Good weather day to end January

 73 degrees here in Kenwood RV at 9:00 pm on Wednesday.evening. Been nice weather all day. Just got back from an intense hour of choir practice in Harlingen.

Well, Phyllis' golf cart got repossessed yesterday.  At least for a month.  Her cousin Jan Frye and husband Lynn own the golf cart and we store it for them when they are not in the Valley.  They are in a park almost to the west end of the Rio Grande Valley.  Phyllis gets to use it whenever it is here.

They farm south of Lincoln, NE and have had a pretty rough winter, so glad to be down here for 5 or 6 weeks.

We really enjoy having Patty here.

Our "guest" in photo at left, for the last week, and another week.   We didn't invite her, but was leaned on to house her.  Has been an experience that will not be repeated.

  

At right is a chicken/green bean casserole that we had for one meal.  Good cooking.

Have a lot more room on the patio with the golf cart missing.

Plan on going to Port Isabel, which is located at the west end of the bridge to South Padre Island, for some good seafood on Saturday at Pelican Station.

Sunday we have another performance of the Men & Women of A-Chord barbershop chorus Sunday afternoon in Mission, TX after singing in church choir in Harlingen in the morning.

Later, Lynn

January of 2024 drawing to a close--in a few more days

 63 degrees at 6:45 pm Monday after a real nice weather day.  Kind of cool for our area, but good.

Yesterday afternoon our barbershop chorus performed at Llano Grande.  Did not have a very big crowd--some confusion over which of the two facilities they have at Llano Grande, seems like some local advertising had us at the big exhibition hall, but we were directed to the smaller rec hall at the other end of this huge park.  Their website says the have over 1100 spaces including RV's, mobile homes, park models, etc.

Since I was in the group, couldn't get picture of the chorus, but here are a few of the quartets that performed during the break in the program.

Saturday evening we performed at First Methodist Church in Mission, TX.  They had several TV monitors around the front of the church.  So, I asked the minister during the break if I could get a copy of the video to post on my YouTube page.  He said they never video anything because they don't want to violate any Copywrite Laws.  I tried to explain to him that as long as you didn't have advertising on your posted page it didn't matter, but he would have nothing to do with that.  Would have been an excellent chance to get full video--and we had a real good performance, too.

I took the photo above with my camera phone (I hate photos from cameras) while we were 

warming up.  Photo at left here shows that they had all different types of Teddy Bears at both ends of every pew.  A member said they were for the children.

Photo at right shows the big area we sang in.  Unfortunately we had less then 50 that attended, though our performance was about as good as it gets, especially for the first of the season.

Some of you may have noticed I had, for about 6 months, ads on my blog.  Many blogs that I follow have them.  But, they have many, many readers.  I usually have less than 5 readers to each post.  Anyhow, I think you get a penny each time anyone clicks on an ad.  They pay out at end of each month--if you have accumulated $50 or more.  I had the ads up nearly six months and accumulated $12.04.  I finally just had the whole thing cancelled.  Looks a lot better, hey?

Sunday morning we sang in the choir at First Methodist Church in Harlingen and I had one of the ladies take our pictures in our robes.

Couple of pics I took from the Choir area.

After church we grabbed a bite at Wendy's in Harlingen.  Pictured are Darlene (from Michigan) on the left and Linda Foote (from New Mexico) who is staying with us two weeks.

After choir in the morning - getting there at 8:30 am -, barbershop performance in the afternoon, Phyllis had charge of entertainment program at our par.  Mark Merchant, a Ventriloquist, put on a good show.   Did make a very long day.

Picked up Patty Steckelberg this afternoon from the Airport here in Harlingen.  She and Linda will be sharing a room until Feb 6th when Linda goes back to near Albuquerque, NM and Patty will stay until the end of February.

Back to McAllen tomorrow afternoon for barbershop practice.  A 70 mile roundtrip.

      Later, Lynn

Some sunshine

 65º with sunshine here in La Feria, TX at 10:00 am Saturday.  Expected high of 73º

On Thursday afternoon we took Bill & Theresa Van Oenon with us and went to the Baptist Church here in La Feria to a concert put on by the gospel group Lone Star Jubilee from Cassville, MO.  We had heard the group before, and had followed Duke Mason (the short fella) for many years.

I videoed the program CLICK HERE to watch.

Phyllis with Theresa & Bill

Photo at right was taken from a Facebook Post from someone in Custer County, Nebraska who said it was taken near Pressy Park - near Oconto, NE, where we spent many occasions when I was younger.

I have been reading several articles on the bridge at Nuevo Progreso, Tamaulipas, Mexico.

At left is recent photo.

Photos at right and below are before the current bridge was built in 2003.  I had not realized the current bridge was this new.

We are heading to Mission, Texas this afternoon for our first Men & Women of  A-Chord barbershop chorus performance.

Later, Lynn

Cousin Betty LeBlanc Obituary

Betty was daughter of Dad's sister Edna Miles French

Elizabeth (Betty) Ann LeBlanc

January 16, 1930 — January 22, 2024

Elizabeth Ann "Betty" LeBlanc, age 94, went home to be with her Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, on January 22, 2024, at Rose Arbor Hospice Care in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

Betty was born on January 16, 1930, in Huron, South Dakota, to the late William D. and Edna Marie (Miles) French.

She was a graduate of Cavour High School with the class of 1948. Betty continued her education at Northern State Teachers College, Aberdeen, SD, and was an Elementary teacher in South Dakota, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Colorado.  She also taught Sunday School for many years.

Betty was a member of Beta Sigma Phi, FCE Extension Homemakers, and Marshall Wesleyan Church.

On June 2, 1956, she married Edward Lee LeBlanc in Virginia, Minnesota.

After living in Colorado, they moved to Marshall in 1972. 

Betty is survived by her four children: Cheryl (Frank Prester) LeBlanc, Jon (Deneen) LeBlanc, David (Jenna) LeBlanc, and Larry (Pamela) LeBlanc, seven grandchildren, and one great-grandchild. 

Betty is also survived by one sister, Donna Jensen.

Betty was preceded in death by her parents, her husband, Edward Lee LeBlanc, who passed away on September 8, 2012, and 5 siblings, Buell French, Norman (Jim) French, Marvin French, Robert French, and Carol Breeden.

The memorial service is to be held at Woodland Church Marshall Campus. The day and time will be announced at a future date. Interment will take place at Fort Custer National Cemetery at a later date.

Memorial contributions in memory of Betty can be made to Woodland Church Marshall Campus, 14425 Helmer Rd S, Battle Creek, MI 49015

  

Enjoyable tour of Gelman Stained Glass Museum in San Juan, Texas

 71 degrees with light rain here in Kenwood RV Park, La Feria, Texas at 4:15 pm Wednesday afternoon.

This morning we went, with a group from Kenwood RV, to the Gelman Stained Glass Museum in San Juan, TX Click HERE for websites

At one point the guide turned off the LED lights behind all the stained glass windows.  The type of stained glass in this area still showed some light color.

Photo at rightt was taken from same position as photo above, after the LED lights were turned back on.

A non-working pipe organ brought from some church being torn down.  They had an electric organ beside it which the guide played, that filled the museum with sound.

;

All the windows had been in an existing church at one time.  Most were saved from churches that were demolished.  They came in from all over the world, reduced to size that were encased in wooden crates and then all reassembled.

There were several solid marble altars that had been disassembled, crated and moved to the building and reassembled.  An enormous amount of weight in this marble, as were the huge stained glass windows--all broken down into manageable  sizes to crate to move.

When we were at my brother Darrell's place in Florida back in December I picked up a seed cone from the Magnolia tree in his front yard.  I just, this week, finally planted 9 seeds in some soil and potting soil.  Will see if they sprout.  Plan to take these home with us to continue growing over the summer up in Iowa and bring any that are still alive back next fall and plant in the back yard.  Have no idea whether this will work or not.  You can see the seed cone in the top of the right pot if you click on the photo to enlarge.

Got Patty's trike out so Linda may use it some.  She has only a little bit and understands she has to give it up next Monday.  Oh, maybe I didn't mention, Linda Foote planned to come visit Denise (from Canada) for a couple weeks, but Denise took off for home and begged us to house Linda.  Picked her up at Harlingen Airport on Sunday Jan 21st.  She will be here until Tuesday, Feb 6th.  Patty comes in for her annual month stay on January 29th so will have a roommate for about a week.  Patty will be with us until February 27th to get out of Iowa's cold and snow for a while.

Had our Barbershop Chorus practice Tuesday -- last one before our first performance this Saturday evening when we perform at a church in Mission, Texas.  The next day, Sunday afternoon we perform in an RV Park in Mercedes, Texas.  Our numbers are up to about 31 members now--maybe half of them ladies

.

Later, Lynn