2023

 

Another year gone by. So many things for which to be thankful. As we eagerly await our Lord’s return, we look forward to celebrating the first Christmas.

We hope you have had a good year. And we hope your holiday celebrations will bring special blessings to you.

Our 2023 

Winter

Most of the winter months were quiet. We did decide to upgrade our little RV to a slightly larger one. We got the same make but the next size up (from 14' to 16'). The difference is that it has twin beds (or a king bed) and more storage. The twin beds or king bed configuration are both great. No more climbing over each other to make bathroom visits in the night. And the extra storage is nice as well. The fridge/freezer is bigger. The unit is twenty inches longer and twenty inches wider than the old one. Navigating around each other is much easier. 

We also made several trips to Plainview to see Nathan, Kimmie, and Ben. It is fun to be close enough to easily make the trip and spend time with them. 

Spring

We were scheduled to head to North Carolina right after Easter. But instead, I (and then Steven) got quite ill with a very bad cough and aches and pains. That lasted for two weeks. By then Zachary and Jenna had other things planned. So we visited in early May and got to be there for David's third birthday!

While we were there, we went to see a really great waterfall that you could walk behind. It was only a short walk from the parking area.

Also, while we were in North Carolina, we went to Dollywood for a day. Dollywood is in Tennessee, but only about an hour from Zachary and Jenna's place. We spent about five hours there before it started raining. Five hours was good. Us old folks could keep up for that long.

May and June proved to be very rainy months. We got over thirteen inches of rain in May. And we got a bunch more in June. Our local big lake (Lake Meredith) wound up fuller than it has been for the last twenty years or so. That was great to see.

We also replaced our Nordic Track. The one we had was a casualty of the remodel. Even though we had it covered, so much fine debris wound up being generated that is got into the working parts of the machine. That meant that we got a replacement machine. This time we got a recumbent bike. So much easier to use than the upright bike we had. We 

bought a program for it that allows us to bike in places all around the world. And the viewing screen is much bigger than the one on the old one. However, the footprint of the new one was slightly longer, so we had some rearranging to do in the utility room. In the end we like the new arrangement much better.

Summer

At the end of June we went back to North Carolina for Alex's birthday. We had not been around for any of her birthdays except her first one. 

This trip was particularly memorable because we managed to have the RV pop off of the hitch. This could have been so very bad, but as it was, we hit a huge pothole as we were pulling into a rest area and popped it off then. We rigged it up after some real interesting problem solving and limped to the campground for the evening. Steven went to a nearby town and got a hitch that was the right size and he installed it. A couple of things stand out about this experience. First of all, we told the dealership the size hitch we had and were told it was the correct size. Their bad. Secondly, we had made that trip with the same wrong-size hitch back in May. We are so lucky not to have had a catastrophic wreck then or on the first couple of days of the June trip. 

Once we got home from North Carolina, we decided to start looking for a new vehicle to replace our Mazda. The Mazda was a great car and had low mileage on it. The problem was our age. The Mazda was sporty and sat low. And we, being old, were having trouble getting into it and out of it. We found a Chevy Equinox that works for us. And it even fits in our small garage.  It is great to sit up higher and to be able to slide in and slide out of it. 

We spent a bit of time with Nathan and Kimmie in July. We went down to see them, and they came up here for Steven's birthday. 

In July we got some solar shades for some of the windows on the sunroom. They did cut down the heat from the morning sun while allowing us to see outside. Other years we closed blinds and curtains to block the heat. Much nicer to be able to see the backyard.

In August we met up with Zachary's family in Kentucky at Mammoth Cave. This time we took the big RV since the six of us and their dog were going to stay in the RV. It was crowded, but each child had their own bunk. Steven and I had a separate bedroom. Zach and Jenna used the sofa and the dining area for beds. Jenna had the most uncomfortable area. But we were there for just three nights. 

Back at that time in August, much of the country was under extreme heat advisories. We were camping in the very worst of it. The RV's air conditioning  had a hard time keeping up. Once the sun went down, it did cool off some. 

We stayed at a Jelly Stone RV resort. That was pretty fun and would have been more fun if the temps had been more seasonal. But the water pad and the pool helped. 

We even had a campfire two of the nights. We did smores, a first for the grandkids. 

We also did a cave in Mammoth Cave National Park. The big cave was pretty much shut down for improvements. The tours they had were too long for the kiddos. But they were running a shorter tour in a nearby cave. The cave was a living cave (which much of Mammoth Cave is not) with stalactites and stalagmites. It was a small cave, but the formations were really fine. 

But in the dark of the cave, I missed a step and went sprawling down. Alex was holding my hand, and I pulled her down with me. She got a small scrape on her hip. I hurt one of my big toes and the toe next to it. Although I finished the tour, by the time we got back to the bus to go back to the visitor center, I knew I was in trouble. Those toes turned massively purple and were swollen. It took a couple of months before I could walk normally. 

In September we spent a very few days in Santa Fe in the larger RV. The campground had virtually no cell service or wifi. And it rained most of the time we were there. We were supposed to stay longer, but we just came home. I was still not walking well, so we did not even do downtown Santa Fe, which is a great place. 

Autumn

We visited with Nathan and family in October. Ben loves being outdoors, and he loves pushing his toy lawn mower. We had a fun time with them.

And we made yet another trip to North Carolina at the end of October. We were there for a bit longer than we normally stay. Jenna needed to get to Arizona for estate settlement stuff. We stayed and took care of Alex and David so Zachary could work. 

Alex is in kindergarten and Zachary and Jenna are homeschooling her. I got to do her lessons with her while we were there. That was super fun. 


Steven also helped Zachary replace some rotting deck wood on their back porch. 

We had nice weather for most of the time. However, there were many wildfires burning in their part of North Carolina, so there were air quality alerts every day except one. We actually stayed inside for a day because of that. (David had been in the hospital for a few days about two weeks earlier for breathing issues.) We didn't want to push our luck there.  

But we had lots of fun with Alex and David. They play well together and by themselves and with their old grandparents. 

We got home a little over a week before Thanksgiving. We spent Thanksgiving Day with Nathan, Kimmie, and Ben. That was good. It was a beautiful day. 

All in all, it has been a busy year with lots of travel and lots of memories made. Steven still is working with the two churches here. And we did a few projects around the house. But nothing too big. 

The house is all decorated now, and we look forward to relaxing and enjoying the holiday season. 

We hope your year has gone well. And we hope your holidays are a blessing to you and yours!