Happy Holidays!

It is Thanksgiving weekend a time to be thankful for all our blessings and to reflect on the year past. Margaret and I had Thanksgiving dinner with friends and then spent Black Friday working around the house and putting up our Christmas decorations. And as we transition to the Christmas Season we want to extend our greetings and blessings to all our friends and family.

WORK
Margaret continues to work for ATI and this year traveled from coast to coast and places in between. On occasion her travels allowed her the opportunity to visit family and friends in the various locations. I again worked for H&R Block during the tax season and recently went back to work to help out with the Emerald Advance or holiday loan program and with tax audit problems. Before Christmas last year I completed all my testing for the Enrolled Agent certification program with the IRS.

TRAVEL
We ended last year spending Christmas in Las Vegas. I drove up to LV and Margaret flew in from Florida where she had been on a work assignment. LV is a rather surreal place to spend Christmas. The highlight of our visit was attending an Andy Williams Christmas concert at the Hilton Hotel. We attended Christmas morning Mass at a Catholic Church which sits in the shadow of the Wynn and Encore Casinos. Following the Mass we made our way down Las Vegas Boulevard mingling amongst the crowd which from my point of view was mostly made up of foreign tourists.

This past year we mainly did our traveling separately. In April Margaret went to Nashville, TN, to participate in a Country Music half-marathon with her sister Carol, a birthday gift for Carol to mark a “milestone” birthday. The weekend they were in Nashville it rained and there was a tornado watch, but it was nothing like the rain and flooding that hit the area a week later. While they were there they visited the Country Music Hall of Fame.

At the end of June Margaret was in Dallas for work and at the end of that assignment flew to Fargo, ND, to visit her mother at Dorset, MN, over the 4th of July weekend. I traveled to North Dakota at the end of June and attended a Backman Family Reunion on July 4th. The reunion was considerably smaller than the event five years ago but was attended by many of us who came from some distance to attend it. Also while I was in ND I attended the wedding of Martina Wolf and Greg Dovorak at Hannover and my 45th High School Reunion in Bismarck.

In June before I departed for ND I had a call from a friend, Ken Carpenter who I hadn’t heard from in several years. Ken and I had traveled together to Russia in 1993 with the Farmer-to-Farmer program. He had never visited ND, (one of six that he hadn’t) and wanted to do so with someone he knew. So from July 7th to the 14th I traveled with him for a week. We met up in Dorset and journeyed from there to western ND in a week’s time. During that time we packed a lot of “things” into the time allotted. I utilized my cadre of friends and relatives to provide Ken with a good overview of sights and events including: Dining at Companeros Restaurant and at Logging Camp in the Dorset area; walking across the headwaters of the Mississippi River in Itasca State Park; a ride around Round Lake on a pontoon boat; visiting the ND Aviation Museum in Fargo and the Red Trail Vineyard near Buffalo, ND and the National Buffalo Visitors Center at Jamestown; toured my farm and my cousin’s farm and saw up close construction material for the next expansion of the Grass Lake wind farm all near Wilton; visited the Lewis and Clark Foundation Visitor’s Center at Washburn; visited the Heritage Center in Bismarck and Ft. Abraham Lincoln south of Mandan; attended auto races at Mandan; saw Salem Sue, the largest milk cow in the world on a hill at New Salem; drove the Enchanted Highway from I-94 to Regent; stopped in New England, ND since Ken had lived in most of the states of the real New England and wanted to see the town named after that area; ate at the pitch fork fondue in Medora and attended the Medora Musical; saw the coal gasification plant and reclamation north of Beulah and toured the BNI Coal Mine near Center where Ken was able to ride on the dragline and in a 180 ton coal truck. After all that we drove back to Dorset where he dropped me off and proceeded on to the Twin Cities where he caught his plane back to Richmond, VA having seen a lot of ND in a week’s time.

To help out with this travel itinerary I have to thank Margaret’s mother Betty Fairfield, Betty’s Uncle Mike Kempnich, my college friends Larry & Nancy Ness, a former co-worker Rudy Radke, my cousins Archie and Eldo Johnson, my cousin Gary & Kathy Speten and their sons Nathan and Troy (the car racers!), and my friends Allen & Lorraine Schmidt and Walter & Sarah Wolf.
On my drive back to Bismarck I stopped in Jamestown to visit my mother’s cousin Reuben Gums. His mother and my maternal grandmother were Vossler sisters. Reuben organized a dinner with his family members at the Spiritwood Lake Resort north of Jamestown at which we brought everyone up to date on our lives.

At the beginning of October I took a quick trip to Portland, OR to attend the wedding of my cousin Arnold Keller’s daughter Lisa. It was a beautiful wedding and the weather even cooperated in Portland for it. I had a chance to “catch up” with my Keller cousins. In early November I went to Denver, CO for a week to help out my cousin Ruthann who underwent back surgery. She needed someone to take care of her dog Bijou and help her out around the house for the two days that she was in the hospital and during her initial recovery after she got home.

HOME IMPROVEMENTS
This year was a big year for home improvements at our house. After contemplating it for several years we took the plunge and replaced all of the windows in our house. So far we have been very pleased with the outcome. Then this fall we decided to remodel our master bathroom. We did all the bath work ourselves except for refinishing the bath tub. We hired that task out and the results were very good. The tub looks like a new one.

“OLD WINDOW ART”
When I returned from ND I brought along a couple of old windows and we had one of them painted with a scene of the barn on the farm that I had restored. I had met the artist, Sandra Montgomery, from Old Window Art, last year when she had a showing of her work at the Campus Christian Center at the University of Arizona. I liked the concept and decided that I would contact her this year after I found a suitable window. It turned out that Sandra lives only a few blocks from where we do! Que sera sera!!

LOCAL EVENTS
On May 1st we hosted a party to celebrate a number of events including our 19th anniversary and the end of the tax season. We had a number of people at the party including Margaret’s brother Leonard who drove over from San Diego to join us.

At the end of May I accompanied Margaret on one of her training sessions to Page, AZ and we visited the Glen Canyon Dam. While she was working I also took a tour of Antelope Valley and went for a boat ride on Lake Powell. Then in the middle of October I went with her to Mesquite, NV when she had a training job at Littlefield, AZ on the north rim of the Grand Canyon. The main reason for my accompanying her was that we were meeting up with our friends Walt & Sarah Wolf from Center, ND. They were visiting LV with Sarah’s parents. We spend the day with them and had a good visit seeing some of the sights in LV including the Shark Reef Aquarium at the Mandalay Bay and the fountain at the Bellagio Hotel.

Margaret continues donating her time to Literacy Volunteers of Tucson as a substitute English instructor. With her busy work schedule, it’s difficult to have a weekly class; however, she does enjoy the opportunity to assist the community.

As we bring 2010 to a close we again want to wish each and every one of you all the blessings of the Christmas Season and want to extend to everyone our hopes for a Happy New Year in 2011.

Bathroom

Our master bathroom is finished! It took a month, but that is understandable considering Tim and I were away at different times during that month. We refinished the bathtub, put down title, installed a low-flow toilet and a a new vanity. Of course, then all the accessories had to be updated!

Fall (Still!)

We thought you might enjoy our picture of the barn. This was painted on an old window Tim brought back from ND this summer. It turns out that a neighbor is an artist. She owns Old Window Art. I think she did a wonderful job of depicting the ND scene.

October was a busy travel month for me. I was in Massachusetts several times, got to see my family there as well as the time I was in central Florida. We were able to get together with the Wolfes from ND in Las Vegas. This month Tim flew up to Denver to help his cousin out after her back surgery. He tells me he is a good dog walker.

We have decided to do some remodeling in our master bathroom. Tim is replacing the toilet with a more water efficient one; retiled the floor, and had the bathtub resurfaced. I just finished painting the room (a light shade a yellow). When Tim comes back from Denver he'll finish up with installing a new vaniety.

I just came back from seeing Secretariat. Great movie!

I'm excited about Carol moving back to the USA. She will be moving to Syracuse, NY, and working in a community hospital there as a Clinical Nurse Specialist. :)

Fall

The picture is the flower in my water pond.

Fall has arrived, at least on the calendar. Here in AZ we are beginning to cool off. The daytime highs are only in the 90s. This morning when I woke up it was only 62 degrees. But don't worry, it warms up pretty quick around here.

It is Saturday morning and we decided to plant our Fall garden. We (or should it be Margaret) planted green beans, peas, Swiss chard, spinach, and two varieties of lettuce. We'll see in about 2 months how it goes. I should give credit where credit is due. Tim did have to prep the soil for me. Thanks honey for this. I'll take care of the blister you got.

A few weeks ago I was fortunate to go to Massachusetts (again). I spent the day with John and Lela and cousin Catherine's boy, Matthew. We all went to the Renaissance fair in Carver. Had a great time seeing the Medieval events. Matthew was even a participant in the Magician's show!

We're meeting the Schmidts in Phoenix later in the week. They're in AZ for a wedding that weekend. Then Tim and I are off to different parts of the country -- I'm to Massachusetts (for work) and Tim to Portland for his cousin's daughter's wedding.

Long Time Past

Yes, it has been a long time since we've updated our blog....busy summer. Tim is back home and brought back with him lots of fresh produce (thanks Eldo), homemade jams/jelly, wheat just off the combine (thanks Gary), and meats. Margaret is busy with work -- lots of travels in Arizona and Massachusetts.

Labor Day weekend we had a bar-b-q (isn't that what everyone should do?). Had some of that great produce from ND -- cucumber salad and squash. Did some yardwork triming tress (yes I did work in the yard!). Saw the new George Clooney movie, The American. We both agree -- not worth seeing. Everyone walking out of the theatre thought the same. I cannot even give it one star!

Summer is Here

This week Tucson hit its first day of 100 degrees! That means that summer is officially here. Nice timing as it came the same week as Memorial Day.

Earlier in the week Tim and I drove up to Page, northern AZ; I had a job up there and Tim went along for the company. We stopped there last summer on our way to Yellowstone so this was a great opportunity to explore the area. We visited Lake Powell, the second largest man-made lake in the United States. We tried to take a tour of the Glen Canyon Dam, but it was too windy. However, we did have an informative visit at the Visitor Center. Monday when I was at work Tim took a tour to Antelope Canyon, a beautiful slot canyon on the Navajo Nation. He also took a tour on Lake Powell.

Later part of the week I had an adventure in the Denver area. I watched a funnel cloud formation, drove through pea, then golf, then baseball size hail (in some parts they received 6 inches of hail), and saw a tornado. Hail was several inches deep so CO got the snow plows out! Keep in mind that it was the last week of May!!

On Saturday we decided to take a walk in Sabino Canyon. We walked the 3.7 miles up and back. I did okay on the way up; unfortunately I did something to my left foot and it really hurt me walking down. So the rest of the weekend Tim has been wrapping it in ice and giving me Motrin. It does feel better but it still hurts to walk. Saturday evening we had a picnic in the park with some friends and enjoy the Tucson Symphonic Winds. Sunday we went to the movies .... saw Letters to Juliet. Yes, it is a "chick flick."

Our window project is almost done. Unfortunately, the patio door is causing problems just because of the size and the age of our house. I am looking forward to coming home after being on the road (yes, again!) and seeing a final product.

Another New Experience

On Sunday we decided to visit the Schnepf Farm in Queen Creek (just outside of Phoenix) for their annual Peach Festival. Unfortunately, Mother Nature did not cooperate with their event as the peaches were not yet ready to harvest....a few more days. We did get a peach pie and it was excellent! We also visited the Queen Creek Olive Mill, which we have heard about in the past. They are almost across the street from each other. Both farms would be nice to revisit; both were too crowded due to the festivals. We were able to visit friends in the Queen Creek area.

New Experience

We decided to do something different last night and went to the movies. Beforehand we tried out a "new" restaurant -- Sabor Tropical (Grant/Campbell). They serve authentic Colombian meals. It was very good. We then enjoyed watching A Hard Day's Night (Beatles flick) at La Placita. From May-October each Thursday La Placita plaza is turned into an outdoor movie theatre. We brought out chairs, but they have chairs or just sit in a patch of grass, and enjoy the movie outdoors. It was a beautiful evening -- in the 70s. I'm looking forward to seeing more movies downtown, if my work/travel schedule permits.

Windows

This week we started a major renovation of our home -- new windows! It is odd to look out the window, especially the front living room, now. The image is our new living room window. The company still has to install the sliding glass patio door.

Events

We have had busy weekends the last 2 weekends. On May Day we hosted a backyard party for our neighbors, friends, and family. It was a great way to catch up with everyone, share my Nashville experience with them, and celebrate our 19th wedding anniversary. I was even very fortunate to have Len drive over from San Diego just for the Saturday evening party. Thanks!!

On Mother's Day we decided to continue our exploration of Arizona. We went to the Holy Trinity Monastery in St. David. It was our first time and definitely a place we would like to return to. Mother's Day weekend they have a large arts and craft festival.

Official Time

The official time for the 1/2 marathon was 2:34:10. Keep in mind, however, we only walked 10+ miles; we had to cut it short due to the tornado warning!

Last night we saw Jerrod Niemann, Heidi Newfield, and John Rich in concert.

Nashville Marathon

WE DID IT!! The weather sorta cooperated with us. Nashville right now is under a tornado watch. Towards the end, we thought a tornado actually might help our time! A good wind is all we needed. As we were walking the last mile it began to rain. All the spectators kept encouraging us to walk one more mile. Boy, there are a lot of "one more mile!" Also everyone kept telling us we were on the last hill. Again, lots of "last hills." The sky really opened up and buckets of rain came as we finished the race. There was even lightening. Six months and a couple of drinks ago, this seemed like a great idea. The officials started the race 15 minutes early and ended it early due to the weather. Click here for a news article. Well, we have to be honest, it was worth it.

Check out some of our pictues on the Photo link.

The Weekend is Upon Us

I'm heading off tomorrow morning for Nashville. If all plans go right, I'll be meeting up with Carol in the Atlanta airport as we have the same flight to Nashville. (But who knows what will happen with airline travel.) So please think positive thoughts for us on Saturday morning as we walk the 1/2 marathon (in the rain!!). Hey, it is a "girls weekend" so why not have fun! I'm going to try to post on Saturday afternoon our accompishment, provided I'm not totally exhausted.

Weekend Events

This weekend brought us some sad news. Tim's godmother and aunt Myrna Johnson, passed away. We also need to keep Margaret's brother Mark in our thoughts and prayers as he is going through a difficult time in his life.

Margaret was involved in the Literacy Volunteers of Tucson's mini-conference on Saturday; she was a presenter for a session on technology. On Sunday she participated in the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure. It was a beautiful weekend to be outdoors, except for the allergy side affects.

In just over a week Margaret will be participating in the 1/2 marathon in Nashville. We'll have to keep you posted on that!

Only 1 Month Left

As many of you know I will be walking a 1/2 marathon in Nashville (TN) in exactly a month! Think about me and my sister on Saturday, April 24, as we walk in the Country Music Marathon. (It is a huge marathon, you can check out the link.) I don't know what Carol's "excuse" is, but in a moment of weakness I promised her that my birthday present to her this year would be participating in the marathon. What was I thinking? Too much wine that night? I don't think I have ever walked 13.5 miles in one day straight. I have been "training" but even that has been a challenge with my work/travel schedule. The approach I'm taking is that it will be a girl's weekend since neither of us have been to Nashville. The one tourist thing we plan on doing is visiting the County Music Hall of Fame.

Spring Began

I got back from New England on Sunday, 3/14. It was nice to be in the sunshine. I felt I was ready to build Noah's Arc in New England. Had a great visit (even though it was short) with Beth, John, and Lela. Thanks guys! When I looked outside I was pleasantly surprised to see that my rosebush has started to bloom. I have about 6 roses at all different stages of blooming. Does this mean that the winter garden must go and I have to get the summer garden going?

I should have posted this on St. Patrick's Day, but better late than never! Tucson reached over 80 degrees on Wednesday, 3/17. It was our first 80+ degree day this year. So it looks like "spring" has arrived in the desert. Our spring is so short; it seems like it goes from spring to summer overnight. I know that some of our friends and family feel like winter will never end but remember that Saturday, 3/20, is the first official day of Spring. Summer is then just around the corner!

Weekend

Friday night was "date night" -- we went to a performance by the Tucson Symphony Orchestra. Rich Ridenour was the guest conductor & pianist -- lots of humor and enjoyable movie-themed performances.

For the 2nd weekend in a row, Tim had Saturday off. So we decided to go for a walk in Sabino Canyon. As we walked the clouds started to roll in and by the end of our walk it was raining. We had to cut our walk short also because the streams were overflowing and it was difficult to cross the streams. One stream the water was ankle deep.

On Saturday afternoon we saw Crazy Heart, the movie starring Jeff Bridges. What an awesome movie. We loved it. Jeff Bridges really should get an Oscar for his performance.

Today it is overcast again. Tim is working. I'm off to pick up a cake for Tim's co-worker who is being shipped off to the Navy next week.

Valentine

Okay, so this posting didn't happen on Valentine's Day. Tim actually had to work on Sunday so we decided to celebrate the day on Saturday. We drove down to Tubac, an artist town just south of Tucson. Each spring they have a huge arts festival. (Check out the pictures under the "Photos" link on the right side of this page.) There is a little joke around our home in that I rarely get flowers. So Tim bought be a rose bush sculpture. Now I'll always have blooming red roses! Actually, Tim really spoiled me by buying me a pearl necklace. After all, my name does mean "pearl"!

Stormy Weather

I was in Cincinnati, OH, earlier this week -- right between snowstorms. My "new" winter coat did its job :) Okay, so I was 2 hours late getting back to Tucson. I owe Tim BIG time for picking me up at the airport at 1 o'clock in the morning! I was suppose to go to Rhode Island today but due to the storm in the Mid-Atlantic states, the district postponed the trip to March. Good thing since my flight from Atlanta to Providence was cancelled today. Not sure what I would have done, other than check into a hotel in GA and "wait it out."

Tucson actually got a winter storm yesterday. The Tucson area got about 1/2 inch of rain; the mountain areas had snow. As I mentioned earlier -- the snow can stay on the mountains!

Thanks to all who contributed to Carol's birthday video. She said she LOVED it and she was even brave enough to show all her fashions (and hair styles) to her friends!

Happy Birthday Carol & John!

Sunday is a very special birthday for my sister, Carol. Of course, each year her birthday is special along with brother John....yes they share the same day. John had hoped for a special birthday present and he got one in his little sister. Click here for a link to a special video in honor of Carol's birthday. A word to the wise...the video is about 25 minutes long and there is music. Enjoy!

Baby Andres

Our good friends' daughter, Dora, had a baby boy 2 weeks ago and we finally saw baby Andres last night. Here is a link to the baby pictures.

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow

Hard to believe that I'm sitting at home on January 23 (happy birthday mom!) and can see snow pretty far down on the mountains. Arizona got hit with a winter storm the last few days. This week alone we have 2.8 inches of rain at our house. There's several feet of snow on Catalina Mountains (the mountains just north of us). It is beautiful to look at the snow on the mountains, but as far I can feel, it can stay up there. Here is a link to a local TV station where folks have posted some pictures -- http://pics.kold.com/FeaturedGallery.aspx.

Tim is getting busier; it appears that the tax season is here. It's a good thing that I have a couple of trips planned over the next few months -- Phoenix area, Cincinnati, and perhaps New England. I did finally break down and bought a winter coat. My "Arizona winter" coat wasn't cutting it for 17 degree weather (that was in northern Arizona just two weeks ago).