June ......... Birthdays and Weddings

June is the month for weddings, we all know this, but for me it has always been a month of birthdays also. At least, my birthday. This one was one of those milestone ones. This is the year I start on Medicare. Boy...........that makes me feel old. Some say you get that feeling when you become a grandparent or hit the magic over the hill age. Not me, Medicare did it for me. Maybe it is all the ace and pains that I am getting along with it. LOL. Hopefully, I won't have to use the Medicare very much.

I knew my DH (Dear Husband) was up to something along with my DD (Dear Daughter) as she kept calling him on his cell phone and he would take off around corner to talk in private. What it was, I was not sure, but I knew they were planning something and who am I to spoil their surprise. Yes, they were planning a surprise party and it was fun to have everyone gather to help me celebrate my birthday. To start things off, I had a surprise visit at campground from my friend Dawn on the 10th. I didn't know it then, but she was invited to the party but was leaving on a vacation the next day, so couldn't make it. We had a nice visit and she brought me a plant and some balloons. Thanks Dawn.

From Alicia's Birthday

My birthdays use to always start with a phone call from my mother, very early in the morning. I was born at 8am sharp, and mom always reminded me of it with a phone call on that day. Now I get calls from my three daughters. All three live in different time zones, so first it was Sandy(central zone), then Janis (mountain zone) and then Kim (pacific zone). It was so good to get their calls, means alot to me. Next Roger took me out to lunch, he had called Sandy to join us, but she called and said she was too busy and had too much to do. Another reason to believe something was up. She had called he a few days before asking me to supper at her place, so she was busy cooking (sure). Anyway, Roger felt guilty for her doing all the work, so he took me back to campground and said he was going to stop to see if he can help Sandy with potato salad. Ended up she was done, so he went to get hair cut. That was ok, as I had a nice quite afternoon alone at RV. At 5:30 we went over to Sandy and Brian's, and surprise Jerry and Theresa were there waiting outside. I guess the real surprise to me was who they invited and getting to see everyone. Thanks Sandy and Brian and dear hubby Roger, it was a great birthday.

From Alicia's Birthday

Yesterday was the grand-daughters wedding. This is the first grandchild to get married. It started off as a very stormy day. Park ranger came by to tell us of bad storm coming. It came and was letting up when it was time to leave. We drove to Muscatine for the wedding and it was at the rose garden at Weed Park. (Sure hope that park was named after a person, and not because of weeds) LOL We were first to arrive as Sandy and grand-daughter Emily rode with us and Sandy was doing pictures for the wedding. Since it had just stormed, the roses were covered with rain drops and they were really pretty. We had 2 hours of picture taking then the wedding, so nice the storms stopped and the sun came out for the outdoor wedding. The only problem was the humidity and the sun. After have heat exhaustion a long time ago, I don't seem to do very good in heat or sun. Anyway, it was a very nice wedding and everyone looked so nice. After wedding everyone took off for the reception, which was a little drive out of town, but we found it. Fun was had buy all and the food was great.

From Elizabeth's Wedding

Here we are with the bride, Roger's grand-daughter Elizabeth. Be sure to click on the pictures to take you to the rest of them in my web albums.

We are camping at Squaw Creek Park, which is outskirts of Marion, IA and camping with Roger's brother Larry and wife Sharon and Roger's son and family will be joining us today. They already have their camper set up, just never made it back here after wedding. LOL It is Father's Day weekend, so will have a cookout and enjoy the family.

Till later, happy trails and enjoy your summer.

"May" a busy month

Where to start. We are in Iowa and are now at our 3rd campground. We are only allowed to stay in one campground for two weeks, so it is move every two weeks. We started off at West Overlook on Coraville Dam (North of Iowa City). While there we drove back and forth to Stanwood where we have our things stored in a unit there. The thought was we would sort though everything and have a sale in Stanwood on the day they were to have their City wide sales. This we did, we spent four days hauling things to Matt and Heather's building up town and setting up for a sale. I must say it was quite a job. The sale was on the 8th and after a week at working for it, we made a whopping $118. We both decided it was not worth all the work we put into it. If we had to do it over again, we would of forgotten the sale.

One of my past co-workers stopped in at sale and asked me if I was going to the retirement party the following Tuesday. I hadn't heard anything about it, but said sure. There were 11 bus drivers and attendants retiring and most of them were there when I drove. I had a good time visiting with some old friends and getting a first hand view of why I am glad I am no longer driving school bus. My good friend Julie is retiring after 32 years of driving, I sure wish her well and hope she enjoys her retirement.

From May activities

While at West Overlook, we spent one afternoon visiting my good high school friend, Janis and her mother. She lives not far from West Overlook. Seems the only time we really get to see each other is once a year when we stop. Had a very nice visit with both of them. Found out Janis was going in for knee replacement the following Monday. I haven't talked to her since but hope to make it down to see her once more before we leave.

Our next move was on to Squaw Creek Park. This is a county park and on the outskirts of Marion. The county parks have a coupon book you can buy that brings the cost of camping down buy at least $5 a night. If you get the larger book, you can save $6 a night. We had a nice spot on a hill and a clear view to set up our satellite dish. I must say that was a challenge. After working at it for a time, we called good friend Dick and he came over and after about a half our standing out there moving it ever so little, he got a good signal. I came to the conclusion, I just don't work at it long enough. It is good to have satellite back again. We had been without it since we left Mission. While at West Overlook we weren't even able to get ABC or NBC in on our antenna, so this was a real treat. Thanks Dick for your help.

Our grand daughter, Elizabeth is getting married on June 18th, and what is a wedding without a shower. On the 22nd, my daughter Sandra and I drove to Davenport to attend a wedding shower for Elizabeth. She got some nice things.

From May activities

Next on our calendar was Sabrina's graduation. She hasn't had her party yet, it will be the 5th of June, but we went to the ceremony and afterwards to the house for a cookout. Had a good time. I had gotten an idea from our grandson's graduation to roll money up and give it that way. I went to bank and got 200 one dollar bills and made two rolls of 100 each. One for Sabrina and one for Elizabeth. I taped them end to end, put a few sticky notes along the roll to encourage them to keep on rolling and put the roll in a small purse I had bought. Sabrina and family could not stop laughing and everyone had a ball watching her unroll all the bills and then take the tape off them. I also made each girl an afghan, Sabrina's was orange and lime green and Elizabeth's was purple with purple variegated. Here is Sabrina with her roll of one's.

From May activities

On the 30th we drove to Muscatine to attend Elizabeth's graduation party. I must say, she was not as excited over the roll of ones, but everyone else had a good time watching her unroll them. Sandra took a video of her.

From May activities

Be sure to click on one of the pictures or the link below picture to view all the photo's I took. I think you will enjoy them.

We are now at Morgan Creek Park on the NW side of Cedar Rapids and will be here till the 14th when we will return to Squaw Creek. We went to Riverside casino, South of Iowa City today. Met up with Iowa people from our park in Mission (Valley View Estates) and had lunch and a little gambling. We are not gamblers but did put 4 dollars in and lost it all. LOL We still have birthday parties, a middle school graduation and doctor appointments to take care of, then we will be planning our trip back to Mission.

Till next time, happy trails.

Update

We were in Canton at the "First Monday Trade Days" for 2 days. I went the first day and we walked and walked and walked, bought some things and after 5 hours, I had had enough so we went back to RV. Roger went again on Friday with Dick and Darlene and about noon, Darlene's cousin was parking his RV next to ours, so I tried calling them to let them know. Wouldn't you know, all I could get was voice mail. I tried Dick's phone, Darlene's phone and Roger's phone. I couldn't get anyone. About 1:30PM, Darlene called me wanting to know if I had heard from Roger or if I could get him on phone. Told her I had been trying and no luck. She said, they couldn't find him and if I got him to tell him to go to car. I kept trying all afternoon, couldn't get any of them. Finally at 4:30, Darlene called me to let me know they found Roger and were on their way home. What a day!!!!! Roger came home with some more stuff he found there. Seems he was sitting on bench at gate and Dick and Darlene were at next gate down (1 block away) waiting for him. Dick finally rented a scooter for an hour and found Roger.

Friday night we all got together and Gary (Darlene's cousin) was telling us about his trip to Iowa a few weeks earlier when his mother died. They had gone by way of I-35 and told us about all the construction. I woke Saturday morning thinking about the construction and checked the map for a different route. I had already spent time going over I-35 route, so now I had to start all over. We decided to try something different to bypass the construction. It was a good route and I think we will do it again. Bypassed all the BIG towns and it saved us close to 100 miles. Just goes to prove you don't always have to go with the interstate.

Got into Des Moines on Sunday afternoon and wouldn't you know, rain storm with some hail. We headed out to Sailorville Lake and got a spot across the road from Roger's brother and spent the rest of day visiting and evening visiting with them. Hadn't seen them since our side trip to Corpus Cristy in March. Good to visit and catch up on everything.

Left Monday morning for Iowa City and our next camp ground at West Overlook, at Coraville Lake. We are parked along the lake shore, but haven't gotten to spend much time in RV. After getting here, we spent close to 3 hours trying to get satellite hooked up and running. Have it hooked up, but still not working. Guess I will have to call again to find out what I am doing wrong. I told Roger, I can't keep calling every time we move the RV. Maybe I should take a crash coarse on satellite hook up. We have been running every day, going to Stanwood and our storage unit. Have now gone through everything and moved the stuff we want to get rid of, down to son Matt's place to sell this Saturday. The town of Stanwood is having city wide garage sales. That is one of the reasons we came back early. Will be going there tomorrow to set up and make everything. What a job, we are getting just toooooooo old for all this moving. We still have to move the things we will be moving to Mission, over to Matt's garage to wait till we leave here. Then move it again into a truck, drive to Mission then out of truck. That's a whole lot of moving. I am tired just typing about it. LOL.

That pretty well sums up this past week. We did get some bad news today. Seems Roger's good friend Ron Keeney passed away on April 30th and the service was Monday. Roger's a little upset that he didn't make it to service. He and Ron worked together for many years. We did get to attend Ron and Nancy's open house last summer and had a very nice chat with them.

That is my update. The weather here is getting colder so we have the electric heater going at night. Going to get down in the 30's, and we thought we were coming back late enough that we wouldn't have to worry about that. I only brought one sweatshirt, so hope this cold snap doesn't last too long.

Happy Trails

Woops

I never seem to have anything newsy to write about. We left Mission yesterday morning and drove to Georgetown, TX following our friends Dick and Darlene. We were headed for Canton for the first Monday flea market. We spent the night at a corp of eng. campground at Georgetown and due to the fact they did not have pull through, Dick and Darlene went to Walmart to camp. Ours was a nice quite night of camping for $9 and theirs was free but bright lights and noisy.

From Leaving Mission

We met up at Walmart in the morning and proceeded up I-35 with us flowing them again. Before we made it to our turn off at Waco, Roger found himself trying to change lanes as the lane he was in was ending. He checked his side mirror but didn't see the van next to him. Yes...........he hit it. Not a whole lot of damage, some scratches on the van and a few on our motor home, but Rog wiped them off the motor home. The front fender was a little loose, but nothing major and he fixed it till we get back to Iowa. Here is the damage to the van.

From Leaving Mission

We will be doing flea market for the next 2 days, they are talking of rain..........sure hope it doesn't. Leaving Canton on Saturday morning and will try to make it to Witchita that night. Then on Sunday hope to make it to Des Moines and spend the night camping with Roger's brother at Sailorville Lake.

Happy Birthday, Roger

Where has the winter gone. Here it is middle of April and we are getting things ready for our trip north. So much has happened and time just seemed to fly by. True, we didn't have the best weather here this winter, but it was better then being in the cold up North. There is so much to do around here, if one wants to be busy. I can't say we are over active as we are not gulf players or shuffle board players, but we have kept busy. Buying a new place and moving again has seemed to have occupied most of our winter, but we had some fun also. With the great friends we have made here in the valley, we are blessed with fun and friendship.

Tomorrow is Roger's birthday....................guess I am making a trip to Home Depot to buy him an 8 foot step ladder. He keeps telling me that is what he wants, so guess that is what it will be. He kept telling me, he was going to wait and use his birthday money. Guess what.............no birthday money. We will be going to the parks club house for potluck supper tomorrow night. I am making a tater tot casserole and a watergate cake for him. It should be a nice birthday.

Well, the medical bills are rolling in from my stay in the hospital. So far they aren't as bad as I thought they would be. I am sure there will be more bills to come.

I have my list going of things I need to get done before we can leave, as well as a list of what needs to go back into the RV. We are trying to keep the load small this trip, in case we need the room when we bring our things from storage unit back here. I have gone through RV and taken out a bunch of stuff and I am not taking much for crafts with me. Will be packing it next week. We will be leaving here on Tuesday the 27th along with Dick and Darlene and will be headed for the First Monday Flea Market in Canton, TX. Not sure why it is called first Monday. It runs Thursday - Sunday before the first Monday of each month. We are only planning on staying till Sat. morning and then start towards Iowa. Have a city wide garage sale in Stanwood and we want to get rid of more of our things we have in storage, so will be partaking in it.

For now, hope to see many of you in a few weeks and for all our friends from RGV, counting the time till we will be back here. Happy Trails

Rio Grande Hospital

On the 20th, I was overcome in the afternoon with chest pain and it went all the way around into my back. About an hour after the pain started, I started vomiting and continued all afternoon. It was not a pretty site. About 5PM I called some friends here in the valley to find out where there was a 24hr. clinic I could go to. Those good friends, dropped everything they were doing and came over and drove Roger and I to the Rio Grande Hospital. It is so comforting to know that when it comes to it your friends are there for you. Thank-you Larry and MaryAnn.

I was taken into the emergency room right away and given an EKG, then before I knew it was having needles poked into both my arms. Now I am not an easy one to find the veins, and the guy on the left hand was trying to get an IV inserted (just in case it was needed) and the guy on the right was trying to draw blood. I told him, they usually go in at the back of my hand instead of arm, but he kept trying and I must say, digging around to find something. By this time, I was squealing at both of them. I am not saying screaming as I wasn't really screaming the way I define screaming. After the guy on the right decided he couldn't get anything, he sent in another gal to try. She told me he told her I was a screamer. I explained I had one on each side of me digging for a find and it was very painful.

After a number of EKG's and blood test, they decided my heart was okay and were trying to get me a room to spend the night. I had one ice chip while in Emergency room and did another vomit. I was very dehydrated by this time, as I had been hanging over bathroom bowl all afternoon. They did give me some morphine to easy the pain, after they decided it was not my heart. When the Dr came it to tell us the test on heart came in negative, Roger asked if it could be my gal bladder. He said "What makes you say that" After taking me to a room and getting me settled it, I once again was using the little bag they gave me in case I got sick again. When is this going to stop?

That night I was not hooked up to an IV for fluids and I couldn't keep anything down. I was given medication for pain, thru the IV needle, but that was all. In the middle of the night, I woke up and called the nurse because of pain, and she thought maybe I should try some soda crackers and 7up. I nibbled at the cracker and took about 5 sips of the 7 up and up it came. I called the nurse back to my room and she said then that it could be my gal bladder.

The next morning, I was taken to get alta sound on gal bladder and the teck told me he found stones and inflammation. This was on Sunday and guess what, I guess the surgeons do not work on weekends. I had to wait till Monday and then the gal bladder was removed. Dr. said the gal bladder was dead. Now for the recovery. I was released from hospital on Wednesday night and have been home taking it easy but still trying to keep moving now and then. The first night full day home, I walked to end of block and back and I am now walking around the block once a day. I still have pain in my rib area on right side, but at least I am able to now sleep on both sides at night and that is a big help.

My kids were great, all three of my daughters got together and sent me a lovely bouquet of flowers and they called me everyday and sometimes twice a day. My step daughter sent a card and called and step son called as well. Then there were my friends from the valley, Dick and Darlene came to see me a couple of time, Larry and MaryAnn, and Shirley and Bob who brought a lovely bouquet of yellow tulips. The computer club from Bentsen Grove sent me a nice card. There was even a phone call from one grandson and a close friend from Iowa. Wow, was that ever a pick up to know how much everyone cared. Thank-you all for helping me thru all this.

I must add something here about my experience in this hospital, I was treated well and most of the people were very nice. As a matter of fact, my nurse the first night was from Iowa and she said she was really happy to have me and be able to talk about Iowa. Then there were the two male nurses I had the night after my surgery, they were great, helped me out of bed, into bathroom and off the toilet. I told them they looked more like body guards then nurses and I have never had two big guy like that help me to potty before. LOL The food was nothing to brag about, but I was only on liquid diet for one day after surgery and solid food the day I went home, but I was not impressed. The thing that bothered me the most was the noise. If I didn't keep my room door closed I could hear all kind of loud talking outside the door. I mark this up to the fact that all the nurses have these computers they wheel around on tall carts and they would plug them into outlets in hall outside my door and stand there and chat between themselves. I was amazed they had these computers in hall working on things and not at a nurses station. The other odd thing we are not use to is all visitors are greeted in lobby and must have a pass to go to someones room for a visit and only 2 people at a time.

That brings you up to date on my gal bladder, I will be slowly getting stronger and be able to do more, but I don't want to over do it. I will also be seeing my family DR. in Cedar Rapids when I get back and bringing her up to date on my experience. Till later, everyone stay healthy and thanks again for all your support.

Brownsville - Zoo

On Tuesday, March 3rd, we met up with our good friends, Larry and MaryAnn and took off for a day trip to Brownsville and the Gladys Porter Zoo. This is really the first zoo that both Roger and I have visited. We had been to the small Bever Park Zoo in Cedar Rapids, but this was a first for both of us. This zoo is not a large one, but much larger then Bever Park. We made a day of it, following the zoo map and trying to see it all. We took many pictures and got to see everything we wanted except for the gorillas and the butterflies. I guess that will give us an excuse to make another trip in future years. It is not something I would want to visit every year.

From Trip to the Zoo

The zoo was packed with school kids and I must say..............after a while.........they were getting to me. I guess I just have a hard time dealing with noisy, rude kids. I thinks we counted some 12 school buses parked in lots at the zoo. That's a lot of kids.

After the zoo we set the GPS and headed for a place to eat. We were looking for a Chinese, but the GPS never did find it, took us to a Golden Corral, so that is where we ate. What a fun day to spend with good friends.

On our way down here last fall, we had some problems with a tire, never did get if fixed, so it was time to get new tires before heading north in a couple of months. We took the RV to Pharr and after spending the entire morning at tire shop...............we now have six new tires. Oh ya, that was also after some $1,581 and them telling us we need new rotor (sp) on each side. Now we have to find the parts and get that done before we leave. Boy, if it isn't one thing it is another. We will do it as SAFETY is the most important thing and when one has an older rig, you have to expect to spend money on upkeep.

Next Saturday I will be having my craft table again. I am hoping to do good, but one evers knows. It seems that people just are holding on to there money and don't want to spend it. Not sure if I will be doing a craft table next year. Time will tell.

I have been getting things ready for a yard sale here. After moving in to this new place, there are things that were left here, that we are going to sale. We were going to wait till we came back in the fall, but because we will be bring more things down (that is in storage), we need the room for it when it gets here. Plan on having the yard sale the 19th and 20th. We did sell one of the single beds we had, one more to go. We really want to get rid of the upright freezer that is sitting in the shed. Wish us luck.