sausage mcmuffin next time.

We did some more running around town.  Rich was going to make me a couple of planter boxes.  I read that this is the time of year that gardens are planted down here, so I thought I'd give growing a few things a try.  I showed him the planter boxes I liked and then we got the wood at Home Depot.  I'm excited to see how things grow.

After lunch we took a nice long walk around the park.  If you walk the whole park it's a little over a mile we were told.  During our walk there was an open house for a park model that we stopped and checked out as we'd never seen inside of one before.  I like our 5er much better, but I can see how they would be very nice for people who didn't want to pull or drive a big rv around.

The rest of the day I worked on updating our blog.  A pretty low key day.

Sunday

We decided to try Calvary Baptist church this week.  This was the same church that we went to the Christmas concert on Friday.  I talked to a couple of really nice folks, one couple lived here year round and the other couple was just here for the winter.  The message was good and we liked the church though we still may check out a few other ones in the weeks to come.

As we were driving home from church the long way we drove past a garage sale and they had tons of outdoor pots sitting out.  I asked Rich to make a U turn and went and checked them out.  The lady had used the pots to garden in and quite a few of them with organic soil still inside, wow this is right up my alley.  I contained myself and only walked away with three matching pots.  The lady was selling them because they were getting ready to start full time rving.  I asked her if she had any garden seed, which she did, but in looking through the seed it was pretty old so I decided to pass on the seed and just buy some fresh. 

Today was cold and windy so for the afternoon we just sat around and read all afternoon and then watched a movie in the evening.  We've been keeping an eye on the temps up in Oregon and I guess we shouldn't complain about our temps since they are well above freezing.

Monday

I started the day out with my line dancing class, it's a very good workout and I'm enjoying myself though I feel like I have two left feet most of the time.  Oh well, it's all for fun. 

It was another cold and windy day, sounds like a baking/cooking day.  I decided to make a batch of oatmeal raisin cookies and some broccoli/cheese soup.  Rich worked on our keyless entry on the 5er.  That was one of the items that was suppose to be taken care of during our warranty work at Guarantee this fall but it is still failing.  Rich is dealing directly with the company that makes the keyless entry and found out that there is a part that is bad, no surprise there.  The nice surprise is that they are sending us a new part free of charge - Wow didn't expect that. 

Tuesday

We met Marie and Everett for breakfast at the local IHOP.  We had a very nice breakfast getting to know them better.  They are from Medford.  Everett is an avid fisherman and has worked as a fishing guide.  We look forward to spending more time with them over the next couple of months.

After breakfast we took Gracie for her daily walk.  She loves meeting all the people and dogs we encounter on our walks.  She thinks every person needs to give her a pet or two and she is getting more playful with the smaller dogs.  Since Gracie was raised with our St. Bernard, Samson, she was more comfortable around bigger dogs than the smaller dogs.  I think the time she has spent with my mom's two Yorkies and then all these little dogs down here has helped her become more social.  She's funny to watch. 

After our walk, we took Gracie to get a haircut, her hair has become quite long and shaggy.  We always forget to take a before and after picture, she looks like two different dogs.  When I was talking to the groomer, I was explaining I wanted a shorter cut for Gracie since we were in warmer summer type weather and the groomer laughed and said, no it's still winter.  It is quite interesting when you go shopping, you can pretty much tell the locals from the tourists, the locals are all bundled up in heavy jackets and boots and the tourists are running around in shorts and tee shirts.  =)  Well maybe not the last couple of days because it has been colder than usual down here, but I think that's the case pretty much across the U.S.A.

While Gracie was getting her haircut, we did some grocery shopping and window shopping and then it was back to pick Gracie up.  She's definitely ready for the warmer weather now.

After we were back at the 5er, one of our neighbors came by and visted for awhile.  He and his wife are going to Las Vegas tomorrow and asked if we wanted to ride along, we declined this time around because we had some other things planned for tomorrow and I'd have to miss my line dancing class...

Wednesday

Today was a little warmer, yahoo.  Again my day started with line dancing class.  Today was a rough day, I had three left feet instead of my normal two...and instead of 1.5 hours the instructor went for 2 - she must have thought we needed the extra practice, I know I did. 

After lunch, Rich started work on my planter boxes and I planted a couple tomatoes and one pepper into the pots that I found at the garage sale on Sunday.  It's still a little cool, but I'm sure once it warms up that they will start to grow.  In our walks, I've spotted several lots that have pots of tomatoes and they look pretty healthy and have green tomatoes.

Thursday

Rich and I started our day with a workout at the fitness center.  The day was looking pretty cloudy so we spent the morning reading and doing some laundry. 

In the afternoon, the clouds started looking darker and it rained and hailed.  I knew I shouldn't have washed our windows yesterday.  The last two times I've washed the windows down here, the next day it has rained and then it leaves water spots on the windows.  We have a window hummingbird feeder and we actually have hummingbirds that come to the feeder.  I want to take pictures of them to put on the blog, but the windows have been too spotty.  

Because we've been doing so much reading, Rich was running low on books, so we made a trip to the used book store and got stocked up again.  

Friday

After our morning routine of workout/breakfast we headed outdoors.  It was a lovely sunny morning though still on the cool side but warm enough to be out and about.  Rich started working on finishing up the two planters he's building for me.

 Rich did an wonderful job on them using only a hand saw and his hammer and nails. 

While we were outside working, Marie and Everett stopped by to show off the BIG striped bass he just caught this morning in the lake.  The picture isn't that good, because the fish blends into the background but it was 14 lbs.  That got us excited to go fishing.  We might just have to get an out of state fishing license in January and give it a try. 

After Marie and Everett left to go clean their monster fish we went back to work.  I was planting lettuce in the first planter box that Rich finished.  We were just talking about going inside to make sandwiches for lunch when our neighbor stopped by and invited us to go to lunch with him and his wife.  They were going to the airport which is just next door to this very good BBQ place....hmmm airports, planes and lunch, sounds too good to pass up, so we took Gene and Iris up on their offer.

We had a very nice lunch and the BBQ was excellent as well as the company.  We enjoyed getting to know Gene and Iris better.  Gene has a Harley Davidson motorcycle down here as well as a four seated RZR and has offered to take us for a ride on the RZR in the desert when the weather gets a little warmer.  We are looking forward to that.  Gene and Iris are from Florida but grew up in Georgia so they have cool southern accents.  We forgot to take the camera so didn't get a picture of them.  People are all so friendly here in this park, we are really enjoying getting to know more and more of them.

After lunch we came back and finished up on our planter box project.  In the second box I planted some swiss chard and spinach.  I planted some radish seed in the pepper pot.  Now we just wait for some nice warm sunshine and see if things will grow.  I'm excited.

While we were working on the planter boxes, our other neighbors directly behind us, Toni & Bob and their dog Baele (I think I spelled it right), came out for a visit.  They are from Grants Pass.  They have the same last name as one of my brothers best friends, but apparently are no relation.  Bob was a pilot in the Air Force and Toni is very involved in Kiwani's both here in Lake Havasu and Grants Pass.  They seem like very social and fun people and I'm sure we'll get to know them better over the next couple of months.

Finished project - my little garden

They have a Friday night social here at the resort and we were contemplating attending, but I think after all our socializing today, we'll save it for another Friday.