Halfway Through Our Stay In Iowa

Monday July 22- Today Seth and Katie are coming home. So Hailey and I are going to get some birthday decorations to surprise Seth when he comes home. So we went early, then decorated the kitchen. Hailey had lots of good ideas and we got busy. Her parents got home around 11 a.m. She was excited to yell SURPRISE!!!

After the kids got home we packed up all my stuff and headed home. I had to see my doggies. I also had lots of stuff to put away. Then there was my hummingbird feeders. They were all empty. Not like I made too many hummingbirds mad they haven't been coming around that much. I'm not sure what happened. The rest of the night I just relaxed.

Tuesday July 23- Jeff and I decided to take a road trip to Coralville today. There is a branch of our bank located there. We received a check from Norcold and wanted to cash it. Usually I do it over my phone but when the bank changed names there was a lot of trouble with everything. I was afraid even to try it. After cashing the check we went to the mall and looked around then had lunch. We were going to go to a grocery store called Lucky's. When I looked up the address to see the best way to get there I see they are closed. So that was a bust. We stopped at another store before heading home. To finish off the night we took a short bike ride with Ruby. She loves going for bike rides in her basket.

Wednesday July 24- Busy day today. I started off with a haircut for Belle. As usual I waited to long between haircuts. She does pretty good for me but I'm not a professional groomer, so I'm not very quick.

Since I was in the cutting mode I went ahead and gave Jeff a haircut and finally me. No before or after pictures for those. I took a bit of a break and defrosted the freezer.  Another job I don't care for. I sure wish they had a frost free RV frig. Well they do but its a residential frig. That would require a lot of extra working so I'll be content with what I have.  I have some friends coming up and meeting us for lunch on Saturday so I called to figure out that. Then when our son Justin got home from work we went to his house to see Miss Maddyn. She was outside so we sat out there with her. She is all about bubbles, so bubble blowing was what we did.

She is still improving her bubble blowing skills. We had fun watching her play outside. She is at such a fun age. Very entertaining.


Thursday July 25- A big Happy Birthday to our oldest son Seth....he's 40 today. I had to sing him Happy Birthday first thing...tradition. We are going to celebrate with lunch tomorrow.
Jeff did some washing of vehicles before it got too hot. He also got up on the roof of the rig and cleaned it off. I did some quilting on the baby quilt that I'm making for a gift. I ended up doing quite a lot of quilting because I was home tonight while Jeff went to play guitar. I hadn't planned on finishing it but I got so close I just kept at it. My fingers are really sore.


Friday July 26- Started off the day by really cleaning the shower house. I'm going to be gone for a week and wanted to leave a clean shower house to start. Then I got out fabric to cut for the binding. I had to press it, pin it. and machine sew it on. Then I started the last thing, hand stitching it down. I got a good start on that but had to stop. We went in to pick up the kids and meet Seth for lunch. When we arrived Seth was already there. We got a table and ordered us up quite the birthday lunch. Our food was good and everyone had a great time. Happy Birthday!!

When I got home from Florida this year I went through pictures of Seth growing up to share on Facebook. Here are a couple of my favorites.

Seth wasn't even 1 here

Trying to catch a fish...so serious.

When we got home from lunch I grabbed the quilt and worked on the binding until I finished 3 sides. We are heading back in to Cedar Rapids to Uptown Friday Nights. We haven't attended one of these this year. Janey Rocket and The Strays are playing. It costs $5.00 to get in. They have beverages and pizza stuff. We liked the music but they didn't really have the sound dialed in. What bothered me about this place is...it seems like everyone there wasn't even paying attention to the bands. They were all over by the beer drinking visiting. We prefer Rock The Block..it's just more family friendly.

We headed home and I grabbed the quilt. I only had one more side to sew. Well I got it finished and I had all kinds of time left. I just have to get it wrapped and delivered.

the back

the front

Saturday July 27-I cleaned my shower house and then finished packing all the stuff I'm taking to the kids house. I am staying with Ashton and Hailey for a week while Seth and Katie take a trip to Turks and Caicos. The are going to celebrate Seth's birthday. Well they are leaving today to drive to Chicago. Before I head over there Jeff and I are meeting Matt, Teri and Isaac for a early lunch at Zeppelins. We got there at 11 and opened the place up. We had a nice lunch and did some visiting. They had to go take a test.

 We came back home grabbed my stuff and went back into the kids. The first thing we did was make a grocery list and attack that. It was a stupid time to do that but we just foraged ahead. I received a call Teri, her van wouldn't start. So Jeff went over and gave her a jump. Then he got back and we loaded up the kids and went to Lisbon. It is a little town not far from here. Wellstrung is playing from 5-7 tonight. We took Ashton and Hailey and Molly and Maddyn was there. Hailey loves playing with Maddyn. It was a good thing we brought a lot of people because there wasn't hardly anyone there. Wellstrung was even the 2nd band. We had a good time and the girls really had fun.

After they got done playing we stayed a little to hear the last band. It was really loud so we kicked it on out of there and headed back. Jeff dropped us off and he went back to the rig.


Sunday July 28- I got up and made breakfast for the kids before church. We met Jeff at the church. After church we went to breakfast at Perkins....well brunch that was breakfast. You can't have too many breakfasts. The place was busy but we arrived before the big crowd showed up. It was a bit slow.

After eating we came home and I started the laundry. While waiting for the laundry I did some yard work outside. I can't stand being cooped up inside. Justin, Molly and Maddyn stopped by and picked up some veggies. Katie has a guy that brings fresh produce to her door once a week. So we shared what was here. Hailey and Maddyn got on the trampoline. Hailey has a hard time keeping her hands off of Maddyn. Maddyn is getting pretty independant so she doesn't like being handled all the time.

Monday July 29- Got up early because the dogs are on a schedule that includes waking up early. I made up some sausage and eggs for breakfast burritos. Then Jeff came in and we drove to play putt putt. We had perfect weather and it was a great time with just a little arguing. It's hard to find things to do with the kids together. They are getting older and have different likes. This however was fun for all.

lets play

Grammy wins!!

What was unique about this game....I won. I never win at putt putt. We came back to the house. Jeff back to the park to tend to the dogs. When I got back I worked some more in the yard. I also did some laundry. Then I went ahead and made up tenderloins for supper. I had way too many so Justin stopped by and picked some up for there supper tomorrow. Jeff came back and ate with us. Then he and I went down to the McGrath Amphitheater to listen to Peter Frampton. Never have seen him and this is his farewell tour. It was an outside concert so we waited to make sure the weather was good. It was really good. It wasn't hot and there was a nice breeze. It was wonderful. Then my neighbors showed up. They couldn't stay in there seats, the screamed the songs they knew and when Peter Frampton was talking they were as well. It was super annoying. Some people even told them to be quiet. Oh when they were yelling....horrible words. The concert was good the neighbors...not.

Tuesday July 30- It's movie day. We have been promising Hailey that we would take her to see The Lion King. We haven't been able to yet, so today was the day. Ashton already saw it with friends. We left him sleeping. We went to the 10 a.m. show and on the big screen. We even had heated seats.

 After the movie Hailey and I made one stop before coming home. We went to JoAnns. I needed to get a gift box to put the baby quilt in. We also got some fabric so Hailey could do some sewing. We are going to do that when she comes out to the rig and stays. We will see if that is something she likes. We stayed home the rest of the day. Making tacos for supper. There parents have called and kept us up on their adventures.


Wednesday July 31- Stay home day. I made pancakes for breakfast. Hailey loved them, Ashton slept through breakfast. Went back outside and did some more weeding. The kids even helped a little. We managed to fill up the yard waste garbage can. It looks really good. Made supper for the kids. Then we just hung around here.



Thursday August 1- A new month. Didn't want to hang around here all day. Trying to think of things to do with both kids outside. We went out to see Papa at the campground. It's a beauty of a day. When we arrived we gathered up the stuff we needed to go back to the lake. We took the truck with the kayaks on top. When we arrived then we had to bring all the stuff to the water. We haven't had the boats out much so we had to do some adjusting. Ashton took mine out so we had to do extra adjusting for him. Before getting into the water Hailey and Ashton were hunting frogs. There were plenty to be found but they liked hiding in the rocks.

They caught more than one. I still can't get over that Hailey likes doing that. She also was wading in the water trying to catch little fish. Not so successful in that area. Then Papa and Ashton took the kayaks out. Ashton took a fishing pole with him. Jeff hasn't purchased an Iowa fishing license this year. Hailey and I stayed back with Miss Ruby, she continued her fishing for fish with a net. As I was watching her I spotted a snake swimming on top of the water. I yelled SNAKE!!!! Boy you should have seen Hailey exit the water lickity split... kind of funny. I should add the snake was never close to her.

The guys stayed a while, not too long. They raced on the way back and Ashton was winning until Papa grabbed his boat and flipped him around and took off. Ashton needs to work on his strategy skills. When racing with Marlins you have to be prepared at all times for foul play......

We loaded up all the stuff, back to the campground, unloaded and fixed some lunch. Then we headed back in to town. We had a easy supper because Hailey has gymnastics tonight.


Friday August 2- Today is my last day staying here. There other grandma is coming over tonight to take over. She will stay the weekend because Judy is coming up to stay with us this weekend. I wanted to get all the laundry done before I took off. Today I did that and some cleaning up. Marilyn showed up around 5:30 and we left. Before heading back we went to Union Station...(its a bar) to listen to our son Justin. We only caught the end of it.

We couldn't stay to listen to the other band too long because we wanted to beat Judy to the campground. We stopped and got a sandwich to go. When we arrived home she pulled in right after we did. I had a lot of stuff that I needed to put away. I tried to do that while visiting with her.


Saturday August 3- Even after staying up late and visiting we were up early to get ready and go to the farmers market downtown. The last time I went it was so hot, this weekend it was so much better. It is summer so it was warm but so doable. It was a busy place for sure. We met up with Justin,Molly and Maddyn there.

After making a few purchases we left there and made a few stops before getting back. First we went to Sam's. I was looking for my favorite sausage, that they said online they have, but didn't. We always have fun in Sam's. We found the perfect tool to take Judy to the farmers market next time......

We got home and had some lunch. Then Judy and I sat outside and got caught up on our lives. We do talk on the phone weekly but its not like being together. We have been friends for years. We hung around the campground the rest of the day. We fixed supper and watched a movie. Nice relaxing day.

Sunday August 4- Today we got ready for church. We love our church here. Look forward to Sunday's. Then we came home and I made us a brunch. We ate, cleaned up that and sat outside, Before I knew it, it was time for Judy to take off for home. I did some cleaning up and then we went in to take over for Marilyn. Seth and Katie won't be home until later. She doesn't like to drive in the dark. We went at supper time. Then we took the kids out for dinner. We went back to there house and waited for there parents. I know the kids were ready for there parents to get back, the dogs were ready as well. They made it safely home around 9:30....everyone was safe and happy. Time for us to get home and back to our normal days...until next time....