2015 January – February – March

January 2015 Recap

Shortly after our arrival in Austin we were faced with yet MORE car problems! We thought we had left those issues behind when we left Colorado, but we were sadly mistaken. Not only did we have more power steering stuff to fix, but the whole engine died and had to be rebuilt!  After crunching the numbers we determined that we could not afford another car for the price we would be paying to rebuild the engine in this one, so we had it done. When does this madness end???

Dave was searching daily for a job with very little success.  On top of that, Austin School District just couldn’t seem to get Roberta’s paperwork right so she was still waiting for clearance to start substitute teaching.  After several frustrating weeks, Roberta decided to go back to Colorado to do some teaching just to get some money coming in.  She stayed with her good tennis buddy, Randy, and his cat Maggie, so it was also a small “vacation” for her =)

[Remember you can click on or scroll over a photo to see its caption]

February 2015 Recap

Yippee!! Our cruise date is finally here! Roberta had signed us up for this cruise last October, when she found out Dave would be coming to Austin with her for the winter. And it turned out to be everything we had hoped for, and more 😀

The ship left Houston harbor on Sunday, February 1. Our first stop was on the Island of Roatan in Honduras, where we went zip lining through the lush jungle vegetation.  Next we traveled to Belize, where we enjoyed a peaceful afternoon of cave tubing floating under beautiful limestone archways. Then we docked in Cozumel, Mexico and Roberta got to fulfill one of her life-long dreams – swim and play with dolphins and manatees – at Chankanaab Marine Park.  We returned to the Port of Houston on February 8.

It was a wonderful way to forget about all the unpleasant stuff going on momentarily in our lives and to make it even better, as we were boarding the cruise ship (literally!!), Dave got a call from a prospective employer asking him to come in for an interview as soon as we returned from the cruise!!

Roatan Island, Honduras

Belize City, Belize

Chankanaab Lagoon, Cozumel, Mexico

After returning from the cruise we drove to Fort Worth to spend Valentine’s Day weekend with Geoff, Kinzie and the grand-kids.

And, of course, we spent Academy Award Sunday in front of the TV as always!!

Neil Patrick Harris hosts the 2015 Academy Awards

March 2015 Recap

Roberta turned 61 on March 1st, and Dave surprised her with a trip to the Georgetown Inner Space Caverns.  (Georgetown is a community about an hour north of Austin.)

Roberta’s son, Mike, still lives in their Austin home with his girlfriend, Michelle, and their daughter, Eva Grace.  March was not the best month for them, as a water leak upstairs caused a near disaster to their bedroom ceiling downstairs.  Luckily, Michelle’s dad had the equipment, resources and know-how to fix it all.  Another lesson for Mike in the joys of being a homeowner!!

Of course, Eva was her beautiful, sweet self through it all =)

Eva Grace Wong, 6 mos

South by Southwest is the traditional Austin March event.  It began as a music festival, but over the years has incorporated many other areas, including film-making and education.  Roberta’s friend from California, Royce Siggard, was scheduled to make a presentation in his field of education, so as soon as Roberta found this out she invited him to stay in one of the cabins at our RV Park.  She was then able to attend the conference and spend some time visiting and sightseeing with him in Austin.

Roberta’s family had been discussing the possibility of moving her 91 year old mother from Boulder, CO to Scottsdale, AZ where her sister and husband had recently settled after returning from living in the Philippines.  In preparation for that move, Roberta and Wendy planned a weekend in Boulder, at the end of March, so they could help Mom clean out and organize her apartment for the impending move.  It turned out to be a great “girl’s weekend” for all involved!

This is how to make a bed out of sofa & bed pillows & little else when that’s all you have to work with.  It was surprisingly comfortable!!

And, of course, since Roberta was going to Colorado anyway, she planned to stay a few weeks longer to work a little and play a little with her friends =)

Finally, an added surprise…..Roberta’s brother, Doug, had a childhood friend visiting him in Boulder on the last day she was there.  Bill Berg had been their neighbor in Glendale, California for at least a decade during their teen years and Roberta had not seen him in at least 25 years!

Roberta & Bill

And thus the winter of 2015 comes to a close……