Mesa Fall 2011

We arrived in Mesa last Thursday after 7 weeks on the road. When we saw the cacti and palm trees we actually did feel like we were coming home. The weather welcomes us with close to 90 degree temps so the electric blanket and heater were put in storage for awhile. We got set up in the spot we picked out last spring and were welcomed by neighbors. The park is far from filled yet. The full-time people are here but few of the "winter residents" have come yet so it is pretty quiet around here. More will come this week I am sure. Sounds like temps will drop 10 or so degrees in the week ahead and be more normal.

We enjoyed our stay in Rapid City and the picture is of the park that we like to walk around in. From there we traveled to Colorado. What great times we had helping Linda celebrate her birthday with her whole family. Three little great grand daughters with another one (boy or girl) on the way. The next week we were with Jason and Eli celebrating Jason's birthday. Saw Eli play soccer which was a treat. Visited the coffee shop near Jason's home and met his friends that we had met before. Unique shop where locals have coffee and kind of start their day together. Then on to Colorado Springs to visit grandson Andrew and meet his wife Anna and their precious little girl Abigail. She was just 3 weeks so tiny yet. Went out for supper with them. Great time with the 3 of them. Rode up to see the Red Rock Amphitheatre and had lunch there. The view is so fantastic from up there. What a place that would be to attend Easter Sunrise Services some time. See the sun come up over the mountains with the backdrop of the city.

We have made this trip so often we about know where the (important places) malls and good eating places are. The mall in Golden is just a few miles from where the trailer park is so we got there a couple times. The outlet mall at Castle Rock is always a good place for good brands at reasonable prices so, of course, we had to stop there. Then 3 more days and we were in Mesa. Herb questioned our going to Mesa over Minnisota, he probably really guestions our taking 3 days to get from Colorado Springs to Mesa. We just have no hurry and enjoy stopping along the way as that is part of the fun of traveling for us.

This Resort we are in has a lot of activities as I think all of them do around here. Yesterday they had a different version of trick or treating so we took part in that custom for the first time in our lives. All the park models for sale had an open house yesterday and they were to hand out candy to all who came to look at their unit. We got our walking in as we walked to most of the units that were open AND we got a lot of candy in our little bag. Now just so we felt good about eating all that sweet stuff. I have a hunch it will disappear whether we think it is good for us or not. Cindy, that is why we needed all that fruit, it was to balance out the candy. Does that work? It was fun seeing the different units and also seeing how the various Arizona rooms were used. We didn't see a bed in a one but some had couches that pulled out. Otherwide they were mainly an enlarged living room or even craft rooms.

Today we were anxious to get back to our RCA church in Gilbert. When we drove up people were standing outside and many had less than "Sunday" clothes on altho that is really a mute point now days. Turns out this was their faith in action Sunday and the congregation was dividing up to go work on different projects in the city. We went with a group to a Retirement Center - kids with us sang their songs, adults sang hymns, kids passed out candy and received candy and we all played bingo. Weren't a lot of residents there but those there really thought it was great. Then we all got back to church and the Spanish congregation that worships in the same building as the RCA had a lunch made for all the people. It was great to see how the two congregations work so great together. Rev. Poit and his wife sat with us and commented on how totally they enjoy this church and also how well it has worked out to have another group use the facility. The congregants are also so pleased with his ministry.

Tomorrow we start volunteering at Sunshine Acres. Our schedule has changed somewhat, it looks like we will work on Mon. and Thurs. The boutique really needs help on Thursdays and we were flexible so we will try it. The Warehouse needs workers as well but I hate to commit to more hours right now. The Boutique is even more impressive now that it is all redecorated and the expanded warehouse is overflowing with donated items. What a huge business those two places are and they promise to keep growing. They take in 100's of thousands of dollars a year so are worthwhile. I will continue to work in the "value added" part of the business - in other words clean and improve items that come in. I cannot decorate worth any thing so I will continue to polish silver, dust crystal, cover knicks, wash dishes, organize holding area, etc. If it helps them I am willing to do it. I may have to sort and evaluate items in the warehouse as well, we will see.

Wilmer will work in maintenence again doing odd jobs in the resident houses and other jobs on the grounds. With 10 kids in each home occassionally the wall board gets a hole in it, a light needs fixing, fan needs new parts, etc. The men know they can give him a work order and he can figure out the problem and get the materials to fix it. This is not like some camps where a donation has to be made in order to afford a part or replacement. The replacement and repair building is so stocked, organized and clean it shines.

Most of you are in cooler temps so that means raking and cleaning yards for the winter. Some make it a fun project as pictures we got this week show. I really don't miss that project and can't remember the time I thought it was much fun. "For everything there is a season......"I think I am past that one. We are doing well, hope the same of each of you. Just a reminder you can plan an Arizona vacation this winter, we would love to have you. Love to all, Mom and Dad

Heading South

The summer of 2011 has been interesting and challenging. We came back to the Sioux Center area and had to rent a spot to park the RV. Seemed strange but the spot and price were very acceptable. And we both had good check-ups for our main health issues and were "approved" for more traveling. So start the early fall and we were ready to get on the road again. We spent a couple weeks in MN visiting areas we previously had enjoyed. Altho we enjoyed the areas the weather was not so cooperative as it was cool and rainy. Not the best for camping people. Then we headed for Rapid City Heart Ranch. This place has a pastoral feeling and the weather has been in the upper 80's. Beautiiful.

But back to the summer. Of course the "flood", as it is called, of water coming through the roof of the house in Sioux Falls was an unexpected and unwanted event. Cindy did an excellent job of keeping the contractor and other workers in line and did well with picking out colors, flooring, light fixtures, etc. The outline for what was acceptable, price wise, within the insurance guidelines helped with decisions. Thank goodness for insurance that covered the restoration. The trauma of the event was not good but the outcome of a redecorated house is appreciated. I assume you have seen pictures of the process that Cindy posted.

Back to Rapid City. The one event Dad especially wanted to see was the buffalo round-up. The picture obviously does not show how the men on horses rounded them up from the whole park but shows the final leg of the journey where the buffalo were herded into corrals. All 15,000 people were seated on the side of the hills so no one had a bad seat. There were 2 seating "hills" and we probably got different views but all were good. The picture shows one of the seating hills. The buffalo barbecue was delicious. We didn't stay for all of this but we did see some of the buffalo run through chutes to be sorted, marked, given shots etc. Interesting but last time we were by Kim we watched a DVD that was basically about an autistic young women but in the process she devised a "friendly" chute for animals. The DVD was very interesting and totally absorbed me in the story. They did not have an animal friendly chute here but they got the job done. We enjoyed the day.

Of course, we saw Mt. Rushmore. Again, when we attended the evening activities the Vets were invited down to be recognized and touch the flag that had been flying over the program that had been presented. Dad went down so the ceremony was extra special.

We have been active in the church here and have been very blessed with the service and S.S. Also the S.S. couples included us in a fish fry (so very good) and with tickets to Courageous. Such an inspirational movie. We will miss this church. They taught us much about welcoming visitors to a church.

The fall colors are beautiful here and we look forward to more of that as we travel to Colorado next week. Excited to be able to celebrate with two of our family on their birthdays. And see a new great granddaughter as well as others. When family is so scattered those times are real treasures.

We attended a wiener dog (don't know how to spell the real word) race. Never knew there were so many of those dogs. While walking around before the race we came across this dog and his compassionate owner. This dog has a slipped disc in his back and can't walk so this cart was made so he can get around. In fact, he was in the race and those little front legs go like crazy.

Hope you are all doing well. I like Facebook but a personal message or phone call is nice too. Until later, Mom and Dad, Wilmer and Marilyn or whatever! We even respond to ma and pa. Love you all.

Moderate with spells of "hot flashes"

I am of course talking about the weather we have had over the last week. Some days in Mesa were dreadfully hot with the temperature hovering around 100. The sun felt like it would literally burn a whole in our clothes. But I think we got acclimated to it somewhat because on 90 degree days we thought it was not too bad. Then yesterday, Tuesday, we got to Indio, CA and it was downright jacket weather. Today was perfect here in Anaheim. Probably will hit the "hot flash" weather again in Ridgecrest in a few days. Campgrounds are about as different as the weather. Since we moved our table in the RV to the back so it is in front of the windows we have a good view, sometimes. There have been places we looked at a brick wall. The picture at the left is the view from our RV at Indio resort. There was many bushes just loaded with beautiful flowers. We stayed true to our personal rules of not having 2 traveling days in a row. Since we stayed in Indio we had a day to drive down to Palm Springs and surrounding/adjacent communities. What a beautiful place but rather pricey but since we were not there to buy the place only gawk at it we thought it very worthwhile. While walking down a historical part of the city we came across the most fantastic blown glass studio we have ever seen. Wow! We always walk down the streeets so we can get the feel of the community and also get in conversation with a local person to add to the information. Fun !

The Resort had a little pond which we enjoyed. The next two pictures are of that pond. I did not know that the water growth had flowers of various colors. There were some ducks swimming around but when I tried to take their picture I got the last feathers of his tail as he swam right out of the picture. I tried to get the purple flowers in this picture but didn't really succeed but you probably get the picture. We will be here in Anaheim until next Tuesday when we go to Ridgecrest.

It is so amazing how the last years have fallen in place for us even when we had no idea just what the next month would bring. We had our Canada trip planned for years but it never seemed to be the right time. Then in 2008 the way was clear for us to take that long trek to the Maritime Provinces in Canada. Then we heard that there was going to be a Dr. Jeremiah Conference in Tennessee so since we were way on the east coast anyway we decided to take that in. Then we wondered if we could volunteer "somewhere" in that area. While surfing the internet I looked at a volunteer organization but it didn't quite seem to fit us. They had a link on their page for RVICS and I clicked and come up with their page and they seemed to fit us well. So we applied and were excepted. The only red flag they could see with us was that the RCA had a connection with the World Council of Churches and RVICS does not accept that. They called and we assured them that we did not agree with the philosophy of the WCC and that satisfied them and we were in and could work in Florida in Nov. Then we were cleared to work the first 3 months of 2009 in Florida as well and 3 months in other projects. Then 2010 we worked 6 projects and then 3 in Mesa this year. Interesting the Arizona projects were not suppose to be in Sunshine Acres but our scheduled projects in Arizona cancelled so RVICS put us in Sunshine Acres for 3 months. While there we began to wonder about volunteering just as a couple and not have all the structure of RVICS. We enjoyed the morning devotions, the weekly social, the weekly Bible Study night and the scheduled tour on Friday and getting to know people from all over the US but we were getting that ecclesiastical itch (my term) of wanting less structure. So we decided to drop RVICS and applied to Sunshine Acres as volunteers and were accepted. We can work as much or little as we want, once we are on the volunteer list we can show up here any time and work, and we enjoy the flexibility of hours altho we have Mon. and Wed. listed as our days. We have both felt worthwhile and enjoy working more directly with staff instead of going through our RVICS project manager. This is not a brilliant idea that started with us, many, many NW Iowa people have been doing this for years. And since we buy into the whole philosophy of Sunshine Acres it was been a good fit for us. Did we plan this all? Hardly. We felt God leading and opening doors all the way. Our lifestyle is hard for some to understand but it is the path that we feel is the right one for us as this point in our life. How long we will be able to do this is not for us to know right now. Dad has his heart checkup when we get home and I have an appointment at Mayo so if we are declared good to go we will then go as we are lead. Thru the years we have believed the doors will open up as we need them. We are comfortable with that. God has been so good to us, the least we can do is walk thru the doors he opens.

Hope you and yours are all well. We love you all so much and hope to see you all again in the next weeks.

Love, Mom and Dad Wilmer and Marilyn

Moderate with spells of "hot flashes"

Desert Beauty

A perfect picture for the title I think. He does look good and seems to just stay healthy and can work rings around a lot of people who are younger. But since we are retired, why must we prove that? When people ask what he is doing now days, he says, "Am I suppose to be doing something?" Such is the life of senior citizens.

Just to give validity to the view that senior citizens always seem to be looking for a good deal at anything but especially cheap or free food I thought I would validate that view. The Village Inn has free pie on Wednesday evening if you buy an item - a cup of coffee fills that requirement. They have delicious pie. Then at the same restaurant between 4-6 any day you also get free pie. We have eaten quite a few pieces of pie this winter. When Baskin Robbins has a dip of ice cream for 31 cents we felt we should honor that great event. But did you ever stand in line for a couple scoops of ice cream? But it was delicious. IHOP has fantastic deals. And if you fill out the internet questionnaire you get a coupon for a stack of pancakes free. Plus if you register, etc. you get a free fruity tooty breakfast. And on and on I could go but you get the message. We are typical and well fed. The one place that really stands out as far as eating is Eggingtons. Yes, eggs are their main feature and they use 8000 a week. No, I didn't add too many 0's in that. We went there one Sunday and it was special. Will try to make it once before we go home. Enough already about food but I can't forget to tell you about the garden market. We have better and more varied fruits and vegetables than we ever had before. And $10.00 buys a lot of produce.

We still work on Monday and Wednesdays from 8-3 and are feeling that is a good schedule because it is worthwhile and we still can do many other things. One tour was to the Arboretum in Superior. We timed our day fairly well because many of the cactus were blooming. We have seldom seen cactus in bloom but that day we saw all kinds of them. It is really an experience in viewing how the whole creation works and how each part of this creation has its own unique characteristics. How flowers can bloom when rainfall so far this year is hardly an inch boggles my mind but they do. They don't spend a lot of days in their glorious colors because we were told that each blossom only lasts one day but new ones open up each day over a span of a week more or less. That blows my mind.

We also toured the Olive Gardens. We had been there before but we hadn't had the time to sample their unusual food. Of course, they use all olive oil in a way I could learn from. I now have it on hand and used it today to fix sauteed onions. We had them by Kim once and absolutely loved them. I did make clear that this was a dish we probably would have to limit to twice a year. So good they had to be bad for heath.

The Mesa swap meet was another experience we liked. It is not an antique or flea market because everything is new. We will go back there again on Saturday but we will go early in the morning before the heat gets too bad. They do mist and have open sides so if there is a breeze it is good. The building itself is all under roof, all 1 1/2 miles of it.

The highlight of the past weeks was Easter Sunday. We went to our usual New Life Community (Reformed) Church. They had such an inspiring and meaningful service. We had been to the Seder Supper on Thursday night and the Good Friday service on Friday evening so Sunday was the culmination of all those services and it was a fantastic experience. They have two terrific pastors. A few weeks ago we were riding around after church and came across a place that had so many cars we wondered what it was. We stopped and found it was a Mission church. It definitely was a Mega-Church seating 2700, we walked around it and found it to be an alive church but we didn't attend a service. This week we deliberately got there when a service was about to start. The service we attended was at 10:30 and the next one was at 11:59. They had had an earlier one as well. We attended the contemporary service which is okay with us and then the pastor had a most challenging sermon. At the beginning he said if any one was there for fluff they could as well leave because it wasn't that kind of church or service. No, there was no fluff. We were so glad we had decided to go to that church as well and receive a special Easter blessing.

We still plan to leave here May 16 and go to California but for now we are enjoying TowerPoint Resort. It is so quiet here because so many people have left for the summer. It surely would look different in the winter months. Our Reformed Church has lost almost half of its attendees when the winter residents went back home.

Hope all are well. Remember we do have a different phone number, don't be afraid to use it. Love and best wishes as you all work through the various challenges and opportunities which are times to grow and be stretched. I recently was reading a devotional by Elisabeth Elliot which began this way, "Easter, the most joyful of all Christian feast days, follows that most sorrowful of days we remember. The joy of Easter proceeds from the Cross. Without Christ's pouring out His soul to death there would have been no resurrection. We cannot know Christ and the power of His resurrection without also entering into the fellowship of His suffering." I must try to understand that a little better and have a better way to utilize that truth in the context of helping others.

Until later, Mom and Dad Wilmer and Marilyn

Change AGAIN

Yes, life is interesting and changing. Tuesday we finished our March RVICS project at Sunshine Acres Children's Home. We had worked there for 3 months and totally enjoyed the work and the group. The six couples worked together there for the whole 3 months. Seldom do the groups stay the same for that length of time but Arizona in the winter is very easy to get use to and has many things to do, the probably the best perk is the weather. It has been good!

As much as we like RVICS we were beginning to feel that the rigid schedule was more than we wanted to commit to at this stage of our lives. The work was good and enjoyable and Dad really thinks the work makes him healthier than not doing the work and I think that is true. So as an alternatie we have chosen to leave RCICS now and volunteer 2 days a week, Monday and Wednesday, from 8-3 with a morning break and lunch provided at Sunshine Acres. The heat may influence if we can stick with that but we will adjust as we go. The Acres are very flexible with volunteers. I plan on working in the Boutique and Dad will work in maintenance, probably not on big projects as he worked on with RVICS but very similar work. The picture of the Boutique isn't impressive but the items for sale are. They have been slightly used and are rather pricey. The boutique and Warehouse are not open Sunday thru Tuesday but huge amounts of donations are dropped off. The regulars come as soon as the places opens on Wednesday to see what has come in over the past 3 days. The place is a zoo. For now I, and several other volunteers, do not work with customers but we work in the back room which is stuffed with inventory. We sort, wash, organize, remove spots, (something familiar about that) and such things needed to move the inventory up to the front. Can you imagine working to organize lamp shades for hours? Not hard to do here. My supervisor knows her "elite" customer base and knows how to make "used stuff" look beautiful. And it works. Now just so I can restrain myself. All I have to do is think about all the stuff we have stored in Sioux Center and that makes the desire to buy less attractive.

Since we are a different category and one of several hundreds who volunteer we moved off the Acres and into Towerpoint Resort, quite a change. This picture shows what we have looked at from our RV the last months. The Acres started in the desert which you can see with the landscape and cactus but we also could see the highway lights which show in the picture. We were never farther than a very few miles from major roads and shopping area. Now we are only 4 miles from the Acres so we still have easy access to things we like. The cactus pictures two plants with an incredibly long life. They do not send out those arms until they are 100 years old. Does something about that make you think about Abraham? The holes in the plants make ideal cover for birds. Our RVICS couples were bird lovers and they had all kinds of feeders out and drew dozens off birds. Quite interesting.

Now we have an an entirely different view and we like this as well. Friends of ours have stayed here and highly recommended it. Of course, when the winter residents go back home every resort, church or business has a different atmosphere than the months past. The whole city makes the experience of Mesa living enjoyable. We plan to stay here and work for 6-7 weeks and then go to California. Today is 20 degrees above average so it is over 90 and, yes, that is hot even though it is so dry here that skin and hair needs to be treated differently than in Iowa. Air conditioner will get a work-out.

We are doing well. Enjoy hearing from each of you. Hope you are doing well. So many things happening in each of your lives and families, love hearing about it. Love to all, Mom and Dad. In case you can't find our new tel. # 480-703-0423. The Sioux Falls address is still our main address but it would be faster if you send mail to Towerpoint Resort, 4860 E. Main Street, Mesa, AZ 85205 for the next month.

Warm weather already!

Yes, it is warm in Arizona. Temps getting up in the 80's but no humidity so it is comfortable. Couple weeks ago we had the annual BBQ here at the Home. The Optimist Club was instrumental in getting Sunshine Arces started and they still are active and one project they do is sponsor the whole BBQ day and activities. Only one thing they couldn't do and that was make the day dry and warm. It rained during the night so the grounds were messy. The wind kicked up and the temp was low so it made for a cold day for us as workers and it really cut down the attendance. But with all the planned activities going on that day still the most visited buildings were the warehouse and boutique. Bag day proves to be a great draw. You buy the bag of your choice dollar wise and then you put anything you want in that bag. I see it serving 2 purposes. The customer has fun seeing how much they can shove in the bag and the warehouse gets rid of a lot of "stuff" that is not a good selling item. I did it and felt like I was/trying to shoplift. But I did get a lot of fun things.

Since we worked extra days for the BBQ we had a whole week off before the next project started. That was a good break.

The women finally finished with the sorting and labeling the items in an upstairs storage room. My department was the craft stuff which mainly was scrap booking items. WOW, few Archivers stores have more scissors, paper, punches, etc. I figured since it was craft stuff I would label it with craft style. Hope somebody doesn 't come along and ignore the work that was done by our group and, once again, create a mess. Many have stated that it would be nice to come up for a pair of shoes or paper and know just where to find it. Hope it works.

A project we have been doing in the RV is making an extra desk. Because we each have a computer (Dad has two)and I have messy hobbies/crafts we wanted more working room. In order to do that we had to remove the sofa. Dad did use the sofa when he was working on his computer but it was less than comfortable and left no extra room on his little desk for papers etc. We do have a life of business, etc. that we must maintain in addition to RVICS. The sofa was donated to the boutique or warehouse and they must have sold it quickly because I never saw it displayed at either place.

Removing the sofa left us with 6 feet of space and we made the desk(top) exactly(even 1/8 of an inch difference made it necessary for a little pressure to be applied to get the desk top in place) that long and 3 feet wide. The top is oak plywood that we had to finish ourselves. It is built in strong "Rensink" style. We are really liking it. But as every project big or small we keep adding to it. The boxes we got at IKEA for storage. Then we wondered if the boxes were going to be too heavy (for the box not for us) to pull out so we are making wood platforms with wheels for the 2 sets of boxes to stand on. We are pleased with the look and the functionality of the project. Now if grandchildren want to stay with us it will be a slumber party on the floor. With the couch in that place it was almost impossible to pull the couch out anyway so we figure we are not missing much without the couch. Or as our Canadian couple say, the Chesterfield. I put that in for Chris, eh? I will not divulge the idea they had when we called something to wipe our face on a napkin! When we get ready to sell the RV we can advertise it as an office RV. It would work.

We do plan to stay in Mesa thru April. Will do volunteering here at the Home if we are wanted and needed. Again, we appreciate any calls, emails, Facebook blogs and pictures we receive from you. Please keep it up. Love you all. Dad and Mom Wilmer and Marilyn

Eat your heart out, Kim!

Bad title I know but I think of Kim every time we step outside the RV door as it is very close to our RV. This building was started Monday and they expect it to be enclosed by the end of this week The building behind the construction is the warehouse/second hand store and is crowded from one end to the other. And in addition, they have bigger pieces of furniture outside which works in a place that seldom gets rain. They do however have tarps to keep some of the dust off of the furniture. The construction area is an extension to the warehouse. The items in the warehouse are used to furnish all the buildings of the homes here and the rest are open to the public for sale. And before you brush this off as a lot of work with small returns I must tell you that last year they made 1.3 million dollars from this building and the boutique near by which carries the more high end items such as fine china, silver services and glassware. The winter residents go wild at these two building and of course Sunshine Acres appreciates it all.

Our work was mostly more of the same the past couple of weeks so not much to report on it other than we are finally getting organized in the "attic" which has more items for the camp except these are all new and are mostly smaller toiletries, etc. as I wrote before. The men continue to work improving the grounds an d buildings by enclosing a car port, adding a car port etc. There is a reason while so much of this work has to be done now because next Sunday is the big BBQ. We all will be working on the details this whole week I am sure. The women have been passing out flyers for the BBQ several days already. This event is another of their major fund raisers as anywhere from 3-5 thousand people come for it. Interesting there is no mention of a fund raiser on the flyers. The Home never asks for money. And they are totally removed from any federal or state funding so they are free to promote their faith in the way they want to.

If all goes as planned we will put in enough extra hours this week so we don't have to work the last 2 days of this project the next week. Sounds good to us as we will then have a full week off between projects.

FOOD! RVICS people, and us as well, like to find new interesting places to eat. Thursday evening we went to the Organ Stop Pizza place. Thy serve good pizza and they have a national acclaimed organist who plays the largest Wurlitzer organ in the world. The place is huge and it was full when we were there. The organist attracts so much attention that after eating most people sit around for an hour or so just to listen. On Sunday we and the Davelaars go to the Hope Reformed Church. We have found that after church the Village Inn really hits the spot. A while back we ate at the Iowan and I hope the people who eat there don't think that is how Iowa beef tastes. Disappointing! IHOP is good, especially with a Christmas gift card. Love their stuffed french toast. And when eating in we make good use of the fresh vegetables (beans are awesome) and fruits. Never ate so many blueberries.

We hope the storm of this weekend didn't cause any problems for all of you and hope it gets cleared up in a hurry. We still find the work rewarding but we are in the process of searching for

the answer as to whether we should continue or not. Lots of options - just need guidance as to what is the best choice for us. Since we are staying here for another month our address will stay the same as it is now.

Love you all, Mom and Dad Marilyn/Wilmer (what ever fits.)

Sunshine Acres

What an appropriate name for this camp and it is true in more than one way. Naturally the sun shines most every day all day. However, yesterday we had a quick rain shower just when I needed to retrieve my wash from the laundry room. No sweat, it was just sprinkles and brief. It did bring a beautiful rainbow tho. On Tuesday we have a social and the committee decided it was nice enough for a picnic. We had it early because the sun goes down early and than the air can be pretty crisp. (I know I am encouraging criticism when I write that to people who are hoping for temps above 0) Don't know who was in charge of the grilling but our steaks, done by our own griller, turned out very good. Baked potatoes in the crock pot, not so good. Good we have backup microwaves to use in just such an emergency. Turned out to be a fun night.

Most of the women ended up the last weeks with working in the "attic" where donations of new items are kept. Don't know how or when they will make use of them or distribute them but the room will look much better after we get done with it. Probably the staff will even have a hard time finding a few things. Reading labels will be a necessary part of finding boxes of items. The items range from clothes, dozens of shoes, files and record keeping ledgers, scrapbooks of students, humongous amount of scrapbook "necessities", toys, games, school supplies, soap, lotion, shampoo, crayons, markers, pencils, pens, glue, and a ton of other stuff for school, traveling size toiletries, office stuff like paper, envelopes, booklets the staff writes. snapshots of students, and on and on, you get the idea. It is not hard work but tedious, just when you get one section done with all one kind of items somebody invariably finds another box of that stuff. Rearrange again.

This picture is the front of one of the student and house parents' house. The philosophy is that these kids deserve something special and special it is. And even when we work around the house or on the camp grounds we never hear a lot of racket or hollering going on. In fact it is very quiet. The kids are very respectful and appreciative of the work we do for them. When I see all the money that is donated for buildings such as this one our work doesn't seem so big but we all give what we can of what we have. All of the buildings are built with donated money and, of course, the income from the warehouse and boutique is used on the kids as well.

The student rooms were all redecorated this past week. One of the staff must have a decorating degree because each room is a theme room and wall decorations and all are new and fantastically carry out the theme. This room has 2 beds with the same design theme. But if the kids want a tank with a snake in it in their room that is okay too because kids are kids. All rooms are immaculately clean.

Today was the last day of this Jan. project. We were scheduled to work one more month here and then go to Glendale, AZ for March. That project fell thru so we will stay in Mesa an extra month now. In other words, we stay and work here until the first of April. Good deal for RVICSers. We like it here.

As always we had trouble with the Wi-Fi here. Our Cell phone was suppose to help us with the Internet but was undependable to say the least. I won't give all the details but we finally went to a different cell phone server and now our phone is our link to the Internet. We could keep our own phone so that helps because it took us awhile to learn how to use it and we didn't want to start up the learning curve again. And since we are not residents of Iowa any more we could get out of our contract with Iowa Wireless without fees and without giving up the phone.

We think of you often and often wonder why you all aren't here with the myriad of Iowa people who are here for the winter. The winter residents had a Sunday brunch at a golf course Sunday and there were 71 people there and that is only the ones that usually go to Hope Ref. Church. There are many other worship places that others go to. One church actually closes its doors after the winter residents leave.

Love you all. Love the connection we can make with many of you on Facebook. Love the pictures. Until later, Mom and Dad, Marilyn and Wilmer

Desert Living

This country of ours is so unique in that there is so much diversity. Not a provocative sentence I know but a continuing education and appreciation for us. While we hear of ice, snow, subzero temperatures in the Midwest we are experiencing dry air and warm temperatures. The seasons exist here in Arizona but the differences are not as great as other areas of this vast country.

RVICS has guidelines for us to follow. One of them is that we tour some interesting happenings in the area close to our work and Friday is suggested for tour since we all get done working for the week at 11:30 on Thursday. Some union we work for, right? We are on the tour committee so Friday we planned a tour to the Boyce Thompson Arboretum and Botanical Garden. The pictures of cactus are not unique to any of us but they still were interesting as the tour guide helped us understand their place in the whole range of living plants. Obviously the desert does not look very colorful right now but this plant still has some violet flowers on it. Welcome change from the pale green plants, sand and sage brush covering the rest of the Arboretum. We hope to go back when more of the plants are blossoming.

The tour was good but the dinner afterwards was just as much fun. Thursday we had scouted out the town of Superior to find a good place for the group to have lunch on Friday. We found the Los Hermanos Mexican restaurant and ate there. The staff was so kind and helpful to us. Then we noticed that they had a Tortilla Factory in the back room. We could walk right back and see the tortillas being made. A young man wanted me to take pictures on Thursday so on Friday I had the camera and took pictures of him and others. It was such a great treat for us to make this fun connection. Friday they were photographed by several more cameras and they laughed for each one. Almost more fun than the whole arboretum tour. By the way, the food was delicious and pleasing. The restaurant is advertised as authentic but how would any of us know if that is true or not.?

Saturday we usually have to ourselves. We ended up at a huge Sam's store. We didn't need a huge amount of items and that is good because when we live in an RV we really have to throw out as much as we come home with in order to keep some sense of organization in such a small area. You would be amazed at how I can pack and repack to get groceries in our cupboards.

We continue to do patching, painting, restoring, organizing, and whatever else needs doing. they are very appreciative of our help.

This morning we went back to the Hope Community Church in Gilbert. We enjoy it and find it interesting to see so many people from back home. And we understand not near all the snow birds go to this church. We plan to get more involved by going to a get-together of snow birds and church people next week Also to help with packing boxes for needy children. We are feeling well and handle the work quite well also. Internet is a pain at times and that is frustrating. However, we do get on everyday one way or another and who could fault us for wanting to keep up with such things as yesterday getting the news of another great granddaughter in Loveland, CO. Elissa, Linda and Chris's daughter, gave birth to a baby girl, Sophia, and she joins sister Kenley and Dad Mike. What a blessing!

Blessings and love to you all, Dad and Mom Marilyn and Wilmer

Memories

Yesterday we celebrated our 57th wedding anniversary. We reminisced about the many blessings we have had through those 57 years. We started with the extremely cold temperature that day back in 1954. Thought about our families doing so much to make the day so memorable. Mom and other relatives worked long and hard on the decorations in the church. They probably do not add up to the fancy stuff (expensive) they have now days but we thought it was pretty nice. The lunch at the reception was done up right by 2 dear ladies who knew how to fix good tasting food. The wedding picture was taken in the afternoon at a studio - so much for the groom not seeing the bride in her wedding dress before the wedding. Can't say that it dampened our spirits or our life. So many more things we recall but especially how simple things were. One RVICS gal said when she saw our wedding picture, "looks like this was taken in another era". So? We have been truly blessed by a supportive family and siblings and that is our most precious gift. One son named our blog site "golden foxes" and yesterday one daughter called us "crazy kids". Yes, we answer to both of those and probably live up to them most of the time. So glad to have that kind of relationship so they feel free to use those titles. What a blessing the family has been and is to us.

Our "callings" in life have been varied and for that we are also grateful. We have tried to support one another in various endeavors and that has made for many interesting ventures, the one we are in now is certainly no exception. Thanks to each one of you for the contribution you made to make our years so blessed.

We are now in Mesa, AZ working at Sunshine Acres. We have worked one week and will continue here until the end of Feb. As I always say, each project is so different. This one takes boys and girls who must leave their home for reasons like poverty, abuse, educational disadvantage or something similar. They come to school here and live here. Ten or twelve boys or girls live in a residential home with house parents. The residential houses are extremely nice. Evidentally the camp has a good support system and that donor base donates an unbelievable amount of money and merchandise. The homes are all furnished with those donated goods. Much that is donated is new but has been used in a model home and cannot be sold. What they cannot use in the homes, machine shop, chapel, etc. is sold through the warehouse or boutique. I must spend some time (money) there before we leave this place. Beautiful stuff.

Our work here is similar to all over. Paint here and there, wash scuffs from the walls, lay a little carpet (yes I and another gal did that) - she thought I put so much glue on that it would seep through the carpet, it did not and it does stick. Men do maintenance work at well. Replace fixtures, wire new light fixtures, paint the dining room in between meals times for the kids, etc. We have 6 couples and interesting how the talents mesh so we make a complete whole - at least we think we do.

The sky is beautiful from the RV court as you can see but I have learned to take it while it is nice because 5 minutes from now it will be different.

This morning we went to a Reformed Church in Gilbert just a few miles from here. I was astonished at how many people were from NW Iowa and mainly Sioux County. We and Floyd and Joyce Davelaar from Rock Valley and who are on our project went together. Great service. Talked to people we hadn't talked to for years. Many of the "snow birds"do volunteer at Sunshine Acres a day a week or so and they volunteer other places too.

We are very comfortable here and looking forward to the next 7 weeks. Hope you are all well, over the colds that are going around, done with snow vacations, and all that good stuff. Our love goes out to you and if you could fit in a weekend in Arizona this winter be sure to stop at Sunshine Acres. Love you all,

Mom and Dad Marilyn and Wilmer or just plain Pa and Ma as we are often called.