From one toad to another...

Okay, okay... I am over my pity-party on the toad purchase.
Here, as promised, is the picture of the new toad...

While she may not be much to look at, at least she will do all the things we wanted in the new toad.
1. Get us from point A to point B.
2. Haul passengers who need a ride.
3. Give us a bit of room to stretch out and enjoy a longer ride
4. Decent gas mileage
5. Haul more JUNK that we THINK we need on our travels.

Okay, beware, back to whining!
Why can't we leave already? I shouldn't complain since this time in Oklahoma at any given year is usually unbearably hot already but this year is different. This year is rainy and cool - which I LOVE and ADORE.
We will be leaving soon, though. This trip back to the PNWest is a big trip since its our family reunion on my mom's side and my youngest niece's wedding. AND she has asked her favorite auntie to take her wedding photo's! I feel so honored to be such a big part of her day.
So, I am gearing up in my "what to do before we leave" chores and adding a few this year. For instance, clean out the fridge and freezers completely. Pare down our food stored to what I can fit in the RV - just in case the power should fail for weeks on end and we aren't home for months on end.

perhaps I will start with this... until then, have a great Sunday and hope you are having fun on your latest adventure! 

RIbbit! Toad shopping!

It recently came to our attention on our last trip that our little toad was not cutting it for others. Normally I wouldn't care what others thought or wanted in terms of my own stuff, but well, when your momma say's "you need a toad that will be big enough for ME to come along!" you listen and act. So, off we went to find the perfect toad for our coach - per momma's statement.

Our current toad is a 1997 Mazda Miata convertible and I love her. She is a blast to drive, a conversation piece, and so light you never know she's back there until you glance at the backup camera screen or walk to the rear of the coach. She is red. I love her. She has white racing stripes and a chrome roll bar, and I love her. Did I mention I love her?

So, there you have it. I am going from this beauty (on long trips) to a 4 door car. We really wanted a smaller 4 door truck and were going to trade in the big truck but the hubs decided that he loves his truck just as much as I love my Miata. <sigh> Here we go! 

We ended up with a 2006 Chevrolet Cobalt that matches the coach perfectly but needs to be readied for a tow bar. Mind you, this is an expensive venture to the tune of around 2 grand. So, Don has decided to go with a dolly. Normally, I wouldn't care but the whole point of RVing is to minimize the clutter and a dolly just adds to the stuff one has to store, maintain, and worry about. 

When we get it all worked out and cleaned up (the new/used car), I will post pics. Until then, have a "toadally" great day! 

Your ever worrying about what others think, bloggerette

Lost but so far, not found.

I have several blogs that I try hard to keep up with. Right before we left on our trip to Arizona, I was notified that my domain name needed to be updated for my cooking blog. I put it off and now I am paying for it in more ways than I anticipated.

I was hesitant to update because I was thinking about consolidating all the blogs into one cohesive blog and to cut costs, just use free blogging sites such as this one or Wordpress (where the big blog is). Well, after really researching everything, I chose to go ahead and renew for another 2 years as some of the benefits were worth the extra cost.

After submitting all my information (again) and transferring all my domain and hosting information to one company rather than several, I lost all my data in transition. <sniffle> This is not a HUGE deal since the majority of all the data entry work is also on a hidden blog that was just for personal use; however, all my posts and photo/cooking posts are history and nobody seems to know where they went or even how they got lost.

Bottom line, I am starting over and now I am working on getting a new site up and going. The reason I am posting this information over here, other than to whine and cry on your shoulder, is to let you know that some changes may be occurring here as well.

Sincerely,

your aggravated but not giving up bloggerette

Spring Clean and Fling!

Okay, here goes.

I have to get rid of a lot more junk. This will be round two and while I am anxious to be clutter free, I do love my stuff.

I googled "spring cleaning list" last week so I could compare it with my own list (in my head) and have a printed copy to hand to the dear husband in hopes that he would help. HA HA HA! I know, I am delusional.

At any rate, this is what I found and I LOVE it:

Spring cleaning list

The gal who writes this blog has some really clever and brilliant ideas! I wish I were so brilliant...

Anyway! I have gotten off topic, sorry about that.

Now that I am armed with my list I can get started tomorrow, or the next day... or even the day after.

I am not really looking forward to all the work and what has kept me from being motivated today is knowing that we have some construction repairs planned and why bother cleaning if we are just going to mess it all up with dust, dirt and construction grime again?

Well, I can start sorting through and getting rid of stuff - that will help with the moving stuff to storage project so we can do the repairs without stuff in the way.

Alas, it's time to begin.

Sincerely,
your procrastinating bloggerette

Houston! We have a leak...

What is more annoying than waking up to find your roof leaking? Nothing that I can think of.

Yes, the house is leaking so that gives us a new project on the top of our priority list. Apparently, I failed as a wife to "listen" and my husband has no desire to tear down the house and install an RV pad per my suggestion, so we now have to replace a roof.

Gads...
Anyway, Happy Easter!

We had a lovely time at church with our kids and then lunch with the grands and their dad. Their mom also made a big boo boo and scheduled lunch with us AND at her mom's house so she went there while Gary came and ate with us. :)

Nevertheless, tomorrow I will be calling for estimates on the roof and starting my spring cleaning job. I found a great list on the internet that I will share with you tomorrow. :D

Your deaf-to-her-husband bloggerette

Home again!

HI all! We have been home 2 weeks now and life is starting to "settle in" before we uproot ourselves and begin on our journeys again in May. I am excited to get out of town as this trip takes us home to Oregon and to family on my side. 

While we are home here in Oklahoma, Don will be having surgery to repair a cornea separation in his eye from his past cataract surgery. Then hopefully, he will be fitted for his new hearing aides and new glasses. Yay! We had also planned to go camp with our friends but that gathering is the same weekend as his surgery. DRAT! 

Today the kids and I went to my friends new tea room; Magnolia Tea Room here in Bartlesville and oh my! the food was amazing! I am so happy for my friend and I wish her all the success she can handle and then some. So far, it has been a huge hit in our area and the tables are consistently full. 

Then we headed out to "the farm" where my sister-in-law and brother-in-law live. They have cows. I love cows. They also have calves and I love calves even more. I wish I had taken pictures of them. However, I did take pictures of their little charge, Anna. She is just over a year old and constantly going non-stop. 

Miss Anna

Is that not the cutest face? Well, she is a spitfire and reminds me so much of her momma - my niece. 

In other news, God has been at work on the whole sunset scene too. Oh boy! 

Well, that is all I have for you today. Tomorrow is Easter and we are headed to church. He is risen!!! 

Have a blessed Easter Sunday and hug your "peeps" a bit tighter on this Holy day. 

Your faithful Peep-lover-of -cows-and-calves-and-Anna :) 

Oo whats this! I have a blog? Where did I put my blog?

Hi!
Well, I am hanging my head in shame. I forgot about this blog - life took over and I became so busy with other things like travel, school, cleaning out the house, and 'stuff' that I totally forgot to post and subsequently, forgot this blog.

Yay for do-overs! Just like today is "Good Friday" and a representation of forgiveness, love and sacrifice given by God, and a chance to "do-over" our commitment to Him, I am thankful that I can just pick up where I left off but with renewed faith, and begin again.

So, on my hiatus from Blogger, what have I been up to? Well, we cleaned out the house and got rid of a LOT of stuff. The problem is, when I look at the house again, it is just as full as it was before. So, next week is devoted to "Spring Cleaning" and again, I will purge the house of stuff that I don't need, want, like, wear, and use. Wish me luck!

In addition, school has taken up a good chunk of my time since Walden University had me back to two classes at a time. While regular brick and mortar students (going to a physical college address) might find this comical since they usually attend 4 or more classes a term, for this old lady, 2 was MORE than enough. I am back to one and it is keeping me busy but at least I have time for this blog. :D

Couple that with a maiden voyage trip to Arizona to meet up with my parents, school was a challenge. There were so many distractions flying by me as we went down roads that I often found myself gazing out the window or snapping pictures like crazy. Another challenge was my MiFi setup. I guess it sat too long in the coach because when I went to use it for an assignment and research, it worked half the time.
The first day we arrived in Benson, Arizona, my dad, Don and I headed to Tucson to the ATT store for a new one. We chose to upgrade and I am ever so glad we did. This new one works well and I rarely went without internet - except for the one time that my driver decided to NOT stop at the predesignated location and we were out in the middle of  podunk Arizona with nary a cell tower in range. I was in tears as this was the day to submit my first assignment for a class. That's up there with being late or calling in sick to your first day of work. <sigh> Nevertheless, the truckstop where we did stay, had good internet and I was able to "mooch" off of them.

We are now home and had a great trip with no major drama. We boondocked for a time (little over a week) and got a hands-on lesson on how our coach works, how much power we consume and what we could do and not do in terms of what appliances could run on the batteries (with solar panels) before we had to start the generator.

Home awaited us with over a months worth of mail. Ya know, it really amazes me how much PAPER comes into this house in a months time. All but about 13 pieces was junk mail. I will have to figure out how to get off those mailing lists so when we have the mail forwarded to us in the future, it won't be a pile of junk.

Well, that is about it. Except that another time consumer has entered my life. I have taken the plunge and bought a Mac laptop. Now, mind you, I have been a Windows based gal for years and have only touched a Mac maybe twice to "work on it" and a handful of times in various electronic stores, drooling over the latest in Apple mania.... so, now I am a proud but nervous owner of a Mac and it has been a learning curve to say the least. I have become that adult that calls their child and says "I cant figure out how to operate this thing! WHAT do I DO??!!!" to which she laughs and says "Mom, there are buttons on the the touch pad, you can't see them but they are there. Trust me..." and I try - lo and behold <enter Heavenly music> sure enough! There it is! The 'button' that has kept my progress at a stand still for nearly 2 hours of stress, frustration, panic, and wonderment (also several thoughts of taking the thing back and deeming it "broken!") I will keep you posted on my progress in that area; if I don't up and forget what I just said here.

Okay, so that is the big update (ha, ha, ha!) In April, Don has some cataract repair surgery to contend with and then in May we head to the Pacific Northwest for our yearly trek.

Until then or at least the next post, your forgetful wanderer.