Gate Guarding

Gate Guarding

Monday, August 31, 2009

travel Day to Plains, KS

We got up Sunday morning and started getting the RV ready for travel. We are heading to Plains, KS today to see Dana & Russell and the kids and grandkids.

Teri & Lynnie and the kids were coming out to say goodbye so we were trying to get everything ready to go.  When they got here, Ryan and Lynnie were helping Mac finish, when... UhOh the landing hydraulic jacks on the front of the RV quit working. So much for getting on the road early. Mac & Lynnie worked on them and found a couple of loose wired that they fixed and changed some breaker or little circuit box. YEAH! Now it is working!!  We got the Rv all hooked up and were on the road about 12:30.

Us in front of the RV

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Mac, Lynnie & Teri talking about the RV

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Teri & Lynnie

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So now we are off and we text Dana and let her know we are on the road. They text back and tell us that they will probably be at the hospital in Liberal as Ashley was having contractions. She is almost 5 weeks early. She's not due until October 4th.

We got to Plains and got the RV set up at a small Motel/RV Park. We took off over to Dana's house. She had called and told us that they were going to keep Ashley in the hospital and she was going to be kept on complete bed rest in the hospital until the baby is born. The doctor would like her not to deliver for at least another 5 days, but that may not happen.

We had dinner at Dana's and got to see Britny, Dakoda, Sami, Jaelynn, Crystal, & Brylee, our great granddaughter that was born last month. She is adorable!!

Grandma Dana, Brylee and Jaelynn.

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Aunt Britny and Brylee

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Grandma Nette and Brylee

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Jaelynn is growing like a weed and starting to talk all the time. She is a character...

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After dinner Mac & I and Dana & Russell took off and went to Liberal to see Ashley. She looked good but you could tell that she was nervous with all the problems that are going on. She had several contractions while we were there and we will see how the night goes and if the doctor will let her go ahead and try to deliver.

We left the hospital and dropped Dana & Russell off at their house and she will call us if they hear anything from the hospital before morning. Who knows, tomorrow when I post again, we may have another baby....and then again, not.

Hugs to everyone!

Sunday, August 30, 2009

Saturday in Kingman

We woke up Saturday morning and just took it easy getting around.  We got our showers and I sat down to write Friday's blog while Mac sat and watched TV.

It was really nice not having to rush around on a tight schedule. We lounged around and then decided to eat a sandwich before heading over to Teri & Lynnies. Lynnie was going to cook "Yard Tacos" for supper. We have never had those before so we were very curious about what they were. We got over there about 2:00 and sat around and visited most of the afternoon.

Late afternoon, Teri & I headed to the grocery store for all the ingredients for the Tacos. Wow these things have about everything but the kitchen sink...just kidding. We purchased ground beef, breakfast sausage, pork, bacon, onions, green peppers, potatoes, tortillas, shredded cheese and salsa. They already had the Chorizo, tomatoes, and sour cream.

When we got back to the house we started chopping all the veggies and slicing the pork tenderloin. Lynnie went out to the garage and got the large disc cleaned and on the cooker to heat up. Ok, now here is where it gets tricky..hope I remember what all is in these "Yard Tacos"

Cook the bacon & then take out for later...only need the bacon grease. Now put in the following ingredients in this order..I hope:

Pork, Ground Beef, Cubed Potatoes, Breakfast Sausage, Chorizo, sliced Green Peppers, quartered Onions, Taco Seasoning and then chunks of Tomatoes. Serve on flour  and corn tortillas. Add sour cream and Shredded Cheese and Salsa. I think there must have been enough food for 20 people! They were very good!

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After dinner Teri & I took Samantha some dinner as she had to work.

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Here is Ryan:

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Didn't get a photo of Jaden or Kyle for some reason...lol

Teri and I took a ride around town because I wanted to take some photos of the quirky side of Kingman. Here is a photo of some Flamingos that are in someone's yard. These are made out of metal and are about 6' -7' tall!

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The other photos I wanted to take are of someones front yard. They carve all kinds of items...see for yourself:

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After taking the photos we headed back to Teri's and spent the rest of the evening visiting and Teri & I made a couple of necklaces for work. We left about midnight and came back to the RV to get some sleep since Sunday would be a travel day to go to Dana and Russell's for a few days.

We have had a great few days here with the kids and look forward to doing it more often now that we are both retired.

Hugs to everyone!

Saturday, August 29, 2009

Retirement....mmmm feels good!

We have been getting ready for our first trip as retirees, and it feels soooo good!

Thursday morning we went to see mom at the Re-Hab facility and attended her Care Plan Meeting to find out all the info on her care and progress. She has not done very well this time at rehab. She is having breathing problems and has a lot of swelling in both feet. We visited with her and gave her goodbye hugs and kisses and we were off back to the house to get the RV hooked up and on the road.

We finally left the house about 1:00pm for our first destination: Kingman, Kansas to spend some time with Teri, Lynnie, Kyle, Samantha, Ryan and Jaden. Kami won't be home as she lives in Hays. We will be sorry that we didn't get to see her!

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We made it to Kingman at about 4:50pm and went to the park to get the RV set up. Here is our site. Not anything grand and definitely not a destination place, but for the three nights that we will be here it is more than fine. we have full hookups with 50amp electric and are within walking distance of a grocery store, Alco, and several eateries.

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We finished setting up and then headed over to the School for Ryan's 8th grade football scrimmage and Kyle's High school scrimmage. Kyle is a Senior this year. They both did great in their scrimmages and after that was finished we went to Houdini's to get something to eat. Samantha works at Houdini's so we got to see her for a little while also.

After dinner we went back to the RV for a good nights sleep.

Friday Mac and I just took our time getting around as Teri had to work for a few hours. Lynnie was working all day and the kids were in school. We decided to take a drive around town and then we drove out to the State Park to see what was out there.

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Teri called and wanted to know if we could take lunch to Samantha so we headed to McDonald's to get her order. When we left there we drove by the kid's house here in Kingman. It is really nice. Here is a photo of their home:

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We spent the evening visiting and just relaxing.

Saturday morning was a slow morning for me. I am still not feeling up to par, and now I am dealing with Kansas allergies on top of that.

I figured that I needed to get the blog caught up since I told myself that I would post a blog about everyday that we are on this journey. We will be heading over to Teri's for the afternoon. Lynnie is going to cook "Yard Tacos" for supper. I will fill you in on what that all involves. I know they are cooked outside of a large farming disc over a burner. Can't wait to try that!

Well, we are off for our last day here in Kingman. I will fill you in on all the days fun in my post tomorrow!

Hugs to everyone!

Friday, August 21, 2009

Closing in on Retirement and New Great Granddaughter

I know it has been awhile since I posted anything. I have been sick with an upper respiratory infection and have felt really bad for the last couple of weeks. No excuse really, but just haven't felt like doing much.

I have one more day until retirement!! My last day will be Monday, August 24th!  Yipee!!!

 

We have some great news! Our granddaughter Crystal, had her baby on August 12th!! Brylee weighed in at 8 pounds. We were sent a couple of photos of her and I took the rest off of Facebook...lol 

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Tyrel Crystal and Brylee

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Jaelynn and Brylee

She is adorable! She also looks very alert for someone just a few hours old. We will be seeing Crystal and Brylee next week when we make our way west to see them and Dana, Russell, Brit, Dakoda, Sam, Ashley & Jaelynn in Plains, Ks. We will also either stop in Kingman first to see Teri, Lynnie, Kyle, Samantha, Ryan & Jaden for a couple of days or see them in Plains at Dana's.

Britny has her first volleyball game of the season on Tuesday, Sept 1st so we will be there to watch her play. That is one thing that we will enjoy about our retirement, being able to spend more time with our kids and grandkids!!!

After the visit to Plains we will head south to Amarillo to see Chris & Dusty for a few days. We only see them about 1-2 times a year so this will be a good visit. They both work so we will visit around their schedules.

Mac's sister, Linda, and her daughter Jan and two boys will be in Amarillo over Labor Day weekend so we will get to see them also.

Then we will leave Amarillo on Friday, Sept. 11th and head west to Lamar, Colorado for a Cousins Reunion. Mac hasn't seen some of his cousins for several years and with all of our ages you just never know what might happen.

I need to try to do the same with my cousins also. Some of them I have seen recently but some of them I haven't seen in many years!

My mom has been in the hospital again and is now in a Re-hab facility just 8 miles away. She is doing better but not sure how long she will be there. She's still having breathing problems and the therapy is pretty hard on her.

We listed our Pontoon boat on craigslist on Tuesday morning and in less than 24 hours we had had 40 phone calls and 8 emails about it.

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We sold it on Wednesday! Some of the people were not happy that we didn't wait and give them an opportunity to buy it but you just never know what will happen so we sold it to the first person that came to look with money in hand. He is picking it up on Friday afternoon.

Now if we can just sell or get rid of the rest of the stuff inside of this house so we can finish the work we need to do inside and get this house listed to sell! We have decided to have a garage sale the end of September when there is a City-Wide Sale day here in town....there are hundreds of people that show up that weekend just for those sales. Hopefully we will be able to get rid of a lot of stuff. Then we will donate some other things and take some things to the local auction to get rid of. We have told the kids that if there is anything that they want to let us know. We will try to split up some of those things between them.

Well, I had better get this finished because the man is here to pick up the pontoon!

Hugs to all!!!

Sunday, August 2, 2009

A Re-cap of July

I have been very lax with keeping our blog updated.July was kind of crazy around here.

My mom had been in the hospital and then moved to a Rehap facility so that she could get her strength back. She has had doctors appointments to follow up on her progress.

Also, we had family here over the 4th of July. It was busy, busy. Boating, some drinking, and lots of fireworks.

On the 17th we headed west on our way to a baby shower for our granddaughter, Crystal. We stayed in Pratt, KS on Friday night and went on in to Plains, KS on Saturday morning. We had a great visit and Crystal had a great shower and received a lot of nice gifts. Here are a few photos of the Baby shower.

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Those are only a couple of the gifts that she received at the shower.

We also got some new photos of our grandkids that were there.

Here is Samantha

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Ashley and Jaelynn

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Britny

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Sam

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Ryan

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Jaden

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and Dakoda

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This is our daughter Dana...I think she was a little stressed over the shower.

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and Jaelynn was just trying to find something to play with...lol

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After the shower, we went back to Dana and Russell's house to visit for awhile. We finally took off to head back to Pratt and our motel about 6:30pm. Teri was going home so she followed us as far as Pratt.

We had decided that we were going to go to Playa Azul to eat Mexican since Teri had told us how great it was. Her and the kids decided to join us for supper. We filled up on the Great food and enjoyed the company.

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This bowl is like chicken & steak fajitas mixed in a special sauce. It is huge!

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Mac's empty bowl...

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No we didn't eat it all..we had enough left for another meal at home...yummy

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and the only photo the kids took of me was licking the honey off of my fingers...lol

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The rest of the month was spent working and more doctor's appointments. Mac went to see his ENT doctor and the growths are back on his vocal chords so the doctor is referring him to a Vocal Chord Specialist to see what his suggestion will be. He will see the specialist on September 15th. Also, he has quit smoking. YEAH! That will sure help him.

Oh yea...I will be retiring as of August 24th! I may still do some call in work for them, if I am available.

We will be heading west and south to Texas on September 1st through Pratt, KS to see Teri and family and on to Plains, KS to see Dana and family, and then on to Texas to get the vehicles inspected, and so Mac can get his new Texas drivers license. Then on to Amarillo for a few days to see Chris and Dusty. Then we will head back home and do the same visits in reverse...lol

Also, the outside of our house is almost all painted!. I spent the weekend working in the office sorting through papers and boxing things up to sell. At least I got a little accomplished.

Well I think that about catches everyone up on what all has been going on around here.

Hugs to all!!!!