Arizona, Mesa - Sunday, January 18, 2015 - Val Vista Villages RV Resort

Thursday morning was filled with meetings.  First was the resort info meeting with coffee and donuts.  Then at noon we attended a meeting about Sky Med insurance.  We are already members but we just wanted to see if there were any changes to the program and to make sure we knew how our membership renewed in the future.  They also had a free pulled pork sandwich lunch.  We’ve never had to use this service but we have heard all kinds of stories from people who have used it and were very satisfied.  The main point of the program is that it “gets you home” in case of accident or illness even if it means you need to go by air ambulance.  It will also get your RV home if someone (me) can’t drive it.

Thursday evening we went up to the courtyard (this is where we work) to watch the entertainment for the evening – The Amazing Pianos.  There was quite a crowd.  They have musical entertainment of some type every day from 3-5.

 

 

On Friday I wanted to go to JoAnn Fabric to use a 50% off coupon that expired on Saturday.  The bad news is that everything I wanted was on sale so the coupon wouldn’t work on them, the good news is that they were 50% off on sale.  I mentioned to Greg that I wanted to look over their upholstery material because in the future I wanted to redo the valances that go around all of our windows.  We didn’t see anything that we liked but we did meet a lady who recommended we look at Mesa Sales.  She said from the outside it looked like a carpet store but inside they had a lot of upholstery material – boy, was she right.

We found something that appealed to both of us on the first aisle so we decided to take a yard of both of our choices home to see how they looked in the light there.  That led to taking down one of the valances – just to see how the material looked kind of draped around it.  From there we got really involved.

Greg found out that there were hundreds of staples in the original valances.

 

We set up a work station on the bed with our folding table across it so the material wouldn’t fall on the floor as we were working with it.  I used the old material as a pattern.  We found my old (40 yrs. or so) electric scissors in my sewing tote in the basement.  After Greg cleaned out the dust they worked just fine and made the cutting so much faster since we don’t seem to have a good pair of scissors in the house.

 

 

 I’ve never been able to figure out why they chose red and gold for the original valances.  We don’t have anything else red or gold in the coach except at Christmas time when we have our decorations up.  They didn’t look bad with the beige, brown and black in the other things that we have so we’ve put up with them.  Things changed when we did the tile wall behind the TV, it is made up of beige, grey and brown tones.  Our counters also have some grey in them so I wanted to find some way to use greys and browns in the valances.

 

This shows one of the new valances next to an old one.  We are really pleased with them.  The colors don’t’ show up distinctly in the picture, the stripes are two shades of beige and two shades of grey with some small black and white stripes.  We ended up doing two valances this weekend, only ten more to go.

 

Arizona, Mesa - Monday, January 12, 2015 - Val Vista Villages RV Resort

Watching Ohio State and Oregon play in the college football championship.  Rooting for Ohio State.

We ended up working an extra day last week, they called us in on Saturday just as we had settled down to watch a movie.  We had a choice whether or not we went in but we decided to go, it was a good thing we did, it was busy.  Not sure how that extra four hours will play out in our workamper contract, we’ll see.  On Sunday I ended up doing the cooking and cleaning I had planned for Saturday so we didn’t have any time to get out and play.

The grill was really busy today.  There was karaoke in the courtyard and that seems to be a big draw, sometimes I’m not sure why.  The good thing about all of these busy days is that I have managed to lose 4 pounds and so far I haven’t adjusted my eating habits.  In fact, I’ve been indulging a little too much in some very good chocolate rice krispy treats I made on Sunday.

We got our December mail today which included a lot of wonderful Christmas cards.  So, we get to enjoy a bit of extended Christmas cheer.  Miss all of you back in Indiana, but I’m sure glad we don’t have to participate in that cold weather.  Stay safe and warm.

Arizona, Mesa - Thursday, January 8, 2015 - Val Vista Villages RV Resort

We’ve each put in our twelve hours this week.  The crowds at the grill are starting to increase, the snowbirds that wait until after the holidays have arrived.  I heard that there are 5000 people in this resort now, which is probably about right since there are somewhere over 2000 sites – enough for a small town.  Since the bar and grill where we work is the only one in this little “town”, it is pretty busy.  Greg is going to start working in the kitchen putting together sandwiches and salads when we are really busy.  The pedometer this week was registering nearly 3 miles a day J.  This job has given me a whole new appreciation for wait staff.

Today is a day off and I still walked right at 2 miles.  I’ve been trying to make contact with the ceramic class instructor so I made another try today, that’s a walk to the other side of the resort – no luck again.  From there I headed to the fabric store which is a couple of blocks outside of the resort.  I needed to get material for a beginning quilting class project – I’m excited to see how this goes.  I’ll post pictures of the project as it progresses. 

This week has been in the 70s and low 80s until today when it was only in the 60s.  But, since we keep a watch on what is happening with the kids in Kansas, Indiana and Washington, DC, I’m certainly not going to complain – stay safe and warm guys.  We’ve been told by the locals that winter is over here, we’ve had our three weeks of cool weather.

Today was a treat for me, I haven’t been anywhere that I couldn’t walk since December 19.  Greg has been out for his chiropractor appointments but until this week it has been too cold for me to want to ride along.  We stopped for lunch at Piggly’s Smokehouse BBQ Grill.  We had the lean brisket sandwiches with onion rings.  I wish I had remembered to take the camera, what a great lunch!!

After lunch we went to see the movie “Unbroken”.  It is based on a true story and was a well-made film so I was glad we went to see it.  However, it is a story that makes your heart heavy.  I was surprised we were able to use the AMC movie passes I got several years ago and got in free.  They were given as an incentive to give blood one of the times I was at the Indiana Blood Center in Columbus, IN.

Then it was back to the real world, we had to make a stop at Wal-Mart for paper and other non-food items for the month.  We did check out the aisles for a few food items we haven’t been able to find in this area.

·        Drakes seasoning (breading mix we use for breaded tenderloins).  We really don’t need breaded tenderloins so this is probably a good thing.

·        Red Gold Salsa (mild).  We stocked up on this before we left Indiana but we are down to our last jar.  I’ll be making salsa until we get back to Indiana.

·        Kraft Light Three Cheese Dressing.  There are all kinds of other Kraft dressings, just not the one we prefer.

·        Panda Express Orange Sauce.  Once again probably a good thing, but it is so good.