Happy Easter Everyone :)))

All I need to know I learned from the Easter Bunny!

• Don't put all your eggs in one basket.

• Everyone needs a friend who is all ears.

• There's no such thing as too much candy.

• All work and no play can make you a basket case.

• A cute tail attracts a lot of attention.

• Everyone is entitled to a bad hare day.

• Let happy thoughts multiply like rabbits.

• Some body parts should be floppy.

• Keep your paws off of other people's jelly beans.

• Good things come in small, sugar coated packages.

• The grass is always greener in someone else's basket.

To show your true colors, you have to come out of the shell.

The best things in life are still sweet and gooey.

May the joy of the season fill your heart.

AND MAY GOD BLESS YOU!

Happy Easter!

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And now The Cowboy’s version

Since it’s Easter Weekend. One of the most important days of our lives it gives me a chance to reflect on the Cowboy's Ten Commandments posted on the wall at Cross Trails Church in Fairlie , Texas :

(1) Always remember there ain’t but one God.
(2) Honor yer Ma & yer Pa.
(3) No telling tales or gossipin'.
(4) Git yourself to Sunday meeting.
(5) Put nothin' before God.
(6) No foolin' around with an...other fellow's gal.
(7) No killin'.
(8) Watch yer mouth.
(9) Don't take what ain't yers.
(10) Don't be hankerin' for yer buddy's stuff.

And end each day with the Cowboy’s prayer:

Lord, I ask keep Your arm around my shoulder
and Your hand over my mouth.

Happy Easter Y'all

Reflections continued . . . by The Cowboy

May: We get back into Ontario a hundred miles at a time, see the family, spend some time in Tillsonburg and then go to the lake to setup out new Summer Place. We get to Trillium Court RV Park and they have assigned us a postage stamp size site.

 

We work on it for a week and are determined to make it work even though it is very small for our size rig. Dig, dig, dig. Move flowers, decks, sheds and anything that is not firmly bolted down. 

I may mention that by this time I can lift a patio stone and carry it four feet before I must sit and rest for 20 minutes. I am up for three hours then back to bed for a four hour nap, but it is a start right?

 

After a week with some REALLY helpful neighbors it comes to our attention that the much larger site on the ravine we have been after is coming available.

That was all that needed to be said. The Princess has the coach packed up ready to roll in less than ten minutes so out we go to back into our new seasonal site. We are both about as happy as a new colt in a fresh pasture after a rain.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

June: Work and more work getting our new Summer Place whipped into shape. We are laying patio stones, planting hundreds of flowers, adding onto our deck and just hundreds of jobs to do.

Our Great neighbors are over, giving of their time and energy to make sure things get done.

You never realize just how wealthy you are until you can just sit back and reflect what a great bond you have with your friends.

We are nicely settling in and one day we get a call from our youngest daughter. Not that young any longer but she doesn’t realize that. She wants to come down and “VISIT”.

She also informs us that she is in charge of “Survivor” games for her group’s campout on the July long weekend.

Down she comes and with one of the god given talents she has developed, before we know it all of us are neck deep in construction of one fashion or another, building water balloon slingshots and target boards, ring toss boards, survival tribal dummies and just a full six days for us building props.

When the day arrives we load everything up and off we go for a fun filled weekend of being “Roadies” for the tribal Queen in the Survivor marathon that she has planned.

It was a real blast and everyone had three days of some of the best fun at the event they had ever had. It all went off “Slicker than a doorknob on an outhouse door”.

We enjoyed every tiring moment and the memories made will last forever.

The Cowboy Reflects

Hoping everyone had a wonderful Christmas and by now all of those New Year’s Resolutions have been broken.

It’s that time of year when we all reflect on our lives and the past years’ happenings and this post by The Cowboy is just that.

It’s a little bit late in coming – my laptop was in for repair. However, maybe our reflecting should be year round instead of waiting for the end of another year . . .

And Yes . . . you can expect more ‘Çowboyisms’

January: Enjoying the winter in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas  - other than a Doctor’s appointment where he sits me down and says “We need to get you in for a biopsy on your throat”. Have you any idea how long the days become and how little you can find interesting once they throw that on the table? But, “Just 'cause trouble comes visitin’ doesn't mean you have to offer it a place to sit”. Life moves on and so did we.

 

Just another (gorgeous) day in the RGV

Click on the above to read our January 2012 post.

 

 

 

February: Life picks up with some positive things going on. After 8 years and thousands of dollars I FINALLY get a divorce from a previous marriage. “I AM A FREE MAN”. What relief. Short lived as that feeling was.

Now if you really want an experience that will shake you to your soul. Have your Doctor sit you down and explain your biopsy came back positive and you have Cancer. There is just no way could I explain how this news changes EVERYTHING. You are sad, happy, angry, worried and determined all in the same moment. You worry about some of the strangest things and the topic will not leave you alone for even a few minutes.

 

 

I keep reminding myself,

“Every trail has a few puddles”.

 

 

 

March: The doctor has suggested that I get out of the Valley since Cancer is not prevalent in the Spanish cultures and treatment here would be second best. He suggests Houston or Illinois. We opt to stop in Houston and take a look. This is about the time that I was faced with a true understanding, “Courage is being scared to death and saddling up anyway”. It became my way of life. By mid March I am undergoing Radiation and Chemo treatments. You can read more if you choose in older posts.

April: I am at a point now that I am pulling from areas I never knew I had. They have taken me from who I was and everyone knew to some stranger that has lost weight, strength, reassurance and most of his humor. I have been “Rode hard and put away wet”. Instead of running along I am able to just make it through a day with most of it spent sleeping. You have absolutely no idea the power of having a GOOD WOMAN by your side. How The Princess stood those months still today leaves me shaking my head. I always thought she was smarter than to get herself wrapped up with a burden like me but I sure am glad she is blind!!!  I learned a very long time ago, “Treat a woman like a racehorse, and she'll never be a nag” and that filly is pure thoroughbred.

 

Finally the bell is rung and I have spent my last days under treatment. We head north a few miles for a week’s R&R. What I was thinking at the time I am not sure, a week ya right. Not much recovery in only one week but I look at The Princess and say “are ya ready”. She gives me that I’m not sure why but I trust you look and away we go, Heading NORTH.

 

 

To be continued . . .

Oh and by the way

What better than this wonderful time of year to jump back in here and update all of you out here in blog land.

It’s been a crazy whirlwind of a year and we just got caught up in our own lives and couldn’t find the time to read your blogs, let alone post to our own.

First and foremost, I know most of you are concerned about The Cowboy and his battle with cancer. To refresh - he was diagnosed with throat cancer last winter. We were fortunate enough to be here in the Rio Grande Valley and about a day’s drive away from the biggest and best cancer center in the world – M D Anderson in Houston. He underwent 33 radiation and 5 chemo treatments. To our new readers - you can read all about that in much more detail in our previous posts.

The good news is that today he is cancer free. We drove down to Houston in August for his 3 month check up and all reports were good. As we made our travel plans to head south this winter we worked it around his 6 month follow up in late November. Same great results. No signs of cancer. Words cannot express how grateful we are!

The bad news is he still hasn’t regained control of his voice. There was a lot of damage as a result of the radiation; the muscles on his voice box are still not working properly. Following the November appointments we went back to Houston the first week in December for a few days for more testing. Following a very thorough video strobe the rest of the time was spent with a speech pathologist. She gave him more exercises and they also prescribed a steroid. I wish I could say that, with the therapy and drugs, we’ve seen an improvement but in all honesty, I can’t. Some days are better than others and we are still very hopeful that he will be singing like Johnny Cash any day now. We both feel that if this is the worst case scenario – then so be it.

So much has happened since I last posted that I don’t even know where to start. Over the next few days of downtime we will try to get everyone caught up and The Cowboy will be sharing some of his experiences with you as well.

 

However, at this time, we hope y’all are surrounded by your loved ones.

We are sending our warmest wishes for Love, Peace and Joy . . . this Christmas Season and always.

 

 

 

(P.S. We did find the time to get married.)

For many reasons this will be a very special Christmas for us. We hope it is for you too.

Ahhhhh ! Home :-)))

Well, that overnight stop in Dayton, Ohio was just a thought . . . we made good time and decided to just keep right on a truckin’. A total of about 760 miles yesterday landed us in our own bed last night about 11 o’clock. Even at that hour we still had friends here in the park welcoming us back with hugs and congratulations! Since then it has been non-stop with neighbours and friends stopping by with sincere best wishes. We are so fortunate to be surrounded by such wonderful people and to be included in this great community.

It feels good to get our land legs back and we spent the day just relaxing and orienting ourselves. Unpacking will wait till tomorrow.

Hope everyone is staying healthy and safe out there.

Again, thanks again for all your positive thoughts and prayers. There are no words to express the gratitude and love we feel from all of you.

God Bless.

We’re half way there!

As we head out this morning we are about 50 miles south of Nashville and at day’s end we will be just north of Dayton, Ohio leaving about 340 miles left to travel on Sunday – the final leg of our journey.

We’ve learned a lot on this trip – even some things about each other       *Sigh*

The biggest discovery is that we are really poor packers. First of all, we don’t even own a suitcase. Haven’t had the need for one while living in our motorhome. We simply take everything with us when we go.

Think about that . . .  what do you take with you when you go?

There will be more about all of this later but we just wanted everyone to know that we are still safe and travelling north.

Take Care everyone!