It was another nice morning with a beautiful sunrise--perfect for taking a long walk. After breakfast, John went to wood carvers and I started getting things organized for our trip east. We have been watching the weather on TV and right now it looks like Friday will be our departure date. That will give us three days to reach Cincinnati where John's brother lives. From there it is a one day drive to his sister's place outside of Philadelphia. Pop's memorial service is schedule for Tuesday morning.

The weather is suppose to turn pretty cold here over the next several days, so we decided to get a game of golf in today while it was nice and warm. The only problem with today was the wind--it got pretty strong this afternoon. My tee shots were good today, but my short game was just awful. I hope that one day it will all come together at one time.

Stan Metcalf stopped over after supper and delivered this week's paper. He has another project for John--build a dove cage. That will have to wait until after our trip. The rest of our evening was spent watching some TV and reading.

John and I overslept a little this morning and were late getting out for our walk,so we had to take a shorter route in order to get back to the house in time to get ready for church.

Mary Ellen had planned an "adventure" for today--a picnic and hiking at the "holey rock" area followed by a drive down one of the county roads. Tim and Mary Ellen picked us up and we met the rest of our group for the drive out of town. Once we arrived at our destination, it didn't take long to get the chairs, food, and grill set up. Jim was in charge of cooking the hot dogs and soon the food was ready to eat. When everyone had enough to eat, we took a walk on the rocks looking for the ones we just couldn't live without.





When we were done looking for rocks, we loaded back into the cars and took a ride down one of the country roads. This road runs through private property with free ranging cattle. You have to open and close gates as you travel from one property to the next. The road winds through some pretty desolate land. Gene was our gate keeper for the afternoon.



We ended our adventure like we usually do, with ice cream at Pico's. Everyone was pretty tired and all agreed we had a beautiful day--sunny with high's in the low 80's--and a lot of fun. John and I were both wiped out by the time we got home and spent a very quiet evening watching some TV before heading off to bed.

The morning was cloudy with the temps in the upper 50's when we took our walk. It felt good to be outside without having to wear so many layers of clothing. We had nothing on the schedule for today other than just doing whatever appealed to us. John and I had just finished a leisurely breakfast when he received a call from his sister telling us that John's dad had passed away this morning. Pop Lavin would have celebrated his 99th birthday tomorrow. The rest of our morning was consumed with phone calls to our four kids and John's family. The decision was made to have a memorial service on February 8th so we will be heading to the Philadelphia area sometime next week.

John and I decided that we needed to get out of the house and went down to the Par 3 to play some golf. We had just started on the second hole when we saw Lloyd, Ginny and Linda. They called us over to play with them. Kathy and Jim also joined us a few moments later. We ended up playing a best ball scramble and then going to Pico's for some ice cream. John shared the news about Pop with our friends and they let us know they were willing to help with anything that we might need and would keep an eye on our place while we're away. It's amazing how God brought us together with friends this afternoon just when we needed to have our spirits lifted.

Following supper we spent a quiet evening watching one of John's favorite movies, Jeremiah Johnson.

Even though the day started off on the chilly side, it turned out to be a very nice one with temps near 70 degrees. Following our morning walk we ate breakfast, got cleaned up, and headed over to Wallace's (he's the leader of the wood carving group). John has been wanting to learn how to paint some of the faces he has carved, so he made arrangements with Becky (Wallace's wife) to get together this morning and have a painting lesson. I went along to watch the lesson.

Becky had everything all set up and ready to go. She instructed John on what paints to use, brushes to buy, and demonstrated many different painting techniques. She then watched while John tried his hand at the painting.





Around noon John took a break from painting and we came home for some lunch. After an hour or so, he went back and finished the face. I think he did a wonderful job for his first attempt at painting a carved piece.

Since the afternoon was so nice, we decided to head down to the Par three to play a few holes of golf before going to this afternoon's condo party. We played only seven holes before we ran out of time, but we both had some nice shots.

There was quite a crowd at the party--about 30 people. Everyone seemed to have a good time and there was an exceptionally good variety of food. We lasted until the sun started to go down and the temps turned cooler. We headed on home where we spent a relaxing evening watching some TV and working on the computer.

Since we have been so busy over the past several days, I decided that today was the day I would stay home and get caught up on laundry and other chores that have been neglected. We got up a little earlier to take our walk and it was much more enjoyable as the temps were warmer than yesterday.

Right after breakfast, John gathered up his tools and headed over to Ken and Ruth Spencer's to install the new front door they had ordered. He had most of the work completed by lunch time but decided to head back after eating and get the entire job done today. This all worked out good for me as I had the entire day to get all the laundry done as well as cleaning up around the house. There were many piles of things that needed to be sorted through and put away. Now that I have things under control around here, I can get back to having fun.

While we were eating supper, Stan Metcalf dropped in for a visit and told us that the house across the street from us has finally sold so we will be getting new neighbors one of these days. After eating John went to pick up Tim and they headed off to wood carvers for the evening. I watched American Idol and did some work on the computer.

It was another very chilly morning--29 degrees when we left the house for our walk. We bundled up and walked the long route of 3.5 miles. I was a little stiff from yesterday's golf game, so our walk helped to loosen up the old muscles.

After breakfast, John went over to the condos to pick up Tim and the guys headed to the club house for their nine hole golf game. They met up with Ken and John C. and the four of them played the front nine. John said they had a great time which was made even better by his good playing and a score of 44. Looks like this will be a weekly event for him throughout the rest of the winter.

It's Wednesday, so that means Weight Watchers. Lois Carlson picked me up and we left for Del Rio. Our first stop was the mall where we did some shopping at JC Penny's and Bath and Body Works. Following the meeting, we stopped for lunch and then went on to Wal Mart for groceries. I ran into the same Fort Clark folks that I met there last Wednesday--it must be the day of the week everyone likes to go to Del Rio.

When John was finished his golf game, he went over to Metcalf's to talk to Jan about her porch project. She needs to discuss it with Stan and will get back to John about whether the job is a go. Fortunately John was home when Lois and I arrived back at the house, so he was able to help me unload the groceries and get things put away. Our evening was spent watching some college basketball and a few favorite Wednesday night TV shows.

John was up nice and early for our morning walk. I was still in bed when he mentioned having enough time for our usual 3.5 miles. That immediately got my attention as I was scheduled to play nine holes of golf with the ladies on the big course this morning. The mode of transportation for the day was our own two feet--no golf carts. I told him I wasn't walking that far plus the golfing, so he cut our walk back to our shorter golf course route.

While I was getting ready to go, Nancy Stone called and said it was too cold to play this morning, so we rescheduled for a 1 p.m. tee off time. Since I had my morning free, I made a macaroni salad to take to this evening's RV park potluck. John went to the post office to check for mail and then stopped over to Dave and Valada's for a quick visit. On the way back home he stopped at the club house to purchase a golfing package--nine holes for 12 times. Since we like only playing nine holes at a time on the big course, this was perfect for us. I used one time today and John will use another one tomorrow. He is joining a group of men who also like to play just nine holes at a time.

After lunch I hopped in the golf cart and headed down to the club house where I met the other ladies. I played with Ginny, Natalie, and Mary Jane. The only problem for me was that we had to play the back nine. That is the harder and longer part of the course and I had never played it before. However, I had a good time visiting and got plenty of exercise. While I was busy with golf, John and Gene Bevins when metal detecting. They found a few bottles and some other old pieces of metal at the back of the fort.

Tim and Mary Ellen picked us up around 5:30 p.m. and we headed over to the RV park for the Tuesday night potluck and games of "31". John and Mary Ellen were among the winners this evening so we'll have plenty of quarters for next week. After a very busy day, we spent the rest of the evening watching a little TV before heading to bed.