May 8, 2018 to May 18, 2018

Tuesday, May 8 to Friday, May 18, 2018

Tuesday, May 8, 2018
Continuing on with doctor visits I headed back to Pittsburg this morning to visit the dentist again.  When we were there last week one of my bottom front teeth was even more sensitive than previous visits.  Dr. Herron recommended replacing the filling since it has been in place for a number of years.  That's why I am here today, to take care of it.  I am a big baby when it comes to dental work so I was not looking forward to it.  Even though I did not enjoy one bit of it, I got through it okay.

Afterwards I stopped by The UPS Store to pick up our mail.  It was almost a waste - as it was mostly junk.  Since almost everything we do is online we do not get much genuine mail anymore.  We are expecting a couple of things, but I'll probably hold off checking again for a couple of weeks.

From Pittsburg I headed to Parsons.  I needed to return the frames I checked out from my eye doctor last week.  While I was waiting on someone to help me I started looking at the frames again and found a few I didn't remember from last week.  Once someone was available she told me the ones I picked out today just came in.  After trying the two I checked out on against one of the new frames we both agreed we liked the new one better, so that is what I went with.  

I made a stop at Walmart to look for some poster board (the thicker type) to use on the inside of the cabinets that I mentioned in the last post.  I thought it seemed high so we decided to wait and check at Hobby Lobby when we are in Joplin later this week.  

After making a final stop at the Taco Bell for a chicken burrito, I headed home, where I spent the rest of the day working on paperwork.  Too bad I never made it to the 2017 Income Tax pile!!  Thank goodness we filed for an extension.  I must get busy on it soon!

Wednesday, May 9, 2018
Today I made the decision to cut my hair short again.  It was very thin and straggly looking on the ends.  Now that it's getting warmer I think I'll be glad to have the length gone.  I really like it.  For those of you who know me well, you know how much I detest messing with my hair, so I hope I can manage to style it so it looks decent.  We'll see how that works out!

My new Do!

Later I had lunch with my good friend and former co-worker, Carol.  Time just flies by when we get together.  We worked together for 29 + years, her husband and I were in the same class during high school and our kids all know each other, so by the time we go through the kids and grand kids and catch up with other family members - there's never enough time.  I always enjoy it though and look forward to the next time.  


Thursday, May 10, 2018
Today we made a trip to Camping World at Stafford, MO.  On the way we had to make a pit stop at the Missouri Travel Center just outside of Joplin.  Guess who needed for the driver to stop here?  

Cute worker outside the Missouri Travel Center outside of Joplin, MO.

Beautiful artwork using old license plates inside the travel center outside of Joplin, MO.

We stopped for lunch in Springfield at Firehouse Subs, our first visit there.  I chose the Smokehouse Beef & Cheddar Brisket which was very good.  Dean laughed at me for ordering something else with brisket.  I love it when it's cooked properly but it's not often I find brisket I like that much, but for a sub sandwich I was impressed.  It was extremely tender - a little messy with the BBQ sauce - but I didn't mind that too much!  I would definitely order it again.  Dean chose Turkey Bacon Ranch.  He thought it was just okay.

We stopped in Joplin on the way home at all of the Home Improvement stores looking for Reflectix to put in the full panel of windows in one of our slides.  Not one store had the size we wanted.  Our love seat sits in the slide and it is starting to get pretty warm in the late afternoon ---and it's not even that hot yet.   We are going to try the Reflectix to see if we can't keep it a little cooler inside.  

Another stop was at Hobby Lobby to purchase some of the corrugated posterboard to put on the inside of our window cabinet doors so it will block the sight of items on the shelves from the inside.  I was in luck it was almost $4 less than the price at Walmart and it was 40% off.  Our final stop before dinner was at The Dollar Store to get a birthday bag for Gideon's present----for his birthday party on Saturday.

By the time we finished all of our running around it was time to eat again so we stopped at Logan's.  I chose a salad and Dean ordered a burger.  They were both excellent!  


Friday, May 11, 2018
We headed to Pittsburg this morning to run some errands, pick up our mail, and then we stopped at Freddy's on the way home.  Of course one of the errands was to stop at Home Depot.  We can hardly go to any town without hitting a home improvement store!  Just saying!!  We are really trying to watch what we eat and hope to get back in to regular exercise this coming week.

It was a pretty quiet day.


Saturday, May 12, 2018
We had breakfast at Circle L here in Oswego this morning - Dean's favorite place to have breakfast.  It was perfect - as usual.  It's always fun to visit a local restaurant in your home town as you get to visit with a lot of folks you know, which is always nice.

Afterwards, we headed to Wichita, KS for our grandson Gideon's 9th birthday party.  We always enjoy the drive to Wichita, passing through the Flint Hills.  I never get tired of the beauty of this drive. 

Scenery from the Flint Hills on 400 Highway

Once we made our way to the area of the bowling alley, we made a quick stop at Lowe's just a mile from the party.   Fortunately Lowe's had the Reflectix we have been looking for.

Gideon's party was at the West Acres Bowling Alley.  It was fun to see the kids, to watch them bowl, and especially watch Gideon open his presents.  He had such a good time and I think everyone else did too.  Oh....and the cake was really good!!  Here are a few pictures.

Gideon - The Birthday Boy!

His Cake

Friends & Family

Papa Dean, Heath (Gideon's Dad), Granddaughter Emerson & her Daddy Jarred

Emerson hugging Tigger.

We left the party and headed for home, but not before stopping to have a late lunch/early supper (lupper) at Red Robin before we left Wichita.  I went in with the idea of having a burger, but ended up with another salad.   At least I really love salad.... but I love burgers more, and Red Robin's are some of my favorite.  It was a difficult decision.   Fortunately the salad was excellent and I wasn't too disappointed.  Dean on the other hand ate a big fat juicy hamburger!  I tried not to drool!!

The drive home was nice.  We were tired but it was a good day.  We are glad we were able to attend Gideon's party.



Sunday, May 13, 2018
Misti invited us to dinner at her house after church this morning.  She baked a ham in the crockpot, made some crockpot macaroni & cheese and some green beans.  It was perfect and delicious.  I especially loved the mac & cheese - a very different taste but very good.  After dinner the three of us, Haleigh and Logan had a nice visit before Logan had to leave.

The rest of the afternoon was spent cleaning and washing our cars.  We used the wet/dry vac to clean out my van and Haleigh's car, then Dean power washed my van, Haleigh's and Misti's cars.  It took some major elbow grease to get Haleigh's car washed well since it had been setting outside for quite awhile and had lots of car sap on it.  It looked pretty good when we were finished.  Misti's friend Colby stopped by and stayed to help.  We might still be there if he hadn't offered his assistance. He also helped Haleigh get the car seat covers in place.  He was pretty contorted in order to get them underneath the back of the front seats.  Thanks so much Colby!

Once we were done, Dean, Misti & I drove to Columbus where we ordered from their Sonic and brought it home to eat...just in time to watch American Idol, and that was how we ended our day!  


Monday, May 14, 2018
Dean played golf this morning.  I was excited to have lunch with 4 former city clerks who are very special to me - Mary, Betsy, Gail & Barbara.  They were all mentors of mine when I first became City Clerk in Oswego and have remained good friends as they each retired from the profession.  Mary & Betsy met me here in Oswego, and then I drove the three of us to Columbus where we picked up Gail, and then on to Joplin where we met Barbara at her workplace.  We drove just a few blocks away to Red Onion Espressoria where had a delightful lunch and visited for almost two hours.  What a great time it was spending the afternoon with these great ladies.  I asked a lady standing near us if she would mind taking pictures of our group and she quickly agreed.  Here we are:

From Left
Me, Gail, Mary, Betsy, Barbara

Dean went to see son Brett this evening and I attended the monthly Council meeting here in Oswego.  One of our former Mayor's, Jim Stephens was recognized for 50 years of service to the City of Oswego.  He has been actively involved in the community in one form or another during the last 50 years, including 3 terms as Mayor, a Councilmember, Members of the Hospital Board, Economic Development Committee and the Planning & Zoning Board.  It was an honor to work with him while I was City Clerk.  He's a great guy!

Afterwards, I visited with his daughter Jamie and her husband Kenny.  Jamie and I went to school together.  We had a great visit, and I had the opportunity to visit with many other of their family members.  All of them are wonderful people. 

Later in the evening there were a few storms in the area.  I called Dean to see where he was, as it looked like it might get kind of nasty in the area he was driving home from, but it didn't rain too hard.  I'm thankful for that.



Tuesday, May 15, 2018
This morning Dean and I had our 6 month checkup with our primary care provider in Webb City.  Dean was complaining a bit about having to be there so early - our appointment was at 8 and it's an hour drive; however we were the first patients of the day and out of there before 9.  That makes it worthwhile to me!

Since Dean was having a fasting blood test, we did not eat breakfast before leaving Bentley so our first order of business was to find a place to have our most important meal of the day.  We really enjoyed Kevin's Cafe when we were here a while back.  We had an excellent breakfast then, so we decided to try it once more.  We would still recommend it.  

We needed to make a stop at Lowe's for a 50 amp breaker.  Son Brett is going to put in a 50 amp RV hookup so we can park Bentley there for a few days now and then.  

We headed home and I started another load of laundry.  Several members of our Escapees Chapter will be attending the Escapade in Sedalia, MO.  Since our Chapter includes MO, KS, OK & AR we will have a table set up on the "ROW" where information on all four states will be available to those attending or visiting the Escapade.  I had contacted the City Office earlier to see if they still keep Kansas travel information on hand.  Dana called me back to tell me she had the information I was looking for.

Kansas Brochures & State Map

Shortly after that, my sister Cindy called to see if I might want to ride to Parsons with her.  I said I would go.  Dean has a prescription to pick up at Walmart so I can do that while we are there.  I asked Cindy to stop by City Hall so I could pick up the travel information.  On the way to Parsons, I called my eye doctor's office to see if my frames might have come in today and sure enough they had, so I was able to stop and pick them up as well.  

My new specs!  I'm still getting used to them but liking them better every day.

While we were at Walmart I saw this neat little sign.  If the colors fit better I might have been tempted to buy it for Bentley.  

Sign I found in Walmart - it fits RV Life perfectly!

Tonight I decided to get outside and walk, and managed to log a little over a mile.  At least it's a start!




Wednesday, May 16, 2018
We woke up late this morning, but we wanted to walk.  We only walked 1.69 miles, but at least we got started and that is what counts.

Dean played golf and I went to Bible Study this morning which I thoroughly enjoyed.  It's always a blessing to hear and study God's word.  After I returned home, Dean and I had a sandwich and then I got right to work doing more laundry.  Three loads later and I'm good for several days.

For dinner tonight, Dean grilled some burgers.  First time we've had the grill out in weeks.  They sure were good!  

It started to rain while Dean was finishing up the burgers.  Once it stopped, I asked Dean if he wanted to go for a ride and he was ready to go.  We rode to Riverside Park here in Oswego to look at the river.  We decided to drive on to Chetopa and as we came to the 4 way stop here in town, we saw this beautiful rainbow.  

At Chetopa we had to check out the river there too.  As we came back to the highway from the east, I suggested we drive to Bartlett, since we haven't been there in a long time.  It's just a few miles west of Chetopa.  From there we drove north to Highway 59 and took it back into Oswego.  We really enjoyed the drive through the countryside.  Dean loves driving in the country as much as I do and I'm so glad we have that in common.


Thursday, May 17, 2018
This morning we walked 2.12 mi.  I hope we can keep this up as we really need the exercise.  Dean played golf this morning and I finally got all of our tax paperwork together.  Now we just need to get it to the tax preparer.  Hopefully we can do that this coming week.  

I visited my Aunt Lil after lunch.  I've not had much chance to see her since we've both been busy with different things, but today finally worked.  We had a nice visit and then cousin Scott stopped by and I got to visit with him as well, before I headed back to Bentley.  

Tonight Dean grilled salmon steaks, and I finished them off with dill weed butter.  Delicious! I made herb rice and nuked some broccoli & cauliflower.  A great meal.  

Grilled salmon with dill weed butter, herb rice and broccoli/cauliflower mix.  Yum!

Friday, May 18, 2018
We walked 2.04 mi. this morning.  It was a beautiful day.  We've seen a lot of activity in the city's RV park the past few days while we've been walking.  I like to see that.  There is an event this weekend.  Next week the SKP SOLO's will be camping here.  I'm happy it's getting a lot of use.  It's a great spot for an overnight stay or a week.  It has water and electric hookups and a dump station on site.  

Dean played golf again this morning after our walk of 2 miles.  I spent the morning going through all of our files here in Bentley, throwing away old papers, re-labeling files and just getting everything updated and in good order.  I've been wanting to do this for awhile and now it is done!  Whew, what a good feeling it is.

About 5, we took a few things to the storage shed and brought a couple of things back with us that Dean needed, in order to work on a few projects for Bentley.  

When we returned home I warmed up the two leftover burgers from Thursday evening - they were just as good tonight.  

We've been watching Bonanza - one of our favorite shows.  Dean loves Western's and I'd rather watch them than most of the shows on TV today, and since I'm working on the blog I really only half watch it.  Following Bonanza was a movie called Gunsmoke:  The Long Ride.  It starred James Arness and was first shown in 1993.  Neither Dean or I had ever seen it.  It was a really good movie.

Now it's time to turn out the lights and head to bed.  Good night!

Tuesday, May 1, 2018 - Monday, May 7, 2018

Tuesday, May 1, 2018 - Eye Appointment; Lunch with Friends; Laundry

I had my annual eye appointment with my optometrist this morning.  I gave him an update of my eye history and changes over the past year.  After his exam he told me the pressure in my left eye is a little higher than they would like to see.  Fortunately it is much lower than it was in July last year, and has not changed since December so it's holding just barely over the range they prefer, so I'm thankful for that.  My right eye pressure is good.  He told me I have a cataract forming on my left eye.  He said it would probably be a couple of years or more before surgery is needed.  My right eye is doing fine.  They will make some changes in my lenses that should help improve my sight for both close up and distance.  You might remember I've mentioned having a hard time reading with my glasses on.  Sometimes after reading I find it difficult to adjust from reading to watching TV or distances if we go outside.  It typically adjusts after a short while which is an improvement, but I can tell some correction is needed.

Once I returned home I straightened things up in Bentley before Peggy picked me up at 11:30.  Friends Peggy and Linda, and I are heading to Parsons to have lunch.  The three of us served on the Chamber of Commerce here in Oswego many years ago and have remained good friends, later being involved in our Community Foundation where we were all founding members.  All three of us are retired now and we enjoy getting together a few times a year for lunch and just a good visit.  As usual, we had a wonderful lunch (ordered from Upscale Country) that we enjoyed at Parsons' Forest Park.   We had a great visit during our ride to and from Parsons.  On the way home we took a slow drive through the countryside which I always enjoy.


Wednesday, May 2, 2018
We walked 2.06 miles this morning.  It was nice to be back in our city park and fairground area.  We have such a lovely view from our overlook and we often see the "resident" fox when we are there.  I love listening to the birds that early in the morning - it's a beautiful sound.

Dean scheduled an oil and fuel filter change and having the tires on the truck rotated at the Chevy dealer in nearby Columbus, KS.  The appointment was at 9:30.  I decided I would ride along with him - thinking it would take about an hour.  Imagine my surprise when we did not leave Columbus until after noon!!  It was almost 12:30 when we returned home.  

Once we returned, Dean went out to do something and realized they had rotated his tires, putting the chrome side to the inside, rather than leaving it out.  He called them and took it back so they could fix it.  

Prior to leaving for Texas, we set up a date for him to have a colonoscopy when we returned and tomorrow is the day.  He hasn't had any solid foods since lat night and he's awful hungry.  I made some chicken broth for him, and picked up a few things at the grocery store that will hopefully help curb his appetite a little.  

At 3 he started taking the drink they prescribed for him, followed by 20 oz. of water.  At 7 he took the second drink.  Bless his heart it's not a fun thing to have to drink - but at least he  was able to use Sprite and Gateorade to help with the taste!   Drinking this stuff is by far worse than the test itself.


Thursday, May 3, 2018
We were up really early this morning, a little before 4.  We have to be in Galena at 6am and it's about a 45 minute drive.   Since we woke up to rain, we left a little earlier than planned.  Fortunately, we missed most of the rain on the way over.  When they took him back, they had me sit in a small waiting area, a short distance from his cubicle while they got him ready.  In about 5 minutes or so one of the nurses came to get me, and take me to his room, but when I walked into the cubicle I told her this isn't my husband.  I thought she called "Cheri" and she said "Sharon".  Sharon didn't hear "Sharon" called either!!  I seem to have a problem having similar names to others waiting when in hospitals, as this is the second time something like this has happened.

A short time later, the same nurse came back to get me and made sure my husband was Dean this time!  How funny.  The doctor stopped in before the procedure and visited with Dean, asking him a few questions, etc. and before I knew it the nurse was taking him back.  He was gone barely 30 minutes and here they came wheeling him back.  The doctor showed up a short time later to say all was good.  Within 30-40 minutes later, they had Dean up, dressed and were wheeling him down (with me following) to the Kitchen Pass Restaurant located in the hospital.  Wow, what a breakfast they serve!  We both had our routine eggs, meat, potatoes and toast.  Since neither of us had eaten breakfast it was a welcome treat for us both.

Afterwards we made stops at Walmart and Sam's before heading home.  Dean spent the day resting and I did a few things around the  RV, mostly finishing up the laundry I started yesterday.  For dinner, we had the chicken and noodles I made yesterday.  Since Dean couldn't have anything except a little broth yesterday, he was ready to dig in to them tonight.  We spent the rest of the evening watching some TV and maybe looking at the backside of our eyelids until it was time to go to bed.  We were worn out!


Friday, May 4, 2018
Our walk in the park this morning was 2.02 miles.  

Tomorrow we are having a "Cinco de Mayo" evening at my daughter Misti's.  She has graciously agreed to do this at her house since our rig isn't big enough but I plan to do most of the cooking.  

This morning I chopped lettuce and tomatoes, and browned four pounds of hamburger for taco meat.  I had hoped to have homemade tamales but the place I planned to get them from didn't work out.  

This afternoon I filled out medical forms for more appointments next week.  They ask so many questions and I had to do some digging to get everything answered.  It's amazing how long it takes to do this, but guess it's necessary.  You can bet I made copies of all of it for our files.

Afterwards I worked on our budget for April.  I had not updated it for over two weeks and I was anxious to see how we did for the month.  We were both pleased with the outcome.  While we still did not do well on the "Dining Out" line item, we did pretty well in several others that have been high in the past three months, and we came out really good overall.  Rallies have an impact on the Dining line item and so do doctor visits when they are in other towns on a regular basis.  We'll still have a few of those this month, but I do plan on doing more cooking at home when we can.


Saturday, May 5 (Cinco de Mayo), 2018
Today is Oswego's City Wide Garage Sale.  Misti called me last night to see if I wanted to go to a few of them with her this morning, and I agreed.  She picked me up a few minutes before 7 and we headed straight to Kansas Street to one she was interested in, but it did not appear anyone was there.  We stopped at one across the street and looked and as we started to leave there we could see the one she originally wanted to visit was behind the house.  We took a look but left without buying anything.  We did drive around to a couple more and stopped at one where they had the cutest outdoor bench seating and folding chairs to match.  Misti loved it and I took a couple of pictures since they were made of pallet boards.  Another project for Dean, maybe?

After she dropped me off at Bentley, I got myself ready for the day and wrote out a little timeline to be sure everything would be ready by 5:30-6:00 for our Cinco de Mayo dinner.  I had to make another stop at the grocery store for a few things, ran by my sister Cindy's to have her look at a couple of frames I picked out for glasses, and then headed back home.  I printed a few recipes - refried beans, guacamole, and queso - all new to me for today.  

I gathered up all of my ingredients, pans, paper products, cups and food items and headed to Misti's at 1:00.  We spent the afternoon getting everything ready.  Besides the three of us, her son Logan, and two of my sisters and their husbands (Crystal land Lonie; Cindy and Elmer) will be here.  Jody and her husband could not attend due to a family event, and my son Marc and family was not able to attend - he is really busy with his side business now, especially going into Mother's Day weekend.  We invited our pastor and his wife but they were unable to attend.  At the last minute Lonie could not come due to a problem that came up right as they were getting ready to head over to Misti's.  Talk about bad timing - but in the long run it was probably good he was there to get the mesage, but we worry sorry all of the others could not make it.

We had tacos on homemade corn and flour tortillas that I brought from Texas (they've been in my freezer since March); tostada shells, authentic refried beans, taco meat, two kinds of salsa (one spicy and one mild); queso dip, and of course all of the topppings (lettuce, tomato, cheese, and sour cream).  My sisters brought dessert - Cindy a sopapilla cake, and Crystal her famous four layer dessert.  Oh my goodness, we were all stuffed.  We had a great time afterwards sitting and visiting and I thought - we need to do this more often.  There were lots of laughs among us, and a very enjoyable evening.  Afterwards I helped Misti clean up before we headed home.  I was really tired tonight but it was so worth it to spend time with family.


Sunday, May 6, 2018
We walked 2.12 miles this morning.  As we left the park, and headed west down the hill, a mother fox and her two kits ran across the road in front of us.  I wish I'd had my camera ready.  

After breakfast we got ready for church, stopping to pick up Misti on our way.  Roger had a good sermon, as usual.  We dropped Misti at her house so she could study.  She has several tests she must have completed by Wednesday before she takes her finals for this year.  She will complete her two year basic classes at LCC this year, and she has since been accepted into their Physical Therapy Assistant Program.  I'm so proud of her.  I don't know how she does it all and keeps up with everything.  She is active in church and school activities, especially project Prom - which entails many meetings and fund raising events throughout the year, she makes time to keep up an exercise regime and still makes time for her kids, other family and her friends.  

After lunch of tacos (I think we'll be eating this stuff for awhile - Lol!), I took time to straighten things up before resting for a short time.  This afternoon we are headed to Columbus to attend their High School Band Concert.  Dacy plays the clarinet and Tucker plays the tuba in their band.  We enjoyed visiting with Renae while waiting for the concert to start.  I love listening to their band and was very surprised to find out they only have 6 seniors.  

It was 5 or so when we got home.  I made taco (are you surprised?) salad for dinner.  It was very good and is one of our favorite salads to make.  No shell, just the lettuce, tomato, avocado, a few chips (tortillas, doritoes, fritoes - whatever we have on hand), taco meat and our favorite dressing for our taco salads - Dorothy Lynch Homestyle Dressing.  Wow, it hit the spot!

Once we finished eating, I did the dishes and we settled in to watch American Idol.  I hated to see anyone go, but we were quite happy with the final five that were selected to move on.  It will be really hard to see anyone leave from this point on, although I do have a couple of favorites I'm pulling for.


Monday, May 7, 2018
This morning it was my turn for a procedure at Galena.  Dr. Broce wanted me to have an EGD after the episodes of dry heaves, and since I have a couple of other sypmtoms - a sharp pain that I get a few times a month just below the middle of my rib cage that will not go away until I drink a fair amount of water, along with the heartburn I started having several months ago.  

Dean and I had the same doctor so everyone was surprised to see us back again.  They had me ready to go shortly before 8 when I was scheduled, however, Dr. Weston had an emergency at the hospital first thing this morning so he was running a little late.  It was about 8:45 before they took me back.  Everything looked good although I had some bile. With the other symptoms he said the next thing to look at is the gall bladder.  Lovely!  At least we know there is no ulcer or anything of that type which was the concern.  Several years ago I had some pains in my side.  The doctor  thought the cause might be my gallbadder but I've had very few of those pains since I've retired.  

We left the hospital about 9:45-10:00.  I needed to make another Walmart and Sam's Club run.  I just needed a few items at both places so it didn't take us long.  Afterwards we stopped at Golden Corral for lunch.  We were both starving since we did not have any breakfast this morning.  We were home by 12:30 and we've done nothing but rest since then.  I woke up at 3 this morning and couldn't go back to sleep so I've cat napped off and on, both on the way home and since we returned to Bentley.  I'm feeling pretty good now.

While we were at lunch we received the first picture of our new grandson, Samuel Peine.  He was born at 11:50 a.m. EST (they live in New York),  weighed 7 lbs 10 ozs, and was 20.5 inches long.  

Daddy Matt, Samuel and Mama Megan

Master Samuel Peine!

Also today our oldest grandson, Logan joined the Navy and was sworn in.  He also selected his school following boot camp and chose medical corpsman.  He will do 19 weeks of training in San Antonio for that.  He is scheduled to leave for bootcamp in October, but it might be sooner.  We are really proud of him.  During our Cinco de Mayo party on Saturday we learned that two or three other boys from his graduating class, and two from the class ahead of him are joining or have joined one of the service branches, and another friend is in the process of joining.  

A pretty exciting day in the life of the Peine's - wouldn't you say?




AND since this will post on Tuesday, May 8 we want to say "Happy birthday to our grandson, Gideon Michael Peine."  He is 9 years old today.  They live in the Wichita area.  The morning of his birth, his dad Heath called to let us know they were headed to the hospital.  Dean wanted to leave Oswego as soon as possible so we could try and make it before Gideon made his way into this world.  The night before was a Council meeting and there were some things I needed to take care of before we left town so I went in early that morning to get them done as soon as possible - and of course we had a storm move in that caused the electricity to go out.  In the meantime, Brett, the next oldest son called to say his wife, Renae and the kids were in an accident on their way to Pittsburg that morning.  There was either a really heavy wind or a small tornado that blew a small building across the highway and it hit their car, driving a post into the passenger side front window.  Fortunately no one was sitting there - both kids were in the backseat.  Finally, the electricity came on, I got the things done I had to do and we left for Wichita.  I think we made it to the hospital right before or right after Gideon was born so it all worked out but what a hectic morning that was!  I love the stories surrounding a special moment though and now we can laugh at how hectic it was at the time and how we are able to celebrate it today.


Do you see a theme with the Peine/Blair family? -  Busy, Hectic, Crazy, Wild, but we wouldn't change it!

How appropriate this particular scripture came up today with all the talk about our grandchildren!

April 22 through April 30, 2018

Sunday, April 22 through Monday, April 30, 2018

Sunday, April 22, 2018
Today was a pretty routine day - we went to church this morning, then headed home for a quick lunch.  Immediately afterwards I headed to my sister Jody's house for our Sunday afternoon Sisterfest from 1-3.  We got caught up with each other and all that is going on with our families.  

While I was at Jody's, Dean went to the storage shed to get our battery charger so he could put it on Logan's old car (that is now being passed on to granddaughter Haleigh) to see if the battery is still good or not.  After I returned we went to Misti's to see if the car would start and sure enough it did.  The brake lights and turn signals in the back were not working but Dean worked on them a bit and they were working by the time he finished up.  Hopefully she'll be driving it to and from school this coming week.

Once back at Bentley I worked on the blog until it was time to stop and fix dinner.  We watched last week's episodes of American Idol to catch up before it came on tonight.  I'm glad Dean enjoys watching this as much as I do.  
   

Monday, April 23, 2018
Our goal was to begin walking again this week and we finally followed through!  We walked 1.21 mile at an average pace of 17:16 min.  It wasn't that far but the pace was great for not having walked in such a long time.  It felt good and we look forward to getting back in this routine.

When we returned to the RV Park, our neighbors, who are in a motorhome, were outside.  They are from South Dakota and are getting ready to head north today.  They gave me their card and I told them the name of our blog so they could check it out.  

We got started a little late this morning.  We have dentist appointments in Pittsburg at 10:00, so we were rushing a little to get everything done before we needed to leave.  I have an appointment with my lung doctor this afternoon, so we drove two vehicles to Pittsburg.

After our appointments we drove the van to the north side of Pittsburg so we could pick up our mail while we were in town and then stopped at Rib Crib for lunch.  They brought an enormous amount of food.  We were able to take enough leftovers home for our dinner tonight.  I ordered a baked potato; Dean ordered a sandwich--it was huge!

I dropped Dean off at the dentist's office where we left the truck and I headed to Joplin.  When I got to the intersection south of Pittsburg (KS400/MO171) I saw our neighbors from the RV Park getting fuel at the convenience store.  About that time my phone rings and my daughter said, where are you going?  I'm thinking - Does she have a drone watching me?  LOL!  Come to find out, she was sitting at the convenience store waiting on the shuttle to pick my grandson, Logan, up so he could go to KC to take his physical for the Navy.   

I had a few stops to make before my appointment at 1:40.   I didn't find anything worth buying and before I knew it I realized I was pushing my appointment time but I made it with about 5 minutes to spare so all was good.  

My doctor told me he had not received the results from my most recent pulmonary function test yet so he was going to have his nurse call the hospital to see if they could fax it.  He will call me once he sees it and confirm some reductions in the prednisone I'm taking.    

I made a quick stop at Walmart to pick up a few things and then Sam's.  

It was almost 6 when I finally made it home.  We warmed up our leftovers from lunch today and it tasted as good, if not better tonight.   After a long day, we enjoyed just sitting back and watching American Idol this evening.



Tuesday, April 24, 2018
We were not so rushed this morning in our walk.  We managed to get 2.02 mi/at an average pace of 18:02 min. per mile.  My left calf was hurting a little so we slowed a bit and stopped so we didn't make it worse.

Dr. Slocum, my lung doctor, called me this morning to confirm my pulmonary function test was great, so I can go reduce my prednisone 2.5 mg now and again in 2 months.  Great news!!

I spent the day cleaning and doing paperwork.  Dean played golf.  I have not heard anything from the Cherokee Clinic or Hospital about scheduling me for the EGD Dr. Broce wants me to have, so I followed up on that.  I hope to get a date scheduled sometime for the procedure this week.

We also have never received our reimbursement check for the gate valve repairs that were made while we were in Mission.  It's been almost three months.  While they received the information I sent them it apparently did not get to where it should be, so the proper person did not have it.  I emailed them a copy of what I sent them back in January.  Hopefully they cut us a check pretty quick.

I realized I had not forwarded a copy of my lab results to Dr. Broce after I went to the Cherokee Clinic so I worked on that - but didn't get anything resolved today.  I'll need to make another call tomorrow - evidently I need to sign a medical release (which would involve me making a trip to Vinita) or Dr. Broce can request it.  By the time I found that out, her office had closed.  

My health insurance is taking a BIG increase this year - about $95/mo, so I decided to look at Health.gov and see what is available.  I'm not sure I want to change as the policy is pretty good, but that is a hefty price increase.  I found out that I cannot even consider changing until November/December of this year due to minimum essential coverage.  So, I will continue with what I have and see what is available this fall/winter.  

By the time I did all of this it was time to fix dinner.  We grilled some hamburgers and they were great.  When I was at Walmart yesterday I noticed they had brioche buns - 4 in the package, so I bought some.  The burgers were great on the brioche buns.  We will definitely get more of these in the future.

Misti called later and asked if I wanted to walk with her.  She picked me up and we drove to Riverside Park and I logged another 1.79mi/17:00 min per mi.  It was nice to have the opportunity to visit with her, but talking that much while walking that fast and I was a little breathless - I'm definitely going to have to work back to the level we were at before in order to go at that pace while talking!  Lol!  What a difference of almost a month of not walking or biking has made. 

Back at home, I did some pre-prep for moving, as we will be taking Bentley to Eufaula, OK tomorrow for the Heartland Oklahoma Chapter Rally.  We are looking forward to seeing many of our Heartland friends during the next 5 days.  


Wednesday, April 25, 2018
We were not able to walk this morning because it was raining.  I'm glad Dean disconnected our water and sewer last night rather than waiting until this morning.  All we had to do was unplug the electric cord, pull in the slides and raise the jacks.  Fortunately we had a lag in the rain around noon and we pulled out of the park here in Oswego about 12:35.  

We drove in the rain all the way to Eufala.  Fortunately it was not real heavy and we made pretty decent time, arriving about 3:45.  

Since it rained we stayed in the rig for most of the afternoon/evening.  The rally starts tomorrow evening so we'll have time to visit with everyone tomorrow through the day.


Thursday, April 26, 2018
The rain quit sometime in the night, and while it was a little muddy we walked a little over 2 miles this morning.  The campground here is really nice - there are several sections, including one for folks traveling with horses.  They have individual corrals, stalls and a round corral area to walk them. 

We spent a good part of the day visiting with friends, and we made a run to Walmart for a few things.  We are having a Mexican potluck on Friday evening.  I am going to make a Mexican Chocolate Cake (sheet cake).  I found this recipe years ago (40+) in a magazine and I've made it many times in the past.  I have two smaller sheet cake pans so I will make one with nuts in the frosting and one with plain frosting.  

Tonight we had grilled hot dogs and chips, along with chili, and other toppings for the dogs as well as a few side dishes.  It was all very good.

Afterwards 15 of us played LCR (Left, Center, Right) at the clubhouse..  Even though I bought this game for us to play at home years ago we never did.  My sister Cindy told me how much fun it was so tonight I found out what she meant.  We had a great time.  Each person started with $1 worth of quarters.  The dice have black dots on them along with L's, C's and R's.  If you roll an R - you pass a quarter to the right, if you roll an L - you pass a quarter to the left.  If you roll a C - you put a quarter in a bucket we passed up and down the table as each person took their turn.  If you rolled and got all black dots - you got to retain the quarters you had and hoped it happened again on your next roll.  

These two ladies were rubbing shoulders for luck - they rolled all 3 dice to get the black dots several turns in a row.

The second game it came down to me and Stella with one quarter each - and I rolled a C.  I lost my quarter and Stella won $14, plus her original $1.  Win or lose, it was still a lot of fun for the evening.


Friday, April 27, 2018
Dean and I walked again this morning and managed to get in another 2 miles, before we went to the clubhouse around 8:00 for coffee and pastries.  Dean is going to play golf this morning with Dave and Lin.

At 10:00 the ladies toured the different rigs - several of our group have new Landmarks so it was fun to see the upgrades Heartland has made.  While they were beautiful, and several things would be nice to have in our rig, I don't think I would change the layout of my rig.  The fun thing about looking at other units - is seeing the things they have done to either make better use of storage, or find new ways of expanding storage.  For instance, Nancy had a wonderful spice/storage rack in her pantry.  It hangs on the back of her pantry door.  I will be getting one of those in the near future.  I currently have my spices in a drawer next to the stove.  While it is handy, I cannot stand them up, so they lay on their side.  As the RV moves down the road, and as I open and close the drawer, some of the spice spills out into the lid of the containers.  When I open it I lose some of the contents, so there is a fair amount of waste.  Having it upright - even if it is not right next to the stove - is more important to me.  I rarely use more than 2-4 spices at a time so I think it will be worth it to take a few extra steps.

Earlier today I was looking at our cabinets with the "glass/plastic" door fronts.  I really do not like how you can see some of the contents and how junky it looks.  I was wondering what I could do to cover these so others wouldn't see it when they are in our rig.  Nancy came to the rescue again.  She bought some paper (a little heavier posterboard) and cut it to fit inside each of her doors and then used double sided tape to hold it in place.  I will be trying that soon.  You would never know when looking at hers that they weren't made like that.

Notice you can see the shadows of things in the cupboards with the glass insets.  Even though it has a milky finish you can still see items inside.  

Later I was talking to Barbara V. about some things in her unit.  That led me to show her something in my rig.  While she was there I mentioned the areas of my cabinets where a drawer had opened in transit, making a light spot on a door or cabinet opposite it.  I mentioned I needed to find some way to try and cover those up.  She told me she had something she thought would work... Old English Scratch Cover for Dark Woods, and she let me borrow it so I could give it a try.  Wow, this worked perfectly and I will be buying a bottle of this soon - it will keep the entire RV looking much nicer.

I have learned a lot from other RVer's, while either talking to them or reading their blogs that have resulted in many space saving ideas, new products, etc.  

We had lunch on our own and I enjoyed a grilled cheese sandwich.  Dean made it back not too long before the Heartland Chapter meeting at 1:30.  We will be meeting back here in September of 2018 for our fall rally.  Everyone is enjoying the campground.

At 4:30 we caravaned to McAlester, OK to eat dinner at GiaComo's Italian Cuisine.  It was pretty good.  We really enjoyed our main meal - I had Chicken Parmesean and Dean had Chicken Alfredo.  Included with it was spaghetti and meatsauce, meatballs, ravioli, salad and breadsticks.  The meatballs were okay but they were hard to cut.  Dean almost had one fly off his plate as he was trying to cut it with his fork.  The ravioli was boiled and we prefer the fried or toasted ones.  The salad was quite good as was the bread so all in all we were happy with our meal, although it was pretty expensive for the two of us - over $50, but we were with great company and it's okay to splurge once in awhile.  

Once we returned to the campground both Dean and I went to the clubhouse to play LCR tonight but neither of us came out the big winner.  Again, it's more about the fun and time spent with friends than who wins.


Saturday, April 28
Rather than go to the clubhouse for coffee and pastries this morning I stayed home and made my Mexican Chocolate Cake for the potluck dinner tonight.  I had enough time to get everything picked up in the rig before I headed to the clubhouse for Crafts with Barbara W.  Barbara and her husband Orville are the Heartland Owners Club Chapter Leaders.  Barbara is very crafty and today she had 3 small crafts for us to do.  A stretchy bookmark, a paperclip bookmark and a magnet clothespin.  They were easy enough that even I was able to make them without any hassle.  That's saying a lot since I am not at all crafty!

Stretchy bookmark, paperclip bookmark, and the magnet clothespin.

Stretchy bookmark put to work!

I asked Barbara if she could use some help getting ready for tonight and agreed to come up and help her at 2.  Several went into town to check out the various shops (mostly flea markets and antique stores) but I chose to stay home and rest a little.  I didn't sleep good last night and I was tired.  At about 2 I headed up to the clubhouse.  I chopped onions and tomatoes and then we got everything set up so it would be ready to go when we returned a little before 5:30.  We had enough food leftover we'll have it again tomorrow night for dinner.

Dean and I decided not to play a game this evening.  I think they may have played Mexican Train, which we enjoy but we were both tired, so we decided to return to Bentley, watch a little TV and rest.



Sunday, April 29, 2018
This morning 8 couples drove into Eufala to have breakfast.  We originally planned to try out "I Smell Bacon" but it was small and they only had one table open when we arrived, so we moved next door to the "Anglers Cafe".  It turned out to be a great choice.  Our waitress handled our group wonderfully - getting us our drinks, returning to get our order and then following up with refilling of drinks before our meals arrived - almost in the order she took them.  The food was quite good and there was plenty of it.  Dean and I each had 2 eggs, bacon (me) sauage (him), hash browns (me) and cottage fries (him), along with a biscuit and sausage gravy.  The food was really good and our meals were $4.97 each.  The plates were huge and full of food.  We were very happy and we will return here in September when we attend our fall rally.  It was 10-10:30 when we returned to the campground.  

We rested and then visited some before we headed back to the clubhouse at 5:30 for leftovers from our Mexican potluck.  

Afterwards, Donna asked all of the couples to line up across the room from each other.  She had one of those soft but spiky balls that stretch.  We took turns tossing them across the room to our partner until one of them missed and then they had to leave the game.  It came down to Stella and I and finally Stella missed.  I won - a bag of Hershey chocolates!!  Yummmm!

We set out at Mike & Peg's for awhile.  We didn't stay too long as we were both tired but we sure had a great week here at the rally.  Tomorrow morning we'll say our good byes.  Since we'll be headed to New York the first part of June, we do not expect to see this group again until September when we'll return back here to Little Turtle RV Park.



Monday, April 30, 2018
We got out and walked again this morning and managed to get in a little over 2 miles.  We've enjoyed these morning walks.  The air has been cool but not cold making it quite enjoyable to be outside.  Finally spring/summer is here.  It feels like spring in the morning and summer by afternoon!

When we returned, we worked on getting the rig ready to move and then made our rounds to say goodbye to those that were still here.  We pulled out of Little Turtle RV Park about 9:45. 

We are meeting my cousin Jim and his wife Wanda for lunch at JL's BBQ just south of Pryor, OK on our way home.  JL's has a large parking area where we can easily fit Bentley in while we have lunch.  Jim and Wanda were already there when we pulled in.  After going through the buffet line and choosing our food we spent the next hour and a half visiting.  We had a great time with Jim and Wanda, and I wonder why we don't make time to see them more than once or twice a year, as well as other family members that are not that far from us.  

Our next stop was in Vinita at the Cherokee Health Center so I could have some more blood drawn and to pick up a prescription.  Fortunately the entrance road is wide enough Dean can park Bentley to the side while I ran in to take care of these two things.  It took me less than 30 minutes and we were back on our way.

We arrived in Oswego around 3:30 or so.  We were soon set up and relaxing a bit when someone knocked on the door.  My cousin Barbara stopped by to visit for a little while.  She has been waiting to get a date set for a surgery she needs and it will finally happen the first part of June.  

Dean and I both had leftovers tonight.  I still had my leftovers from the Italian restaurant a few nights ago and he had his leftovers from lunch today.   We enjoyed them while we watched Dancing With the Stars, the Athletes.  






I apologize for the lack of posts lately.  I prefer to write more often than I have recently.  When we are at rallies it is often difficult to stay up to date.  It also seems we have been very busy since we've back in Oswego and right now I don't see that changing much since we are trying to spend as much time as we can with family during May, and trying to cram in all of our routine 6 month doctor appointments along with a few routine tests we need to do before we head east.  I'll write as often as I have something to share and I can.  Once we get back on the road, we'll have more adventures to share with you.