Hello from Yakima

It's a little vineyard not far from our home.  It's called Naches Heights Vineyard, NHV.  They have a lovely tasting room and beautiful grounds that are just wonderful for spending our leisure time.  We've been going out on Friday nights when they have some live music and, of course, great wine.  We are actually members of the wine club and are so enjoying their new release "The Carmen".  It's a blend of two grapes.  56% Tempranillo, arguably the most famous of Spain's native grapes, is a vibrant, aromatic varietal that offers spicy, red fruit aromas and flavors. The grape's name translates to "little early one," a moniker that references fruit's early ripening tendency-- Tempranillo thrives even with a short growing season.  The Carmen is also 44% Monastrell which is the spanish name of a grape variety known in France as Mourvèdre .  Mourvèdre grows in Rhone, Languedoc Roussillon and mostly in Provence. Basically Mourvèdre is cultiv...

After 4 years with just 1 car, we finally purchased a second one. It's a used car but feels so great to have my own wheels. It's a 2002 Chrysler 300 M. My last car, a 2001 Chrysler Sebring was a convertible. This one is not the convertible I would have loved to have but it does have a sunroof so I'm happy about that. It has alot of the same features that the Sebring had, i.e. leather seats, etc. but a few extras that it didn't have, like heated seats which will be really nice in the winter here in Yakima.

Looks like the groundhog saw his shadow today, indicating there will be 6 more weeks of winter. Not for us here in Mazatlan though. We are enjoying sunny, warm days with tempertures in the 80's. Just wonderful! But to all you folks up norte, hang in there, this too shall pass. http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/weather/02/02/groundhog.day/index.html?section=cnn_latest

I'm sorry I've neglected my blog lately. This is just a quick posting to let you know that Greg is still doing alot of fishing up in the mountain lakes around Yakima and loving it and I have started a new job. I'm working at "Curves for Women" as a Circuit Coach. If you haven't heard of Curves, it's a fitness club, for women only, that offers a 30 minute (cardio/strength training) circuit workout on hydraulic resistance machines. They encourage 3 days a week - just 30 minutes a day and provide alot of nutritional information too. My sister, Deannie, owns this Curves in Selah, Washington, which is just about 15 minutes from Yakima. I'm so happy to have the opportunity to work with her in helping women to reach their weight loss/fitness goals. I'm so excited to find a part time job that fits into our retirement lifestyle. I'll post more later and try to catch you up on the fun travels we've made this summer, i.e. trip to the beach with my gir...

Many of you know that we have a timeshare at Torres Mazatlan and have many beautiful vacation memories of this resort. We were even married there, on the beach, February 14, 1997. I know many of you have actually been there too. Well, last evening we went out to Torres for dinner and saw a sight that was very sad. We were aware of the litigation that is going on regarding who has ownership to part of the land that Torres sits on, but hadn't actually seen what has happened. The company that is claiming that part of the land is theirs, has built a fence around the parcel of land north of the pools and Building D. It seems the company came on the land with no prior warning. Their construction workers were accompanied by armed guards, who threatened anyone who attempted to interfere with them. They chose a time and day for this invasion which was a US holiday weekend and when Torres would be unable to seek immediate legal redress to stop them. They did call the Mazatlan police and the ...

The past two evenings have been pretty noisey here on the malecon. Night before last, about sunset, the horns began to honk and flags were flying out windows of cars, pulmonias, etc. with lots of yelling and screaming in pure exhalation! Turns out the Venados (Deer), Mazatlan's baseball team, won their game against Los Mochis (a town about 2 hours north of Maz) which makes them the champions of the Mexican Pacific League. This puts them in the Caribbean Series which starts next month. Their first games of the series will be February 2nd against Venezuela and Puerto Rico in Mexicali, Baja, California. Here is a link to more information on the Series. http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/events/winterleagues/?league=cs Everyone was sooooooo excited and the horn honking went on way past midnight. Then, last evening we had a parade that started down the malecon just after sunset to honor the Venados. Here's a short video clip of part of the parade. It's kind of dark but if you increase yo...

We thought we'd let you all know what's going on with us here in Mazatlan. We've been back now 10 days and, of course, just loving the weather. The days are still in the mid to upper 70s. No humidity to speak of but have had a couple days of overcast skies but still warm. The sunsets have been spectacular and the sun is now setting directly out front of our condo. Just beautiful! Here's a shot we took the other evening. Greg and I are still trying to loose a few pounds so we have been watching our calories and doing lots of walking and I'm doing lots of yoga too. We have been trying to eat most of our meals in so we don't over indulge in the chips and salsa and margaritas, beer, etc. By the way, when you come down we won't be watching our calories though. :) So no worries. The walks on the malecon are so great. We've been walking around sunset so we get an even more gorgeous view as we walk. So far our days are going somewhat like this: 7:00 - rise and h...

We made it to Mazatlan last Saturday with no problems getting across the border at Nogales. After 6 days of driving we are here and it is paradise!! Mid 70s during the day and 50s at night. Just perfecto!! Right now I am using the internet connection in the lobby of our condominium as we won't have internet/phone service in our condo until Thursday, hopefully. The lobby is open air with a gorgeous view of the ocean. It's about 75 degrees, beautiful blue, sunny skies, I can hear the waves and feel the slight tropical ocean breeze. It's just wonderful!! We've spent the past few days just getting settled into our condo; unpacking, grocery shopping, visiting with our snowbird friends, soaking up a few rays and just enjoying the wonderful warm days. We left Yakima with 21 degrees and snow on the ground so this just feels so great. Back to shorts and flip flops!! Well check out our blog in a few days when we get service back and we'll have a few pictures of our trip and o...

Well over the past 5 weeks, Greg and I have been very busy dieting. We've been on a 6 week high protein diet - consuming 3 meals and 2 snacks a day. It has required alot of preparation but it's been worth it. The aim of this diet is to increase your metabolism so you can burn more calories, hence, lose more weight. We have both lost 10 pounds and are still loosing. We have 1 more week on the diet but we will still have a few pounds to loose. We are hoping with eating healthy, watching our calorie consumption and working out, the rest of the weight will come off. We will be going off the diet just in time for "Turkey Day"! Boy are we looking forward to some pumpkin pie and whipping cream. Yummmmmmmm!!

Joel is interviewed at the end of this video. For those of you who have not met Joel, he is JJ on the right. Enjoy. :) http://www.king5.com/video/index.html?nvid=289886

Well Greg and I have been doing the annual physical/doctor appointments the past few weeks. We had to establish new doctors here in Yakima so it has taken a while to get in but we are just about finished and glad to get that out of the way. The weather has really changed. In fact, this morning it is actually raining. It's kind of a nice change and we sure need it around here. Very, very dry time of the year. The leaves are turning slightly and starting to drop. The temperatures are dropping too. The expected high today is only 77 degrees. It's been running around 85 - 90 up until now. By Wednesday, it is supposed to be a high of 67 during the day and dropping down to 34 at night. So fall and winter are definitely on the way. Which makes me think of the holidays and the possibility of snow at Christmas. It probably sounds strange to many of you but I am actually looking forward to seeing some snow this year. Greg isn't too excited about it but I sure am. A white Christmas -h...

We thought we'd post a little on what we've been doing lately. Since the "Relay for Life", it's really warmed up in Yakima. Over the past weekend, the temps hit a record high of 106. So it was pretty hot around here as we understand it was in the Seattle area too. However, this week the temps have dropped into the 80's and cloudy. During the really hot temps we enjoyed time relaxing at our pool. We've both been working out regularly (3 days a week). Greg joined a gym and I've been going to Curves. On our off days we've been trying to walk 1 - 3 miles. So just trying our best to stay in shape and loose a few pounds. Greg has been doing alot of fishing, both fly fishing and regular fishing, whatever that is called. He's fished a few of the lakes up past Naches and a few around Yakima. He even brought dinner home a couple times. Of course, not the fly fishing, I understand you have to let them go. Anyway, he's really enjoying the fishing aroun...

After 7 weeks of remodeling projects on our condo, we're finally finished. Before we arrived in May to start these projects, the kids had painted the whole condo for us. We were so happy with the beautiful job they did and very grateful too. Greg worked very hard on putting up all new white six panel doors/closets and trim. It was a huge job but he saved us an enormous amount of money by doing it himself and really updated the place. We had Home Depot install new carpet throughout which made a huge difference. New flooring in the kitchen and a new dishwasher, both of which Greg installed himself. He truly is a marvelous "handyman". I am so lucky. We had some sod layed outside the patio area and had some very old rose bushes taken out too which really made the patio area look much nicer. Below are some photos of our home here in Yakima, Washington. We are enjoying our condo and the dry, hot summer here too. Patio with some grass for the grandkids. Kitchen Dining room To th...

Well, we've been in Yakima for 6 weeks now and finally have most of the remodeling done on our condo. We have all of our furniture and just waiting for our dishwasher to be installed next Tuesday. Greg has been working hard since we got here putting up all new six panel doors and trim and many other projects. Sure has made a huge difference. The condo was built in he 80's and had never been updated. We are now feeling like it is a home. Some of the kids have come for a visit and we sure are enjoying that. Right now we are awaiting word of our 6th grandchild/3rd grandson's arrival. Kristi is due July 8th and as soon as we hear from Josh that Kristi has been admitted into the hospital and Baby J is on the way, we are headed to Seattle for the blessed event. We are so anxious to meet Baby boy J. The summer has really hit Yakima. This weekend it is supposed to be 100 on Saturday and even hotter than that on Sunday and Monday. It's a dry heat and not humid so it doesn't ...

Well thought it was time we posted something about our recent adventures. Since the last posting, everything is still going well with the development of Baby J. The 2nd ultrasound is scheduled for March 26th. Maybe the picture they get this time will be a little clearer. We look forward to seeing the photo. Kristi is feeling better with more energy and they can feel the movement of Baby J now. So that is very exciting for Josh and Kristi. We got news this month that my sister, Deannie, in Yakima has been diagnosed with breast cancer. She has undergone surgery to remove the tumor and lymph nodes and feel confident they got all of the cancer cells. There were none found in the lymph nodes. There is still another test they have to run before Chemo is ruled out. At this date, when she heals from the surgery, she will go through radiation and will be taking a anti-estrogen medication. Deannie has a bright and positive attitude about this and is determined to beat it. With all our positive t...