Friday, November 9, 2018 - It's COLD Outside; Moving locations; Dinner with Family

Friday, November 9, 2018 - It's COLD Outside; Moving locations; Dinner with Family

I had an appointment to get my hair trimmed this morning at 8, and I wanted to shower first, so we did not walk this morning.  After my hair cut, we ate breakfast at Circle L.  We typically arrive around 8 and it was closer to 9 this morning.  I know why we go earlier now - it was really busy.  I saw my friend Betty, who was at a full table this morning, so we just waved.  Our friends Danny & Becky were clear in the back at the bar.  We didn't even know they were there until most of the people had cleared out.  They stopped to visit as they were leaving. 

Once we returned to Bentley we were busy packing things up to move.  Oh, the wind is very cold this morning!  We pulled out of the park at 11:12 headed to Brett's, outside of Lamar, MO.  We hardly made it down the hill outside of Oswego when I remembered I forgot to take the glass plate out of the microwave and store it.  We drove another 3 miles to Hallowell where we pulled off the road just west of Angelo's so I could store it.

We only made one more stop - in PIttsburg to pick up our mail, before heading on east.  It was 12:48 when we arrived at Brett's.  WOW - the wind here is very strong and COLD.  I'm not ready for these cold temperatures.  It is supposed to be as low as 19 degrees in the morning!  We ate a sandwich and Dean watched Gunsmoke (his noon show) before we headed into Lamar to buy a few more groceries. 

We spent the next few hours back at Bentley.  Fortunately we still had the insulated pieces we cut to put inside the windows of Bentley in our basement, so the first thing we did was get a number of those in place to help keep it warm inside.  It made a big difference.  I woke up at 3:30 this morning and could not go back to sleep so I enjoyed resting until it was time to leave.

Sunset on our way to Pittsburg

At 5:45 we left to meet Renae in Pittsburg to pick up Dacy & Tucker.  We are meeting Brett at Chicken Mary's for dinner.  We had a good visit with the kid's on the way and throughout dinner. While we were waiting on Brett to arrive, Dacy mentioned her dad usually ordered the Family Style Meal.  We decided we would give the four person meal a try.  We had to pay an extra $1 for the 5th person, but the price was right.  It came with a large order of onion rings, 12 pieces of chicken (we had to force Brett to eat the last piece), and three sides (we chose, German potato salad, creamy coleslaw and spaghetti).  Of course they also brought what looked like half a loaf of bread to the table too.  We brought some of the sides home with us but everything else was cleaned up.  The entire meal for all of us was a very reasonable $38.  

We visited at Brett's for awhile before Dean and I retired to Bentley about 9pm.  

Even with the cold and the wind, it was another wonderful day!

Thursday, November 8, 2018

Thursday, November 8, 2018

It was a little cooler this morning with the wind, but we braved it and bundled up to walk again this morning.  After one lap through the park, and we were starting to shed gloves, hats and unzipping our coats.  Amazing how walking can warm you up!  The trees are still so pretty in the park - it won't be long though, and the leaves will be gone for this year.

It's supposed to start raining later today and we might even see a little snow, but it's not supposed to last or accumulate here.

We are moving tomorrow to son Brett's house.  We have electric and water there, but no sewer so we will be conserving the water usage since we'll be there a week, so I did two loads of laundry this morning.

I decided to take everything out of the storage area under our bed and go through it.  I keep most of our off season clothing here in a storage tub, another storage tub holds mostly paper products, and toiletries (items purchased when I see we are almost out of something), a suitcase in case we ever need to make a quick trip via plane while on the road, and several other miscellaneous items.  We also carry bottled water here when we need it.  I rearranged everything, eliminated several things, and I'm much happier with the arrangement.  I also have some open space if needed.  Going through all storage areas is one thing I wanted to accomplish while we are in Kansas - I'm getting off to a slow start.

When we were at the storage shed we brought back a vacuum sealed bag full of blankets, pillows and sheets that we are taking with us to Brett's in case they are needed for Matt's family to use.  One of the things in the bag was our heated mattress pad.  I put it on our bed.  It will be really welcome in the coming weeks while we are here in Kansas and the temperatures start to drop.  

I ordered some lunchmeat from G&W, and when I picked it up this afternoon I also bought two chickens and almost 5 pounds of hamburger that we will use this coming weekend/week to feed the bunch of us at Brett's....10 of us each day.   

We ate the last of our leftovers for dinner (ham and beans/cornbread).  While we were eating Misti called me.  She plays Bunco once a month with friends and they needed another person to fill in.  She wanted to know if I'd be interested in going with her.  I've always wanted to play it, so here was my chance.  She picked me up about 15 minutes later and we headed to Altamont (about 15 miles west of Oswego).  On the way, here came the snow!  I had no idea how long we would be gone, and was surprised that we were there less than an hour.  I loved playing.  I'm going to have to check to see if they play Bunco in the Valley at Val's, where we will head after Christmas.

It was still snowing when we left to head back to Oswego.  Fortunately, it was not sticking. Back home, I was happy to see my sweet husband did the dishes while I was gone.  He's the best!

Another wonderful day!

Wednesday, November 7, 2018 - Trip to Miami......OK not FL!

Wednesday, November 7, 2018 

It was quite a bit cooler this morning but it wasn't too cold to walk.  After we got in our two miles we headed home for breakfast and showers.  

We had planned to go to Joplin this morning but when Misti called and asked if we'd like to meet her for lunch in Miami, we changed our plans.  We just needed to pick up a few things from Walmart and we can do that in Miami just as easy and it's not as far.  We met her at Braum's and had a nice visit, although way too short!  We'll take what time we can get right now while she's in school.

It didn't take us long to pick up the few things we needed at Walmart and we enjoyed the drive home.  We passed through Picher, OK on our way back to Oswego.  It always makes me sad to see all of the abandoned homes and businesses there.  The town was shut down after EPA declared it to be one of the most toxic areas in the US.  It is now referred to as the Tar Creek Superfund Site, and you can read more by clicking on the link.

We made a stop in Chetopa at Buckboard Decor & Gifts to pick up a couple pounds of pecans, one of pecan halves for pies and the other of pecan pieces to use for breads and cookies.  I only had a few pecans left in our freezer.  It was our first time visiting this store.  Dean and I were both impressed with the selection of items they have on display.  Dean found several things he really liked - and that's not the norm - it's usually me.  

After putting away the groceries I've been on the computer ever since - finishing up the last few things to close out our October budget, and inputting everything through today in November's.  I am glad to be caught up with it.

Next was to work on the blog.  I finished it up and made a post for the first six days of November.  I really do not like getting that far behind.  

According to the Weather Channel we are expected to see morning temps drop in the 30's Wed/Thurs and down to 19 on Friday - moving day!  Ugh!  I'm not ready for cold weather yet!

With 2018 being our first year of keeping a detailed budget to track our expenses on the road, I spent the evening re-evaluating our budget for changes to 2019.  Several line items were reduced, a few increased and new ones added that we did not anticipate for the first year that have been going in to Miscellaneous.  It's been interesting doing this and seeing where we are spending our money.  While we've always had a budget, I've never had a detailed one.  It's been eye opening to see exactly how much we spend in each line item.  

It was another beautiful day!

Thursday, November 1, 2018 - Tuesday, November 6, 2018 - Catching Up

Thursday, November 1, 2018 - Tuesday, November  6, 2018 - Catching Up

Thursday, November 1, 2018

Thursday morning I woke up to the sounds of rain, so we did not walk today.   Other than doing a few things inside.... laundry, cleaning, paperwork it was a pretty humdrum day.

I did make a trip to see our chiropractor, Dr. Frisbee.  My left shoulder/neck area has given me a bit of trouble the last week or so, and of course the day it hurt the worse was the day his office was closed.  I'm glad I went because I feel better but overall I was in pretty good shape.  I believe the exercises I've been doing are really helping.

Son Brett and grandchildren Dacy and Tucker came over around 4pm.  They brought the Blue & Gold sausage we ordered a few weeks ago.  Dean, Brett & Tucker left to go to our storage shed so Brett could get our old grill.  Dacy and I had a good visit while they were gone.  I ordered a pizza before they arrived.  When the guys returned, Dacy and I ran up to pick up the pizza, and made a stop at G&W for a bottle of Pepsi.  When they left a couple of hours later, Brett was able to take almost all of the baby stuff Jarred sent with us for Matt & Megan when we were in Wichita.  



Friday, November 2, 2018

What a beautiful morning and we took advantage of it to walk this morning, logging just over 2 miles.  We stopped at Circle L for breakfast afterwards, where we enjoyed visiting with Danny & Becky.  I enjoyed seeing our friend Betty and getting a big hug from her.  It's always so good to see friends when we are back in our hometown.

We spent most of the day at Bentley just getting more "stuff" done.  

Dean picked up my package from Amazon that was dropped off at the office here in the park.   Here's what I ordered:

A bluetooth 10 key pad to use with my Chromebook. 

I was glad we had leftovers (meatloaf, mac & cheese) as I didn't feel much like cooking this evening.  About 7 or so, there was a knock on our door.  It was kind of funny.  I was upstairs and Dean was in his chair.  He yelled can you get that, I can't get out of my chair - with the power, it takes a few seconds to get the footrest down enough you can easily get out of the chair.  First time we've realized that and I had to laugh a bit.

I opened the door and it was our friends Bill & Marilyn.  They arrived at the park today and were parked next to us.  Earlier today I had to run an errand and as I left the park I noticed there was an RV parked at the office.  A lady was standing at the office entrance reading the sign Todd has hanging there.  When I came back they were set up next to us, but they were gone.  When Cindy, picked me up around 1:00, we met them coming into the park as we were leaving.  I recognized Bill, but when we returned later, they were gone again.  In the meantime they had returned home but we didn't realize it.  We were really glad they stopped by.  We had such a nice visit with this couple that I first met while working for the city.  Bill and Marilyn, thank you for stopping by.  



Saturday, November 3, 2018

Elmer, Cindy's husband, called Dean to see if he wanted to golf this afternoon at 1 and of course Dean took him up on it.  He's not played golf but once since he had his surgeries and that was while we were in New York visiting Matt.  He's been itching to get on the golf course again. 

A picture I took in downtown Oswego this morning.  The trees are so pretty right now and it looks like we might get a change in the weather with these clouds.  

I called Cindy to see if she wanted to run to Parsons with me while the guys were golfing.  At first she said no, but she called me back later and said she had changed her mind.  She decided she needed to pick up a few things at Walmart - which is part of the reason I was going.  I needed a few things I couldn't get here, and I want to see Marc and his family.

Misti sent me a text message about 11:30 and I was ecstatic to get it - it was a copy of Logan's first letter since he left.  He sent it to family and friends and asked Misti to share it with everyone.  It was so good to hear from him.  I got all teary eyed reading it.  

I was going to take Dean to the golf course and drive the truck to Parsons, but after Cindy changed her mind she offered to drive and I took her up on it.  We stopped at Marc and Jen's first.  Jaxson was on a roll today showing us his planetarium.  I have to admit it was pretty cool.  There was a light inside it.  When he turned it on you could see the constellations.  He placed it against the wall and the constellations reflected to the wall. 

He also told us about a meteor they saw in the sky the night before.  They all noticed something flying through the sky.  Shortly after that it exploded, falling with a red flame behind it.  They saw a report about it on the news later that it was indeed a meteor.  Jaxson was so excited telling us about it.  This was right up his alley!  Such an exciting time for them all.

We had a great visit.  Kamron and I selected a date to go shopping together while she is out of school for Thanksgiving holiday, and we are excited about spending the day together.  

Cindy and I made our stop at Walmart's and headed home.

After Dean returned from golf, we went to Misti's to help her move a couple of things and drop Haleigh's birthday card off.  We enjoyed spending some time with her and Haleigh.  Misti has been so busy with school.  When she's not in class, she's studying and we hate to take her away from that.  This week and for the next two weeks, she is doing her first of three sets of three week clinicals, at a physical therapy unit.  While she still has some work to do outside of class, she's also had some time of her own at home, which was much needed.

And, Dean was able to connect my Chromebook to the printer today, by using Google Cloud.  I was happy!



Sunday, November 4, 2018

I had planned to go to church at Sherman this morning but it rained most of the night and was still raining when I got up this morning.  The roads can get pretty muddy, so instead I went with Cindy to the Baptist Church.  Her granddaughter Dani was playing the piano and singing for their special music this morning.  It was really good to hear her and to see several folks I haven't seen in awhile.  

Today is my Sunday to host our Sisterfest and since the Chiefs are playing (means Dean will be watching the game in Bentley), Cindy offered her house for our visit.  I made the dessert of peach crisp with ice cream on the side.  Cindy's daughter Nikki also joined us.  Love getting together with my sisters and family.

And, Dean also was able to connect both of our phones to print through Google Cloud as well!  



Monday, November 5, 2018

I never left the RV all day, just working on various things.  I did some cleaning, laundry, continued working on our RV travels for 2019, and made a few phone calls.  

I also made a pot of ham and beans.  It's been a long time since we've had these.  I'm so glad Dean likes this meal as much as I do.  It's one of my favorites, with fried potatoes and cornbread.  Yummm!

Misti stopped by around 5 or so, and shared 4 more letters she received from Logan in her mail today.  It is just so good to hear from him.  He's doing well and is settling in.  We are so proud of him.

Not much else to share.



Tuesday, November 6, 2018

Dean played golf this morning, so I made use of the time here by myself.  Laundry, defrosting the freezer, cleaning the RV, finishing up inputting information in our October budget.  It was a very productive day.

We did walk a little over 2 miles this morning and it felt good to be doing that.  We do miss our walks.  A few pictures I took this morning.

Along the tennis courts

In Riverview Park

Taken from the overlook looking upstream of the Neosho River

Taken from the overlook looking downstream of the Neosho River

Here are a few more pictures of beautiful trees around town on our way back to the RV Park.

The sky was beautiful this morning.

Beautiful sky behind the Post Office, with our downtown water tower in the background.

This afternoon we went to City Hall to vote in the general election.  

Afterwards, we drove to the storage shed to pick up a few things to take to Brett's while Matt & Megan are visiting.

What a great month November has been so far!

Wednesday, October 31, 2018 - Morning in the Park; Computers & Printers!! A Love/Hate Relationship; Halloween

Wednesday, October 31, 2018

Wednesday, October 31 - We've kept somewhat busy but not doing too much to blog about.  I don't like to wait too long, so wanted to post an update.

Misti called this morning to see if I could print out files for her that she needed for the class she is taking at Labette Community College.  She is in her first week of three weeks of clinical training during the program.  Between Dean and I we finally got it printed, but since it was a large amount we didn't have it all done when she arrived.  She took what she needed for the day and will pick up the rest later.  

We are trying to get back into a daily walking mode, and this morning we got in 2.19 miles in our city park - which is absolutely gorgeous right now with all of the beautiful trees in their fall glory.  I was disappointed we did not see more change in the leaves as we traveled, but Oswego's trees are truly amazing - we just lack the volume of trees in one area.  You can go down almost every street and find at least one beautiful tree, and often many.  We are blessed to have so much beauty in our town each fall!

After we returned from the park and having breakfast, Dean tried for quite awhile to link my Chromebook to our printer but was unsuccessful.  I finally contacted Canon and found it is not compatible with my Chromebook as far as linking directly to the printer itself.  We are going to try the Google Cloud Print and see if that will work - if not, I think we will be looking for a different printer.  Fortunately we didn't pay much for this one and I know someone who could use a printer 👩..... so, we'll see how that turns out for us.  

By the way I love my new little Chromebook.  It's so much smaller than my old laptop.  It's so light I actually carry it in my "Travel Bag".  I keep my log book, my notebook that I use to write everything in - list of todo's, research notes for anything I am thinking of buying (recently both the computer and a printer), grocery lists, menus, notes about pictures I take while we are traveling, sayings I run across, etc. (a little diary of day to day things), -and now my Chromebook.  I have even prepared blogs on the road with it.  The only negative with the Chromebook is there is not a 10 key pad on it, but I have found a solution to that and I'll share that with you in a few days.

My new Chromebook

My old laptop - it takes up the entire portion of my arm desk (attached to our new chairs).

My Travel Bag - my log book (notations for each campground we stay at)

Other than doing a few things around Bentley, for the rest of the day I spent most of it planning a trip on the RV Parky app for our 2019 summer/fall travels.  Thanks to our friends who planned and took this trip last year, and to Nancy for providing a copy of the itinerary they used which helped me tremendously.  We wanted to include a few other stops and I also wanted to research each of the campsites along the way, hoping to utilize Passport America locations as much as possible.  It saved us hundreds of dollars on our trip to New England.  In addition, I also input (separately) both our Colorado trip and Southeast trip in RV Parky as well.  I like to print these out as it lists the address for each stop, which is great to keep in the truck.  Each day that we move to a new site, we have the address readily available to plug into the GPS, and if something comes up and we need the phone number of the campground (I note it on the sheet), it is readily available.

By the time I finished this up, it was time to make dinner - meatloaf, mac & cheese (thanks for your "recipe" Drena) and a veggie.  It was so good!  It seems like forever since I've cooked.  While it's nice not having to cook everyday, most of the time we actually prefer the control we have over what we eat at home. 

After dinner and cleaning up, I set down to spend some time on my phone, going first to Facebook.  I had not been on it all day - and of course, I immediately started seeing pictures of all the kids in costume.  Gosh, we entirely forgot it was Halloween today.  I'm glad no one came to the RV Park, or we would have been embarrassed.....we had no candy!

I had not scrolled too far when I started seeing Halloween pictures from the CIty of Oswego crew.  Several years ago they started holding a "Trunk or Treat" downtown for kids to attend.  Many of the businesses or organizations participate, as well as individuals.  The City crew have had some of the most amazing costumes over the years but I think this was by far their best yet.  Of course I am a little prejudiced since I worked with several of these folks for many years, but they truly do an awesome job (both at work.... and having fun).

Click HERE to see what they did!

As I have worked on this blog post, I guess we did more than I thought!  It didn't seem like much at the time.

That was our day, and what a great one it was!

Tuesday, October 30, 2018 - Happy Birthday Haleigh; One Last Visit; Travel to Oswego; Dinner at Chetopa

Tuesday, October 30, 2018 - Happy Birthday Haleigh; One Last Visit; Travel to Oswego; Dinner at Chetopa

Today is our granddaughter Haleigh's birthday.  She is 17 years old.  She is our second grandchild, and first granddaughter.  I can still remember how excited I was to see the red fuzz on her little head when she was born.  I was hoping she would be born on my birthday, but she was stubborn and wanted a day of her own, arriving one week later.  She still has a mind of her own today.  Happy birthday Haleigh!!  We love you!

Close to 8am, Jarred and Emerson stopped by to drop off the infant car seat so we would have it for Matt's little guy Sam when we pick them up on November 10th.  The entire backseat of the truck is now full of baby paraphernalia.  We both got one last big hug from Emerson and Jarred before they left.

We did not rush to get around this morning and it was 10:00am before we pulled out of Maple Village RV Park.  It was really overcast this morning at 60 degrees, with a little wind.  We flew through Wichita since there was little traffic on US400.  On Saturday when we returned from Winfield after Abram's game, traffic in the eastbound lane was backed up for a half mile or so due to construction on US400 near I-235.  Dean remarked we needed to think of taking an alternate route when we head back to Oswego.  We never thought of that at all this morning and traffic never slowed once on our way out of town.  We were very thankful for that.

We love the artwork and beautiful landscaping along US400 through Wichita.  

I couldn't help but take a few pictures as we passed through the Flint Hills

So many colors in this picture.

It seems like you see forever in front of you at this point on the road.

The reflection in the pond is so pretty.

So open

Love the clouds and this stand of trees.

I love the moodiness of the clouds, the beautiful browns, golds, reds in the trees, the grass and the reflection of the skies in the pond of the one picture.  No matter the weather, this area of Kansas is always beautiful. 

We hit both rest stops on US400 on the way home - at Beaumont and just outside of Cherryvale.  We pulled into Hillside RV Park at 1:20pm, into the same site we were in before.  We will be here for the next 10 days and look forward to visiting with family members and friends during that time.

Once we were parked and had Bentley setup I went in to find this:

No, it's not supposed to look like this.  So which one is the correct one?








If you guessed the one on the right - you are right!

The globe on the left came unscrewed from the panel, and evidently was swinging around and broke the middle globe.  We have had problems with the middle globe loosening up but we've never noticed any problems with the other two.  I guess we'll be trying to find some new hanging lamps next time we are in Joplin.  I really liked these globes and hate to lose them, but compared to many other things that could go wrong - this is small.

Dean grabbed the vacuum and together we got the mess cleaned up - glass was on the floor, in the sinks, on the counters, and the table.  Thank goodness we did not find any glass on the new chairs.   Then he had the job of getting the remaining glass off of the middle light fixture, and rescrewing the light back into the light panel above.  

It was about 4 or so and I realized that Haleigh had not responded to the birthday wish I sent her this morning, so I called her.  She told me she was just getting ready to call me to see if we could take her to Columbus to meet her mom.  Misti is doing her first clinicals in Miami, OK this week.  Misti and Haleigh had plans to have dinner and go to a movie tonight in Pittsburg for Haleigh's birthday, so of course we said we would take her over.

It was around 5:45 when Misti arrived.  After they left, we talked about what we were going to do for dinner.  I didn't have anything laid out, so we decided to drive to Chetopa and eat at the Hornet's Nest.  We walked in to find one of my high school classmates, Jamie and her husband Kenny there as well.  I ordered and while Dean paid I stopped to visit with them for a few minutes.  It was great to see them.

Once we returned to the RV Park, we had barely walked in the door when the rain started.  We were so glad we made it inside ---- but it was only for a few minutes ---- and then it stopped!  It is supposed to get down to 49 degrees tonight and only get to 55 degrees tomorrow.  That's still not too bad - good sweatshirt weather!

It's good to be back in Oswego for awhile.  We'll get the chance to spend time with our kids in the area, and to see my sisters and other family members.  Plus I use the downtime here to get caught up on projects I need to do, and I have a list!

It has been another great day!

Monday, October 29, 2018 - Breakfast; Shopping; Granddaughter Emerson; Dinner; Laundry; Gathering up Baby Items

Monday, October 29, 2018 - Breakfast; Shopping; Granddaughter Emerson; Dinner; Laundry; Gathering up Baby Items

We purposely stayed an extra day as we had a few things we wanted to do before heading back to Oswego.  We enjoy having breakfast out and its been a few days (haha); so we looked for a new place to try and found "Homegrown".  As far as location, we could not have selected a better restaurant to fit in with the things we wanted to do today.  Located at 29th & Maize, we pulled in a little after 8.  It was located in a small, relatively new, strip mall.  

Sunrise this morning on our way to breakfast.

We were seated pretty quick.  I had checked out the menu online so I knew what I wanted to order and after Dean took a look at it, he decided on his regular meal of eggs and sausage that included rosemary potatoes and wheat toast.  He really liked his meal.  I chose eggs benedict that included roasted turkey, avocado, and tomatoes.  They were good but two benedicts was way too much food.  When the waitress picked up our plates I asked her if there was an option to only order one of the benedicts.  She said several people had inquired about that but the manager had declined to offer it with just one.  That's disappointing since the one was plenty for me.  I only ate a few bites of the potatoes and a few bites of the second one.  However, despite that, the food was very good and we would not hesitate to return.  I would just choose something different next time. 

Our next stop was across the street at Sam's to pick up a few items we use regularly in bulk because of the savings, since we have the room to store them.  I also wanted to check out a few resale shops.  There were four along Tyler heading south so they were right on the path we wanted to take to end up at son Jarred's house around noon.  All three were a bust - the Goodwill was fairly new and there just wasn't much available compared to others I have visited; the second one was geared to young people; and the third and fourth ones were closed on Monday.  We were not too far from a Khol's so I suggested we see if they had anything on sale I might like.  I was looking for a few long sleeve shirts for the coming winter weather.  Fortunately, I found two I really liked for $10 each so I was happy we stopped even though the 20% coupon I had expired the day before.  Dean wanted to stop at Lowe's and we spent some time walking around in there, before our last stop at Jarred's (just around the corner) where we picked up granddaughter Emerson for one last visit before we leave for Oswego tomorrow. 

I fixed grilled cheese sandwiches for our lunch when after we returned to Benltey.  Emmy and I shared one.  Then we had a few grapes and apples.  She has a good appetite.  

Dad gave her a sucker for after lunch - and the many faces of Emerson enjoying it!

After lunch she played for a while, teasing Papa about his neck pillow being her pillow.  She became attached to it when she stayed with us the first time on this trip and her and Papa have had great fun with that.  A little after 2pm, she wanted to lay down and listen to music on her Ipad.  After about thirty minutes or so, she was sound asleep and slept until it was time to take her back home about 4:30.

That is Papa's pillow she is laying her head on, while enjoying her book and listening to her music.

I spent the afternoon doing laundry, getting a few pre-travel things done by putting away some of the things we would not need before we leave tomorrow, and updating our budget report, which was way behind.  Dean did some pre-travel chores outside as well.

With the Chromebook I can not use Microsoft Word or Excel programs in Google but I can save them from Word and Excel in a Google format, which I did last week with the buget program.  I input a number of receipts into the program by inividual day, and color coded each one. I do this so as I can easily check them against our bank account, credit card reports and those paid in cash, to make sure everything is included for the month.  Occasionally we lose a receipt and then I can pick those up from the other reports.  After I was done, I closed the program.  I realized I forgot to input a couple of recipts and when I reopened it - none of the information I just input was there.  I probably spent at least an hour - maybe more doing all of this.  I was pretty frustrated.  I tried several different things to be sure it just wasn't there.  Google automatically saves as you input info in, but for some reason it just didn't work.  I put it away for later since Emerson was now awake, and we needed to take her home.

After we dropped Emerson off with Mom and Dad, we decided to stop at the Golden Corral just a short distance from their house.  I like it  for their salad bar and all of the vegetables they have on their buffet, plus one of my favorites - their bread pudding.  However, I was disappointed this is the first GC without the bread pudding on their buffet.  😞  

Emerson had to show us her bicycle before we left.

Our final stop was at Dillon's on our way back to the RV Park.  I purchased a few grocery items and before we left Dean filled the truck with diesel at 2.97/gallon.  We like that price!

Sunset heading back to Bentley!

Even thought I was going to have to do this a second time, I really wanted to get the budget updated, so I input each of the receipts again, but instead of doing them all at once - I did just a few, then closed out of Google Docs to see if it was saving the information.  I did this twice before finally finishing it up - and it saved everytime.  I don't know why it didn't work before but fortunately it worked just fine this time and hopefully I will not have this problem again.

I had one last load of laundry to do and I started it prior to the input of receipts in our budget file.  It had been running for qute awhile, when Dean noticed the lights flasing on the front of it.  I pulled out our manual that came with it to see what might be going on. Dean ended up unplugging it and letting it set for a minute before plugging it back in as the manual suggested.  Once he did that, we were able to open the machine.  Since it is both a washer and dryer, you have to set the knobs a certain way if you want to wash only.  Once the wash cycle is completed then you can set the dryer to operate separately; or you can set it to wash and then dry immediately afterwards right from the start - which I never do.  When I looked at it closer, I saw what happened.  I turned the dryer portion off from the previous load, but I turned it one notch past OFF, and it was set on the longest drying  selection.  I was pretty upset since it was our good shirts.  Fortunately, all seemed well other than they were slightly wrinkled but fortunately they were still slightly damp as it did not finish the previous cyce.  I laid them out on the island on top of each other and left them for awhile.  This is what the "Wrinkle Free Laundry" manual I purchased from Sandra Jones on operating the Splendide machine says to do for shirts.  Later I folded them and put them back in the dryer for a 20 minute cycle and then hung them in the shower to finish drying over night since they still had a light dampness to them.  I'm hoping when I check them in the morning the few remaining wrinkles will be gone.  I know I will sure double check where I turn the dial in the future. 
Update:  This morning they were dry, and the wrinkles were gone!  All is well.

I mentioned yesterday that son Matt & family are going to visit Kansas in a couple of weeks.  They are flying from Buffalo, with a stop in Chicago before arriving in Kansas City.  Rather than haul all the things they will need for the kids on the plane (car seats, pack and play, etc.) Jarred and Andrea are sending all of these things back to Oswego with us since we will be picking them up at the airport in KC.  The back seat of the truck has a large saucer play stand for Sam to use (he loves his), a pack and play for Sam to sleep in, two carseats - one for Sam and one for Sarah, and we have a booster seat in storage that we can use for Josh.  I can't imagine trying to wrestle all of that at the airport.  We are so thankful Jarred and Andrea still have all of these things they can use since they will be here for 10 days.  They will definitely be needed.  As we packed things in the truck, Jarred realized he forgot the infant car seat so he will bring it by in the morning on his way to work - and we'll get to see Emerson one more time before we leave.  

We are thankful for another great day!