HOUSTON

We had a lovely time in Houston. We left from John Wayne Airport in Santa Ana, CA on Saturday morning last week. When we got to Houston, Mark and I took an Uber to the hotel and Adam, Gabby and James got the rental car and drove to her cousins house about 45 minutes in another direction. They spent the night there. 

Mark and I checked into the hotel and then we took an Uber over to see Mark's mom's new place. She had moved into a retirement center so we had not seen her apartment yet. It is lovely. The building inside is so beautiful. We have never seen anything so elegant before. Absolutely gorgeous. Every inch of the place is decorated with beautiful wooden cabinets throughout the large hallways and fabulous artwork over each one in huge fancy frames. She is very happy there and her balcony faces over the pool area. 

We visited with her for awhile and ordered a pizza. It was a nice evening. She is amazing for 96 years old. She will be 97 in January. She doesn't need a walker but loves to use one in the hallways for safety reason. She is so fast!! 

We headed back to the hotel for the night. It was a nice morning and we went downstairs for breakfast. Adam, Gabby and James were going to arrive early afternoon. They got settled in and we headed back over to Mom's place on Sunday afternoon. 

She was so happy to see them and especially James. 

We had a nice dinner out with Mom and Mark's brother Jeff, along with his son's. We didn't get any photos. We didn't stay to long after we got back to her place. Everyone was pretty tired. Adam and Gabby had a late night on Saturday at her cousin's house. We meet Adam, Gabby and James down in the hotel lobby and had some wine before heading up to bed. 

Monday morning we saw them for breakfast and then we all got ready to go see Mom for awhile before we headed back to the airport that afternoon. We ordered in lunch. We didn't want to exhaust mom too much by going out again. It was a very nice visit. 

Then we did head to the airport for our flight at 5:30 that evening. On our first flight going to Houston James got to meet the pilots and I believe Gabby got some photos. They spoiled James so much on that first flight to Houston. Gave him a big box of treats and a large bag of Gummy bears. Not to mention that when Gabby talked about James' upcoming plane birthday party, he gave Gabby like 20 bags of pretzels for the kids gift bags. It was so much fun. 

So heading home he got to meet one of the pilots and I got photos. He was so excited and happy. So here are some photos. Enjoy!

THE GOOD - HOUSTON

 Happy 95th Birthday Vivian

The party was wonderful. We had a private room and before the party started the woman who was taking care of us took some photos before we sat down to dinner. 

The dinner was delicious. Here is a photo of my plate. I had salmon. 

Mark gave a little speech about his mom and just couldn't stop the tears from coming. 

We were singing Happy Birthday to her.....

Make a wish....

Vivian and her grandchildren and great grandson. Hunter, Nicholas, Mom, Adam, James and Amber

What I am about to share happened on Friday, the day before the birthday party. I came up with two plans for the surprises. She only knew that her children were coming to Houston. Mark's brother Jeff, his wife and their boys live in Houston too.  His other brother Jimmy and his wife Caprice flew in on Thursday. We were supposed to arrive that day too, which we did, but it was late in the evening because of the car breaking down so we went right to the hotel. 

Wait! Before I share that I have a side note. Thursday was Vivian's actually birthday so her two son's from her second marriage and their wives took her out to dinner and celebrated with her which was really rather special if you ask me. 

So back to Friday when it was time to pick up Amber. We told Mom that the guys were going to go out for some wine and then get something Mark left at the hotel. Surprise....Amber arrived. She was shocked and thrilled to say the least. 

Then later it was time to pick up Adam, Gabby and James so they said they were going to get Amber checked in at the hotel. No problem. Then they arrived and she was so excited. It was really a great feeling to have it all work out as planned. 

So after the dinner we went back to Mom's house to hang out. Uncle Jeff has a dog named Snowball and James was enjoying him. 

He also had fun playing with his Uncle Jeff and Uncle Jimmy. 

So this is the cutest thing to share. When we were at dinner, across the table from James was our Nephew Nicholas with his girlfriend Faith. James whispers over to Gabby, mom, that girl is pretty. Can I meet her? So they went over to meet her. Here is a hug she gave him back and Mom's house. James was showing off his race car to her. It was so cute. 

This photo didn't come out well but we also sang Happy Birthday to Adam since it was his birthday the day we celebrated my mother in laws at the dinner. Vivian on the 19th, Adam on the 20th. 

After they left James was asking if she was going to be at their hotel. Then the next morning he was asking if she was going to be on their plane ride home. We just couldn't wrap our minds around what he was feeling. 

James with tissue in hand from his runny nose.

This beautiful huge Roadrunner metal sculpture was at a rest area we stopped at. 

I also have some photos from the road.

Michele and Pam had this sweet gift for me.....

WEDNESDAY HODGEPODGE #491

Thank you Joyce.

To join in click HERE

1. Something you've done recently that might be considered a labor of love? 

Not sure this was a labor of love but I certainly had to be calm and collect when we were in a one hour and forty five minute delay on the 10 Fwy out of Palm Springs on our way home from Arizona on Sunday. Mark was going nuts! He can't stand California traffic anymore.

As it turns out it wasn't a car accident. It was a shooting of a police officer. I don't have any other details but when we passed the area there were 10 police cars on the shoulder and another 20 police cars up on a dirt road on a hillside above. 

2. What's one thing you love about being the age you are now? 

Good question. I do like the fact that I don't have to rush off to work everyday. I can do whatever I want. However, I believe I need to get going again. Get out of the house more often since the pandemic started. It's way to easy to stay home and not good for my well being. 

3. What do you value more: careful planning or the freedom to be spontaneous? Elaborate.

I guess I would have to say careful planning. I'm not good at being spontaneous but would love to try doing that more often. I will often say "Let's go here today!" and then Mark will say he's too busy doing things around the house. 

4. A home cooked meal or a fancy restaurant? pink or red? watch the sunrise or watch the sunset? wine and cheese or champagne and chocolate? 

Oh my, I haven't been that good at doing home cook meals lately but want to get back in the groove and have the kids over more often. I like a fancy restaurant but it doesn't have to be very often.  

I will go with pink unless you are talking about wine. We get the sunset from our backyard but I do love both of them. How about wine, cheese and chocolate!!!

5. What's your definition of romance? Are you a 'romantic'? 

I like to be hugged, I like special little surprises like a small plant or a candy bar. My mind is definitely romantic but Mark has never been one to care for romance. I do try to surprise him with small little gifts. 

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

So the 10 day trip to Houston turned out to be a total of 20 days. We got home on Sunday. It was definitely an adventure we never planned on. I currently have a lung infection but hope to make it to bowling today. I missed 3 weeks! 

We were able to get the car on Saturday morning and it drove well on the trip home. We were able to drop the rental car off in Kerrville, TX rather than have to drive to the Enterprise in a town an hour away like we did when it was rented.  So that worked out well. 

We didn't make the originally planned stop on the way home. We were going to stay in a small town in New Mexico where they have cute little shops and a restaurant Michele and Pam like. We scratched the extra day because we wanted to get home. 

Our house was in good shape. My indoor plants didn't die. We are all safe and that's a huge blessing. 

Loved seeing the cactus on the roadside.

Are you ready for some football??

I saw the stadium in Arizona.

We will be going to Adam and Gabby's to watch.

Hope to get the "THE GOOD" 

Houston party post written soon. 

FEBRUARY

I can't believe it is February already. January has flown by just like the month of August last year when Mark had Covid. 

Although we have a lot of time on our hands, I just haven't had time to write the GOOD post from our trip to Houston to celebrate my mother in laws 95th birthday. It probably won't happen in the next few days. 

Yes, as of today we are still here in Houston. This trip started for Mark and I on the 17th and we should have been back in California on the 26th. So here it is February 2nd and we are currently looking at possibly being home by the 5th or 6th. 

The part that was missing from the kit was unable to be delivered yesterday because of the severe weather they had in Kerrville, TX. 

Snow and icy roads and many of the employees were unable to get into the shop to work so they were basically closed. 

We have had some good news today and if all goes well we will be leaving tomorrow morning to pick up the car and head back to Peoria, AZ and then on to California the next day. 

Mark's Mom is feeling better. Her medications have kicked in. The weather here has been mostly cold and rainy so we have not had any decent exercise since we left on this trip. Way too much sitting around!

James is missing Papa and Grandma. Here's a cute photo of him with Roxy when they got home from Houston. He wanted us to see it and wanted to know what we were having for dinner that night.  

Mother in law Vivian with Mark's brother's dog Snowball sleeping during football last Sunday. 

THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY

The bad and the ugly.....

I'm going to get to THE GOOD in another post. We left on Tuesday morning the 17th of January to drive to Peoria, AZ to meet up with Mark's sister Michele and her wife Pam. From there we were leaving the next day for a two day drive to Houston, TX for Mark's Mother's 95th Birthday party. 

The first day went well and we had a great time in the car talking about so many things. We had planned to listen to music but never got around to it. It was a really nice time. I don't even remember the town we stayed in that night. We took Michele and Pam's car and Pam and Mark did the driving. The next day we would get to Houston. 

So on Thursday we started the rest of our drive. We were basically in the middle of nowhere in Kerrville, TX when the car started acting funny. The cruise control turned off and Mark pulled off the road. Then we decided that something must be wrong with the cruise control so we started again and before too long the car was losing power, no gas was getting to the engine. Thankfully Mark was able to pull off the side of the road again. Thankful we were not in the passing lane where there would have been no place to pull off the road. 

So Pam called AAA. It took awhile for them to figure out exactly where we were. We were told that the nearest AAA tow would take one and a half hours to get to us. The gentleman who arrived was super nice. When Pam was on the phone with them she suggested that he take us to the nearest one.

So it was about a 45 minute drive to the closet AAA. He also ended up getting off the 10 Fwy because the only way he could take us was for us to sit in the car on the bed of the flat truck. He didn't want to get in trouble so he took some back roads. We found out later it was his second day on the job. 

Here is the view from the flat bed truck.

So we get to the AAA shop and they were wonderful. The owner Ed was great. This shop has been open for 45 years. They of course were busy and had a backlog. We could have been towed elsewhere but we decided to stay. The other thing with this shop was that they were open Mon - Thursday from 8 am to 6 pm, Friday 8 - noon and closed Saturday and Sunday so the repair was going to take longer. 

They did a quick diagnosis and got a few codes of what it might me. The fuel pump was one of them which sounded like it could have been the issue. So Michele and Pam decided that they wanted them to do the work. So then we needed to get a rental for the rest of the trip to Houston. Ed was kind enough to drive us to the Enterprise Car Rental which was over an hours drive. Mark went with him to get the car and us ladies stayed at the shop and sat outside on a patio table with an umbrella. So that basically took over 2 hours. 

So we eventually got on the road. We didn't go to Mark's moms house that night, we went straight to the hotel, so we missed a small celebration on her actually birthday but her big party was taking place on Saturday. 

So to make this long story shorter, it took them awhile to get the bigger testing done and then they had to order 3 parts for the Mazda and wait for them to be delivered. The parts have arrived. It will be a 12 hour fix. They expect it to be ready Monday or Tuesday which means we will pick it up either Tuesday or Wednesday. 

We should have been home by now obviously. So what was supposed to be a 10 day trip for Mark and I has turned into a possible 20 days away from home. So Mark's sister Michele had to call her doctor to send a small supply of all of her medications to a local Kroger. We had Adam go to our house to get our mail from the box and see that the house was okay. He also got Mark's pills together and sent them FedEx to his mom's house. 

Pam and I had enough extra supplies with us. I had two weeks worth of medication and then another two weeks without my vitamin supplements in them. I also had 2 of each of my inhalers in two different places. I am always prepared for the worse case scenario. 

So this is the Bad and the Ugly part of the story which I pray will have nothing else added to it. I will try to get around to posting the Good which was really GOOD! So we have moved into my mother in laws and have been here for about 3 nights now. Thankfully we can also do laundry.😊

Waiting on the side of the road and then 

waiting to get to the repair shop.....

OUR TRIP TO HOUSTON

As you already know we flew to Houston at the end of April to visit with Mark's mom Vivian. The trip was set up for two reason. Reason one, we haven't seen her in a few years, and reason two was for James to meet his Great Grandmother. 

Everything went as planned. Mark and I flew there on a Thursday and went home on Monday evening. Adam, Gabby and James flew there on Saturday and went home on Monday morning. It was a great visit, short and extremely sweet. 

James enjoyed his first flight on a plane and loved seeing the clouds out the window. Now when he see's a plane in the sky it is flying to great grandma's house. We didn't do a lot. We mainly visited and had fun with James. 

The first night when he went to bed he came out a few minutes later and gave Great Grandma, Mark and I kisses. It was so precious. Adam and Gabby were with him because it was a new sleeping experience for him. My mother in law can't stop talking about him. She is 94 years young. James was as friendly as can be. 

I'm going to share some photos from the trip......

Generation Photo

Adam, James, Great Grandma and Mark

Adam, James and Great Grandma

Great Grandma and James

Adam, Vivian, Gabby and James

Me, Mom and Mark

Papa and James

Daddy and James Reading

James with Papa

Playing outside with a bubble machine that 

Great Grandma bought for him.

It rained and James and I were splashing in the puddles. 

These are our footprints!

Have a wonderful weekend!