A busy week

Tuesday after Bible study Evelyn went to a cooking demonstration by the chef at the Blue Onion.  She enjoyed the demonstration but not for long.  We had a poker run with the bike club and a pizza party.  We all ride around the park 5 times and draw a card each time. The highest hand wins a prize.  We never win.  The pizza was not good, so we went home and had some that was leftover from last week. It was much better.  We went to the evening study and decided to not continue next week because Joe and Bonny wee leaving and we would have some interruptions in the flow after that. 

Wednesday we left early to go to the SAS outlet store where there was a special customer appreciation sale.  Evelyn bought some shoes at good prices for the quality.  We also returned one of the boxes of luggage that had been shipped erroneously.   Actually I had accidently ordered 2 sets.  We returned to Sunshine Park where we attended the Christian Women’s Connection luncheon.  They always invite the husbands during Valentines month.  The program featured a man who worked on the Apollo space program in the 70s.  We rushed home to attend the Lenten service at the WELS church before going out to dance with John and Sue.  We tried the Horseman but it was too full for anyone else.  We returned to the Paradise Lounge and dance for an hour before going to Burger King because Sue had a BOGO coupon.  We returned home for the evening.

Thursday was the morning of Mabel’s benefit breakfast.  We went and met John there who talked about my amended tax return for 2010.  I ate a small portion of biscuits and gravy and came home.  I practiced the service until lunch and we took a nap after.  We dressed and waited for Joe and Bonny to pick us up.  We went to El Pastor for dinner before going to the concert series for the 5th time this year.  It starred Daniel Rodriguez and wife Marla Cavanaugh.  He was the policeman who sang God Bless America back in 2001 after the attack on the Twin Towers.  They had a very entertaining program.  We bought tickets for next year’s series.  We really enjoy Joe and Bonny because they are dedicated Christians and seem to enjoy being with us as much as we enjoy them. 

Friday was our usual day at the hospital in the afternoon, but we had performed with the kitchen band in the morning.  We had a lot of fun performing before lunch.  Lionel and Jean weren’t there in the afternoon.  Lionel due to a party and Jean due to a funeral.  This meant we were short handed but we were able to cover the needs.  We came home, Evelyn rested and we waited for Don and Janice.  They arrived at 7 and we had some appetizers before going to Arturo’s for dinner.  Don wanted to buy our meal.  We, as most of the time, shared a meal and had plenty.  Don doesn’t drink much beer anymore but was quite thirsty tonight.  He even ordered so many that I couldn’t drink all of it!  This was a very unusual for me.  We came back home and visited for a while before they left. 

We picked up Donny and Valerie Bell at 9:30 and drove to Nuevo Progreso, Mexico to meet our adopted students.  We were transported to a school on the west side of town.  The living conditions we drove through were deplorable.  It makes each of us realize how blessed we are to live in this country.  Our student was there with his mother.  He is 20 and studies at the university in Reynosa.  They were both dressed very well and had many amenities such as I phones and computers, making us wonder if they really needed our support.  They were very gracious but didn’t speak English.  We did communicate fairly well because the young man knew a bit of English and I knew an equal amount of Spanish.  He had a translating app on his phone which helped us a bit also.  The parents of some of the students provided tamales for lunch.  We bought some Kahlua for Shirley and were home by  1:30.  We were both tired and took naps again.  I also finished up the practice on tomorrow’s service.  We also watched part of Bill O’Reilly’s Lincoln that we had missed the first time we tried to watch it. 

I was up at 6:30 reviewing the message, and we were in worship with 37 others at 8:30.  We finished at 9:30.  A pleasant surprise was that the Mintenkos were there again.  I want to visit them in their home here in our park to see whether they need any prayer.  We left and went to Llano Grande where I gave the same message again.  Afterward we met 2 couples at Victoria Palms for Sunday brunch.  We seldom go out on Sunday, and the line at the brunch is quite long until around noon.  We were there at noon and had a short wait.  We had a nice visit and meal.  we were home around 2, and Evelyn went to bed because she had not been able to sleep more than 3 hours last night.  I am able to eat desserts and sweets on Sunday because Lent doesn’t count Sundays.  We had popcorn after riding our bikes around the parks and visiting a couple that is leaving our park and taking their park model with them.  They are leaving due to a conflict with another couple.  I wish we could have our unit moved out, but I don’t think we could because of our Texas room.  I still don’t think our Lord wants me to retire from preaching at Trail’s End, so we will likely be here another year.