Wednesday, January 31, 2018

A Fast Paced Week!

Whew!  I'm tired and I think Ron is too!!!

Last I wrote the travel trailer, aka Gypsy ~ I want to start really using her name, was at Bellringer's RV Repair,  1522 E. Tinsley Road, Waco TX 76706 (254) 662-0727 to get the necessary repairs from our blowout on the road the end of December and to get the bearings greased for our trip.

We picked up Gypsy on Monday, January 22nd and she looks mighty spiffy. 
We loaded up the groceries we bought before picking up Gypsy and then we were on the road to Bay Landing Thousand Trails Campground.  It was a nice campground ad we had a pull through spot. Knowing we were only going to be there one night we decided not to hook up.  It was a bit windy and we made the mistake of not putting the stablizers down for the night ~ so we did a lot of rocking and rolling!!!  We were off to bed before 10pm.  

Tuesday, Tuesday, January 23rd, morning we got up and was on the road by 9:09 am.  We had wanted to be on the road by 9:00 so we were pretty close to our schedule.  Off we went to Red Rock Canyon Sate Park to meet up with our friends, Gary and Amy for a couple of days.   Our original ETA was 1:02 pm and we actually arrived at 2:30 pm.  Not bad considering Ron was driving with a full on side wind the whole way and us old people need to stop to take potty breaks and then never coincide with stopping to get gas.  Heck, we use the restrooms every time we stop whether at a gas station to get gas or not. 

We had a great time relaxing and visiting with Gary and Amy.  Well, Amy and I did some relaxing and lots of visiting while Ron & Gary worked on a couple of projects on the Hector's motor home.  

Thursday, January 25 we each went our separate ways as the Hector's had to go back to work and we were heading to Amarillo, TX.  

We made a detour to go through Corn, OK.  Many of the Mennonite Brethren who escaped out of Russia/Siberia in the late 1920's settled in Corn.

saw lots of fields,

 and saw lots of cotton rolled and in the fields. 
 

and murals 

welcome sign & old truck

 the Mennonite Brethren Church on Main Street

some cool things in town

another mural and rectangle cotton ready for pick up

As we were headed to Amarillo we found out that our son, Brandon and his wife, Danalyn had some scheduling conflicts and both needed to be out of town at the same time for their jobs...so we did the only thing we knew to do...we changed our plans and decided to drive to Tucson in three days instead of 13 days!!!  

We followed the route we were going to take through Amarillo, TX to Roswell, NM to Alamogordo, NM, through Deming, NM on to Tucson, AZ.
We arrived on Saturday afternoon at Ron's cousins, Erv & Anita, who have graciously allowed us to park our trailer at their home.

Gateway to the Cousins!!

Sunday morning, super duper early, Ron took Ali to the Tucson International Airport.  Let me just say it is much bigger than Waco Airport!!!  But hey, the steps start adding up quicker that way.

Ron will be staying in Tucson,
hanging with his cousins and 
aunt & uncle

The flight was from Tucson to Phoenix to Portland, OR.  The flight was delayed by about 15 minutes in Tucson and over an hour in Phoenix.  The plane finally landed in Portland around 2:10 pm.  Danalyn, Treyson and Alexander picked Ali up at the airport as Christopher was over at a friends home and Brandon had already left on his business trip.  

There is nothing better than hugs and smooches from our grands!!

Stay tuned for more adventures with the 
Wandering Workentins!!




Saturday, January 20, 2018

A Laid Back Day ~

Today was a laid back day.
Woke up about 10:30 when the phone rang, it was Ken from Bellinger RV Repair here in Waco, TX.  He wanted to let us know that in greasing the bearings on the trailer he found the right passenger spring had been flattened from when we had the blowout ~ uh oh,  but he wanted to get our okay to repair it.  Of course, we are getting ready to hit the road and need our Little Home-on-Wheels road worthy.  Ken also confirmed the trailer will be ready for pickup Monday at 11:00 am!! Yippee!!!

With nothing on our must do list today we decided to take one more road trip before we leave Waco next week.  So off we went to Athens,
Texas that is!!!

Here are some pictures from our drive today.
Hope you enjoy them!!

First stop was Historic Downtown Corsicana, TX
Old buildings,
statues,
murals,
courthouse and old church.
  










As we were leaving the historic area we saw this old trolley car,
Ron said "they must have used a great lift kit on that thing."


And then we found ourselves in the small town of Kerens, TX,
population 186 and this very beautiful
Veterans Memorial Park








As we were walking back to the car memories of our time in Holland surfaced,
the cobblestone streets reminded us of the center square at
Camp New Amsterdam where we were stationed
from November 1977 to January 1979.

Now that is one place we could go back and visit.

Our travels continued on 
through Athens ~ never saw a sign or anything that
seemed picture worthy
until we turned onto 
Highway 19 and headed back to Waco
and we saw the sun trying to peek out
from the clouds!

 We are now settled in for the night
and trying to figure out
what tomorrow will look like.










Friday, January 19, 2018

On the Horizon!

What is on the horizon for the Workentins?

I wrote a post Pondering (click on the word Pondering and it will take you to that post) 
about some things that we have been thinking about ~

~ job offers

~ having faith

~ trusting God in all situations

~ seeking counsel from others

~ praying and expectations to those prayers

and

we are happy to say God is leading us

each and every day

and each day the direction

becomes a little clearer.

Now that I've gotten your attention,
I just need to ask you to be patient with us
as we get things in order
and when we can
we will share all about our
upcoming adventures

Because everyone who knows us
every day of our lives is an adventure!

Stay tuned for more details
coming on the

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Thursday, January 11, 2018

Stories by Ali

One of the projects I have taken on is transferring all of my journals ~ they go back to 1977!! from the paper journals to the computer.  Yesterday I found this story I had written in April 2009 ~ it was during a time I was in therapy/healing from my past.  I hope you enjoy reading about this event in my life. 

Scariest Event in My Life
by Ali Workentin
written April 20, 2009

I was so excited and yet frustrated to be with my dad for the weekend. I was excited because it had been since Christmas since we had been together. I was frustrated because Marlene and her three kids were also going to be there and all I really wanted was some time with my dad, alone. Dad picked us upon Saturday morning and after stopping at the store for some groceries we headed out to the Pudge's where dad was living. Saturday was a typical day with my dad, with us just hanging around the place, playing and being kids.

Sunday, February 4, 1968, in the late afternoon Marlene's kids, my younger sister and I went out to play Hide-n-Go-Seek in the barn. The hay was still stacked as it had been for the Halloween Fun Night the previous October. We played in the barn till dinner. After dinner we asked my dad if we could go and play in the barn again. He said yes, just be careful. All of us kids except for Kathy trekked out to the barn, turning on the perimeter lights and started playing Hide-n-Go-Seek again. I don't remember who was IT, I just remember I was one of the kids who was supposed to hide. I remember someone beginning to count and me crawling down thru one tunnel of hay bales and then turned a corner into another tunnel. Shortly after turning down the second tunnel I felt something touch my eye and I screamed. I was just sure a spider had crawled on me. I started crying. I cried, “Go get my sister, go get my Daddy.” Eventually my sister came out to the barn to see what the ruckus was about. One of the boys told her I crawled into something or something hit me in the face. I remember just sitting in the tunnel, too scared to move, afraid that whatever had hit me in the face would hit me again. After much coaxing, I crawled out to where my sister was standing. I was holding my hand over my left eye and crying. I don't know if it was because it was hurting or because I was scared. I really don't remember it hurting.

My sister walked me back into the house. My dad asked me what was wrong. I told him a piece of baling wire had poked me from a bale of wire into my eye lid. He looked at it, put a cold rag on my face and gave me two aspirin. I laid on the couch until it was time to go home. We went home about 9:00 pm after taking Marlene and her three kids back to their house.

When we got home I told my mom what had happened. She told me to get ready for bed and go to bed. We would look at things in the morning. The next morning when I got up my whole face was swollen. My mom took one look at me and called the doctor. I could not get in till 4:15 in the afternoon. My face was all puffy and sore. Mom told me to get my blanket, pillow and some books to read and I would go to work with her for the day.

Arriving at the bowling alley, Mom told Don LaFontsee that she would be taking off work early to take me to the doctor to have my eye looked at. I went and got into one of the booths by the lanes, across from the front desk so mom could still see me. I don't remember much of the day, except for many people coming and looking at my face and commenting how swollen it was. I know that I slept quite a bit of the day too.

I remember that everything was blurry looking and I just wanted my eye to quit hurting. We got to the doctor's office and we checked in. I don't remember his name. The nurse looked into my eye with a flashlight, commenting to my mom that it was very puffy. Duh! The nurse had me get up on the table to wait for the doctor to walk into the room. The doctor was a really short and old man. When he walked in, he looked at me from afar, looked at my mom and said, “I won't touch her with a 10 foot pole. You need to take her to an eye specialist right away.”

I remember thinking “right away” ~ why wasn't it such an emergency when my mom called in that morning and told them what had happened! Back into the car we went. The sun was just going down as we drove from Rancho Cordova to Fair Oaks. We were going to see Dr. Gerber. I thought that was pretty funny since I had hurt myself at the Pudge's and they lived on Gerber Road!

We walked into Dr. Gerber's office, the nurse looked at me and ushered us right in. It was just a short time later and Dr. Gerber walked in. He asked my mom what happened. She told him I was playing in the barn with some friends and some how a piece of baling wire hit me in the eye. He walked over to where I was sitting, shined a light in my eye and turned to my mom and said, “I want her to go to the hospital immediately. We need to start treating her with antibiotics around the clock.” I thought, “the hospital ~ who is going to pay for that?” It seemed like mom muttered something about not having the money to pay for the two appointments already while we were driving to Dr. Gerber's office. Why did everything have to revolve around money or the lack there of?

I remember going to the hospital and being so afraid. Mom kept reassuring me that things were going to be okay, I would probably only be in the hospital for a couple of days. Boy was she wrong.
I was admitted and put into a bed with one other girl in the room. I don't remember what was wrong with her and I don't think she stayed the whole time I was in the hospital. I think there were two or three different girls in the hospital room with me during my stay. I remember crying a lot the first night as the nurses struggled to put eye drops in my eye, coming in and giving me shots every four hours and mom holding me down while the nurse would give me the shot. I remember screaming and crying, just stop!! It is hurting me, not helping me. Mom stayed the whole night with me. I remember hearing her on the phone to Patty to check on my two sisters.

The next morning mom stayed with me till the doctor came in. He looked at my eye, told my mom he could see some scratches on the iris and pupil and he would do his best to make it so I could see clearly again. I don't remember a whole lot during the time I was in the hospital. At first I was so sick to my stomach; I am sure it was from all the crying and fighting I did each time they tried to put the eye drops in or give me a shot. I remember being alone a lot of the time during the day as mom was working and Kathy and Joanie were at school. Mom came to the hospital every night after dinner and with me till morning. I remember crying a lot and being told not to cry, it wasn't helping anything and it definitely wasn't helping my eye to get better.

I don't remember my dad ever coming to the hospital to see me. I do remember the last day I was in the hospital a student nurse gave me my last shot ~ it hurt terribly. I had a total of 104 shots in 23 days while I was in the hospital. When I was released from the hospital, the doctor apologized to my mom, saying that he was sorry nothing could be done to get the vision back in my eye. The vision at that time was cloudy. I could see light/dark and shapes but nothing else.

Have you experienced a scary event in your life?
How did you deal with it?

Friday, January 5, 2018

Moved Back to Waco ~ for Now.

On Thursday, January 4th we moved from Lake Whitney Thousand Trails
back to Airport Park in Waco, TX.

This is our view for the next two weeks.
What's wonderful about this site is that no one will park in the site across from us as it has some power issues.  It also has a great shade tree over the picnic table.

One of the things I am doing for myself this year is identifying the small things that bring us joy ~ one thing here is that we get 10 TV Channels over the air!!!  It's nice to keep up with the news and some of our favorite TV shows.

Also, I want to say thanks for the prayers regarding my nasty cold ~ 
Wednesday morning I woke up feeling much better, 
Yesterday even a bit more better
and today I am still coughing but able to do everything I needed to do;

like going to 
Image result for ihop
and having coffee and pancakes with my hubby and friends,
stopping at the RV place to see about the repairs from this
 which caused this

Good news is our insurance is covering all the repairs
and we get to spend time with our friends, Jack & Donna!!!

Took some time to do this
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for the wedding we are going to tomorrow.
I love my Jamberry Nail Wraps.  If you would like to see more 
or try them out, give my friend, Sandie, a shout out here.
I am wearing Gold Floral and Champagne Frost.

With the RV going in for some repairs we are on a quest to 
eat all the food in our freezer (won't have power for 5 days) and don't want to have to throw it out.  So tonight I made ghoulash
Image may contain: food
for dinner.  Ron said it was pretty tasty.
Not bad for mixing some ground venison, rotel tomatoes, spaghetti sauce, 
two partial packages of elbow macaroni & squirly q's, garlic
and onions all together in the pressure cooker and 
20 minutes later dinner was ready!!!

All in all it's been a great day!!

How has your day been?

Wednesday, January 3, 2018

Feeling a Bit Better

Have slept most of the past 2 1/2 days,
woke up at 12:41 pm today.

Thankful I was not 
Image result for wheezing clipart

Actually feeling much better!!

Still not the best,
but better.

Did three loads of laundry,
changed the sheets on our bed,
got caught up on our banking
and watched some TV with the hubs.

Tomorrow we move to 
COE Airport Park
in Waco, TX for two weeks.

We have lots going on over the next two weeks:
going to Houston for a wedding on Saturday,
continuing to look for work,
checking out what needs to happen to fix our trailer
from the blowout
and continue to get better.  

It has been so cold here
so we have spent a lot of time in the trailer.
So thankful we have our home on wheels
and a place to park her.





Monday, January 1, 2018

Happy New Year!

Image result for happy new year 2018

I wish I had as much energy as that picture expresses,
but alas, the crud is hanging on.
Yesterday I stayed hunkered down, all day,
sleeping and resting on the recliner,
not crocheting, not coloring,
not reading and not playing games on my phone.
I stayed curled up under my blanket, 
drinking lots of water, well lots for me anyway,
40 oz total all day!

Crawled into bed just after midnight,
wished Ron a Happy New Year 
and crashed on our bed.  
Woke up a few times in the night,
but each time just rolled over and fell back asleep.
Finally got out of bed about 12:30 this afternoon.
Even got dressed.
Still feel like crap,
still coughing up a storm,
still no energy.

Spent a little time going over notes from past sermons,
found I wasn't really concentrating so closed my Bible
and took another little snooze on the recliner.

Then went with Ron up to the Adult Lodge so
he could watch Football.  I've downloaded a few movies on Netflix,
read Facebook, dumped a glass of water,
ate some popcorn
and really just want to go back to sleep.

Read a few blog posts,
feeling inspired yet no energy
to follow through.

Thought about New Years Resolutions ~ nope, not making any as I know I won't follow through on them.  Clinging to the though shared by Pastor Jeromy two weeks ago,
Image result for faith of a mustard seed
clinging to my faith in Christ,
knowing I am a child of the King
and that through Him 
Image result for all things work together for good

And so today I rest in His arms,
trusting Him for tomorrow
and knowing that 
with Him all things are possible.

What do you rest in today?

Blog Address Change!!!!

Well I took the plunge and moved my blog over to WordPress! Below is the link to my blog. All of the blog posts I have written sinc...