Friday, May 27, 2011

busy day

We sure worked out in the yard a lot this morning.  Too bad it's not our yard, but at least for while we're living in it, we'll try to make it look as nice as it can be.  The weather was quite hot, but staying in the shade it felt ok.  We have many more plants in pots now and placed underneath trees around here.

In the afternoon, we copied all the NEW necessary forms for the Spanish consulate, then went to the Credit Union for a Teller's Check to send to the consulate to pay the taxes that Spain requires.  Then we took all of it to the post office and mailed it off to Houston.

In the evening, we had a very nice dinner with our good friends George and Sandra at Red Lobster.

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

I'm posting this on Wednesday.  Last Sunday, we had our neighbors over - Mary, Matt and Evan - for some Sangria (Evan - water) and we sat on our back deck and enjoyed the evening.

So, this is the view from our back deck.  Looks really nice after the mowing that Guillermo did.

 Last night, Tuesday night, Guillermo and I sat out there again and watched the Titmice feeding at the bird feeder.  This was the best picture I could get.....

And here's Guillermo's garden.  Nowhere NEAR as big as it was at our own house, but at least he has a garden.  It's kind of in the background by that white shed.  I need to get a closer picture......

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Guillermo's gardening again

Yesterday Guillermo spent practically all day digging up a little plot in the backyard here to plant a few things.  It was rough because the ground had never been dug and he didn't have his favorite tool with which to dig it up.  But working from morning until late afternoon he got the area dug up.  He even was able to plant a few seeds!  After he took care of setting up his garden, he got the mower out and we both mowed the front and the back a little bit.  Looks nicer around here now.

So, this is the house we're living in for the summer

Fernando, this is where your car is temporarily.  It will be moved this week sometime, switched with the car that is next to it.

Today, Guillermo is suffering from all the digging he did yesterday - not bad, but he IS feeling all that work he did yesterday.  Pictures of his garden coming soon.....

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Picking up Fernando's car

Saturday morning, Linda and Jacob came over to our house to join us on our drive up to Greenville to pick up Fernando's car, which has been stored at John and Elaine's house.
We left around 9am, stopped for lunch at Chick Fil A in Temple, then when we got close to Dallas, found that the highway was jammed up with cars.  So, we quickly looked over the maps since we were fairly close to Greenville by then hoping to find an alternate route.  We found one that took us through Terrell, where we stopped for snacks and then took the little country road up to Greenville.  Actually, the road we took up to Greenville is the very road that John lives off of but we drove past where we'd turn off to get to his house and instead drove on to get our hotel.
After looking at the hotel we thought we'd stay at - and deciding against it - we drove around a little more and settled on the Hampton Inn, which turned out to be a GREAT choice.  We called John after we had settled in and made plans to meet them at their house.
We sat around with them for a little while at their house talking with John and Elaine, and sometimes James and Amy.  We had a nice time talking with them and then we went outside and took a few pictures.  The weather was colder than we thought it was going to be!  John and Elaine lent us jackets!!

With this picture I'm taking the picture and trying to figure out the timer on the camera.

This test of the timer worked, but some people were caught with their eyes closed.

Everyone's eyes are open this time, but John's head got cut off a little.

Then we went out to eat at a place in downtown Greenville called the Landon Winery - the food was delicious!  Very enjoyable meal we had there.  Then we took these pictures outside the restaurant.

This one without flash...

This one with flash.

Then we drove to a park close to their house - a very nice park with a playground that is every kid's dream.  It had absolutely anything a kid could want to play on.  Jacob had a blast there.  James wanted to show me the pond at the park, so we both walked over there.  Very nice.  We stood on the little pier for a while listening to the sounds of the pond and watching a few birds.  We all had a very nice evening.

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Gypsy episode number 8

So, we are now in another new place to live for a while.  We figure this is the 8th different place we've lived in since we had to move out of our house last August.

It's a little house, just a few houses down from where our old house used to be, except this house is across the street.  There've been a few kinks that needed to be worked out here, and some are still being worked on.  We have internet and TV now, which is good.  The washer still needs to be looked at and also the stove, but other than that, we have all we need here.  It's kind of weird being on the street again, but it's SO convenient to everything.  We worked a little bit this morning out in the backyard of this house, trimming some potted roses and branches from trees and stuff.  It started thundering while we were out there and the sky got dark, but the rain never did materialize.  That's too bad, it is incredibly dry here in San Antonio.

Before we we left my mom's house, she picked some daisies and ferns so that we could have some flowers in our new place.  They look really nice on the table in our kitchen and sure do brighten up the room!

Daisies are one of my favorite flowers!!  They look so pretty!

This is my Mother's Day rose - finally starting to open up.  This color rose is my favorite!

Sunday, May 8, 2011

Mother's Day

I had a nice day today.
Went to an early morning mass with my mother and nephew Chris and afterwards we all went to IHop to have breakfast, which was very good!

Then in the afternoon we went to Kathy's house.  Carlos grilled some meat, we had salad and avocado with it and then we had some good desserts.  A nice suprise was that George and Ryan showed up at Kathy's for a little while.
Mom getting out the fruit salad she made


Later,  Guillermo and I went to Starbucks, where we used the internet and had an iced white chocolate mocha - something we've been doing for the last 3 evenings, and finding we enjoy doing that.

Tomorrow evening, we move into the little rental on El Verde Rd..........

Thursday, May 5, 2011

Been back 3 days now

Well, it's Thursday now and we've been back in town for 3 days.  Not much has been going on except for running errands and trying to get some things accomplished.  Fortunately for us, the weather was cool when we got back so that was very nice.  Unfortunately, it is extremely dry here and most everything looks brown and like it's suffering.

We drove by our old neighborhood yesterday and while the whole are looks interesting with all the houses gone, it is very messy with debris all over the place and concrete slabs still in place.  Then, with everything looking so brown and dry, that didn't help either with the way things looked.