Monday-Wednesday, November 20-22, 2017

Monday-Wednesday, November 20-22, 2017


Monday - Dr. Visit, House Closing, Picking Mail Up at New Address

Today is my son and daughter-in-law's 13th anniversary - Marc & Jen Blair!  Happy anniversary you two.  I love you both so much and wish you many, many more wonderful years together.

This morning was a beautiful day and we walked 1.96 mi, at 17:11 min/mile.  

Today was a very busy day -  I started off by calling the drug store at 9 to renew my prednisone so we could pick it up when we returned from Joplin, MO.  I have a 10 am appointment with my lung doctor for a follow up from the CT scan and Pulmonary Function Test I had on October 13 in Tahlequah, OK.  My PFT test results were great, however all he received on the CT scan results was a written report.  He would like to have a disc of the CT scan so he can compare the most recent scan to the previous one.  Hopefully, I'll be able to get this information to him soon and I will see him again in a month.  

You might remember I talked about the apps we were downloading last week while at Carthage - how to save money at various restaurants utilizing these apps.  We decided today we would try Steak and Shake.  When we paid, we used our credit card on their mobile app and received an automatic deduction of $2.99 from our order.  So far in less than a week we have saved $18.  Thanks Drena!

We have not received any mail at our house since we picked it up last Thursday after we returned from Carthage.  Dean wondered if they forgot to reinstate delivery or had already started forwarding it to our mail forwarding service.  As we were leaving Joplin I called The UPS Store in Pittsburg to see if they had received any mail for us.  The only thing they had was the new checks we had ordered with our new address (we recently run out of our old ones).  Since we were going to need these we made the trip to Pittsburg to pick them up before heading home.  

When we returned to Oswego we stopped at the drug store to pick up my prescription which turned into quite an ordeal.  To put it all in detail here would take up a couple of paragraphs, but suffice to say it all was due to a lack of communication on my doctor's office staff, the drug store and me; starting with the doctor's office who failed to call and let me know they had issued a refill of a prescription for me on November 02 - and the drug store who told me the doctor had called in a prescription for me today (not explaining it was on November 02 he called it in rather than today, November 20 - and me not questioning them more before leaving with a prescription I discovered I did not need, and now I cannot return.  How frustrating!  

After that we stopped to see if the post office here in Oswego might still be holding our mail.  Sure enough when I picked it up last Thursday after we returned from our camping trip to Carthage they forgot to reinstate delivery and we had quite a bit of mail waiting for us.  I stressed that all mail from this point should be sent to our new address - our mail forwarding address in Pittsburg.  

We returned to Bentley until our closing which is scheduled for 4:00 p.m.  Dean had been waiting for an order to obtain a routine blood test from our doctor and there were two letters from her office in the mail we picked up, so we expected that one of them was the order he was looking for.  You can only imagine our surprise when we opened one of them to discover our doctor is closing her practice effective December 22.  We are both saddened by this information, as we like her so much and I have especially been extremely happy with the way she handled my illness this past spring when we returned from Tucson.  I'm supposed to have a follow up blood test the end of November and I'm hoping I will be able to see her before she closes her practice.  Unfortunately the other letter was a billing for my last visit.

Shortly before 4:00 we headed to Realty, Inc. (local abstract office) for the closing on our house.  The closing went quick and just like that we are truly full-timers!  Everyone asks us how does it feel not to have a house - and I just shake my head - we still have a house - a moving house!  What we do not have is STUFF, the worry of what is happening with our house when we are gone for long periods of time and the additional expenses of insurance, taxes and utilities every month when we spend less and less time at it each year.  What  we do have with Bentley is freedom from all of that, plus a new view and adventures every time we pull up our jacks and move, and the many wonderful people we have met in our travels. 

Once we returned from our trip to Kentucky and Ohio in July/August to visit our son and his family we never moved back in the house.  With all of the work we were still doing to the house it was easier to just stay in Bentley.  Once we listed the house, it was so much nicer to be sure it was always ready to show by staying in Bentley.  I did not miss the house.  At that point it was becoming a weight to us because it was tying us down!  Dean does miss his garage when he has much down time, but we've had very little of that for awhile.  Hopefully we'll find lots to do in South Texas and as fast as our calendar is filling up for our remaining time in Kansas this year I'm not sure he'll have much chance to miss it too much.

We returned to Bentley for our first night with out a sticks and bricks home. I still had two plastic tubs and a box with all of our files sitting on the couch and I really wanted to get these sorted and back to the storage unit, so I spent the rest of the afternoon, early evening going through them.  Finally the chore with sorting of the two plastic tubs are done and we only have one tub going to storage and an empty one will be placed in the storage area under our bed that will be used for overflow of clothes that need to be washed.  I plan to tackle the files next week while doing laundry at Misti's.  So after a little dinner we settled in to watch the first of a two night grand finale of Dancing with the Stars.  To us it was a perfect evening!



Tuesday - Taking Care of Business, Celebrating a Friend's Birthday, Full-time Insurance

We walked again this morning, 2.63 mi, at 16.44 min/mile.  Another beautiful day and a little warmer than yesterday.  

After breakfast, and taking care of a few things here at Bentley I had a busy day ahead of me.  My first stop was at our bank to deposit the check from our closing yesterday.  With that taken care of I stopped to visit with my sister, who is also our insurance agent, to make the necessary changes to our insurance policies - cancel our home coverage and upgrade our RV insurance to full-time.  We went over a number of things and Jody will check a few things for us and get back to me with details later today.

I had just enough time to call my doctor (the one who is closing her practice) to see about making an appointment before she closes her practice.  The receptionist told me they were booked through December and it was doubtful I could get in but she would check with the doctor.  I'm disappointed because I definitely want to do a follow up before we leave to go to Texas and I'm wondering if we can find a new doctor before then.  All I can do is give it to God and believe it will all work out.  (Update:  There schedule is already full and I am not going to be able to get in so we will pursue finding a new primary care physician as quickly as possible.)

My next stop was in Chetopa to pick up my good friend Betsy.  Today is her birthday.  I wanted to take her to lunch and spend some time with her.  Betsy fell a few days ago while trying to hang a picture and broke her arm.  We got her situated in the car and off we went.  We had such a nice visit on the way to Vinita where we stopped for lunch at a Route 66 icon - Clanton's Cafe.  Check it out and if you are ever in Northeast Oklahoma driving Route 66 stop in and enjoy some of their well-known specials. A few testimonals of Clanton's include Ronnie Dunn of Brooks and Dunn and Guy Fieri from Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives, along with others.  Dean and I used to eat here more often when we had a place at Grand Lake, but we still enjoy stopping once in awhile.

After lunch I made a quick stop at the Cherokee Health Center to sign a medical release that will provide a copy of the CT scan to my lung doctor, and in no time had the necessary paperwork signed.  They assured me they would make sure my doctor had the information he needed prior to my December appointment.  

Again, Betsy and I enjoyed the time to visit traveling back to Chetopa where I dropped her off, and I made the drive back to Oswego.  Dean played golf this morning and he was home when I returned.  Jody called a short time later to give me additional information on our full-time coverage.  We needed to discuss the personal content value that we carry in Bentley.  We decided we should list the items we are carrying and I'm sure glad we did.  We were surprised at the value of the contents we have.  It was quite a bit more than we had planned to insure, however the cost to increase it was really not that much if you compare it to the cost of buying everything new without it, due to some catastrophe.  I had a couple of other questions that Jody will check on and get back with me tomorrow.

Wow, what a week it has been already and I think it will remain busy until we head south!

We were just thinking of what we would have for dinner when there was a knock at our door.  I looked out to find my cousin Todd, owner of the RV Park standing there.  I had him come in.  He had never been in Bentley before and really loved our layout.  The temperatures tonight are supposed to dip pretty low - about 25, so he wanted to let us know he was going to shut the water off in our loop due to a bad hydrant and wanted to make sure we had enough water to last for the night.  He will turn it back on in the morning.  We had already filled our tank before we moved out here and had enough to last until then so it was not a problem for us.  We visited with him for awhile and after he left I made dinner and we watched the final night for this season of Dancing with the Stars.  We knew Jordan would probably win - he really was very good.  



Wednesday - Dr. Visit, Thanksgiving Cooking, Dinner with Emerson

Since it was so cold this morning we did not walk, and Dean has a doctor's appointment in Joplin this morning with his cardiologist, so chances are we would not have walked anyway.  I am going to my daughter Misti's to help get the Thanksgiving dinner prep underway to give us more time to visit tomorrow morning as family comes in rather than spend the whole morning cooking.

Dean helped me load all of the grocery items in the truck, as he is taking the van to Joplin.  This morning Misti made chicken and noodles, prepped her green bean casserole which she will finish out tomorrow, and did some cleaning.  I cut up potatoes that we will use to make "The Pioneer Woman's" recipe.  The potatoes go into pans that we will reheat in the oven tomorrow just before lunch.  I made strawberry pretzel salad, 5 cup salad, and prepped a few things to go in the dressing that I will make tomorrow, along with macaroni and cheese.  As I am writing this it all sounds so simple but we spent all morning getting these things done.... My daughter-in-law Renae is bringing homemade pies - pecan and coconut cream.  She makes wonderful pies!

I left Misti's around 11:30.  I stopped at the insurance office to pick up the information Jody left for me to go over with Dean before making our final decision on coverage.  As I left I met Dean at the four way stop.  He was just returning from his doctor's appointment, and he followed me home.  He helped me carry things in and then I got the update on his appointment.  I was as surprised as he was when he told me his doctor said he needed to have some follow up tests because the test he did in the office today showed he had some atrial fibrillation.  This occurred once before - years ago and he's never had another problem with it.  He feels great.  He has to go back for a couple of tests on November 30 and then wear a Holter monitor for 24 hours that we will need to return on December 1.  One fortunate thing about his visit today was a discussion with his doctor on finding a new primary care physician.  He gave Dean names of doctors within the Freeman system to contact that were accepting new patients.  Again, the news he received today from the doctor is one of those things you just have to give it to God and believe he will take care of it for us.  Fortunately, Dean feels great and had no idea there was any issue.  His doctor was pleased with the fact we are walking regularly and encouraged him to keep that up, as well as following the South Beach Diet.  While we've been following a low carb diet for me (similar to South Beach and Mediterranean Diet plans) he has not followed it quite as closely as I have, so we will work on that. 

We ate some lunch, and shortly after that my sister Cindy stopped by to pick up my floor steamer.  This appliance has really made the rounds lately.  It is something I wanted to keep but did not want to put it in storage, so Cindy will house it (I didn't even have to twist her arm, because she loves it).  Her daughter Nikki was telling her that her floors needed something different to clean them and Cindy suggested she try using my steamer a few days ago.  Misti called me and wanted to know if she could use it today so I had picked it up from Cindy yesterday and now Cindy wants to use it before her Thanksgiving dinner on Friday.  It has now been renamed "The Traveling Steamer!"

After Cindy left I did a little research on the doctors we received from Dean's cardiologist and my cousin (I had contacted her the day we received the letter from our doctor who is closing her practice, to see if she had any recommendations, as she works for Freeman, and she gave me two names to consider).  We decided we would try a woman doctor that both Dean's doctor and my cousin suggested - but she did not have any openings for new patients until mid-January.  However, her office staff suggested another doctor which happened to be the other one my cousin recommended, and the one she said she would chose if it was her.  Fortunately, we were able to schedule an appointment for both of us with her on December 19.  God does work miracles. One more thing off our list of things to do before we leave for Texas.  We feel it's really important to get a new primary care physician established before we leave rather than try to deal with it in April when we return home.  

Misti loves apple pie and we never seem to have one for holidays so I decided to make one for her this afternoon.  I cheated with the pie crusts because I do not have a rolling pin anymore - just not enough storage for something I will probably never use anyway, but I did get apples and added the spices and such rather than using pie filling.  In fact I had enough apples I was able to make two pies and I froze one for another day and time.  After I had the dishes cleaned up and put away I did a quick pick up around Bentley because our son Jarred and his family will be here around 4 or 4:30.  I had one more thing I wanted to make.  I found a low carb recipe for cream cheese fudge.  It didn't take long at all to make but I was disappointed because there was really no sweet taste to it at all even though I used a sugar substitute.  A small bite at a time is okay for a chocolate fix with pecans, but I won't be able to eat much at a time - but, maybe that's the idea?  

I just want to say that I really appreciate Misti stepping up and offering to open her home to our family for our get together's.  It is such a blessing to both Dean and I.  

I just finished pouring the fudge mixture into a pan to go into the refrigerator when Jarred, Andrea and daughter Emerson pulled up.  Emmy was so darn cute in her Snow White dress she was wearing.  She will be two in March but you would think she was older by her vocabulary and she's a little taller than most kids her age.  We enjoyed visiting with all of them before we went to dinner at our Mexican restaurant here in Oswego, Mi Pueblo.  We had a wonderful dinner, having another opportunity to visit, before they headed to Chetopa where they are spending the night with one of Jarred's high school friends and his family.  

Tomorrow we will all meet at Misti's anytime after 10am, with Thanksgiving lunch scheduled for 1pm.  Four of our six children and their families will be there for dinner, and my son Marc will join us after lunch.  Unfortunately, Matt and family in New York will not make it this year.

After dinner, Dean and I drove to nearby Altamont, KS to pick up our granddaughter Haleigh who is spending the night with us.  We watched a Hallmark Christmas movie - well, when we weren't sleeping!  A little before 10, we all headed to bed.  It has been a long, but productive day!