Friday December 30th 2011

I think it is going to be another beautiful day!!  I took a picture when Sparky and I were out walking.  The fog was just coming in or whatever it does and the sun wasn’t quite up yet…

This was just a pretty morning!  The fog got a lot thicker but by ten it was gone and the sun was shining brightly!

Got Linda up early this morning.  There is coffee and donuts at the club house and I like to go and listen to the stories.  Linda enjoys it also when she goes.  Joe and Mary hosted this morning and we are going to host next week.

We stayed there a little over an hour then we went to HEB to pick up some things. We were going to go to Wal Mart also but had things that needed to be refrigerated so we went on home.  I would like to go to Pulga, the flea market, and look around.  Would have been a beautiful day to go.  I think we will wait until next week to go.  Monday is supposed to be cool again, not like before but is supposed to be in the upper sixties which is OK.  We invited Don over for Linda’s port burritos next Tuesday. I figure it will be cool so we won’t have to run the air conditioner but not so cool we would have to run the furnace.

Not a lot going on today, I was hoping that my light bulbs would come in.  I took my tail light apart on the camper, there is a bulb that isn’t working so I may order a couple LED lights to replace them.  Sure would like to see how the LED lights will work inside the camper!

Dale and Velda invited us over tomorrow night for New Year’s Eve, we can listen to the Mexican band behind them.  They say they are really loud!  We aren’t that far away but it sure didn’t bother us last year!!

Well, for a little TV tonight, we watched episodes of Law and Order that we had taped sometime, not sure when but they were good.  We still have quite a few shows taped and that is good for nights when there is nothing on.

Well, time to stop and say…Night Y’all….

Thursday December 29th 2011

Another beautiful day!!  I think it is going to be warm today and I’m looking forward to that.

We don’t have much of anything planned for today, probably just stay home and enjoy the weather.  I will probably sit outside with Sparky.

Linda is starting to feel better, hopefully whatever she had is working it’s way out of her.

It is just a beautiful day to take it easy and enjoy!  That is what we are doing.  We have the camper open and it is warm.  I think it made it to 80 today.  Almost hot inside the camper!  We opened it up and turned on the exhaust fan. I want to put a picture of the camper in here.  We had it washed and waxed and it looks pretty nice….

Like I said not much going on. We will watch some TV and then go to bed.  Short blog today…Night Y’all…

Wednesday December 28th 2011

It is clear this morning so I’m going to say it is going to be a beautiful day! We don’t have anything planned but I know I have to go to the store to get Linda some more Nyquil.  She is starting to feel a little better but not 100% yet.

I could see this morning the dew dripping off the camper and it is beading up so I think the wax did it’s job!

I went to the store this afternoon, HEB first then to Wal Mart.  HEB is kind of neat, they have some good deals.  I bought some stuff for some soup and it was pretty cheap.  Wal Mart wasn’t quite that good.  We brought a little BBQ grill so I bought some charcoal and some lighter.  The lighter is really expensive, must run over $20 a gallon, but I only got a quart.  I think it is just diesel fuel but then that is expensive to but only about $4 per gallon.  One day we will BBQ something.

I sat outside this afternoon for awhile and it is very warm.  It got up to 74 today and it really feels good.  We opened up the camper and let it air out. Linda even got kind of warm!

Not a lot going on today, Linda got her medicine from Sikeston so she is good for another three months.

Well, we are watching HGTV tonight.  I like that station.  They do a lot of really interesting stuff.  I am having a hard time staying awake though so I think I will go to bed….Night Y’all…

Tuesday December 27th 2011

The weather person was right, it is cold outside and our propane gauge says we are down to one third of a tank.  We have been running the furnace a lot since we left Missouri!

I was up early and put the placard in the window of the car for the propane guy.  I tried to wipe the dew off the window but the dew was very hard, frozen actually, that is how cold it got last night but it is supposed to warm up to around seventy today, I think I can handle that.

The two guys came to wash the camper about 8:30AM and we were ready but not sure what time the propane guy is going to come and I sure don’t want to miss him this time.  I’m not sure what time he comes but Linda got up and was ready also.  She even went over to talk to Velda for awhile!

Linda and I went in for a piece of toast and when we got finished the two guys were done waxing the camper!!   I didn’t get to watch.  They did the waxing faster than the washing!  I will have to say though that it does look pretty good.  I can see spots on the top that they didn’t do but they aren’t very accessible so I think they just skipped over them.  They didn’t do the roof so it only cost $55.  Guess it was worth it but later on I may get on the top and wash it off.  I even put the awning out!

The day is getting warmer and about 11AM the propane guy finally made it!  I thought it was going to be pretty expensive to fill it up but the tank isn’t very big and only took 3.9 gallons, $12 worth of propane.  I was amazed!  I figured we had used more than that.  Our electricity will probably be a little more than that though, it is kind of expensive down here.

Linda still isn’t feeling very well but did stay up awhile and went and talked to Mary to find out how she is doing.  Mary has some kind of flu bug also. She went to the Doctor today and is going back tomorrow for some more tests.  Hope they figure out what is going on there!

We had to open the camper today it got so warm.  I think the temp made it up to 74 degrees and was very nice!  This is winter though and the temperature will be going up and down.

Nothing going on tonight so…..Night Y’all..

Monday December 26th 2011

It sure isn’t warm this morning!!!  I think the sun is supposed to shine but when I got up with Sparky at 6AM it was cloudy and the wind was still blowing out of the North and it was CHILLY!

We aren’t going to do much today, Linda has a touch of the flu or something.  Not sure what is wrong but she sure sounds like she has a cold!

The group from Seldom Rest is going to Peter Piper Pizza at noon.  I don’t think Linda will feel like going!  She went to be early last night and I don’t expect her to get up early this morning.  Maybe next week we can go for pizza.

Dale is getting his camper washed.  I think he is paying $35 which isn’t to bad.  They are washing the roof also.  They wanted to know if I wanted mine washed, it would be nice but I washed and waxed in in August or September but it doesn’t look very good.  They said they would do it for $60, wash and wax.  I had to think about that for awhile.  I said that I would let them do it.  I think they made their money for today they said they would be back at 8AM tomorrow which was fine with me. The propane guy is supposed to come tomorrow also.

Linda pretty much slept all day today, she really doesn’t feel very good.

The sun came out this afternoon and it got pretty warm but the wind was still very chilly. I did sit outside in the lawn chair for awhile in the sun and out of the wind, it was great!

Not much else going on today or tonight, just taking it easy.  The weather fore caster says it is going to get cold tonight. Probably will.

Night Y’all…

Sunday December 25th 2011

Christmas Day, the day we celebrate Jesus birth!!  I feel so good to know that Jesus is MY Savior!  I know where I will spend eternity!!  Makes me.

Well, we are going to go to Tip O Texas this morning for the Christmas service.  Had to get Linda up early so we could make it on time. We not only made it on time we were way early.  I thought the service started at 8:30AM but didn’t start until 9AM.  That is OK I would much rather be early than late.  Got to talk to Don for a little while before service and got a picture with the telephone (didn’t turn out well) and sent it to LaVon.  Linda called LaVon and talked to her for awhile.  She is having a really hard time with her mother.  Her mother is in really bad shape and she is staying with her to help her out.  Makes it hard on Don being without her and I imagine it is just as hard or even harder on her being without him and trying to help her mother.  Needs lots of prayers…

Don had a great service, reminded me of last nights service. We are the light (candle light last night) and Pastor Adrian had the same message, we are the light, don’t hide it, let it shine so others can see it!

We talked to Don for awhile after the service then on home so Linda could fix her green bean casserole.  We still had plenty of time and I called the kids and talked with them and wished them a merry Christmas and talked for awhile just to see what they were all doing.  Had some good calls.

The get together in the club house started at 1PM.  There was a pretty good crowd for a Christmas Dinner!  There were some that didn’t come and they probably had other plans.  The food was excellent!  The fellowship was excellent!  Had a great time.  The only problem was, eating to much!  Everything was so good.  I was over full the rest of the day and all I had to eat tonight was a few pretzels.  Linda isn’t feeling well and she took some Nyquil to see if she could get rid of the congestion and cold symptoms.  She went to bed about 8:30PM.  Very unusual for her. She did get up about 10PM but went right back to bed again.  Hope she gets over the cold!

Well, guess that’s about all for today….Night Y’all..

Saturday December 24th 2011

Today is Christmas Eve Day!  We don’t have a lot planned for today but this afternoon we are going to go with Jack and Mary to the First Baptist Church of Mission for the Candle Light Service.  They really like the church and we want to check it out.

We aren’t going to  do to much today, walk Sparky a few times to get us some exercise.  It is still rainy, cold and windy, not a real good day to do much of anything.

The church is a couple of miles away but I know where it is now so we can drive there.  I got a picture of the pastor, Pastor Adrian…

This isn’t a formal church as you can tell by the Pastor’s Batman T Shirt!  The service was very nice, to the point and I think we are going to like the church.  We will probably drive down to Tip O Texas to see Don a few times but the other times we will go here.

The First Baptist Church won’t have services tomorrow so that worked out well.  We will head down to see Don at the Tip O Texas campground.

After the service here they had cake and cookies.  I probably should have gotten a picture of the lady that baked the cake.  I was a very nice cake. I guess she is quite the baker and cook!   We had a good time with Jack and Mary, and at the church.  Jack and Mary live here year around but are originally from Kewanee IL, not far from our home towns, Rock Falls and Dixon.

Linda started fixing the pretzel salad for tomorrow after we got home.  Good thing she did, it took awhile.  Not much going on tonight so guess I will sign off…Night Y’all….

Friday December 23rd 2011

Not a nice day today, it is rainy, cold and windy.  One thing about it though is South Texas needs the rain so I won’t complain.  Would be nice if it was kind of warm though.

I’m trying to figure out how to change all the lights in the camper over to LED lights.  I’m sure it is going to be expensive but I don’t even know where to look or what to look for.  I stopped at an auto parts store and asked them and they had a few LED lights but not what I was looking for.  Stopped at Camping World and checked them out.  They had them!   I need twelve really small ones and they are only $38 apiece!!  I need seventeen of the larger ones and they are only $28 apiece!!!  That is a chunk of change….$932, needless to say I didn’t even buy one.

We did some more running, stopped at Wal Mart for bread and milk and back home.  We took Sparky with us and he wasn’t a happy camper staying in the car by himself.  Guess we will either have to leave him in the camper or let him get used to the car.  He barks a lot though and if you have a headache it isn’t fun, well, it isn’t fun anyway, his barking will give you a headache!

When we got home I got the computer out and started checking online for LED lights and found some!  I ordered four of the larger ones just to see if they would work.  They are coming from Hong Kong and won’t be here for a month but we have gotten along for a few years, guess another month won’t hurt! Oh, I got the four for under $8 and that was with free shipping. The little ones I found for under $5 apiece but didn’t order any of them.  I would have to order ten, which is a minimum order and don’t want to spend that kind of money right now, even though it is under $50, most of the lights run on a rheostat  and I’m not sure that would work, guess I won’t know until I try!

Anyway, we aren’t doing anything the rest of the day, just staying in and trying to keep warm.  Talk to you tomorrow…..Night Y’all…

Thursday December 22nd 2011

Today is Thursday and I think it is going to be a pretty nice day.  When Sparky and I were out for our walk I took a couple of pictures.  I think it is pretty neat that this is the middle of December and there are flowers blooming!!

These flowers are really a vibrant yellow!  We also got to see a pack of wild canaries or parrots.  I think they are more like parrots, they are pretty big and really noisy.  They were in a tree eating the berries or whatever they are and I guess they got spooked because they all took off at once and made a lot of (bird) noises!

They aren’t very colorful, just dark with a little green on them.  They do have the parrot beak though.  I thought that was interesting!

We aren’t going to do anything today, just stick around home.  We need propane, well, I think we need propane and I forgot about the propane truck and when he came I wasn’t out or ready so I will wait until Saturday now.  He comes on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.  Hope he comes on Saturday!

Mary came over and visited a little while with Harley and Hanna, her dogs. Harley is a miniature Chihuahua and Hanna is a Pug.  Sparky is really interested in them but he is scared of them.  I will have to get a picture of them sometime.

It was nice enough today to sit out in the sun.  It got up to seventy but the north wind was still kind of chilly.  We opened up the camper and let it air out it was that nice!

Not much else happened today.  I figured out the cost of gas from Sikeston to here and it was right around four hundred forty dollars and that is about a hundred and fifty less that I figured on!

Guess that is all for today so I will say night y’all…

Wednesday December 21st 2011

Slept good last night and really glad we don’t have to pack up and move again.  Makes it nice to be able to stay in one place for awhile.

Linda slept in this morning, I got up at my normal hour, actually a little earlier this morning.  I was up about 5:45AM.  Made coffee and took Sparky for a walk.  Got Linda up about 9:30 I guess and when she got ready we went to Wal Mart with Dale and Velda.  They had things to get and we did too.  Got most everything that we needed and Linda got things we didn’t need.  She bought six more cook books, now we have to find a place to put them…

We got back home and had a sandwich for lunch.  Peanut butter and banana and then I had a cold meat sandwich.  Took a  real short nap later after taking Sparky for a walk.  I think I may have slept for twenty minutes.

Linda fixed spaghetti for supper with the leftover meatloaf we had.  Turned out pretty good.  Have enough left for another meal I think.

We watched a little TV tonight.  Going to be cool I think.  I turned the heat down, but it wasn’t enough, I had to get up later and turn it down more.  It came on during the night and it wasn’t cool enough to leave it run.

Well, guess I will call it a day….Night Y’all…

Tuesday December 20th 2011

Well, I finally downloaded the pictures of the campground at Beaumont Texas!! 

They really keep the park in good shape.  The different colored cement,well, grey shades, looks like they have replaced a lot of the roads. I’m wondering if the summer heat made a lot of it buckle?  Anyway, we really enjoyed the stay here.  We had to run the air conditioner, it was pretty warm.  This morning it is cloudy and looks like it may have rained a little.  There is also thunder and lightning so I think we may get a little more rain…Yes, I was right, it started pouring like crazy while I was at the office.  Glad I got Sparky out before the rain.

We got on the road just a little after 9AM and thought we would make it to Victoria or somewhere around there. The day went fine, we went through a lot of rain until we got to Houston then it quit and it was dry the rest of the way, by the rest of the way I mean all the way to the Valley.  We were going to stop for the night but the campground signs were at the turn offs and at sixty miles per hour it is hard to slow down and make the turn so we traveled on and according to Tom Tom we should get there before 7PM and it was right!  We made it about 6:30PM!  I didn’t get a picture but Velda was sitting in our space in a lawn chair! (in the dark) She wanted to see our IDs before she would let us park there.  She is kind of CRAZY for sure!!

Dale helped me get the car off the dolly and get the camper parked.  I think we are parked better than last year!  I don’t have to use the step this year!

I had to call Sprint last night because I have been charged with international texts!  I don’t know anyone outside the US! The guy at Sprint blocked the number and he gave me the area code which was 308 so the first number I checked was Velda’s.  Their area code is 308 so I had to call Sprint back to check and see why when I send a text  locally I get charged with an international text??  The second guy made it sound feasible.  The international phone code for Greece is 30 the US is 00 so he said there is a glitch in the system and when I text 308 for some reason I get billed for sending the text to Greece!!!  Technology!

We were tired and decided to go to bed early, well, it isn’t early for me but I was tired….night Y’all..

Monday December 19th 2011

It sure is cold this morning, and I think I am kind of excited about getting on the road again!!  There is a hard frost on the car so I started getting some of the things ready to go.  I can’t do a lot until Linda gets up and We are getting ready to go.

Got Linda up at 7:30AM and she got right up, I was surprised!  She got things picked up and I put things away and when we got everything put away I started the camper and pulled it out so I could load the car.  Things went very well, I was surprised.  I was also happy.  It is a beautiful day even if it is cool.

We got on the road just a couple minutes after 9AM and had a great day, except for the wind.  We planned on making it to Beaumont TX and we actually did.  In fact we made it here about 3PM!  I was ready to stop.  I was hoping to make it to Mission tomorrow but I have a feeling we aren’t going to make it until Wednesday!  It is warm today here in Beaumont, I think it must be in the seventies and it is nice!  The weather forecast is calling for rain tonight and the next week or something like that. Guess Texas needs the rain so I’m not going to complain, to much..

We had hot dogs again for supper, leftovers wouldn’t you know it?  My favorite kind of meal…

Got all settled in and it is warm in the camper, a lot warmer than last night for sure.. I froze again last night!!

Not going to do to much tonight, take it easy and wait for it to rain.  I took a couple pictures of the campground but due to circumstances, I didn’t download them, maybe tomorrow I will do it.   The park is beautiful and very clean, the roads are all cement and the sites are all cement except for the grass in the sites,  very nice campground for $17.50 a night!  Love it.

  Night Y’all…

Sunday December 18th 2011

We are going to church at West Union this morning.  When we got there Linda was cold and couldn’t stay awake and wanted to go home after Sunday School but she toughed it out and stayed through church.  She kept her coat on and I gave her mine also.  I know Pastor Bud likes it cool in there but I think the air conditioner was going and I was cold too but I toughed it out.  I noticed a woman go to the thermostat and turn off the fan. I’m not sure if the air conditioner was running but it was really cool in there.

We stopped to see Aunt Virgie for a few minutes to tell her good bye.  She was eating.  They say she starts eating first and finishes last.  Guess there isn’t anything wrong with that.  I think she enjoys her food.  She doesn’t talk much anymore so visiting is pretty hard.  We didn’t stay very long, Linda needed to get a nap and I needed to eat lunch.  HOT DOGS!!  Love hot dogs, these had cheese and jalapeno pepper in them.  They were a little spicy!

Went to Steve and Pam’s church tonight.  They were having their Christmas play tonight.  We haven’t spent much time with them and Pam was the director and Anna Grace was in it, well so were her parents and Steve was in it also!  It was really different, it was like a western theme and they were sitting around the camp fire and telling the story of Christmas.  It was really good!  Anna Grace sang a song with another girl that was very good…

This wasn’t the song, I guess I didn’t get a picture of that one.  Going to put one more picture in here, it is the manger scene and the baby is a real baby!!!  Love it!!

I think Pam did an excellent job even with the little kids.

Not much else going on tonight, going to try to get as much ready tonight as I can so we can leave a little early tomorrow!   We are anxious to get on the road again.  Time to take it easy….Night Y’all…

Saturday December 17th 2011

Well, we were going to leave this morning but it is kind of cold and windy and I think I have decided to stay a couple more days.  Linda said she wanted to stay a couple more days also.

Today is Rick’s birthday and we will go over later.  Went out to lunch with Steve, Pam, Sarah and Anna Grace. Had a great lunch!

We went on over to Rick and Connie’s after lunch and wished Rick a happy birthday and had some birthday cake with them…

We had a real nice time tonight.  We had stopped at the nursing home to see Virgie and Rick and Del were there and they asked us if we brought Sparky, we didn’t so we had to go back and get him so the kids could play with him.  Glad we did, he had a good time and so did the kids!  Destiny, Emma Kate and Ethan were there and they really wanted to see Sparky!

We went to check out a miniature village in town that a lady had put together from pieces she has collected for twenty years!

This may not look like much but there are a lot of pieces here.  Linda has a few pieces and they are expensive and take up a lot of room.  I have never seen moving pieces like she had and they are set up in a very nice manner!  I will put in one or two pictures here…

This is the Nut Cracker and they actually dance, not only dance but there are about three different scenes in this piece.  Very nice…

Very colorful pieces.

We spent a little more time with Rick, Connie and Del then decided to head on home and relax, it has been a long day.  I may put some pictures in tomorrow of the Steam Engine we stopped to see.  Night Y’all….

Friday December 16th 2011

We had to get up really early this morning, well, Linda had to get up really early, Sparky and I got up at the usual time.  We are going to go to Jackson to Sarah’s graduation from the nursing college there. We left here about 7AM, give or take a few minutes and met Rick and Del at the gas station and we followed them on up to Jackson.  Had a good pretty uneventful drive except for the rain and then an accident on I55 in Jackson that took a few minutes to get around.

We made it to the college about an hour early which was good.  I got a few pictures and thought this was a good one.

Sarah chose this college because it is a Christian University!  Good for Sarah!

This is the best picture I have of Sarah receiving her pin.  Very hard to get good pictures because the ones that had already received theirs are coming back to sit down, as you can see.  It was a very good ceremony and not a drawn out affair.  There are two more graduation ceremonies today and looking through the program there are a bunch graduating.  Wonder how many graduate in June?

We didn’t stay long after the ceremony ended, wanted to get back early, Sparky had to stay by himself all day!!  He did good!.  We got lost on the way home, well, not lost, Tom Tom took us a different way which was the long way!  Oh well, guess it is good for some things.

Went to Rick and Connie’s tonight and played Zilch again.  Steve and Pam were there and we had a great time.  We weren’t going to stay long just long enough to say our good byes and get home.  Well, that didn’t work, we were still there at 10:30PM!

Stopped at Wal Mart for water and gas.  Wanted to have both before we leave in the morning, if we leave. Gas was the cheapest I’ve seen in a long time.  Have to have a gift card at Murphy Oil to get it though.

 

We had taken Sparky over to Rick and Connie’s, don’t like to do that but I guess they put up with him.  He sure makes himself at home.  Took about an hour for him to finally settle down though.

Well, time to stop the rambling and say Night Y’all..

Thursday December 15th 2011

Today is lazy day!!  We don’t plan on doing anything, of course that is subject to change!!  Sparky and I got up early of course and we went and did our walking and playing with the tennis ball. 

We just cleaned a little in the camper and then Rick called and asked if we wanted to go to Cuevas for fish.  Guess that sounds pretty good.  Their fish is some of the best!

A little later in the day we found out that Johnny Merle was getting worse. She has a bad back and can’t get the pain to let up. Not sure what it is but any back problem is a real pain.  Connie took her to the emergency room after calling the doctor and the did a cat-scan(?), no it was an MRI and they didn’t find anything wrong so it must be the muscle spasms.  She is on so much medicine she can’t take muscle relaxers so they gave her a shot of morphine.  Put her in a real stupor,  but not sure if it helped the pain much or not.

Rick and Del picked us up around 5:30 PM and went the mile or two to Cuevas Fish House.  It wasn’t crowded at all but I imagine Thursday isn’t a real popular day like Friday or Saturday. I had the waitress take a couple pictures…

Definitely not a fancy restaurent, but the food is great, Linda even liked it, and didn’t get sick or anything!!!  Connie stayed home with her mom so we picked her up a box for her supper, there was fish in the box…

I will see if I can find a picture of Johnny Merle….

Not a good picture but the only one I could find.  I think she likes the recliner but now that her back is hurting, well, she can’t get comfortable in any position.

OK, we ate to much tonight but it sure was good…time to say Night Y’all..

Wednesday December 14th 2011

I want to go back to the picture of Virgie and her family and put the names to the faces…for you Connie!

OK now, in the back row from left to right -  Linda, Connie S. Rick S.  Pam S and the guy behind the chair is Steve S.  and kneeling is Del. Virgie is sitting in the chair and on the right side is Sarah S and her sister below her is Anna Grace S.   Maybe I should put them together… Del is the oldest son of Miss Virgie then Rick and his wife Connie, then the youngest is Steve and his wife Pam and two daughters Sarah and Anna Grace.  Sarah is graduating from College Friday and we plan on going to the graduation.

Back to today, we had some things to do today, I made jalapeno bread this morning and Linda finished baking the other meatloaf.  Had to much meatloaf to bake all at one time, well, we didn’t have a pan big enough.  Meatloaf was really good!

Went to Rick and Connie’s for lunch today…red beans and rice…excellent for sure.  We had a good visit, they brought Aunt Virgie over for the day.  She had a big night last night and was kind of tired today but she did play a game of zilch with us!  Can’t remember who won the games, wasn’t the score keeper though, I think Del won one and maybe Linda won one of the games, can’t remember for sure, they were fun games though.

I didn’t go to church tonight, they were having a business meeting and I am not one for business meetings especially at a church I don’t belong to.  Guess I can handle the ones at my own church.

We didn’t do much tonight, watched some TV and went to bed after the weather.  The bed is pretty good with the extra foam mattress, haven’t had the hip aches nearly as bad as before.

Time to say night Y’all….

Tuesday December 13th 2011

OK now I’m on track again.

We made the holiday bread this morning!  Even have a picture of us working together.  Linda made the fruit for the inside and I made the bread.

I didn’t take a picture of the finished product but it turned out pretty good.  Linda bought a couple of small fruit cakes and I think this tastes better than either one of them, not bragging of course, but it does taste very good.

Linda fixed up her meatloaf and we baked almost all afternoon.  We didn’t get time for a nap.  She had the meatloaf that took almost an hour and I had five loaves of bread, more than I planned on, but they have to bake one at a time, the convection oven is pretty small.

Got to the Christmas party where Virgie lives and we were on time but still a little late, doesn’t make much sense does it!  Well, it was supposed to start at 5PM and I think it started about 4:30PM  but we were there before 5PM!

Got a picture of Virgie and her family..

This one turned out pretty good even though some were busy or their eyes closed!!  I’m not a professional for sure!   The only one missing from this picture is Virgie’s daughter, Joan.

Got a picture of a lady sitting on Santa’s lap, she is one hundred and one years old and walks faster than I do… Pretty good..

The lady on Santa’s left is the owner of the home and “Boss Hog” in back is her husband.  I don’t know their names, well, I can’t remember, I think her name is Betty but I could be wrong.

Stopped over at Rick and Connie’s after the party and played another game of Zilch.  I didn’t will again!!!  Del won this time.

Well, we needed to go on home and get some sleep.  We stopped at Wal Mart again to get some jalapeno peppers.  Linda wants some jalapeno bread!  Oh, well, we have plenty of flour.

Took the time tonight to put the topper on the bed.  It makes it a lot taller than before but hopefully it will be better for my hips.  Going to try it out… Night Y’all….

Monday December 12th 2011

It is getting closer to Wednesday but that doesn’t help much, I will have to try hard to remember what we did today!

Let me think now, I know we did something!!! Well, I did get the satellite hooked up and running, got the sewer hooked up and running and Saturday when I hooked up the water I didn’t have any leaks!!  Well, I did have some around the connections on the water filter but that isn’t to important at least they aren’t inside!

I made some bread today.  Just regular white bread and it turned out pretty good.  We took one over to Rick and Connie’s for them and Del who got in later tonight.  I have pictures downloaded but I will wait for tomorrow to post them on the blog.  Actually they were taken tomorrow.

Connie made some beef “poor boys”, wow are they good.  I probably over ate, well, guess that is pretty normal for me.

We played Zilch tonight.  Had a good time, I kept score and I didn’t win, wonder if I need to sharpen the pencil?

Del made it in about 8PM.  Drove straight through from Florida.  I think he figured it took him eleven hours.  I’m not sure where he lives in Florida but I know it isn’t the pan handle.

We stopped at Wal Mart on the way home, bought a memory foam topper for our bed.  The first night in bed my hips were giving me fits.  I think I probably just need to get used to it again but this may help.

We also bought some candied fruit for the “Holiday Bread” that I plan to make tomorrow.  We also bought the fixings for a meat loaf for tomorrow. Now I may have the days wrong but we did get this stuff, not that anyone else would care but I sometimes like to see what I did on a certain day.

To tired to try to put the mattress on the bed tonight.  I will suffer through another night.  Night Y’all….

Oh, we left Sparky all by himself, I think we started on Sunday and we didn’t put him in a cage and he did great.  He was sleeping in the chair when we got home.  Kind of thought he may get into stuff but he was a very good boy!!

Sunday December 11th 2011

Well to tell you the truth, today is Wednesday and I have a lot of remembering to do to get these things in the blog.  Headache time…

We went to church at West Union this morning.  Pastor Bud preached the sermon this morning and guess what???  I can’t remember what it was about.  I knew I should have done the blog earlier, or every day!   I know Linda would remember but she is still sleeping.

After church we came home and Linda fixed some of our…nope can’t remember what we had to eat.

I remember church tonight though… Pastor Bud was preaching from Daniel and it was about the dream he had.  This was very interesting and really quite scary, not only scary but kind of depressing!  The four beasts were four kings which have already been, the fifth one is to come and the sixth one will be King Jesus!!  I guess the depressing part is our country isn’t mentioned in the bible and for the power that the United States has, we won’t even be counted or maybe even a country. I guess the bottom line is the one that owes, or is indebted to some one else is ripe for going down fast, my words.  Not only are we indebted to China we are going deeper in debt and all the talk about a balanced budget is kind of a farce. Our leaders want to spend money, gets back to “greed”.  Depressing!

Oh well, guess I will say good night Y’all…

Saturday December 10th 2011

Well let me tell you that last night we stayed in Frog Hollow and I about froze!!  I got my feet cold and I don’t think I got warmed up until about 2AM! The rest of me was warm but I just couldn’t get my feet warmed up and they weren’t sticking out from under the covers. 

It was really frosty this morning and while walking around the damp air seemed to go right through me.  This is miserable weather and it is really not very cold, I think it is around 27 degrees but this is the bone chilling cold.  I would rather it be 0 degrees with sun and no wind and low humidity. That kind of cold isn’t to bad.

Well, it took awhile to get Linda up and around.  She didn’t want to get out of bed, well, I can’t blame her, it isn’t real warm in here even though the furnace had run off and on all night with the small electric heater running all night continuously!  We finally got on the road about 9:30AM and it was not a real nice day for driving, no rain and very little wind but gloomy.

The day cleared off about an hour after we left Granada MS and was sunny the rest of the day.  It also warmed up.  We stopped in Jackson MS for gas and it was $2.98 a gallon.  Cheapest so far!  The rest of the trip was really quite uneventful, which was nice, really don’t like to have surprise events while driving the camper and pulling the car.

When we got to Picayune and took the off ramp to the RV Park, the gas at the Race Track gas station was $2.95 a gallon and that was the right price to stop and fill up!  I haven’t figured out how much it cost to get down here but will do it later, guessing though, I would estimate around $150. That was for about 480 miles, give or take.  We averaged a little over eight miles per gallon  I would have been happy with 18 or 28 or even 38 but, don’t think I will ever get to that or any of them.

We pulled into the park and Mitchell was waiting for us.  He helped me unhook the car and get backed into the slot.  This park doesn’t have a name!  How did we happen to find it??? Well, last time we were down here we pulled in but didn’t get the phone number so we called Rick and he got it for us so we called and made a reservation.  It is $100 per week which is $60 less than the place we stayed last year at Sun Roamers.  I think this place has wifi but I will use my telephone.  Other than not having rest rooms it has everything else.  Got a picture I just downloaded…

May not be the greatest park in the world but there are only four spaces and they are really big!  I think we will like it here

We took a ride over to Rick and Connie’s and Connie had made chili and that hit the spot.  It isn’t real cold out but cool enough. Linda went with Connie to see Anna Grace in a Christmas musical.  Linda said it was really good.  I stayed with Rick and his mother in law Johnnie Merle.  Rick and I talked almost all the time they were gone.  Guy stuff, lawn mowers, gardens etc…

Had a really nice night but we were both pretty tired and figured it was time to go home about 10PM to try to get some sleep.  Church tomorrow!

Sparky did really good at their house, took awhile for him to settle down but after awhile he got to be a lap dog on any ones lap except Johnnie Merle, she doesn’t want him on her lap.

OK, time to say night y’all…

Friday December 9th 2011

I wonder why I make so many mistakes with the dates???  I see yesterday I posted Friday December 8th 2011!  Guess I will have to change that tonight.

I got up early this morning, guess I am anxious to get started.  I loaded things I had packed and then got Linda up at 8AM.  She started getting stuff together she wanted to take.  I know we are taking way to much stuff but guess we will be able to use it sometime.

We got on the road at 11:20AM and stopped for gas at Kewanee.  It was still $3 a gallon, about ten cents cheaper than Sikeston.  We aren’t in any real hurry and we just chugged on down the road. Stopped in West Memphis for gas and it was cheaper than Sikeston, not much but a little.

We thought about stopping in Memphis, well, not Memphis, but Coldwater at a campground called Memphis South. It would have been to early to stop so we decided to travel on to Frog Hollow in Granada MS.  Figured it would still be light when we arrived and I was right, it was about 4PM and I would have enough time to hook up but it is going to freeze again tonight so we aren’t going to hook up to water.  We can make do, we are camping right?

We had some of Linda’s left over meat loaf, I had a sandwich and Linda didn’t!  She ate hers without the bread, she did use a fork though and I didn’t, well not for the sandwich anyway.  She bought some sauerkraut relish from the camp office.  He loves it, and I think it is OK.

We are going to take it easy tonight.  Sparky has been scared all the time we have been gone but has settled down now and is sleeping on the floor. I just took this picture…

I think he may sleep well tonight.  Hope he doesn’t mind traveling again tomorrow!

Time to say night y’all….

Thursday December 8th 2011

Beautiful day out today, still very cold but the sun is shining and the wind isn’t blowing very hard so I have to say it is a beautiful day!

I guess I decided that I wanted to leave early, Linda didn’t seem to mind but I wanted to get home and get Sparky and get everything loaded in the camper.  I would really like to be able to leave tomorrow.

We headed out and filled up with gas in Ozark or Springfield, it was still $2.97 which wasn’t to bad.  The trip was pretty nice, we stopped at one of our favorite restaurants  for a healthy lunch.  McDonald’s! Their dollar menu is pretty good and right in my price range!

We picked up Sparky before we went home.  He seemed quite happy to see us so I guess he didn’t hold it against us for leaving him there.

When we got home we started packing stuff and loading it in the camper. I am sure we won’t ever use most of the stuff that we take but you never know for sure!

I got the car on the dolly and tied down after a few little problems, mainly my memory.   I didn’t move the camper, I still have it hooked up to electricity and don’t want to unhook it yet.  I worked until dark getting this all done and the temperature isn’t that bad, about forty five I think.  Still got my hands cold.

Linda fixed us some Cream of Wheat for supper.  It was actually pretty good and filling.  Had a cookie for desert.

We relaxed tonight.  Had to take a picture of Linda and Sparky. Sparky played a lot when we got home so he got tired and it actually isn’t very warm in here….

I think they need to relax a little.

Well, time to say Night Y’all…

Wednesday December 7th 2011

Pearl Harbor Day!  There wasn’t a lot on TV about it being Pearl Harbor Day and I even forgot it until I looked at the date.  Seventy years is a long time, I wasn’t around at that time. Just hearing all the horror stories of the war it had to have been a nightmare.  Any war is bad and sad, I think I said this before, but a “few” are greedy for power or fame or whatever motivates them but the general population of the world are peace loving people (I think).  We have had a lot of problems in our own country, the “Civil War” for one and I sure don’t understand why people hate people that have actually done nothing to hurt us.  God created us “equal”.  The color of our skin shouldn’t make one hate another.  Oh well, God told Israel to cleanse the Promised Land when they went in and God knew what he was doing, I sure don’t understand all of it!  Deep subject for sure!

I think we have decided to leave tomorrow to head back to Sikeston, it is a couple of days early but this will give us time to pick up Sparky and get the camper packed and we can leave on Friday and be in Picayune on Saturday.  Aunt Virgie’s home is having a Christmas Party and we would like to be there to see her and participate in the festivities.  Sarah will graduate from college that week also so we will be there for that!  We will head for Texas after that.  Plans, that’s all they are, plans.  Always can be changed.

I made some cookies, ginger bread cookies!  They are good and they aren’t from scratch.  They are from a mix, Betty Crocker.   They turned out very good and Linda frosted them….just what we needed…

Doesn’t she look happy?  She also made some sausage and egg burritos this morning.  She made enough that we will have left overs for tomorrow!

I went for a walk this afternoon, looks beautiful outside!  It is beautiful outside except for the temperature and the wind.  It is freezing outside, well, not quite but it isn’t much above freezing.  I didn’t walk very far.

I went to church at Friendly Baptist Church where I went last summer.  Some of the people remembered me, I was surprised. He had a good message about the end times, watch out for scoffers and always be prepared because He will come like a thief in the night…BE PREPARED!

Linda fixed pork burgers tonight!  Very good.  Didn’t take a picture of them though, I was to busy eating I guess.

I called James and Janice to see if we could meet at church tonight and go out for pizza after but there was no answer so they may have gone back home for awhile.

Watched some TV tonight.  Washed a few loads of cloths. I think we are ready to leave and get on with the next trip!  Night Y’all…

Tuesday December 6th 2011

Today is our first full day in Branson and it is snowing!  Not hard or anything but it is accumulating on the grass.  Well, the temperature I think is around twenty five degrees.  It is kind of a pretty place here…

It is cold out but at least the wind isn’t blowing!

We have a salesman coming at 10:15AM, one of the things we have to put up with with this time share.  He is supposed to take a survey to find out how the property is and how everyone treated us.  It went pretty fast because Linda told him we bought the time share at a weak moment and I said it was a mistake (not the weak moment part).  He figured out pretty fast that we weren’t going to buy anything else and he gave us a coupon for Montana Mike’s and a couple of coupon books that we more than likely won’t use.

We went to the outlet mall and I bought a pair of beautiful shoes…

I think Croc’s are the ugliest shoes but I need a pair for when I take  Sparky out in the morning so I don’t have to put on my shoes and socks.  May not be real good in snow though.

We went through the Black and Decker store, didn’t buy anything but they did have the under counter coffee pots for around $50 which is better than online but I figure I will use the one I bought for $9 for awhile, quite awhile. Guess I’m kind of cheap…

We went to Montana Mike’s and I didn’t take any pictures.  Linda had the filet mignon and I had a rib eye sandwich.  Hers was really good, mine was pretty good.  I compare it with a sandwich I had back in Sikeston at the motel that isn’t there anymore.  That had to be the best rib eye sandwich I’ve ever had.  Guess I will have to keep on looking.

We came back to the room and it was dark, I thought it was around 9PM but was only 5:30PM!  We watched the news and some more TV.  Not a lot of things on.

I called Mark about my phone and the international text messages I’ve been charged for and he said the best thing to do was to call Sprint and complain.  I did.  They can’t do anything but they did say the calls came from Greece!  I don’t know anyone in Greece and I can’t remember getting a strange text or sending a strange text to Greece.  Sprint says they can’t do anything about it, but the did take off the charges, a whole forty cents.

Not much else going on. I think we will probably leave Thursday.  I’m ready to head South where it is a little warmer, hopefully!  Linda and I aren’t into the shows or shopping so we don’t do a lot here.  Guess we don’t do a lot anywhere we go but being warm IS something we like!

Time to say night y’all….

Monday December 5th 2011

Guess what???  It’s still raining!!  It has rained steady and pretty hard all night!  Have to load the car, rain or shine.  Got wet for sure.  Took awhile to get loaded but we managed.  We knew we would forget some things but that is part of packing I guess.  I know we packed a lot more than we needed but what we don’t use we will take to Mississippi with us.

We took Sparky in to the Vet clinic about 9:30AM and then went to the pharmacy to check on Linda’s two prescriptions.  They looked them up and they were called in but she had just gotten them and couldn’t get anymore until later in the month so they will have to send them to Texas.  That was a waste of time!

We got on the road about 10:10AM and had to keep it pretty warm in the car because we were kind of damp and cold.  After about two hours the rain started turning to snow.  The temperature dropped from 35 down to 28 before we got to Springfield.  We got to Branson about 4PM after getting lost once in Springfield.  No big deal.  We got checked in and went to our room and turned the heat up.  Also took a couple of pictures of the room.

The place is really nice.  I’m not into this kind of place but guess we will suffer through it…

Castle is on now so I have to say Night Y’all…

Sunday December 4th 2011

It is raining!!  It is raining hard!  Sparky doesn’t want to go out but I think the rain is going to last for a couple of days according the the weather forecast anyway.  He finally did go out though, I had to carry him out but he did a pretty good even though it was raining.

Church was good again this morning.  Rick and his wife sang the special.  Rick is giving up the music department, choir director or what ever…

They have the sanctuary all decorated for Christmas.  They did an excellent job of decorating.

We had the last of our tomatoes from the garden.  The were really good…

We had tomato sandwiches.  Excellent.

Church tonight was good.  Still in Revelation.  Tonight was the neat part where there is no more suffering, dying, pain or anything bad!  Hard to imagine, for me it is impossible, I can’t imagine that!  Guess I just have to believe and wait to see….

We are packing tonight and getting ready for tomorrow.  Sparky knows there is something going on and he is pretty fidgety!  He gets to go to the kennel for a few days.  He has been there before so he should be OK.

It is to wet and rainy to do much loading.  Probably be the same way tomorrow.  The temperature is heading down.  Hopefully it won’t snow or get icy.  Anyway, time to say night Y’all….

Saturday December 3rd 2011

Weather forecast as usual, looks like it is going to be a nice day, the sun is kind of shining, there are some real high clouds that are blocking the sun a little, but I think it will get nice out today.

We invited Jim and June over for coffee this morning…

We had a nice visit.  Jim checks the mail for us and mows the lawn when we are out and about!  Good friends for sure!

I started getting things ready to put in the camper. Actually, they are to go into the car first.

This afternoon I figured I had better try the refrigerator to make sure it works. I plugged it in and turned it on and left it for a couple of hours.  When I went back out it was a little cool but didn’t feel like it was working!  Not good for sure!  I started checking around and it doesn’t look like I have power to the plug for the refrigerator.  Start the generator, still don’t have power.  Check the GFCI in the bathroom and it is OK, HMMMM what next? I know I will check the other outlets to see which ones have power and which ones don’t, sounds like a plan.  Well, the first one on the counter has a red light, must be a GFCI and I think I will try pushing the reset.  Voila!  Now I have power to the refrigerator, I will let it sit for awhile and let it cool off.  Well, during this time I noticed on the counter it looks like a pile of dust, the more I look the more I see.  It is dust and I decided to clean it up.  Took awhile, this dust is really fine, and thick.  After getting most of it cleaned up I wondered what the bed would be like, can’t see the dust but I’m sure it is there, time to strip the bed and wash it all.  It needed to be washed anyway, now it’s done!

Like the way I made the bed????  It is hard to get at with the slide in, well, it’s hard to make with the slide out, just not a lot of room in here but at least the sheets and covers are clean.

Wonder what else I am going to find??  Be nice to have everything ready before leaving.  Working on things on the road isn’t a lot of fun.  I remade the step that we carry along with us.  I have to take it apart because it is to big to store anywhere, so I take it apart and put it in the trunk of the car.  I think now we are about ready to use the camper.

Well, guess that is about all for today….Night Y’all….

Friday December 2nd 2011

This morning is pretty nice, got a picture of a beautiful sunrise, well, pre- sun rise I guess..

The colors were phenomenal!  Nice to see God’s artistry so early in the morning…

We have a busy day today, not going to get started real early, Linda’s appointment with the Dr is at 11:15AM so when we were finally ready it was a little early so we decided to stop at Hinton Park and pick up my last check for the year.  Talked with Mark for awhile and he asked if we didn’t sell our house right away and all things fell into place if I would at least come back and mow grass.  I love mowing grass so I said I would if he still needed me.  His son doesn’t get out of school until June so that would work out.  We will be going to California in June for Jacob’s graduation from UCSB.  We are going to go out for about three weeks and we will tent camp on the beach, sound like fun???  We will see.  One reason we decided on the tent camping is because all the kids and grandkids will be their except for Jacob and he will be staying in the dorm.

Got Linda to the Dr on time, he said she is doing fine and will give her prescriptions for three months at a time.  Didn’t happen.  She got one and the others are just one month.  This isn’t good, we leave Monday and they are closed tomorrow so we will have to stick around Monday to get her other prescription, what a bummer!

Dropped Linda off at Wal Mart and I went to get the oil changed in the car, then I went to Wal Mart and got another battery for the camper.  This one is for the engine.  Very expensive even at Wal Mart.

Linda got another sleeping bag but I think we will wait on the tent for awhile, we won’t need it for a few months.

Well, except for Linda’s prescriptions, we got all the things done we needed to do, I think.

When we got home I changed the battery in the camper and this one works great. Wonder what else is going to go wrong.

Going to be a lazy night, we invited Jim and June over tomorrow for a little get together before we leave.  I will have to get another picture of them.

Time to say Night Y’all…

Thursday December 1st 2011

Like I said the time is flying by and it seems to be going faster all the time. It is a beautiful day today but is very cold this morning.  I think it made it down to about 25 degrees but there isn’t any wind.  This will be a short one today because we didn’t do anything.  We stayed home and tried to keep warm.  Outside this afternoon it was great.  I could stand out in the sun and get warmed up!!  Love it!

Linda made spaghetti for supper, I think it is some of the best I’ve ever had.. She used leftover meatloaf and as Mr. Food says…”it’s ooooh so good!”

She did a fantastic job on this spaghetti!  Oh, she used sauce we bought at Aldi Grocery Store.  That is some excellent spaghetti sauce!  Spicy!

Not much else to say for today, tomorrow we have a lot of running to do to get ready to leave on Monday.  Will report tomorrow on tomorrows activities.  Night Y’all..

Wednesday November 30th 2011

Last day of November!  Two more weeks and we will be heading to Mississippi then on to Texas where, hopefully, it will be a lot warmer than here!  Cold this morning but not quite as cold as they had predicted! Still froze though.

Got a picture of Sparky sleeping…

I think he gets cold and likes to burrow his nose to keep warm.

I’m going to say we didn’t do much today and go on to something that I’ve been thinking about…

Obama, on the campaign trail, was talking of extending the 2% income tax cut for another year or what ever.  Now, I’m not a politician or a statistician, but when he says he is looking for a place to pay for this cut I have to think, it is already in place, where is it coming from now???  He wants to tax the rich, would it hurt them?  Probably not. Is it right?? Probably not, would it hurt the working person to pay the extra few dollars to the government again???  Probably not, we paid it before. But for the fun of it, why don’t we put an extra tariff on imports of like 1% and the things that are American (made in a foreign country) put a 2 or 3% tax on those items! I own a Toyota Corolla which if you didn’t know is made in the USA, but a Dodge Ram Truck I bought was made in Mexico, that was deflating because I figure it was made right here in the good old USA.  Take a look in the store and see how many things you see made in the USA.  Not many, but if the 1% tariff on all these items were added to the government coffers, I think the payroll tax deduction of 2% would be a paid for plus.  Maybe some of our people would even start producing things here in the USA and then there would be more money for the government, from the people working, to squander or whatever they do with it.

I was wondering also what our trade deficit is?  I don’t hear much anymore about the trade deficit, think they are ashamed to talk about it? We need more jobs here in the USA to cut the trade deficit.  Importing oil should also be curtailed.  We seem to have plenty but for some reason we aren’t allowed to get it so we pay our friends in foreign countries $100 a barrel.  I think we should put a 10% tariff on imported oil.  I won’t say anything about tree huggers though.  Trees are nice.

I thought about a lot of other things that I won’t go into like the greed here in the USA, well, maybe I will.  I worked in a company that was union. Unions aren’t all bad but after three years working there our contract came up and the economy was really going strong so our wages, my wages, went from approximately $3.50 an hour to $6.50 an hour over the next three years.  Nice chunk of change!  That has been a lot of years ago but the company I worked for went bankrupt two years after I retired.  I was up to around $18 when I retired but the thing of it was that the imported product from overseas was so much cheaper (quality also) that we couldn’t compete anymore.  Foreign countries don’t bargain with employees.  If you want to work you will take what we pay you!  Not here. Greed…

OK now I will quit…have a great night y’all….