San Angelo, TX & Grandchildren

The 5 E's - Erik, Elisha, Emma, Ellie & Everson

Ellie and Erik (Grandpa Tom built this Western style traveling jail)

This is Everson

Emma the beautiy (12 yrs old)

We arrived here on Sunday afternoon. Special attraction here are the five E's: Emma, Erik, Ellie, Everson, and Elisha. After not seeing them for a long time, it was so great catching up on things with all of them as well as Doug and Deja, their parents. The kids have certainly grown and Emma at 5' 3 1/2" is about as tall as I am. We have been busy getting things set up here, as we plan to be here until after Christmas. We are set up in their yard and have found it is quite convenient.

One little guy, Everson, 5 yrs. old has been enjoying our little house tremendously. From the time we get up and he sees there is life in our place until night time, he likes hanging out at our place. He has just been busy taking it all in, and it's something very different to him, as he was so young when he moved and hasn't gotten to spend as much time with us as the others. He likes everything about our little house, including taking naps on our bed, making sandwiches in our kitchen, and cuddling. He said to me the other day, "Do you know what I like best about your trailer, Grandma? What I like best is you and Poppy!" We are so happy to have this special time to spend with him and all the kids. It has always been a long time between visits.

The three oldest Emma, 12, Erik , almost 11, and Ellie, 9 have been very busy getting ready for there performances in the Nutcracker. Both Emma and Ellie have been studing Ballet and Emma has been in the Nutcracker every year since they moved here. This is Emma's first year of doing Pointe, which makes it extra exciting for her. For the past 2 years, Ellie and Erik also have parts. Ellie will be a mouse in Act 1 and Erik will be a Party Boy and a Gingerbread kid. I am told it is quite a performance and Al and I have really good seats for opening night.

Elisha is just 2 yrs old, so he doesn't know us too well yet. In spite of that, we managed to get a few cuddles from him.

Al has been busy working on the electric hook-up and figuring out the solar. We are trying to use the solar as much as possible and only use their electric when necessary. We had some issues with the solar yesterday, so Al is investigating it today. It is great that we are able to use a combination of different kinds of power for various things. We can put the refrigerator and the hot water heater on gas or electric plus some of our lights work off the 12volt system, so we can manage pretty well in most situations. We try to be conservative with our energy as much as possible without sacrifing comfort.

Hope you aren't bored with a Grandma's rants, but I know some people are curious how things are going here for their family in Texas. Things seem to be going very well !!