Missouri Family Vacation in Iowa

Now you know why I have not had any blog entries. Been very busy and very tired when not busy. Butch and I have been resting up today and not doing much of anything. I have many pictures to go through, tweak and decide to keep or discard.
The Missouri kids- minus Brad as he had to work- arrived on Friday evening and we gathered at Jason and Laura's in Boone. Always a good time when we all get together. And Ethan and his mom Nicole were there too adding to the fun. The little ones keep us all entertained and busy!

These kids, Elise, Ethan and Jason all move so fast it is hard to get a picture that is not blurry. Ethan was on the phone with his imaginary friend "Operator".

On Saturday morning we toured the Boone Fire Station mainly because Mike was working and then the whole family could visit with him. The little ones did not want the trucks started up as none of them like loud noises.

Laura, Ethan and Elise look over one of the high dollar fire trucks.

The pole is no longer in use. Considered too dangerous as the newest fireman do not get trained in its proper use.

 No way would they shake this guys hand! But Laura did.

An Iowa Farm Tractor at the Boone County Fair

Jason has become a bit too bulky

The coolest dude at the fair- 3 month old Leo Teeter

Nicole after her sno-cone

Elise and Ethan in the bouncy room

Butch tries to show off his bulk.

More next time...

Yesterday- Photo Op Day

And all I had was my phone camera so these are not the best shots.Pickers have more stuff! Really neat stuff. I hear they are looking for someone to manage their Picker store while they go do more picking. Anyone interested?

 And we also saw some fellows doing tower work. Interesting to watch.

 See the tiny little specs climbing on the tower?

 And this one is a cloud picture. The buildings are the Greene County Fairgrounds.

Hamilton's Party at the Condo on the lake

Don't they look like they are having a great time? They are!!

Mary Figenshaw, Joan Conroy, Carol Zwicky, and Pat Rusnak

Denise Van, Jim and Elizabeth Hanson's daughter, Anita Van Horn, Alice Hamilton and Butch

Jim Hanson (seated) Jayne Tome, Jack Lewis, Dwight Tome and Bill Figenshaw.

Judy Wills and my buddy Colleen

Captain John Hamilton, Todd Van Horn, Ed Lawson, Pat Rusnak and Bill F.

Our Former residence on Lake Panorama. 

619 Lake Panorama Drive or at least it used to be unless they changed the street addresses and they may have done so because of the 911 changes.

Butch enjoying the boat ride

A deer spotted us

View from south window of the condo

Joan, Anita and Jim Hanson

Jayne, Dwight and Todd Van Horn

Keith Conroy(back), Denise and Bill F.

Alice H. and Ed L.

Heirloom Seeds!

What a great site and I know many of you who would be interested in this idea.
http://rawforbeauty.com/blog/heirloom-seed-sources.html

Our Garage-A Work in Progress

Our Jefferson Pickers

A couple moved here from out west somewhere and they are "Pickers". They go around the the country side looking for rusty treasures. All people of this sort have vivid imaginations on the many possibilities to be done with their picks. I love em! Our local pickers have purchased a store right next to the Depot on the bike trail and yesterday I noticed they had "picked" an old  carnival. I didn't have my camera and when I returned this morning most of it was gone but I did get a few photos of things outside their store.

A Stranger Among Us

Hmmm...

What is going on at our house? Well as you can see I am being entertained by the great grands antics on facebook for one thing. Butch is working on making order in the garage. The garage was where everything landed that we did not know what to do with. So now the time has come to create order out of chaos and it is coming along although the garage is one place that never seems to stay orderly for very long. When it looks picture ready I will take one but we will have to catch it quick.
I am currently in a place where I am studying decor and placement etc. to see where I might wish to add this or  that. I do not want to rush this phase because I will be living with the result for decades to come perhaps.

We have a busy week coming up with Missouri kids coming this next weekend and preceding that we have an invitation to Lake Panorama, Cleavelands are stopping by for a visit and I am getting the carpet cleaned in the motorhome.

We have a new playground in our neighborhood and that news will please Miss Elise. She likes playgrounds and this new one looks like a real humdinger and only a block from us.

I did laundry today and cleaned house. It seemed effortless. I have put so much thought and planning into this place to make it easy to care for and I have succeeded beyond my wildest dreams! It seemed the right time to clean but really the truth be known it was not very dirty or at least it did not seem very dirty.

Bits and pieces: The printer is hooked up wireless and its new home is in the closet. It gets the message to print-I hit print and then walk in there to get the printed page. I am liking this. It will not move this fall. I am taking no chances with it. I have a friend in the park who pays me for Internet and this year I think we will strike a deal with her doing my printing for me and me providing Internet for her.
The smart TV is smart indeed. It is functional and also on our newest Internet network. I have hooked up to Amazon and Netflix. It is such a good feeling when all these things work as they should.

Mani Pedi's for the wee ones.

Miss P and Miss Elise getting their nails and toes done for P's birthday!!!

They are going to do what?? Miss P looks frightened and Elise looks shocked!

Hanging out with Curious George

Elise

Her Mama says: My smart girl matching lowercase and capital letters!

Baby Leo at 3 months

He looks as though he is trying to put the blanket on the bear.

He looks like his daddy in this one.

Jewelry Cleaner

NEVER BUY JEWELRY CLEANER AGAIN!

1 tablespoon salt

1 tablespoon baking soda

1 tablespoon dish detergent

1 cup water

1 piece aluminum foil

Directions:

1. Heat water in the microwave for 1 or 2 minutes.

2. Cut a piece of aluminum foil that roughly covers the bottom of a small bowl (like a cereal bowl).

3. Pour hot water into bowl. Place salt, soda, and dishwashing liquid into bowl. Place jewelry on top of foil and let

 it sit for 5 to 10 minutes. Rinse jewelry in cool water and dry jewelry completely with soft cloth. Discard solution

 after use and make a new batch next time.

4. According to wire-sculpture.com, "this works well for gold-filled, brass, German (nickel) silver, and sterling 

silver. I have even cleaned jewelry with freshwater pearls, shell cameos and mother of pearl with no problem.".

Cream of the Crop Salad

1/2 cup chopped vegetables of your choice. I like to be heavy on the radishes. I also added celery, carrots, and onions. Dressing is 2T 3-cheese dressing and 2T  cottage cheese. Yum!

Pallet walls

I am trying to get Butch to go along with this idea for the internal walls of the garage. What a great idea for old pallets. And he just saw a bunch at the recycle place.

Craft Project

My friend Pat gave me a mirror. I loved the color and have spent much thought on what I might do with it. It had a couple of broken hooks on it so we took them off. Now the door knobs and the plates behind them and the hook in the middle were all gleaned from this house. So it has some personal history with the house.

These were also from the house as well as the plates behind them. I have yet to find where I want them installed but I am loving them.

New Internet is up and working

They came this afternoon and hooked us up. Much better speeds and no data limits. Woohoo! tomorrow I call Verizon and cut the strings. We will still have Verizon phone -just not Internet.
Tonight I plan to see if I can get the printer to work wireless. And we have a new SMART TV so we may have to see just how smart it is and if we can get it hooked into the Internet as well. And THEN I need to get some Kindle books downloaded and some pictures uploaded. Lots of fun ahead. Stay tuned...

Some decisions

I had stayed away from the Jefferson Telephone Company and their Internet service because of misconceptions. When we first came back I stopped in and talked to them at the front desk about their fees and was greatly disappointed. But today I decided to call them and see if I could compare their rates as an apples to apples deal after talking to a satellite company. I talked to the business office-not the receptionist. World of difference.
 For Internet only.

Jefferson Telephone Company                              Exceed Satellite
Hook up fee- $99 one time                                   $49.95 one time
No Contract                                                           2 year contract
No data usage limits                                               10 GB Data limit
Monthly fee-$57.95                                                $59.95
Vacation fee-Disconnect and reconnect                   $20 a month
is cheaper. ($35.00 on return)
There are other one time fees of
$15 for Netins connection and $79 for a
modem/router.

Being able to put it on vacation with only a $35 hook up cost when we return was the clincher. The unlimited data usage and no contract also were very appealing.
So when we get hooked up I will be happy to not have data usage concerns. It will be more like the connection we have in Texas.
I am happy to have this decision made.
If someone would like a Verizon MiFi apparatus let me know. We will not need it very soon.

Lots Done

It happened to be one of those days I accomplished many tasks. Laundry, cooking and cleaning. This house is really easy to clean! Even easier than the motorhome. I thought it had to be dirty as it had been some time since I had cleaned but as it turned out it was not that dirty.
I made a recipe today that Butch declared a keeper without any encouragement from me. A rare day indeed.
So here it is:
http://www.kalynskitchen.com/2013/06/slow-cooker-spicy-brown-rice-sausage-peppers.html

It is very easy to put together. I closely followed the recipe as I usually do the first time. I will continue to on this one as I did not think it needed any tweaking. Oh and I found the Spike seasoning called for at our local Fareway so it must not be too hard to find.

And then...In a conversation with my granddaughter Amanda she said they would like to find a nice home for Eva their dog. Eva is a sweet dog but Amanda is finding her hands full with her two babies and knows she does not have the time for Eva that she deserves. Eva is about 5 years old and she looks much like the dog Sandy in the musical Annie. Here is her picture:

Sometimes I pass over pictures that I intend to get posted and then I go back and catch them later. Other times they get completely forgotten.  Coneflowers on the bike trail

"I'll sit beside you, Papa Butch."

Holding Baby Leo

"Supper ready?"

More Holiday Pics

Susan with her grandson Leo. 

4th of July feast at Brad and Amanda Teeters

Gary and Susan Brooker residence

Elise Sparkles

http://youtu.be/-uMawrOvRDg

Baby Leo Coos youtube

 http://youtu.be/hId5xs_WssI

No sound on the one I uploaded so I youtubed it.

Great time in Missouri

We had a great time helping the kids move. Yes, we really did! Of course they had done much of the preliminary work but a bunch was accomplished in 3 days and we still had plenty of time with grands and great grands.

This is a video of Leo the giant baby. He was born April 11th but has advanced beyond what he he should be doing for the short amount of time he has been here. Very sweet disposition on this little guy and the only time he raises a fuss is when his food is late. I spent much of my time holding him while we were in Missouri and enjoyed every bit of it.
And his sister Elise was busy enjoying the festivities of the holiday.

She apparently enjoys her bike helmet. More later...

Missouri here we come

Our Missouri kids are moving! And low and behold they are moving to Peculiar! This is where we always stay in the motorhome when we are in the area because it was closest to them. Now we will be even closer and we are loving this idea. The move will put them both closer to their jobs.
The big move day is today and we are going down to help.
I am also looking forward to seeing the giant baby Leo and his big sister Elise. Never a dull moment with her around and I am sure her brother will follow suit as soon as he is mobile.
If I do not post for awhile you will now know why but bear with me as I will be back...with pictures!

Busy Weekend

My lifelong friend Mickey came for the weekend and we had a great time visiting way past our bedtimes! She wanted to see our house and how it has come out. She approved of all we have done. On Saturday we had a J.I.G.s gathering at the Mexican restaurant here in Jefferson. Very, very good by the way. It is the best "up north" Mexican restaurant I have ever been in and it is right here in our own hometown. We had 13 attendees at J.I.G.s. Next month I am hosting it here and Keri, bless her heart sincerely, is catering it for me.
Best of both worlds! July 27th in case you are a J.I.G.s.

We have a new mattress for the motorhome now and Jason and Laura have agreed to take our old mattress for their guest room. So as I write we are waiting for Leo's truck so we can load it up and take it to them. The new mattress is in place and taking on air. I really like these mattresses!

So it has been a busy, productive and very fun weekend so far with more to come! 

Smooth as silk

AC guy (Greg) came yesterday and hooked up our tiny little AC unit and it is working like a charm. I am hoping they do not charge extra for homeowner hovering because Butch never left his side. Greg did not appear to care. We did take him out for lunch.

You may notice the name on the van is familiar. Butch's brother Bill had/has this business in Newton Iowa so we enjoyed some inside connection with the whole process. Thanks a bunch Bill Brooker for all your help with our tiny little house. You played a big part in getting it put together smoothly and we will always be grateful.

This tiny little AC unit is doing a  great job cooling our tiny little house. On this one we have to thank our friend, fellow square dancer and cribbage playing buddy Marv Smith. Marv bought this unit at an auction for one of his farm houses but found out it was too small so he stored it until we came along and needed it. Thank You, Marv Smith.

Isn't it funny how things work out? You can see how much smaller this unit is by the marks on the cement pad from the old unit. But it is the perfect size for us.

Today we have www.screenbuilders.com coming to talk to us about a screen room. Most likely not going to  happen this year. In the plan for next year...sure hope it is a drier season than this one has been. I am ready for some dry weather.