Sassy's Schooner Saga

UPDATES

2010-03-12T15:10:00.002-05:00

Update:
Well it's been 3 months since I've done my blog, SHAME ON ME! I know I have been bad, but it is just hard to come up with something to write about when you aren't doing any traveling. We do have some plans in the works though as soon as the weather breaks!

My Knee:
My surgery was a success! I had my knee surgery on February 1st. Since then I have been busy with Physical Torture (Therapy) 3 times a week. After seeing my doctor yesterday for my 6 week check I don't have to take any more therapy! He said I am at least 6 weeks ahead of where I should be in healing or at the 3 month mark at only 6 weeks! I can bend my knee to 126 degrees and he said that is excellent! So I am happy and ready to get on with LIFE!

Mike:
Mike is going over the fiver and is anxious to get things done. Our first step will be to get new recliners for it. Then he wants to get a new anode rod for the hot water heater, and we need to get a bed saver for the truck so that if the fiver would ever come off the hitch it would catch it and protect the both truck and the fiver from damage. Then the truck needs to have a check up! After that we can go anywhere we choose! We are excited to just go somewhere we don't care where even if it is close by.

New Grand Baby:
In August we are going to have a new Grand Baby! Gary and Mariah are expecting their first baby then. I am starting to get excited about that, and can't wait to find out what we're going to get! We should find out the end of this month so stay tuned for the news!

We have missed all of our RV Friends and have still read your blogs even though I haven't been writing on my blog. Hope to meet up with some of you this next year! Until the next time wishin and dreamin about RVin'

THANKSGIVING AFTERS

2009-11-29T14:18:00.002-05:00

After Thanksgiving:
Hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving and are enjoying the afterglow! Ours was nice, we went to Circleville to my Moms like we do every year and took Kara with us as her Dad had to work. Everything was really good, and we all ate too much. Mom and I only cooked for only 10 this year instead of the 25 we had last year! It was still too much work for her and the standing really makes a mess of her back. She just won't just let me do it all. I guess she isn't ready to relinquish her kitchen to me completely yet. Anyway it was a good day and I hope yours was too!

Monday:
Tomorrow it is off to the med center on base to get xrays of my hands and my knee. My hands are full of arthritis, like my knee and they want to see how bad it is. For my knee I just have to have an updated xray before I have my surgery in February. The last one that they did was a year ago. Mike has some prescriptions he has to pick up also.

Fiver:
Today Mike got the fiver winterized since it is 57 today, and he could do it without freezing. He was glad to get that crossed off of his list of things to do, and now he is in the process of washing the truck. His back will be killing him, but he just won't let it get the best of him. It doesn't do any good for me to tell him not to do something he wants to do so it is better for me just to save my breath. LOL! It is supposed to be colder the rest of the week so I guess he picked the right day to do it. We actually had, dare I say that dreaded word, SNOW flurries on Friday Morning before we left Circleville. YUCK! I envy all you guys basking in the nice weather of our southern states this year. Maybe next year we can be in the group too! Well it is time for me to get busy so I'll end here and I hope you all are safe and doing well today, so until next time....

UPDATES!!!!!!!!

2009-11-23T11:52:00.003-05:00

GREETINGS ALL,
Sorry it has been so long between posts! WOW 3 months is a long time to not post on my blog! I hope you guys haven't given up on us! We are well and doing fine, even if we are still stuck in Ohio! We have yet to winterize the fiver but we have the RV antifreeze, and will do so after we get home from Thanksgiving at my Mom's. She is doing okay but is having a lot of trouble with her arthritis, must be where I get it from.

KNEE NEWS:
Speaking of arthritis, we just found out that my right knee is shot, it is now bone on bone so I will have to get it replaced. I have already scheduled surgery for February 1st, 2010. Gee that sounds like a long way off, but it really isn't is it? At least it is after the Holidays, it will be painful to wait but I won't be laid up over the holidays. I thought that by doing it then, that by the time spring gets here I will be on the road to recovery, if not on the road in the fiver. It shouldn't be too long that we'll be able to take off and go somewhere though, maybe in April or May. Since I have already had my left knee replaced, I know what to expect and the same doctor is doing the surgery so I know it will turn out okay.

GRAND GIRL NEWS:
Kara,
We have had Kara with us quite a bit the last 3 months, but at least Jamie is working and able to pay his rent, bills, ect... I have been working with her on her homework every day after school. She is doing much better, but still has gaps in her schooling because 2 yrs ago she was in 3 different schools in one year. They were always in a different place than the school she was at before. I hope I'll be able to help her fill those gaps by the end of the school year.

Autumn,
Autumn is doing extremely well in school, and once again this fall she was in cheer leading. Autumn's teacher said she wishes she could clone her because she is the perfect student! She is practicing hard for her ballet recital in December. I think she has grown about 3 inches since summer! Her hair has grown so long she can just about sit on it! Lol!

Tehya,
Well Tehya finally got to go to school this year, and is busy following in Autumn's footsteps. She is much more talkative in class though much to the teachers chagrin. Lol! She only goes to kindergarten 3 days a week , but they are full days. She will also be in the ballet recital, but she just kinda follows along with what everyone else does. Of course being 5 and small for her age helps, because everyone thinks the small ones are just too cute and they don't pay attention during the recital to any mistakes made.

APARTMENT UPDATE:
Our apartment is pretty much done except for a bit of finish work, painting and trim being put up so I want to get that done before I have surgery then I won't have to worry about it.

Well hopefully it won't be as long until the next time I post. Even if I don't post I'm still reading all of your blogs and thinking about all of you! We hope to see a lot of you on the road next year! So until the next time....

THIS IS SUMMER ????

2009-08-08T15:16:00.003-04:00

Summer Sorta:
Well this has been the strangest summer I can remember in quite some time! The days are mild, the nights are very cool, low 60's and lots and lots of rain! Our tomatoes are alot of vine and not too many tomatoes! We are getting cherry tomatoes but not any big tomatoes. For them you have to have warm days and warm nights too, and we just haven't had that. For the next week out of the seven days, five of them the Weather Channel is calling for rain and storms! While I won't have to water the tomatoes then, we won't be getting any to eat either.

FIVER:
Look at the picture at the top of this blog cos that's the only place you will have seen our fiver this spring and summer. It hasn't left the drive way since last fall! Man oh man I am so bummed about that and I hope that we can get out at least a few times this month and next. It will be rough trying to get work schedules, and school starting together so we can get out of here and still have everybody taken care of. Jamie has started a new job so we're not sure what hours he will be working for a while. At least Jamie has a chance of getting 40+ hours with this job instead of the 20 he has been getting so it is a step in the right direction! Kara, Autumn and Tehya start school on the 19th of this month. So I may have to start taking Kara home and getting her in bed for school depending on Jamie's hours again. The Grand Girls and I have used the fiver for sleepovers a few times this summer but that's the only use it has had.

Chillicothe, Ohio:
Mike is in Chillicothe at his Mom's staying with her through Wednesday, so I'll be by myself with visits from Kara when Jamie is working. So I'll probably be spending time on Facebook & Farm Town trying to stay sane. It will be hard with no transportation, and I know I'll want to go somewhere just because I'm stuck here without the truck. LOL! Doesn't matter that it sits in the driveway most days, and I have to make myself go somewhere, it is just cos I know I can't that I'll want to, if that makes any sense. Hehe!

Mom:
My Mom is doing great, and is behaving with her back. She is not straining it at all, so lets hope she continues along the same road of recovery. Her doctor is pleased with her progress and even increased the weight she can lift to 15#! So that is awesome.

Apartment Update:
The apartment is beginning to look about done. The laminate floor will be the last thing to get done. The ceiling is done and just about all of the construction, all that is left is the 2 windows where the garage door is. When Mike gets back from his Mom's he and Jamie will get that done and be able to take the garage door out, and replace it with the wall and 2 nice big windows. I am happy with my kitchen, and have even been doing some baking since the days haven't been so hot. I will probably have to turn on the air sometime this evening, as it's supposed to be in the 80's and very wet and humid the next five days.

CHECKIN' IN

2009-07-24T09:38:00.002-04:00

Hi There:
I figured I'd better check in or put this blog out of it's misery! I don't know what to do about it. We haven't been anywhere for such a long time and I don't know if we will be going anywhere. Everything is so darn expensive! So here we sit just spinning our wheels, and not going anywhere. What do we want to do, well that's easy go somewhere, anywhere! I feel like it's so repetitive to just write about what we're doing at home everyday. On the other hand I don't want to be a quitter and give up this blog, so what do I do?

Mom:
My Mom is doing great! The doctor is letting her lift up to 15 pounds now and said she is his star patient, of the 3 surgeries he did that day. So she is able to do most of the things she did before.

Grand Girls:
We had a sleepover on Monday evening and then spent most of the day Tuesday together. We did the prerequisite lunch at McDonald's and 2 hour playtime on the playground there. Man, I almost lost my mind! LOL! Then we were off to the library to check out some books for them. After an hour there I did what any self respecting Grandparent would do, I dropped the 3 of them off at home to their parents and then I went home and collapsed! No, seriously we had a great time, and they are already planning another sleepover! I'll let ya know if and when I'm up to it! LOL!

Doctor Appointments:
I have a couple of doctor appointments coming up soon, see I told ya there isn't much happening around here. I may have to have my other knee replaced, but I'm trying to wait until I just can't stand the pain anymore.

Gardening:
Our tomato plants that we put in pots are really doing great and starting to produce tomatoes. We've had such a cool summer this year that they just need some really warm nights to really ripen good. I can't wait to get a big enough tomato to make a good tomato sandwich.

Farm Town Facebook:
I have been spending time on Farm Town and Farmville on Facebook. I have made about 34,000 dollars and am on level 7, just a newbie really, but I'm trying. I don't understand much on there yet though. Well Time to get busy so I'll see ya's maybe on Farm Town.

HELLO IT'S ME

2009-07-06T09:19:00.002-04:00

First of all:
I hope everyone had a Happy 4th! Ours was pretty low key, and it rained just enough to keep us inside for the day. Which was very BORING! Nothing was on TV either, so we mostly just listened to one of the music stations on our cable. If fact the rain got heaver around 10p.m. and drove all our neighbors inside who seemed to have spent lots of money on fireworks this year! LOL! So that stopped all the booms that were going on. Dutchess our Dalmatian, has always been scared to death when the fireworks go off, and this year she didn't even hear them. I'm not so sure that is a good thing though, because that means she is totally deaf now. Deafness seems to run in Dalmatians though so I'm not surprised, either they're born deaf or they tend to go deaf at about 12 years old. Which is how old she'll be next year.

Jamie and Kara:
Jamie and Kara got back from their trip a week ago today. I spent 3 hours going through all the pictures they took from it on the 4th since we weren't doing anything anyway.

Mom:
I talked to my Mom yesterday and she is doing great. She goes to see her surgeon on the 14th of this month, so I imagine he'll let her start doing more with just a few restrictions. She has been sewing alot the past few weeks and has been making quilted purses for friends and making quilt squares, so at least she can keep herself busy, which is important to her. As long as she doesn't try to ride the riding lawn mower I'll be happy because it jerks her back around alot. I know that is the first question she is going to ask the doctor, because she loves to mow grass!

Herbs:
Yesterday I harvested some dill and soms cilantro from my pots and put them in the dehydrator and within 2 hours I had dries herbs, pretty cool I thought! Well I guess I'd better get busy and save something for tomorrow to talk about, so until then...

MONDAY JUNE 29th

2009-06-29T11:25:00.002-04:00

Catch Up:
As you can see not much has been going on the last few days. I've kinda hit a dry spell. I just don't have very much to write about. Things have been pretty quiet on this front. It is a gorgeous day here and not too hot. It is nice to finally have the windows open again. They are calling for rain though and I hope it doesn't get too sticky. I'd like to keep the windows open instead of running the air.

Home:
Jamie and Kara will be home today, and we can't wait to see all their pictures from the trip. It will be also good to have them home as we missed them both. I am glad that they did get to go though.

Trip:
We are finally planning a short trip in July as long as things stay on the same path that they have been going on lately. Mike wants to go somewhere and just relax, me I want to go and see and do something. Stay tuned to see what we do, maybe we can compromise and do both! It will be nice just to get away from home for awhile.

Well I can't think of anything else that would be of interest today so I think I'll stop here and maybe I'll have something to talk about tomorrow. So until then...

WE'RE HAVING A HEAT WAVE

2009-06-25T14:16:00.002-04:00

Heat Wave:
Well it is 91 degrees here today and humid. Strong storms are supposed to fire up later this afternoon. I hate storms! The central air in the house is eating up kilowatts and so is the window AC in the apartment! We won't be happy to see the electric bill next month and the worst is yet to come! We have had lots of rain and our tomatoes and peppers are doing well. We have watered a few times since we got back from Circleville,Ohio last week though. I am wanting to get lots of tomatoes and peppers so I can make fresh salsa. So the heat and rain are good for the plants, though not for us.

Jamie and Kara:
Jamie and Kara are in Denver and will be home on Saturday or Sunday. I will be glad to have them home, and Mike is wanting to get busy on the bedroom roof and he needs Jamie to help. In fact he has lots of things planned that he wants Jamie's help on. So we both will be glad to have them back as we're missing them alot. I'm glad that they got this opportunity to go on this trip of a lifetime, but the way the economy is I'm worried, and Jamie has to look for another Job when he gets back. Our middle son, Corey just got laid off today so that is more bad news. I sure hope we get some good news soon, because now both Jamie and Corey are out of work. His boss said he'd probably be laid off for at least 3 months or more depending when work picked up. It's a good thing Jamie's friends offered to take them and pay their way or they wouldn't have been able to go on this trip. Great friends huh?

Well I need to go finish cleaning our bedroom and then get my shower, so this is gonna be a short one. Lets hope that the next time I sit down to write I have better news to tell you. So until then RV friends...

INCOGNITO

2009-06-22T17:19:00.002-04:00

Incognito:
I have been incognito for the last week and a half because of not having internet. Not even the dial up worked while I was down at my Mom's house. The dial up was so frustrating, because I would get on and then it would kick me right off, so I finally gave up!

Mom's Surgery:
Mom had her back surgery on the 11th of June. She did so well that she came home the next day! The next four weeks will be the most critical for her. Once you don't have the pain, it's easy to bend or twist the wrong way and mess everything that the doctors did up. That's the worst part of it having always to be conscious of what you are doing. If you bend, stretch or twist the pain will let you know you made a wrong move immediately. So I am praying she will remember to be careful. She no longer has the pain from the pinched nerve running down her leg from her hip. The doctor did say that she has a great deal of arthritis in her spine that he couldn't get to for fear of damaging her spinal nerves, but for almost 71 years old she is in great shape! Proof I'd say, that it pays to stay active and exercise as much as you can handle. Now that is advice that I need to follow more!

Kara:
Kara and her Dad are on vacation with some friends ( a family of five). So far they have been to the Badlands, Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse, Yellowstone National Park, and The Grand Canyon. Wow, I thought Mike and I were supposed to be the RVers! They are tent camping which is something we have never done, even when we were younger. Kara sure is getting an education about our country, and she is having a blast doing it. Today they were supposed to end up in Denver, but plans have a way of changing for them all day by day. I can't wait to see all the pictures they're taking. Maybe one day we will be able to hit all those places when we get to start traveling full time.

Autumn and Tehya:
Tomorrow we get to spend the day with Autumn and Tehya! I have been wanting to plan something with them for awhile so we'll see what we can get into, and see if we can have some fun. I would like to take them on a picnic and maybe to the park, if they would like to do that. Then maybe in the afternoon we can do something else if they want. Well dinner is almost done, so I think this is a good place to quit for today. I hope this brings my absence up to date for all of you, and I'll see you soon!

GRADUATION AND THIS N' THAT

2009-06-08T10:54:00.006-04:00

Emily ready to take on the world
At her Graduation Party

Emily:
I ran a day care center in my home for 17 years as I've said many times, and Emily was one of my baby's. I started out taking care of her older brothers, Garrett, and Eric, and then Emily came along . I was able to watch her brothers from the ages of 2 and 6 months, and I took care of Emily from the time she was 6 weeks old until she was 11. Then she was helping me take care of other kids for which she got paid every week. There were alot of firsts for me with this family. I potty trained all three kids, and I put all three kids on the bus for their first day of kindergarten, along with their Mom, and we both cried each time. Although it was worse when we put Emily on the bus for kindergarten, because we knew it would be the last time for us. I had always said when Emily started kindergarten I would retire, well that didn't happen. I would get a call and someone would be begging me to take their baby and so it would all start all over again. I would again feel committed until that child would start kindergarten. That was how I was still watching kids when Emily turned 11. Emily had learned how to change diapers at age 6. She would beg for me to let her give them their bottles, so I finally started teaching her how, and she was good at it. It helped me out alot because it was nothing for me to have five babies of various ages at a time. I always had a helper in the summer because with school being out I sometimes had up to 17 kids everyday with the older brothers and sisters out of school. Normally during school I usually had only 6 a day. When Emily was 11, I got really sick and had to quit doing day care. After spending a week in the hospital, the diagnosis: I was in heart failure at 45 years old! That last day was hard on all my Mom's and me, we all cried. It was the hardest on Emily, she cried all day and didn't want to leave me. I told her that she could come and see me anytime she wanted, and could even get off the bus at my house after school. That was the only way her Mom could get her to leave. She took me up on that offer quite a bit, and you know what it helped me as much as it did her. I owe her Mom, Jessica a great deal for being able to share her daughter with me and not feel threatened by our relationship. She always introduced me as her kids second Mom which was very generous of her. Alot of my mom's felt that way, and knew they could go to work and not worry about their kids while I had them. Anyway I wasn't sure at that time, that I would even make it to Emily's graduation, because my cardiologist said he was afraid that I was going to have to have a heart transplant. In the meantime he was treating me very aggressively and had me on a huge amount of medications. Which I hated taking every day, 3 times a day, I didn't even feel like myself on them. Well, the medication worked and I didn't have to have any surgery to make a long story short. Each month I got better, and was able to do more things, soon in the summer Emily and I would go to the lake and stay at our trailer for 2 to 4 days a week. We did alot of crafts, talking, watched our favorite movies, went swimming and things like that. Mostly we just had fun, so that is why we are so close. It was a great honor to have Jessica trust me that much to take Emily places while she was at work during the summer. So at Emily's graduation I cried again, but it was tears of happiness. She has grown into a beautiful young woman and I am so proud of her! She is going to Wright State University in the fall. She is majoring in education, and is going to be working towards being a school superintendent. Wow! Anyway at her party this last Saturday they had a picture board. On that picture board was a picture of me putting her on the bus and one of me with her in her cap and gown at her graduation. Good things come to those who wait! I feel very blessed!

TWO DAYS GONE ALREADY/ CONGRATS SPEEDY

2009-05-29T10:38:00.003-04:00

The Last Two Days:
The last two days I have been working in our screen room off the bedroom. I have all my plants out there now, and it has been cleaned and changed around. I moved our small chest freezer to one side, and then I had room for my largest philodendron on the table. It needs to be re potted and cut back because I had to loop part of it over the rafter it was so long. So it goes from the coffee table to the ceiling and then half way down again! For now I just put 2 old lawn chairs in there, but it is going to be so nice to be able to sit in the screen room in the evenings and not have mosquito's feasting on us! LOL! We can also leave the sliding door open and get more air into our bedroom and no bugs! I need to do some touch up painting in there, but that will be one of the last things after we get done with the apartment. So I have been really busy the last 2 days. Well I did take time off to go get my hair touched up, but that's all. LOL!

Today:
I am going to take it kinda easy today. I just have to do dishes, clean the bedroom, and bathroom so that won't be too hard. Then after dinner I plan to just hang out on my computer ( hopefully in the RV Dreams chat room) if I manage to get the things done that I have in mind. One of the girls I used to babysit is graduating from high school on Monday evening and then her parents are having her party on the following Saturday, so I need to find something to wear, sounds like a shopping trip to me! Ha ha! That's not going to happen today though. LOL!

Congrats Speedy:
I am so happy for Speedy that his last day of work is today! I hope and wish that his retirement brings him and Sherry some much needed rest, relaxation, lots of fun, happiness, and travel for a very long time!

See Ya:
Now I really have to get to work so I can get things done because I want to be on hand in the RV Dreams chat tonight to say Hi to all my friends and say Congrats to Speedy should he make it into chat after a hard day of celebrating! LOL! So until then friends...

CATCHING UP : AGAIN !

2009-05-26T11:59:00.003-04:00

Hey There:
Well, I was all caught up on my blog last Thursday! Then I got sidetracked working around here and have been going since then! Most of the weekend I did yard work and things that had needed done around here for some time. Gary did clean out the gutters this weekend so at least he did that, but only because I told him it needed to be done. He doesn't seem to "know" how to do yard work and stuff like that. Well he does know how to do it he just doesn't and I'm tired of him letting the yard go, and it was killing me seeing all the work we did over the years go down hill. He wasn't happy that I did it, but at least he knows now I'll take over if he doesn't continue to keep it up. If he can't or won't do the maintenance on the house/yard, then is he really ready to own a house? I guess time will tell the story, but I was sure mad that he let the yard work go so long, and now he knows it too! So that's what I worked on all weekend. On Saturday we went to get some tomato and pepper plants to put in a raised bed. We haven't had a garden for years, but I'm so tired of not having fresh tomatoes and I want to can some salsa this year because we use a lot of it. I think we can take care of a few peppers and tomatoes. Well I guess I'm done with my rant for now. LOL!

Today:
Today is errand day and we're out of a lot of things so we have to hit a few stores and pick up some things. So I need to go change my clothes and get ready so I'll see ya on the flip side! Oh yeah, I'm counting down the days only five more days of school left after today, so I'm going to be able to get back to chatting with all you Dreamers out there soon! YIPPEE! Until tomorrow people...

THURSDAY THIS N' THAT

2009-05-21T11:09:00.002-04:00

Today:
It is a beautiful day today! The sun is shining bright and the sky is a beautiful blue! Now a week before the end of May spring has sprung, and even arrived. Wow, boy am I glad, and it even stayed in the mid 50's last night. I am going to plant the seeds for my herbs today, but I am still undecided as to whether I will put my plants outside yet. Maybe next week.

Daddy's Home:
Mike arrived home last night at about 7:30p.m. He was really glad to be home and able to sleep in his own bed! He sure didn't sleep good while he was at his Moms. I was kinda glad to see him home safe and sound too! LOL! I got the screen door painted inside and out while I was waiting for him to get home, so that was another thing I was able to check off of my list. Now all that remains is to paint the top of the buffet and the wall shelf that I'm going to put above the sink, and I will have everything done that I wanted to get done this week. YIPPEE! I guess I'll have to make up a new list for next week, so I can keep up the pace and get things done. I may even take the weekend off! Then I'll be able to kick back and relax before I go down to my Moms for her surgery.

Well I know this is short, but I need to get outside for awhile, and Hannah has informed me that she wants me to play fetch, her favorite game. So since that game will take me out into the sunshine for awhile I think I'll go play with her before it gets too warm today. Hannah is my son, Gary's golden retriever/ chocolate lab mix, and she lives to play fetch plus she could use some exercise. So I'll try to come up with something to write about for tomorrow, so ya all stay safe until then...

WEDNESDAY'S WHINE!!

2009-05-20T11:33:00.002-04:00

Today:
I have got a lot done the past few days, and now I am TIRED! I still have to get the bedroom cleaned and the bed changed. I hate changing and fighting our king sized bed. One of these days I want to get a queen bed like we have in the fiver for our apartment. I have a feeling we're going to be staying put for awhile, with our parents in the shape they are in. Don't get me wrong, I am happy for as much time that we have with them. Anyway I'm tired of fighting with that darn bed, and we'd have more room with a queen sized bed. I'd like to give our son, Gary our king bed, I know they could use more room, cos they only have a full size bed. Speaking of Gary, he got his tooth pulled yesterday and is doing fine, so that's good. I have clothes to hang out on the line, and another load to do once I get the sheets off the bed. then I'll have the laundry done, at least for a while! For some reason it just keeps piling up. LOL! Mike is supposed to come home today sometime this afternoon, and I'll sure be glad, I hate not being able to go. My Mom's surgery has been rescheduled for June 11th. So I'll be going down to Circleville then. I hope this time she'll be able to have the surgery and get it over with, cos she tends to worry about it. After she is up on her feet, we may be able to sneak a little traveling in this summer, at least that's the plan if there are no complications. We are looking forward to that, and also getting the apartment done, and it's getting close to time to put the ceiling in and the flooring! As soon as Mike and Jamie get finished putting outlets in my little kitchen area they can start on the ceiling.

Yesterday:
I got most of my painting done except for the screen door, so I still have that little task to do this week. I've had to get real creative with finding storage here in the apartment, but I have made and found some. I actually think that the fiver has more storage. We had plenty of room when we lived in it last summer, except for not having a pantry for groceries. If we ever bought another one I would make sure it had a pantry, otherwise our fiver is great. We may see if we can figure out how to build a pantry in the fiver, at a later date.

Well I really have to get busy now or I won't get the stuff done that I want before Mike gets home. I know I'll want to talk to him when he comes home, so nothing will get done then. So I'll continue to try to keep this blog going and hopefully I'll be able to get back in the RV Dreams chat soon! There are only 10 more days of school, and going to Jamie's apartment to put Kara to bed, so I'll have access to my Internet at night again soon! I feel so out of touch with all of you and miss talking to you all, see ya's soon...

TUESDAY TWITTER

2009-05-19T11:01:00.003-04:00

Yesterday:
I got quite a bit done yesterday, from doing dishes, and laundry to stripping paint off some wood on the buffet that I'm redoing. Then after Kara and I had dinner, I helped her with her homework and got her to bed. I listened to music most of the day and it kept me going. I enjoy listening to the music channels on cable tv, it makes the day go faster for me and I get more done without having tv shows on. I tried just listening to the shows, but they draw me in and then I end up sitting down and watching them and that's not good!

Today:
I have wash going all ready, and I want to get the dishes put away. Then I plan to work on the buffet and I have some painting to get done. The new screen door needs to be painted if it is warm enough to paint today. I'd like to know what is up with this weather we have been having, and from reading lots of your blogs it's not just here in Ohio that the weather is weird this year. I thought we were having global warming! I don't call the kind of weather we're having warm, and I still haven't put my house plants outside. It's probably going to be a cool summer or it will get stinking HOT immediately, with no relief. We still have night temps in the 40's here and I think we're having March or April weather not the normal weather we have at the end of May. I'm wondering if I'll be able to put my plants out by Memorial day, I sure hope so. Most of the years, my plants have been outside for at least 2 weeks by now. I have had them outside during the day, but then they all have to be carried back in before nightfall. On one of my philodendrons it is so big that when I carry it I have to put some of it around my shoulders. Then some of it always breaks off if I'm not really careful with it. So I hate to keep moving it back and forth. I'm trying to wait to re pot it until I can move it outside for the summer. Well that's enough about the plants and if I don't get busy I won't get anything done that I want to. So it's time to say ta ta for now so see ya tomorrow or in my dreams...

MONDAY, MAY18th, 2009

2009-05-18T11:47:00.002-04:00

Today:
As you can see I haven't been too good at keeping up with my blog the last week, and all I can say is that time keeps getting away from me. Thank goodness that there is only 2 more weeks of school left, then I can be home in the evenings! I will try to catch you up on the status of things going on here.

Last Week:
I had my appointment with the allergy doctor. After a pulmonary function test, standard, just to see how much air I am moving, then I got to see the allergist. I found out after he reviewed my meds that I could not have the standard allergy test where they prick your skin because of the Coreg that I take for my heart. Sometimes, evidently it can give false positives, and make you have an allergic reaction bad enough to put you in the hospital. Instead they took 3 tubes of blood and will test my blood with the allergens. This will take about 2 weeks. The allergist did put me back on my Patanol eye drops which is good. So now we wait. He also told me that I can't take allergy shots for cats because of the Coreg, and if they did go ahead and give them to me, it would take at least a year for them to tack effect. Which means I can't go down to Mike's Moms for more than a few hours. The Coreg seems to be the hold up here, but it is something I will have to be on for the rest of my life, so going off of it is a no no. Oh well enough about that no sense talking about something that can't be changed, right?
Mike and I both had our regular doctor appointments on Thursday and got our new prescriptions, so we are good to go for almost 6 months before we have to go back. Glad that's out of the way.

Mike:
Yesterday Mike left to go to his Mom's house. He called to let me know he got there and everything was ok. He also told me that his brother in law is screening in the back porch so Miss Kitty can go out to the porch. Now there won't be any place in the house that I can go where the cat hasn't been! It is such a shame to screen in that porch because it is so nice to sit out there in the sun. Sure is one spoiled kitty, although I understand it is good for someone with Alzheimer's to have a pet to take care of but man it makes it rough for me. She, Mike's Mom is not in the final stage and the doctor said it would be good therapy for her and help keep her in the present instead of the past. The thing is I love cats, but boy do they mess my allergies up! Mike will be gone for 3 or 4 days, depending when his brother can come down. Sure wish I could have went with him. I miss him already, and it's so quiet that I had to turn on some music to keep me company! It took me a long time to go to sleep last night even though I read before going to sleep. Half the time I can pick up a book at bedtime and go to sleep after the first page still holding the book. Good thing I read in bed huh? LOL! Well I think we are all caught up for the last week now. So I'll save some things for tomorrow and I hope you all have nothing but rainbows and good luck so until tomorrow friends...

TUESDAY

2009-05-12T08:40:00.007-04:00

Today:
Well, I am trying to get back into writing everyday, so since I was up really early this morning and have already had my tea I thought I'd try to blog before things get busy! Who knows if I'll have time later. I have to take our son,Gary to the dentist to get a tooth pulled at 10:30 so this may be the only time I can write. He has been off work 2 days with his tooth killing him. He has a huge cavity and I think it is infected with all the swelling he has. Actually getting him to go to the dentist has always been like pulling teeth, pardon the pun. LOL! This time the pain just got worse than he can take. Even though he is 28 they may have to put him out, so that is why I am taking him. Of course, just goes to show he still needs Mom even if it's just to be a taxi driver! LOL! Mike would have taken him except he and Jamie had planned to do alot of yard work before Jamie has to go to work at 4:30p.m. today. Jamie is going to help his Dad cut out a bunch of saplings that have grown up through the chain link fence. Gary is in no shape to work on the yard, and it is driving Mike nuts because that needs done. Mike just can't stand it when the yard needs mowed and trimmed, and hasn't been done. Since were stuck here anyway until after my Mom's surgery, and he has to leave on Sunday to go down to stay with his Mom he is going to do the yard. It is also supposed to rain tomorrow, so if they don't get the grass mowed today we may have to have someone come in and cut and bale the grass for hay! Just kiddin, it's not quite that tall, but who knows how much more it will grow after it rains.

Update:
My Mom is finally on the mend! She is done taking her medicine and has pretty much stopped coughing. I may go down on Saturday and stay with her this next week while Mike is at his Mom's. That is if Jamie can find someone to watch Kara in the evenings, if not I'll stay home. We're going to make some outfits for Kara if we can get some sewing in. We still don't have a date for Mom's surgery, so we're thinking it will be sometime towards the end of May.

Tomorrow:
I have been off all my allergy meds for a week now, and I have more allergy testing tomorrow. I will be so glad to finally get back on my meds, because the tree pollen has been in the high level for the past week. My nose and eyes and throat have been a mess. My eyes and nose have been running and I have that annoying little tickle in the back of my throat that makes me cough and makes my throat sore from all the drainage. YUCK! Anyway I'll be glad to get back on my Zyrtec and my Singulair after the tests. I'm also going to ask the doctor about allergy shots for cat allergies, so I can at least go down to see Mike's Mom. I can visit right now for a couple of hours, but that's about it, and I can't stay overnight at all. So I hope that they will give me the shots. That way we can help out alot more, at least until we start traveling. So we'll see what happens tomorrow.

Well Dutchess has just informed me that she wants to go out, so this might be a good place to stop for today, so I'll see ya over the rainbow...

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY

2009-05-10T14:55:00.002-04:00

Happy Mother's Day!
Happy Mother's Day to everyone! Two of my sons have stopped by and gave me a hug and a kiss, so I only have one more to go. See I told you all I'd be back today! This morning we went to Wal Mart to get a few things. I had to get a Graduation card for one of the girls that I used to watch in my day care. I guess that means I'm getting older. I had watched both her brothers and then her when she came along, and now she is graduating high school! Wow! She always brought me flowers for Mother's Day, because she said I was her second Mom! Congratulations Emily! I'm very proud of you! Time sure has marched on, I went to her brother's Graduation Party, and now soon I'll be going to hers!

Short and Sweet:
I know this is short and probably not too sweet, but I have just gotten a phone call from my friend Sue and she wants me to come see her 5 month old Grandson, Liam. So ya know sitting here typing can't compare to holding a baby so ya know what I'm going to do! LOL! Hope ya all have a great day, and I'll see all of you tomorrow...

COLD SATURDAY IN MAY

2009-05-09T11:00:00.005-04:00

Cold:
Well the day before Mother's Day is not very warm! It is supposed to be in the low 60's today, but the wind is blowin really hard! It feels like it's blowing enough to bring the temp down about 20 degrees. Here I had plans to put all my houseplants out in the screen room this weekend! It's only going to be in the mid 40's the rest of the weekend and the next week at night. I guess I better wait another week and maybe the night temps will move up a little, cos I don't want to kill my plants. They're just not used to temps that low and I haven't hardened them off a little bit at a time like I used to do. I always heard it was safe to plant tomatoes after Mother's Day, but I'm not so sure this year although I doubt we'll get cold enough to frost. I have some Dill, Chives, and some Cilantro I want to plant too, so I am watching those night time temps pretty close.

Today:
Today is going to be a work day for me. I'm not sure what Mike is going to get into today, but as for me I am going to be painting shelves. That won't be too taxing, and I think I can handle it. We don't have Kara this weekend so I want to get some things done, I don't usually paint when she's here since she always wants to help. Most of the time it's not something she can paint, and she tends to get it all over herself too. I also need to water all my plants, or I won't need to worry about putting them outside cos I won't have any plants left. I had let them dry out a bit so I could move them without them leaking any water.

Past Week:
After watching Kara all last weekend and Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday evening Jamie took Thursday and Friday off for his birthday, so I got a break, from Kara, but on Thursday night I kept Autumn and Tehya all night. Then I got Autumn up and she got ready for school. After I took her to school I read until Tehya woke up. Our daughter in law, Julia picked her up at 2:45p.m. Both her and our son, Corey had to be at work at 5:30 a.m. and it was easier to keep them over night than get up at 5 a.m. and go to their house. Autumn's school is just 2 miles from our house so it was a short five minute trip to get her to school and come back. Mike and Tehya were still sound asleep when I got back, and didn't even know I'd left. I guess we're going to have to go somewhere to get away from all this babysitting, but then again we are lucky enough to be able to see our Grand Daughters grow up, so we don't mind it too much! LOL! It's kind of a catch 22 situation right now.

Apartment Update:
I actually cooked a meal on my new gas stove last night and I really enjoyed it! Everything turned out really good, and I didn't have to run back and forth between the fiver or the kitchen in the house for items . Mike did go out to the fiver once for me though, so I still have some dishes and pots and pans to bring in that I normally don't leave in the fiver. The rest of the things I will leave in the fiver so I don't have to reload when we go somewhere. Anyway it was nice to be able to cook something instead of microwave stuff! Now I am HAPPY!!!!! Well I'd best get to work on my painting, so I will see you tomorrow for sure...

YESTERDAY AND BEYOND

2009-05-06T11:47:00.002-04:00

Yesterday:
Wow, have things been moving fast here! I now have a gas stove here in the apartment and it is even hooked up to gas! Mike and Jamie,our son have been working their behinds off to get things done. So in a little over two weeks time I have gotten a sink and counter top, a back splash, a stove and gas all done and working great. Now I have no excuse for not cooking or doing dishes! I do need to get all my things out of the fiver so I can cook in here, but I want to leave the basic things in there so I don't have to repack everything when we go somewhere. So now I have to go out to the screen room where the freezer is and dig something out for dinner. I think it's either going to be pork chops or chicken, because I forgot to take the hamburger out so I could make meatloaf. Oh well, I guess I'm not used to being prepared after all those microwave meals.

Mom:
My Mom is finally on the mend. She sounds really good now and isn't coughing as much as she was. She still has to be symptom free for two weeks before they will reschedule her surgery. I am so relieved that she is getting better, and I Thank You all for your prayers and get well wishes! She even feels well enough to sew, and believe me that is a great improvement because you could hear how miserable she was on the phone! So now we wait and hope that the surgery can be scheduled in a couple of weeks. I guess time will tell.

Today:
Today is a rainy spring day here in Ohio. It seems like we have had alot of these type of days here lately. Mike wants to go do some errands today so I guess that is what we'll do, of course he has an ulterior motive, he wants to go to the used book store! So until next time, which I hope is alot sooner than the five days it has taken me to write this time :) ~~~~

NOT MUCH TO REPORT

2009-05-01T11:41:00.002-04:00

Nothing Much:
All is pretty quiet here for the moment. I continue to watch Kara every evening and weekend. There are only 5 weeks of school left, so that is good. At least with school out I can stay home in the evenings, and at get on RV Dreams chat and talk to my friends. My son doesn't have internet at his apartment, so that means no computer. I have on the other hand been doing alot of reading after I get Kara to bed at 9:00p.m. Usually she ends up a little later after I read a few chapters of the book we're reading together at bedtime, but she gets up in the morning for school all by herself so it doesn't seem to bother her.

Mom:
My Mom has pneumonia and is on breathing treatments twice a day so it is a good thing that they canceled her surgery! She is on antibiotics and that with the breathing treatments should help her get better. She said she felt a little better today when I talked to her, but she gets tired really quickly. The doctors want her to get back some of her energy and be symptom free for two weeks and have a chest x-ray before they will put her back on the surgery schedule. So that will at least take it to the end of May before she has her surgery, and that is if she is over this in two weeks. If it lasts longer that could take the surgery into June. So now things are really up in the air.

The apartment:
We got a STOVE!!!! I will finally be able to cook in the apartment! That is as soon as the gas is hooked up, maybe sometime next week when Jamie has time off. Wow a sink installed that I can do dishes in and having a stove I won't know how to act! Since November, I have been going out to the fiver or either in the house to cook. I have to say in that time we have also resorted to alot of microwavable things because I do have a microwave in here. I have also been using my crockpots to death, so we're sick of those kinds of meals. Of course now that the weather is changing I hope we'll soon be able to use the grill too. That is if it ever quits raining, because it's supposed to rain here the next (7) count em seven days! It a good thing we have a canoe in the back yard! LOL! Just kiddin' in all the years we have lived here, we have never had a problem with flooding. Our house, (was our house now our son's) is located around 3 spring fed lakes,but we live uphill from the lakes. We have had some of the streets flood close to the lakes though, but the water would have to be very deep to reach this house. Well for not much to report I have said quite a bit so I'll close now, and maybe I'll have something to report if and when it quits raining, over the next rainbow...

PROGRESS AND CONCERNS

2009-04-27T20:40:00.004-04:00

Apartment Progress:
We are making lots of progress on the apartment. The kitchen is coming together really fast. The sink outline has been cut out of the counter top, and the sink and the faucet have been installed into the counter top. The next thing we have to do is get the back splash put up, and then Mike and Jamie can connect the supply lines and that will be finished. We'll go to Menard's tomorrow and get the laminate for the back splash. I got the buffet primed and partially painted with semi-gloss enamel. Tomorrow I just have to paint the sides, and the top. I also want to add another coat of semi-gloss to the doors. I will be storing all of my small appliances in it when it's done. I have one more wall to paint white in the kitchen. Then we can start on the ceiling after Mike and Jamie finish running the electric wiring. Our son, Jamie has been a huge help in doing the kitchen! It also takes some of the strain off of Mike's back with Jamie helping, and he is also learning how to do stuff, so when he gets a house he'll know how to do things.

Concerns:
My Mom is going to have to postpone her surgery because she has an upper respiratory infection and is coughing a lot. I'm really glad that they are going to postpone it because there is no reason to take chances. She started getting sick over the weekend and is not much better. She is going to go see her doctor tomorrow, but there is no way she could be ready for surgery by Monday. If her doctors could hear how she sounds they would cancel the surgery themselves, so I'm glad she is going ahead and canceling it. All of the coughing is not doing her back any good, but it would be even worse to be coughing after having her back surgery, so she is going to have to wait it out. There is a lot of sickness going around right now and it is really scary.

Off Track:
I am really getting off track with this blog. I used to do it every morning and now here I sit at nine o'clock at night. I want to start doing it again in the morning because after I get busy I don't always have time or make time to do it. Also after working all day painting things I'm too tired to write, so It's been averaging about every four to five days before I sit down to write. I don't like to wait that long to write because I tend to forget things. Also I'm ready to go somewhere for a break in the fiver. It seems like all we do is work now. I want to get the apartment done, but it's time to have some fun too. Tonight we had dinner in the fiver, and Jamie and Kara ate with us. It was nice just to be able to sit down at the table and eat instead of our recliners. We don't have a table and chairs in the apartment yet. Well this brings you all up to date about what's been going on in our absence so I'll see ya all over the next rainbow...

2009-04-27T20:40:00.001-04:00

TRIVIAL MISCELLANIEOUS STUFF !

2009-04-22T18:25:00.003-04:00

Trivial Miscellaneous:
The last few days have been spent doing lots of things, besides watching Kara in the evenings. On Monday since it was raining, I cleaned and purged my bookshelves. I took all my Danielle Steele and Nora Roberts books down and readied them to take to the used book store to trade.
Today we went to the used book store. Several years of reading ended up yielding me about $45.00 of credit and I had to use it all or I had to pay half of my bill. I kind of feel like I got gypped. I ended up getting about 20 books, for about 60 books. I don't know where else I would have gotten rid of them though so, I guess it's ok. I don't regret getting rid of them though, and I have lots of space on my bookshelves now, and a lot less to dust! It was something that I had been wanting to do for a long time, and now I can cross it off my list, so that is good. Now I want to start on the closet and throw lots of clothes away or either take them to Good Will. I'll just have to take a day and get it done, and then take all of the bags to Good Will the next day.

Ready To work:
We're ready to start working on our kitchenette for the apartment. As soon as I paint the other wall, we can install the cabinets and the sink. I will be so glad that I won't have to carry my dishes to the main kitchen in the house, or to the fiver to wash them. That way we won't have to go into the house at all so we can leave our son to his privacy. I think we have just about everything we need to finish up the kitchen. I can't wait to get started, and since the next 3 days are supposed to be in the low 80's it seems like a good time to do it, because I can cook in the fiver. Today we also went to Lowe's and got some things. I finally got the wooden screen door that I had been wanting. Mike will have to cut it down a little bit for a good fit, and then I can paint it. Now we will have some way of getting fresh air into our apartment, besides just leaving the door open and letting the flies and bugs fly in. Mike is happy he finally got his new brad nail gun and his staple gun that runs off his air pump. So we both got something we wanted today! It was almost like Christmas for us! LOL! In the next few days we will get the bathroom ceiling up and the trim done which Mike assures me will go much faster now that he has the right tools and his new air guns that shoot brads and staples! LOL! We'll see, and I'll have to let ya know about that! Ha Ha!

Time:
Well it's getting close to time for me to round up Kara and get her over to their apartment so she has time to shower and then we'll read the Amish story we have been reading, just a couple of chapters before her bedtime everynight. She is really getting into the story, it's about a little girl named Polly that is eleven, so she likes it. I'm hoping to get her to love reading eventually! After that I usually sit and read until my son gets home from work. I miss all my friends at the RV Dreams chat room, and I would be there chatting with ya all if my son had Internet, but right now he doesn't. So I feel like I'm missing out on all the news and happenings going on in chat. So a big HELLO to all of you and I hope I get the chance to chat for a while this weekend! Until then travel safe, and take care...

WHERE DOES THE TIME GO ?

2009-04-19T14:12:00.002-04:00

Time Is Not On My Side:
Wow I had good intentions to keep up with my blog, and here it is a week later! It wasn't because I was doing nothing, but I could have explained what I was up to! I have been doing a lot of painting, but on walls not pictures, I wish I was that talented. The bathroom in the apartment is very close to being finished, and I only changed the color 3 times! LOL! Anyway, I have it the way I want it now and it looks very good. Next is the trim and the floor and it will be done completely. I hate to move to anything else until one thing is finished, so that is why things are taking so long to get done. We have picked out the floor for the bathroom and the rest of the apartment, so that is one step that is already done. So we have been busy.

On the RV horizon, is a trip that we want to take even if it's only in Ohio and only for the weekend since I'm taking care of Kara after school each day this spring. The reason being that my Mom is having back surgery in May so in order to be here for that, we decided not to do any traveling this spring and summer to be of help during her recovery. As far as future travel we'll have to see what the future brings with each of our parents this next year. If they are stable then we will be able to do some traveling, if not our fiver will sit in our drive way until we can. I think a lot of you who travel full time must have lost your parents already, and that is not something that we took into consideration when we planned to go full time. I know that no one can live forever, and I don't want to be gone and miss any time that we can spend with them. At this time in our lives we really want to be able to be able to travel, and we can still do it just not full time right now because our parents are simply not in good enough health. If any of you out there still have your parents, and travel full time please tell me how you have handled it, and any ideas that you have in order to be able to follow your dream. We have overcome a lot of things to follow this dream, including knee operations, heart trouble, back surgeries, and cancer, and were not giving up on our dream. Maybe if you will, we're just choosing to postpone our dream in order to spend as much time as we have left with our parents . I hope that the two of us will have time for us to travel later, but until then we have to think over our options. I hope you'll understand our decision, and support us in this. I plan on trying to keep up with this blog,and document what were doing and I hope that some of you will still stop in from time to time and find out what we're up to. So until next time see ya over the rainbow...somewhere in our dreams...

EASTER AT HOME

2009-04-13T19:13:00.004-04:00

Easter Trees:
Every year my Mom does her Easter tree with plastic eggs for the Great Grand kids. They really enjoy seeing it, unfortunately I couldn't get them to stand still long enough to get their pictures! So the trees were the only pictures that I was able to get. We went to Circleville on Saturday afternoon. Mom and I fixed a ham and an old fashioned ham loaf. They were both very good, and we had that with scalloped potatoes, green beans, salad, deviled eggs, and cupcakes and ice cream pie for dessert. Mom, Mike, Kara ( our Grand daughter), my sister in law, Pearl, and her son Alex and I were the only ones there, as my brother had to work, and my Dad had left to go wild turkey hunting in Virginia after church. We had a good dinner and lots of good conversation. In about an hour after dinner my Sons, Corey and Gary, and Autumn and Tehya arrived. Then the Grand kids hunted for their Easter baskets treasure hunt style going from clue to clue until each one had found their basket. I took them upstairs, to the basement, to the garage, then back upstairs with 10 clues each, until they found their baskets. I figured if I wore them out first, that all that candy I knew they were going to get wouldn't give them such an energy boost. LOL! Unfortunately the only one who was wore out was me from following the clues to make sure that they went from clue to clue and then to the baskets! I just crashed after they went home! LOL!

Mom's Back Surgery:
My Mom will have her back surgery on May 4th. They have finally given her a date, and I am praying everything goes alright as the doctor's shave the 2 discs that are ruptured and check out a possible 3rd disc for rupture. The doctor's are hoping that this surgery will stop some of the numbness she has down her leg, and alot of the pain from the discs pressing on the nerves in her spinal column. I hope we will all be able to celebrate on May 4th. Stay posted for updates!

Weather:
We came home with the rain following us and it has rained most of the day since we have been home. My wonderful arthritis has reared it's ugly head, or should I say hit my knee. I've been limping since last night and I am not enjoying it after being able to walk pretty normal since January, makes me wonder if my steroid shot has worn off. I'll have to see what happens after it quits raining, and then decide if I need to make another appointment with my orthopedic doctor for another shot.
I know I've been kind of lax about writing lately so I will try to do better in the next few days, so until we meet again...

SPRING 2009 ?

2009-03-31T16:36:00.002-04:00

My newest mode of transportation!
Daffodils
Flowering Purple Plum

Is Spring here?
The first picture is of my new bike! Mike has the male version of the same bike! LOL! The bikes are our present to ourselves, for fun and for our health! Not only can we ride around the lakes where we live, but when we are at campgrounds and parks too. This is the first time we have bought something for ourselves, besides the fiver, and not the house. Our bikes are just your everyday regular Huffy bikes with no gears, and no hand brakes. However, they were more expensive than the 22 speed bikes! I guess it costs more not to put all those brakes and extra gears on! We could have got 2- 22 speed bikes for only $69.00 each, but our no speed, old fashioned bikes cost $99.00 each! Can you figure that out, sounds weird to me!
The daffodils are in our yard and have kept spreading every year, but they are nice and bright, and make me think spring is here.. Our tulips are up but have not bloomed yet, so I can't show you pictures of them. The forsythia bush hasn't bloomed yet so I can't tell if spring is here or not. I'm sure it will get here eventually! LOL! I don't know if my knees and my arthritis will like April showers though! I hope we'll have some sunny days too!

Jamie and Kara:
Hooray, they are in their apartment!!!! I am so glad that they are in, now they just have to get everything arranged in there! Kara and I got the curtain made for the door way to her room yesterday, and she was happy with it. The excitement and bustle of moving made for a very tired and cranky Kara by bedtime. She had a good day at her new/old school. What I mean is that she went there last year, so she knew some of the kids, and better yet they remembered her, so that was good! At least now strangers won't be taking care of her and I can put her to bed and wait at their apartment until her Dad gets home as long as we're in the area. Good for her, and all of us and I won't worry so much about her. The owner even said Kara could plant some flowers outside, so we may tackle that sometime.

Dinnertime:
Well it's time for dinner, so I think I'll sign off for today, so I hope that all your travels are smooth and safe and I'll see ya tomorrow...

KARA TIME/ BAKING

2009-03-29T15:40:00.002-04:00

Kara's Here:
Our oldest Grand daughter Kara is here and we've been busy cooking and shopping. We went to Wally World and got posters for her new room, and I got material to make a curtain for her room. She is into High School Musical stuff, so that's what we got. I also got wooden letters of her initials for her to paint and decorate for her room. She chose blue paint and then added glitter to them and they turned out great! We made blueberry muffins for her Uncle Gary and oatmeal muffins for her Pa Pa today.

Yesterday (Saturday):
Kara and I made manicotti for dinner. I made the sauce while she mixed up the filling with ricotta cheese, mozzarella, cottage cheese, spices and fire roasted tomatoes. We used an immersion blender to mix it up. I had hoped that I got all the tomatoes crushed, but that was not the case. Kara helped me fill the pastry bag and put the open tip in it so I could fill the manicotti tubes. The pastry bag made quick work filling the tubes and Kara helped by holding the tubes so I could use both hands to hold the pastry bag. Unfortunately she was looking directly into the tubes, so I told her not to look into the tubes because the filling might splatter into her eyes. All at once a tomato clogged the tip of the pastry bag. I had just started filling a pasta tube. I squeezed hard and out popped the tomato right onto Kara's nose! LOL! We had a good laugh over that, and from then on Kara held the pasta tubes lower and didn't look into them while I was filling them! We got the rest of the tubes filled and the sauce over them. Kara was such a good helper for me, and we had fun making the manicotti. Using the pastry bag was a good tip that I got off of the Food network TV channel. Next time I will buy a larger tip for the pastry bag so I don't have to worry about the tip clogging. In the end we had a good time and got something really yummy for dinner too! Kara is learning how to cook some of her favorite meals, which I think everyone should know how to do.

Mike:
While we we're doing all the cooking and shopping Mike was busy working on the electric in the apartment. We now have a light wired for the bathroom, and switches in the wall for the light and a fan in the bathroom ceiling. Mike went and got a door for the bathroom on Friday and got that finished in about an hour. Of course he got his new pneumatic nailer on Thursday and couldn't wait to use it. so that's how the door got done so fast! LOL! Seriously, though that nailer is the bomb! It sure is faster and really is neat the way it works. Well, I think that is about all my news for today so I am going to sign off and maybe get busy on the curtain for Kara's new room! See ya soon...

SIGNS OF SPRING

2009-03-24T20:45:00.003-04:00

Spring?
I saw my first robin here yesterday, and we have our first daffodil blooming now! Do ya think maybe spring is here? I know that the tree pollen count has been rising here in the Springfield, Ohio area, so that is also a good sign. I'm trying not to get my hopes up, because Easter is still 3 and a half weeks away, but the weatherman has said that we're done with the teens and 20's for temperatures. This time last year we were brand new fiver owners, and we couldn't wait to use it. Well needless to say we have broken our fiver in even if we haven't gone full time yet. We have the travel itch already and want to do some short trips this spring.

Mom:
The surgeon is going to set up my Mom's back surgery soon as they can arrange it! I doubt it will be before Easter though, so probably sometime around the middle of April, so that will give us some time to go out for a few days. I see a trip to Alum Creek state park in our near future because that is one of our favorite parks near here! I love being there in the spring and seeing everything come alive. Also right now there are a lot of deer and animal activity in the spring.

Apartment:
Jamie and Kara have found an apartment and are moving in next Monday! Things are finally starting to happen for them and I think it will be a great thing for them to be on their own. I will be keeping Kara, our grand daughter when Jamie is at work. He has decided to start working 6 days a week, and our other son, Corey will keep Kara when we are out and about for a few trips this spring. Well that is about all our news for the moment, but I promise I'll be back soon!

THINGS HAPPENING HERE

2009-03-20T11:36:00.002-04:00

Title:
Well the title is sort of misleading, there's not much happening here! Me I'm waiting in anticipation for Spring! Mike is just relaxing at this moment, and has the travel itch. We're kinda waiting for a bit more of a warm up before we venture out. We do have some things to get done before we go, so those will be scheduled in the next week or so. The truck, our team of horses, needs a check up and oil change. We need to get the propane tanks filled on the fiver. My recliner has to go back into the fiver since I had the boys bring it in here so I could use it this winter. Our son Jamie has to get his stuff out of the fiver that we let him store in there for the winter, which he is going to do right away, cos I said so! LOL! It's mainly just extra clothes and small things like that, so it shouldn't take long to get it out.

Today:
Today is for mundane stuff like changing the bed and getting some other chores done, like some laundry,and cleaning the bathroom. Then tomorrow I want to get the last coat of paint on the bathroom walls so I can start on the living room. This week has flown past so fast that I'm dizzy. It seems like it was just St. Patrick's Day yesterday to me! I guess I have lost a couple of days this week somewhere. I feel like I'm living in limbo right now, kinda with one foot in the full time world and one foot in the stix and brix life, and I guess I am. What will happen after my Mom has surgery and things calm down in my life I don't know. Right now my life seems to be going by so fast that I feel like I'm missing things that I want to savor. Maybe I'm being introspective and thinking about all this stuff because my birthday is coming up who knows, not me. So that's enough introspective stuff for today or I'll get a headache! LOL! I need to get busy since it's already noon or I'll never get the things done that I had planned to do today so I'll see ya soon...

GOOD NEWS !!!!

2009-03-16T12:43:00.003-04:00

Finally Some Good News!!
My Mom called me this morning and told me they called her with the results of her MRI. She does not have cancer in her kidney or her ovary! So this means she is still cancer free. What a relief and it feels like a one ton weight has dropped off my shoulders! She also told me that she probably will not have surgery on her back until May or June. That means to us that we can probably get a few trips in and around Ohio before I have to be down at her house to help her after surgery! So we hope to plan a few little outings for this spring, and early summer before it gets too hot!

Spring:
I think we are getting closer to SPRING! Our temperatures have been around the 40's and above for a week or so now. We have tulips, and daffodils that are up about an inch. Our forsythia bushes are heavy with buds and I'm worried about a frost hurting my purple plum tree that is also budding now. I know it's not here yet, but soon I hope! Sure sounds like spring to me, but we still haven't seen many robins yet. I think since I was born around the first day of spring in March that I have an affinity with spring. Something stirs in my blood and makes me want to be outside and doing things once it starts to warm up. Spring has always been my favorite season of the year, and I can't wait for it to begin every year. Then I always feel a little sad when summer arrives, I guess because spring is such an awakening, and rebirth for the earth. Everything always feels new and clean, and I always feel revived too! We always want to start fixing things, and cleaning up the yard so things look nice. We're looking for bikes for us to ride so we can both get some much needed exercise too. The dogs are also wanting to stay outside longer when we let them out, and if it's the least little bit warm we have trouble getting them to come in. They love laying on the deck in the sun once it warms up.

Today:
The sky is cloudy with no sun right now, but I still feel the need to get busy. We're going to make a trip to Lowe's for some more lumber for the wall, so we can get ready to remove the garage door and put the windows in the apartment. That's another reason I'm glad it's warmer. More light in the apartment will make it seem so much bigger. That's why we picked our fiver because it was so bright and it had so many windows in it. All winter we have only had one window in our door so the apartment has felt dark and dreary. Well I really need to run and get busy, so I'll say ta ta for now and see ya tomorrow...

THREE DAYS WORTH

2009-03-12T10:29:00.002-04:00

Three Into One:
Wow, I can hardly believe it has been 3 days since I posted! I can't even say we have been really busy for an excuse. We have done a few things around the apartment, like painting and stuff like that but nothing major. We did enjoy the 3 days that were warm here, and now we're back to the 30's or a bit higher for the next few days. It was sure nice that Mike could saw his boards and trim outside, so he didn't have to do them inside. I had a feeling it was going to get colder, you know that old arthritis never lies! LOL! I hate it when it gets warm for a few days then gets cold again. It makes you want it to get warmer all that much faster. It should just stay cold until it is ready to stay warm for the summer. We have flowers and plants budding all over and now with it getting cold again it could ruin them. I love spring once spring has sprung! I am so in awe of nature's rebirth every spring and I love to watch it! It makes me want to get out and dig in the flower beds and plant flowers. Of course it's way too early for that!

Mom:
My Mom is going to have to have back surgery in the next month or so. She saw the neuro surgeon on Tuesday and that was the result. They will shave off the bone and the bulging discs that she has to give her some relief from pain. She will still have to be careful with her back for the rest of her life, but they think she will have a lot less pain, pinching, and numbness down her leg where the nerves are being pinched by discs. She will also have an MRI today to see what the spots on her ovary and kidney are. So keep your fingers crossed for me, that it's not what some spots are. We should find out tomorrow what the results are, and if they need to do a biopsy on them. Lets hope they're just cysts and nothing more dangerous! She doesn't need anything else to worry about since she is already worrying about the back surgery.

Wally World Day:
Today we have to make a trip to Wal Mart to get some things we're out of. I would like to stop at the used book store too to look for another book from the author that I have started reading. I have read several books by Karen Harper, and she is becoming another favorite. If you like books or novels that are kinda what I would call mystery suspense, and not too much blood or gore you might like her. She has had some interesting story lines so far. All of the books and authors I read are different and it's nice to have a variety of styles to read, so it keeps it interesting. Plus I read faster than some of them write the books, so I'm always looking for other authors to read. I've also been crocheting quite a bit, but that will go by the wayside once it gets warm enough to be outside and walk or ride a bike. I tend to pick up my crocheting while I'm watching tv, cos it keeps my hands busy. Well Mike is almost ready to go so I'd better get myself ready so I'll see ya all soon so stay tuned to see what we're up to until we meet again...

THE WEEKEND / DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME

2009-03-08T21:17:00.004-04:00

Quiet Weekend:
Jamie and Kaea arrived at about 2:30p.m. on Friday after picking Kara up from school early with a fever. Uh Oh! Well I started off getting medication in her with her antibiotic, and her fever broke about 10:00p.m. She spent al ot of Saturday sleeping, but was starting to feel better. After sleeping most of the afternoon she felt well enough to go out to dinner. We went to the Golden Coral buffet for dinner, and we were out for about an hour and a half. For just starting to feel better Kara ate very well, of course that is her favorite place to eat. When we came home Kara again fell asleep and slept until 11:30 p.m. and then went to bed! LOL! That was our Saturday. Kara and I got up early and left Papa sleeping in. She felt so much better this morning and was complaining it was just in time to go back to school in the morning! Haha! Papa and I spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing after Jamie picked Kara up. I had forgotten how much care a sick child needs so I was exhausted! Of course now I feel like I need to disinfect everything so we don't get sick all over again. I'm hoping that since we had it, that we built up a little bit of immunity from it. Anyway that is our weekend to date.

Daylight Savings Time Begins:
We lost a whole hour of sleep last night! LOL! We will get used to the time change in a couple of days though. It is a sure sign of spring and the weather this weekend was beautiful! We had some rain showers this evening, and are supposed to get over 4 inches the next few days. All I gotta say is at least it's not snow! Well I think I'm gonna call it a night. Tomorrow will find Mike going to his doctor appointment and me I hope getting the wall painted that I didn't get done last week. So I'll see ya soon...

MISSED BIRTHDAYS : BLOG AND FIVER !

2009-03-06T12:52:00.004-05:00

Birthdays:
I missed the one year anniversary of my blog and the day we bought the fiver! Wow, I can't believe it's been a whole year! I will tell you how they both came about.

My Blog:
After reading the RV Dreams blog for two years I decided one night to try going into the RV Dreams chat. First of all the Dreamers in there were so friendly that I felt welcome right away. There were full timers, ( people who live full time in their RV's), going to be's (which included us, full timers by a certain date) and wanna be's (people who want to try the lifestyle). Everyone had lots of information and things to say about RVing. We weren't new to RVing and had camped for years. When I told everyone we we're in the process of buying a fifth wheel they all encouraged me to start a blog. I had no experience with blogs and not much computer experience either. They all told me to go to blog spot.com and just follow the directions. Well I did and this its the result. At first I tried to write everyday, and I still do sometimes. I pretty much write when I want, but I try not to go more than two days between writing. I have learned to do so much by playing around with this blog. I learned how to post pictures, put a counter on my blog so I know if anyone is reading it, and I have also put a music player on here so I could put my favorite songs on my blog. Believe me it wasn't hard or I would never have been able to do it! Anyway on January 23rd, of last year I was able to publish my first post on my blog! So my blog is a year and one month, and 11 days old. I don't know the minutes because I didn't look at the time when I published it. I want to thank all of you who read this blog and have followed our story! I also want to thank you all for the comments on here too!

Our Fiver:
On January 18th, 2008 we signed the papers for our fiver! So our fiver is a year old! We didn't actually pick it up until March 25th, 2008, so we will have it a year on March 25th! We bought a new 2008 Cedar Creek fifth wheel and we still love it. We have put a few dings in it but everyone does that. Everyone has stories about how they got the dings in their fiver bumpers. Believe me when I say the first one makes you feel the worst! Well, that's the story of how this blog came to be and I hope you enjoyed it, I have had a blast doing it and I plan to keep it going! So I hope you will keep stopping by to see what is going on so see ya next time...

THURSDAY AGAIN !

2009-03-05T14:28:00.002-05:00

Time:
Where does time go? It seems to be moving way too fast for me! By the time I get things done lately there is no extra time left, have I slowed down? Do I have a case of spring fever? YES, I do, and I think that is part of my problem, lately I just haven't wanted to do much of anything. I have just been pretty much a couch potato. Today it is 57 degrees and I should be doing something! Our day started off odd because we slept in really late, and now I am behind on everything I wanted to do. By the time Mike had his coffee and I had my tea it was almost noon, so now I have a short time to do the things that I had planned for today. Don't get me wrong, I don't have a deadline to do things anymore, but I like to get the things I had planned done. I will just have to work a little harder and faster if I want to get them done today. What did I have planned today? Nothing earth shattering I assure you, just dishes, some dusting, and painting a wall that I had been putting off. Maybe I have been in a bad mood, and I am feeling sorry for myself. We were supposed to be in Kerrville, Texas last Sunday, and we had to cancel out, so maybe that is the problem. There is sure nothing exciting going on here in Ohio that I can think of for the next two weeks.

Jamie and Kara:
Jamie is bringing Kara out tomorrow to spend the weekend with us. He is looking for a new apartment for them to live in closer to us so Kara can get off the bus here in the afternoons. That way he will save money not having to pay a sitter when we're here. It will also give Kara more stability than she has right now and I can take her home and put her to bed on school nights, and then wait for Jamie to get home. I don't imagine we'll be going too many places between now and the time school is out. The only problem will be if my Mom has to have back surgery. She has an appointment with the neuro surgeon on March 10th so keep your fingers crossed for me. That was the reason we canceled our trip to Texas, so I could be here if she needs surgery to help her with her recovery.

Daylight Savings Time:
I don't know about where you are, but on Sunday daylight savings time starts here in Ohio. We'll spring forward, so we'll lose an hour of sleep again, and it will make it harder to get up. We'll at least have another hour of daylight in the evenings though. With daylight savings time starting can Spring be far behind? I sure hope it will start busting out all over soon!

RV Dreamers:
I hope all you Dreamers are having a good time in Texas, and believe me we are there in spirit! We are keeping track of what's going on by reading all of your blogs. By the way send some of that sunshine that you guys are having down there up this way to us. You all take care and we hope to see a lot of you at the next rally in October!

Time To Be Busy As A Bee:
Well now it's time for me to fly and get busy, so I can get my work done so stay tuned to see what we're up to! Until we meet again...

I WAS INTO SOMETHING GOOD !!

2009-03-02T17:44:00.002-05:00

Saturday Night:
Saturday night was great FUN! Even the two hour drive went fast with the three of us girls talking and bringing each other up to date on our lives since the last concert. We had a fan club get together at the hotel before the concert and the snacks and soft drinks were provided by the hotel. We had lots of fun and laughs, and that was even before the concert. I was not able to get very good pictures because I was too far back from the stage. Oh well, maybe next time! It was a great show even though I didn't get to sit with the fan club because I got my ticket too late. After the concert Peter Noone signed autographs, and some of the fan club members sold cd's. We had an after concert Birthday Party for one of our younger teen members. It was her "Sweet Sixteen" Birthday and Peter Noone dedicated a song to her from the stage! She was thrilled and on a natural high for the rest of the evening! At the Birthday Party she said it was her best Birthday Party ever! I said, "what hanging out with a bunch of old women" and she gave us mid century teeny boppers a compliment! She said, "you guys are so cool!" Lol! Now that was funny to us! With Sunday came the end and it was time for all of us
to hug and to say see ya until the next concert. That's always a sad time for us all, but we know that we'll all be together again at another concert soon as we can! So if any of you want a fun evening go to a Herman's Hermits starring Peter Noone concert whenever you see one advertised. To find out if there is one near you, you can always go to www. Peter Noone.com and click on concerts on his web site. Sometime you may just run into me at a concert! LOL!

Recovery:
Now it's back to the real world! On the way home from the concert I saw countless RV's heading north on I75. All kinds too, class C's, Fifth Wheels, Motor Homes, some with toads and some without. Made me realize it was March for real, and it was a good sign to me that SPRING is really around the corner! I know it doesn't seem like it to some of you with the bad snow storm you just had, but at least the calendar says it is! One thing I'm sure of is that I'm ready to go somewhere with our fifth wheel and get away from all this cold! Of course where can we go, after Alabama got some snow? Man this weather sure is going crazy! I sure hope we aren't going to have a drastic climate change here. The only change I want to see is warm weather to appear!

Dinner Time:
Now it's time for me to finish our barbecued chicken dinner so I'll say ta ta for now and I'll see ya soon!

SATURDAY CONCERT!!!

2009-02-28T09:51:00.004-05:00

Saturday:
Well today is the day! I am going to meet my friends from Cincinnati and go to the concert in Findlay about a 2 hour drive from our house, so they have an hour drive before they pick me up. The concert is this evening, so you know what my plans for the evening are gonna be now. Mike will be on his own over night and I'll be back tomorrow afternoon. Mike is still getting over his cold or whatever it is he has. Yesterday he felt really bad and slept most of the afternoon, but he felt better after he ate dinner.

New Assignment:
Mike has given me a new assignment when I get home. I have to find and make something sweet, that is good for you, that you can eat as much as you want, and is low cal, and low fat! LOL!!! I told him there was no such thing! Oh, I forgot it has to taste good too! I told him that anyone who comes up with something like that will be a millionaire within weeks! I don't think that anything exists that fits those guidelines. Don't get me wrong I can make low cal desserts that taste good, but you can only have 1 serving and that serving is between a half and three quarters of a cup! Now that is not Mike's idea of a serving size, he wants something that he can eat all day long and still loose weight! I told him that I hope he likes salad with no dressing on it, cos that's the only thing I could think of you could eat all day long, and that isn't going to help his sweet tooth at all. How about you guys, do any of you have a recipe that would fit the bill? Mike has a hard time realizing that with every, dare I say it, DIET comes portion control and he doesn't like the size of those portions, I know I don't either. In fact, I don't think anyone living in America likes the sizes of portion control or we would all be nice and thin, like we want to be. We don't want to eat those small portions to get that way though. With all the fast food giving you options of "super sizing" everything, we have lost sight as to just what a single portion is. I love Lean Cuisine, Weight Watcher's entrees, and Healthy Choice meals, but you fix them and then look at them and think that's all I get? Most people could eat at least 3 of them at a time, and to top that off they are really expensive too! No wonder diets make you feel like your depriving yourself of the good stuff. Wow, did I get off on a tangent here or what! It is a problem and I don't know what to do about it just like everyone else. Weight Watchers is the only program that I know of that you can have close to normal eating habits and eat a dessert and still stay on the program and loose weight. There's still a problem of portion control with that though. There is Jenny Craig, and Nutra System, where you eat their food, and that's all, and then after you go off those programs and start eating normal again guess what happens? They really don't teach you how to maintain your weight on real food after you're done with their program. Weight Watchers is the only program or lifestyle that you can cook your own food and still lose weight, and stay on. My friend's daughter in law even stayed on it when she was expecting her baby, and they both did great! Then in order to loose weight there is that other dreaded word, EXERCISE, man ya just have to do all kinds of stuff just to stay healthy huh? How many of us are up for that challenge? We have got to try so we will have lots of years to go full timing. So as soon as the weather breaks it's going to be walking or bike riding for us. In the mean time we're going to have to slowly reduce our portions of the food we eat, so wish us luck! If any of you have any suggestions please let us know what they are.

Ready:
It's time for me to go finish getting ready, and packing my bag so I'll see ya all sometime tomorrow and hopefully I'll have some pictures of the concert for ya. Ta ta for now...

BUSY THURSDAY LINED UP

2009-02-26T10:15:00.004-05:00

Thursday:
Today Mike has an early Dr appointment, and then he has to pick up our prescriptions. So he may be gone awhile this morning. This afternoon I have a hair appointment at one. So we'll be running today. I also have to get things ready because this weekend is a girls weekend for me. I am going to a Peter Noone/Herman's Hermits concert in Findlay, Ohio with some girlfriends. It will be a fun light hearted weekend. So I will meet one of my friends from Cincinnati at an I75 north exit McDonald's and then we'll go from there. So no Grand Daughters this weekend, it's time for Grammy to have some fun! We always have a good time when we go to these concerts and we spend the night in a hotel. It's really fun getting together with other members of the Peter Noone Fan Club.

Fiver:
Today we are also going to open up the fiver, because we need to get some things out of it. I don't know if we'll leave the slides out, I kind of doubt it since we'll have at least one more month of bad weather for sure up here in Ohio. We thought that today would be a good day to open up the fiver because it's around 55 degrees today, but it may rain. I have to admit I miss being in the fiver, and can't wait to get out and use it again. Even if it's just for 3 or 4 days it would be nice! I am ready to go "somewhere, anywhere" In fact we have been discussing maybe taking a longer trip in May, but nothing is on paper yet, so that's all I'll say because I don't want to jinx it! If and when we get things down on paper and a committment then I'll tell ya all about it. So we'll just have to wait a bit longer to see how things work out.

Mike:
As I said above Mike is at the doctors for his check up. We spent a very quiet evening yesterday for Mike's Birthday, but that was the way he wanted it, since he still wasn't feeling real good. He did get calls from the Grand Girls wishing him Happy Birthday! Thanks for all the Birthday greetings and comments! Since he is feeling better today I may make him some cupcakes this evening. It was really weird not having anyone over, and not having even a cake. Instead he ate some pumpkin pudding that I had made over the weekend because it felt good on his throat. I think he is feeling a little bit better today! I am certainly feeling a lot better, so I hope nothing else pops up the rest of the winter for either one of us. I'm tired of my allergies making me sick this winter, so I have had enough of that for the rest of the year.

Chores:
Yesterday I got the dishes done, and out of the way, and today I'm going to do some wash, and get that out of the way. So I'll close now, because I'm off to throw some clothes in the washer and then I'm going to jump in the shower and get that over with so I can get my day going. On days that we end up running around we don't get much done in the apartment, and since we weren't feeling well over the weekend not much was done either, so I'd like to get a few things done today. I want to be ready for the weekend mini trip, then tomorrow I can paint and not have to worry about packing my suitcase for my overnight trip. So I'm off until next time Friends...

FEELING BETTER

2009-02-24T15:07:00.002-05:00

Just a Little Bit Better:
Today is better than yesterday and I hope tomorrow will be better yet. I am starting to get antsy so that is a good sign. Usually when that happens and I start feeling like I want to get up and do something, I know that I am on the mend. So that's good! At least now I can do the dishes which have been piling up with me out of commission. To get them cleaned up will make me feel even better. Mike still has a sore throat, but thankfully no other symptoms. We're keeping our fingers crossed that is all it is.

Tomorrow:
Mike's birthday is tomorrow so HAPPY BIRTHDAY MIKE!!!! I wish we were somewhere warm to celebrate, although it is supposed to be 50 degrees here in Ohio tomorrow. I hope to be somewhere on the gulf soaking up some rays next year, and just be home for the summer! I sure hope Mike is feeling lots better for his birthday.

Plants:
All of my plants could sure use some sun, and today is a beautiful sunny day. We don't have any windows in the apartment right now and we won't until spring. Right now it is too cold to put them in. When we were in the house my dining room was a haven for my plants, because one wall is windows and sliding glass doors. So even on cold sunny days, my plants got lots of sun and looked really good! Also they were really easy to water because most of them were in one room, and now they are all spread out over the apartment. Well that isn't a huge area but it does take a while to water them, and my big ficus tree is still in the house in the dining room. It's a good thing that the kids never use the dining room to eat dinner. They eat dinner in the living room. When our kids were at home we always sat down and ate dinner together so it seems funny to me that they eat in the living room now. Maybe once Gary and Mariah have kids that will change like it did with Corey and Julia. Funny how things like that come back to you after ya have kids. Mike and I are just the opposite now we eat in the living room in our chairs. Of course we don't have our table in the apartment right now because it would just be in the way until we are done in here.

Wherever:
I hope this finds all of you happy, healthy, wherever you are and whatever you are doing. Those of us who are not on the road quite yet to full timing envy your lifestyle and we cannot wait to try it out for ourselves! Please all of you travel safe and we'll see ya down the road... or Over a Rainbow or Two ...

SICKVILLE !!!!

2009-02-23T11:31:00.003-05:00

Weekend:
Welcome to sickville! I have been sick all weekend, and now Mike has a sore throat. I think that mine is allergies, but we're not sure about Mike. It may just be that he slept on his back with his mouth open, he does that sometimes. We'll see what happens the rest of the day, if it gets better then that is what happened. Nether one of us feel much like doing anything. I guess I'll have to start using my inhalers with this round, so my asthma doesn't kick in. I sure don't want to deal with that along with my allergies. Right now it's all in my head and that's exactly where I want it to stay! I sure don't want bronchitis again this winter. Of course when I bend down it feels like my head is going to explode, but that's better than coughing constantly for days, and ending up having to get breathing treatments in the emergency room. I know I just won't bend down! Haha! Aren't I just full of sunshine? Lets see if I can find another topic that is more cheerful!

Bird Talk:
Jake is doing his usual morning calling the dogs, but they're not paying much attention to him. I think that I have heard him call Dutchess, Hannah, and Clover about 100 times so far! Now he is telling Paco to "shut up" because he is yelling. He has quite a vocabulary for a bird. At last count he said almost 200 words that you could understand clearly. Clover is his newest word, and I think he has said that so many times now he has committed it to memory! Needless to say it is like a three ring circus around here sometimes. Everytime someone walks into the room he asks them, "What are you doing?" or "What are you looking at?" LOL! He's a very clever and funny bird!

Sign of the Times:
One of my favorite magazines "Country Home" is stopping publication! I had my subscription paid up through July 2011! I wonder how many more magazines will just stop printing because of high costs of mailing and printing. They have offered to finish my subscription with Better Homes and Garden. I hate that magazine, all it is, is advertisements and recipes that have ingredients that no one has on hand to make! I have emailed the company and told them I do not want to take Better Homes and Garden, and that I want my money refunded. I'm not sure that's gonna happen, but I thought it was worth a shot! I usually save all my magazines in the fiver, and then I have something to look at when we are somewhere that doesn't have wifi. I guess I'll have one less magazine to read now! How many of you have lost something that is a constant in your life due to this economic meltdown we're having? How much more will we lose I wonder? My hope is that none of us RVers loose our traveling money, so that we can still travel over many rainbows.

Time:
It's now time to say TaTa until next time friends, so see ya's soon...

WHAT TO WRITE ABOUT

2009-02-21T13:16:00.002-05:00

Writer's Block:
I am for once, at a loss for words! Things are going along fine, and I can't thing of a single thing to write about other than the usual, I cleaned the bathroom, and did the dishes. Which I did do, but that has no big WOW factor, and is not very interesting. Maybe I just have Spring Fever! We have a dusting of snow on the ground, although it has quit snowing now. I think right now even if it was raining, I wouldn't mind as long as it was WARM! I need to get out of this apartment even if it is just to take a drive. I could have went to the hardware store with Mike, but that little trip wasn't even worth going out in the cold for! About the only entertainment around here is Jake, my parrot calling for Dutchess, my dog, and she doesn't even pay any attention to him calling her anymore. Poor Jake is so bored, that he's talking to himself, and then answering himself in a different voice! LOL! Should I be worried about that? He often changes the tone of his voice to real high and squeaky and then back low again in the same sentence! It is interesting to hear him do that, and a bit funny too.

Allergies:
Well my hair washing trick did not work this time, I am still having problems with my eyes tearing up and a sore throat, which I hope will be gone soon! I have plans for next weekend in the "big town" of Findlay, Ohio, but I will get into that later on in the week. I hope this bout will be over before I have to leave for Findlay. Who would think a cat name Miss Kitty, could wreak so much havoc on me! This time I wasn't even in the house where she was! You can be sure that on Monday I'll be calling to get an appointment with my doctor to see what can be done!

Next Thursday:
I have an appointment on Thursday to get my hair cut and colored again as I now have about an inch of gray showing. Maybe I should just give up and go "Au Naturale" and go gray instead of trying to cover it up. The only problem with that is it just makes me feel so old and washed out when I look in the mirror. I for one will not grow older gracefully, I'll be kicking and screaming the whole way! LOL! The only thing I hate about getting my hair done is the money that it costs me! LOL! I guess it's true what they say about beauty being painful.

That's It:
Well that's all folks so I'll end this blog for today, and Thank you for checking in...

THURSDAY

2009-02-19T17:56:00.003-05:00

Today:
Today after we got up we went to Wal-Mart to get a few things. After a stop at Lowe's and a stop at the Chinese Buffet for lunch that is. It was 21 degrees with a wind chil of around 4 degrees. The wind was brutal, when it hit ya it went straight through ya! When we came out of the store it was the worst, it hit ya in the face and didn't let up until we got in the truck! Outside the truck it was still blowing from the west at about 20 mph. Granted it wasn't the worst its ever been, but it sure was cold!!! I hate the cold, and the older I get the more I hate it! I guess that means we'll have to go south next winter! I really do hope this will be our last winter where it is cold and freezing.

Mike/ Cat:
Mike got home yesterday and he had to take a shower this morning and wash his hair and wash the clothes he wore. Guess he brought cat dander back with him! I got up this morning with a sore throat , and itchy watery eyes! Man, being around a cat never used to bother me this bad! I sure hope him showering and washing everything he had down there with him helps. I have got to call and get a doctor appointment so I can start those allergy shots quickly! I sure hope that I can get into the clinic fast! This is ridiculous that a cat affects me in 24 hours. I have to do something about this, because I can't just not go down when Mike does. We'll see what the doctor says about it.

Short:
Well this is short, but my eyes are watering like a faucet, and I need to go put in some eye drops so I'll see ya's tomorrow...

ALL IN A DAY'S WORK

2009-02-17T18:10:00.002-05:00

Tuesday:
Today I decided to get a few things done that have been bothering me, and waiting to ge done. The bird cages were the first thing I got done, and that has needed doing for about 3 weeks. I'm sure that the birds are happier with their cages cleaned. The bad part is that we use cat litter in the bottom of the cages, because everything that drops immediately dries out. So any fruit, food, or droppings dry and that keeps them from drawing flies and that's good. There is one big but about using cat litter, which is cheaper than the ground corn cob they sell, and that is the dust! The dust is the worst thing for me, because of my asthma. It makes me cough and sneeze, and I try not to breath it or wear a paper mask if I have any.

Dishes:
I didn't do dishes the whole time that Kara was here, so I had 4 days worth! So they had to be done! It took me 45 minutes to get them done so there was a lot of them. When Kara is here I really don't like taking time away from her to do everyday things unless she is here for at least a week everything is focused on her. I feel like since her mother isn't around for her she needs the extra attention from me. We do just about everything together and I'm teaching her to cook, and she likes that. Unfortunately for her after the kitchen is finished she will be helping me do dishes too, right now it's just a little too messy using dish tubs. I feel like she needs to learn how to do everything that comes with taking care of a house. I like to think that we have time to teach her how to do things and still let her be a kid too. After all she is only nine. Oops I kind of got off track there a bit!

Mike:
Mike will finally be back tomorrow! I am looking forward to wrapping up the bathroom and starting on the kitchen! I will be glad to have him home for awhile now. At least for 3 or 4 weeks at least. Then we'll probably have to go back down for at least 3 days or so, me at my Mom's and him at his Mom's.

Break:
Now here I sit taking a break after doing all that. I have some plans tomorrow, like painting the bathroom for one thing. Like I said before, I want to get this apartment done so that once it warms up we can be off and running. I want to be able to travel this spring before it gets too hot, and I don't plan on staying only in Ohio! I'm hoping to get things wrapped up in the apartment for the most part. Stay tuned to see if we accomplish this, and end up somewhere... Over the Rainbow!

TEHYA'S BIRTHDAY PARTY

2009-02-15T21:27:00.002-05:00

Tehya's Fifth Birthday Party:
Today was the Birthday party for our youngest Grand Daughter, Tehya. The party started at 1:00p.m. and ended at 3:00p.m. I painted faces again for about 7 girls and 1 little boy. I was a little out of practice, but I managed to do a snowman, stars, rainbows, hearts and 1 butterfly! In my days of running a day care, I used to paint the kids faces at least once a week and I got pretty good, but this is only the 2nd time I have done it since I retired from doing day care in 2001. I have to admit that I am a little rusty, but it did bring back good memories!

Mike:
Mike dropped Kara and I off for the party today and after wishing Tehya a Happy Birthday he left for Chillicothe and his Mom's house. He will be there until Wednesday until his brother, David gets there. It will nice when he can stay home for more than 2 days. It seemed like he just got here and then had to turn around and leave again. I hope we can get back on track working on the apartment when Mike gets back. I'm ready to get that done so we have time for rving when it warms up a little bit!

Kara:
Tomorrow Jamie will be here around noon tomorrow to pick up Kara, and take her home. I have been able to have Kara since Friday, and it has been great having her here! I think we have been able to get in enough snuggle time to last until she can come back.

Tomorrow:
Since I got the paint for the bathroom, I am planning to get the bathroom painted after Kara goes home. That is unless something better comes along. I love being retired, and making plans that are set in Jello. If it melts, and things don't work out that way it's nice to be able to go with the flow! Now on that note I'm going to go spend the rest of the evening snuggling with Kara! So I'll see ya's tomorrow...

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY !

2009-02-14T16:54:00.002-05:00

Valentine's Day:
Today is February 14th, and many countries celebrate Valentines Day, and the giving of heart shaped cards telling your loved ones you love them. It's just another way of reminding someone you love them. Mike and I choose to do it without the card and buy the cards and a small non candy present for our Grand Daughters. We just got them each a a Webkinz. It is much better than chocolate, because after ya eat the chocolate you have nothing left. Granted the chocolate is wonderful, silky and sensual, but the flavor is wasted on kids. My favorite things used to be the chocolate covered cherries made by Cella. My new favorite chocolate is made by by Lindt. I love the milk chocolate truffles, and I think they're wonderful. Unfortunately my hips also love them so I don't buy them very often! LOL! I figure maybe 3 or 4 times a year won't hurt too much. At least I hope not, cos I can't give them up. They are so smooth, silky, and so good, that I'm surprised they're not banned! Anyway I want to wish all of you a very Happy Valentine's Day, and I really hope you get to spend it with your sweetheart! I know this is short, so hopefully I'll post again tomorrow evening, so have a great day and see ya soon...

FRIDAY THE 13th!!!!!!

2009-02-13T21:37:00.002-05:00

Friday the 13th:
I am not superstitious, but a lot of people are so I hope you had a safe and a good day. We had a beautiful sunny day with a high of 45 degrees, so that was a switch for us. I know that those of you who hate Friday the 13th are glad it is almost over! We actually had a good day. We went to Wal Mart, and I got my paint for the bathroom so I can do that next week. We took Kara to McDonald's for lunch, and we got her a new Webkinz, a mini blue hippo she named Herman. The reason that she got a new Webkinz is that after all the work she did last weekend on her multiplication tables, she got a B+ on her math test. So that was her reward for doing a good job on her test, and learning her multiplication facts. I was very proud of her because she worked hard and saw how much it helps to study. We will work on the rest either tomorrow or Sunday evening. She knows that she won't get a Webkinz for all her tests, but maybe for her grade card if she brings her grades up.

Crocheting:
I started on an afghan today. It is a shell stitch, and is a very fast pattern, that you make long strips and then connect the strips or panels together to make one big afghan. By working in the the strips you only have a short 17 stitch row so it is very fast. It is called Wide Mile-a-Minute, for the reasons I just mentioned above. Just 66 more rows and I'll have one panel finished! LOL! Then I'll only have 4 more panels to make. It gives me something to do with my hands while I'm watching TV or riding in the truck. It also keeps me from biting my nails, so that's a good thing.

New Blanket:
Our new electric blanket arrived by UPS today, and Kara helped me put it on the bed this afternoon. It will be so nice to get into a warm bed again instead of cold sheets! After always having an electric blanket it is a real shock to the system to get into a cold bed. It seems like it takes forever to get the sheets warmed up without one. In the fiver we have an electric mattress pad, and we really prefer the blanket instead of the mattress pad. So eventually we'll get one for the fiver, before we go south next winter if all goes well. We are optimistic that it will this time. At least the queen blankets are a lot cheaper than the king size blankets so we will only have a little over half the cost of the king for the fiver.

I'll close now, because Kara wants some snuggle time, and it is getting kind of late so I better get her to bed or she'll be crabby tomorrow, and so will I if she gets me up really early, so I'll see ya soon...

WINDY NIGHT ( WEDNESDAY) / THURSDAY DAY

2009-02-12T22:33:00.004-05:00

Windy Night and Next Day:
Last night and today has been the windiest we have had since Hurricane Ike last September! Luckily we have escaped damage and losing our electricity this time. The lights did flicker a couple of times, but that was all. I was really happy to get up and see that our fiver was still there in the driveway intact, and had no tree limbs on it! Whew!!! The way the wind sounded last night I would have expected tree limbs to be all over the place. We were very lucky and the howling wind has finally died down tonight since it got dark. I hope we haven't lost any roof shingles, so that is one thing Mike will have to check on when he gets up in the morning. I know he is going to enjoy getting up there to check that out! Haha!

Noon:
Mike got home around noon today! It is really good to have him home, even if it's only for two days before he has to go back down on Sunday afternoon. He didn't sleep too well while he was down at his Mom's so he came home and took a nap. I think it was a combination of the heat in the house, and me not being there too. That hasn't happened too often us being apart since we got married. When it does it feels really strange. Even before he retired from the Air Force we were only apart for less than three months when he was on active duty. We were really lucky on that score.

Grand Daughters:
Tonight Autumn and Tehya came over for a few hours so Mom and Dad could go birthday shopping for Tehya, and out to dinner by themselves. After we ate dinner the three of us played bowling on the Wii. Autumn won every game, she was the strike queen of the evening! I didn't do too bad once I got the hang of it but when a seven year old gets five strikes in one game to my two it's not too good. Even five year old Tehya got strikes before I did! I did pick up most of my spares, but I still lost. Must have been because it was my first time on the Wii. That's my story and I'm sticking to it! LOL!! Tehya's 5th Birthday is tomorrow, I can hardly believe she is five now, and ( as I said earlier) was the reason for me babysitting this evening, but the party is on Sunday. Kara will be over tomorrow so she can attend the party on Sunday. The kids are out of school for teacher conferences tomorrow, and then on Monday for President's Day. So they get a four day weekend. Kara will spend the weekend here then, Jamie will pick her up on Monday. So I'll only be lonesome for two days instead of three next week. I'll still be happy when Mike gets back on next Wednesday. I'm going to be off Grandma duty the weekend after this one!

Since I didn't get blown Over the Rainbow to Munchkin Land last nite or today I'll be talkin to ya tomorrow! See ya then...

WIN SOME/ LOOSE SOME

2009-02-11T20:47:00.003-05:00

Well this has been a kind of ya win some / ya lose some day for me. First off the paint that I have that I thought would be a match for the tan in the wallpaper doesn't match, and it isn't even close. It turns out that the wallpaper tan is a kind of pinky tan, and the tan I have is more of a brown tan. This isn't the most weighty issue in the world, but it is not gonna look well with the wallpaper. My paint is light enough to use as a primer though, so I can use what I have left for that. I will need to get another gallon of paint with the right color in it now. So I definitely lost on that score. Good thing I only had a half gallon of paint left.

Dishes:
I did find out that I can do the dishes out here in the apartment using dishpans, so I did win on that score. I can carry water for the dishpans from the bathroom which is very close, so that's not a problem. I can certainly do that until Mike gets the kitchen sink hooked up. It was a lot easier than going into the main house to do what few dishes we have, and I didn't have to carry the dishes back and forth either, which was a lot easier. I always put off doing the dishes because of that, cos I hated having to lug everything to the main kitchen. Now I can just do my dishes the old fashion way using the dishpans. I'm still going to have to carry the water from the bathroom, but at least it's close.

Wind:
Boy is it windy here today and tonight! There is all kind of noises outside. They said on the weather channel that winds of 70 mph an hour would not be out of the question with this system. There is a wind advisory until 5 a.m. in the morning. The temperature of 63 degrees is supposed to drop to 34 tonight, and I guess we're very lucky that we're not having thunder storms here tonight. It sounds like it is storming with all the noise of the wind, it's howling and I sure hope we don't have a repeat of what we went through when hurricane Ike blew into town! It really does worry me when the lights flicker now! We were without electricity for 6 days then, and with it getting colder tonight I really don't want to go without electricity again, cos it would be too cold for the birds. Well that's it for me tonight, so let's hope that I don't get blown Somewhere Over the Rainbow, because my dog's name is Dutchess, not Toto!!!! LOL!

STRANGE DAY- MONDAY

2009-02-10T22:44:00.002-05:00

Monday:
Yesterday was a strange day. Mike left around 1:oo p.m. to go to his Mom's and I stayed home. I could not go because of Miss Kitty. I only spent 2 days there last time and suffered for 4 days with my allergies. I was not willing to go through that again, and my dog Dutchess would have had a huge fit. I have to get in touch with my doctor and see if I can get allergy shots set up, because my not going makes it harder on Mike. His Mom was so upset that she cried when he got there on Monday. She just can't understand why she can't stay home alone at 84 years old. Unfortunately with her having Alzheimer's she can't even remember to take her medications without someone reminding her. Also with all the break ins that have been going on where she lives, targeting older people it's just not safe for her to live alone anymore. So that's another reason going against her living alone. I felt bad for Mike when he called me and told me how she reacted when he got there, and I also felt sorry for her too! It really felt strange staying behind and not going with Mike. We're not used to being apart for very long. He will be comming home either Thursday afternoon or Friday morning. Then he has to go back down to his Mom's again on Sunday afternoon until his brother, David get's down there on Wednesday afternoon, and then He won't have to go down until April, except to visit every couple of weeks, and I can go then as long as I only stay a few hours, and then change my clothes, bag them, and put them in the truck. Then I have to shower, and wash my hair as soon as I get back to my Mom's house. That's the only thing I can think of until I can get allergy shots started.

Jobs:
There are a few things that I want to get done while Mike is at his Mom's. I want to paint the wall in the bathroom, then when he comes home he can put the rest of the beadboard in the bathroom, then I can get another gallon of paint to finish the walls. After he comes back from his next trip I hope I will be able to get the tile on the floor. Then the whole bathroom will be done except for the washer and dryer. I have other things to sort through and and move around into their permanent places. Slowly I will get through all the boxes and find more floor space in our bedroom as the boxes disappear. That is my goal through the rest of the winter, and then it will be time to take off in our fiver and have some much needed fun somewhere over any rainbow we can find. See ya tomorrow!

KARA, MULTIPLICATION TABLES AND COOKIES

2009-02-08T19:17:00.003-05:00

Kara:
Yesterday, Kara and I had a good day. We did some coloring, with the new crayons that I bought on Thursday, since I couldn't find my crayons that I keep here for the Grand Kids. Then before we went to bed wouldn't ya know, I found the old crayons at the end of the bed in a plastic bag with some more coloring books! The old saying works, if ya can't find something, go buy another one of what ya lost and then, right after ya open the package and can't take it back, then ya find the old one! Another $5.00 bites the dust! LOL! You can't just buy a small package, it has to be a big package, then ya find the other big container that ya bought, cos ya couldn't find the one ya bought before that! LOL! It's a vicious cycle, anyway we now have lots of crayons, and we colored some pictures together. Haha!

Multiplication Tables:
Kara had homework to do this weekend, so we worked on her multiplication tables, because she has a test on them Monday. She evidently was absent when they started on them in her class so she didn't know how to do them. We got all the way through the 7's done. Which is where she is supposed to be, so now she is up to date with the rest of the class. She did a good job! After dinner as a reward for working so hard we made her favorite chocolate chip cookies, and some white chocolate chip macadamia nut cookies for Papa! They were just the kind that are in the dairy case, but she enjoyed putting them on the pan and putting them in the convection oven. Then after they cooled she took them off the pan and put them on the plates. I was even able to sneak some multiplication problems in on her using the cookies! Lol! They turned out pretty good!

Today:
We spent some time redoing some of her papers just to make sure she has the concept down pat on how to do them, and she did great! Then about 3:30 p.m. we loaded up her things and took her to the place that Jamie works so he could take her home, instead of making the trip out to our house after he got off work. After picking up a few groceries that we forgot the other day, and a couple of crochet hooks for me we came home. I needed the crochet hooks because I couldn't get to the ones in the fiver. With the slides closed I couldn't open the doors to the cabinet that they were in. We didn't want to open the slides, and get water on the seals of the slides just for a few crochet hooks. Since it has been so warm, well not too warm 50's here, but we'll take it! Everything is still dripping from melting snow and ice so that is why the seals would have gotten wet. If we were going to leave the slides open it wouldn't have been a problem, but we have more room in the drive with them closed, and we didn't want the water to freeze when it got cold again and maybe damage the seals. Needless to say I now have a set of crochet hooks for the house, and the fiver. Oh well it works for me! LOL!! Well that brings us up to date now on how we spent the weekend, so we'll see what tomorrow brings. Maybe a rainbow... Somewhere

SATURDAY MORNING

2009-02-07T09:29:00.002-05:00

Good Morning:
Just thought I'd get my post done early while I wait for Mike to get up. Kara and I have been up since 7:30 a.m. Kara got here yesterday about 4:30 p.m. We mostly just sat around and cuddled the rest of the evening. We haven't seen her since Christmas. I think every time I see her it looks like she has grown an inch. I may have to put a brick on her head to stop her growth spurt, or pretty soon she'll be as tall as me and only 9 years old! LOL! Kara is on Webkinz World on her Dad's computer, and you all know where I am. LOL! We have both had our hot tea and she has had some yogurt, and will probably have some toast and a piece of fruit. Me, I'll have my good ole Slimfast, I'm not much of a breakfast eater.

Electric Blanket:
Our electric blanket gave up the ghost last night! Actually it wasn't too bad without it, but I'll really miss it if it gets colder at night again. We have a king size bed and king size electric blankets are $100.00 and up. I don't know if we'll be able to replace it this month or not. We won't need it this weekend, that's for sure, with Kara sleeping with us it's like having a heater under the covers with ya! I don't know what she is going to do when she is too big to sleep with us, you can bet she'll be upset. Which at the rate she's growing won't be too much longer. She is my little snuggle bunny always wanting to cuddle. Anyway when I changed the bed yesterday, and put the electric blanket back on it was working, and then when I got ready to go to bed it was off, and would not come back on. Mike's control was working and so was his side of the blanket,but both my control and my side of the blanket was dead! We unplugged the blanket and controls just to be safe. We should be ok at least for the next week cos it's supposed to be in the 40's during the day, and above freezing at night.

Convection Oven:
I bought a convection toaster oven the other day, and boy do I like it. So far every thing that I have cooked in it has come out great. If I continue to be impressed with it, since it is small and compact I think I will take it with me in the fiver whenever we go somewhere. I bought the ready made cookies that are in the dairy case, so Kara and I will try making them in it later. It's faster and it browns everything nicely. I paid about $46.00 for it so I didn't think that was too bad, and it bakes, broils and toasts. I got it when we went to Lowe's for plumbing supplies, I don't know how it got in the plumbing supplies! Haha! I have used my Mom's oven on convection, but I have never had one of my own to play with. This one is plenty big enough for us and it will bake a 12 inch pizza and you can still close the door, so I really like it.
Well I think that is about it for today, so I'll be seeing ya, somewhere, sometime, somehow so until then...

TOO MUCH RUNNING AROUND!!!

2009-02-05T15:44:00.003-05:00

Running Around:
The last couple of days have been nothing but running errands! Gosh, it seems like that's all we have done since we got back from southern Ohio. We had to go get prescriptions, groceries, and more plumbing supplies. Now ya know that we couldn't do all that at once, we had to spread it out, and it seems like I haven't got much else done the last 3 days. I finally called a stop to it and said we could do the rest some time next week. Kara (our oldest Granddaughter) is spending the weekend with us so she will be over tomorrow afternoon. So I have to get some things done so I can spend time doing stuff with her. I want to get our bed changed, and some more things put away, since the bathroom is done. All we need for the bathroom is a wall for privacy! LOL! Mike is planning on getting that taken care of this weekend, after I said I was going to hang a sheet up haha! The bathroom is open to the living room, so you are out in front of everybody when you use it. Nothing like playing show and tell LOL! Maybe one of these days we'll be done living out of boxes! Seriously things are coming along well, but I think I'm working Mike too hard. He has to take 2 days off, because of his back for everyday that he works, to recoup and give his back a rest! He sure doesn't want to have anymore back surgery. We have the plumbing now to do the kitchen sink, so that's on the agenda after the bathroom wall. The weather is supposed to be in the 40's for the next week, so that's a plus. I don't know what the low is going to be, but at this rate 40's sounds WARM to us! I'll feel better once we have a kitchen sink, so I can actually do dishes anytime I want! After that is a stove, and then things will move alot faster. I'm hoping that Mike can run the gas lines at the same time as that he runs the plumbing for the kitchen sink, but we'll see. I'm not a very good judge of the difficulty of doing two things like that at once sometimes. Sometimes I expect too much and get too impatient waiting for things to get done that I can't do.

Doggies and Birdies:
The dogs, Hannah, Dutchess and Clover have all gotten baths and their monthly flea spot medication. So that is taken care of for another month. Now I have to get the bird cages cleaned, and then I can start all over! LOL! Jake my Amazon parrot, has now learned how to call Clover, so now he calls all 3 dogs. They don't pay a bit of attention to him though. He has just heard us call them back in from outside so much, that he does it too now. Well I have to get something done today, so the day isn't a total loss so I'd better go put a load of wash in. I'll see ya all Over the Rainbow, somewhere...

BACK TO NORMAL, I THINK!

2009-02-03T11:40:00.006-05:00

Good to be Home:
First of all I'm going to post the pictures of the ice and snow that we got while we were at our parents houses, so you can see how pretty it was. I think the pictures are pretty self explanatory the poor pine trees are looking a little swamped with the weight of the snow and ice. The ice was pretty thick and the icicles got pretty long. For those of you basking in the warmth of the south, just think freezing! LOL!!!!

Things are going better with us since we got home. My allergies from Miss Kitty have subsided , and I can see again since the swelling and watering has stopped in my eyes. Washing my hair several times helped the most I think. We have to go to the base so Mike can get his xrays, so I'll do another post later this afternoon, so until then...

GOODBYE CIRCLEVILLE AND CHILLICOTHE

2009-01-31T15:30:00.002-05:00

Hello Home:
Boy is it good to be home! It's great to have internet, and be able to be with the birds and my dog again! I sure missed all 3 of them! I now know that I can't even stay 2 days at Mike's Mom's house unless I get allergy shots for my cat allergy. I came home with red, itchy, watery, swollen eyes, and a nose that won't quit running! Man I hope I can get this out of my system soon! This is the worst reaction that I have had after being around a cat. Here at home all we have is snow, but down at my Mom's we had ice over everything and then snow over that. I took some pics of all the ice on the trees and the sun shining on them. It made it look like the trees were covered with diamonds! Really treacherous, but really pretty! I hope to be able to post them tomorrow if my eyes quit watering so bad. Thank goodness we stopped at Walmart on the way home and Mike ran in and got me some Benedryl! It is helping a little bit and I'm going to jump in the shower and wash my hair in a little bit and see if that helps. Maybe I still have some allergens in my hair, I don't know, but I'm going to wash it again and see if it helps.

Mom:
Mom is doing alot better now, and I hope she continues to improve. We worked on a quilt while we were shut in. It was fun and we cut up old flanel shirts just like they did years ago, only we didn't sew it by hand! We used sewing machines instead, we didn't want the total yesteryear experience! LOL! It was much faster than using a needle and thread and doing it by hand! We didn't have weeks to finish it either. Well I have got to get my hair washed, so I'm going to sign off, wish me luck...

SNOW AND ICE BOUND !

2009-01-28T11:46:00.003-05:00

Yesterday:
My Poppy came down and got me at Mike's Mom's house yesterday in between storms. We now have about a 1/2 inch of ice on everything, and now it is snowing on top of that. We are supposed to get at least another 3 inches of snow. This dial up isn't working very well, and I can't type in color or fix mistakes, so I appoligize in advance if I make mistakes. On dial up the correct posting page does not come up. It took me an hour just to conect to the internet,and I almost gave up! As it is it takes about a minute for what I type to show up on the screen. It may be the layers of ice on the phone lines causing the problem. We are under a Level 2 weather emergency, which means if you don't have to don't be out on the roads. The Grandkids haven't had school for 2 days because of this storm. Our power has flickered several times her in Circleville, but we still have power when alot of other people don't. It looks very pretty outside, but I would never contemplate going out in it. I'm sorry this is short, but with the way the weather is and the difficulties with the dial up I'm going to close, so ya'll stay warm, safe, and healthy and I hope I can get better results on here tomorrow, so until then...

CIRCLEVILLE, OHIO

2009-01-24T14:04:00.002-05:00

Saturday:
Hi From Circleville,
Well there is not much going on here in Circleville today. We have done the usual stuff today, you know dishes, eating, ect... I made a meatloaf for dinner and it is in the fridge waiting to go into the oven, and the potatoes are peeled for mashed potatoes, so now ya know what were having for dinner. We just have to figure out what kind of vegetable we're going to have with it. Hope you are all staying warm, and safe. It is about 23 degrees today here. Yesterday and the day before we had temperature of over 50 degrees! So that was our January thaw here in Ohio! It lasted a whole 2 days!

Quilting:
This afternoon Mom and I are going to cut some squares out of some old flannel shirts to sew together for a quilt top. So we have a little project to work on this week, in between the times I come back up here from Chillicothe and Mike's Moms. My Mom loves to quilt and I enjoy it, but don't do it very often. I'm more into crafts, but I do like to sew things too. Right now Mom is making chocolate chip cookies for Poppy, so I imagine that we'll have a few of those for desert after dinner. Mom is feeling a little bit better, but still gets tired easily. I have been trying to get her to let me do some of the things she wants to get done, but she is very independent, and it is hard to get her to sit still since she has worked most of her life. For being 70 years old, she can out work me, LOL! She does pay for it later, because she has very bad arthritis in her spine and standing for a long time is hard on her back.

Tomorrow:
Tomorrow we will go down to Mike's Moms to relieve his sister Cindy, so she can go home to get ready for her work week. She can only come down to her Mom's on the weekends because of her work. She works at a Honda plant here in central Ohio. Mike's brother, David and his wife are taking a break in Florida, this coming week and then will spend the week after that visiting their Grandson at the AFB in South Carolina. Then his other sister Mary, will leave next week for a week in Florida. Mary and David are the primary care givers for Mike's Mom, so they are taking a well deserved break and Cindy, Mike and I will take up the slack while they are gone. Except I can only stay for a couple days at a time because of her cat. I hate being allergic to cats, and I had one for 16 years, myself, and I was always sick with bronchitis. We never connected me having bronchitis all the time until my doctor ordered allergy tests done on me. Since my cat, Misty passed away I have only had bronchitis maybe once a year, if that. Some years I haven't had it at all. So that shows ya how good it is to have allergy testing done if you are sick all the time and other tests haven't yielded any information. Okay that's enough about my allergies I think.

Tuesday:
I will not be posting until I get back up here at my Mom's on Tuesday. I hope to be able to get into the RV Dreams chat room tonight, and visit with my friends for a while. Ya never know about this dial up whether it will work or not, so I promise to try. Until then see ya Over the Rainbow...

READY FOR CIRCLEVILLE & FAMILY

2009-01-22T10:25:00.002-05:00

Today:
Well I am sorta ready to go to Circleville. I hate leaving my dog, Dutchess and some how she always knows when I'm leaving! Even if she doesn't see me pack, or get things ready. She follows me around like she's never going to see me again! It sure makes me feel guilty! Then I have to leave Jake, the yellow naped Amazon and Paco the Mallucan parrots too! So I feel 3 times as guilty. She why I wish we could take the fiver. I could at least bring my dog and one of the birds. Don't ya just hate winter?

Mom:
My Mom is having a Cat scan next week to make sure her lung cancer is still gone. Ten years ago she had 1/3 of her right lung removed due to stage one cancer. So now it is time for her check up in Columbus at the James Cancer Center. She has done wonderful since the surgery, and they got it all, because it was a very small tumor. She did not have to have radiation or chemotherapy for it, so it was a real miracle that they found it when they did, because it was a very fast growing cancer. The same kind of cancer that our friend Rick had, only his was stage 4, and he passed away last February. It's hard to believe it's been almost a year since we lost Rick. That's one anniversary I'm dreading coming around. Anyway, back on track, I will be there when Mom has her scan this time. She has only had to have one a year for the last 5 years instead of one every 6 months, so that is good. I would like to know what is zapping her energy though, because as I said yesterday she hasn't bounced back like she did before when she would get sick.

Well Mike should be back from his doctor's appointment soon, so I had better finish packing or I'll be in trouble when he gets back. LOL!! I'm trying to finish up the laundry before I leave, so I will only have to face what we took with us when we get back instead of all the laundry, so be safe and I'll see ya Over the Rainbow...

I CAN"T BELIEVE IT'S BEEN 3 DAYS SINCE I POSTED!

2009-01-21T12:13:00.002-05:00

Time Goes By So Fast:
We've been busy working on the apartment. We now have an operational bathroom! The only thing missing is the tile floor, and a wall between the living room and a door. LOL! Well at least the sink, shower and the toilet work! I have to get more tile for the floor before I start putting it down, because we made the bathroom bigger than we originally intended. We decided that we wanted to have a stacked washer and dryer in there too, so I need more tile. The plywood floor is down though so we do have a floor it's just not the tiled floor yet. I am anxious to get started on that, but first I have to get the bead board painted for the kitchen, as soon as Mike gets that put up. Then while he is working on the kitchen sink I can be putting the tile down. We still have to get towel racks and stuff like that for the bathroom, but we're getting there.

Mom:
My Mom is feeling a little better, but I'm still worried about her. She is not bouncing back like she usually does. She is depressed and thinking about changing doctors, because she can't get a hold of hers very often. We are going down to her house on Thursday. We will stay there until Sunday, and then go down to Mike's Mom's. I can only stay at Mike's Mom's house until Tuesday, because she has a cat, and I'm allergic to cats. My allergy medicine will hold me until Tuesday, and then I'll have to leave until Thursday, then I can go back down until Saturday if need be. It's a good thing that they only live about a 1/2 hour apart. That's the only way that I can be down there, anymore than that and I will be really sick like I was before Thanksgiving, and I don't want to go through that again. They won't give me allergy shots for being around a cat. I like cats I just can't be around them for very long. Oh well, we do what we have to do right? I may not be able to blog while I'm in Chillicothe so I may miss a few days, but not until Tuesday. My Mom has dial up so I should be able to do my blog there so we'll see.

Today:
Today I am doing laundry, one of the jobs that I just love to do, NOT! I have to have clean clothes to take down home though. I guess I should get my clothes out of the dryer, and finish the dishes now. I wanted to get my blog done before it got so late that I was too tired to do it. Well I'll see ya all tomorrow, so until then...

TRYING TO KEEP WARM !!!!!

2009-01-17T12:50:00.002-05:00

Bitter Cold :
We are trying to keep warm here in Ohio. For the last 2 days I have sat either wrapped up in my electric throw or went to bed early just to keep warm. Last night I slept in a sweatshirt with the electric blanket. I don't think it could have been any colder if we had been in the fiver! I know some of you have been cold and freezing too! Today it is 7, count em seven degrees above zero, but the wind is bringing the chill factor down to -15! It does seem warmer in the apartment today, so the wind must be blowing from a different direction. I have had to keep the birds in their cages, and 3 sides of the cages covered the last 2 days,because of a draft. They have let us know that they're not happy about it too! So today I let them out of the cages for awhile. We'll see how the day goes, and if I have to make them get back in their cages or not. I'm sure if I do I'll here some squawking about that!

Today:
So far all I have done is feed Dutchess and water my plants. I'm not sure what else I'll get into except for washing my dishes. I need to do that because all my silverware is dirty. I haven't done the dishes in 2 days either, and boy can I tell. I still don't have all that many dishes with just the 2 of us, but they can sure add up quickly, and it makes the apartment look cluttered with them sitting in a basket on the table. Not much has been done on the apartment the last 2 days, with it being so cold, it has taken all our energy just to stay warm, but both of us are starting to get antsy just sitting here doing nothing. Hopefully we'll get something done today!

Tomorrow is our middle son, Corey's Birthday! I can't remember it being this cold here since the day he was born. We got home from the hospital the day before the blizzard of 78 hit Ohio. We got all that snow and then the temps dipped down to below zero for almost a week! We lived in base housing at Wright Patterson AFB here in Dayton then. Thank goodness we only got the cold temps and not all the snow too! Anyway, Corey wants sausage gravy and biscuits for his Birthday, so we are going over to their house and I am fixing brunch for them. So that is the plan for tomorrow. I guess after I get the dishes done we will venture out and get the stuff I need to fix that, and see how everyone else is getting along. We haven't been out of the house since Wednesday, so even with the wind chill it will be good to get out for a little bit! What am I saying it'll be darn COLD! YIKES! Well that is about all I can think of for today, so I guess I'll close for today and get busy. So I'll see ya soon...

GOING TO LOWE'S

2009-01-14T18:42:00.003-05:00

Weather and Lowe's
I have to explain about the weather before I talk about going to Lowe's. The temp was 19 degrees and we were in the middle of snow flurries. We have about 3 inches of the white stuff on the ground now. So at 2:30 we decided to go to Lowe's, why? Well, tomorrow is supposed to be a high of 7 degrees, and we didn't want to go out when it was that cold, so we took a chance and went today because we needed materials. Only we, would go out for building materials in the middle of a bunch of cold, windy snow flurries! LOL! So off we went, with the flurries heavy at times, but the roads were not too bad. The parking lot at Lowe's was treacherous though! It was really slick and hard to walk on. We got in and out within an hour, and were on our way back home. Funny how it doesn't take long to spend a hundred dollars! We passed a snow plow, plowing the other lane and putting down either salt or sand. I didn't turn around to look, so I don't know which it was. Anyway we got home and got the stuff unloaded.

Bathroom Sink:
We have a bathroom sink now! Well, we had one before but it wasn't hooked up. Now we even have hot and cold running water! Great job Mike! It is really pitiful when ya get excited about a sink and water! Haha! Hopefully we can get the bead board up, and then Mike can start running water lines for the kitchen sink. Then I can even do my dishes in the apartment! Remind me later that I was excited about being able to do my dishes in the apartment, OK? I'm sure the novelty will wear off soon after the kitchen sink is hooked up! So that is the plan for the next few days. Mike also has some electric lines to run, so he'll be doing that too. It's a good thing he knows how to do all this stuff or we'd be up a creek, without a paddle! I will be painting the bead board, while he does that, then after I get that done and we get the counter top, the sink can be hooked up. I can tile the back splash after that is done.

Scare:
My Mom gave us a scare the other evening, and had to go to the hospital emergency room. My brother called me and said they were checking to make sure that she hadn't had a stroke or a heart attack. She spent the night in the hospital, and came home the next day. They found out that she had a really bad sinus infection, and her potassium was really low. That was causing the symptoms of her face drawing to one side (sinus) and her arms tingling (low potassium), and her inflammation level was up to 75. She came home with about 5 new medicines, but thank goodness she is alright! She is really tired from her potassium being so low, and I am keeping in constant touch by phone. We may go down to Circleville, this weekend, just so I can check for myself that she is doing ok and doesn't need my help. Now I am really worried about going anywhere, so we'll see what happens in the future. Well I hope things are going ok in your neck of the woods wherever you may be, and anyone traveling please travel safe, and I'll see ya , "Some Where Over the Rainbow", so until then...

COLD AND GETTING COLDER

2009-01-12T15:06:00.002-05:00

Cold:
Brrr! We got a couple of inches of snow last night, but the roads aren't bad. The wind is what is bad! It just blows right through you! This cold is really bad for my knees. I have a feeling my other knee (the good one) is going to need surgery before long! I hate to even think about that though, so I'll be like Scarlett O'Hara, in Gone With the Wind and I won't! LOL!! The knees sure do hurt though, when it's cold like this and it makes it hard to walk. I am still not using my crutches though, and I won't unless it gets really bad! I'm just going to keep trying to walk a little more each day. We'll see what happens! Wish me luck!

Kara:
Kara didn't get to spend Saturday night with us because the roads were really icy and Jamie didn't want to chance it, and I'm glad he didn't take the chance. She was a little disappointed though.

Today:
I got the dishes done, and dinner in the crock pot and not I am ready to clean off the top of the buffet, and then we can move it. Yippee! It's about time! I am looking forward to getting some things moved where I want them. My lighthouses are on the bathroom wall (wallpaper), and Mike is putting the plumbing in for the sink as I type this! Pretty soon we'll have a sink and a shower in our apartment! I hate to rush him, but how I long for a stove, and a kitchen sink! I'm still having to carry my dishes to the main kitchen to wash them, and dare I say it, fixing meals in the crockpot! The sink won't be a problem because he can run those lines after he gets the bathroom sink done. It's almost a straight line to the kitchen sink. The gas lines are going to be the problem. In order to run them, Mike has to go under the house into the crawl space again. Mike really hates going into the crawl space! I can't really say that I blame him, cos I know I wouldn't do it! LOL!! I really dislike cold, tight places, and I couldn't crawl around on my knees like he does when he is down there. Well, I guess I better get busy, cos it's not fair for Mike to do all the work! So I'll try to see ya's in the same cyberspace tomorrow...

IN THE DEEP FREEZE !!!!!

2009-01-09T21:55:00.002-05:00

Cold:
The last 2 days it has been bitterly cold here, and tonight and tomorrow we are under a winter storm warning for ICE and SNOW. We are supposed to get 3 to 5 inches of snow and then ice on top of that! Gee I just can't wait! We'll see if the weather forecasters are right. I hope if we have to get it that it doesn't start until after noon tomorrow, because that would give us time to go get a few things from the store before it hits. I don't need much just a few items if we can get to the store, if not I think we can manage without them. We saw a few motor homes and fifth wheels going south today when we were on our way to Walmart. I wish it had been us going that way with the fiver in back of us! I didn't think we were supposed to get any thing out of this storm so I figured I would just run to the grocery tomorrow. Then this evening they changed the forecast on me! Mike is wishing he'd thought to stop at Lowe's and get a few things to use this weekend. Oh well I guess we'll deal with whatever the weather hands us. The grocery is only about 2 and a 1/2 miles, so maybe we can still make it if we wait until the afternoon after the roads have been cleared.

Kara:
Kara is supposed to come and spend the night with us tomorrow too. She will be real disappointed if they can't get out here because of the weather! They live about 20 miles away and she hasn't got to stay since the week end before Christmas. Usually she is here about every other week end if she has anything to say about it.

Apartment:
Wow, I actually got my little china cabinet moved out here to the apartment yesterday! Now I just have to finish putting the rest of the things back into it. I hope to get my buffet moved out here this weekend. Those are the only 2 items that I wanted to keep for the apartment from the dining room in the house. The table and the benches and the chairs I gave to Gary and Mariah. Some of the other things went to Jamie and Corey for their houses, or are stored in the wooden barn out back for them.

Well it seems I am running out of things to say, and my eyes are just wanting to close, so I think I'll say good night to ya all. Sweed Dreams until we meet again...

SNOW SNOW GO AWAY !!!!!

2009-01-07T09:41:00.003-05:00

White Stuff:
White stuff is falling from the sky! YUCK!!!! Here in Ohio, between Dayton and Springfield we have great big fat flakes of the stuff coming down! Not something I am happy about because I had planned to go to the local thrift shop today. I usually stop in there about once a month, just to see what they have. I like to collect old time cooking utensils, and things of that nature, which don't take up too much room. Anyway the white stuff is sticking to the ground, but we're only supposed to get about an inch. So I may still get to go to the thrift shop this afternoon. I also buy used sheets there, so I can cover the bird cages at night. We go through quite a few of those because Paco and Jake like to chew on them. Once they get big holes chewed in them we have to use another one, so it's nice that they're cheap at the thrift store.

Painting:
Walls that is not pictures! LOL! I actually have one wall painted in the apartment now. We'll be moving my buffet and little china cupboard in here today or tomorrow. Getting that done will make me feel like things are starting to take shape in our little apartment (or in law suite) if ya want to call it that, since we're connected to the main house. We still have to go into the main house to shower and stuff of that nature, and to let the dogs out the back door right now. The bathroom sink should be connected today, and the shower maybe by this weekend.
I have to say I miss living in the fiver, because everything was contained, and had it's own place! One of these days I guess the apartment will be finished and everything will be in it's own place, but right now all the boxes and clutter are starting to drive me crazy! We have so many boxes of stuff in our bedroom, that we only have a path around the bed, and to the doors. I can't unpack the boxes, or downsize them until I see what we need for the apartment. Then the rest I can take to the thrift store, of maybe have a yard sale this summer. Well it's time to get busy, so we'll see what tomorrow holds for us and see ya then...

QUIET WEEKEND !!!!!!

2009-01-04T18:17:00.002-05:00

Weekend:
Quiet weekend is another way of saying we had a boring weekend. Not much went on here in Ohio this weekend. We did have a little visitor last night for a sleep over, but that was pretty low key too. Tehya our 4 year old Grand daughter spent the night, because her sister had been invited to spend the night with one of her friends. So I called her and asked her if she wanted to have a sleep over with us, so she wouldn't be alone with no one to play with. She thought that was great! Anyway we played on the computer, played with her "My Little Pony" ferris wheel, played with her little E Pet on line, and had hot cocoa before bed. Well not to hot, actually just warm, but she liked it. When we got in bed we told stories, and sang a few songs, and then we went to sleep. Tehya is an easy sleep over. She is one of those kids who likes to sleep in, and doesn't get up at the crack of dawn, like alot of them do. She slept until 10:30 which means we did too! Oops!! We got up and she had tea and cinnamon toast for breakfast. Then Corey came to pick her up, at noon, so that's why I say she is an easy sleep over to have. We had lots of fun too, and did lots of giggling. So that was pretty much our week end. Oh I did the regular things like dishes, and stuff like that, but that's really is boring!! I am starting to find places for things to go here in the apartment, and it is starting to shape up. I think that we'll have a full (usable) bathroom by the end of the week! Whoo Hoo!!! No more going into the house to brush our teeth and shower! Haha what a thing to get excited about! Oh well we're making progress, and that is what we want, so it's all good. Well I think that is going to be it for today, so hang in there untill we meet here again, ok...?

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE !!!!

2009-01-01T20:32:00.003-05:00

Happy New Year!!
We wish you all a very Happy New Year! Our New Year's Eve was pretty layed back, but then we didn't expect it to be anything else. We spent it with our good friend Sue, and had Chinese for our dinner. We all 3 struggled with memories of New Year's in the past with Rick. We did make it til midnight, and then we came home, after we toasted the New Year, and Rick.

New Years Day:
We have spent a nice quiet New Years Day! I did fix pork and sauerkraut, but we didn't eat it. We decided to save it for tomorrow, since we were not really all that hungry this evening. We shared a meal with Gary and Mariah instead, since they had extra food, and we didn't want very much to eat anyway. Tomorrow I have to get back on my water drinking, I haven't had as much the last few days and I can really tell a difference. I'm really thirsty, and nothing I'm drinking is helping. The rest of the day we just sort of messed around doing little odd jobs. Like me watering my flowers, and picking up here and there nothing major though! Tomorrow is another trip to Lowes and we have to stop and get Dutchess's and Hannah's new dog licenses. They are up to $16.00 a piece for Ohio! That has went up in the last few years about 50%! We have to keep our 4 legged family members legal though! That reminds me I have to check Dutchess's shot record and see if she is due for any shots. Well I hope you all had a great New Year's Day and I hope that the New Year will bring you all everything that you wish for, and so until tomorrow...

MONDAY AND TUESDAY

2008-12-30T18:36:00.003-05:00

Monday:
There is not much going on here at the moment. We got the refrigerator in the apartment and it is working great! In fact we had to turn it down, because everything was freezing it it. We had a little sun yesterday and it was in the 40's. It was pretty much a do nothing day for us. Nothing very exciting going on right now, so not much to report or talk about. So this will probably be a boring blog this entry.

Tuesday:
Today we did some errands, and ended up at Home Depot. Mike got the stuff to finish hooking up the camode, and the hole saw so he can drill the faucet holes for the shower. So now the camode is hooked up. He'll hook up the bathroom sink and the shower at about the same time, or maybe a day or two apart. We both needed books to read so we stopped at one of our favorite used book stores. We each got 3 books to read. Then we went to the base package store, where they sell booze, beer, wine ect... We got a bucket of margarita mix and some tequila, for Sue and I. Then we got some vodka for Mike's vodka Collins drinks, and a bottle of Asti to toast New Years. So New Year's Eve is taken care of. We're not doing much, just going to our friend's house and ordering Chinese for dinner. Sue's husband, our good friend Rick is the one who passed away last February. The holiday's have been pretty hard on Mike, Sue, and me, without him being here, so we're going to eat dinner together. The four of us had celebrated New Years together for 27 years. We may not spend all evening until midnight there, it just depends on how Sue is doing, and what she wants to do. At least we'll be company for each other. We've never been ones to do much celebrating on New Years Eve, so this will work out fine. It's just not worth going someplace and taking a chance on getting stopped on the way home or getting in an accident, because someone was driving drunk. At least if you're in a campground you can walk home if you are a full timer on New Years Eve. Anyway like I said above this has never been a holiday that we celebrated very much. I'll see ya's tomorrow so until then...

WE DID IT !!!!!

2008-12-28T12:37:00.003-05:00

66 Degrees:
We broke a record yesterday! It was a balmy 66 degrees here in Ohio! So we had our tropical heatwave, and now the temps will probably be in the deep freeze through February! Today it's down to the mid 40's though. More like December weather and we've got a cold front coming in, so it may get colder as the day progresses. It sure is crazy weather we're having these days!

Fiver:
Since it was so nice yesterday we got the fiver cleaned up and straightened up. Then we brought the slides in. The first 2 came in with no problems,but when we got to the dining room slide nothing moved. We took a broom and put the broom end under the slide topper to get the water off the top. Mike decided to hand crank the slide in and did give it a few turns, but still nothing happened. So he climbed up on the roof and swept the rest of the water and leaves off. Then I pushed the slide button and it worked fine. So the slides are in, and everything is out of the fiver that needs to be. Like liquids, can goods,and cleaners ect... Now we'll have to reload everything when we get ready to leave in February, but it's better than having something freeze and burst in there. We'll also have to put my recliner back in the fiver, because I had the boys bring it into the apartment. I got tired of sitting on the couch, and trying to use my laptop, and hold it at the same time. I guess we need to look for a recliner for the apartment. Mike eventually wants to get new Lazyboy recliners for the fiver, then we'll use the ones from the fiver in the apartment. Right now we just can't afford new ones, and that's a big ticket item to buy right now the way the economy is going. We'll see how things go. Well I should get busy and do something, so until next time...

KABOOM, FLASH, OH MY!!!!!!!

2008-12-26T13:49:00.004-05:00

Thunderstorms:
Yes we had a few minutes of a thunderstorm today, and then we have had steady rain ever since. It is not quite balmy here in Ohio, but they say we're gonna get a tropical heat wave and be up to 67 degrees tomorrow! Me, I'll believe it when I see it! Not that I'm being pessimistic or anything. I just can't comprehend almost 70 degrees, the day after Christmas! Now maybe if I had already spent time in the south in the winter I might believe it could be so there, but here in Ohio? I'm just sort of a nonbeliever, I guess ! We'll just have to wait to see what tomorrow brings! It does seem like the rain is going to be an all day event though. We think it would be a good day just to do nothing! Of course you know that means, we have stuff we need to be doing, and we're just feeling too lazy to do it! LOL!!! You know that the laptops are calling our names! Haha! They are saying play with me, play with me! I bet you didn't know that I could communicate with machines did ya! Seriously, I do have to do the dishes, and stuff like that. Then tomorrow we think would be a good day to straighten up the fiver and bring in the slides since it is supposed to be fairly warm. Then we may be able to have room in the drive for 2 cars side by side. If not we could always hitch up and move the fiver over closer to the fence.

Well, I think that will be all for today, you now know how much I have to do, ha ha, and then there is my lap top that is feeling like playing some games on King. com. They have lots of games there and I have played on $10.00 since October. You play against other people in tournaments and win gems. If you enter a tournament that has an entrance fee you can win money too, but then I usually don't play for money. They have lots of games that I haven't seen on most of the free web sites. You can join for free though and then wait in a line and then play for free too. I just didn't like waiting to play my favorite games, and like I said ten dollars lets me play when I want without waiting. Usually the waiting isn't more than 5 minutes though if ya don't pay any money, and I tried it out like that for months before I deposited any money. So try it out sometime if ya like to play games on the internet! See ya next time...

MERRY CHRISTMAS !!!!!!!

2008-12-25T20:34:00.002-05:00

MERRY CHRISTMAS:
This is what I wish for everyone! So I'll say Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night! I'm really tired tonite. We had Christmas with Kara, and Jamie at 11:00 a.m.
Then we had Christmas with Autum, and Tehya, Corey, and Julia (their Mom and Dad) and Gary and Mariah at 3:30 p.m. Now all the gifts are opened, and the paper is laying in shreds, the kids are tired and happily playing with their toys, and the exhausted Parents, Grand Parent's, Aunts, and Uncles are thankful that this only happens once a year! I wish you all a safe, joyous, and blessed Holiday! So until we meet again the next time...

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!!!

2008-12-24T21:19:00.002-05:00

Mission Accomplished!!!
Well all the Grand Kids gifts are wrapped! The batteries have been purchased, and I am Tired! I watched White Christmas, and Miracle on 34th Street while I was wrapping presents to kinda help me get into the Christmas Spirit. It helped some, but I'm still not there yet. It just doesn't seem like it should be Christmas yet to me! I sure wish it did, because it feels like I'm just going through the motions this year. Oh well, it will be over soon, and then maybe things will get back to normal.

Weather:
Today it got up to 50 degrees here in Ohio. Now tomorrow it's supposed to be only 29 degrees! I wouldn't be surprised if everyone ends up sick with all this crazy weather we have been having. They say on Saturday it will be in the upper 50's here! This had been the weirdest winter weather that I have ever seen or remember! I do hope it is warm on Saturday, because we want to bring the slides in on the fiver for the rest of the time we're here until we get somewhere warm! At least that's what I hope will happen.

Merry Christmas:
I want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas! If any of you see Santa tell him we said Hi and thanks for all the presents! I hear the military is tracking his progress as he makes his traditional trip around the world! LOL!!! Wink Wink

The Real Reason:
Please lets all remember the real reason why we celebrate Christmas, and the birth of a little baby all those century's ago! I wish you all joy, peace, and all of Christ's many blessings! We all need to put Christ back in Christmas! On that note, as I can't add anything more important that that, I'll see you all next time! Until then...

BUSY AS AN ELF

2008-12-22T21:47:00.002-05:00

Busy:
Well today was a very busy day. Mike and I turned the mattress on our king size bed, which wasn't easy! Then I got the bed changed and did 2 loads of laundry. Then I cleaned off my sewing table, and we moved it and put plastic on the windows in the bedroom. After that we got the sewing table moved back into place, and I can use my sewing machine should the need arise or the mood strikes me. Mike worked on taking up some carpet, in the closet and then tore the wall down, that separated the closet from the apartment. We have a huge closet in our bedroom, so we won't need the closet in the apartment. We do need the floor space in the apartment, so that's why he took it out. Needless to say, we got a lot done but we're both totally wiped out. So I imagine it will be an early night for us. As in bedtime in just a few minutes! LOL! At least it will feel good to lay down on nice clean sheets. I put the flannel sheets on the bed since it has been so cold here in Ohio. Tomorrow we're getting a tropical heat wave, it's supposed to get all the way up into the mid 30's! Should feel pretty good since it was down to 0 degrees with the wind chill last night.

Tomorrow:
We have some last minute errands to run, and some gift cards to buy, and then I have to get the rest of the Christmas presents wrapped. I refuse to be wrapping presents on Christmas Eve this year! I have other things that I'd rather be doing, so I don't care how long it takes, I'm going to get them done. We also have to buy batteries. It seems like everything I bought for our Grand Daughters takes batteries this year! Like everything else they are really expensive this year! Oh well, I think it's really tacky to give a present and not give batteries with it, if it takes them. What are the kids supposed to do with their present, sit and look at it, if they don't have the batteries to go with it? Well I think all the work I did today has really hit me and my joints are starting to get stiff sitting here. I hear that nice warm bed calling my name, so until tomorrow...

SUNDAY'S MISCELLANEOUS THOUGHTS

2008-12-21T19:31:00.005-05:00

Miscellaneous Thoughts:
What would you do with a 9 year old for 3 days? I finally gave up after she grew bored with the computer, and relented and let her watch the Disney channel. Kara seems to have a short attention span right now. Wonder why? I think all kids do this time of year! Anyway, I or should I say we are on Disney meltdown! I don't know how kids can watch that stuff hour after hour! I know, I know too much TV but it's kind of hard to send a kid outside to play when it's only 12 degrees outside, with a wind chill, (yes I said wind chill) temp of only 2 degrees! The low is only supposed to be around -8 degrees tonight! LOL( not)!!! That's terrible, and it's not funny either!! Anyway back on track, see my mind is so numb I can't even stay on track about what I am writing about! Some of those shows that I saw are the reason people say TV is the cause of the dumbing of America. What's that, you say, but it was Disney! So it was, but it sure didn't appeal to us! Nearly drove us crazy!!!! Of course my CSI shows would not appeal to kids either. Disney must really appeal to the kids though or they wouldn't have so many shows on that are hits. At least it was better than the alternative, which was the cartoon network, and dare I say Sponge Bob Square Pants! Now there is a show that I refuse to let my Grand Children watch. It is an insult to what intelligence that I have left! Okay, now I should get down off my soapbox before I fall. Anyway those are my thoughts on that subject, and I claim them.

After all the TV and a few Christmas shows, and lots of playing on the computer, I was really beat, and Papa wasn't feeling so hot either. I sure hope we will sleep better tonight. It's nice that the bed in the fiver is only a queen, because then none of the Grand Kids can sleep with us. In the apartment we have a king size bed and there is room for someone to sleep between us and the king size bed seems to be getting smaller and smaller. In the fiver, the Grand Kids have to sleep on the sofa, because it pulls out into a bed, and we get to sleep by ourselves upstairs. See I have a hard time looking into those sweet little faces of our Grand Daughters and telling them "NO" on some things! In the fiver I don't have a choice and they know it. They are very smart and catch on to things very fast! They don't even ask to sleep with us in our bed, in the fiver. I hate to make a promise to one of them if I can't keep it! In fact I won't promise if I can't make it happen. It has always been that way for me, when I did day care, I never promised something if I couldn't deliver, that's one thing kids don't forget about, and I would never betray a child's trust like that. Well that's two thoughts I've had today. Maybe I'd better quit while I'm ahead! LOL!

I love to have the Grand kids come and visit, but I enjoy the peace and quiet when they go home, until I start missing them, again that is. Well I hope you all had a great weekend wherever you are. I wish you warmth, because it is so bitterly cold here in Ohio! I cannot wait to go south for the rest of the winter! Even my electric warming throw didn't keep me warm today! It feels like the wind is blowing about 40 miles per hour tonight, and that makes the apartment really cold! Well I'll say Ta Ta until next time...

IT'S THE LAST FRIDAY BEFORE CHRISTMAS !!

2008-12-19T16:17:00.002-05:00

Last Friday:
Well are all of you ready? I'm not, and usually I am not ready until Christmas Eve. What about all you full timers? Do you celebrate Christmas on the road, or is it just another day to do what you want for you? I am not sure about how I would celebrate Christmas on the road, as I haven't done it yet. I wonder how homesick I would be for my Grand Daughters and the rest of my family. The holidays are a time that one spends a lot of time with family, so I just don't know how I would do. So tell me how all of you full timers celebrate. Do you call home and talk to your family or do you celebrate in the campground that you're staying at? These are all questions that I have, that I'm sure I'll feel better about and maybe even know the answer to once we get a few full time miles under our belts! Sorry I sort of got off my train of thought! I was gonna do a blog about the holidays,and all these questions popped up! It seems this blog has a mind of its own. Who knows what other subjects will come up? LOL!

Kara:
Kara is here for the week end and her Christmas break starts today. So she is going to stay here until with us until Sunday when Jamie will come and get her. This time though I had Jamie bring his laptop too. This way she has access to a computer, and I still can use mine when she is using his laptop. Well it's time to fix us some dinner, so I'll see ya's on Sunday....

ICE ICE BABY!!!!!!!

2008-12-17T14:35:00.002-05:00

Ice ice is not nice:
We got hit with icy conditions the last 2 days! Now, I don't mind a little dusting of snow most of the time, unless there is a lot of it! Some of the stuff around Christmas really makes it look pretty, and makes it seem more like Christmas. Having said that, I hate the mind numbing cold, and freezing wind, plus ice. The ice hit yesterday and got even worse overnight. There is a thick layer on our truck and the fiver, making conditions (too likely for a fall) for me to take a chance to go out to the fiver so I can wrap gifts. This frustrating for me and very hard to do when I want to get this done and over with! So I'm stuck inside and I don't have anything, that I want to do! LOL!!! Our road is still more than half covered with ice. We had plans last night to go do some shopping, and I need to get blood drawn for some tests. So that was the plan before we got up and let the dogs out this morning. After they went slip sliding across the deck, and Mike went out to the fiver to turn the furnace on in the fiver, and came back in to say everything was covered with ice, we decided that we needed to change our plans! He said that the steps going into the fiver were a solid sheet of ice, and didn't think anyone would be able to get enough traction to stay on them, let alone go up them, and into the door of the fiver! He is in our screen room right now with the hair dryer trying to thaw out the door to our freezer, so he can get something out for our dinner! LOL! Poor guy, he has taken a few days off to rest from working on the shower, and I ask him to get into the freezer. Yesterday he put plastic up on the bedroom windows, the kind you use the hair dryer on to shrink it, so he really hasn't had much rest. I seem to keep finding things for him to do! LOL! My "Honey Do" list just keeps getting longer! After he gets the chicken out of the freezer, I guess I should leave him alone the rest of the day! I think he'll be glad when we get on the road, so I won't be able to find so many jobs for him to do! So on that note I guess I'll close, so I can get busy, and pull my fair share of the load! Have a good day, and see ya's soon...

NOTHING AND SOMETHING

2008-12-14T21:36:00.002-05:00

Nothing:
Today was pretty much a do nothing day here in Ohio. It was pretty much a wash out because of the rain. The temps were in the high 40's, but it stayed damp and gloomy all day and it got dark earlier that usual. I took frozen spaghetti sauce out of the freezer, and thawed and heated it. Then I just fixed some pasta to go with it. It wasn't too bad and I didn't have to fix a meal from scratch. The rest of the day I spent on the computer at Recipezaar.com, and playing games at King.com. Except for the something part of this blog and I will get to it in a minute. Mike was under the house in the crawlspace working on the plumbing for the shower in our bathroom. I was going to wrap Christmas presents this afternoon in the fiver, but I just wasn't in the mood for it, and I would have just got started and had to stop for the something that was planed for today. Mike did get the propane tank filled for me so the fiver won't be cold while I wrap the presents for Santa. I pretty much decided when I got up that I wasn't going to do much today, and I succeeded doing just that! I only did one something today and I'll tell ya what that was below.

Something:
At 3:00 p.m. this afternoon I went with Mariah and Gary to Autumn and Tehya's dance recital. Autumn has been taking ballet for 4 years, and Tehya has been taking it for 3 years. It is so neat to watch them every December and see how much they have learned over the year. They do not have class during the summer, so only from September through June. They have learned how to be so graceful, and I am so glad they have had the opportunity to be able to take ballet and tap. It sure does make lots of running around for the Moms and Dads though. Then Autumn also did cheer leading too this fall for the first time! I guess it's like anything else though, when it's important you make time for it. For our kids it was soccer, band, and karate lessons. We'll have to see if Autumn decides to do cheer leading again next year, although she loved it! Julia, daughter in law, took pictures of the girls dancing, and is supposed to send them to me tomorrow, so I will post them then, because I forgot my camera again! Dog gone it, I'm just not used to having a camera. See ya all tomorrow, so until then...

SLOW TIMES HERE IN OHIO

2008-12-13T13:42:00.002-05:00

Slow Start:
Today was definitely a slow starter, but I will end up doing the things that I wanted to get done anyway. Except wrapping Christmas presents, but that will keep for tomorrow. The weather channel says it's supposed to hit 50 degrees here tomorrow, so that will make the fiver easier to heat while I wrap the presents. We aren't setting up a Christmas tree for the first time in my life! I love Christmas trees! Boy am I going to miss it! We just have too much going on in here and Mike has to have room to work. So no tree this year.

Refrigerator:
I am working hard on the inside of the refrigerator, so I can get it plugged in to make sure it worksright. Ha ha, see I can do two things at once type and scrub! LOL! Well as soon as I get done posting this blog, that's my main objective for the day. So at least I have a plan for today, and it is to get that up and running! That way I can get my things out of the drawer in the refrigerator in the house and the fiver. That at least will save me steps when I cook a meal. I'm tired of running back and forth getting the things that I forgot. Tonite's dinner is already taken care of and in the crock pot as I write this. That is one of the things I worked on after I had my hot tea this morning! God Bless whoever came up with the idea of the crock pot! It's a real time saver, and I couldn't live without mine! So now you know what I'm doing today.

Evening:
This evening will either find me in the chat room or working on my necklace, or maybe a little of both! LOL! You just never know about me, and Mike will probably be on his lap top too. So today this is short, and I don't know about sweet, but that's the way it is...

2 BUSY DAYS

2008-12-12T19:08:00.006-05:00

Busy Days Times 2:
Thursday we went to a new home improvement store in our area called Mennards. It's like Lowes and Home Depot combined in one place, it's that huge! We found and bought our shower, and a kitchen sink, plus a new kitchen faucet for the apartment. This is what we used the check that Mike's Mom sent us for Christmas. Thanks Mom!!! Boy did that help us out, now when we get payed we can use our money for other things that we need for the apartment. I got the wallpaper today for behind the sink, so all I have to do is put that up and Mike can install the sink, and then presto, we have a fully usable half bath. at least until we get the shower installed! Then we'll have a whole bathroom! We've decided to get a used stacked washer/dryer and put it in the bathroom too. Why you ask, when we have plans to go full time? Well it's like this, should something happen, or when we decide we're ready to hang up our keys, we have a place to go, and we plan on being here part of the summer when the Grand Girls are out of school. I imagine we'll travel more next year, but should something happen we won't have to worry about a place to stay. Having lived in the fiver all spring and summer of this year, we have found out that we don't need a whole lot of square footage to live in. So that's why it makes sense for us to have an apartment in what used to be our 2 car garage. That way we will be here to help Gary out and get everything in order for the inspection for the loan when we finalize the sale. Plus having the fiver we don't have to do all the apartment at once. The new wood floors will be the last thing we put down, after all the papering, and painting has been done. We have all summer to work on it, when we want to that is. So that was yesterday.

Today, Friday:
Like I said above, I went to get the wallpaper today, and I chose light houses to go on the wall behind the sink. I love light houses, and I hope to be able to visit lots of them this coming year. I also have lots of light house pictures. Anyway the wallpaper is coated so it won't show water spots, and they won't soak through. I also made a little side trip to Michael's craft store, and I found some needles that have a collapsible eye that go through even the smallest of beads! All the needles that I had would not go through half the beads that I am using to make a necklace. I sure hope these work, so I can get this necklace finished. Well that's it for today, and tomorrow will find me wrapping presents, and finishing cleaning the refrigerator we got. So I hope ya all have a great night, and an even better weekend. I wish you all warm weather! It's darn cold here in Ohio! Until tomorrow...

SORRY FOR THE ABSENCE

2008-12-10T13:21:00.002-05:00

Hello Readers:
Sorry, that I have been absent for the last 5 days. I have been upset about having to push back our departure date until February! So since I didn't have anything to say that wasn't depressing or complaining I just stayed off of here. I may still complain a bit, but not as much as I would have! LOL! I don't think this is the place for the gloom and doom like I was feeling, so it was better that I didn't write.

Goings On:
Lets see what has been going on since I last wrote? Mike has almost all the plumbing lines ran in the apartment, except for the kitchen sink. Next will be the natural gas lines for heat and the kitchen stove. The camode is installed, with the water turned off at the moment until he puts the bathroom sink in, and I want a new shower stall from Santa! LOL! So we don't have to go into the house to take our showers. I don't think that Santa's sleigh will hold a shower stall like is in the fiver though! Haha! I hope our bathroom is up and running by Christmas. I have the apartment size refrigerate that my friend, Sue gave us, and I am getting that cleaned up a little at a time. It was sitting in her back yard all summer, so I have to use bleach to get the mildew off the door seals. Bleach and asthma do not mix so I have to do a little bit at a time. So now you are updated on the apartment.

Christmas Shopping:
My Christmas shopping is almost DONE!!! Just our daughter in laws to buy for, and some stocking stuffer's for the G Kids. I have to confess I ordered most of the things for the G Kids online, so I have only been shopping for Christmas gifts twice. That was definitely the way to go. I'm only waiting on one item and it should be delivered tomorrow. Now I just have to wrap it, and I want to get that done this weekend. I am going to use the fiver to wrap them, because I don't have to worry about any of them coming in, and seeing things. Mike is going to get one of the propane tanks filled so I have heat out in the fiver, and the apartment is to messed up right now to wrap the gifts in here. After I get the gifts wrapped, we can bring the slides in for the next 2 months. Well we could move the slides in now, but it just will be easier with them out to get everything in and out. Then I'm going to put a BIG red bow on the fiver! It's hard to believe that we have had it almost a year. It will be a year in March! Come on February! I cannot wait to get to someplace warmer! My arthritis tells me about the cold, wet, damp Ohio weather everyday! My knee, dare I say is doing better, and I only use my crutch when I go out of the house, and I have been just putting it in my cart at the stores and walking without it! So the steroid shot has really helped it and I only limp towards bedtime, when my leg gets tired, but you did not hear me say anything about it being better! LOL!

Doctor Appointment:
I have a Dr appointment this afternoon, so I should get ready for that now. I was in chat at the RV Dreams chat room for a while last night. I hope to get in there more often from now on. So until then, see ya when I see ya, soon...

THIS N' THAT

2008-12-05T11:15:00.002-05:00

A bit of everything:
Today I am going to be working in the kitchen in the house. I in a fit of brilliance, ( Ha ha ) several years ago put some old platters up around the soffitt in the kitchen with construction adhesive. Not dreaming that we would ever sell the house to Gary, now I need to take them down without breaking them! The platters are old and I used them for an accent in my country decorating. They looked good up there and I will probably use them in the apartment if I can get them down in one piece. Only this time I will use extra large plate hangers if I'm able to use them. I will be really sad if they break when I try to take them down. So that's job number 1.

Number 2:
I am going to make some ham salad for lunches for the next few days, with a boneless ham I had in the freezer. My food processor makes quick work out of it, So I'll probably do this job first, even though it's listed as number 2.

Sons:
Gary and Corey work for the same sheet metal company, and their Christmas party is tonite. So far the company that they work for is steady, and they are both working mandatory overtime, and we're hoping that it continues. So we are probably having Autumn and Tehya for a sleepover , as they call it, tonite. I have some crafts that we can do, and I hope I'll be able to keep them busy until bedtime. Papa will have to make plenty of his iced tea for them. Only trouble is one likes it plain, and one likes it with lemon so he has to make both. I stocked up on apples and bananas for them, so I think we will have everything under control and be ready for a fun time with the girls. I will take then home after breakfast in the morning, because they like to ride in Papa's big truck! Jamie and Kara are now settled into their new apartment and Kara will start her new school on Monday. Wow, now all Jamie has to do is find a job using his degree! We're certainly keeping our fingers crossed on that one! Who knows the way the economy is right now. He isn't going to quit working at Cici's Pizza until he has another job though.

Leave Date:
We have pushed back our heading south date until February. I need to have some medical tests done before we go and it may take a while to get them scheduled, with the holiday's right around the corner, and my Doctor won't release me until I get them done, so I guess I'll have to suck it up and quit fighting with them and do the stupid tests! Don't ya hate when stuff like that gets in the way of your plans? Oh well better safe than sorry, I guess! Well that's it for today so have a great weekend and take care...

WEDNESDAY DEC 3rd

2008-12-03T22:12:00.002-05:00

Wednesday:
Not much going on this week here in Ohio. We both have Dr's appointments tomorrow so we won't get much work done on the apartment. Mike is just about done roughing in the plumbing for the bathroom. It sure is great that Mike knows how to do all this, and he is saving us a ton of money! We are still using the refrigerator in the fiver, and a drawer in Gary's refrigerator until we get one this weekend. Our friend, Sue is giving us one to use, I'll have to sand it and spray paint it, but otherwise it works fine, and it is just the right size for the apartment. It has been kind of a pain running out to the fiver when we need something that is refrigerated. So we put the items that we use most everyday in the drawer of Gary's refrigerator to save a few trips out to the fiver. If fact straddling between the apartment and the fiver is a real pain. I have been getting things organized in the apartment the last few days. I will be relieved when we get water in here so I don't have to lug the dishes into the kitchen in the house to do them. Needless to say we are using lots of paper plates and I am cooking with the microwave, crock pot, and toaster oven. It's kind of like camping without some of the luxuries of our fiver. I think we can manage it for a few more weeks though. We should have the bathroom done by next weekend at the latest, and a sink in the kitchen will be next on the agenda. We have the cabinet for the sink just need to buy the sink.

Christmas Shopping:
I ordered most of the things that I was getting the Grand Girls online last week, so that is taken care of. I just have some stocking stuffers, and gift cards and I will be done. I don't know if we'll set up a tree or not, because Mike needs room to work, and that would take up alot of room here in the apartment. I may just use my grapevine tree that has lights on it, and it can sit on the end table, and that's enough Christmas for us this year. Our big present is the fiver sitting in the driveway anyway!!! Well I'd best end this until tomorrow, so until then..

OVER THE RIVER AND THROUGH THE WOODS

2008-11-30T11:21:00.003-05:00

Thanksgiving:
Well, we did cross a river, but there was no horse, sleigh, or snow thank goodness! LOL! We had a good time and there was so much food it was obscene. Way too much food, and I think next time we'll cut way back. The trouble with going somewhere besides home is you don't have lots of leftovers, but that may be a good thing come to think of it. One day won't wreck the diet too bad, but when ya eat lots of stuff that you normally don't eat several days in a row, that will do a real number on a diet. We had over 20 people at my brother's house for dinner, and we all had more than enough. That was probably the first time we all got together at once in 8 to 10 years. My camera was charged and ready, laying on the counter at my Mom's house! Didn't do me much good at my brother's house though! We came home on Friday afternoon and just sat and rested. My Mom and I cooked from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Wednesday getting things ready, so we didn't have too much actual cooking to do on Thanksgiving. Hope you all had a HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

Saturday:
Saturday Jamie brought Kara over, so he could move them into their new apartment, while she was with us. Monday is my first Grandbaby Kara's Birthday! I can't believe she is going to be 9 years old! She has been such a joy to have around and I have loved every minute of seeing her grow, and become her own person! Being a Grammy is the best thing that ever happened to me!

Last Night:
Last night the old log cabin that is behind our house burned. I don't think that it burned to the ground, but it is a total loss. It has been here since we moved here in 1978, and even before that! Probably since the 40's at least. It's a shame that people have no respect for something that old and set fires like that. Yes, they think it was probably arson. It had alot of beautiful knotty pine wood in it. A real shame to see something destroyed like that. Really sad! Well Kara and I are off to go shopping, so see ya next time...

OUR NEW GRAND DOGGIE !!!

2008-11-25T12:51:00.004-05:00

Big sister Hannah-----------------------------^
Mini Long Hair Doxi--------------------------^
Clover--She got her name because she has a clover shaped spot on her behind!

Grand Doggie:
This is Clover, Gary and Mariah's new baby puppy! She is about 8 weeks old and will only be about 12 inches long when full grown. She is little but feisty, she is already beating up on big sister, Hannah. She has the cutest little bark, and for awhile Hannah was afraid of her! Now when Hannah carries her rope toy, she picks Clover up off the floor and carries her around, because Clover grabs hold of the rope with her little puppy teeth and refuses to let go! LOL! I tried to get a picture of my dalmation, Dutchess, but she is camera shy, and you know how we girls are about the camera adding 10lbs to us! Ha ha! Well anyway that's the newest addition to the Ward household, just thought I'd introduce you!

Circleville Here We Come:
We're leaving to go to my Mom's house today so I can help her with Thanksgiving dinner. So I will only have dial up until we get back on Friday, so I may or may not be able to post until then. I want to wish all of you a very HAPPY and THANKFUL THANKSGIVING, and any who are on the road please be careful and take it nice and easy! Talk to ya all when we get back if not before! So until then...

GRADUATION !!!!!!

2008-11-23T19:15:00.004-05:00

Wow I really did it !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ^
Just after getting diploma ^
Jamie waiting to graduate ^

Graduation:
On November 21st of 2008 our son, Jamie graduated from Rets Tech college! We are so proud of him and he graduated Magna Cum Laude with a 3.9 GPA! Way to go Jamie! The lighting wasn't very good, so I don't know how these pics will look, but at least we have the proof that he did it, along with his diploma! The lights were way up high it the ceiling, so the pictures may be kind of dark, I did lighten them some, but I didn't want to make them look washed out. Each Graduate had a white rose that they carried, to give to the person who supported them the most through the courses, and gave up one on one time with them while they were going to college. After graduating, Jamie presented his rose to his little girl Kara! That's when I got tears in my eyes! It was a really neat thing for them to do, and Kara was so tickled with it!

Better:
I am feeling lots better the last few days and starting to get more sleep at night now! I am starting to get some of my energy back too, so that is good! My ribs are still sore from all the coughing, and I'm wondering how long it will take for that to go away, but otherwise, I'm feeling better! I may even pop in to the RV Dreams chat room tomorrow night to say hi to all my friends. It seems like it's been forever since I could type without coughing so I could chat. I sure hope this will be the only bout that I have with my asthma this winter! It had been so long between having an asthma attack (4 years) that I think I took for granted being able to breathe and have enough air to fill my lungs! You can be sure that I won't take it for granted for another long time now! Thank you all for all your well wishes! Well it's now the time to say see ya until tomorrow, so until then...

UPDATE

2008-11-20T19:50:00.002-05:00

Update:
After going back to the ER and spending 4 hours in the emergency room, not waiting mind you, 4 hours undergoing tests and breathing treatments and the threat of being admitted, I was able to escape and go home! I had 3 breathing treatments, an IV for fluids, chest xrays, blood work and an EKG. They took very good care of me! The second breathing treatment they put lydacaine in to numb my lungs and stop the cough. It did help for a while. They finally sent me home with 3 prescriptions, one for steroids (for 5 days), cough syrup with codeine, and Tessalon Pearls for coughing. Last night (Wednesday) was another rough night, but I was able to sleep. Which I really needed after going 48 hours of straight coughing. Talk about a really stressful day and evening! So far I hadn't been admitted because of my asthma, but it was a really big possibility last night. I'm so glad they let me come home! I hope that the medication continues to make me better. The breathing treatments helped a great deal, and I hope my inhailers will kick in now. I had to call and have Mike get a ride with Gary to the hospital so he could come and pick up the truck when the doctor told me he was going to admit me last night. When Mike got there and the doctor got my labs back he decided I could go home. I was glad Mike was there to drive the truck home because those breathing treatments really make me jittery, and having 3 back to back tripled the effects of them.

Fiver:
The fiver is now winterized. Mike got it winterized yesterday afternoon while I was at the hospital ER. We'll continue to move things back into the apartment as the apartment gets finished. Tomorrow we'll move all the can goods and things left in the fiver that will freeze. We had snow showers again today, but no accumulation, thank goodness.

College Graduation:
Tomorrow night our oldest son, Jamie will graduate from ITT Tech. He will finally have his associates degree! We are so proud that with everything he has gone through including a failed marriage, that he was able to stick with it, and finish it. I'm happy that I am well enough to go to the graduation, my doctor said that I'm not contagious, so I can go! We're excited about Jamie's new prospects, and can't wait for good things to start happening for him and his daughter Kara.

Comments:
I want to thank all of you for your comments and thoughts, it makes me feel less alone knowing you are all sending good thoughts and well wishes as I work on getting rid of this bronchitis and calming down my asthma. Looking forward to getting back to being active everyday here on my blog and being able to chat with all my friends in the RV Dreams Chat room again. So a big THANK YOU to all of you, see ya soon...

HI, TO ALL

2008-11-18T17:07:00.002-05:00

Hello:
I just wanted to try to write a few lines to all of you tonite. I am still fighting my asthma and was up all last night coughing. My inhaler is not really helping much and if I am up all night again tonite then I will go back to the doctor again tomorrow. The first time I went on last Friday they wouldn't give me any antibiotic or steroids, but I bet this time they give me some! She (not my regular doctor, Er Doctor) said that they were trying not to give out any antibiotics, because she thought all this upper respiratory stuff was viral, and not bacterial, so the antibiotic wouldn't help. They usually cured themselves after 14 days! She didn't know my history. so I hope I don't get her again, if I do I'm going to ask to see someone else. So that's where I stand right know, and I can hardly type for coughing so that is why I haven't been on here or in the RV Dreams chat. 48 hours of almost continuous coughing is really getting on my nerves at this point. My sides are really sore, so I'm not a happy camper. Even my friend, Dr Vicodin isn't stopping the cough at this point.

Mike:
Mike is working hard on our apartment, and bless his heart waiting on me too! He has most of the floor down, and is working on the wall that divides the garage from the house. He is doing too much I know, and his back is starting to hurt him. I wish I could help him, but at this point there's not much that I can do to help, without sleep I'd be a menace with any tool that I picked up. I hope to be able to help him more by this weekend! So I'll leave off here, and catch ya later and healthier by then too, I hope...

EEK !!!!!! WHITE STUFF !!!!!!!!

2008-11-15T18:12:00.003-05:00

White Stuff:
Oh no it can't be, can it? Yes unfortunately it's true, we had our first snow today. Great big fat flakes of the stuff!!! I took these pictures from the door of the fiver. We were thinking about just going out to the trailer to vegitate, but it was still too cold even with the furnace and the electric heater running. It started out as rain, then it turned into that flake word. The snow melted as soon as it hit the ground, so there was no accumulation. Thank goodness! I may be ready for some snow on Christmas Eve and that's all! This is exactly why I want to go south for the winter. I hate being cold! It wasn't too good for me being out in the cold and being sick anyway, but we just thought since it was going to be a all day rain event there would be more room in the fiver than our bedroom, but we ended up staying in the bedroom. Mike didn't feel like working on the apartment today, because he did too much yesterday, and when he got up his back was hurting him. I still just sat and messed on the computer, since I'm not feeling to good. At least the congestion is out of my head now, of course now it dropped into my chest, and now my asthma is rearing its ugly head! At least it's not too bad right now and my inhalers seem to be helping control the wheezing. Well enough about being sick. Again another reason to hate the cold weather!

Honeymooners:
The honeymooners have returned home! They got back this morning, so at least they didn't have to drive in the snow. Mariah got some of the wedding pictures from her Mom today! There are some really good ones! They are from the wedding photographer and there are still a few more rolls of film to be developed. I can't wait to see them! Well that's about it for today, by the way I'd like to thank all of you for reading my blog, my counter is higher than I ever expected! So until next time...

WEDDING PICTURES

2008-11-12T20:50:00.006-05:00

Gary and Bridesmaids, and Flowergirl
Groomsmen and Groom------Bo, Gary(Groom), Corey, and Dave
Corey and his Girls----------------wife, Julia-Daughters, Autumn and Tehya
Bride and Bridesmaids--left to right--back row Ivy-Cassie- Mariah- Julia
Junior Bridesmaids- Kara - Autumn- Flower girl -Tehya
^
Mariah and Grand Daughters------^
Mariah and our boys--------^
Ditto----------------------------------^
Ditto-----------------------------^
Gary & Mariah----------The Bride and Groom ^
Me and my Guys-------Jamie, me, Gary, Mike, and Corey^
Mom Miller-----------------Mike's Mom^ @ 84 years young!
My Mom---------Hard to believe she is 70 years young ! ^
My Poppy---------------------79 years young ^ my step-Dad

They're Here!!
These are pretty self explanatory, but I like them! The flowers turned out really pretty, but I'm so glad the wedding is over! Gary and Mariah are on their Honeymoon, and Mike and I have no more of that awful stress. At least no more that normal that is! Isn't my Mom young looking? She definitely doesn't look 70 to me! Then again I'm prejudged, and I don't think my Poppy looks 79 either. I hope I look as good as they do when I grow up! LOL! Mike's Mom looks really young too!

Still Sick:
I'm still not feeling too good yet, I sure hope I start to feel better soon! I really hate being sick! Of course I don't know anyone who does!

Work:
Well it's back to work on the apartment tomorrow, we had go buy some 2 X 4's and sheets of plywood for the floor today. So Mike will be able to get busy, and I will have Miss Tehya after she gets home from preschool around noon. I'm sure glad that she can play on the computer because I sure don't feel like playing, and doing crafts. Ya'll take care and travel safe where ever you may be going, and I hope to see ya tomorrow evening. So until then...

IN THE HOUSE

2008-11-11T19:13:00.002-05:00

We've Moved, Sort Of:
We moved into our bedroom in the house. It will be a month or so before we get the apartment done, but we'll make do. We hope to get a lot done in the next 2 weeks. The last few nights have gotten pretty cold in the fiver. The temps were down to 28^ last night and the furnace has been running a lot. At that rate the propane that Mike got on Sunday will be gone before Thursday. One 30 # tank usually lasts us about 2 weeks unless it is really cold. We still have to get our food out of the fiver and take it and dump the tanks. Then we will winterize it until we're able to head south hopefully after Christmas. We all know how plans are though, so it will depend on a number of things going the way that we want them to. We had been using our bedroom for storage all summer, so we had to move things into the closet and straighten up in there so we could move back in. For now our bedroom is our living room and sleeping quarters. I may still cook in the fiver until we get the rest of our stuff moved.

Sick:
For the first time in several years I have gotten sick. Everyone has had this around here, and it seems to last about a week or so. I've had a very sore throat, and have been coughing a lot. The sore throat started on Sunday, and has gotten worse yesterday and today. I just thought that I talked too much with everyone at the wedding and that I strained my voice, guess not. I'm also congested, so only
time will tell if my asthma gets involved. I sure hope not, I hate having to go to the hospital to get breathing treatments. So I haven't had much of a voice the past few days,and of course Mike thinks that it's funny when my voice cracks and I can't yell back at him either, that's not fair! LOL!

Veteran's Day:
I want to wish all our veterans out there a Happy Veterans Day! We all owe a great deal to all who have served in the military from the beginning of our country. We certainly wouldn't be able to live as freely as we do in this country if our men and women hadn't been willing to protect our country! I hope that our Military men and women and families know how much we appreciate what they have done for this country! Everyone please take care and say a prayer for our troops and military personnel. So I'll see you when tomorrow becomes today, until then...

Wedding Bell Blues

2008-11-10T08:54:00.006-05:00

It's Over!
Hi Long Time No See,
The reason that I have wedding bell blues is not because the wedding is over, I'm actually tickled BLUE HaHA! I bet ya thought I was gonna say pink huh? Anyway I'm blue because I was so busy that I didn't get to take any pictures! So now I have to wait until my brother-in-law sends me a cd of the pictures that he took so I can post some for you guys. After having to hear about the wedding for the last couple of months it's the least I can do. I was really bummed that I wasn't able to take any of our Grand Daughters walking up the aisle as the wedding started. They looked so cute, and Tehya stole the show when she threw the flowers up in the air, (instead of droping them on the aisle) as she walked down the aisle! It was so darn cute! Our Sons, Jamie and Corey both escorted me down the aisle after the Bride's brothers escorted their Mother down. Then both Rhonda (Brides Mother) and I lighted 2 candles so Gary and Mariah could light their unity candle from them. Then came the 2 junior bridesmaids Autumn first and then Kara, and the 2 other bridesmaids. Next the Matron of Honor walked down the aisle followed by Miss Tehya throwing the flowers up in the air as she walked, and watching them fall. Everybody got a kick out of that! Then came the Bride and her Father. Mariah was so nervous that she giggled through about half of the ceremony, but she got herself in control in time to take her vows. LOL! Of course Gary didn't help because he kept grinning at her! The reception followed at the VFW with a buffet dinner. After Gary and Mariah cut the cake, and very carefully fed it to each other, much to the chagrin of their friends who were hoping they would smash it all over each other's faces. After the Bride and her Father danced, Gary escorted me to the dance floor for our Mother and Son dance. I chose the song, "Unforgettable" by Nat King Cole for our dance. It's one of my favorites and if nothing else our kids are definitely UNFORGETTABLE, aren't they!? We left after watching the kids all doing the Chicken dance, the Hokey Pokey, the Electric Slide and YMCA. Tehya danced her little behind off, and Corey said she fell asleep within 8 minutes of getting home! Sorry again no pictures with a perfect opportunity! I was too busy watching! I promise I'll post the pictures when I get the cd in the mail, thanks to my brother-in-law. I hope its soon!

Truck:
While making my contributions of the food for buffet at the wedding reception, we discovered that the truck made an excellent 2nd refrigerator! With the temps down in the mid 30's it kept things nice and cold! Most of the food we put in the truck was the relish, pickle and olive trays because they are always so big, and take up so much room in a refrigerator, and I had the refrigerator in both the house and the fiver full! I didn't put anything in there that I knew would spoil though or wasn't sure about. Poor Mike very willingly played gopher for me, fetching things from the house to the fiver and vice versa when I was in the house cooking. I'd have never made it without him!! Some things are just too big for the stove and oven in the fiver.

Rest For The Weary:
Sunday was spent sleeping and resting. We didn't get out of bed until late, and then the rest of the day we spent in our recliners. In the evening I cleaned up the kitchen in the fiver because it was trashed. Then I played some games on the ole puter for awhile and was in bed by 10:30. I talked so much on Saturday that my voice is barely above a whisper. I hope it's not a sign of getting bronchitis. Then again in the middle of Saturday night, we ran out of propane too, so that could be the reason too. Good thing we had the electric mattress pad and then Mike woke up and got the electric heater and set it on the dresser. My throat was a little sore yesterday and, is very sore today. Hopefully moving into our apartment, and out of the fiver will help. It's not completely finished, but we can make do until it is. I can tell you that it's pretty darn cold here at night now, 28 degrees COLD! That makes it pretty cold in the fiver too! We're planning on taking the fiver and going to dump the tanks, and then winterizing it until we can go south. In the meantime we have the tank heaters on, so nothing freezes up. Well I'm getting tired so until I come back tomorrow see ya then...

IF IT"S NOVEMBER 4th ...VOTE

2008-11-04T12:24:00.003-05:00

Voting:
We voted almost 2 weeks ago, we had to wait all of 10 minutes ! Tomorrow it will be 2 weeks exactly. I don't care who you vote for as long as you VOTE! By not voting you are rejecting all that this great country stands for. From the beginning of the country and the concept of the constitution voting was necessary for all to be represented. So you need to make sure that your Vote is represented. So please make sure you cast your vote! If you don't vote you have no right to voice any opinion about the President or the government, you loose your voice in the government. This is one of my pet peeves, so I'll now get down off my soapbox,before I fall. LOL! We'll be watching or listening the election returns all day so we know what's going on. Of course, we may not even know who will be the next President and Vice President when we go to bed!

Flowers:
All day today I will be working on the rest of the bouquets so I can get them done. The wedding is steadily creeping up on us at a very fast clip it seems to me! I think I'll be glad when it is all over! Weddings are really stressful for all involved!! I'm glad that I already have my dress and all the accessory's ready to go. All I have to do on Saturday is get my hair done at 10:00 a.m. After that things will go smoothly. Kara will be here on Friday to take part in the rehearsal and the dinner, her Daddy has to work so he will drop her off and come over for the wedding on Saturday at 4:00 p.m.

Yesterday:
After I got up, I washed the dishes that I had to face, then left in the truck to go get the rest of the flowers I needed to finish up the bouquets. I bought more than I needed, but I'd rather have too many than not enough and have to make another trip! They assured me that any I don't need I can bring them back, so that's good. It will save me some money, which I have spent a great deal on the flowers, and the rehearsal dinner! I did offer to pay and do the flowers though, so that's to be expected. Well that's it for today, so at this point I'll just say I'll see you when I see you, because right now I'm not sure if I will be able to post the rest of the week or not. See you then, whenever that may be...Everyone who is traveling BE SAFE!

BRIDAL BOUQUET FINISHED

2008-11-02T19:52:00.003-05:00

The Groom--Our Son Gary clowning around! LOL!
Close up of the Bride's Bouquet------- FINISHED!!!!!
The Bouquet not quite finished---------^

Bride's Bouquet:
The bridal bouquet is finished! Whew!!! Actually it went together real easy, and it kinda took on a life of it's own. It sort of made itself. I just start placing flowers, and if I don't like how it looks in one place I move it somewhere else. I'm strictly self taught, and until 2 years ago I didn't know I could do it! I just started playing around with a bouquet holder and floral pins, and everyone liked the results. The funny thing about doing the flowers for weddings is when I do then, I don't get nervous at all ! I'm really pleased and pretty proud of this bouquet! I was worried, because of the color purple that Mariah picked. The only ones I had made were with red and white being the predominate colors. So I didn't know how this one would turn out, but I think it's my favorite so far! I had trouble finding the right color and shade of purple, so I don't know if I'd ever agree to do another purple one. Who knows, though if the budget for the flowers was unlimited, and I could shop at Hobby Lobby, and Michael's, and JoAnn's for all of the flowers, then I might! Trying to stick to a budget is hard, especially if it is a slim budget! Tomorrow I will do the Maid of honor's bouquet and get the rest of the flowers to make the other 5. I ran out of white flowers today when I finished the Brides Bouquet. I should have the rest of the bouquets done by Tuesday evening.

Mess:
When I do flowers everything goes by the way side. Our fiver is a huge mess with boxes of flowers all over the couch, and all over the table. I didn't get the dishes done today so I'll have to face that in the morning before I get my shopping started. There is only 6 more days before the wedding! It's hard to believe it's almost here. The time sure has gone fast. I guess I work best under pressure, since I waited to the last week to get the bouquets done. I should be back on top of everything by Tuesday evening. The rehearsal and the rehearsal dinner are on Friday evening, so once Thursday gets here I probably won't be able to write on my blog much until Sunday, so please forgive me in advance if I miss a few days here. I hope to be able to get a few pictures during the wedding and the rehearsal for you! See ya tomorrow, so until then...

PARTY IN RV DREAMS CHAT !!!!

2008-11-01T11:02:00.004-04:00

Bridal Bouquet----------------------------^
Close up--------------------------^
Boutonniere------------------------^
Corsage--------------------------^
Another View of one of the corsages---^

Chat Party:
We had a fun Halloween Party in the RV Dreams chat room last night with virtual food and drink! Which means no fat or calories! We had hot cider (with rum) for those who weren't afraid of spirits, and all kinds of other drinks too. We had pumkin donuts and all kinds of candy, and we let our inner child hang out! We bobbed for apples and Dee got one the first try, but she did get some water on the floor! There were lots of costumes and a costume contest. Our party goer PUNKIN HEAD won the costume contest. A couple of our costumes got away with out revealing themselves too!!! After speculating most of the evening , we found out our own Jenny J. was Punkin Head, and M Mouse at the reveal! So Sandra you were the first one to guess right! LOL! Our Jenny J gave some very good answers to our questions and kept us guessing to the end! We never did find out who was Coon Hunter, whoever they were, they sneaked out before they told us their idenity! Shame on you, you sneaky Sambo! LOL! At one time we had 15 at the party! There were lots of strange sounds in chat, and some people without costumes just plain disappeared a few times. Annie Oakley kept trying to steal Bewitching's broom, guess she thought it would make a good pretend horse! Scarecrow kept dropping straw all over the floor and was afraid of all the candles! By the way I was scarecrow!!! Haha! Thanks to all who joined in on the fun and frivolity and all who helped clean up the chat room. It was decided that we'll have another Holiday Party sometime between Thanksgiving and Christmas! What a great idea! I'm sure when we have a date it will be announced. So ya'll plan to come!!!

Pictures:
I am about 3/4 done with the Bridal bouquet. I am now waiting for Mariah to stop by today, and ok what I've done so far. The rest of the bouquets will be alot faster, so I'll feel more at ease after I get the Bridal bouquet done! I explained the pics above so I won't go into any other detail down here. I'll take more pictures when I get the Bridal bouquet finished. Time to get back to work so see ya soon....

HAPPY HALLOWEEN !!

2008-10-31T12:46:00.003-04:00

Happy Halloween !!!
Today is Halloween! I remember when, we used to get together with our friends and take our kids out "Trick or Treating" together. What fun we had, I sometimes wish they were still little like that. Mike does too because it was his "job" to go through all the candy and divide it all up, and of course Dad got a pile od candy too, and he didn't have to do anything for it! Back then it was still safe for kids to go door to door to trick or treat. Alot of communities have stopped letting kids do that now for safety reasons! We didn't get one trick or treater last night! It is really kind of sad! One time my friend Sue and I took our boys out while the Dads stayed home to give out candy. We walked up to this house and in the drive a jeep was parked. It had the top off and roll bars on it. Inside the jeep sat a stuffed gorilla, while the kids went up to the door, we were standing there talking about how realistic the gorilla looked. All of a sudden the gorilla reached out and tried to grab us! You talk about being scared and screaming! WOW! After it was all over we thought it was funny though, and the boys almost rolled on the ground laughing at us! The guy in the gorilla suit laughed about as much as the boys did! LOL! Ah the good ole days! They still talk about us getting scared out of our wits! Over the years I made mummy, vampire, Indian, devil, pirate and assorted other costumes, but those are the ones that stick in my mind. I'm glad something still sticks in there!!! The mummy costume that I made my oldest son even won first prize in a contest! Every year when school started the boys would start thinking about costumes and what they wanted to be so I had 2 months to make their costumes. I was the most proud of the Indian costume that I made our son Corey, but Jamie's mummy costume is a close second followed by Gary's vampire costume! Those were fun times, how I miss them! Usually we get to see our grand daughters Autumn and Tehya all dressed up for Halloween, but I guess they didn't have time last night when they trick or treated. I was sort of disappointed that they didn't stop by, but they were walking instead of driving, so they stayed in their neighborhood.

Flowers:
Well it's time to get busy on my flowers, so I best get started. Hopefully I will have some pictures tomorrow, of the bridal bouquet for you. I can't put the bouquets off any longer! I guess I work best under deadline pressure, so now that the clock is ticking and the pressure is on high it's time to get to work! See ya next time...

BACK IN GOOD OLE MEDWAY

2008-10-30T22:20:00.003-04:00

Alum Creek: This A.M.
We got up and got ready to leave and we each did our check list. Mike outside, and me on the inside. Mike hooked up the fiver while I was still on the inside, and he didn't warn me he was doing it. When he hooked up to the hitch, it almost knocked me down! LOL! Just kidding, but it was a jarring experience. Anyway we got on the road at about 11:15 a.m.

Home: This afternoon
We got home at around 1:00p.m. this afternoon. We then went through our home check list. Making sure the landing gear is down and the tailgate on the truck is down, making sure the fiver was level before we unhitched, chocks behind the tires, getting the slides out, the jacks lowered, etc.. hooking up the water and cable, and the electric. Mike did most of that with a bit of help from me. Then I finished getting the inside set back up. Moving the island back into place, putting my nick knacks back out, setting up the cordless phone from the house, pushing the recliners back in position, and the most important thing of all, getting the laptops set back up! Haha! After that I got spaghetti sauce made and put in the
crock pot. We had lunch and then we sat down to relax! Whew what a work out! We don't do much else after getting home, or to somewhere on a travel day.

Tomorrow:
I will start on the wedding bouquets tomorrow, and get them out of the way this weekend or the first of the week at the latest. Time is getting short now and I am glad that I got all the corsages and boutonnieres done a few weeks ago! The bridal bouquet will take the longest, so I'll do it first. I usually wire 3 bouquet holders together and start to add the flours from there. Hope ya all had a good day, as usual I didn't get everything done I wanted to. I was planning on spending some time in the RV Dreams chat room and didn't make it! Hope to see ya all tomorrow night. To all who are on the move travel safe!!

WENDESDAY LUNCH

2008-10-29T16:38:00.004-04:00

Sandra and Gordon: Taco Bell Columbus 8-29-08

Taco Bell:
It was great to finally meet and talk to Sandra and Gordon! It was a very enjoyable time with lots of talking between us! We had a very lively conversation about : RV'ing LOL! Actually we talked about photos, cameras, places they'd been, towing, road conditions etc... We really had a good time with them, and enjoyed our lunch. We found out that Gordon graduated from the same high school that our kids did! Small world huh? The New Carlisle/Bethel district built new schools last year, but they retained the name Tecumseh for the high school. We were all surprised that each of us knew where New Carlisle, and Medway, and Crystal Lakes were in Ohio. They're just little towns that usually no one has heard of, so we just say Dayton or Springfield when someone asks where we're from. Sandra gave me some books that she had read and I will save them for her until we meet again or pass them on to another RV'er after I am done. Thanks Sandra!

Wally World: Again!
Since Taco Bell was near a super Walmart, we stopped there before going back to the state park. I bought some more silk flowers for the bouquets much to Mike's chagrin! Every time we go into a Walmart he says, "you're not buying more flowers are you"? He is really sick of going to look at flowers for the bouquets with me! haha! A word of advice, don't ever let your Daughter/Granddaughter pick purple flowers for their wedding. There are 2 different shades of purple and they don't look good together. One is sort of a blue purple and one is a royal purple. They make alot more of the blue purple flowers than they do the royal ones. Guess which ones I'm having trouble finding? I've been about to pull my hair out with frustration! I've looked in Michael's, and Hobby Lobby, and unfortunately for Mike, every Walmart I go in! LOL!! I have found most of the flowers at Walmart though and they are cheaper there too. That has been a lot of Walmarts lately! He is totally sick of silk flowers! I hope that I have guest-timated enough flowers for each bouquet! I'll be glad when the bouquets are is done too!

Morning:
In the morning we will be leaving for home, and Sandra and Gordon will be leaving for Lebanon, Ohio. So we'll both be traveling in the morning! Thanks for taking the time to meet us for lunch Sandra and Gordon! Safe travels you two! We hope to meet up again with you guys either here in Ohio or elsewhere! I sure hope it's somewhere warmer than it was today! See ya soon...

BACK AT ALUM CREEK - OCTOBER

2008-10-29T00:19:00.002-04:00

State Park:
We got here at around 2:00o.m. today. (Tuesday) We had a nice drive and after we emptied the tanks we found a spot where we could get wifi. After we got set up we made a Wally World run, grabbed a sandwich for linner and came back to the camp ground. We spent the rest of the evening on our respective computers. How did we ever do without them? I was in the RV Dreams chat for awhile this evening, and then I got cold, so I crawled into my nice warm bed and read for awhile. Then I remembered I forgot to post, so here I am at 12:30 a.m. on the old puter again! Needless to say this will be a very short post! Lol!

Taco Bell:
Tomorrow we have plans to meet Sandra and Gorden for lunch at Taco Bell! Actually they are just across the road a little ways so we're practically neighbors this week. It will be nice to finally get to meet them. I hope I remember to grab my camera! Well Friends I really have to get some sleep so I'll be back tomorrow to say Hi. Until we meet again...

WHOOSH !!!!!!!!

2008-10-27T12:28:00.004-04:00

Today:
Today, Monday we're getting the fiver ready to travel for a few days of R & R before the wedding. We're just going to go to Alum Creek state park in Columbus, and with this weather, we shouldn't have any problems getting a spot for the wifi unless they have turned it off for the season! If they have we may end up somewhere else. Anyway we'll take off in the morning and see where we end up.

YIKES !!!
Sunday :
Sunday dawned sunny and windy, and I mean windy, not windy like when IKE came through Ohio, but we had 35 to 40 mph winds! Then it started to rain. We went to Sam's and got an electric mattress pad for our bed in the fiver. With the colder weather it's gotten kinda cold in the fiver. I also found an electric throw for me so I got that too. It works very well, but could be just a little bit bigger. We also got a new set of sheets with deep pockets to fit mattresses that are 18 inches deep. I don't think our mattress is that deep, but our sheet corners sometimes come off. I'm thinking it's because we have our mattress, then our memory foam topper, then our mattress cover on our bed. Our memory foam topper is 4" thick, so I wanted some bigger pocket ( fitted) sheets. Anyway sorry I got off topic, now back to the main topic "SUNDAY SHOWER"

Sunday Shower:
No this doesn't mean I only take a shower on Sundays! Lol!! It started raining hard and after it let up a bit I went to the house for something, I've since forgotten what, but that's the gist of the situation. You'll understand why I forgot what I went in for in a minute. So I come out of the house with what I got in one hand, and my crutch in my other one supporting me cos it was slippery and I didn't want to fall, again. I opened the door to the fiver, and was ready to go up the steps. By the way did I say it was raining and very windy? Anyway I went up the first step with no problem, and was on the top step when I hear a very loud WHOOSH ! I don't remember anything after that (Just Kidding ), except somebody screaming and feeling very WET! IT WAS ME!!!!! The wind blew at the exact time that I stepped up onto the top step and that wonderful invention of the slide topper, we have on our fiver, let loose with all the VERY COLD WATER that had collected there when it rained! RIGHT DOWN ON THE TOP OF MY HEAD! I was drenched and did I mention it was only 50^ outside at the time? I have to give Mike credit, he tried VERY hard not to LAUGH!! LOL! I thought he was going to ROTF laughing! Of course, my sense of humor had deserted me at that moment, but I did start to think it was funny, after I had changed out of my wet clothes and towel dried my hair! Which also had leaves in it from the wind blowing the leaves up onto the slide topper. THAT is when I started laughing! HAHA! Now as I think back on it, I have to say it was pretty funny and the timing was INCREDIBLE !! There has always been some discussion as to whether you really need slide toppers with the extra expense they add to your rig. Also, the pros and cons of having them! I have to say this must be one of the CONS !! Ours already had them on our 3 slides when we bought the fiver, and after this I don't know if I'm overly fond of them or not! LOL!

Saturday:
Saturday I got up early and made a huge meatloaf and put it in the crock pot and played games with Grand daughter Kara, while I waited for my friend to pick me up for her son and daughter in law's baby shower. The baby is due on December 1st, which is Kara's birthday. Wow what a shower, this baby boy is going to be the best outfitted baby in all time! I don't think they'll need to buy him anything unless they just want to buy something! I think there was 30 to 40 people there, and the people where she works have already given her a shower, and then there will be a couples shower in a couple of weeks. Can ya tell this is their first baby? While I was at the shower Kara was with her cousins, Autumn and Tehya for a fitting for her bridesmaid dress for the wedding.

Friday:
Friday was taken up with doctor appointments, xrays and picking Kara up at her school in Kettering, Ohio. With this I'll close and get this posted, as I am now caught up on the time that I missed writing here! Have a great day now, until I see ya tomorrow...

GREAT SEAL STATE PARK

2008-10-23T17:28:00.005-04:00

These pictures tell about the design of the state seal.

Close up of the seal.
Hills of the great seal state park.

Great Seal State Park:
When we took our drive to the great seal state park, these are the pictures I took that day. The explanation of the items on the state seal are as follows. The hills on the seal were the inspiration for the design of the Great Seal of the State of Ohio. The sheaf of wheat represents the agricultural roots and the bundle of seventeen arrows symbolize Ohio's place as the 17th state of the union. One of the hills is named Mount Logan, in honor of the Indian Chief Logan, who lived here. The suns 13 rays represent the thirteen original colonies. The Scioto(pronounced si'-oto), river flows between the hills and the cultivated fields in the foreground. The design is attributed to the cooperative visions of Thomas Worthington, who was Ohio's first U.S. Senator and the "Father of Ohio Statehood", and Eward Tiffin who was Ohio's first governor, and William Creighton , Ohio's first secretary of state. So there is a bit of Ohio history for you today.

Weather:
It has been pretty chilly here this week, and I'm not happy about it. We slept in the house last night, and it got down to 28 degrees early after midnight. One thing I'd like to suggest to you if you haven't yet bought your motor home or fiver and plan to full time in them, make sure you have double pane windows or storm windows! Our fiver is a 2008, and that is one thing I have found to be needed. We have lots of cold coming from the glass. There is no air leaks the glass just feels cold. The rest of the fiver seems to be very well insulated. If we are to live in this fiver we'll either have to figure out some way to make and install storm windows or use clear plastic on the windows. What do the rest of you do? Our apartment isn't finished yet but our bedroom is so that's why we spent last night in the house. The tanks under the fiver are equipped with heating pads, so why the manufacturer didn't use double pane windows or add storm windows is a mystery to me.

Gas:
Here in Ohio gas is now $2.38, but diesel is still $3.69. I hear that the oil company's are going to slow down production, so the price will probably go up again. I guess we normal people just can't win. I think the oil company's are really greedy! All of you out there heading south please travel safe and have as much FUN as you can! I hope to see some of you in the RV Dreams chat room tonight!
Well that is all of the news I have for you today, so until I see ya again...

REMEMBER ME?

2008-10-22T11:45:00.008-04:00

Scene of the Crime: September 2nd, 1972
Oop's didn't mean to use the same pic twice!
Church We got Married in.
Fall Color in Southern Ohio

Hello Again:
Hope ya haven't given up on me!
I just needed some down time to regroup after being at Mom Millers. We didn't do too much this time while we were there, so no panic attacks this time. When we went to McD's so I could post, she was a bit agitated after being alone for an hour, so that's why we didn't go back to post again. We did take her for a drive out in the country to look at the fall colors, but we didn't stop and go in anywhere this time. When we got home her hands shook for a while but I was able to distract her by showing her the pictures that we took after I down loaded them onto my laptop which doesn't need the internet to do. She was amazed that I could show the pictures to her that fast, and after a bit the shaking in her hands stopped. The fall color isn't as brilliant as it usually is because we have had a really dry fall. I did get a few colorful pictures though. We drove to the Great Seal State Park, but I will post about that tomorrow. I hope you will find it interesting and I didn't want to put all the pictures in one post.

Scene of the Crime: LOL!
This is the church we got married in in 1972. We drove past it to see what it looked like, and it still looks good after all these years! Wish we still looked as good! LOL! Times sure have changed since then. Hard to believe that our youngest son is getting married. That definitely makes me feel OLD! Haha! Speaking of times changing, Mike and I are going to go vote early, this afternoon. Since they are allowing people to do that now we figured we would, so we won't have to stand in line on November 4th.

Wedding:
Things for the wedding are moving along very well. The corsages and boutonnieres are done. The RSVP's are coming in, and things are falling in place. Now I just need to get busy on the bouquets. I need to pick up some more flowers to match the Maid of Honor's dress tomorrow. The rehearsal dinner is going to consist of a salad bar and pizzas, either at the church hall or our middle son and daughter in law's house. Now we just have to decide where to order the pizzas from, and have them delivered at the right time! Where do you get your favorite pizza? Around here we have Domino's, Pizza Hut, Papa Johns, and several small pizza places that have very good pizza too! I guess we'll have to call around and see if any of them will give us a discount on a large order, first. That would really be nice, because I think we'll probably need about 15 to 20! Yikes! On that note, I think I better go lay down before I faint so I'll see ya's tomorrow!

McDonalds WiFi

2008-10-15T17:38:00.003-04:00

Miss Kitty
Sunset Last Night
Ditto ^
Tree in Mom's yard
Wednesday Chillicothe:
We're in Chillicothe, Ohio again. We got here this morning, and it's our turn to stay with Mike's Mom. So here we sit in McDonald's using their wifi. We can't hook up to wifi at Mom's house anymore, so its either this or not post until Sunday. So you can see which one I chose. We figured we'd leave Mom and her kitty alone for awhile and then we'll take dinner back with us. I hope I don't end up sick, because I'm allergic to cats! YIKES!!! She didn't have the cat the last time we were here, but she seems really attached to her. I'm sure she is alot of company for her, and someone for her to talk to and take care of. I will probably come down here to McD's by myself next time, so we don't leave Mom alone very much.

Flowers:
I brought the wedding flowers with me, so when I get the boutonnieres and the corsages done, I'll take some pictures and post them. Hopefully I'll get all the corsages and the boutonnieres finished this week, then I'll have a bit of leeway with the bouquets.

Leaves:
The leaves are starting to turn here in central and southern Ohio now. I hope to get some good pictures of the leaves and some pictures of the Great Seal Park here that is on the seal of the state of Ohio. I'd love to be able to get some pictures of the amphitheatre here where Tecumseh is performed, so we'll see, maybe we can take Mom for a ride I'll see ya in a couple of days again, so until then...