The Merry Marsden Travels

March and April 2012 Summary We have been back home in Lakefield as of Tuesday, April 10/12, so there is a gap in this blog for March and the beginning of April that I will attempt to summarize. From February 28 to March 12, I was in Chesapeake, Virginia. I had the pleasure of looking after our first grandchild, Jacob (9 months old) for a week while our son Tom and his wife Diana spent a well deserved vacation in Mexico. Here is a picture with Tom and Diana with Jacob and this is what Diana wrote on her Facebook page on March 26/12. " Forever in our arms, Jacob William David! With full hearts we are proud to announce the adoption of our son, born in Virginia, on May 30, 2011. Welcome Home Jake! We are also happy to share that our “forever family” continues to grow through the gift of adoption. We are anxiously awaiting the arrival of Jake’s baby sister, due June 3 . Please continue to keep our family and our children’s very special birthmother in your thoughts and prayers – all...

Just to catch up on our weekend activities before the month is over. On Friday, Feb 24, Brenda and I went to the Rio Grande Valley Quilt Show at the McAllen Convention Centre. Neither one of us are quilters - just quilting admirers. So we didn't have to spend all our money on material and patterns. It was a rainy day so we had a nice lunch at Mimi's Cafe and then stopped to shop at Steinmarts too. On Saturday morning, Ron and Judy, Don and I went to a Blini and Piroghie Brunch at St George Orthodox Church in Pharr. Blinis are crepes that w e filled with different jams - even Nutella. There was expensive Russian t ea to drink too. We all chose blinis so the piroghies were untried. On Sunday our street - Masters Drive had their block party. It was held on Lot 595 - which is the lot we are moving to next season - it has more concret e than the lot we are on now. We already moved a shed that houses a washer and dryer onto that lot. It was a pot luck celebration and there seem to b...

Haven't blogged for awhile because the weather has improved and couldn't stay inside when it is beautiful outside. So I have to mention the highlights for the past 10 days. On Wednesday, Feb 15/12 about 30 TG Bike Club members participated in the McAllen Golden Years Bike and Birding Event at Bentsen State Park (about 30 minutes away by car). We traillered the bikes there and then rode around the park. We saw kisadees, red shouldered hawks, greenjays and altamira orioles, plus 3 milk snakes sunning themselves in a creek. Don got to go to another Killer Bee Game but unfortunately the bees lost that night. I didn't get to this one since I had Cuddle Club at the hospital that night. Feb 18. I attended the Pioneer and Ranching Craft Day at the Museum of South Texas History in Edinburg on Feb 18. There was entertainment and demonstrations and lots of Winter Texans there because it was a nice day even though the weatherman said we were to get 50 mph winds - which luckily did no...

Sunday, February 12/12 Well it has been a cool rainy week in South Texas - not what we had signed on for but we can't complain about the rain because of the drought that Texas has experienced in the past year. We have kept ourselves busy by shopping, going to see the movie "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" with Tom Hanks, Sandra Bullock and a young boy actor who had a difficult role that he did very well. It was $5 Movie Monday. Don only got to play ball on Monday and Tuesday mornings - Wednesday and Thursday were rained out but he did go to Umpire School from 9 to 4 on Saturday. We checked out a few Thrift stores and I could not resist the urge to pick up some glassware to make a few pole toppers - that will perch on top of sawed off golf clubs - since there are no cross country ski poles here to be had. On Friday night, Bonnie and John, Brenda and Rick, Maureeen and I went to a local theatre group's production of "The River is Gold" - a bit painful but...

Tuesday, Feb 7/12 Time to catch up again on what we have been doing down here in Texas. On Jan 31/12, I attended an evening performance in our Rec Ctr of "Gold Wing Express" - a white father and his 3 Indian sons - bluegrass country band - great guitar and banjo playing and lots of fun too. Don and I drove the hour down to South Padre Island on Groundhog Day, had lunch at Pirate's Landing in Port Isabel and then went over to the Island. We met up with our friend Tracy Logan and h er 4 month old daughter Emma. They were down from Lakefield area to visit Tracy's parents who winter on the island - from the Chatham area. It was Emma's first time to the beach and she slept through it. On our way back to Alamo we stopped at the new Bass Pro Store in Harlengen but didn't buy any of their boats or anything. These stores are a work of wildlife art inside and always worth a good look around. We have been to see some movies on Mondays - $5 ticket for Seniors all day ...

Cuddle Club - After passing a background check, then a urine drug screen test I received a Cuddle Club Volunteer Badge from the Women's Renaissance Hospital in Edinburg ( about 20 minute drive from our park). This idea came from a lady in our park who was delivering knitted premie hats to the nursery in this hospital and the coordinator at the hospital asked if she was there for the "Cuddle Club" - to hold and rock babies in the nursery. She told us about that and I said if she would like to do that, I was interested too. So now there are 8 ladies involved. 4 of us did our first shift last Wednesday evening from 5 to 8 PM. In the time we were in the nursery there, 5 babies were born. The moms are only in for about 24 to 36 hours after a natural birth and 2 d ays for a C-Section. So we got to hold brand new babies - feed some. All the mom's rooms are private. There are about 500 babies born each year in this hospital. It is a real privilege to hold these beautiful newb...

January 18 to 28/2012 It has been a busy 10 days. We enjoyed a Dinner Theatre on the 20th that was put on by the talented McAllen High School Choir students (20 of them). Their program was called "I Walk with Music" - a tribute to the music of Hoagy Carmicheal ( a Jazz musician/songwriter born in 1899). Some of Hoagy's hits were "Georgia On My Mind" and "Star Dust". The dinner and show took place in a church hall which was decorated in the school colors of purple and gold - including satin chair covers and gold presentation plates. The catered chicken dinner was served by students. The choir boys wore tuxedos and the choir girls wore an assortment of fancy formal purple gowns. On Sunday the 20th I took 2 lovely older widow ladies from the park out for lunch and then to the South Texas Museum in Edinburg to listen to an author who wrote a book of short stories on the famous King Ranch of Texas. She wasn't very interesting but a generous patron of th...