AARRGG!!!!! SNOW IN THE OLD PUEBLO (aka Tucson)

This is what our house looked like this morning!!! SNOW!! In Tucson??? Come on...how far south do we have to go to get away from this???? The poor palm tree in the picture is shivering!!!

It started to snow last night around 5:00 p.m.....nice, big, fat, fluffy flakes! Very pretty and I didn't really mind since I didn't have to get out in it. However, Gary and Jeannette were here and they had to drive across town to get home. Fortunately, the roads were only wet when they went home, however, this morning it was a different story. Schools are closed today due to icy/snowy conditions and the roads are treacherous! Especially since no one but the snow birds know how to drive in this slick, cold, icy stuff!

This is one of our plants in the yard...and it sure isn't used to the white "frosting" it has.

We didn't get a lot of snow, about an inch, however some parts of town got as much as four inches!

It is cold however, last night it got down to 26 and tonight is about the same. Our pipes froze up last night (didn't this happen to us last year in Odessa???) but fortunately, none broke, so we were without water for a couple of hours. Our high temp today was a whopping 48...so much for global warming!!!! It apparently hasn't reached us. El Nino is really putting the weather into crazy patterns this year.



Holly, Bruce and Cortney were here for dinner last night and Cortney built a very small snowman on our patio table....and it finally melted about 2 hours ago...the big HUMP on the table is a decorative sun we bought to hang on the house, however, hadn't gotten around to hanging it yet, so now it is "seasoned" by snow.




We are heading up to Sedona for a week at the end of this week....it could be a chilling experience as well. For now, we are frozen in Tucson!!!

The Frozen Northland; Rodeo Champs

We are back from the frozen north land, also known as Seattle. More on that in a minute...but first, I HAVE TO BRAG! (Hey, I am a Grandma, I have those rights!) The young lady in the picture is our grand daughter Lori, age 13, who, we just found out, won the Reserve All Around Champion, Jr. Rodeo Association, Willamette Valley, Oregon! Lori is our youngest grand child and boy is she ever a horse person! She and her dad are breaking a horse right now, however, the one it the picture is Cassy...which she broke as well. Lori rides in the American Thunder Drill Team, this past year carrying sponsor flags and the POW Drill, next year she hopes to ride in the rodeo drills. We are SOOOOOOOOOO PROUD OF HER! Her brother, Victor, is a bull rider....so between the two of them they keep their parents busy with rodeo's in the summer.

Very icy roads! Lots of slip and slide!












As I said before, we are back in Tucson after our trip to Seattle...which I froze most of the time. I had not brought enough heavy, warm clothes (I don't own enough clothes to keep me warm in Seattle!!) so I wound up wearing one of Jennifer's sweatshirt most of the time and good friend Kathy loaned me a heavy coat. Without those I would have been one frozen person. When we landed on Friday, the pilot announced that it was a whopping 20 degrees.....I was ready to stay on the plane and go right back to Arizona, which, for the record, wasn't much warmer! Our stay in Seattle was short, but we did enjoy it. We stayed with Jennifer and I am sure her heating bill will be outragous, but we were warm! And I remembered how to drive in snow and ice! Funny how those types of things are ingrained in a person! It was Minot, ND all over again! I actually had fun driving in it, however, most people have no clue how to drive in the snow and ice....I think it must mean to them to go faster and slam on the brakes! We saw several spin outs....oops!
This picture is taken as we were leaving Jennifer's house in Lynnwood early Tuesday morning...those white spots, incase you don't recognize them, are SNOW FLAKES! HUGE, SNOWFLAKES!

The memorial service for Bill Amble was beautiful...Beverly did a wonderful job arranging the services. After the service in the church there was a reception at Anthony's Restaurant in Edmonds...what a nice thing to do. The food was great and it gave everyone a chance to visit. Sad occasion, but very well done.

It also gave us a chance to visit with four of our grand children. Stephen, who lives in New York City was there, as well as Sarah who lives in St. Charles, Missouri and Natasha, our great grand daughter. We haven't seen Stephen in a couple of years and we had a short, but good visit with him. Sarah looks so good...as Al said, she looked happy and very pretty. Natasha is just a hoot...at 7 years old she is a whirlwind of activity and way to smart for us! She was selling me Girl Scout cookies and she said "Grammy, do you want to buy some cookies? They are $3.00 a box and NO CREDIT!" I laughed so hard at that! What a character. We also got to see Ashley and Cammie. Ashley is attending North Seattle Community College and seems to be happy with it. She had dyed her hair black (normal blond) and the black hair really looked nice on her. Cammie is a Junior in High School and very, very pretty. She is tall, slim and looks like a model. We are so proud of all of our grand children. And to keep you up to date on the rest, David is living and working in Kansas City and Danny is in the Army currently stationed in Germany (and we hope he stays there, and not bound for Iraq!...this worries the gramma!) And we were able to visit with friends Kathy and Rowland while we were there and see their son Jesse for the first time in a few years....very good looking young man! What I want to know is who gave all of these kids the right to grow up???? I certainly am not any older....much! We are so proud of all of our children and grand children...they have all turned out so well.

Now we are back in not so warm Tucson. It was 25 last night and we are hoping for some more rain. It does warm up to mid 50's to 60's during the day, so I am really not complaining. Compared to the rest of the nation, we are very, very lucky!

We have both shaken the cold/flu we had and feeling good again. I have plenty of things to do around the house to keep me busy for a few weeks. However, Gary and Jeannette are here for a month (they have a motorhome and are staying at the Voyager RV Resort) so we will be busy playing with them while they are in town...much more fun than working around the house. And we have a trip planned to Sedona at the end of the month, so we will be wroamin' soom.

So until next time.....we are unwroamin'...at least for a few days.

The Flock is back!

Well, well, well...the flock is back. At least most of them are. I would say 80%! What in the heck am I talking about, you ask? SNOWBIRDS! BACK IN FORCE! Good heavens. Now, I know, you are asking, "But aren't you a snow bird?" Well, technically, yes, kinda'. Snowbirds have been defined to me in many, many different ways since we have moved here. Some say they only come for 3 months, January-March. Others say they come for six months. Some say they only come in RV's; others say they also own homes. So take your pick. We say, we are "Sun birds"...we follow the sun! And, since we are usually here longer than 6 months (well, some years)we prefer the term SUN BIRD.

Every grocery store, restaurant, store of any kind is packed full! I went to my favorite organic (quit grinning Billie and Dan!) grocery store yesterday, Sprouts, and you could hardly move for the people in there! Good grief, I thought there was a special sale on that AL hadn't heard of! (Side note: Al knows where all the food sales are every week, and just exactly what is on sale and for how much.) Then I went to Home Depot and you would have thought everything in the store was free for the numbers of humans in there! We then went to Applebee's for lunch...usually, in "normal" times, there is a short wait at noon, yesterday it was 30-45 minutes! Barnes and Noble looked like they were having a fire sale....no room to "wroam" in there! Guess it is time to start staying home for a while, or go out to dinner at 6:30, when all the snowbirds are done with dinner (they go to the "early bird" special and are home by 6:00! -- or so the legend goes.) And start shopping at night when they are all home and in bed (7:00 p.m) Nuff said, regardless, we love them!

But the traffic! Have I told you about the traffic? Ouy vey! First of all, traffic in Tuscon isn't the best, better than Seattle, but not the best on a good day. THEN, add in the snowbirds! Hmmm...let's see, where am I? Where am I going? Oh, and let's never go more than 10 mph UNDER the posted speed limit...or slower. Oh? I have my left blinker on and have had for the last 10 miles? Well, I may turn, or then again, I may not or I may turn right! OH? Did I cut you off, well where I am from, that is par for the course! UGH!!!! So it goes! By March all will be almost back to normal! And to top it off, the Gem and Mineral Show starts soon...which means MORE PEOPLE will be here....from every corner of the world...all trying to fit in to the same stores, restaurants, hotels, etc. AARRGG! HOWEVER, after all the prattling I have done, we still love it here! Go figure!

I could say we have sun and warm...well, a couple days ago we did, but now the wind is blowing a cold front in...with rain...yes! Rain! I know, most of you from the frozen north land of Washington and Oregon cuss the rain, but here, we love it. We are still way too dry.

Speaking of the frozen north land of Seattle (I was speaking of it, I think) we are headed to Seattle tomorrow morning. No, we haven't lost our minds; nor are we gluttons for punishment! Our daughter-in-law's father died last week and are going up to attend the funeral. Beverly's dad, Bill Amble, was a wonderful man, we enjoyed him so much. He is missed, but resting peacefully finally. WE will spend 4 days in Seattle, staying with Jennifer. And after reading the weather forecast, I am not sure I have enough clothes to keep me warm! The forecast reads something like this: Friday, lows 13-23, highs 30-32? HIGHS??? 30-32??? BRRRR.. Saturday: lows 20-28, highs 33-35.....Sunday: mostly sunny, lows 25-30 (WHOOPPEE) highs 33-38 (HEAT WAVE?), and so on. I don't own enough clothes to keep me warm. Good thing Jennifer paid her heating bill! :-) However, on a good note, we will get to see some family and friends while we are there. Four of our grandchildren and our great granddaughter will be there as well...so there are pluses for freezing.

Gary and Jeannette (Al's cousin) are in town. Parked at our favorite RV Resort, Voyager. They will be here for a month and we are really looking forward to going out to play with them! We are planning to go to Bisbee for a couple of days; AL and Gary plan to go to do some MINING tours while Jeannette and I explore more of Tubac and other various places. Of course, Jeannette and I will have to boost the economy a little along the way.

We have both been battling colds, however, I think we are on the mend. I feel 100% better and AL is getting to that point. Right now Al and Bob Grabow are working on the 5th wheel. We haven't been able to get 110 volt power to the inside since last month and they think they can figure it out. I will keep you posted as to the condition. We were hoping it was something simple, but we should know better with the 5th wheel...NOTHING IS EVER SIMPLE! Looks like the inverter is not inverting...or what ever it is suppose to do. Oh Gordon and Denise, where are you???
Don't you want to take a vacation??? To Tucson? How about peach pie? Will that entice you?

So, until we are back from the frozen north land....keep on smiling. Life is good if you are living it the way you want!

AL and Jo
The FROZEN WROAMIN' WRASPIR'S
(well, not frozen at this minute, but we are anticipating....)