Good Afternoon! Just sitting here for a few minutes to see if the mailman comes before we leave. The sun is shining, no wind, and it's a beautiful 41 degrees. Mentally going through my list to see what I might have forgotten --- if anything will have to go shopping!
Maggie, animal babies are like human babies in that they grow up too fast. Bob has a little flip phone and is fighting upgrading to anything else. His is looking pretty beat up, but like he says, it does what he needs it to do. I can tell you are anxious to start working in the motorhome.
"Gma," I guess the doctor knows best about the drain coming out. You sure don't want to go through having one put back in. More new shoes - what fun! Now be honest, do you have more shoes or handbags? I could probably use the hand sanitizer now since my fingers have healed. The dermatologist said it could be caused by stress, and when I retired it went away!
Guess I'll double check my list and call it good to go. Hope you all enjoy a terrific Tuesday!
Good morning to you all. It is kind of chilly in the house this morning so guess it must be colder outdoors.
I have been sitting here since Jack left paying bills. What fun! Actually it isn't so bad when you have enough money to pay them. It is when you don't have enough to go around that you dread it. I lived the dread for 30 years and now thank God every day for his abundance in our lives.
I noticed on the bank account the tax refund will be deposited Thursday night. Boy that was quick less that 2 weeks. We have to wait to put down our cruise deposits until RCCL updates their calendars. Right now you can only book through April of next year, but they said they will update the second week of Feb so we are keeping an eye out.
I finally found one of those Swiffer long handled dusters so I was dusting up a storm last night. We have paneling that has been painted and repainted and repainted in the living room and dust really sticks to the walls. You don't notice it until you have cobwebs hanging then you get to work on it. I hope by minimizing everything eventually I can keep it all cleaner.
Maggie: I heard on the radio yesterday that parts of NY got over 2 feet of snow overnight on Tuesday. I saw on the tv at the dr office yesterday multi camera pictures of the freeways in Boston and they were empty at rush hour. The snow hit so fast and hard they had to close their freeways. They closed LaGuardia for awhile and canceled all the flights. I guess it was a real mess.
Jean: Have a spectacular time in sunny CA. Think about us cold folks while you are gone. Wow, I don't know. I have about 50 handbags or so and probably that many pairs of shoes, mostly sandals. I weed them out every once in awhile and give them away.
We picked up some really nice storage boxes to put some things in storage that will be protected. Will has lots of research books he needs to keep and I have some things that don’t need to be hauled around in the MH like my cast iron Dutch ovens and Christmas decorations and such. Thank goodness we have that room in Texas. For our storage we can use what book cases we have to set boxes on. When we go out and about I can take which Dutch oven that we will be using on that particular trip for I will have a menu prepared. And we don’t need to be hauling our Christmas decorations around the country. I have a nice table here in my office that will be great to set up in the middle of the room to have a place to open a box on or do a project on. We will be like lots of RV-ers and “visit our storage.”
Will is down at the museum cleaning on that saddle. It sure was dirty and dry and is soaking up the oil. I think he is going to give it 3 coats and let it dry in-between coats. It is a good saddle but was owned by someone’s Grandpa and left in a barn where it just stayed for years not being used or cared for.
DONNA FAYE The storm didn’t hit where the weather models scrutinized for the blizzard dodged NY and didn't dump nearly as much snow as predicted. That is what I should have said to make what I was saying clear. Yes they did get snow just not as much as predicted. Enjoy your many shoes.
Good Evening from CA! This has been the day from he**! Some bimbo set our motel clock an hour ahead so got up at 3 instead of 4, plane was a half hour late leaving Omaha and we only had a hour to catch the next plane but made it ok, listened to a brat whine and pitch a fit for most of the second flight here, luggage went to New York instead of here and is to be delivered tonight, got lost trying to find the hotel and the car plug wouldn't charge my iPad for Google maps so spent almost two hours fighting traffic trying to figure out where we were. I'm so thankful we don't live here with this awful traffic. I'm ready for bed!
"Gma," are you going to take the paneling off when you start your redo project? We have paneling in what used to be the church office and is now a conference room for meetings. Some "decorators" want to take it down but it was a memorial given back in the 40s and there are still some shirt tail relatives around. You are the cleaningest person I know!
Maggie, in searching for a pair of slacks I wanted to bring, and couldn't find right away, I realized how many clothes I have that I don't wear. The airline gave us two small toiletry cases with "necessities" if our luggage doesn't get here tonight. Included is a t-shirt which almost feels like it is made of gauze.
Hope you all have a terrific Thursday tomorrow! Our festivities begin tomorrow night but Bob thinks we should make a trial run to every place to make sure we know how to get there on time. Stay tuned!
Good morning all. It is in the low 50's here right now and supposed to be in the 60's today. Not going to last but one day though darn it.
I am going to tackle the cookbooks today. I am not keeping all of them as some of them I have never even taken one recipe out of them. Others I will never get rid of like my old Fanny Farmer cookbook.
I have to get about 5 more boxes to even the weight out in the stuff I am getting rid of. The walls look bare at the moment, but that's ok. I am not going back to all the geegaws I had on the walls and tables. It takes forever to dust them and keeping them clean is almost impossible. I am going to dust furniture today and that's it, except I just heard the washer quit so will put the clothes in the dryer when I am finished here.
Hopefully he will take this drain out tomorrow. The itching is driving me nuts. I take Benadryl at night so I can sleep but it makes me too sleepy to take during the day even if I only take one little pill.
Maggie: I saw a picture of Gloria's house on FB yesterday and man did they get a lot of snow. It is piled up in drifts against their house. Sure glad I don't live up there. I am making bbq beef tonight for dinner in the crockpot. I sure love that thing. It makes cleaning up a breeze.
Jean: Should have warned you about the CA traffic. We lived in San Diego for 3 years and would go into LA a few times a year and except for Chicago, I had never experienced anything like it until we moved down here. They are about 2/3 the way complete with our interstate expansion which will put 4 lanes on each side all the way around. We need it because anytime between 4-7 pm the traffic is outrageous, bumper to bumper and people drive like nuts here. I rarely see the early morning traffic, but I know that if we don't leave at 6 AM to take Jack to work by 6:15 you can hardly get off the exit and onto the interstate. He gets to work half an hour early, but we would probably be late if we left later. I am so sorry your first day was such a nightmare. I often wonder how the heck they screw up the bags so badly. Hope you get them this morning if you haven't already gotten them.
Good Morning! It is still dark outside so can't tell if we will have sunshine or not. Yesterday was cloudy. Plan for the day is to make sure we know how to get to each event. Tonight is the rehearsal dinner. Our suitcase was delivered last night about 8, and nothing was the worse for wear with the extra miles. I was so tired I was in bed and asleep before the news last night.
"Gma," will keep positive thoughts that you and the drain part ways tomorrow. Phoenix traffic is awful too. I would hate to be learning to drive in such busy traffic. Sioux City gets a little crazy but nothing like the bigger cities.
I'm going to shower and get my day started! Have a great day!
Good Morning! I'm dressed, had breakfast, and am now waiting to leave for the bridal brunch. It doesn't look like the sun will shine today, but it's supposed to be 71 with 80% chance of rain. Better today than tomorrow.
Guess I will finish the J D Robb book I brought along. Have a great day!
Good afternoon to you all. I had an early morning dr apt then a bunch of errands to run so never got in here this morning.
Yipee the drain is out and he wants to see me in 10 days and if all is still ok he will release me. I told him I love him but I would prefer not to ever have to see him professionally again.
I saw that one of the moderators on the site passed away in her sleep. Her user name was Jiffypop and I would see her from time to time around on the threads.
I decided to wait until I got more boxes to tackle the cookbooks so I could just put them straight in the give away boxes. I am going to do that tomorrow while Jack is at Firestone getting new tires on the car. $600 for a set of tires is ridiculous, but that is what it cost these days I guess. We did get the road hazard on each one since Jack seems to attract nails out at work. The guy tried to sell Jack 85,000 mile ones but Jack said no. We figure since we will buy a second car fall of 2016 and use it primarily with the Mariner being used for Jack's work car that it hardly needs that kind of mileage on them. We will put a trip to Indiana on them and one to Branson in the fall, but that's it for travel as we plan to buy the new car before we go on vacation next year. We bought 70,000 mile tires that are currently on the Mariner and they still have decent tread on them, but we figure we should get new ones before going to Indiana in June.
I bought the boys Valentines cards. Thomas is getting money and we will take Jackson shopping when they come down here next weekend. He can have fun picking out his own gift at Toys R Us or someplace.
Ooh my shoes are so cute and they are really comfortable. They will be great to wear with long dresses for dinner on the cruise yet they have little to no heel so won't give my knee any problem. One pair is this pale shiny gold and have this big brooch looking thing on the top and the black ones have a big bow over the toe. They are open toed so they don't pinch.
Jean: Have fun at the brunch. Hopefully the weather will improve for you. It has been sunny here but we are supposed to get your rain on Sunday. Seems we usually get rain on commissary days for some reason.
It is a cool afternoon that feels like it will rain. We got some running around today and had a great time of it. We got our hair cut by our favorite gal at her shop that she has out in the country a few miles that she had turned a little house on the propertu into a shop. I got mine cut very short and can just wash it and fluff up the top and go. With this winter wind it is difficult to keep it in an up-sweep so went with this style that is so easy to keep that I wore as a teen. Will got his head shaved and mustache trimmed.
It will sure miss a good chance if it doesn’t rain today for it is totally overcast, breezy and chilly which “feels like” rain.
For dinner I am making tacos and have all the necessary ingredients and burger meat thawed and the cheese grated and will chop the lettuce, tomato and onion while the meat is cooking. That is my plan and I am sticking to it. Ya’all want to come on over for dinner? I can make lots of tacos for I have plenty of ingredients and we love having company.
JEAN I sure hope all the festivities you attend will be happy occasions with smiles on folks faces.
DONNA FAYE That is good they took out that drain. Bet you feel so much better without it. Isn't it great that the shoes you ordered came and they fit and are fashionable.
Good morning gals. Not too chilly this morning. I woke up and had to go to the bathroom so ended up just staying up.
Jack has a 9 AM apt with Firestone for tires so he figures he will be there all morning. I plan on tackling the cookbooks and then evening out all the boxes since I bought 5 more yesterday.
I took out a package of chicken and we are going to have it for dinner tonight. I promised Jack pizza tomorrow night for the super bowl and that will destroy the pts for the day I imagine. It is a one time thing so I guess I can handle it ok. I don't get meat on my pizza only veggies and black olives so it isn't as bad as it would be loaded with meat.
Maggie: Yes, it was wonderful getting the drain out. It stung like a son of a gun when he pulled it out though. Hope you enjoyed your tacos!!!
Good Morning! Today we are going to see the Crystal Cathedral. I'm hoping we can go inside since we used to watch Hour of Power. Dr. Schuller is originally from Iowa not too far from where we live. The wedding is at 5, packing up to leave in the morning afterwards.
"Gma," so glad the drain is out and the problem is solved. Where is a picture of your new shoes? The brunch was kind of weird. The restaurant has a huge menu but we were given the choices of a turkey wrap, chicken salad wrap with a pasta salad, a garlic chicken salad with avacados, and a quinoa salad. My garlic salad was layered in a deep bowl and a challenge to eat. Six of us aunts split the bill, $56 a piece. We 23 were seated at a long table, in a room with another long table of eaters, booths, and smaller tables - all full. It was very noisy and hard to visit. Cookout was fun and we got to see the sunset. Hope the rain holds off tomorrow.
Maggie, I would have loved to come for a taco dinner! There are lots of Mexican restaurants in this area. In driving around we haven't seen a WM nor a bird of any kind. I wish we had more time to explore. Did find out if you are from Iowa you don't have to pay admission to tour the Iowa ship.
I need to get dressed so we can go to breakfast. Hope you all have a great day!
It snowed during the night but not much but enough to make it slick walking across the lawn in the back so I am staying inside today. I certainly don’t need to slip and fall for sure. Hopefully it will be all melted this afternoon so it won’t be difficult walking to Church tomorrow.
I received in the mail today a new cookbook by Better Homes & Gardens called Eat Healthy, Lose Weight which I am going to enjoy looking through. It has all the nutritional information for the recipes so that is a real plus. They also sent along as a free gift a small booklet which will be fun to read ~ “101 Sneaky Weight-loss Secrets”: slimming tips for home, office and gym!
I slept soundly all through the night and it sure felt good. I love my new hair cut for it was so easy to deal with this morning. I am going to crock pot a roast this afternoon so Will can make some good sandwiches to eat for lunch for he is so tired of getting some fast food for that meal. That is one of the meals I drink my lunch. For lunch today he can make a sandwich using some of that left-over taco meat.
JEAN I have heard that Crystal Cathedral is absolutely gorgeous and I hope you can go inside.
DONNA FAYE I like meat on my pizza but scrape the topping all off and don't eat the bread part. Different strokes for different folks.
Good morning. Today is commissary day and we are going in the rain. Sounds like it is coming down pretty hard at the moment.
I guess Jay and my sister are getting slammed with a horrible snowstorm with high winds so they are expecting white outs today. I am going to call and check on everyone a little later today. We are in the 40's today so not too bad.
They extended the RCCL sale so we are hoping they update their calendars soon so we can get the sale prices. They aren't as far as Sept of next year yet, just to April. We have heard they are going to update this month.
Jean: Wow that is an expensive brunch. Especially from what you said the food offerings were. Here are the shoes. The only difference is the one with the bow I bought in black and the one with the buckle I got in both the color here and one in black. Hope the wedding and reception is lovely. Safe trip home.
Maggie: It is almost time for me to get a haircut and color again. Hope you enjoyed your dinner last night. We enjoyed our chicken.
Good Morning! We are sitting at the airport to hurry up and wait. From the sound of the forecast we are going home to snow and cold. We are supposed to get into Omaha about 5:30, and then a two and a half hour drive home if the roads are ok.
Maggie, have fun with your new cookbook. The 101 Weight Loss Secrets sounds interesting. The Crystal Cathedral was purchased by the Catholics for 57.5 million and renamed Christ Cathefral. Bob did some research on it after our visit. We couldn't go inside because they are remodeling to make it look like a Catholic Church. There are several buildings and they do hold masses. I would have loved to visit when Dr. Schuller was still preaching. He is in a nursing home now.
"Gma," the wedding was held in a very unique place, an "old" brick building with nooks and crannies. The two main rooms were small for as many people were there. The ceremony was upstairs in kind of a balcony and afterwards more tables were set up for the dinner. Food was good and a wide variety of different sweet things the bride had created. We didn't stay late because we had to get gas and finish packing. We didn't want to get lost again in the dark. I love the shoes! Where do you shop online?
Need to be sure I have my right ticket and my book/iPad where I can get to them. Have a great day!
Good morning to you all. I woke up at 4 having to go to the bathroom so I just stayed up. I feel pretty good this morning except for female cramps, which as you know come and go so I hope to get the downstairs cleaned today and get some boxes evened out and taped closed to get to give away.
I just bought some new nail polish. I found a website a year or so ago in Louisiana that sells every color of the OPI polish, which is the best on the market. They had a 10% off sale so I bought 4 new colors.
It rained here all day long and when we left for the commissary two guys were trying to get a huge refrigerator off a pick up truck across the street so Jack, who was halfway out of the garage put it in park and walked over to help them. They got it off the truck then Jack came back over and we went to the commissary. Rental people moving into the condo. It was owned by this elderly lady who died about a year ago and the family can't keep it rented. I suspect because they want a lot of money for it. They did a semi remodel and the people are white and pretty much only blacks rent around this part of town so they aren't willing to pay high prices to rent here.
Jack decided he didn't want pizza and we never even watched one minute of the Super Bowl. They had a "Law and Order" marathon on yesterday so I drove Jack nuts watching it. Hey, some of the episodes I hadn't seen!
Talked to my son and then Jackson. They got a horrible snowstorm yesterday and everyone was staying inside. They are what I call "run arounders." They never stay home so I knew it had to be bad. I talked to Jackson for a few minutes and asked him if he thought he would go to school today. I had to laugh as he said at his school it had to be two below for him not to go to school. He never mentioned feet of snow. I don't know where he got the temperature from. It is nice to have him old enough you can talk with him over the phone and understand him now.
Jean: I have an account with a place online called Masseys that I buy some of my shoes from, but to tell you the truth, I buy a lot of them from Amazon. The shoes with the buckle came from Masseys, but the other two pair are from Amazon. I cannot walk with any shoes that the toe part is lower than the heel nor a shoe with much of a heel. I hadn't been able to find dressy shoes that were flat, but hit a bonanza and bought everything I could find in different colors and such. I also have big feet, I wear an 11 and sometimes have to wear a wide in dress shoes. I have started wearing plain old Keds sneakers in the winter than I wear my sandal variety in the summer. I have a pair of white Keds and a pair of Navy ones. I would like to get a couple other colors, but it is hard to find in my size, which I have to get them in wide for the toe box to fit comfortable. Hope you got home all safe and sound last night. I read several years ago that the Schullers , he and his son were fighting over the whole thing and that's really why it all went.
Everyone have a great start to the week. Jay and family will be here sometime midday on Friday so looking forward to seeing them for the weekend. Faye
More new shoes - what fun! Now be honest, do you have more shoes or handbags? 
I could probably use the hand sanitizer now since my fingers have healed. The dermatologist said it could be caused by stress, and when I retired it went away!
I'm ready for bed!
The airline gave us two small toiletry cases with "necessities" if our luggage doesn't get here tonight. Included is a t-shirt which almost feels like it is made of gauze.
The brunch was kind of weird. The restaurant has a huge menu but we were given the choices of a turkey wrap, chicken salad wrap with a pasta salad, a garlic chicken salad with avacados, and a quinoa salad. My garlic salad was layered in a deep bowl and a challenge to eat. Six of us aunts split the bill, $56 a piece. We 23 were seated at a long table, in a room with another long table of eaters, booths, and smaller tables - all full. It was very noisy and hard to visit. Cookout was fun and we got to see the sunset. Hope the rain holds off tomorrow.