Hi Ho Hi Ho Back To Work We Go

Monday January 1- This is how I started the new year....great way to start off 2018. I went down early and did some laundry. While waiting for that I decided to clean out the cabinets and drawers. Funny how things just seem to collect. Jeff and I decided to go for lunch and a movie. The movie was All The Money in The World. The movie was really good. While in the movie I received a text from Maren. They are getting subs for supper to get together with Don and Karen who just arrived today at the park. Jeff and I had already made plans for our dinner so we ate then went over to see everyone and catch up.

Tuesday January 2- It's our first day back to work. We were met with horrible weather. It is super windy and rain. We couldn't protect ourselves from the rain because it was coming down sideways. We got soaked and it was cool so we were wet and cold. When we took our breaks I tried to park our cart under the tree to keep it as dry as we could. That didn't help at all. When we went back out to get in it was soaked.  Had to sweep out the floor because it was a puddle of water. We took off and it started missing out. Then it quit running and started beeping. We couldn't get it going. I walked down to the shop to get the other cart. Eventually we got it back but it still wasn't running right, hardly at all. We were happy to be finished working today. After work we went to Don and Karen's for a chili supper. Jeffrey and Maren were there as well. We had planned on sitting outside but the weather changed those plans. We still had a very nice evening with a great meal.

Wednesday January 3- Back to work and another horrible weather day. It poured rain again and this time we had the cart with no windshield...that is horrible. Well we were lucky the rain stopped and we thought great, we saw a little sunshine but that didn't last either. We went to clean a shower house, when we went in it was sunny. We came out and it was gray, super windy, and it was raining so fine it was almost like snow. I know the weather isn't as bad as we could be getting up north but we did come to Florida for the warm weather. When we finished we stayed inside and tried to get warmed up. Did I say with the rain came a cold front...the temperature took a huge drop.


Thursday January 4- The good news is it is not raining. The bad news is the temperature is really cold. We started off the morning in the 40's. It felt cold to me. We made it through our first work week. We are hoping it gets better from here. It can't get much worse.

Friday January 5- It's another chilly morning. The sun was shining so that was good. The weather just isn't warming up enough for outside activities. We can't complain, compared to the weather up north we should be tickled. Today I went over to a friend from church to scrapbook. When we lived in Iowa I did a lot of scrap booking. When we sold everything I got rid of a lot of stuff. Keeping only what I could fit in my travel tote. It makes it a project in itself to get everything out and on to scrapping. I didn't get a lot done over there but it got me in to scrapping mode for sure. I had made homemade noodles for supper so at least we can take advantage of the cooler weather with some winter food.


Saturday January 6- Winter is still here so we had a very lazy day. First I had to defrost the freezer, it's so frozen up that the ice maker isn't working. Not my favorite task. Then I took the rest of the day off. Since I have gotten in to my scrapping mode I got busy. I had stuff every where. We had leftovers for lunch and supper. Jeff did go in and get a movie to watch. We also waited for updates on Ashton's hockey games today. They won them both.

Sunday January 7- It started off the day with blue sky's and sunshine. We went to church and had to get there early to greet. We love to welcome others to church. On the way home the sky's had changed and it started sprinkling. It was rainy and gray the rest of the day. The bad news.....we have more rain coming our way.

Monday January 8- Another extremely lazy day. It was gray and rainy. I did get Miss Ruby a walk in between rains. I did some more scrapping. Now I have started on a book for Justin and Molly for the newest edition.....Maddyn.

Tuesday January 9- Back to work and they are calling for rain. We changed our routine around to try and get the shower houses clean before rain. We managed to get everything done with only a few sprinkles. After work I ran to Michaels to get some scrap stuff. I got poured on, on the way back. It rained on and off the rest of the night...mostly on.

Wednesday January 10-Can't even believe it...the rain held off again. That makes our job so much better. I even got to sit outside for awhile after working. It still is chilly. The dogs are even getting a little stir crazy.

Thursday January 11- The weather is improved today. We have sunshine and cool temperatures. The wind has even laid down a bit. It was our last day to work. As we started off cleaning the first shower house I spotted a tiny gecko in the mop water. I showed Jeff and he reached in and saved him.  We can't believe he lived, he was in bleach water. I think the poor fellow was looking for a place to be warm.

Jeff is really tired of staying inside so we are going to The Twisted Tuna tonight. I thought I would call some friends to see if they wanted to go. They said yes. We headed that way around 3:30 to get us a table for happy hour. They have live music everyday. We had a nice evening. It was good to be outside and by the water.


Friday January 12- We are off today so we decided to take in a movie. We almost changed our plans because it seemed kind of nice. We had lunch at Panera and then a movie....Hostiles. It was pretty good. On the way home from the movie it just poured. It rained so hard that we had to wait in the truck for a while before making a run for it. Today I did call a place about Miss Ruby's teeth. She hasn't loss any of her baby teeth. She has 2 full sets of teeth on the top. She looks like a shark.

Saturday January 13- Today I gave Miss Ruby a bath. She is getting her fur back and is definitely getting fluffy. I got the blow dryer out and she really seemed to like that...on her chest. It is cool again today. It is ladies craft day at church so I went to that. I brought my quilt to work on. Miss Ruby won't let me quilt on it. She likes to steal the batting from it. On the way home I stopped at the store. Later in the day we could feel another cold front coming in.........

Sunday January 14- Again with the cold weather. We met some friends at church this morning. It was another awesome Sunday...awesome worship, and awesome message. After church we went out for breakfast at Time To Eat. Boy do they give you a lot of food. We came home and just relaxed. We  are waiting for some friends to arrive.  Ron and Barb Kelly who we volunteered with here our first year. They are from Iowa as well and live only 40 miles from our home town. They are camping here for a few nights. They arrived and went to eat supper. Then they stopped by to visit a bit before calling it a night. These first few weeks here have been kind of cold. I can say the 2nd week was way better than the first week. We have gotten into a routine with our work. We would just love the weather to get back to normal so we can get outside and do some activities.

J.D. Here We Come

Wednesday December 20- We were excited to get back here..Jonathan Dickinson State Park. It feels like we are coming home. We had good weather to travel in and not very far to drive. We knew the roads we were traveling on too. We are arriving before our volunteering begins. We are campers until January 1. We are on site 4. It was an easy in site, we have full hook up and 50 amp. We sat up and walked around to see who was here that we knew. We got here just in time, there is a Christmas potluck for the volunteers. We crashed it. They had a good group show up. There was food, games and lots of talking.

It was a fun night. We visited with the ones we knew from last year, and introduced ourselves to the new ones.

Thursday December 21- It was a foggy day to start, after it cleared up it was a beauty of a day. We finished setting up the things we didn't get to yesterday. I sat outside and enjoyed the day. We got a text for Jeffrey and Maren last night. They wanted to bring supper over to our rig tonight. Well we said sure, come on over. They just pulled in today. Usually we will have supper for those that pull in but they had leftovers and we said bring it on over. It was a great dinner and it was nice to get caught up with them. We always compare our mishaps and discoveries. It makes you feel better when you hear others have problems as well. It was another nice night.


Friday December 22- Today we made plans to go to Costco with Jeffrey and Maren. They are members. First we had lunch there. I got a foot long hotdog with a soda for $1.50. Jeff had a chicken thing. Then we did a little shopping. We picked us a up a rotisserie chicken for supper. They have the best ones. They are big, good and only cost $5.00...that's a win win. When I got home I did some laundry and made the sides to go with our chicken.

Saturday December 23- Happy Anniversary to us....40 years. We had plans to first go to a movie. We went and saw Downsizing. It was good but not what we had expected. We came back and made plans for the rest of the evening. Jeffrey and Maren picked us up and we went to Tiki 52, there we met up with Amanda and Kip. After some drinks we went to dinner at Outback. I celebrated with a rum punch there. It was tasty. It was a wonderful anniversary spent with great friends.

Sunday December 24- We started off the day by going to Christmas Eve service at church. We even got dressed up. Kip and Amanda joined us today. Generation Church had a special service set up. They also had special stuff set up outside for the kids. They had snow making services brought in, crafts, hot chocolate....it was very festive indeed. As you walked in to the church they had a donut wall. It just keeps getting better and better. We found our seats and to our surprise it continued to get better. The worship...awesome. The message was awesome too. We all left feeling blessed beyond measure. As we walked out we were greeted by the grinch. We grabbed us a donut for the road and did I say...they were awesome.

We came home and just enjoyed the wonderful weather. Took the dogs for a walk and got stuff ready for our Christmas dinner tomorrow.


Monday December 25- Merry Christmas everyone!! We had a quiet morning. The dogs had fun opening there gifts. It was Miss Ruby's first Christmas so she was quite fun to watch. We talked to the grand kids as well. They told us what they got...very excited.

We made sure we talked to Miss Maddyn our newest member. She had a great Christmas as well.

We had Amanda and Kip join us for Christmas dinner. We had ham, cheesy potatoes, asparagus and hot bread. The food was good but the company made the dinner. So glad we could share a meal with friends. The day was long, it usually is for me. With us being away from the kids I think thats why it seems so long.

Tuesday December 26- Today was a big day for Miss Ruby. We took her over to Peggy Adams Rescue. We set up an appointment on line to have her fixed. Both Jeff and I were a bit nervous. When we pulled up to the place we were both very impressed. You can tell it is well run and we felt pleased with our choice. We left Ruby and we went home for the day. I can tell you today was longer than yesterday for sure. We were to go back at 5 o'clock to pick her up. We wasted the day. We couldn't wait to get back over there to pick her up.

We were very happy to get our girl back. She was a bit upset with us for sure. We now have our hands full trying to keep her quiet. We held her all night long. She did good.

Wednesday December 27- Miss Ruby almost slept all night. She woke up at 4 a.m. and I just couldn't listen to her whine. She seems a little more spunky today, so that's good. We are having a hard time keeping her settled down. We had company for happy hour, Jeffrey and Maren came over. We also got to watch the Iowa Hawkeye's play and win in the Pinstripe Bowl.

Thursday December 28- Ruby tried to get up early again today. I just told her to lay back down and she did. It was a nice day outside so I spent a lot of time outside with Ruby in her play pen. She really likes to be outside. I also got my quilt out and started back on that.

Friday December 29- It's very gray misty and cool out today. We had planned to go to The Twisted Tuna today for happy hour. We weren't sure we were going to go because it's so chilly. We went for it. First we stopped at Aldi's then on to happy hour. We met Amanda and Kip, we also met Gator and Chris. They are volunteers at the park. They are just finishing up there gig here. It was a bit chilly sitting outside but they had some heaters going so that helped.

There was live music, special prices on pizza, drink specials and we had great company. It is a nice place but if the weather was better I'm sure it would be a great place. We will be visiting this place again....for sure. Our friends left before us because they were on motorcycles. We had a heater in our truck.

Saturday December 30- It was a gray and gloomy day. It rained a bit off and on. I decided to make a trip in to town to get a few things. I wanted to get some pictures printed off to make a scrapbook of our new granddaughter. The good news is by the afternoon the weather had improved. We had made plans to go to Tiki 52. Jeff and I rode our bikes and brought Ruby with us. We met Gator and Chris, Jeffrey and Maren, Kip and Amanda. We were having such a good time we stayed longer than we should have. It was kind of dark for our bike ride home. We have lights but Ruby kept putting her head in the way blocking my light. I don't want to ever do that again. We noticed a bump on Ruby's incision and we were concerned about that. We called the emergency number they gave us, I left a message and they called back with in the hour. They made me feel a bit better about it. We will be watching it closely.


Sunday December 31- New Years Eve....we started the day at church. It was another great message. We headed right home because today we are moving to our volunteer spot. We will be in site V-1. This is the same spot we had the first year we were here. We loaded up the truck with stuff first and brought it over. I didn't have to take apart my swing chair or pack away some stuff. We got moved without any problem. Then we got busy setting up our site. Jeff wanted to make sure everything was just right since we will be here until April 15. We got everything set up pretty good. Then at about 5 o'clock we went to Gator and Chris's site. They are having a new years eve happy hour. There were a lot of the volunteers there and we had some beverages, snacks, a campfire and even some moonshine. It was a fun evening. We did not stay up to bring in the New Year but we sure finished the year up in a nice way. Happy New Year everyone. I hope you have a healthy happy new year!