Lana, Rob, & the Girls

Lana, Rob, Rebecca & Michelle came over from San Juan Capistrano (about 110 miles away) for 3 days last week-end. They arrived on Friday and left Sunday evening.

Here is Grandpa Max on the condo patio with (from left to right): Lana, Michelle, Max, Rebecca and Rob. Lara is loving life at BYU and wasn't here for the photo opportunity.

Saturday, as reported on the post below, Rob & I played golf where the elite meet hook and slice. Lana, Max and the girls hung out around the condo and pool area. Sunday Lana, Rob and the girls all got up early and went to the College of the Desert Street Fair while Max and I slept in. Max & I hope to go again this week-end when my cousin, Shirley, is here from Eugene.

And here at the lower right is Grandpa with Michelle and Rebecca. Pretty good looking trio, I'd say.

Hopefully, I'll be able to get some more posts done before heading north to the "real world" next Thursday.

Carol

A Different Kind Of Vacation

Whew... it has been a different kind of vacation. I have, literally, been working (via phone, computer, printer, scanner, Fax) every spare moment and haven't taken any time to write or post pictures on the blog for some time. Sorry about that. It's not that we aren't having any fun, but I haven't taken a lot of pictures like usual.

Last Saturday (Feb 17th), my son-in-law, Rob (right) was able to arrange a game of golf for him and me with the owner of the local Jag, Bentley and Land Rover Dealerships. David Murphey, the car dealer, is in the middle of the above picture. The guy on the left works for David. They were the nicest guys and we played at The Club At Morningside, a very exclusive private club (designed by Jack Nicklaus) at which David is a member. Every fairway is lined with million dollar (plus) homes. It was a wonderful experience in how the rich live!

Carol

Max & Cousin Lowell

Every year when we come to Palm Springs, we get together for lunch once a week at the Olive Garden with Max's cousin, Lowell Williams and his wife, MaryJo.

Max & Lowell's Dads were brothers. Max and Lowell both grew up in Cardston, Alberta, Canada. Lowell and MaryJo now live in Edmonton half of the year and Palm Desert the rest of the year.

Carol

College Of The Desert Street Fair

Our annual tradition is to go to the College of the Desert (COD) Street Fair the first week-end we arrive in Palm Springs. This is held every Saturday and Sunday from 7:00 - 2:00. We were so lazy yesterday, we didn't get there so today it was definitely in the plan. It's important to get there early before it gets so busy you have to park a long way from the actual vendors. There are courtesy carts running around to pick people up, but they aren't always available when you want them.

We love walking up and down the aisles just looking at all the vendor's wares. There is everything from shoes and socks to jewelry, furniture, luggage, purses, fruits and vegetables... and just about anything else you can imagine. There are even massage tables for the weary.

We always hit up the sock vendor for our years supply. You can get 3 or 4 pair of quality socks for just $5. Mostly we love looking but we did buy socks, a pair of new tennis shoes, a small nylon shoulder purse and some strawberries.

After our adventure at the COD, Max was hungry so we stopped at Carl's Jr on the way back to the condo. Here is Max with his "Famous Star" burger and a Chocolate Chip Mint milkshake.

Life is Good. Stay tuned...

On Vacation. Not Off Duty

Even though we are technically on vacation, Max can attest to the fact that the first thing I do wherever we land is to set up my mobile office. Here is the office corner in our Palm Springs condo... Printer/Fax/Scanner/Copier, laptop computer, and cell phone. You would be hard pressed to give me an assignment I can't handle with this equipment and my two fabulous trusty assistants, Shelley & Perci, back home!

Bring it on...

Carol
Carol's Wenatchee Blog
Carol's Top Properties Website

Settled in Palm Springs

Whooooooo eeeeeee! We are finally settled in Palm Springs until the end of February. Here is the view from our patio, overlooking the green and up the fairway in the other direction. Do you see the little duckies on the water?

It's been a wild ride getting here. We've been on the road since January 15th, but I've been so busy working every spare moment I haven't even had time to post to the blog. But, hopefully, I'll have a little more time now.

Things are going well back home. We are pleased to hear it is cold and snowy, making us feel good about spending the money to be here! My two assistants are doing a great job of helping me take care of in-the-trenches details. My business is so much bigger than in the past and I love having them working with me.

We spent the first week in San Juan Capistrano, California with Lana & Rob and Rebecca & Michelle. Lara is happily settled in at BYU. The second week we spent with Max's sister, Connie, and her husband, Bill, in Sun City West, Arizona.

But, now we are here in Palm Springs and looking forward to some fun in the sun. We arrived Thursday and are pretty well settled into our condo at the Cathedral Canyon Country Club.

It's been a cool winter in the south but the forecast for tomorrow is 80 and mid 70's all of next week. Perfect.

We went out to dinner and Karaoke at the Club house last night with our friends, Bud & Dorothy McIntire, who live across the street. She is the one who arranged this condo rental for us. Bud loves to sing and the rest of us were content to watch him and the others with good voices (or enough drinks not to care). Bud and Dorothy were members of the Wenatchee Country Club before moving here several years ago. They still have kids in Wenatchee so come back to visit during the summer.

We don't have any golf games scheduled yet, but I will probably play with the ladies club next week. I think it's Tuesday. We have some other friends who stay on a short golf course not far from here. Haven't called them yet. This may be a course I can get Max to try to play 9 holes.

We were going to head to the big flea market this morning, but instead I actually slept in. Didn't get up til 9:00. I was amazed. I was awake at 7:00 without any inclination to get up and going.

That's enough for now. Will try to post some pics and commentary from earlier in the trip... and keep up from here on out.

-Carol

Max & Carol Williams

Here we are during a lunch break at Macayos Mexican restaurant on our last day in Arizona with Connie & Bill. The giraffe and zebra were watching us during the entire meal.

They took us out for a drive toward Scottsdale to see some of the sights and, particularly, the decorative walls along the freeway system.

Golf With Barb & Leonard

On Monday, January 29th I had the pleasure of reuniting with Barb & Leonard Keeler for a game of golf. They moved to Buckeye, Arizona (from Wenatchee) last summer and are loving it. We played at their local course, Sundance. Sundance is a very fun and, definitely, challenging golf course.

This was my first game since having back surgery and I was so pleased that my back did not give me any trouble at all. My game did have other "issues" but, in all honesty, I couldn't blame it on my back... unless a subconscious grimby was lurking in my brain, messing with my swing. Last year I kept a golf blog, logging each game throughout the season. This year I think I will just post games here on our regular blog.

According to Barb, Buckeye is the fast growing city in the state of Arizona. It is forecast to be the second largest city in Arizona within 5 years!

Visit with Connie and Bill

After leaving Lana and Rob's on Thursday, January 25th we headed directly to Sun City West, Arizona where Max's sister Connie and her husband, Bill live. We stayed there one week.

The first full day we were there, we all went to lunch at the museum. They have a room set up in the museum with nice table cloths and silverware. It was actually quite hoity toity. But, I don't think we embarrassed ourselves and they didn't tell us we couldn't come back. It was fun.

We didn't actually go through the museum, as everyone was ready for an afternoon nap, but I did take some pictures of the outside art work. I took two pictures of the bottom piece... a depiction of the apple tree in the Garden of Eden. The close-up reveals Satan innocently offering up the apple of sin.
Remember, you can click on any image to enlarge.
-Carol
Carol's Wenatchee Blog

Visit with Lana and Rob and girls

After a slippery, detoured, trip down I-5 we arrived at Lana and Rob's in San Juan Capistrano, CA at 4:30 in the morning of January 18th. This was one day later than we planned. We planned to be there the evening of the 17th, but the I-5 closure at the Grapevine (north of LA) due to snow, literally the freeway with truck and car accidents, required us to detour East of Bakersfield. We ended up getting a motel at Cajon Pass and driving in the next morning. We were both awake at 3:00 a/m. so decided to hit the road before the rush hour traffic. A sleepy Rob let us in the house at 4:30 and we ALL went back to bed.

Lana is working parttime at Borders Bookstore now so, with Rebecca and Michelle in school, we had quite a bit of time to ourselves during the day. Good thing too, because I had quite a bit going on with my work that needed tending to. Lana said when we left it was going to be quiet because my phone wouldn't be ringing all the time. I'm in the middle of about 7 pending transactions... so it takes a lot of coordination. Fortunately, I have Shelley and Perci back home taking care of a lot of the incessant details involved with each transaction.

I was so busy working when we were there I was remiss in taking pictures. The picture above is of their home, but doesn't do it justice. The house is a very rambling rambler and a bit difficult to take a picture of. The building to the left (that you can barely see) is the 3-car garage. We had a lovely suite while staying there, with a large bedroom, private bath and laundry and big closet. Besides our suite, there are 4 other bedrooms, family room, living room, kitchen, and large entry area. They are all coming over on the week-end of the 16th so we'll get some family pictures then. Rob said he'll try to arrange a golf game with the local Jaquar dealer during the week-end. Wouldn't that be something?

-Carol
Carol's Wenatchee Blog

YUM...

This morning Max & I were on our way to Borders book store, where Lana works part time. We were going to have some coffee and hot chocolate (for Max) and visit with Lana a bit.

We got side-tracked, though, when we saw a Krispy Kreme store. We did a U-turn and that's where we stopped for our morning coffee and hot chocolate. We've never actually been in a Krispy Kreme store before. We've eaten their doughnuts before, but never IN the store. They've always been delivered from some fundraiser in Wenatchee.

After our break, we were back on the road to our appointed destination. We did bring a dozen more doughnuts home to make points with the rest of the family.

My hectic schedule has finally slowed down enough to sit down at the computer and make a few blog entries. Whew! It's nice to be back.

Max & Carol: On The Road Again

Sorry it's been so long since the last report. After my back surgery I had to scramble big time to get everything organized for the trip south to warmer climates.

Between a full full full workload and getting packed for the trip, there wasn't time for anything else... literally.We did get on the road about 7:15 a/m. last Monday, January 15th. We stopped very briefly to see Clair & Beverly on our way down I-84 past Corbett.

Before reaching Clair & Beverly's we took a few minutes to stop at Multnomah Falls to take pictures of the icey conditions. If you click on the image, you may be able to see how much of the Falls is frozen. There are hundreds of falls to see coming down the gorge and they were all pretty well frozen.

Our trip was eventful, including freezing rain and icey roads coming out of Eugene the second day. Fortunately, our AWD Ford Five-Hundred moved right along without hesitation. The car seemed much more sure of itself than it's driver. Then the third day, I-5 at the Grapevine, was closed for the entire day due to an overnight snowstorm and a plethora of accidents. We took a long detour through and East of Bakersfield and back around and down to San Juan Capistrano.

We ended up finding a motel at Cajon Pass and came into Lana & Rob's (at San Juan Capistrano) early on the 4th day. We wanted to get on the road before the heavy LA freeway traffic. We were both awake in the middle of the night so we were in the car by 3:00 a/m. and here by 4:30 a.m. They were a little sleepy when we arrived, but glad we are safe.

-Carol
Carol Williams Wenatchee Real Estate Blog

Balloon Kyphoplasty

Hi everyone,
I haven't kept up very well with the blog lately. A lot going on in life. Work has been busy and I've been suffering from a fall on the ice and snow in early December. After much ado... x-rays, MRI, pre-op tests Balloon Kyphoplasty back surgery was performed yesterday by Dr. Ian Cunningham at the Wenatchee Valley Hospital (Wenatchee Valley Clinic).

Above is Max delivering a dozen red roses when he came to visit me in the hospital last night. The last time I received a dozen red roses was our 1st anniversary (over 23 years ago). It was a special occasion.

Here are our friends June & Roger Dorner, who entertained Max while I was in the hospital.

The surgery went very well and I was up and moving around 3 hours after the surgery. I had my wireless laptop and was answering e-mail from my hospital bed that evening. I plan to be playing golf in Palm Springs this time next month!

Hopefully, I won't be doing any more gynmastics on the ice and can avoid similar injuries in the future. I had a compression fracture which was repaired. The MRI also showed an old compression fracture which they couldn't do anything about. I found this link to more info on the procedure: www.kyphon.com There is even a link on the right side to view an actual surgery being performed... if you're into that kind of thing. I definitely want to watch it when I get a chance.






Here is the view I had from my room. Not bad, eh? Too bad I didn't get to really enjoy it!

-Carol Williams

Merry Christmas!

Mindful of the reason for the season, Max & I are enjoying a quiet white Christmas day. We went out for a Christmas breakfast then drove around town to enjoy the peaceful, snow covered, town while there was very little traffic.

We were happy JR, Sarah and Calvin could come up to see us for the quick pre-Christmas visit. See post below for a view of the four generations together.


We extend our prayers to everyone for peace and good health for the New Year.

- Max & Carol

Four Generations

Yesterday, oldest son Max Jr brought his daughter and grandson up from Selah (Yakima suburb) for a quick pre-Christmas visit. JR wanted to have dinner at the China Buffet, so here are the four generations of smiling faces, with full tummies, after dinner.

From left to right: Max Sr., Max Jr., Sarah, Calvin... (and Santa in his sleigh).

The Cavalry Has Arrived

I am pleased to announce the addition of two new assistants to help me with my Wenatchee real estate business. Perci Owens, left, and Shelley Granger have both lived in Wenatchee for quite some time and are fun, smart, personable and care about doing a great job for our clients.

I've been so overwhelmed with business lately, burning the midnight oil has been the rule rather than the exception.

Max, remember me? I'm your wife! I promise to get Shelley & Perci up and running so we can leave for California in mid January.

Having landed two significant investment group accounts this year, it's time to bring in the Cavalry. Welcome to Shelley and Perci. I'm working on coming up with a "team" name. Any ideas?

Update 12/24/06: So far the only nominee for a team name is: "The TOP Team". Being as we are working for Top Properties, it seems appropriate. Want to work with The TOP Team chics? Give us a call and we'll show you how much fun buying or selling real estate can be!

For current Wenatchee real estate news, info and trends, click here.

-Carol

2006: Max & Carol's Year in Review

As the year 2006 comes to a close, we reflect on how blessed we are. We are blessed with an enduring love, a beautiful place to live, relatively good health, and lots of great friends!

Here is a look back at our "blogged" year. Click on the blue links to go to the archive page for that month and enjoy all the pictures and commentary. The month starts at the bottom of each page and works up, most recent post at top... a diary type format:


January 2006: Departed Wenatchee for our annual trip to Arizona and Palm Springs, California.

February: All month in Palm Springs. Carol takes her computer, fax and cell phone and no-one even knows she is gone unless they want to see her smiling face. Call her the “Roaming Realtor”.

March: Our primary care physician retired so we both had lots of doctor appointments to get the new guys up to speed. Carol finally found a doctor who could help with her allergy problems. Breathing is a good thing!

April: Spring brought the joy of new blossoms, Carol’s birthday, a new golf season and, sadly, the loss of Carol’s dear Aunt Dottie (from Springfield, Oregon)

May: Carol’s new digital camera gets a work-out and a birdhouse collection is born

June: A trip to Oregon for a quick visit with my cousin Shirley (Dottie’s daughter) and on to Bend to see the new home our friends Jim & Kathy were having built.

July: A busy and diverse month. Carol took an overnight trip to Gig Harbor for some training for a new investor group she is working with. Son Jeff installed stones in our entry courtyard, so we now have a place to sit and relax outside the house. We drove to Cardston, Alberta (Max’s birthplace) to attend the 80th birthday gathering for Max’s sister Elinor. Later in the month, Max’s other sister (Connie) and her husband came to Wenatchee and spent a week with us.

August: We were honored to be invited to our friend Karen & Leo Garcia’s house for an authentic home cooked Mexican fiesta. This was timed to coincide with Max’s birthday week.

September: We celebrated our 23rd wedding anniversary with our friends Troy & Amy who were celebrating their 1st anniversary on the same day.

October: We savored an absolutely beautiful Fall season.

November: Cowboy Max, Carol’s blogs immortalized in book, Thanksgiving with the boys.

December: Decorating the Christmas Tree, Grandma’s fudge recipe, The Nutcrackers, The Cavalry arrives, Carol suffers back injury, Four generations meet at Christmastime.

May the joy of the Christmas season be with you and may the New Year be happy!

We would love to hear from you! You may contact us at:
CarolWilliams007@aol.com

The Nutcracker Collection

When my friend Perci got finished decorating the Christmas tree, I was inspired to go out and find some more new and exciting decorations. The nutcrackers caught my eye, so here are three to start my collection. I hope to add at least one every year. The one on the right is a golfer. How cool is that?
-Carol

Grandma's Fudge Recipe

I posted this story last year about this time. It's such a good (and funny) story, I wanted to bring it forward and post again. Enjoy!

We received this box of fudge from Amy & Troy last Christmas. This is the story of Amy's efforts to get the fudge just the way her Grandma used to make it:

The enclosed note read:

"Dear Carol and Max,
Here is some FUDGE I made from the heart. I was thinking about my Grandma and some of her Christmas cooking. I remember her making holiday cookies, popcorn balls, and fudge. A few years back I helped her make fudge for the family.

So…..in my infinite wisdom, I thought it would be a good idea to make fudge and put it in small tins as a part of gift baskets for both sides of the family and close friends. It was a well thought out plan with good intentions.

So here is the FUDGE STORY: (I am now convinced that FUDGE is a very bad word)I dug through many boxes to hunt down Grandma’s recipe book. Found the fudge recipe and scurried down to the store and bought all the ingredients. Everything was going as planned until the actual fudge making process began.

The instructions said to boil until it forms a soft ball and folds. So I kept boiling and boiling until the crap started to crystallize! I took it off the burner and as it started to cool it turned into one massive concrete ball! I ended up with this rock hard blob that adhered itself to the bottom of the pot. It was stuck in there so bad I literally had to throw the pot away. Somehow I missed the “soft” ball stage!

Round Two: I dug up an older pot to cook with just in case round one was repeated. This time I cooked the liquid until it started to fold and then I took it off the heat and stirred it for awhile until I realized it was getting very hard in a hurry. This batch did make it to the cooling pyrex but after it was completely cool it was hard enough to break every tooth in my mouth. I think we could use this batch as additional blocks for the retaining wall.

Round Three: I felt I was getting closer to making edible fudge. All I had to do is pour myself another drink and cook the liquid for a shorter amount of time. That should do it right? Mmmm…..well, I stuck to my plan of more drinking and less boiling. I took the liquid fudge substance off the fire much earlier this time. As it cooled I stirred, and stirred, and stirred. I was so confident that this batch was going to be perfect I added a bunch of expensive walnuts to it. I poured the warm fudge into the pyrex and waited for it to cool. As it cooled it was supposed to harden. I waited, and waited, and waited. It did harden some but not to the classic fudge consistency that I had expected. The fudge looks more like a soft brownie but it is edible and does taste good. I cut it up and individually wrapped the pieces just like Grandma used to do (which was an ordeal in itself that I will not go into).

Round Four:After a semi-successful batch, I got the urge to make one final attempt at the perfect fudge. I scraped the bottom of the butter barrel and used every last teaspoon of sugar in the house. This was it, there were no more ingredients to do another batch after this. It had to be done right. I thought about this “soft ball” thing and realized what that means. You drop some boiling liquid onto a plate and when it cools it should form a soft ball. That is the point when you take the fudge off the burner and start beating it until it “folds”. Brilliant! So, I boiled the liquid for awhile and then started making splatters onto a plate. They were not making soft balls, but they sure did taste good. I think my theory was correct with the soft ball idea, but I kept eating all the drippings before they became totally cool enough to make a ball, oops.At this point I was totally “FUDGED up” and just wanted to eat a piece of my creation and be done with the project. I got nervous that the substance would crystallize again so I took the last batch off the burner and started to beat it. I had used all the walnuts in the previous batch so this round would be nut free. I poured the last of the fudge into the cooling pyrex for the final attempt. This might have been it? Well, as close to “good” as it is going to get. It is still a bit soft but at least you won’t break any teeth!

Final Conclusion:I now know why Grandma always had drinks while making fudge. I learned that making fudge is no easy project but love my family and friends enough to attempt making gifts that are truly from the heart. Enjoy!

Merry Christmas!
The Greenhalghs "

Decorating The Christmas Tree

Today we had our Christmas tree "professionally" decorated. My friend Perci (left) loves to decorate so we let her have some fun with our new 4 1/2' tree, with fibre optic lights.

Max & J.R. went shopping for a new tree a couple weeks ago, and Perci and I went shopping for new decorations last week. Today was decorating day.

All was going according to plan until we tried to get some of the decorations out of their packages. It seems like a simple enough task, but turned into more of an ordeal. You can see me on the floor literally tearing the packaging away from the ornaments. I was afraid I would break them just getting them out.

Perci worked for nearly 3 hours making the tree absolutely beautiful!

(You can click on any image to enlarge, to get a better perspective)