Howdy family and friends! As suggested by one of our Facebook friends, we are gonna try the ‘blog thing’ again. If you visit our past blog posts here, you’ll get some fun facts, a dose of my sense of humor, and more.

For those that don’t know why we’re now in Surprise, Arizona – here’s the short version. We retired to North Texas in ’05 to be closer to our son Wade who had been recently married and starting a family. We had a great run spending time with the grand-kids, Wade and Michelle. They decided to relocate to West Texas this past year, not a place high on our list to live. We looked at Florida (too far from SW Washington); we looked at Galveston (too many hurricanes); we looked at returning to Clark County, WA. (but we wanted more sunshine and warmer weather); and looked at the Phoenix area (family already here, plenty of sunshine and warm weather, and lots of Washington friends are Arizona ‘snow-birds’); . . . and so, here we are!

We bought a nice home with pool & two guest rooms for visitors. It’s a split-bedroom concept, much like our Texas home. It gives a sense of privacy for over-night guests. My sister Brenda & niece Kayce were here for Thanksgiving for a few days; good friends Ron & Pat Rucker were here for several days before that, and long-time friends Rob and Vicki Lowe have visited too. You just need to call for your reservation.

And so you know – posts on this blog page will typically be different than what gets posted on our Facebook pages! Happy New Year to everyone!

North Texas Smoke - Pizza!

Lately we have been smoking pizzas from Papa Murphy's Take 'n Bake! We have found that the DeLite crusts get the most smoke & have the best smokey flavor. We set the Traeger on smoke, get it going and change the temp to maximum. Smoke for about 11 minutes, turning 180 degrees at 8 minutes!

Texas Living!

Up-lifting Story: " A Most Unusual Lady "

Most of the people at Chicago's Children's Hospital did not know her name. They just knew her as the sweet elderly lady in the vivid red suit who wanted to make sure that every sick child had a teddy bear to hug and caress. She kept bringing the stuffed animals, purchased with her own money, to give to ailing children. That is why she was simply called the "Teddy Bear Lady." Her name was Gladys Holm, a retired secretary for an insurance company, who lived alone in a small apartment in Evanston, Illinois. It wasn't that she couldn't afford better. No one except her attorney and stockbroker knew she was quite wealthy. When she died at age 86, she had a portfolio worth over $18 million. She had never married and her will simply directed that the bulk of her estate be given to the Children's Memorial Hospital. Her gift was to go to medical research so that new methods of treating sick or disabled children might be developed. The hospital authorities were absolutely shocked by the news. No one had the slightest idea that the tall, happy woman delivering the teddy bears to ailing children had such wealth. As they began to piece together more of her life's story, they discovered something else. They learned that the teddy bears were really a ruse. She gave away teddy bears to learn more about the financial resources of the families of the children. When she learned that parents did not have hospitalization nor enough to cover medical expenses, she very quietly had taken care of their bills. One wonders if Gladys Holm was simply putting into practice what the One known as the Great Physician had recommended: "When you give, sound no trumpet before you. When you give, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your gift may be in secret." At the hospital's memorial service for Gladys, someone had put a teddy bear on every chair.

Texas Living!

Ok! Here it is: The 8 finalists for the 2010 State Fair of Texas "Big Tex Choice Awards". In no particular order. Fried Club Salad - a 12" spinach wrap surrounding diced ham and chicken, shredded lettuce, carrot strips, tomatoes, sharp cheddar cheese & bacon. Fried and served on shredded romaine lettuce; Deep Fried S'mores Pop Tart - a Pop Tart with a chocolate, peanut butter, s'mores flavor, battered & fried. Drizzled with chocolate syrup & topped with whipped cream; Fried Lemonade - lemon flavored pastry made with lemonade, baked, then fried. Glazed with a mix of lemonade, powdered sugar & lemon zest; Texas Fried Caviar - black eyed peas fried & laced with special spices, blended with Old Bay seasoning, served regular or spicy; Texas Fried Frito Pie - Chili, accented with a hint of sharp cheddar cheese, encased in Fritos. Battered & fried; Fried Chocolate - white chocolate & a cherry stuffed into a brownie, dipped in chocolate cake batter & fried. Topped with powdered sugar & a cherry sauce & served with chocolate flavored whipped cream; Deep Fried Frozen Margarita - Sweet funnel cake batter mixed with "margarita ingredients" and either tequila or tequila flavored wine. Fried, dusted with a lemon-lime mixture & served in a salt-rimmed plastic glass; and finally, Fried Beer - fried beer-filled pretzel pocket. Bite into it and the beer pours out, serving as a dipping sauce! The common denominator? Yep, you guessed it!  All entries have to be fried. Who will win?

Texas Living!

Living here in North Texas, we have lots of Hispanics due to our proximity to Mexico. I work with many who deliver to the store. Most are courteous, professional and very friendly. Some speak such broken English, it is hard to sometimes understand them. But I think they should learn our language if they want to live here, AND damn it, they should pay taxes just like me for the benefits they receive. If they are illegals, they should get the hell out of dodge!

The owner of the Phoenix Suns basketball team, Robert Sarver, opposes AZ's new immigration laws. Arizona 's Governor, Jan Brewer, released the following statement in response to Sarver's criticism of the new law:

"What if the owners of the Suns discovered that hordes of people were sneaking into games without paying? What if they had a good idea who the gate-crashers are, but the ushers and security personnel were not allowed to ask these folks to produce their ticket stubs, thus non-paying attendees couldn't be ejected. Furthermore, what if Suns' ownership was expected to provide those who sneaked in with complimentary eats and drink? And what if, on those days when a gate-crasher became ill or injured, the Suns had to provide free medical care and shelter?" - Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer

Texas Living

Yep folks! This is how Donna treats me!

Texas Living

LETTER FROM A BOSS for one approach to a difficult lay-off situation! Dear Employees:  As the CEO of this organization, I have resigned myself to the fact that Barrack Obama is our President and that our taxes and government fees will increase in a BIG way. To compensate for these increases, our prices would have to increase by about 10%. But since we cannot increase our prices right now due to the dismal state of the economy, we will have to lay off sixty of our employees instead. This has really been bothering me since I believe we are family here and I didn't know how to choose who would have to go. So, this is what I did. I walked through our parking lot and found sixty 'Obama' bumper stickers on our employees' cars and have decided these folks will be the ones to let go. I can't think of a more fair way to approach this problem. They voted for change.......I gave it to them. I will see the rest of you at the annual company picnic. THE BOSS