Happy Thanksgiving!

Before I start on my ramblings...I would like to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving. I hope you all will be enjoying the holiday.

Mac and I are going to take my mom and brother out for dinner this year. That is nice for me because I don't have to cook and cleanup all day.

None of our kids or grandkids will be traveling here so I just don't want the mess.

It has been a long week...we have spent time with our financial advisor and found out that we are not in as bad of shape as we thought we would be. We did find out that if Mac retires on January 2, 2009 instead of December 31, 2008 he will lose $51,000.00 in his retirement account. It is the was it is figured. If he retires the 31st of December they will use the rate as of August 15th, which was still good. So that is what we decided to do. He actually only has to work next Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and will be on vacation the rest of the year...

I have a list of stuff for him that should keep him busy..lol

Really, we have some things in the house that need to get finished so that we can get it on the market, so this works out ok. I'm just jealous because I will still be working for awhile yet.

Also, we got some news this week that we may have one of our grandsons come to stay with us for awhile. He has been living with his dad and that is such a bad environment. Will keep you updated on how that is progressing. This is our grandson, Jordan.

We are going to see him tomorrow to see if he will be willing to come here for a while.

I went to the beauty shop yesterday to get a trim and get my hair colored. I had it cut off about 5 inches when we went to Missouri and had my hairdresser cut about another inch off and had it thinned and textured. She did a 3 color procedure on it and I really like it but was totally shocked when I looked in the mirror. My hair was dark blonde with red and lighter blonde highlights and now it it a medium brown with blonde and red highlights..wow what a change but I think I needed that. I was getting in a rut and this has kind of lifted my spirits.

Well, I am hoping that we can get some more sorting done this weekend, but we will have to wait and see.

Good luck to Jim & Dee on their search for the Pinehurst tomorrow! I hope that it is just what you are looking for!!

See you in chat!

Life is not measured by the breaths you take, but by the moments that take our breath away...

Where Did Fall Go?

This is for my chatter friend Dee. She says that I should write more often so that she will at least know that I am still ok...

Today we woke up to temps in the 30's. Where did Fall go? It seems like summer ends and we go straight into winter. When did that happen?

I sure didn't get done today what I had planned to do. I worked in the office for awhile and got quite a bit of stuff ready for the trash. Need to pack some of the stuff that I have sorted I have sorted. Maybe tomorrow.

Mac even went grocery shopping for me today.

I haven't been feeling very good for a couple of days now and I woke up this morning with a headache, sore throat, and achy feeling all over. I just kind of lazed around the rest of the day. I feel like I should be doing something, but just can't seem to make myself get motivated.

Mac and I went to the Ear Nose and Throat doctor last week before we headed to Missouri for my Aunt's funeral. Well the doctor told me that my growths on my thyroid are only a little larger and won't be needing any surgery at this time. I will have to have another sonogram in 12 months. Now Mac on the other hand...the growths on his vocal chords are growing back. They have grown back about 20 - 25% but the doctor doesn't want to do surgery since they are still so small. He is going to have to have hernia surgery sometime before the end of the year, and if he does, then Dr Metz will take the growths at the same time.

Thanksgiving is just around the corner. Where has this year gone? I don't think that we have any special plans for Thanksgiving this year. The kids all have plans with their family so we will probably just take mom and Jerry out to eat.

Mac is really close to time for his vacation to start. He starts on November 26th, and retires on Jan 2nd. Then he starts his Environmental Inspection Job around April 1st. He's determined not to start sooner because he doesn't want to miss the Kerrville trip...lol
He will be on vacation for about 4 months and I have a long list of things to get done around here so that we can get this house on the market as soon as possible since I will still be working. Maybe. I'm ready for a long vacation too...permanent..lol but if he is going to be working out of town a lot, and I can't go with him full time because of my mom and my brother, I guess I might as well work. If I still have a job.

Well, I'm gonna get off here and check out the chat room!

Life isn't measured by the breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away...

Long Weekend

Well we finally made it home from Missouri.

Mac and I had doctors appointments in Kansas City on Thursday and we had decided that we would just leave from there and head on to Seymour, Missouri and see if we could make it in time for my Aunt's visitation service. We got there about 7:30pm and went inside. I haven't seen some of my cousins for 10 years! I wasn't even sure if I would recognize them. We spent about 1-1/12 hours at the funeral home visiting with family.

We then went to check in to our motel. It's a good thing we were only staying there one night. There was no air conditioning...

We got up Friday morning and showered and dressed and headed over to Holman-Howe Funeral Home for the service. It was a very nice service. We had lunch at the church and then headed out to my cousins for the family to gather. We visited and were introduced to all the new family members. This was the nice part of the day. We took some photos and got new addresses to exchange cards and letters. We left Harold & Joyce's about 5:30pm and headed out to see an uncle & aunt on my dad's side that I hadn't seen in several years. We visited with them for about an hour and then headed on to Springfield, Mo to check into our motel.

Saturday we went to Camping World in Strafford, Mo to see if that Augusta had made it in. Of course it hadn't so we ended up buying a few things we needed for the RV and took off to Bass Pro. We needed some wood chips for our smoker. We ended up spending about 2 hours there looking around and going through the Health Fair they were having.

When we left we started talking about where we wanted to go for a late lunch and decided to go to Ozark, Mo to "Lambert's Cafe" Home of the Throwed Rolls. It was great!! Prime Rib was their special and we both ordered that. By the time they had brought around Fried Okra and thrown a few Hot Rolls our way we were almost full...and the main course hadn't even come!!! Well dinner came and we started on the main course and more servers came around with Fried Potatoes with Onions, Macaroni with tomatoes, Black Eyed Peas, and of course more Thrown Rolls. We were stuffed.(:)

Then we left Lambert's we decided that we were close enough to Branson to drive on down to look around. Saturday was the first night of the Christmas Shows and several of the Theaters had already decorated the outsides with Christmas lights and decorations. We spent a couple of hours there looking around and started back to Springfield.

We decided to make it an early night since we were leaving to start home on Sunday morning.

Today we got up and showered, packed up all our purchases and luggage. Got it loaded in the car. I had Mac take me over to the "Super Cuts" in the shopping center next to the motel and I got right in and had my hair cut. Yep..got about 4-5 inches cut off...

We left Springfield about 12:30 heading home. I took a few photos of the fall colors..It is very pretty here this time of year.

I got a chuckle out of this Exit Sign...where do you think the rest of us humans are supposed to live???

We stopped at Osceola, Missouri at Osceola Cheese Store...Yummy. We bought some different cheeses and some beef sticks. We also had some homemade ice cream cones. I had Butter Pecan and of course Mac had Vanilla. They were wonderful. Stop there if you ever happen to pass by.

We missed our turn and ended up going about 60 miles out of the way. I have included a few photos of Truman Lake since we ended up going by a branch of it on our long way home...lol

Here is my chauffeur for the weekend..Isn't he great!

We got home and took a plant and some other things over to my mother since she was not able to make the trip to the funeral. She said that she had been sick all weekend so it is a good thing that she didn't try to go.

Well, it's been a long weekend and time to get some rest. I'll see you all on chat.

Right now, after the loss of my aunt, I can really relate to the following quote..

Life isn't measured by the breaths you take, but by the moments that take our breath away...

Sad News

We got some sad news yesterday. My mom's sister passed away Tuesday. She had a long good life. She would have been 93 on Christmas day this year. She had been sick and in the hospital for about 2 weeks and had been home for one week. Yesterday she told her daughter that she wanted to see her kids, so her daughter called all her siblings and they came to the house & spent some time with her. She told them that she needed to rest for a while and went to sleep and never woke back up. This is a photo of my mom, her sister and two of her brothers. She had one sister and four brothers. My mom(2nd from left) and the brother on the farthest right are the only 2 still alive. My mom turned 80 October 8th and her brother turned 90 in July.

Her service is Friday morning in Seymour, a small town just south and east of Springfield, Missouri. Mac and I will be leaving tomorrow after we go to Kansas City for our Doctor's appointments. My mom's health will not allow her to travel so we are going. She would really like to go, but she has emphysema and has a lot of trouble breathing and is pretty weak. I will worry about her while we are gone but our daughter will check on her everyday.

Now on to some better news. Mac has been talking to a dealership in Springfield that carries the Heartland Augusta, so we will stay in Springfield Friday and Saturday to go and see him in person. We will also look at the Augusta again and spend a little more time in it exploring the storage areas and the furniture in more detail. Hopefully we will be getting closer to making a purchase soon. We have to buy a new truck first since the one we have now is just a Silverado 1500. We need to get busy if we are going to get everything together for Kerrville..lol

Here are a couple of photos of our Courthouse here in town.
Then:
and Now:

It is on the Historic Register. I actually worked there in the early 1990's as a Personal Property Appraiser. in the photo above..very far left, second floor..that was my office...

Well I need to get off here and finish packing or we will not be ready to leave in the morning. I will be taking my laptop along so hopefully I will see you all on chat.

Life isn't measured by the breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away...

Weekend Work

This week has been pretty un-eventful. Going to work and coming home. That's about it. Work was pretty slow. I think that is common all over with the economy like it is.

Our granddaughter, Natalie, came to stay the weekend with us on Friday. She wanted to help me work on packing up things in the office to get rid of. I think she just wanted to see if there was anything that she might like to have. And of course she did find a few things!! A big box of stuff to take home. WooHoo...that is less that I have to worry about.

She was also wanting to get her hair cut so I called and made her an appointment. This is Natalie with her new Doo. Cute, Huh?

We packed up craft supplies and she found some things that she wanted to take home for her and her sisters. We also went through old business papers and shredded some that we could get rid of.

Natalie found some construction paper and card stock that she wanted to know if she could have..That's when we started her box.

Mac made steak sandwiches for supper and they were yummy. We then settled in to watch Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. We popped popcorn and vegged out with the movie.

Natalie had a birthday party of one of her good friends to go to today. They went to watch High School Musical 3 and then went for pizza and to an arcade. She had a great time.

Mac went to play golf. I stayed home and did laundry and worked some more on the office. Someday I might get everything sorted in there. I really think this is going to be the hardest room of the whole house. There is so much of old business information in there, plus craft supplies and just lots of paperwork. uuuggghhh...

Here is a photo of our cat, Shadow. I don't think he is gonna like living in an RV. He is so spoiled and gets anxious when we put him in the truck. We actually took him to the lake with us one day and put him on the pontoon. He got so upset that he started hyperventilating and foaming at the mouth. Mac had to park the boat and take him back to town.

Well I guess I'll be off for now. Another work day tomorrow..Man I can hardly wait until I don't have to say that again. Mac goes on vacation November 26th and will retire on Jan 2nd. We will hopefully be able to get the house on the market before then. He will be off until the end of March so we can go to Kerrville and then he will start doing his Environmental Inspections.

Life is not measured by the breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.

Mom's 80th Birthday, Work, and Packing

Well Halloween is almost upon us. We usually have a lot of kids that come to our house for trick or treating. With Halloween on Friday this year, it will probably be pretty busy at our house. We just love seeing the little kids in their costumes.

My mom just turned 80 on October 8th and we had a surprise birthday party for her on Saturday, October 11th. My sister came up from Oklahoma and brought 2 of her grandkids with her for the weekend. We also brought my brother over from the assisted living facility where he lives. I ordered her a cake and made invitations and handed out to all the ladies that live in her apartment complex. I also let them know that it was a surprise so they wouldn't give it away. Here are a few photos from her party. Here is her cake..

This is a photo of my mom and me with our oldest daughter, Jenni and her two girls, Natalie and Gloria. Wow, four generations.
Here is mom with some of the ladies from her apartment complex. They are just chatting it up...lol
Here is a photo of Mom, me, my brother, Jerry and my sister, Lyvonne. We haven't had a photo taken together for a long time.
Her is Natalie again. She is entertaining us with her Saxophone. It was a little rough since she has only been playing for about 3 weeks, but everyone applauded her performance. It made her feel pretty important being included in the party.
Mom's party was a huge success and she was very surprised. I was just relieved that it was over and that she didn't find out.

Work has been very busy and I have had several doctor's appointments. One to the dentist again and another on to my primary doctor for a re-check on the spider bite. The swelling and the bruise are going away but the big lump on the inside is still there and still very painful. He said that we need to watch it for a couple more weeks and if it doesn't go down then they may have to go in and cut it out.
Also, I had to go for my yearly sonogram of my thyroid. Last year I had 1 growth on the right side, 2 on the left side and one in the middle of the thyroid. This year I have 3 on the right side, 4 on the left side and 2 in the middle. My Ear, Nose & Throat doctor called and I have to go in on the 30th for the results and to see if we will be having to do anything more since there are more growths.

Mac went to see his cardiologist on Thursday. He changed some of his medicine this time. Last time his bad cholesterol was too low(how did that happen? lol) and this time it was better. Most of his blood work looked good.
We have been so busy that I have barely had time to keep up on the blogs and read the RV-Dreams forum and journal.

One of our other granddaughters is celebrating her birthday this week. This is Justyce...

This is probably the last photo of the season. This was taken outside of my office building on Friday. The bushes were full of blooms.

I spent today sorting through bracelet and jewelry making supplies and packing it up in a box. This is one box that I will keep.

We worked on a list of kitchen things we will need in the new RV. Now that we have a basic list, I can start sorting through stuff to get rid of.

We just have to decide on when to get the Augusta ordered and find a truck to pull it with. Then we need to sell our TT, Pontoon,Tahoe and Chevy Silverado. That could be a challenge.

We will keep the Camry for me to drive here in town while Mac is working out of town.

Well I need to close for the night. Almost time to get ready for another work week. I will be so glad when I don't have to say that anymore....

Life is not measured by the breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.

Feeling Better finally

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I have been having a problem with a back tooth that has had a root canal and a crown on it.

It started hurting about a week ago on Thursday night, Sept 25th and was swollen by the next morning. Of course my Dentist is closed on Friday's and I had to leave a message on the office machine explaining my problem. One of the Techs happened to come in and heard my message and called me at work explaining that they were closed but would be happy to see my the following Wednesday....?? I made the appointment and called my medical Dr who is a family friend. I asked him if he would call me in some antibiotics to slow down any infection. I picked them up and started taking them right away. It only got worse over the weekend...ohhh I felt like death warmed over...nothing hurts worse than a sore tooth. It makes your whole body hurt. Anyway, when Monday rolled around, I called the Dentist office and told them that I didn't care if they could only see me for 5 minutes to give some other kind of medicine or something, but that they were gonna see me. They told me to come in a 10:30 and when I got there, Sandy, my Dentist said, oh no....I think your tooth is broken below the crown and if that is the case you will need to go to an Oral Surgeon to have it taken out. Great! She took some x-rays and sure enough, it was broken and very infected...duh, I already knew that. So she said that I couldn't wait another day and she got on the phone and called the surgeon in Ottawa and they could fit me in at 1:00pm. So I talked to the Dr that I work for and he said...get out of here and get it taken care of. So at 1:00 I was sitting in the surgeons office waiting to see him. He deadened me up, pulled the tooth, and gave me a couple of prescriptions and sent me on my way. Like a dummy, I went back to work...the pressure was gone but the pain never went away. Gradually the swelling started coming back. So again on this last Friday I called the Surgeons office again questioning if this was normal..Of course the nurse told me "No it is not and we need to see you at 1:15 today" I call my boss again to tell him that I need to leave work to go and that I will be back and open the office as soon as I get back. I showed up at 1:00 and got in to see the Dr at 2:15. He looked at it and said that I didn't have a dry socket, thank god. He took a couple of x-rays and said that the teeth surrounding it looked good. Next he gets this tool out and starts poking around in there(no deadening) and all the sudden it drained and the pressure was gone. By Friday night I was much better and today I have no swelling and not much pain.

So that is the reason I have not posted anything in a couple of weeks.

I took my mother to the Dr in Olathe on this last Thursday to see her Pulmonary Doctor and he told her she was doing good and he would see her in a year. Yeah!

My mother will turn 80 on October 8th. My sister and I decided we needed to do something a little special for her so we are having a surprise birthday reception for her in her apartment complex's community room and are inviting all the women who live there and some other friends. My sister will come from Oklahoma on Friday night and we will bring my brother home from the assisted living facility for the day. I hope it is nice for her.

I have may granddaughter over for the weekend and she has been helping me sort through things in my office. Gosh, what a mess. In between sorting, I have been painting the outside of the front door to match the trim. I couldn't believe how much it had faded over the years til I put a coat of the new paint on it. It's gonna take about 4 coats to cover good and I have only gotten 2 coats on so far.

Mac is counting down the days until he retires from Southern Star. He has been doing some Environmental Inspection on a Construction job that they are doing at the plant and has been working crazy hours. He has been working from about 7am --? 10 - 12 hours per day. This week he worked 14 hours on Wednesday and yesterday he worked 16 hours. He is sooo ready for this construction to be done and things back to normal. Right now it looks like his last say with Southern Star Central Gas will be November 25th and he will be on vacation the rest of the year...not fair!!!

I may just change my last day too...lol

Well that's enough for today...

I have been trying to get a playlist on my blog and have worked on it for several days and can't get it to stay on the blog. I have tried and tried to copy and paste it into a widget and it won't stay in there..anyone have any ideas? Thanks...

Life isn't measured by the breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away...