CHRISTMAS JOY!

Don’t you just love it when you stumble upon a little store that just offers exactly what you need for a Christmas present?

That happened to us today. We have been wracking our brains trying to figure out what to send Jim’s sister, Janet, for Christmas. We headed out today with a goal of finding something, anything, to send her. As we drove down Apache Trail I noticed a sign for a saddle shop that also had “Christmas gifts”. We drove past the store but I suggested we should go back and see what they had.

Janet is a horse and animal lover. She has a huge farm on top of Bent Mountain in Virginia with cows, horses, dogs, and cats. When she was younger, she and her friend Helen used to take their horses everywhere throughout the US to go riding. Helen is now in a wheel chair from a stroke and as happens to all of us, Janet has gotten older and doesn’t ride much anymore. She’s turned to rescuing horses and dogs.

We hit a treasure trove! This little saddle shop has the neatest western gifts. So we bought a spur salt and pepper shaker set, some horse patio lights, and some horseshoe coasters. We are so excited to have found this store. There were a lot more items we could have spent our money on but decided we’d leave some for next Christmas.

It’s just so wonderful when something actually works out.

HOME AGAIN

Jim is home. Yippee!! His flight was supposed to get in about 9:30 and didn't show up until 11:15. The plane was stuck in Missoula, MT because of bad weather so it was really late getting into Billings. But he's here and I'm so happy.

His face has several red Christmas lights on it - not really but the spots the doctor removed are really bright red and in keeping with the season.

The girls were beyond excited to see him. They didn't want to let him out of their sight. So everybody is happy now.

DINNER AND DOCTORS

After my experience at the race park, I had plans to go to dinner with our friend Paul. He’s moved from Tucson up to Mesa and we figured that since he got to go to dinner with Jim last year when I was in Montana to spend Christmas with my Dad, I’d go out to dinner with him while Jim is in Montana freezing.

We went to Los Gringos Locos, our favorite Mexican restaurant here in Apache Junction. Great dinner and great company.

Jim’s doctors appointments have gone well. He had five spots on his face that needed to be removed because they were precancerous. All of that fishing he’s done over the years when we didn’t know we had to use sunscreen to protect us. His blood work is good and he’s good to go for another six months.

The rest of the time he’s been busy visiting with everybody and trying to stay warm. I’ll sure be glad when he gets back tomorrow night. The girls miss him a whole lot; Scooter especially does. She keeps looking for him and doesn’t understand why he isn’t there to take her for her walk when she demands it.

Skitz is a Mama’s girl so she’s happy with me. However, when I took them for their walk this morning, the garbage truck showed up at the same time and she just totally freaked out. I feel so bad for her because she is afraid of everything.

MORE FIRSTS

Haven’t done a whole lot while Jim’s been gone. Did some laundry, cleaned the house, took the girls for walks, ran a few errands. Just the usual.

But yesterday was another new experience for me. Our friends, Mike and Sandy, who live in Roswell, NM own part of a horse that was entered in a race at Hobbs, NM. Mike calls to tell me about it and tells me that I can watch the race somewhere here in the Phoenix area on TV.

I certainly don’t have a clue as to how to watch a horse race from far away since we don’t have cable TV. However, there is this place over by Walmart here in Apache Junction that I had noticed said something about dog racing. I got online, called their number and found out that they would be showing the race.

Off I go. Not a clue as to what I’m going to find. It’s a huge place with lots of TVs all over. Not too many people there but the ones that were there are really serious. It’s really quiet. I waited until this guy threw his pencil down, cussed at the screen and didn’t seem to be too involved in watching another race before I went up to him and asked for help because I didn’t know what I was doing there. He told me that if I didn’t know what I was doing there I should go home. Thank goodness he was laughing when he said this.

I told him that I wanted to watch a race at the Zia Track. Race No. 5. He showed me the screen to watch and then told me how to place a bet. I placed my bet and went back in to watch the screen where the race was scheduled to be run in about 10 minutes.

By the way, those screens are way too small for people like me who don’t see that well. And the race only lasts a couple of minutes. I have watched the Kentucky Derby before but that’s the extent of my knowledge of horse racing.

My horse, No. 2, is named Cape Sable. And Cape Sable did not do a very good job of running. Didn’t finish in the top four so I didn’t win any money and went home. But now I can say I have actually bet on a horse. Some of those people looked like they were betting quite a bit of money and were not happy when they didn’t win.

Thank goodness gambling is not my thing.

I HATE FLYING

And I’m not even the one who is flying this year. It’s Jim. He needed to go back to Billings, MT for a couple of doctor appointments. Nothing serious – just that the doctor wants to see him more than once a year. And we haven’t taken the time to find a doctor here in AZ. I can guarantee you that after today we will be finding that doctor real quick.

I took Jim to the Mesa airport at 3:00 cause his flight was supposed to leave at 4:20. When we got there the line was miles long and after we had been in it about ten minutes they announced they wanted all Billings passengers to the front of the line. We get Jim checked in and I walk with him down to security. At that point, I left to go back home and wait for him to call me from Billings about 6:30.

About 5:15 my phone rings and he tells me that they are just getting ready to take off. Not sure why the plane was late but he’s headed out to the plane. Okay – he’ll call me about 7:30 when he gets to Billings. About 7:00 the phone rings. He’s landed – in MESA!!!!Something about too much fog in Billings to land. Not sure what they are going to do. Are they going to cancel the flight or try again? About 7:40 I get another call. Looks like they are going to try again to get to Billings.

If they can’t get to Billings they will divert to someplace else in MT. The problem with that is MT is huge and getting from anyplace else back to Billings in the winter could be a real headache. But he can always come back to Mesa. So they took off about 8:00 and hopefully I’ll hear from him from Billings about 10:00. I’ll let you know.

10:22 p.m. Jim just called and this time he actually made it to Billings. No fog that he can see. I’m just glad he’s there and now I can go to bed and get some sleep.

Goodnight everyone.

CHRISTMAS SHOPPING

I drug Jim out about 7:30 this morning to do some shopping with me. I’m trying to find something for my aunt. She loves jewelry and she loves pink.

Do you know how hard it is to find clip on earrings anymore? We finally found her a bracelet that I think she’ll like. It’s gold – because she doesn’t like silver. And I ordered her a pair of gold and pearl earrings that I found on line. She really has very strong opinions about what she likes and doesn’t like. But I think I did pretty good. Now if I could just find her a pastel colored sweater preferably with some pink in it. I’ll keep looking.

On our way home we saw a sign for a remote control airplane event. We certainly can’t pass that up. Jim had fun watching the planes and talking to some of the guys.

I watched the planes and was ready to go home. This probably would be a good hobby for Jim to get involved with. Not sure where we could put the plane if he decided to get one.

I’m hoping maybe tonight we can drive around and look at some Christmas lights.

These are the some of the lights in our RV Park.

Thanks for dropping by.

BUSY, BUSY, BUSY

We had planned on resting a couple of weeks after covering over 19,000 miles in the last year and those are just the miles on the motor home. Jim was tired of driving and believe it or not, I was tired of sight seeing.

However, since we’ve been back here in Apache Junction we have been on the go constantly. My Aunt, who is 97, fell two days before Thanksgiving and we have been keeping an eye on her, taking her to doctor appointments, picking up medication, and just doing whatever she needs to have done. She is doing great. Stiff and sore but nothing broken which is a blessing.

She had plans for Thanksgiving and no fall was going to stop her. She also had dinner plans with the girls. And Bingo to play and the “horse races” to attend. Age is not going to keep her from doing things.

For Thanksgiving I fixed a turkey breast for Jim and I. We could have gone to the pot luck here at the park but I wanted left overs. We’ve also got me a new smart phone (which is a whole different topic) and a new camera for Jim.

The girls had to be taken to the groomers for baths and nail trims. We needed to find a new Christmas tree because the one we tried to use last year was much too large. And I had forgotten how long it takes to go shopping this time of year in a large city.

That brings us up to tonight. Jim is asleep in his recliner, I’m working on the blog and watching Monk. The dishes are waiting for me. The Christmas tree is lit. And the girls are doing what they do best – sleeping.