Counting Down

Monday October 1- A brand new month, a brand new week and the count down begins. We are either leaving on the 17th or the 20th depending on weather. Before we can think of that we have a birthday's to celebrate. First we have Hailey's birthday party. So I need to make a cake and cupcakes.We are also going to celebrate Maddyn's birthday early so we can give her, her gift. We started the day with going in to get groceries. I can't remember when our frig was so empty. Well I needed to get thread and Jeff went to look at tablets. He got him a new one. It was lunch time so we had lunch at Olive Garden. Then we came home. After we got home it just poured. It didn't want to quit. After it quit we sat down to watch our tv shows. Then Justin called to see if we could watch Maddyn tomorrow. They stayed home with her today because she wasn't feeling well. I told him I would.


Tuesday October 2- Up early to get my tasks done before leaving for Justin's. I told him I would be on the road by 7. When I arrived she was very snuggly. She must not feel good because now she likes to be on the move. I sat and held her and after a while she must have felt a bit better she wanted down to play. So we played.

The day went by pretty fast. When her daddy came home she was excited to see him. He wanted to show me how much she likes music. First she was dancing then she decided to try and help him. I picked up my prescriptions before coming on home. After supper sat down to watch our shows and the power went off. Weird we thought because the weather was fine. Called and they came and fixed it but we did miss some of our shows.


Wednesday October 3- OK I will continue with the weather thing. Today it is really warm and it just got warmer as the day went on. It got up to 90. Is that crazy or what? Along with the warm temperatures it was crazy windy. We decided to take a load of stuff in to Seth's house. We keep stuff in there shed while we are away. Stuff that we only use here. I also needed to get the cake board I use every year for there cakes. We are getting things done on our list before leaving.

Thursday October 4- Wow what a surprise this morning. When we opened the door to take the dogs out we were greeted by 40 degree weather. From 90 to 40, now that is a change. I went in to church to help out with the kids again. When I got home I made cupcakes and a cake for Hailey's birthday. I cut the cakes out so I need to freeze them before frosting them. This year Hailey wanted a unicorn cake and cupcakes. Hopefully it will turn out ok.

Friday October 5- Another gray and gloomy day. We have been waiting for this day. We are going to the movie..." A Star Is Born". Both of us were excited to see it. We both liked it. We came home and waited for the rain to start. It is suppose to be a very wet and chilly weekend...


Saturday October 6- Happy Birthday Hailey...she is 8 years old today. I got up and wanted to get started frosting her cake right away. I always get a bit nervous about this task. I got the crumb coat of frosting on. I had to be extra careful this year because of Ruby. She likes to jump up on the table and help herself to whatever is up there. I moved all the chairs except the one I was sitting at. After the crumb coat I get up to mix up the next color of frosting I will need. I look over and Ruby is licking the frosting off the edge of the cake. Good grief. So I had to fix that. Then my niece called from California. She is taking care of my sister so I visited with her. Then I got back to my cake thing. This year it went pretty well. I think Hailey will like the cake and cupcake's....we'll see.

Her party was to start at 4:30. We went over early because the Iowa Hawkeyes were playing. She seemed to like the cake but was busy with a couple friends. We had sandwiches, opened presents and had cake and ice cream. I would say the party was a success. She also got lots of stuff to put up in her room. I will have to do that at a later date.

Well Jeff and I headed home but the party continued. Katie was taking the girls to the trampoline park then home for a slumber party.....have fun with that.

Sunday October 7- After church didn't do much of anything...but eat. I made brunch. Then I spent the afternoon quilting. For supper chicken pot pies. It was a very lazy Sunday...I like.

Monday October 8- We were up early to get our work tasks done before getting the dogs to the  vet. We have to get there shots before we hit the road. We had to change vets this year because our vet in Center Point retired. It takes a while to get there and it very confusing to talk to them. We got the shots we needed and came on home. We had so much rain last night and this morning it's warm. The shower houses are so wet. The humidity is ridiculous. The floors are wet the walls are sweating and the mirrors are fogged up. Makes it impossible to clean. Seth our son went to California for work so we are taking Ashton to hockey practice tonight. We ate and went in to get him around 6. His ice rink is in the mall so we looked around a bit before his practice started. They really work them hard.

Tuesday October 9- It's very humid again. Today was cleaning day. I went through drawers, closets and cabinets to get rid of stuff. I even took the time to clean out what I have left in my scrapbook stuff. Then Jeff went to a  a movie, I stayed back and quilted. Then later in the afternoon we had bad weather all around us. Eventually it showed up and the sirens went off. I took Ruby and went to the shower house. Jeff stayed and watched the radar. I don't like to wait to run up in the pouring rain. We got lucky it missed us but boy was it scary looking.

The next thing about this weather is when the farmers start harvesting we get a bunch of those beetles. They find there way in somehow. I bet we vacuumed 100 of then things today. Ruby likes to play with them and eat them. I think I saw a picture somewhere about dogs getting them stuck in the roof of there mouth. Well Ruby was acting funny tonight. I think she has a belly ache. I looked in Ruby's mouth and saw 3 stuck up on the roof of her mouth. She wouldn't let us look very good but we gave her a treat and I looked later and they were gone. We just have to watch her careful because those bugs to not agree with her diet.

Wednesday October 10- Well the rain stopped. I went outside and took down some of our buoys, and our sign. I also took apart my swing chair. The wind picked up and the temperatures dropped. I went inside and quilted this afternoon. I texted Katie to see if I was still taking Hailey to gymnastics. She told me Hailey was home because she had a sore looked at the doctor today. She is doing fine just had some medicine she needs to take.


Thursday October 11- Belle woke up really early this morning and went to the bathroom and got sick. She hasn't done that for a while. One time after getting sick she had a seizure so we both get concerned everytime this happens. She seemed fine. It is a cold one this morning. Today we took back some of the extra cleaning supplies back. They are going to close the bath houses on Monday. With winter coming they don't want frozen cleaning supplies. I also found a picture of a baby shark to use for Maddyn's birthday cake. I made my version and so at least I know what I'm doing now. Hailey is fine so I went in to get her to gymnastics. I watched her get started then I went to run some errands. I went by Justin's to see Maddyn and made it back to watch the last hour of gymnastics. Boy that place was hopping. So busy. I couldn't get many pictures of Hailey, she was working in the back. Miss Maddyn showed grammy part of her Halloween costume. Looks like she will be a little stinker.

On a more somber note, the pictures we are seeing on TV of what hurricane Michael has done to the panhandle is unbelievable. Oh my it looks like a bomb went off. We are going to probably have to make a couple changes in our traveling plans.


Friday October 12- Feels like winter out there. Today is another movie day. We have waited for this one as well. First Man. Went in the morning and I liked it, Jeff said it was a bit dry. It was more focused on the personal life of Neil Armstrong. I liked. After the movie Jeff took his computer to Best Buy. He did an update and lost the volume. He tried everything but couldn't get it fixed. Well they didn't do anything either. Told him to leave it over the weekend. He decided to wait and see if he could figure it out. We also got parts for our fireplace, the light went out. When we got home we tackled that. Boy what a task to change light bulbs. It took a while but we got the job done. I think all 3 bulbs were burnt out. We didn't even notice until all 3 were out. Boy does it glow now. We went back to town to get Maddyn's birthday gift together. Now this was an adventure as well. This little princess carriage was quite the project, that took quite a while to finish...but finally success.....We had to wait until Maddyn went to bed to get started..

Saturday October 13- Today we stayed around here. I still have some things to do before we leave. I cleaned out the frig...getting rid of stuff and washing drawers etc. Then I had to get Belle's big bag of dog food from the basement and fill up bags. I keep it fresher that way. Well Ruby is very curious so I left a few morsels of food in the bag and stood back to watch....She didn't disappoint. Yep she managed to get every one.

In the afternoon we watched the Iowa Hawkeyes win and win big. Then I got started frosting Maddyn's mini birthday cake. We went with baby shark. I think she will like it.

To finish off the day we went in to watch the home opened of the Cedar Rapids Roughriders. Well they started out on fire but that didn't last. I think they let there emotions take over there playing. Oh well it was a good game with plenty of action. They were ahead 2-0 after the first period. The second period the other team came to play and after the second period was over it was 2-3, the other teams ahead. In the third period we got one more but the final score was 6-3...not a win for us.

Well not the outcome we had hoped for but it was fun to watch. This will be the only game we get to watch this year.

Sunday October 14- Brrrr another cold one. This is our last Sunday at church. Jeff went to turn the water off before leaving and he comes to tell me we have a problem. It seems we have a problem with the water pump. It has dripped water into the under carriage of the unit. Now it is full of water and really drouping. Well I went on to church because we had commitments. He stayed back to assess the situation. He thinks he has a plan to fix it. So when we headed back to town to give Maddyn her gift and cake. We went a little early so he could go to Menards for supplies to fix our problem. Now we put that behind us to go celebrate a little early Maddyn's first birthday. We will be in Florida when it officially takes place. We gave her the carriage and gave her a ride. She seemed to like that. Then we gave her a birthday cake to dig in to. She wasn't sure at first and she flailed some cake around. She managed to get some in her mouth. I don't think she was to sure about the texture but she kept trying.

Now for the cake pictures....she was so fun to watch.

Well she made quite a mess even though we didn't let her eat to much so since I made the cake, I get to bath her. We had fun in the bathtub too.

Well all that partying is exhausting....what a great way to end the day........

1 Month To Go

Monday September 17- A new week and we have something to do everyday I think. First off today we are going to get our eyes checked. This time we are going to a new office but using the same eye doctor. Good news there both of us checked out OK. We just got prescriptions for eye glasses but didn't get any at this time. Our vision is just about the same but in case we think that we need new glasses at a later date we can get them. We came back home and did some picking up outside. We have to take the rig in on Wednesday. Oh did I say that it's  smoking hot again. We have had some of the craziest weather ever this year.


Tuesday September 18- Well today it was rainy so in between rain we moved or picked up our stuff outside so we can pull the rig out tomorrow. I also put away stuff inside. Then we went to a movie. On Tuesday it's senior day so you get a good price for the movie and Jeff gets a free popcorn. We saw the movie A Simple Favor. We both thought it was really good. When we came out of the theater it was raining so we came home to take care of the pups. Before long it was time to go back to town, we are going to a concert tonight so we wet over and got Justin and Molly. Then we went downtown to meet Justin's friend Jordan and get a bite to eat. We went to Bricks and apparently nobody told them there was a concert tonight. The place was packed and the service was so slow. It took forever to get any service then a long time for our food. We were running late. We got to the Cellular Center and found our seats. We didn't miss anything, they were running late as well. We our seeing Counting Crows. We have never seen them before. We were not very impressed. The only way I can describe it was......boring. I am not a huge fan of there's but still for a live show it was pretty dead.

Wednesday September 19-We got up early to pack up and get out of here. Our appointment was at 8 a.m. We have been sitting a long time so we are pretty rusty. We also have rain coming. We got out and was on our way without any problems. On our way to Wright-Way Trailers. They are going to take care of our wheel bearings and check all that out. When we arrived, they were ready and got right on it. Somebody jumped in the truck and backed her right in there. Then they had a crew working on it. We just waited because we had no place else to go. We had the dogs with us and they were very patient as well. The guys were very professional and prompt. We were on our way home about 11. On the way home it started raining. By the time we rolled into the park it was pouring. So we had to wait in the truck until it at least slowed down. Oh boy did it rain. We got set up but not back where we were before. It was a muddy wet mess. We are just going to deal with it until time to move on.

Thursday September 20- We had more rain last night. I did my shower house thing then I headed in to church. I'm watching the 3 year old kids while moms have a bible study. We only had 4 kids but it was still fun. After leaving church I ran to Michaels to get stuff for Hailey's birthday cake. Her party is coming up. I got home and before I knew it I was back in the car and running to pick up Hailey for gymnastics. I stayed and watched her for about an hour then left. Seth will pick her up. I got back just in time for Jeff to leave and go to Palo for his Thursday night jam session.

Friday September 21- Brrrrrr it's cold out there this morning. I started my day pinning together blocks for Hailey's new quilt I am making her for Christmas. Jeff and I went to town for the dreaded Walmart run. I got Hailey's paint for her bedroom. For her birthday I am doing her room. She wants a mermaid room. After Walmart stopped at a few places looking for mermaid stuff to put on her walls. Found a couple things. Then we came home. Jeff made some vegetable soup and I sewed blocks together. It is really suppose to get cold tonight. We did have an awesome sunset tonight though.

Saturday September 22- We had planned on going in to watch, or spend time with Ashton and Hailey today. Seth and Katie are taking a scuba class that goes from 9-4 today and tomorrow. Then today after the class they have tickets to the Iowa Hawkeye's game. Well we were getting our stuff done around here when I get a face time call. I figured it was Hailey, she knows we are coming and probably wanted to know when we are coming. Well it was Hailey but she was crying and yelling at Asthton. So after getting them calmed down we found out she has a bloody nose. She gets them sometimes and they can be pretty bad. So we got that situation calmed down and then rushed to get there as soon as we could. I also brought my laundry in because with this weather can't really dry it outside. Jeff and Ashton went on a road trip. Hailey and I got started painting her room. First we had to clean it up a bit. We had a fun time painting and Hailey was a big help. When we first opened the lavender paint Hailey looked at it and said "Grammy it looks white" panic kind of set in cause I agreed with her but we put some on the wall to see how it looked and after a bit it looked lavender. I really didn't want to go back to Walmart on a Saturday to try and get that fixed.

So we painted all 4 walls and waited for it dry so we could do a second coat. Jeff had brought home Ashton and went back to the rig to take care of the dogs. Jeff came back later and made supper for him and Ashton. Hailey and I went to get food from Culvers. We stayed around there for a while. Then when we went to come home, Hailey didn't want to stay with Ashton. We got a hold of the parents at the game and we ended up bringing them home with us to spend the night. We had a very busy day in deed. I had to leave the laundry at there house because there wasn't room for the laundry and the kids....oops.

Sunday September 23-Another busy day. We got the kids up, fed and ready for church. Also got both shower houses cleaned. Went to church early because I thought we had to greet but I was wrong. So we extra time to kill. Lucky for us they had free doughnuts in the coffee shop. The kids were good in church. After we stopped at Panchero's for lunch. Then we went back to the kid's house. I gave Hailey's room another coat of paint. I needed to do the trim part again. By the time I finished that Seth and Katie were just about done with there class. We left to come home this time with our laundry. Hailey was alright with us leaving today. I was too because it was daytime and I knew mom and dad were going to be home soon. When we got back only had about 6 campers left. I spent some time pinning blocks together in rows to sew together later. Wow that was a busy weekend.


Monday September 24- Today I had a big list of things I wanted to get done. We are getting close to time to move on. I like to go through compartments and clean out. I do the same thing inside. We were gone most of the weekend so I wanted to do a good cleaning in the shower buildings and also in the rig. Then if you know me when I start a project I kind of want to keep at it. So I worked really hard o get that quilt all sewn together. The next step is to layer the quilt together so I can start the quilting process. Well I had to do that outside because of space.

Tuesday September 25- Today really foggy. Went for breakfast at Perkins. Then Jeff went to the movie and I ran errands. We got home and bam....we had crazy rain and wind. It went on all afternoon and evening.


Wednesday September 26- It's cool out there this morning but no rain. I have been paintting one of Hailey's shelves for her room. I also got started on quilting her quilt. The last quilt I did it took me 2 years to get it done. I have a little over 2 months to finish this one. I have to say the reason it took so long for that one is because I stopped and did a baby quilt, plus we got Miss Ruby which made it impossible to quilt. She liked to eat the batting.

Friday September 28- It was a chilly day to start. We went to get Miss Maddyn. We are taking her for the day. Molly wants to clean and we have never took her by ourselves. First we went for breakfast at Perkin's. She enjoyed the high chair but not our food. She did like her puffs though.

Our next stop was Target. Decided to let her check out the toy department to see what she wants Grammy and Papa to get her for Christmas. She was a really good shopper. Did I mention that that bucket you carry her around in weighs a ton? It does.

Well Maddyn found something that she couldn't live without...looks like a weiner dog guitar for Christmas. Our next stop was the pet store we got Ruby at. We needed to get her some dog food. They also have puppy's to see and talking birds. We watched the puppy's first they looked at the birdies. Maddyn loved them all.

Meetin Mikey.....he talks.

After leaving the pet store we took Maddyn home and then we came back to our place. It is going to be a perfect night for a campfire. It is plenty cool but no wind. We have Judy coming up tonight for the weekend. We invited our neighbors The Griffey's over to enjoy the campfire as well. It was a nice evening. Boy did we burn up the wood tonight.

When Judy arrived we had a roaring fire and that's good because it was getting really cold.

Saturday September 29- Brrrr it was really cold here this morning. We tried to figure out what we were going to do. Well Jeff is going with Justin today to play guitar. So Judy and I took him in and dropped him off. Then we met Seth, Ashton and Hailey at The Vine in Iowa City for lunch. It was a nice lunch and a good visit.

Then Judy and I went to the mall to do a little shopping. When I say little I mean little. Her and I used to be professionals at this shopping thing...not so much anymore. Then Jeff called and said he was on his way to Justin's. Judy and I made our way to Trader Joe's before going to get Jeff. Then we came home and made supper. Oh yeah did I mention it is pouring rain again...it is. We got Jeff, Judy got to see Maddyn and we headed home. We fixed supper and sat around watching a movie. Way to wet and cold to get out again. Sometimes it's not what you do but who your with.

Judy and Miss Ruby.....twinning

Sunday September 30-Well the last day of the month. We are getting close to moving time. I think we are ready to get going. It was another chilly morning but not as cool as yesterday. Today we did have to get to church early to greet. Then after church we came back and had some turkey noodle soup Jeff made. It was really good on this cold gray day. After lunch we sat around and talked before Judy left to go home. I quilted the night away. Wow another 2 weeks down. We have about 1/2 month to go.