What happened to 2012?

It's a brand new year with all new possibilities. I'm not sure where 2012 went but I am looking forward to 2013.
We spent most of this past year in three states: Texas, Idaho and Arizona. South...north...south. Does it sound like we are the typical snowbirds? Yep, absolutely. Although winter has definitely arrived here in Arizona, there is no snow and daytime temperatures are usually in the 50s and 60s. Not bad at all—and our water lines haven't frozen once!
My last post was around Thanksgiving and I totally missed December. I suppose it's because Christmastime just isn't the same without family around. This year was better though than the last two years since we left California.
Christmas 2010 was spent in Nashville, TN right after finishing our jobs at Amazon early in the morning on Christmas Eve. We had snow which was cool (literally) but we were both recovering from our physically demanding jobs, plus we were stressed because our black tank split just before we pulled out of our campground in Kentucky to head for Tennessee. It wasn't fun walking through the snow in the cold to the campground bathroom late at night and early in the morning.
Christmas 2011 was the absolute worst though. We were in the company yard in south Texas waiting for an oil rig gate. Gloomy, bored, no way to go to church and running out of money. Not fun!
This year was much better. The RV park we are in is really a retirement community made up of 85% park model RVs (think very small mobile homes) and15% RVs. We believe we are the youngest ones here. Anyway, these seniors get real serious about their Christmas decorations. We had beautiful lights all up and down the streets in the park as well as in and around all the buildings we clean. It gave the park a very festive and cheerful look.

Another thing that made Christmas nice is the fact that I was able to participate with the Christmas choir at our church. We had four performances but I was only able to participate in three of them as I got the achy/fever/congested flu right at the beginning of December. However, I was well enough to go to the convalescent hospital as well as be a part of the two performances at the church. Not only did I sing, but I went WAY out of my comfort zone and signed the whole thing as well. Although I have been learning sign language for the past four years, this is the biggest thing I have attempted to date. It made me far more nervous than singing, but it went well and I learned a lot.

On to this year ... we finally decided to do a little exploring this weekend, so this past Saturday we took off and drove northeast to Theodore Roosevelt Lake. What a beautiful drive! We ended up going through the mountains (I know, I know, those of you from Colorado are laughing right now) and found some surprisingly lovely scenery including a little bit of snow. On the way back, Wayne had determined we would go a different way to see something else and boy howdy was he right! We saw some absolutely gorgeous lakes and mountains, but the road ... the road was twenty-two miles of one-to-barely-two lane, bone-jarring dirt road with a major drop-off on the passenger side. We wanted an adventure and we found one! The washboard road was so bad that it made the truck fishtail even at 12-15 mph which was somewhat nerve-wracking with the narrowness of the road and the cliff edge. However, Wayne was very careful so it really was okay. I wasn't biting my nails or holding onto the dashboard (headrest! - family joke) but poor Wayne got quite tired of it very quickly. It must have taken us over two hours to get back on the blacktop and we were so excited to see it! Here are a few pictures:

We will be here in Arizona through mid-April. At that point we are going to put our sweet little Lucy in a kennel and head out with just our truck to see the family in California. By that time it will have been a full year since we saw any of the kids and grandkids, plus we will have a new grandson by then, courtesy of our son Joe and his sweet wife Daunielle. Once we say goodbye to all of them yet again (I hate goodbyes!), we will head to Arizona to pick up Lucy and then on to New Mexico. We have accepted positions as Assistant Managers at the Carlsbad KOA for a minimum of one year. We are excited to see what the Lord has for us there. Onward and forward into 2013!