Beautiful Thursday / Keepsake Wedding Bouquet

Happy Thursday:
   Isn't is amazing how happy a person can be when it is a beautiful day! If it was raining I probably wouldn't have said Happy Thursday! Lol! The Good news is, it was nice and warm today.  The sun was shining most of the day, and the high was 81! The bad news is, a cold front is coming through, and it is supposed to rain tonight / tomorrow.  The temps are going to drop again for the weekend, just like last weekend. We will probably have to turn the gas fireplace back on if it gets too chilly, the highs are only supposed to be in the low 50's tomorrow. That is almost 30 degrees difference. Yikes!!

Doctor Appointment :
   My doctor appointment is at 8:40 a.m. tomorrow! Is it even daylight then? Haha! That is pretty early for us retirees. I am glad I am going in, because I found a couple of stitches they missed. I probably could take them out myself, but I's too chicken! I did manage to clean the site, and put Bacitration ointment on it, and a clean bandage this morning. I even let it get some fresh air for awhile. Will be very glad to get the pin out, even if I still can't put any weight on my foot for 2 to 3 more weeks. It was 3 weeks yesterday since my surgery. Man the time didn't fly, and I wasn't having fun either lol! Oh well, it is healing, and it will be great to have no more pain, when I'm finally allowed to walk again.

Keepsake Wedding Bouquet:
   I am making a keepsake wedding bouquet for a bridal shower gift. Katie is getting married in May, and her bridal shower is on this Sunday. Nothing like waiting until the last minute huh? I worked today on it, and I am about half way done with her bouquet. I got her Mom's corsage for the shower all done, so I am making good time! No two bouquets are ever completely the same! Even the bride's bouquet, and the bridesmaid's bouquets are a little different, even when it's for the same wedding! I have done all the flowers for 3 weddings, so far. I enjoy doing them, and I am completely self taught. Somehow, they just go together, and if I'm not happy with it ,I move the flowers around until I am. Katie is having real flowers for her wedding, so that is why I am making her a keepsake bouquet. I took care of Katie and her infant brother in my day care from the time she was 6 years old, until she was 11, and we have kept in touch all these years. She was like the Daughter I didn't have! Her brother is going to his Junior Prom this Saturday! He was only 6 weeks old when I started taking care of them. Boy, does all this make me feel old ! I am using the same types of flowers, and colors that are in her real bouquet.  They will be similar, but I use silk flowers, and other  decorative items when I make my bouquets, pearls, ribbons, gems, etc... So far, all of the ones I have made have turned out really good. I will post a picture of the corsage, and the bouquet when they are done, so you can see. I'll probably finish it up tomorrow, so I'll save that for my next post.

Next Post:
   Speaking of my next post, it is time to wrap this one up, and get it posted. Hope ya had an awesome day, safe travels where ever you may be, and are havin' FUN on your journey!  Until we meet again...

Doc Visit / Animal Hotel?

Doc Visit:
   I got the stitches out of my foot! Now, my foot kinda looks  like something chewed on it. Lol! It is all black and blue, and you can see the scar, which isn't as bad as I thought it would be. I had xrays taken on it, and the Doc called and told me to come in on Friday at 8:40 a.m. and he would take the pin out! He didn't want to take the pin out when I was there, so the only thing I can think of, is that he didn't like the fact that it got numb when I hit it. He said the xray looked good. So it will be interesting to find out on Friday why he changed his mind. I hope I will not regret wanting the pin out. I don't know how bad it will be to get it taken out. The stitches stung a bit, and some of them were way down in my skin. He had to use a magnifying glass to find them. Okay, that is enough for my foot blurb.

Animal Hotel?
   Geez, I feel like we're running an animal hotel! Somehow, we have had a family of raccoon's living up in our attic!  We had been hearing noises from up there for a couple of weeks. Gary (our youngest Son) went up there to check it out, he couldn't see anything in the attic. When he went outside to look on the roof he saw two raccoons up there. He went to Lowe's and got a live trap on Saturday. He caught Mama yesterday, and a  older baby today. He then took mama on Sunday, and the baby today, and released them over by the river. I am beginning to wonder if someone hung a vacancy sign out on on our eaves! First 2 pair of nesting birds, then a mouse, and now raccoons!  If we get a partridge in a pear tree I will give up, and hold up the white flag of surrender! I think the wildlife has it in for us or something! Gary said the attic is a mess, lots of stuff broken, like Christmas decorations etc...  I am sure that will be fun to clean up! NOT!!!  He thinks he found out where they got in under the eave of the house. So as soon as we see if there is anymore little critters to be caught, the hole will be fixed. I hope that will take care of the vacancy sign! We have lived here since 1978, and never had raccoons  in the attic before! I think we have had our share of wildlife the last month. Now,I hope we don't have any  repeat performances, with the raccoons anytime soon! From now on, there is No Vacancy here for wildlife!  This home is for us, and our pets only! The noise from the attic was driving the dogs bonkers, they have been looking at the ceiling, barking, and, growling. Turns out they weren't crazy after all! That was in turn driving us bonkers as I am sure you can imagine! So now we have had enough of Mother Nature, and her wildlife this Spring! This animal hotel has  a NO Vacancy sign now! I hope that this is the end of the story as far as our  night time visitors are concerned! Lol!

  Time to put this post to bed, okay, I'm gonna get off here and post it! Haha! I'll be talkin' to ya's , so in the meantime have a good evening, and a safe journey. Until we meet again... 

Beautiful Day / Catching Up the Blog

Beautiful:
   Today is nice sunny day, could be a bit warmer, but it is in the 60's, so I won't complain, lucky you! Lol! No whine today, we can even have the door open. Mike just got back from his doctor appointment, and he said he saw a truck and fiver on the road today, headed toward Columbus. So the "snowbirds" are starting their migration back here as well as in the Southern states. That means Spring is truly here! Yippee!

Dogs:
   Mike stopped at the store, and got our spoiled, and bad dogs each a bone, cos our cupboards were bare. Not that they even deserved them, the little brats chewed up our Mifi  (our wifi unit from Verizon) this morning. I wonder how much they have cost us with the things they chewed up since August? Luckily we still have our old one, that we can transfer back to, but the new one was 4G, and the old one is only 3G. Too bad for us, huh, I guess we'll get used to it again. That is what we get  when the dogs aren't supervised, and I forgot to put it away yesterday. I put it back in the bag, but forgot to put it back in my laptop case before I went to bed, and Mike got busy and forgot to watch them this morning, so I guess all of us are at fault, and equally to blame!

Catch Up:
   This will answer all of the burning questions that I am sure (wink, ;) wink) have been keeping you all up at night, from my previous posts. Haha!

C-PAP:
   Mike's C-PAP machine is very quiet, and so is he! Lol! No more snoring, and no noise from the machine, so my sleep hasn't been affected, or bothered by it. He is having a bit of trouble getting used to it though, having to deal with the hose, and mask on it.  Trying to adjust, and move it every time you turn over would be a pain in the, well you know where! Hehe!  I know I would never be able to deal with it, because I can't even stand to have a blanket up around my face.  Lots of people have Sleep Apnea though, so it must be something that you can get used to wearing at night. It may take Mike a little time to do it, but eventually he will get better sleep using it.

Night Visitor:
   Our night visitor has left the building. I am sure not in the way it intended, but none the less, it is gone. So I guess you could say our little game of mousetrap was successful. I am very glad, but also feel a little bad for having to go to those lengths. I guess that will go on my "record".  I hope the punishment isn't too bad for that offense upstairs. (Heaven)

Tomorrow:
   I have my doctor appointment tomorrow to get the stitches out of my foot, finally! It seems like it has been forever, and I am about over dealing with this stupid pin in my foot! It hurts every time I move my foot, and I can feel it between my big toe and the next one. Creepy and Gross!! I wish the Doc would take it out, and put a cast on to hold the bone in place! I doubt that is gonna happen though!  A cast would also save it from being bumped when the dogs are playing too. I feel every bump, and every time I accidentally jar it against something also. I think if it gets hit one more time I will be clinging to the ceiling by my fingernails, it hurts that bad! I know, I am, and always have been clumsy, so ya can guess how many times I have bumped it myself! That will probably never change, lol!

This Blog:
   Yesterday, I actually had over 50 people look at my blog! I was so surprised when I saw that today! That is a record for me, because the highest  amount of hits I had previously was 34 in one day! So if ya looked and read my post a BIG Thank You, you  made my day today!  If you have never tried writing a blog, believe me when I tell you, it is very hard to come up with things to write about every other day. I hope you like it, and maybe sometimes even get a chuckle out of it. 

Rving:
   When it comes to rving, we have had a lot of fun, made a lot of mistakes, met a lot of great people, and are always learning new stuff. Most of which, I will share with you along the way. As I said yesterday, there have been a few bumps along the way trying to hold on to our dream of Rving Full Time.  I hope ya come along for the ride as we Half Time, (for a while) in our Rv journey with the Beast, (our Truck) and the Bear, (our Fifth wheel travel trailer) or our fiver as everyone in the rv lifestyle calls them. Since we're only half timers right now, not every post will be about rving. Some posts will just be about our everyday life, and probably as boring to you as it is to us sometimes. Lol! I think this has gotten a little long so I will close here, See Ya's...

Have Ya Ever / Reflections

Have Ya Ever?
   Have ya ever went back to the beginning of your blog, (those of you who write blogs) and read it from the very start of writing it, to present day?  Well,I did just that! I wanted to see what worked, and what is still just a dream for us. Kinda like a reality check! What was then and what is now, cos sometimes we make plans, and for some reason or another they stall. How many of our plans actually became a reality? Did it make me sad, yes a bit, but it also made me proud of the things we accomplished. Things we were able to do despite the odds being stacked against us! So while we haven't accomplished all of our Dream, we have been able to realize some of them. Besides, we make dreams so we will have something to look forward to, a goal if you will, I prefer to embrace what we have realized, and not dwell on the things that have not happened.  I am optimistic,  that we will eventually come out on top, and have our dream of full timing. Until then, we will keep getting experience, and making memories! So have ya ever, will ya ever, or should ya ever, go back to the beginning of your blog, and see what ya could have done differently?
   
What Didn't Work?
   The big one for us was becoming Full Time Rvers. Did it happen, not yet, we're still waiting! Too, many things have gotten in the way. The biggest is, although we are retired, we still have a house mortgage, a payment on the fiver,and now another truck payment, because of the accident we were in, in 2011. It totaled our Dodge truck, (that we had just payed off) and we had to find another truck that would tow the fiver. We found the Beast, and it is a good truck, but another payment we have to make. So that takes up a lot of money with those 3 bills! We were within reach of our Dream  in October of 2011 when we paid off the Dodge!. Then one month later the accident happened. Our youngest Son was taking over the mortgage on the house. He lost his job in May of 2012,(and he still hasn't been able to find a new one) and we had to resume making the house payments. So I guess you could say that the years 2011 and 2012  were not  good years for us. Not something we had money put back to cover. We are just now getting used to the new budget, and getting over the injuries from our accident. Our lawsuit for the accident has not been settled, and probably won't be until some time late this year. That is when the trial is supposed to take place anyway, it may not be settled right then, at least money wise!
   So now we are kind of in limbo. That is why we decided to go half time this year, to see what we are able to do. We figured at least half time is better than no time! So we have had to adjust our dream to at least have some of it, in order for us to not feel completely cheated. What would you have done? Giving up is not an option for us, but it doesn't have to be all or nothing either.
   Most people, when they decide on the lifestyle of Full Timing sell their sticks and bricks house. Then they use that money to buy their Rv, and tow vehicle, or a motor home.  So they have no payments to worry about, everything is paid for. Maybe that is what we should have done too. Our house would have been worth more then, than it is now too. Yes, looking back I can see where we made mistakes, and we do have regrets also. Had we done that we would have been able to Full Time without all the financial difficulties we have had. Our retirement would have been able to sustain the lifestyle of Full Time Rving. Isn't hindsight wonderful!? As I said we're not ready to give up on our Dream just yet, we need to think positive and see what the rest of 2013 brings.

So What Worked:
   So far, this is what worked. We were able to get our fiver, a truck, and most of the things needed to have for the Rv lifestyle. The things that we don't have, are really just wants, not something that we need to Rv with this year. We have most everything that we needed inside the fiver, including, a small extra fridge,and a small extra freezer. The only other thing we need for this year, I hope, is a new Rv battery  for the fiver. Everything else we already have. Such as outdoor chairs, bikes, cook ware, grill etc... Anything else should be a small fix, like maybe new chocks, or things of that nature. Another thing that worked, is we had experience! We weren't newbies to the Rv / camping lifestyle. We have had Rv's since 1983. From a 16 ' trailer, to fifth wheels, to park models, but no motor homes. Some people who start full timing have no experience with an Rv, or even camping. We already loved camping, and the idea of being in, and enjoying nature. We have  always had the wonder lust of wanting to be able to visit  new places in this great country of ours. We also knew what items we needed to take with us, from all the mistakes we had already made when we camped.

Reflections:
   So we had plenty of experience and knew what to expect, and how to entertain ourselves without things like televisions,etc...   Of course now we don't have to do without computers, phones, Internet, television, or any of those kind of things now. We are able to have the best of both worlds at home, or in the fiver. So some things worked when we started our journey and some we had to adapt to make work. On the whole we have accomplished most of it. We'd do it again in a heartbeat, with a few minor changes! The most important one being to have more money saved up! So while our Full Time Rv journey has hit a detour in the road, that doesn't mean we have to stop, we'll just go around the detour, or follow the detour, we'll eventually get where we were going! Life itself is a journey, and detours happen all the time, but everyone just keeps going, putting one foot in front of the other! Pretty soon you eventually get where you were going! So  a detour we can handle, as long as we have the strength to keep plodding down life's highway!  So We'll see ya down the road on that highway, probably during and after the detour! Until next time Friends...