It's a New Year - Yeah 2009!!

Hi Folks,
Again, it's been a while since I've written anything on what we've been up to. Phew! Let's see where to begin????

Well, the weekend before Christmas, Drew and I decided to take our new motorhome for it's maiden voyage down to an RV Resort on the California/Arizona border. It is called Emerald Cove and the drive down was pretty nice. Unfortunately, we thought we were going to get a real early start, and of course, that didn't happen! lol We never got out of here until the afternoon, and got into the RV Park around 2 in the morning! Well, they showed us where to set up and Drew did only the basics. . . not wanting to disturb the other campers.
Next morning, he unhooked my car, and what happens? Number one in our many upsets over the next few weeks! My car battery had died! And it's only a year old. Apparently pulling it behind the motorhome and we followed the instructions exactly, and it pulled all the juice out of the battery. Sooooo, we called for a jump, got it fixed and proceeded to enjoy our few days before Drew had to go back to work for a couple days.
In the process, we bought into the resort (1 of 8) and now we have places to stay inbetween traveling over the rest of our time with the RV. It also came with visits for our kids and we have cards for them. It allows them when we stop traveling/ahem pass away, to buy into the resort for 5% of what we paid. I'm not telling what that is for now, but they know what it is and it turns out to be very good for them!
So, at this one park, Molly was able to run loose in an enclosed run and play in the water. Do you think she took advantage of that! NOT! She didn't even care for the water. She was too busy checking out every nook and cranny around fencelines and picnic tables, etc. She's such a snooper!
So, on Sunday Drew had to head back here to Cortez and work for a couple days and then he drove back after he got off at the airport on the 23rd. He was back at the park by 8:15 on the 24th, after which we unhooked everything and packed it all up for the rest of the trip to see the family for Christmas in California.
Well, comes the next upset...we got to Jamie's and Ralph's place, of which they had the perfect RV setup for us to park, except no one took into account how much a 40' RV weighs. So, in backing up into it with Ralphs instructions, we sunk into the mud on the drivers side and they spent hours digging it out. It wasn't Ralphs fault, but hey, things happen and we learned a good lesson...we need to check the soil first before parking...we never thought about all the rains they were having out there and that the dirt wouldn't hold. We laugh at it now, but the guys weren't laughing then.
Also, again, my car battery died, and this time when it was boosted, they blew the power steering in my HHR. Since we were staying only for the lovely Christmas Eve get together with Jamie and Ralph and other family and friends that showed up and were leaving later on. It came upon me to do the driving more on that later...
Jamie stayed down in the house fixing up the most delightful food, and so I just joined in and helped where I could. I also wrapped some last minute presents for her that she ran out of time to do. Boy, Jamie and Ralph are pretty busy these days as are all our grown children. l wonder sometimes if they ever take time to rest. (grin) So, eventually everyone arrived and Drew's brother, Bob, (a professional truck driver) actually drove the motorhome out of the hole we put it in, and we were able to just then park it on the street in front of the house on the hill. Those people weren't home for the holidays, so that worked out nicely.
The Christmas Eve party was a success, at least as far as I was concerned. Good food, family and friends all visiting and enjoying each others company. Gave everyone a chance to check up on what the other's have been doing over the last few months that we hadn't seen each other. Later on when things started to wind down, a family friend offered to be my guide in getting to our other daughters' house as with Drew not driving and maybe falling asleep (by this time he'd been up over 40 hours), I'm not the greatest in getting around on Californias freeways in the dark. So, I followed him, now remind you, we have no power steering, and I hadn't had the cast off my left hand very long. So, driving was definitely a miracle. I just kept that friends license plate in my eyesite, cause if I'd lost it, I'd have to wake up Drew and that I didn't want to do. Come to find out, he never did go to sleep while I was driving. Before we started, it was "Don't you think I should drive?" hahaha I grew up in cars without power steering. So, I sorta remembered what it was going to be like, and I wasn't far off. But, I did it and we arrived at Michelle and Chancy's to enjoy Christmas morning with them and our 2 lovely granddaughters, Micaela and Maycee.
We had the most enjoyable visit with them, and it was neat to see Christmas dinner from a different perspective. It was the first time I never had turkey, ham or roast beef. She served a delicious Enchilada Casserole with salad. Simple but outstanding. She really worked on that meal! She also had her mother (Drew's 2nd ex-wife) and her husband there for the dinner, and she made some outstanding Puerto Rican Rice. I watched both of them make their dishes, and I think I can remember how they did it so I can replicate it at a future date.
So, we finally left there and on the way home we made a detour down by Palm Desert to meet with Kim and Jarred to deliver their presents and they took the presents for Kim's husband and Arron. It was a short visit, but it was still fun to see them. Boy, Jarred's just towering over me now! But, he's still one of my little stinkers! lol
Anyways, on the way home, Drew was getting tired and so was I, but there just wasn't an RV resort that we could find off the bat, so we made a stop overnight at a Rest Area, and parked our RV between 2 other RVs and about 3 semi trucks. It felt pretty safe that way. It's nice when you have a generator so that you can cook your own food and not have to worry about the heat and all. We rested and the next morning woke up and finished getting home in time.
I had the sneaky suspicion that if Drew didn't call our neighbor before we got home we wouldn't be able to get into the driveway at all. He had checked with his cousin (who lives next door) and we'd gotten quite a bit of snow. So, since it was going to take a pretty big tractor to clear that out and not the 4-wheeler with plow that his cousin has, we called the neighbor on the other side and he was nice enough to have it done by the time we got home. Hmmmm, now to think of what I can make for them for doing that wonderful thing. We were able to drive right in and park the car, and we didn't even think about unloading it until the next day. We were both too pooped! But, we had the best Christmas in a long time, considering we didn't have any other family visiting us. Drew was really happy not to have to get all those lights and stuff up!
In fact, talking lights, we are going to be sending all the outdoor lights to my son, Peter, as he expressed an interest in them, as he's into the decorating the outside of your house bug now that he has kids. Go figure...I'm glad one of my boys is really a deco freak! My other son Sean likes to decorate, but lately, he's been really busy with his business slowing down. He owns his own Tile Store, and he had to let some employees go due to the slow housing market. Hopefully, it'll pick up and he can bring them back. We'll see.
In the meantime, that same son, Sean, and his beautiful wife, Emily, had their 5th child on Jan 7th. They finally got their son! He is named Joshua Michael White, and his 4 sisters, Allyssa, Tori, Caitlin, and Kara, have been waiting for him for ages. I've heard that they are finally calling it a halt on having more babies. But, knowing Emily, she's the epitome of "Mother", so I could see them in the future (after getting a bigger house) maybe taking in more kids. We'll see.
Well, I have lots more to say about all our kids, but I think I'll leave it to a future post. This one is plenty long as it is. So, til the next time, and hopefully it won't be so long...Have a safe and Happy 2009!