2022 Recap

 I know it is almost the end of January. However, I have to make one last post for the year 2022 to record some of the highlights. I will most likely leave out many precious moments; mostly, because my old brain doesn’t remember as clearly as it used to. But, I hope this blog will be a way to preserve memories for my entire family. So here goes: 

January and February were brutally cold months for Texas. We had low temperatures and bouts of freezing rain and sleet. That meant soup, sewing, and snuggles with fur babies.

I learned how to use a cool gadget I won on a quilt cruise.

We were stuck at home because of ice covered roads.

I made items like chew toys and beds for the animal shelter.

I found a quick and easy tote bag pattern.

Spent a lot of time snuggled with a boomer while attaching binding.

March and April were much more pleasant! The weather improved and Texas started entering her most beautiful month. Ron and I were able to venture out more to see family and friends.

Sophie continued to whip out cute crocheted mug caps.

March brought the typical round of severe thunderstorms and tornadoes.

Thunderstorms were quickly followed by huge grass fires. Crazy Texas!

Tico and Boomer started wearing handsome bandanas once the farmer’s market opened.

Maggie was named All Region Choir and scored 1’s at UIL 

We went to Surprise, Arizona to watch spring training.

Boomer chased the fresh batch of bunnies in the field near the townhouse.

May through June were cruise prep, cruise trip, and move prep months. Luckily, we broke up the preparations into small chunks by attending end of the school year events

With Seth’s help, we got our heavy items placed in storage.

We attended graduation celebrations for the twins.

Jamie always remembers! 

Razzleberry pie and Round Rick donuts for Mother’s Day.

End of the year Choir performances for Maggie.

Easter with the fun-loving Leander bunch.

The twins after an egg hunt.

Easter egg mystery game.

Preparing our stateroom door sign.

End of the season soccer games for Sophie.

Father’s Day dinner with the Leander bunch.

Purging and packing lots of fabric!

Alaska theme night totem build.

Alaska theme night crafting the flag.

Alaska theme night with the Leander bunch.

July and August were exhausting! We went on the cruise in June (see the separate post for details) and came home with COVID-19. I SWEAR; I have NEVER felt so sick! Nor, has it ever taken me so long to recover from something! Thank goodness we had received all of our immunizations. I can’t imagine how bad it would have been without them!  And, thank goodness we had packed up the house beforehand. We would have never been able to complete that as sick as we were. After we completely moved out of the townhouse, ended up staying with Leslie’s family until we recovered our strength. We had planned to do a bit of traveling; but, we just weren’t up to it. Instead, we did a lot of Netflix, Disney+ and Prime video watching while we waited for the cottage to be ready.

The end of July through September were spent worrying about the record breaking drought, setting up house, getting to know our new community, and random visits with family.

The drought spawned disastrous wildfires which destroyed 

thousands of acres and homes.

The Cottage yard art collection started.

Maggie’s first homecoming mum construction.

Maggie checking out her Charmers gear.

Beating boredom with a few rounds of Where’s the Soldier?

Exchanging some getting to know you goodies with our new neighbors.

Sophie getting an award at summer cheer camp.

Remembering Mom with her favorite cake

On her birthday.

The horrible effect of the drought on our trees.

First day of school pics for the Gutierrez girls.

The twins (and a friend) said goodbye to elementary school

and hello to middle school!

Sophia started choir and band.

Samantha plays the tuba in band.

Getting to know my favorite neighbors.

Fall through Winter was a period of time filled with random trips to Central Texas, attending school events for grandchildren, our first grandchild hospitalization, a new driver in the family, creating social connections in our lovely neighborhood and church, enjoying the changes that occur in nature, and feeling more and more at home here in Weatherford. We have found a new doctor, explored the Naval Air Force Reserve base and established records there. We have been busy and productive. But, I have become very haphazard about taking pictures! There aren’t very many in my iPad or saved on Facebook. But, I will post a few to round out the year.

Stranger Things exhibit with the girls

Precious old Boomer

Sophie playing volleyball 

Another year older

Jamie and the girls before a choir concert

Annual breast cancer awareness shirt from Scott

Jamie and the girls after a concert.

Sophia during a choir concert

Maggie’s choir performance

Sophie in the hospital

Sophie after being released from the hospital

Games at our Thanksgiving gathering

In the union hall

Molly and Scott at The Ohio State stadium

Molly came to see Sophie in the hospital and watch Maggie dance

Watching Aaron Judge play… highlight of my year!

Maggie and the Charmers

One of many pots of soup!

Exploring city parks with Ron.

Attending a band concert with Scott, Molly, Ron, Marian and the Leander bunch

Dinner with the grand girls

The grands feeding the neighbors

Charmers Winter performance with Maggie

Maggie and her Sweet 16 stun gun

Holland Lake Park - Weatherford

Ron at the Heritage Park display

We ended the year with our one and only family activity with THE ENTIRE FAMILY! And, wouldn’t you know it… I didn’t take a single picture. I really need to do better next year. Leslie did take a cute picture of the two of us in our Christmas Jammie’s. So, I guess I will end this post with that. I can’t wait to see what 2023 has in store for us. 

Gardens of Weatherford

In December of 2021, Ron and I put our names on the waiting list for a cute cottage in an over 55 community in Weatherford, Texas. We had driven through the community several times after finding their website online. Based on what we saw, the reviews we read online, and after comparing it to places in Temple, Saginaw, Gatesville, and Salado, we were fairly certain we had found the right place for us. So, we turned in our application and were told there were seven names ahead of us. We figured it would be 6 months or so before we heard anything. 

On a whim, we drove back through the community while we were visiting Leslie in April, and stopped by the office to see how things were progressing. We were astonished to hear that we had moved up to third on the list. Plus, the people at the top of the list were coming in from out of state and were no where near ready to move. That technically put us at number 2. We were also lucky enough to have stopped by on a day when a unit was vacant; and, the assistant manager let us in to see it. It had a great floor plan with room for all our things.

After we got back to Temple, we started packing and purging. Luckily, we didn’t have much to purge because we have a pretty minimalist lifestyle since selling our Temple house. But, we also had a cruise to Alaska coming up. Our lease on the townhouse was due to expire 2 weeks after returning from our cruise. We didn’t want to be busting our chops, trying to get it all packed in two weeks. Plus, as an added bonus, Seth was staying with us because he was working in Temple. 

Ron rented a storage unit a few blocks from our home. We would pack boxes during the day, then, Seth would help Ron get them moved to the storage unit when he was off work. By the time we left for the cruise, we only had the bare essentials to deal with during the two weeks left on our lease.

That was extremely fortunate because we brought back an unwanted souvenir: we both had COVID 19.  Thankfully, we were able to take the last two weeks in the townhouse to quarantine, recover, rest, and do the final moving preparations slowly as our strength would allow.

I have to make sure to mention how thankful I am for Scott and his fire fighter friends. One of them just happens to work as an appraiser for moving companies. Scott arranged for him to contact us so we could get a quote on how much it would cost to have a company unload the storage room, drive our household items to Weatherford, and unload the truck. This wonderful young man gave us a 75% discount, making it possible for Ron and I to not have to depend on friends and family to provide brute labor. It was simply the easiest move  we have ever had.

 Once our lease ended and the townhouse was empty, we packed up what few things we had left and moved in with Leslie’s family until our new home was ready. We really appreciate her putting up with us for a little over a month. The one and only thing that I am disappointed about is not being able to take our dog, Boomer, with us. The tubby guy weighs more than the weight requirements for our community. However, he now lives with Leslie’s family and we get to see him often. I actually think he is much happier with the girls and Tico around.

Below are some pictures of our new home

The storage room mid way through packing

The truck arrived!

View from the entry way.

View from the back of the living room.

Ron’s den.

Bathroom & laundry room

Second bathroom

Master bedroom

Design wall on my closet door.

Fabric storage in the master bedroom

Our cute little porch.

Finding an Over 55 Community

 Just before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Ron and I had been living full time in our RV. We had just started getting into the groove of planning RV trips around medical, vision and dental appointments. Because we had a home base established at Scott’s house, we could also be home for family events and celebrations. We really thought we would eventually go on a mission for our church at one of their historical sites because we could take our RV to live in. After serving a mission, we thought, if our health remained good, we could spend a couple of years working as park hosts for one of the many state parks in Texas.  Unfortunately, life has a way of not following the plans we make.

Brunhilde bedroom and living room slide outs

Front; entrance and and dining room side

The first sign that we might need to reconsider our plans came with Ron’s health. He has been a diabetic for more years than I can count. He also has had high blood pressure, as well as back and knee pain. The diabetes lead to diabetic retinopathy, which started to effect Ron’s vision. Blood vessels in his eyes leaked, the blood would congeal, causing blind spots in his field of vision. You can’t really be driving a massive pickup truck with a 5th wheel attached when you are practically blind. Surgery to clean out the eye and seal blood vessels grounded us for a while; AND, revealed that Ron also has atrial fibrillation. But, after treatment and recovery, we carried on with less ambitious travel plans as I became our permanent driver.

The second sign that we needed to plot another course came totally by happenstance. We had been traveling through South Dakota when I needed to find an Army base to get a prescription for an antibiotic to treat a dental abscess. During the ER visit, a routine CT scan revealed I have a descending aortic aneurysm. After returning home and seeing a cardiologist, I found out that life style changes would limit how much I could do physically. I can’t lift, push or strain in order to not cause the aneurysm to rupture. Between the two of us, it started to look like we might need to skip the mission and park host decisions.

The final nail in the coffin came as the pandemic hit full force. RV parks were shutting down temporarily. Even state parks were closing down. Scott was adamant that we didn’t need to move; but, Ron and I both felt like we needed a more comfortable place to recover from our health setbacks. It is really a good thing we did because not long after moving in, Ron was diagnosed with congestive heart failure. We ended up staying in a townhouse we leased in Temple for 2 years. 

Our townhouse in Temple…. A place of healing

During the time we spent in Temple, we came to accept the fact that any more trips in the RV would be less frequent and limited to inside Texas. Because we would no longer be traveling, we knew we needed to find something permanent. Neither one of us wanted the responsibility of care and upkeep on a house. But, leasing the townhouse taught us that we needed several things:

• 24 hour on call maintenance 
• Relatively safe neighborhood
• Preferably rural setting
• 2 car garage
• Not income restricted
• Lawn care included
• No stairs
• In unit laundry hook ups
• Social activities
• Easy access to medical care
• Hospital within 15 minute drive
• HEB nearby
• Access to a military base 
• Close to church services, to include a temple
• Less than 30 minutes from one of our kids

Everything pointed toward considering +55 communities. For the last year in the townhouse, I did a ton of online research, we drove and visited several communities, and finally found The Gardens of  Weatherford. It ticked all the boxes. After several years of challenges which seemed like “everything is going wrong,” we have had so many things go right! Way too many amazing things have happened during the process of relocating that we can’t help but believe this was the move God wanted us to make. 

Front office

One of the cottages 

Library

Clubhouse

Gym