Saturday October 30th 2010

This being Saturday it should be an easy day to travel through Ft Worth!  Linda slept in today and I took a walk over to Burger King to get a breakfast sandwich for us. I’m surprised Tom Bodette didn’t have something for us to get us on our way!  Maybe Mr. Patel didn’t make breakfast this morning.  Did you ever notice that motels that have people from India running it are always named Patel???  Must have something to do with running a motel, I won’t say anything else because it wouldn’t be very nice, true maybe, but not needed.

We got on the road and I didn’t tell Tom Tom where to go so I had Linda do it and she had a little problem, she got it but it took awhile. We had about 80 miles to go to get to Ft Worth and I was getting anxious to know if Tom Tom would give us the right route or not.  Well, we passed I-820 and I think that is the one I wanted but I kept on going until we got to I-35W and I turned on it, Tom Tom didn’t like it.  It didn’t take long and I didn’t like it either.  Five lanes of traffic at a stand still!  Oh, there is an air show this morning and I think it is off this road. BUMMER!  Traffic jam as far as I can see!  I take the next exit and Tom Tom starts giving me new directions. I start getting frustrated because I can’t follow his instructions!  I can’t figure out getting in the left lane and making a right turn.  This happened two or three times.  After about an hour, maybe not that long, and a dozen different roads we got on one we recognized and finally made it out of Ft Worth. Remember a song about a guy stuck on the MTA and couldn’t get off because he didn’t have another dime?  Kind of how I felt for awhile.

We drove for about twenty four hours, seemed like it, and finally made it to Oklahoma.  We stopped at a little place called Wheelers for lunch…

I ordered a hamburger steak and then Linda did to so I changed mine to a chicken fried steak.

Can’t see Linda’s very well and I should have kept my original order.  The chicken fried steak wasn’t to bad but the hamburger steak was excellent.

I made reservations at the Days Inn in Pryor, OK and we traveled on and Linda tried to put the address in the Tom Tom but it wouldn’t take it. I think we can probably find it.  About 5 miles from Pryor we saw a Days Inn and I said that it looked like the picture on the computer and as we passed it there was the street, Mid America Drive!!  Glad I saw a picture of it because we would have gone another five miles into town.  We checked in and got comfortable.  Seemed like we traveled a long way today but it was supposed to only be three hundred miles, give or take, but after the tour of Ft Worth (and Dallas) we may have gone four hundred. 

Going to relax and figure out if we are going to make it to Branson tomorrow and where we will stay there.  See you later y’all….

Friday October 29th 2010

Had a pretty good nights sleep here in Van Horn TX.  The Ramada wasn’t to bad, pretty comfortable actually.  They even had a good breakfast this morning.  I had scrambled eggs and then I had a waffle.  I got Linda some scrambled eggs and toast.

The temperature is quite cool about 50 degrees. Will be a nice day to travel. The sun didn’t come up until 7:30AM and driving is a little difficult until the sun gets up a little higher. We listened to an audio book while we traveled.  It is getting kind of exciting now and keeps our attention pretty good.  We stopped a few times, I can’t sit all that long…..Nice rest area..

Wasn’t sure where to go!!

We weren’t sure where we would make it to today but ended up in Weatherford TX.  Nice little drive.  We saw this motel with the light on…

Tom Bodette wasn’t here but we stayed anyway.  The place is pretty nice but they lack some of the nice amenities, like coffee, breakfast etc.  The price isn’t cheap either.  I got on the computer and made reservations for tomorrow night in Pryor OK at a Days Inn.  Not to far from here, a little over 300 miles.  Then on Sunday we will travel on to Branson, shouldn’t be to far from Pryor.

Got a picture of a bush, not sure if it a smoke bush or what but it is pretty neat….

I’m having a slight problem, my Windows Live Writer has changed it’s appearance and I am having problems getting things in here, I sure hope this works….Catch you tomorrow…..

Thursday October 28th 2010

Beautiful morning!!!  We got up and looked at what they had for breakfast here at the Days Inn, and it wasn’t any more than they had before, cold cereal or oatmeal.  I needed the oatmeal.  This wasn’t a continental breakfast, at least they didn’t have any pastries. Mini bagels and little blue berry muffins.  The room was nice though. Linda wanted me to take a picture of the moon, can’t hardly see it but it is above the motel just to the right of the Days Inn sign and up….

The sun is shining and it is nice and cool.  Unfortunately, we have to drive into the wind again today.  Our gas mileage yesterday was about 31 or 32 MPG, probably won’t be much better than that today.  After leaving Benson we went through something called Texas Canyon, at least I think that is what it was called.  Beautiful place if you like big rocks!!!

This did look unique.  Linda took the pictures and unfortunately she put the camera in her bag and I forgot it.  Will explain that in a minute.

We had an excellent day for traveling and we stopped in El Paso for gas at the Flying J.  Linda seems to always buy a soda when we stop and now it has turned into two sodas, usually a “2fer” deal.  We have pop but I think this is one of “her things” to do at gas stations.  She does share so I guess it’s OK.  Oh, the mileage on this fill up was a little over 38MPG, I’m happy!!!

We made reservations at the Ramada Inn in Van Horn TX and made it in about 5:30PM Texas (Van Horn) time.  Time changed to central time about 5 miles West of here.

We liked a little restaurant called “Papa’s Pantry”.  It seems to be one of our favorites.  We went there for supper and I was going to take a picture but (earlier) I let Linda use the camera and now it is back in the motel room.  I would like to have gotten a picture.  I had a couple burritos and Linda got a chili rellano.  Not sure if it is spelled right but anyway, it was good.  Very HOT!  Never had a “hot” chili rellano before.  We were both wiping the tears away and I guess part of that was the salsa.  Very warm.

 

This is the little restaurant we ate at. This picture was taken when we stopped here last month.  I would recommend this place to anyone.  It sure isn’t fancy but the food is delicious!  Not real expensive either.  Everything they make is home made, well, they make it here I guess.

We had a good night, I tried to make coffee in the coffee maker in the room and it was terrible!  Not sure if it was the water or the coffee.  Even Linda complained about the smell.  Anyway, we watched some TV and then went to bed.  See y’all tomorrow……

Wednesday October 27th 2010

Today is the day we leave California and head back to Missouri.  I got up in time to see Alexa and Darin before he took her to school.  Darin was coming back home to get Bren so they could take his car to get the air conditioner fixed.

We finished packing the car and all the “stuff” we needed to take with us. We got to finish our good byes and got on the road about 8:45AM.  I thought that was pretty good.  The wind was terrible when we got just East of El Cajon and it was windy for the next three or four hours.  Actually it was windy all day but not like through the mountains.  Got a few pictures of the “rocks”….

We are just coming out of the mountains here and getting close to Ocotillo Wells.  Temperature in the mountains was around 55 degrees and when we got to El Centro it was about 80 degrees.  Had a pretty nice day to travel though.  Getting close to Yuma and the sand dunes and the canals..

The water in the canals is a beautiful aqua green or blue or whatever…

We got to Benson AZ after stopping for gas in Tucson, about 5:30PM.  Traveled about 450 miles.  That was a pretty good day.  Now to decide tomorrow if we will go up through Roswell or go to Dallas….HUMMM. To much to think about tonight…Time to get a little to eat and relax for awhile…Good night Y’all…

Tuesday October 26th 2010

Today Bren flies back from Chicago.  She isn’t feeling very good, has a cold or flu or something!!  Terrible to travel and not feel well.

I took Jake over to Ms Theresa’s for the day. Linda and I have a few things to do today before going to  the airport for Bren.

I went outside to take a picture of some Dragon Fruit.  I had never seen this before and Darin had me try some and it is pretty good. LaVon asked about the pomegranate seeds so I had to take a picture of this…

The above picture is of the plant the Dragon Fruit grows on.  I think it looks a lot like a cactus, may be from that family, I’m not sure.

We left to pick up Bren about 2:20PM she had called and said they were leaving about 20 minutes late because of the weather in Chicago.  We had time to go and sit and relax in the car.  We parked in the shade and rolled down the windows and had a great breeze.  Anyway, we waited about an hour and twenty minutes but it was enjoyable.  Bren sure doesn’t feel good.  She needs a lot of rest.  She has tomorrow off so that will help some.

Kim came over this evening for a last visit before we leave tomorrow. Had a real nice visit. 

We fixed pasta for supper.  Not to bad it was the good kind and we didn’t put on spaghetti sauce, just olive oil and cheese.  Tasted good.

Linda and I started packing stuff and I took a few things out to the car. and got the rest of the stuff almost ready to go.

We watched our Tuesday night TV and went to bed.  Nice and cool tonight, should sleep great!!…Night Y’all…

Monday October 25th 2010

It is cool this morning and raining.  Guess they need the rain here.

We are going to take Jake to Ms Theresa’s this morning but don’t have a lot planned for today.  I think Linda will probably sleep in because of the last two days.  They were pretty busy.

I made a new copy of the birthday party for Alexa because the one I made wouldn’t play on the TV.  The new one does.  We watched it and it turned out pretty good. Not like the one from the air show.  I may have to copy over that one, it isn’t really worth watching.

 

Our departure date is slowly creeping up on us.  We still plan on leaving Wednesday.  I made reservations at the motel in Benson AZ for Wednesday night.  It was a pretty nice motel and a good rate.  I checked the price for one in Roswell NM and it wasn’t nearly as good a rate.  We didn’t stay there the last time we went through because it was so expensive, guess they have to keep their prices up to help support the “Aliens”!

I didn’t take any pictures today but Linda wanted me to take a picture of the rose with dew on it….

I guess if you look hard you can see the droplets…

I picked up Jake about 4:15PM and he was asleep…Not good…he wasn’t a happy camper and it took about an hour or more for him to get in a decent mood.  He doesn’t like to be awakened from a deep sleep.  He wouldn’t even let  me get him out of the car so he sat there for about 10 minutes, he finally got out and came into the house.

We took a ride over to Dee’s house and played a game of Zilch with her and the boys.  They did pretty good.  I guess they like the game, they both went out and bought a deck of cards and they remembered how to play.  We left there about 8:30PM I think and headed back to Bren and Darin’s.  Everyone was already in bed.  We watched “The Event” and “Castle”  They were pretty good.  Linda had a hard time staying awake and so did I.  Time to get some sleep I guess….

Sunday October 24th 2010

Today is going to be a busy day again.  We are going to go to church with Kim at the “Rock”.  We went there last week and the preacher didn’t preach. Guess what???  He didn’t preach again today.  Oh well, the sermon was recorded and he was doing a study on the Parables in the bible.  Before church though we took Bren to the airport for her flight to Chicago.  We were going over to Kim’s after that and had no idea how to get there from the airport so “Tom Tom” was put to work.  It took us right where we wanted to go!  Glad we have it!

After church we went to the OB Pier.  I had never noticed but it is shaped like a “Y” at the end, very interesting!  This is the restaurant we went to for breakfast.  Very nice sitting in the sun. 

After breakfast we took a walk on the pier.  I was interesting watching the seagulls and pelicans in the water.

I think some seagulls are really quite pretty.

Here we are at the end of the pier.  Nice view of the city.

Kim, Dave and Linda talking to Jacob on the phone.  He said the weather wasn’t nice in Santa Barbara.  Beautiful day here, Linda and I wore our sweaters though.

Waves!  Looks nice if you like the ocean.

Here’s Kim fixing some filets, portabellas and string beans and baked potatoes.  Very Good!!!!!!   Had a great day and evening, even got in a game on Zilch before heading home.  Thought I better do the blog since I am already a day behind….Night Y’all….

Saturday October 23rd 2010

Today is Alexa’s birthday.  She has waited most impatiently for today.  She opened our bedroom door about 5:45AM and I waved to her and then she closed the door so I figured it was time to get up.  I know it is going to be a long day and very busy!!

We are trying to clean up the house a little more and keep it clean for the party that is coming up in a couple of hours.  We have to kind of watch the kids and keep making sure they pick up their toys etc…

Darin made a couple of vegetable trays that look very good…

I think he did an excellent job, and he made two of these. People started arriving about 11AM and it was a steady stream after that.  I’m not sure if they kept track of how many people were actually here but it was a good crowd and the weather didn’t really cooperate, it started raining but the kids didn’t mind, they kept playing in the jump jump or whatever it was called.

Alexa in one of her new dresses.  She has more toys and things now than she knows what to do with.  The party was a very successful.  I think every one enjoyed themselves.  We did the clean up and the jump jump wasn’t picked up until 7PM so the kids played for another couple of hours in there.  I tried it but I couldn’t hardly stand up in it.

I took a video of most of the party and before they went to bed I showed them the video on the computer.  Guess they liked it, they watched most of the video while they were eating and before getting ready for bed.  We took it easy the rest of the night in fact we went to bed about 9:30PM.  I was tired….Night Y’all….

Friday October 22nd 2010

Here we are the day before Alexa’s 5th birthday and she is really excited about spending the last day of being a four year old, well, maybe not as excited as being five tomorrow.

The kids love to eat fruit from the back yard. Here they are eating Pomegranate…

 

Jake looks like he is still asleep!!

We will do a little more cleaning today but not much else.  We watched a couple of shows on “Hulu” that we couldn’t watch in the evening.

We decided to fix french fries and fish sticks for supper tonight.   I walked to the store and got the french fries, already had the fish sticks.  The kids love both of them and I think they got full!

Didn’t do much else today just took it easy.  Watched a little TV tonight but not a lot.  Have to rest up for tomorrow, it’s going to be a big day!!!

Thursday October 21st 2010

Cool this morning!! It is cloudy and supposed to rain but we will see what happens.  We had the window open and the fan on all night and it was really cool this morning, probably in the low 60s or high 50s.

Since Saturday is Alexa’s birthday we decided to help clean the house.  We aren’t working very hard but getting a little done. I did something that I haven’t done for quite awhile…

I mowed the lawn!!  I haven’t mowed grass since sometime this summer when we went back to Sikeston and then I think I only did it a couple of times.   I like to mow grass. Darin and Bren have a small grassy area but the back yard is open, no grass but lots of trees and bushes.

We decided to have leftovers for supper.  We had plenty of burrito mixture and some chicken fajitas left but were running short on tortillas!  Instead of going to the store to buy them I thought I would try my had at making them!

Lets see if you can tell the difference between mine and the store bought ones.

If you guessed the store bought one was on the left, WRONG!!  I know it is hard to tell the difference but I made the one on the left. My question is “how do they make the tortillas so round??”  I watched them make them at a restaurant and they swipe them a couple of times with a rolling pin and they are round!! Amazing!  I think it may take some practice and probably practice at mixing them up. I used oil and I know that lard is the best for tortillas, don’t have any lard though.  They actually didn’t taste to bad, I think I may try them again when we get home, maybe use some Crisco or something.

We had a pretty good evening, Bren still trying to get used to the Ipad  I was watching Dora with Alexa and Jake until bedtime and then Jake and Alexa wanted to play.  WOW!!  They have a lot of energy at bedtime!!

We actually went to bed early and the kids went to bed late.  Time to get some sleep, we are going to do a little more cleaning tomorrow.  Night Y’all….

Wednesday October 20th 2010

Here it is Wednesday already!!  We have about one more week and then head back for Sikeston.  Haven’t heard anything from Paw Paw’s but then I’m not in any hurry right now.  We will spend a little time at home and try to fix a couple of things that really need to be fixed.

Bren has a Dentist appointment this morning so Jake will stay home with us until she gets done. I think Bren wants to do a little shopping afterward. Jake and I played with the Matchbox Cars and the Hot Wheel Cars until she got back home.  Bren took Jake to Wal Mart and some where else.

Laurie and Peanut, Gabriella, came over in the afternoon to visit with Bren and Jake.  Got a picture of them on the computer….

Peanut is a little older than Jake but they like to play together.  Jake has a swimming lesson this afternoon so Bren is going to pick up Alexa and she can play with Peanut while Jake is swimming.  Bren said that Jake almost fought to keep from going swimming!!  I sure don’t understand why he doesn’t like swimming, well, he does like it he just doesn’t want to go.

Linda and I made a home made pizza tonight.  We had left over vegetables so that was a good way to use them.  Had some left over pepperoni so we used that also.  It turned out good and it all got eaten.  I’m getting old!! That wasn’t last night, we made chicken fajitas!!  We had left over Bell Peppers, that’s what it was, not pizza.  The fajitas turned out excellent. 

Bren bought a new IPad.  She has been trying to figure out how to use it so she can take it to Chicago with her this weekend.  I tried typing on it and it isn’t something that I could use.  The keypad is way to sensitive for me.  If you could learn to touch and remove your fingers it would work fine but you can’t rest your fingers on the keypad because you get all kinds of letters on the screen.  Way to touchy for me.

Got to watch a couple of our favorite shows tonight. Oh, back to this morning, Alexa was smiling and happy and eating her breakfast.  She walks fine and feels fine.  Praise the Lord!!!  I miss some things because I don’t do this in the evening, I wait until the next morning to do my blog.  Can’t do it at night very often, I like the quiet in the morning.  OK enough, time to go…Bye Y’all…. 

Tuesday October 19th 2010

Well Alexa goes back to school again today.  I didn’t see her his morning but guess she was doing well.  I had to take a picture of some roses in front of the house, the cool weather and rain has done a pretty good job of getting them to bloom…

Jake played for awhile before going to Ms Theresa’s…

He sure likes to play with his matchbox cars and hot wheels.  He can keep busy for quite awhile.  Most of the time he likes company playing, guess that’s my job!

Linda and I went to the store and got a few things.  It has been raining quite hard today, especially for San Diego.  We stopped at a hot dog place but it was closed so I thought it would be nice to try a Chinese place.  It was right across the street and it looked pretty nice.  The special was a two for one price, chicken dishes, so we got chicken dishes.  Linda got Kung Poa Chicken and I had the House Chicken.  They were both good and we even had left overs,  Well, we wouldn’t have but Linda went back and got 2 more egg rolls.  She really liked them.

When Darin got home he had Alexa in the car and she was asleep so he brought her in and put her to bed and a little later Bren made it home.  We fixed home made pizza for supper and they finally had to wake Alexa around 8PM for her medicine.  She wasn’t a happy camper! It took about a half hour for her to finally wake up then she didn’t want to go to bed, neither one wanted to go to bed.  Finally after numerous times of getting into bed they finally went to sleep. We watched some TV then went to bed.  It was a little warm and because it was raining we couldn’t open the window so we made do with the ceiling fan.  Will catch you tomorrow…

Monday October 18th 2010

Alexa has to go back to see the doctor today.  Her appointment is this morning and Bren will take Jake to Ms Theresa’s for the day.  When they brought Alexa back she was doing pretty good and I’m not sure but I don’t think the doctor said to much.  Alexa walks funny, stiff legged and we don’t know why, the doctor said it was probably from to much exercise after being in bed for a week. Sore muscles are lasting a long time!  She walks like I feel when I first get up, joints take awhile to get limbered up and it doesn’t feel real good.

We played some games with Alexa, here we are playing puppets…Alexa is wearing her new dress she got from Ms Theresa…She really likes it..

After playing puppets, we watched three movies, well parts of three movies. Pocahontas is her favorite and we watched it all the way through. We started watching Bambi and Darin came home and she got distracted so I shut it off.  The other one was Peter Pan.  We had a pretty good afternoon.

Bren had a second recipe that sounded good and we wanted to try it.  It was “Creamy Pasta with Tuna”.  I’m not used to Bren’s kitchen and it took awhile to find things, but after she got home she wanted to try her new “Pasta Boat” and cook the pasta in it. It worked pretty good, took a little longer than on the stove but did quite well.  You don’t have to stir it in the microwave.  It turned out quite well, tasty!

They got the kids to bed about 8:30PM and we watched some TV.  Alexa got up about 10:00PM not feeling well again.  She laid down on the sofa and I covered her up and felt her cheek, she was really cold!  Darin took her temp and it was around 96 degrees, that is really cool!  Darin wanted to take her to the ER but Bren said to wait.  Didn’t hear any more so I guess she went to sleep OK.

I told Darin if they had to take her to the ER during the night to knock on our door and let us know.  He said OK but we didn’t get a knock soooo..

Anyway, we went to bed and hopefully Alexa will feel better in the morning. Night Y’all…

Sunday October 17th 2010

This is the day after the big burrito fest!  Linda is about wiped out but I woke her in time to go to church at the Salvation Army!   I wanted to try it out, I have never been to a Salvation Army service.  It started late, 10:45AM so Linda had plenty of time to get ready. The first picture is a Lieutenant in a Rescue Mission and he has a beautiful voice!!

I guess I was used to seeing the movies with the Salvation Army people singing and collecting money and they usually are portrayed as really bad singers and players of musical instruments.  This band was good!!  The singing was good!! The kids were pretty good also but I think they were a little shy.

 

The preacher was from England and his wife is Spanish.  Very nice couple. They are going to England for his Father’s birthday this coming weekend.

The above picture is the preacher and he had a pretty good sermon. He also had some funny things mixed in with it.  I enjoyed the service.  Lots of music and singing mixed throughout the service.

After we got home we relaxed for awhile, Darin was watching football and Gabriella, Alexa’s friend was coming over to see her.

I got a picture of Bren working furiously to clean up the floor after a drink was spilt…

I think Jake cleaned up most of it but Alexa had a turn and then Bren finished the job…

Got a picture of Alexa just before going to bed.  They like to do funny things and she had her pet cat under her pajama top…

She still isn’t feeling to good.  Now her legs hurt and she can’t walk very well, but she isn’t complaining to much.  She has an appointment with the Doctor tomorrow and maybe they will figure out something.  We are sure praying for that!  We are wondering what is going to happen next weekend. Bren has a meeting in Chicago on Monday and will be flying out on Sunday.  Hopefully Alexa will be better by then.

Linda is still tired from yesterday.  She took a very long nap this afternoon, about 6 hours actually.  I woke her up at 7:45PM so she could eat.  Had a cheese Panini which wasn’t to bad.  Jake was also tired he took a nap for about 3 hours and then didn’t want to go to bed.  I can understand that!

Well, guess that is about all for today.  I made a video of the get together Saturday and put it on DVD’s, took 2 of them.  Anyway, when we get bored and want to do something we can get the videos out and watch them.  Time to quit for today, will return tomorrow for another session of “Linda and Joel’s Travels”…..

Saturday October 16th 2010

I got up pretty early this morning and I finished my reading.  Jake woke up and Darin tried to get him to go back to bed but not Jake.  He came out and when he saw me sitting on the sofa he figured it was time to play match box racer.  Darin left for the hospital a little later.  I figured it was time to try to do a little cleaning.  Jake was a big help…

Jake mopped the kitchen floor and helped pick up the toys and stuff from the living room.  Today is the “pork burrito day”. We had a good visit and I got some video and some pictures…this is Dave, Kim and Jacob….

This is Audry, Gianna, Kedric and Jared….

I didn’t take a picture of Darin, Bren, Alexa and Jake but will get one from Halloween last year and put a new picture in later….

I know this picture is almost a year old but I don’t have one of them this year yet.  Alexa seems to be doing better so maybe I will be able to get one this week.  Will do it for sure before we leave.

This has been a very busy day.  Alexa made it home about 6:30PM and she still isn’t feeling the best but a lot better than a few days ago.  I think we have all about had it and are ready to call it a day and get some sleep. The burritos went over well.  We have a couple containers left so we can have them tomorrow or sometime.  will write some more tomorrow, maybe, if I can, night y’all…

Friday October 15th 2010

Bren got up early but didn’t leave real early.  She asked if we would (wanted to) watch Jake and then take him over to Ms Theresa’s.  Sounds good to me.  Jake and I had a pretty good time playing match box racing!  He has a pretty vivid imagination.  We went out and rode bicycles for awhile but it was misting and pretty cool.

We took Jake to Ms Theresa’s about 10AM but he sure didn’t want to stay and Ms Theresa wasn’t there.  We drove around for awhile and then went back when Ms Theresa was there and he went in but really didn’t want to stay.

We did our running and picked up Jake about 5PM and he wanted to go to McDonald’s.  Picked up Linda and went back to McDonald’s and had our lunch and Jake got to play in the play area for awhile…

Jake had a good time in the play area.

Linda started the pork tonight.  Had to use two Crock Pots..

Takes awhile but during the night it sure starts smelling good.

I baked bread this after noon also…

Haven’t tasted the bread yet.  I also baked banana bread and haven’t tasted it yet either, I must be slipping.

We got Jake in the tub and Darin came home and finished putting him to bed.  We watched a little TV before going to bed…Night Y’all…

Thursday October 14th 2010

This month is almost to the middle!  Time is really going by fast.  Alexa is still in the hospital.  They haven’t figured out what the problem is yet.  She is feeling better but the way it sounds the feeling is sometimes good and sometimes not so good so whatever the problem is I don’t think it has been corrected yet.

Bren got up early this morning and was gone before we got up and she took Jake to Ms Theresa’s for day care.  We have some running to do today and we will pick him up around 4:45PM for Moonbeams.  That is at the Salvation Army and I guess they really like it.

Linda and I went to Food 4 Less (Kroger's)To pick up the things we need for Saturday.  Going to have Dee and the kids and Kim and Jacob in.  Unfortunately if Alexa doesn’t get to feeling better I’m not sure what will happen then????  Hopefully she will get to feeling better.

We got the mail today and I got my battery for the camcorder. I ordered it from China!  Ebay.  I looked at all the other places here in the states and the cheapest was about $56 and this one was $8.50.  The shipping was $20 though but still a lot cheaper.  I sure hope that it works.  I’m sure that it will work but to get it recharged, that is what I’m worried about.  After checking it out it wasn’t to bad…..

The camera on the right will fit in my shirt pocket the battery in the middle came with the camera and the one on the left is the new one.  Notice it has a tail.  It was pictured with the tail and it also said that it would not charge on the camera like the little one does.  Well right next to the tail there is a slot and the cord I have to transfer pictures with also charges the battery from the computer!!!  The top has a row of LED lights that show how much charge is left in the battery.  It is fully charged now so hopefully it will last a couple of hours.

I picked up Jake and took him to Moon Beams.  He really didn’t want to go but after being there for a few minutes he got in the groove.

The bag is supposed to be a cat.  He liked doing that.  He also did a picture of a mouse and that was pretty good also.  They also feed them.  He had tuna macaroni and cheese and string beans and garlic bread.  Also had a nice carrot salad and a piece of chocolate cake.  He liked the cake.  I had some of the food and it was really good!

After getting home and playing for awhile, Bren called and she was coming home so we kept Jake up so Bren could see him.  Jake didn’t mind at all!! I played race car with him on his match box race set.  He was really hyper! We had a good time though and about 8:30 Bren got him to bed.  Whew!!  I don’t know where he gets his energy.  At night when he’s tired he really gets active.

Linda and I watched a couple of shows before going to bed.  I actually felt pretty good, thought I might fall asleep on the sofa but I didn’t.

Well, we are getting close to heading home, may stop in Benson to see David and Marian and then stop in Branson to see Daniel and Rachel if they are still there and Nick and Sherry.  Will probably get to see Roger and Heidi also.  Going to quit now….Night y’all….

Wednesday October 13th 2010

Alexa is still in the hospital and they can’t figure out what is going on with her.  I’m sure that Children’s Hospital is a great hospital and they will get it figured out.  There will be some Doctors checking her tomorrow morning from Infectious Disease to see if there is something there that they can detect?  These are my words so I’m not sure what all they will do.  I do know that she hasn’t recovered yet.  This isn’t a new thing to her, she spent almost the first three months of her life in the hospital!  I’m not sure what all the problems were then either.

 

Jake is doing well, Bren had him up this morning and he was really rambunctious!  (wow, I spelled that word right the first time!).  After Bren left for the hospital I let him watch the movie “Cars”.  He really likes that movie until I got the computer out and then he wanted to do the “ABCs”.  Mom and Dad will have to let him do that on their computer.

Jake and I went bike riding again this morning! Jake is really getting good at riding and for three years old he is going quite fast and doesn’t cry when he falls.  His bike has training wheels and he goes around corners on two wheels and one is a training wheel!  Bren says she may have to get him shin guards and elbow guards. I forgot to mention that he is starting to lean in the direction of the turn (the right way I might add).

He is also a little dare devil on his tricycle. This was a posed picture though.

Jake is quite the eater, if it is something he likes.  He had a couple bowls for Fruity Pebbles for breakfast and for lunch he had four eggs again with ketchup!  Loves his ketchup….

They have swimming class at 3:30PM.  He did not want to go.  He was tired and hyper!  I gave him a choice of swimming or a nap.  What a choice!  He didn’t want to do either.  Finally got his swimming trunks on him about 3PM, got him in the car, with his blanket, and went the mile or so to the pool.  He was almost asleep by the time we got there.  I know he wanted to go to sleep but, to late, I got him up and into the pool area and waited for his time to go in.  He did NOT want to go swimming.  I asked the teacher if he was usually like this and she said “yes”.  I just put him in the pool and about 5 minutes later he was having a ball, loves it!!

 

My telephoto doesn’t work well but he is jumping in the pool by himself, teacher is waiting though. Now this was a real experience watching him and having him wave from the other side of the pool yelling “Hi Grandpa Floto”.  I was glad I insisted he go, he had a great time.  After getting him home and feeding him he got really hyper!  I’m not sure if it was because he was tired or knew that bed time was coming and didn’t want to go to bed. What ever, he was really active, wanted to play “Duck Duck Goose and Ring around the Rosey”  but when Grandma and I fall down, it’s hard getting back up again.  Linda had to go into the bed room while I got him ready for bed and played games and read stories. I guess it is to much activity for her:-)  Oh, I read a story, not to him but it is his book, and I’m not sure if it is a kids storybook or not.  I had to laugh all the way through it and I’m sure Jake wouldn’t understand it yet but here is the cover…

I’m thinking that whoever wrote this book had a real life experience!  I have to laugh just thinking about it.  The dog, Walter, turns out to be a hero dog. OK enough about Walter, I finally got Jake to bed about 7:30 and about 7:45 Bren called and said she would be home.  Jake was already asleep! Linda fixed  some “Beef and Noodles” because she, Bren, hadn’t eaten. It was delicious!  Love beef and noodles!  I thought about what I don’t like, I don’t like parsnips or pancakes with eggs and syrup on them, they have to be separate.  Eggs and syrup don’t go together and neither does meat and syrup, I mean sausage or bacon.  So much for that.  Well, guess it is time to go to bed, hope I didn’t miss anything….Night Y’all…..