Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Paper's signed.....we are now homeless

We closed on our home yesterday and are now moved out and sitting in a campground in Cedar Rapids. I must say it was a lot of work those last 4 days. I am soooo tired, getting to old for this. We have some mixed emotions about it, will not miss the town of Stanwood, never really made any friends there but we will miss the mobile home. We really liked that place, just hope we can find a good place in Texas that is as great. There is no hurry to find one, we want to be certain so we don't have to do this moving again.

Roger has Dr. appointments on the 19th and 20th and we will be leaving here after that. We are going to take this time to try to see all our friends and family and get a few things done we have been putting off. Who know, we might even take in a movie. While living in Stanwood, it was always a long drive to Cedar Rapids, so didn't get to do some of those things. It is getting quite cold here, and our old bones are not use to this, we are looking forward to heading south.

Till later

Thursday, October 1, 2009

House Closing on Monday the 5th

Just wanted everyone to know, we got word this afternoon that we will be closing on our house on Monday. We were hoping for a week of two to get everything moved, but lawyer said we should be moved out by Monday, so she can get keys, etc. It is a good thing, we have almost everything packed and waiting in garage to be moved. Roger went down and got a storage unit today, so will start with some of it tomorrow. Making my list of things to get done and which day to do them. It is raining here, so that may put a damper on things for tomorrow. Geeee........we are getting tooooooooooo old for all this moving stuff.

I think I told everyone about the sending the new camera in to get fixed. I did get the card back and now have those pictures in "My Web Albums" There a some of our place here and most of them are of our grand-daughter, Emily and the high school band. She is in color guard and does a great job. If you want to view all of them, just click on photo and it will take you to the web album.

From 2009-09-30


From 2009-09-30

Not sure when I will get back here to write again, I am going to be busy for a few days. We will be taking RV into Cedar Rapids and camping at Morgan Creek at least till the 15th, that is when the park closes for the season. Roger has two doctor appointments the 19th and 20th, so can't leave till after that. We are hoping Morgan Creek will remain open for a few more days, if not, I think we will be headed to Hawkeye Downs Fairgounds. If you are in the area, stop by and see us.

Till later.................Happy Trails

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Sold our home

We have an offer on our place and there has been earnest money put down on it. We took the papers to the lawyer to look over and get things going. Now it is a wait game. The lady who is buying it is going thru a divorce and wants this place to move into. She is living with her mother right now. We are not sure if it will close before we leave for the Rio Grande Valley, but we are packing up everything and getting ready anyway. We will be moving it all into storage for now and after we find a different place in Texas, we will come back and get it.Image035

Here is a picture of our place. This was taken from the street.

The time just seems to fly buy. I have everything almost packed up here and only kitchen left to do. Don’t want to pack it too soon as still stuff we are using every day. As it is, it seems like there is always something we are looking for and it is packed. Been loading RV at same time, so most of what we need is there.

I got Roger a new camera the end of July. We had taken some pictures with in at the Jefferson football game last Friday night. Our grand daughter, Emily is co-captain of the color guard and they preformed. When trying to upload them to my laptop, I couldn’t get the cord to attach to camera right, now the camera won’t work at all. What a bummer. I hope I didn’t mess up something trying to get the cord attached.

Not much more happening is dullsville (Stanwood). I must say, we will not miss this town. Have never made any friends here, we will miss our home and Roger is going to miss his garage, but those can be replaced. I am really looking forward to doing more traveling next summer. Not sure where we will be going, but even if we make a few RV rallies, it will be a start. At least we will not be tired to this place, mowing lawn and working in garden.

I will keep you posted when the sale is finale, hope it is soon. Roger has an eye appointment the 19th of Oct, and we are planning on leaving after that.

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Where did this month go?

Wow, we are in the last full week of August and I just can't believe it. I don't know where it went. I am not sure if that means I am very busy or just retired and we all know time goes by faster when you are retired.


We have an appointment tomorrow to take the Vue into Cedar Rapids and have the tow bar welded on. We are going to have to take both cars as, it will take all day and too far to come back home, so we will make a day of it. Not sure what we are going to do all day, I called one of my friends to let her know we would be in town, but haven't heard back from her. Guess maybe we might see if there is a movie we can go see, that ought to kill some time.

After getting home from our camping trip with Roger's brother Larry and wife Sherri, we have been trying to finish up with things here at home. We had ordered two new bathroom sinks and they came right before we left to camp, so Roger got them installed. The other project was to get the crack in kitchen ceiling fixed. We had a guy come to do it, he works on mobile homes all the time and when he was here to winterize the place last fall, he told us he could fix it. Well, he wasn't quite sure how he was going to do it, but ended up mounting a 1x4 on ceiling all the way across. Roger is now painting it. That will pretty much end all the fix it projects. Now I need to get out to garage with Roger and start sorting all his garage treasures (that's what he likes to call them).

I have been working on my crafts for the craft sales at our park over the winter. They have one every month and the table only cost me $3 each month. I have many crocheted items, manly bookmarks, butterflies, hanger covers and photo frames. I have also made tissue box cover with plastic canvas and these have photo frames on side. The other item I make is sun catchers made out of beads. These I learned how to make sometime ago and they take quite a bit of time to do as I have to drill the holes, cut the sticks, sting the beads, etc. I have just finished making some 34 of them. They are not all alike, I have cardinals, blue jays, USA hearts, hummingbirds, red hats, Canada flag, and hearts. I am now working on some more of the tissue boxes. Don't know what will be next, I made a list of everything I had left in Texas and that helps to decided what I need to make more of. I like to keep my hands busy, so it is craft, craft, craft.

I decide to look into Face Book as everyone seems to be doing it. I joined and can keep up with what the rest of family is doing. I have been able to see photos that I never would of seen if I hadn't joined and read about what family is doing. I also go hooked playing Farkle. Oh well, you only live once, might as well enjoy it.

We are not quite sure when we will be leaving Iowa for Texas. Roger has an eye appointment the 19th of Oct. so will have to be after that. I really wanted to leave earlier, but guess not. We are still waiting for the sale of our place to happen. Have one gal that wants it, but is getting a divorce so the money has not happened yet. She did line up for someone to come and evaluate it and they are suppose to come this afternoon. I hate this waiting till the last minute as if this is going to happen, I need to start packing. I am getting too old to try and get it done all in a time frame of a couple of weeks. I guess we are going to give her till the end of Sept. and if there is no down payment, we will pull it off the market and try again next spring when we get back. I have packed some things and have them sitting in garage. It is just hard to know what to pack and still make this place look lived in. I can't strip all the walls bare (yet).

Roger likes Bluegrass music and we missed the festival that was in Strawberry Point (Backbone) so I looked on line and found out the one in Central City is this weekend, so we are going to go to that. Will pack the lawn chairs, cooler and maybe I will take a craft to work on while listening to music. Should be a fun time and good to get away for a day.

"The difference between ordinary and extraordinary is that little extra."

Monday, August 10, 2009

Coralville Lake

After being home for almost 3 months, we finally got the motor home out and are camping. Met Roger's brother at Coralville Lake to camp for 6 days. We have had rain and storms, and now heat and humidity. The TV reception is not all that great and we can not get ABC or NBC with our TV. Roger's brother (Larry) is parked next to us and he gets them. I just don't get this new digital TV thing. I told Roger he needed to get up on roof and cut some tree branches away from the antenna. Do you think that has anything to do with it. I am having TV withdrawal, good thing I have the DVR set at home to record all my favorite show. Will catch up this next week.

After attending our grandson's graduation last May, and seeing the zoom my daughter got with her camera, Roger decided we needed a camera with a better zoom. Well, we got it and have been playing around with it while we are camping. All the pictures in my new album will be from the new camera. It is Nikon Coolpix P90. It has 12.1 Megapixels, Wide 24X zoom, 3 inch Vari-angle monitor and vibration reduction. It is going to take some time to get use to it. As you can see from my pictures, we have a ways to go.

From Coralville Lake

We spotted these geese out on the lake our first day camping and got out the camera. Then we tried really zooming in on them. Remember, we have no tripod so found it was had to get a good focus. Here is a picture of geese with the zoom.

From Coralville Lake

Not too bad, but still working on the zoom. Be sure to click on either picture to take you to rest of the photo's.

Roger's daughter (Jenny) and her three girls came by campground for a visit. They live in Muscatine so we don't see a lot of them. They went to the beach for a swim and then back here for hot dogs. Roger's son(Matt) and wife (Heather) came by with his boat and gave everyone a ride. The boat use to belong to Jenny's father in law and had ran for 15 years, so Jenny was glad get to get a ride in it.



From Coralville Lake


From Coralville Lake

I then tried to get a sunset pictures. The sun was setting behind some campers in a distance, and here is what I got. Not too bad for my first try.



From Coralville Lake

Now I have the smart card in my purse and going to take it and Roger to Wal-Mart and show him how to get the prints made. He keeps telling me he wants prints to look at not just the computer. Do you think that has anything to do with the fact, he doesn't do anything on computer.

I must say, I like this new camera. We got it with the idea that Roger would like it and use it more. He needs a hobby and thought he would take more pictures this way. I think he is going to have to use it more to get use to it and learn the different settings one at a time. One of the things that is nice about it is, when I upload the pictures to Picasa, there is very little editing to do. Seems like the camera takes a great picture.

Monday, August 3, 2009

Check out the VUE

We are into August now and the summer is going by very fast. I check on the temp in Mission and there is no way we want to be there now. Sure hope it gets a little cooler before we head down there this fall. As of now, we are planning on leaving here around the middle of Oct. and maybe do a little site seeing on our way. There is so much to see and do and it seems we never really stop to do them. Roger says it is me and I say it is him. I guess it is alittle of both of us. I can plan all the stops and things and spend time looking them up, but I would like some feed back from him and some help with the planning. Seems to me, he has a free ride, as I am the one that charts the route and campgrounds, etc. Come on Roger, lets work together on this.

We did get most of our painting done. I posted a picture of our master bath last time, I took a new picture and I must say it turned out pretty good. I am not sure how many people will be happy with the color, but I like and they can always paint it after they buy the place. Here is the master bath now.



From Summer in Iowa



It was really had to match the green counter and we didn't want to redo them. We have gotten new sink to install and Roger is working on that as I am typing this. The trip to find the sinks was and adventure all its own. Roger had called a mobile home place and found out there was a place in Davenport that sold mobile home parts, after checking, it was in Moline. We took off last week on Monday for our trip to get new sinks, got there and they don't carry the kind or shape we needed. You will notice in photo they are sort of a square shape. They sent us to a couple of other places and still no luck. After returning home, I googled "mobile home parts" and opened up the first site that was listed, went to "bath and there they were our sinks, they were even in the color we wanted............and only $19.95 each. Wow, we should of down that in the first place. I placed the order and they arrived here on Friday. We are moving right along with getting this place fixed up for someone else and hopefully we can sell it.

Last summer Roger put on vinyl siding and when he did that we closed off one of the doors to the mobile home. You see there were two doors in front, one to living area and one to bedroom right next to living room (I use that as my office). We really didn't like two doors almost right together and when we moved in here, we had a back door added off the kitchen, so didn't need the door in bedroom. After closing it off, we never finished it off on inside, only put some insulation up, now we have added paneling to back side and sides and are going to put shelves in the opening. It is an easy fix, but better for us then trying to sheet rock. Only one more fix to do after Rog gets the new sinks in, and that is the crack in ceiling from when they moved this mobile home here. That one is going to be hired out, hopefully real soon, as I want to advertise and have an open house to see about selling and time is running out before time to leave.

I guess I didn't tell the story about Roger selling his Mazda pickup. He had $750 on it and had some lookers but decided he needed to take it in and see about getting the catalytic converter removed or what ever it was he has going to do, it was clogged. The guy told him there was a problem with the brakes and it would cost him about $160 to fix. Well, he didn't want to put anymore into it, he wanted to get rid of it. He had a guy that had offered him $550 but Roger said he acted like a jerk and he would not sell it too him. He gave in and called the guy and in the end the guy jewed him down another $50. Ok, $500 in our pocket. A week or so later we had gone out to eat and were walking down the sidewalk when here comes his truck and pulls in a parking space right in front of us. It wasn't the same guy that had bought it so Roger ask the guy if he just bought the truck, he says yes and Rog wants to know what he paid for it, he tells the guy he just sold it. Well, the guy paid $1,100 for it. OUCH. After a long talk with this guy, and Roger is telling him some of the history of the truck and what needs to be done, we also find out the they guy is interested in the tow bar we have to go with it. We give him our name and phone number. He does call later and buys the tow bar from us. At least Roger gets another $50 for it.

Now Roger is feeling really low about loosing his truck so he starts thinking about what will make him happy and what he wants next. We start looking for a SATURN VUE. After some local looking I get on the computer and find one that he likes in Wisc, so we made a trip and bought a 2006 Saturn Vue. Here is a picture of it, now we have to get it set up for towing.


From Summer in Iowa

Now if any of you readers are interested in buying our 2001 Saturn SL200, let me know.

Some of the other excitement in our lives is our trip to Clear Lake for the family picnic, we just got back from that. We are going to get the RV out and go camping the next week with Roger's brother and wife for a week, that should be fun and a break from the work around here. If you click on one of the photo's I posted it will take you to the rest of the album and you can check out the rest of our excitement, 40th Ann. party for one of Roger's friends, visit with grand kids, painting and others. Check it out.

Remember: Love is a little word; people make it big.

Monday, July 13, 2009

What to write about??

Here it is the middle of July and I have not posted anything on here yet. Shame on me. I just have a hard time coming up with things to say and to share. I have never been good about keeping a journal, so why should this be any different?

I sent the hand scanner I got off QVC, back to QVC. I just didn't like it and they have a 30 day return policy, so why not send it back? It wasn't doing me any good sitting in the corner. I am still scanning and editing photos in Picasa, I am up to 1995 now, not bad considering I started with the years I was married and raising my three girls, that was 1966. I put those all in one album and burned a DVD for each of my girls. Now I want to make a cover for it.

My crafts..........I finished the cro-hook afghan I was making. Wanted to make one for two of the granddaughter's for graduation next spring. Had one done and needed to make another one. Now with that done, I have started on my beaded sun catchers. Roger got me the sticks when he went to Menards and I am now marking where the holes go and then will go to garage and drill all the holes. Have six sticks and there are 116 holes each stick............WOW I'm tired just thinking of it. I am sending in an order for more beads, it should be here about the time I get all those holes drilled. Roger did buy me a small drill press and that is a big help.

We have had a few showings on your place here. It seems people have trouble getting loans for a mobile home. This last one seems like it was going to be the one, but we haven't heard back from her, she was going to bring her mother over on Saturday to look at it, but it was a no show. If we don't sell it this summer, will try again next spring when we come back home. We have been trying to get a few things done around here to make it better. Got some paint and decided to paint the master bath. It had a horrid rose wall paper on walls and really out dated. The bath room also has these green counter tops. It is really hard to match the counter tops (can't take them to store with us) so after trying a couple of times, decided to go with a light lavender. It was that or pink or yellow. I already had purple towels and rugs in there, so it was lavender. I must say it looks pretty good. Not sure how many other people are going to like it, but it is better then the roses. I am going back and doing touch up painting right now. I hate to rat on my hubby..........I've already told him this...........but he is a terrible painter. He wants to get in there and get it done in a hurry and the paint gets on too think and runs and then a mess. Even taping, he gets the tape on where it is covering part of the wall, so now it is back to touching up. Oh well, I have nothing but time. We are going to get new sinks and faucets for both bathrooms, but have to make a trip to Davenport for that. There is a place down there were we can buy mobile home items. The sinks are sort of a square shape and we don't want to replace counters so that is our best bet. I bet your asking, why not new counters if there is a green one in master bath.......let me tell you, it is a very odd shape and a lot of angle cuts and Roger is not good at that sort of thing............so just new sinks.



Ok, I did find this photo, it shows you the rose wall paper and the green counters, I will take another photo when I am all done with bath room and you can see the change.


Guess that is about all for now. Haven't taken any new pictures to send on to you, I could send you some that I am scanning, but they would be old ones. Maybe I will do that for next post. Till later, stay cool, drive safe and Happy Trails