Our week in Arizona

Arne and I flew to Phoenix last Friday, May 27. Erik and the girls flew in a couple hours later and we had adjoining rooms at Phoenix Mesa Marriott. This location was chosen because it was next to Mesa Convention Center where Lisa and Erik were putting on an education conference May 31 and June 1. As Arne said on our way home from Orlando, "It was a good trip." Time with all of our children and most of the grandchildren, priceless! We pray that in the future Lil E will be able to join us.

We spent lots of time by the pool as Kadin and Gracie still love to swim. A little too much time I'm afraid as all three kids were a little red Saturday night. (By Tuesday, the girls were VERY TAN!) Kadin complained of a tummy ache all afternoon so about 9 PM Arne & Erik went to Walgreens. While they were gone, Kadin vomited all over her bed. In my attempt to carry the duvet into the bathroom, for what purpose I'm not certain, it poured onto the floor making a bigger mess. A gal from the front desk helped me clean it up and then suggested we move to the rooms across the hall. We had to give up our view of the pool and while we could have moved back after the rug was shampooed and room aired out, the girls wanted to stay where we were. Probably a good idea as I noticed that window open for several days.

Kadin is getting so tall and at 10 1/2 can almost see the top of her mother's head. I went shopping with Erik and the girls one morning. Arne decided to stay at the hotel and use the Fitness Center, which I used every morning before the others were awake. We spent over two hours in the girls' favorite store, Justice. Usually high-priced clothing for kids and young adults but for Memorial Day they had 40% off and a clearance rack with another 40% off. Erik gently guided the girls to the clearance rack and they were able to find several outfits for starting school. Kadin picked out the navy and white sweater but otherwise pretty much tries on whatever Erik hands her while Gracie, the fashionista, assembles outfits, in this case four, and then goes to try them on. I bought them each a pair of sunglasses and another item.


Sunday night we went to Peter Piper Pizza where Aaron1 and Ted joined us. Ted is DD, developmentally disabled, and while he's 29, he behaves like a mature 9 year old. We kind of adopted him into our family years ago and he joined us for several holiday gatherings in Terravita. He, Kadin, Gracie and Taylor had a blast seeing who could win the most tickets. I believe it was Taylor. Back at the hotel, Erik was the entertainer, using one of Taylor's prizes as a prop...

Monday afternoon, Arne and I drove to north Scottsdale. We had a nice visit with friends, Trudy in the Boulders, Tim and Marilyn in Terravita. When we got back to Mesa, we went to Lisa's office where they were getting things lined up for the conference. Kadin and Gracie were good helpers.


On Tuesday, while their parents were busy with the conference, I took Taylor, Kadin and Gracie to Jump Street. Last year they spent almost two hours jumping on the trampolines. This year Taylor was only interested in the Dodge Ball pit so guess where the girls also spent their time. They did spend a few minutes in the foam pit. I tried to post a video but kept getting errors so you don't get to see the big foam cubes into which they jumped. :-(

Erik and the girls left early Wednesday morning. I missed sharing a room with them as our room seemed smaller and quieter. We went to the conference and joined in the lunch which was held outside. Aaron entertained.

Wednesday night, Lisa had a meeting, so Arne and I took Nick and both Aarons to the Brazillian restaurant in Scottsdale, Fogo de Chao, where Nick works as a server. Dinner includes your choice of 16 different meats, many varieties of beef. They have Gauchos who bring the meat and you can eat as much as you can hold. I had 2 lamb chops which were wonderfully seasoned and then several cuts of beef. I entered the "meat coma" as the server called it. I just couldn't eat another piece but did manage to eat dessert. Dinner is $50 plus drinks and dessert. $$$$$$ I figured it was going to be about $350 but when our bill came, we had only been charged for three salad bars and the boys' alcoholic drinks. Certainly pays to go with an employee and the best friend of the assistant manager, Aaron2. :-)

Thursday afternoon was our 4:30 flight back to Orlando. Lisa and Taylor took us to the airport and we stopped for lunch at Tempe Marketplace. I'm sorry I didn't get a picture of Lisa that day as she looked more rested and beautiful than the previous days.

Our flight home was uneventful, landing at 11:30 PM. It took a while to get our luggage so was about 1:30 AM when we arrived home. I got to sleep at 2:30 and slept until 9:30! Today, I slept til 8:30. It's never taken me this long to adjust to the new time. I think getting in so late made a difference. Anyway, here we are, back in our cocoon known as The Villages. :-)

St. Augustine

Last Wednesday, Arne and I drove over to St. Augustine, a two hour fifteen minute drive from here. After checking into our room, upgrading to a suite with an ocean view, we walked on the beach and in the surf. Arne pointed out a young couple playing "pickleball" in the surf. After dinner at a Mexican restaurant, we settled onto our "divans" to read and look out at the ocean. Oh, yeah, we watched American Idol even though we said we didn't care who won after James was gone.

Thursday, we bought tickets for the Red Train Tour of St. Augustine. We rode by the oldest jail, the oldest house, and lots of other old buildings and forts. St. Augustine is the oldest city in the United States. We toured the Lightner Museum and Ripley's Believe It or Not. On the way back to our hotel, which was on St. Augustine Beach, we stopped for a tour of the Lighthouse and Museum. We spent over an hour learning the history of the lighthouse. I climbed the 220 stairs to the top. As I came out the door, I was hesitant to look over the railing and stuck close to the wall. After about 5 minutes, I was feeling more comfortable and worked my way over to the edge and waved to Arne down below.

Friday, we checked out of the hotel and drove up the coast about 15 miles to Sawgrass where The Players Championship was played last week. We had a wonderful tour of the beautiful clubhouse. Our guide was an elderly gentleman who told many interesting stories as we toured the building, looking at the many paintings and photographs. This clubhouse was opened in 2007 and is 77,000 square feet. There's a dining room and locker room exclusively for past winners of The Players tournament.


From there we drove half an hour to the World Golf Hall of Fame. We spent a couple hours reliving golf history and viewing items given by those players in the Hall of Fame. There were two special exhibits. One was a tribute to Bob Hope while the other was to Nancy Lopez.

We got home around 8 PM Friday night. Arne had been having trouble with his right foot while we were gone. Saturday morning he told me he hadn't slept because of the pain. His foot and calf were very swollen. I took him to Urgent Care where he was told he had overused it. I think there's something more going on and he's going to go to his VA doctor for further evaluation. At least he was able to sleep last night and is walking much better. Yesterday he actually used a cane Aaron had given him for Christmas several years ago.

Good News and "Bad" News

Good news -
Wednesday night, Arne and I went to listen to the State of The Villages. The developer spoke about future developments, the biggest of which is a partnership with University of South Florida in Tampa. USF Health will conduct a major health study that examines the current health of Villages residents. They will also conduct a “concert series” in which various medical experts at the school will visit The Villages to share the latest medical tips with residents and meet with small groups to “listen and learn” from residents. Another goal of the partnership will be to work with those in the current health care system to ensure that patients here have the latest and best technical treatments available for enhanced care. Arne and I are very excited about this opportunity. I told Erik recently that we've found the "fountain of youth" here in the Villages. Even so, we're going to St. Augustine next week to see Ponce de Leon's Fountain.

Bad news -
James was our favorite on American Idol. Last night he was voted off and we're not excited with the remaining three. James should have a great music career but we would have liked to see him as THE American Idol.

Remember "The Truman Show"?

Remember "the Truman Show" with Jim Carey? He lived in a bubble and his life was being broadcast on live television. I feel like we're living "The Truman Show" here in The Villages. Arne and I were talking to a young man who came to look at a problem we were having on our lanai. While talking, he told us he worked in TV (The Villages) eight years ago, then left to form his own pool company in Orlando. Now he's back in TV and said he's working 7 days a week but outside TV there's no work. This is as close to Utopia as anyone can get. My children keep me in reality by reminding me of what's going on in the "real world."

While it was quite warm and windy yesterday, over 150 of our neighbors gathered for an International Dinner and dancing in the street to Rocky & the Rollers, an extremely popular band in the Villages. We began at 3 with the dinner and Rocky played from 4-8. They are already booked to perform for us at next year's dinner.

Our evenings have been gorgeous. On my after dinner bike ride through the neighborhood, I spotted the full moon shining on the lake. I took this picture from the yard of a lucky neighbor.

Arne joined the Orchid Club over a year ago with just one orchid. At last week's meeting, he bought his 7th and 8th orchid. His newest acquisitions.

Close-up of flower


We also have a fern which loves the humidity here. We've had this plant for about 18 months.

Arne's tomato plant

Pretty Routine

My life has become pretty routine which is why I haven't posted in three weeks. One major news item is that I decided not to play basketball in the National Senior Games as I would have been gone for our anniversary, June 22. I don't recall Arne and I being apart on our anniversary except when he was in VietNam. I'm hoping we can get away for a few days over on the Gulf.

I'm playing lots more pickleball and went to a ratings clinic Friday afternoon. I self-rated myself at 2.5. After going through the evaluation drills, I was told I'm a 3.0. Ratings go from 1.0-4.5. It will probably take me a year to move up to 3.5.

When Kadin and Gracie were with us last summer, Arne spent time giving them art lessons. Today, Erik sent us a picture of Gracie's latest creation as well as a picture of Jeffrey, whose wearing a tee shirt which says "Daddy thinks I'm the #1 BABY."

Beautiful weather, Golf and Basketball

Our weather continues to be lovely. Played golf Tuesday and Wednesday. Thursday afternoon, I played basketball in The Villages Senior Games. We played another Villages team so won another medal because of no competition in our age group. :-(

Thursday evening, Arne and I went to Lake Sumter Landing for the St. Patrick's Day parade. We had never seen so many people at the town square. We lucked out on a parking space and then lucked out as we spotted other transplants from Terravita in the front row on the parade route and...they had two extra chairs! So we had front row seats for the parade which lasted almost 45 minutes. Lots of golf carts decorated in green and Irish symbols.

Friday morning, Arne and I drove down to Palm Harbor, near Tampa, for the Transitions PGA Golf Tournament. It took an hour to get parked and on the course. You'd think that they'd have it figured out by now as this is not a new tournament. The rest of the day was good. While it was quite warm, the golf course had lots of shade trees. We left the course about 3:45 and went to our motel. Considering this would be the most money we've EVER PAID for a motel, we were expecting a little more than we got. While we were just across from the water, the motel was in a neighborhood with nothing within walking distance other than a bench along the waterfront. I made a list of our complaints and will be sending them to Choice Hotels. We drove to a Chinese restaurant where we had a delicious meal so all was not lost.

Saturday afternoon I played basketball again. This time we played in the Good Life Senior Games in Clearwater. Our first game was against the Tigerettes from Lousiana. They were national champions in 2009 senior games for 60-64 age group. They have a sponsor who pays for their travel and lodging plus their uniforms. They've been playing together for 15 years. One of the players I talked to said she was 75. Amazing! She didn't look a day over 65. Their youngest turns 65 this year so they will be playing in the 65-69 age bracket. Another told me she played for Canada's Olympic team for seven years. They were very organized with their plays, very physical and at halftime led 18-8. We came back the second half and while we outscored them, we couldn't erase the 10 point lead and lost 30-28. I enjoyed playing against them and as tough as they were, I realized the teams at Nationals in the 55-59 age category would be even tougher and I'd be crazy to play against them. Since we only have a 55 team going to Nationals, I've decided not to go to Houston in June.



This evening Arne and I went to Lake Sumter Landing to meet Al and Donna Smith and friend Judy, who still lives in Terravita. After sitting on the square while drinking our wine, we had dinner at Urban Flats. We then walked down to the lakefront but didn't stay long as it was quite windy and cool.

New Mexico Visit

Last Thursday, I used five modes of transportation...van, plane, bus, train, car...to arrive in Los Alamos for a week-end visit with Erik and my grandchildren. As soon as the doors to the train were opened in Santa Fe, Kadin and Gracie came running onto the train to greet me. It was 7 PM so we headed to Il Vicino restaurant for dinner and then to the yogurt shop for dessert.

Friday morning I drove the girls to school. Because of parent conferences, I picked them up at 11:30. After lunch, I took them to the Aquatic Center where they swam for almost two hours. They had a great time with a group of middle schoolers who were playing volleyball with a beach ball. When we got home, Erik was there with Jeffrey for a special 2.5 hour visit to see his Grandma. Right now, Erik only gets Jeffrey 3-5:30 on Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday. :-( Friday night, the girls taught me how to play Dance Revolution. It’s a Wii game they got from Santa. It consists of a mat with arrows, left, right, forward and back. You pick a song, difficulty level and then follow the “steps”. If you miss too many, it cuts you off and tells you to try again. I was about 50/50 with the redos and complete finishes. It’s lots of fun and, besides exercise, it works on eye-foot coordination.

Saturday morning, Gracie and I were up early making, pancakes, scrambled eggs and bacon as the girls had a basketball tourney. Erik’s their assistant-coach. They played a great first game and it was 10-10 at end of regulation. In sudden death, the ref called a foul, which really wasn’t, on our team and they made one of the free throws to win the game 11-10. Since it was double elimination, the girls played a second game but seemed like they’d given everything in that first game and lost by a large margin. They use a regulation ball with 10-ft baskets so there’s not much scoring. After the game, the girls gathered for end-of-season awards. They all got medals engraved with their name. Then the coach announced four special awards. He said he wanted to show that if you work hard, there are often rewards. Kadin got a trophy for Most Improved. Erik said when the season started last November, she didn’t seem interested but about the third game, something seemed to click and she loves basketball.

Kadin and Gracie prepared our Saturday night dinner. They made bow pasta, two boxes of it! They also fixed a bowl of fruit and a plate of veggies plus bread. Not bad for girls ages 10 and 8. I did most of the clean-up. :-) That night, the three of them performed for me with their Rock Band guitar, drums and microphone for singer.

Sunday morning, Gracie and I again made pancakes and scrambled eggs. After church and lunch, the girls worked on their chores. Erik gives them a list and I was impressed on how well they did, even cleaning their toilet! Gracie also took apart her hamster’s cage and wiped all of the sections down with Clorox wipes. We had Jeffrey from 3-5:30 and Skyped Arne so he could see his newest grandson. Sunday night, Gracie gave Erik and I a tatoo with the kit she got for Christmas. She did a butterfly on my thigh. After my shower this morning, it was gone. :-(


Kadin thinks my hair is too gray and I should go back to blonde while Gracie thinks it's good. For now, I'll stay with what God has given me.

Monday, I traveled back to Florida and some warmer weather. I was disappointed the weather wasn’t warmer Sunday afternoon so we could go to the park. Los Alamos actually had snow Friday afternoon and evening. There were also snow flurries Monday when Erik took me to meet the train. I arrived home around Midnight, very tired of spending so much time on my butt! This morning the scale said I’d lost weight but I know it was lost muscle, not fat.