Granddaughter, Nichole, auther of biography

This picture has been on the blog before. It is a picture taken during our trip to Alaska. Nichole is the author of the biography on her mom that follows this picture.  

Granddaughter's biography

My granddaughter, Nichole, wrote the following biography for an assignment during her 9th grade year. It was selected for some kind of honor (not sure exactly what). We thought we would post it to the blog - so here goes:

The Biography of My Mom
By Nichole Miller

I chose to do this biography on my mother because she is the person I admire most. I don’t look up to any models or movie stars because my mom is down to earth and she is the most important person in my life. What I mean by down to earth is that she’s not like most moms she’s more like a best friend. She can act really silly at some times and very embarrassing, but she’s still really cool to me. Even though we also have are moments where we can’t stand each other I’ll always will love her.

My moms name is Michelle Anne Wiltsie and her maiden name is Michelle Anne Barclay. When I was born I was given the last name Miller because her two other kids’ last names were Miller and her last name was Miller at the time. She was born April 24, 1968. She was born in Tacoma, WA in the Madigan Army Hospital. She doesn’t think there was anything unusual about her birth.

My mom has four parents. Her biological mother’s name is Connie Mulholland and her husband, which is my moms step dad, name is Bob Mulholland. My mother’s biological fathers name is Mike Barclay and his wife, which is my moms step mom, name is Jan Barclay. My grandma Connie’s occupation is a computer programmer, my grandpa Bob’s occupation is a city transit driver and now after 20 years he is retired from the military as a reservist. My grandma Jan works at Tacoma Baptist School as a office personal, which is the same school my two other brothers go to (my moms other kids do not live with us). My papa Mike is a high school football coach and is retired from Civil Service in the planning and estimating, which is where he worked for the government and estimates how much building or something costs. The elementary school that my mom went to was Collins elementary in Tacoma, WA. She went to Ford Junior High for 7th and 8th grade in Parkland, WA and went to Kallis Junior High for 9th grade in Puyallup, WA. For high school she went to Rogers High and for 10th and part of 11th in Puyallup, WA. Then she went to Curtis Senior High for the rest of the 11th and 12th grade in University Place which is in Tacoma. The last year of school that she completed was one year at Knapp College of business. She studied bookkeeping and accounting.

The importance of schooling was very important in her family. School always came first and then extra curricular activities, which were a privilege. My mother and her family’s financial was not rich and nor poor but middle class. The person my mom most admired was her mom just like me. Back then moms had menial jobs. But her mom and my grandma decided to go back to school for computers to make something of herself and feel as it she could provide for her family in the future. When my mother was a teenager she thought mostly about boys and rock and roll and hanging out with her friends which is what I mostly think about right now.

Her first job was at Albertsons which I’m planning to apply for Safeway. She got paid $3.25 per hour. She had about a handful of friends and she’s only in contact with one since high school, my father. In 1988 she met my step dad which died in late 2002. After he died she had to learn to be independent and not to rely on anyone else. My mom had said her most important accomplishment was overcoming the death of her husband learning to survive with two teens.

Some goals my mother has now is going back to school to further her education to be able to provide for her family at age 36. My mom thinks the character trait that a person should have is honesty. The person she depends on most is herself because if she relied on others, then the family could fall apart. I asked her what she would want her gravestone to read and all she said is “I’m not thinking about death I’m just thinking about the next day.” What I would want to say is what a wonderful mother, friend, and wife she was. There you go, there’s my mom and her life. I hope you liked the biography about my mom.

Home for the last week

We'll be here until March 15th  

Flowers at Palm Creek

  

Palm Creek at Sunset

  

Palm Creek pond and golf course on the right

All you golfers can drool over this course  

Pool and hot tub

The area under the roof is the hot tub - it holds about 20 people  

Clubhouse at Palm Creek

Beautiful flowers everywhere  

Palm Creek Golf and RV resort

We're staying at this fancy park. The park has both park models and RV's. It's really beautifully landscaped. There are approximately 2000 sites, but not all full. It's probably about 80-90% full. It's a big park, but we just zip around on our bicyles when we want to go the clubhouse or over to visit my mom and dad. There is a main clubhouse with a ballroom, large pool and spa, library, computer room, lapidary, rooms for crafts, etc. There is a also a second pool and hot tub. And near us are the tennis courts, pickleball courts, wood shop, shuffleboard. There is also golf (of course) and lawn bowling.

I took a class in putting Crystals on T-shirts. It was fun. We picked our shirt and design and pressed it on for a cost of $20. I also bought some other designs to apply to my own t-shirts. I went to water aerobics with my mom. But have now broken out into a rash, so I won't be doing this for awhile.

We've gone square dancing 3 times since arriving here. We've danced twice here in the park and drove to Mesa to a dance there last Monday. We're also going dancing in Apache Junction with some friends tomorrow (Saturday, the 25th).

The weather was great today - mid 70's. It hasn't rained in something like 142 days - so AZ is definitely having a drought. It is cool in the morning, but warms up pretty fast.

Buddy our best bud!

Every once in a while we have to post a picture of our favorite guy   

Casa Grande Ruins

The Hohokum people built this and used from 300 B.C. to 1400 A.D. 4 stories high  

Tombstone, Arizona

  

Queen Mine

  

Queen Mine Tour in Bisbee

Here we are all decked out for the mine tour.  

Bisbee, Tomstone, and Casa Grande, AZ

We left Carlsbad caverns and drove to Bisbee, Arizona. For those who are fans of J.A. Jance (mystery writer) some of her locations are in Bisbee. We stayed at the RV park near the Queen Mine. We enjoyed having lunch and dinner in Bisbee. We also took a tour of the Queen Mine. This was really interesting. They put you in yellow jackets, give you a hard hat and light and load you on a mine car for the trip into the mine. The tour guide was a fellow named Juan. He was 85 years old and worked in the mines until they closed in 1975.

From Bisbee we drove to Tombstone. We enjoyed walking down the main street and visitng the shops and the newspaper office of the Tombstone Epitath. From Tombstone, we drove to Karchtner Caverns. This is an Arizona state park. The caverns were discovered in the 80's by two young cavers. The discovery was kept secret for 14 years until the state of Arizona could get it developed. They have gone to extraordinary means to keep it pristine. No pictures are allowed. All entry is via a ranger led tour. These caverns are quite different from Carlsbad but very interesting in their own way.

From there we drove to Casa Grande's Palm Creek Golf and RV park. This is the park where Connie's mom and dad have lived for 7 years. We're across the park from their since we need to be in the 'Pet' section. We went out to lunch on the 16th to celebrate Connie's mom's 83rd birthday. We've been to a couple of shows here in the park. We've also square danced twice - once here in the park and once in Mesa. We also drove to Tucson and visited our favorite grocery store - Trader Joes. We also drove further south to Green Valley to check out the new development where our friends, Sue and Richard, are having a home built. We enjoyed touring the models.

The park here is beautiful and we'll be posting some pictures of the park. More on the park in the next blog.

Texas Mountains

  

Carlsbad Caverns

Impressive decorations at Carlsbad.  

Breast of Venus

Yep - that's what it's called  

Carlsbad Caverns, New Mexico

We watched the Superbowl with our friends from Washington in Weslaco, Texas. The Seahawks played a good game, but I guess they just weren't meant to win. We did enjoy our 'Seahawk' party and the game pool - although we didn't win any money.

We made one more run to Mexico for Connie to get a pedicure. Bob made a final trip to the foot doctor. His problem seems to have cleared up.

We left Weslaco, Texas on Tuesday morning and drove to San Antonio, Texas. We stayed for two nights at Ft. Sam Houston RV park - right on the military base. We went to the commisary and PX. It was really convenient to downtown. We drove to the downtown area near the Riverwalk and spent the day there on Wednesday. We took a boat ride on the river where we learned about the riverwalk and the history behind it. We then took in an IMAX movie on the Alamo. We had lunch and then walked to the Alamo. It was interesting. They had a museum with artifacts from the period. After the Alamo we walked around more and visited some of the small shops in the artist section. It was a very pleasant day - 70's or so.

Thursday we left San Antonio and drove to Pecos, Texas. We spent the night and on Friday morning we continued on to Carlsbad Caverns. We toured the Big Room, but unfortunately our timing wasn't very good. We finished too late to tour the other self-guided section. So, we will go back on Saturday. The caverns are very interesting.

We went back on Saturday and toured the Natural Entrance area of Carlsbad. It was really amazing. The park was established in the 1930 or 1940's. During that time the park service has learned a lot about how to best protect the caverns.

Computer problems

I know people have been following our blog to see what we're up to. Unforunately our GSM card has failed. We've ordered a new card, but it probably won't arrive until next Tuesday or Wednesday. So, we're unable to post any pictures for now. It's frustrating for us as well.

But, just to recap. We left Texas and went to San Antonio, Carlsbad Caverns, Bisbee, Az, Tombstone, AZ and have now arrived in the park in Casa Grande, AZ where my mom and dad live. I've written up an article for the blog regarding some of this and will post it when we get better computer internet access.

So, check back in a few days and we'll have lots of pictures.

The Alamo

We toured the Alamo while in San Antonio. Texas 
 

River Walk in San Antonio, Texas

We took a ride on one of the boats along the river in San Antonio 
 

Mexico - south of Brownsville, Texas

Our group riding the bus and happy hour 
 

Beach at South Padre Island

Beautiful white and and and blue water make this a great place to walk 
 

Turtles at South Padre island

 
 

South Padre Island

On Sunday, January 29th we drove to South Padre Island. It was a beautiful day with the temperature in the 80's and not much wind. We walked a nature trail near the convention center where we saw the turtles posted here on the blog.

We enjoyed a nice lunch while watching the surf. We did a little shopping and thoroughly enjoyed our day.

Monday morning we went to Mexico for breakfast. We did some shopping and Connie had her teeth cleaned for $25.00. Thursday we again went to the Mexican town south of Brownsville for the entire day. We had lunch and did some shopping. We then visited a museum.

Bob had his ingrown toenails trimmed last week. Now he seems to have an infection. We went to the doctor on Friday afternoon and he needs to go back on Monday to have them rechecked. So, he hasn't really been able to walk or exercise much. Hopefully with the antibiotics he is now taking his feet will be cleared up soon.

The group here is planning a big superbowl party so that we can root for the Seahawks. We will be leaving here on Tuesday or Wednesday and heading to San Antonio, then Carlsbad caverns. By the 15th of February we will be in Casa Grande, Az.

Connie wrote an artlce for Escapees magazine on how to blog and have mailed it off on Friday. Hoping they will think it's good enough to publish!!