(This post will bring me up to date.)
Monday, November 18, 2019
Dean played golf this morning and I spent most of my morning updating our monthly budget report, filing papers that had piled up on our table/desk, then going through our health files making sure things were in order by date, and making sure anything we might need for our 2019 taxes were in the proper file. In no time it will be time to do the annual tax filing. It sure seems to come around earlier every year. Maybe this year we can get it filed before we leave for Texas.
I picked Jaxson up after school to spend some time with him. We went to the Parsons Library where he selected a couple of books to read. Afterwards I treated him to a cherry slush at Sonic before we headed to his house. Jaxson did a great job of reading the books to me. He was able to sound out several of the words he didn't know and I helped him on some of the bigger words he couldn't quite figure out. We read one book through twice. He has a great memory or caught on quick with the words, as he didn't miss hardly any the second time. We found a game he could play on my phone and I watched him do that until his Dad came inside several minutes later. Marc and I visited for awhile before I left for home. He was not feeling well. He stopped by his primary care doctor's office after loading at UPS this morning, but since he was scheduled for surgery tomorrow morning they would not give him a shot. Later he received a call from his urologist they were cancelling his surgery tomorrow since he had passed the one kidney stone. I guess I won't need to get up at 4am tomorrow after all.
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| Beautiful sunset as I left Marc's. |
After I returned home I made chili for dinner.
Today I am grateful for the opportunity to spend time with our kids and grandkids.
Tuesday, November 19, 2019
After sorting through papers and things yesterday I had a few errands to run, including going to our bank to obtain a new debit card. We received a letter saying our existing one would expire the end of the month. I love they can make a new one for you while you wait rather than getting it in the mail a few weeks later, especially since it can take a few weeks for us to actually get it sent to the right place.
I picked Haleigh up at 12:30 or so, to take her to Columbus to have her hair done before we go to Chanute where she will have the first part of her Senior pictures taken. Misti had made two prior dates with the photographer but both were cancelled due to weather, and due to play practice and the play last week; today was the first day available to get them done. Haleigh had posted her prom dress from last year for sale online, so we are also meeting someone to look at it prior to her photo session. We waited at the Maurice's store in Chanute for about 35-40 minutes. We were to meet Kristy, the photographer at 3:30. The young lady had not showed up, so we left to meet Kristy. I drove into the wrong entrance, and couldn't reach the "Iron Bridge" where we were to meet, so I had to come back out to the highway. We immediately noticed people waving at us across the road and we realized this was probably the young lady we were supposed to meet up with. I drove over and asked if they would wait while I dropped Haleigh off with the photographer. After doing that, I returned to Maurice's while she went in to the store to try it on in one of their dressing rooms. It was nice of Maurice's to permit this. She really liked the dress and took pictures so her mom could see it. She said she'd get back with Misti. I hurried back to the car and got the dress laid out in the backseat before heading to the "Iron Bridge" literally less than a block away, only to find Haleigh and the photographer were gone. Come to find out as I was leaving Maurice's they were trying to get my attention as they were driving there, but of course I didn't see them. I was turning around to leave when they pulled in. Haleigh got back in the car with me and we followed Kristy to Thayer, KS for the remaining pictures.
Our next stop was at an old barn where Kristy took numerous poses, then on to a field where I took a few pictures of Haleigh with my phone while Kristy took several more.
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| This outfit was so darn cute and sure looked great with the grass color. |
The sun was putting on a show while Kristy took pictures:
On our way home, driving through the country, Haleigh took this picture for me:
Misti was sad she could not be there for Haleigh's pictures, but she had to work today. After being in school and waiting to get her license, she needed the work, so I'm thankful we were here so I could help her out today. I enjoyed the day with Haleigh and the opportunity to take part in this special time.
Wednesday, November 20, 2019
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| Wednesday Sunrise as we headed east. |
This morning Dean and I had appointments with our primary care physician in Webb City, MO. It went well. I was able to get some medication for my right pointer finger. It has a little arthritis in it and I've been able to keep it pretty much under control from pain by taking my apple cider vinegar with a little apple or orange juice everyday. However, as I've mentioned before, we went about a month or so without drinking it and the pain in my finger has really flared up. While I started drinking the daily ACV again, it has calmed down but I haven't been able to get it back where it was for the past several years. Hopefully this will do that and I can just continue with the ACV after a few weeks of taking the medication she prescribed for me.
Poor Dean had to have a full blood workup and they had a very difficult time getting any blood out of him. It took two nurses trying before the second one finally hit his vein, after pushing around on it for what seemed like a long time to me - I can only imagine how it was for him. Eeeek!!
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| What a beautiful old home near downtown Webb City. |
Since Dean had to fast this morning he was ready for breakfast when we left the clinic. I googled restaurants serving breakfast near us. The Webb City Cafe came up - it had great reviews - so that's where we headed. We were both VERY happy with our breakfast choices. Both of us ordered skillet meals. They were huge. We ended up taking half of them home with us (and we enjoyed the rest of it for supper later).
We had several stops to make after breakfast. I bought a few tops at Kohl's last week while we were in Joplin. I didn't try them on at the time. When I got home one of the tops did not fit well. I returned it, and looked for something else. I had some Kohl's cash, so I left with a more expensive sweater/shirt than I returned, and it cost me less than half of the one I returned. I like those deals.
We stopped at Home Depot to get wood for the desk, then Sam's for a couple of things I needed there. I needed to take my prescriptions to the Indian clinic to have them filled so we took the scenic route from Joplin, taking South Rangeline Road to River Road, which runs along Shoal Creek, to Redings Mill Road/86 where we soon intersected with 43 Highway into Seneca, MO. There we turned west on Highway 60 to Highway 10 that led us into the east side of Grove.
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| Driving River Road in South Joplin |
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| Look at that tree at the end of the road - it has grown to an almost perfect angle. |
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| Beautiful countryside and ranch. |
Not too far on our way north on Highway 10 we started noticing a number of trees appeared to have been pulled clear out of the ground by their roots. In a matter of seconds, it had gone from one or two trees to many, many trees having been pulled up, with others broken and downed all along both sides of the road. It was then I remembered my friend Janie sending me pictures from Lakewood Village near Elk River Bridge (north of where we were currently driving on Highway 10) after a friend had posted trees down there.
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| The destruction of trees went on for several miles |
s we approached Lakewood Village we were stunned to see that two of their boat docks were severely damaged. As we drove into the park, it was very sobering to see the damage, since this is a place we had a mobile home for several years. Fortunately, the mobile home we owned and the others in that area were not damaged, or at least nothing major in comparison to those on the far east side of the park. It was apparent they had already removed a few of the units entirely and several others were still in disrepair from the winds that blew through here. There were several contractors working or that had signs up at various homes in the park. I'm not sure if this was deemed a tornado or if was just from extremely high winds.
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| The yellowish boat dock has most of the mid to right side on land. We used to house our tritoon boat in this dock when we owned our mobile home here. |
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| Here's a picture from the backside. |
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| The road going to the water. This is where RV's would typically be parked. |
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| If you enlarge this you can see the end of this boat dock has almost been torn off. |
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| The storage building behind the office with a large gaping hole in the side and roof. |
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| Most of the extensive damage was right here, but many other trailers had damage. |
From here we continued on through Grove, looking at changes that had taken place since we were last here. From there we traveled on to Vinita, where we stopped at the Cherokee Health Center. I dropped my prescriptions off with the pharmacy there. I discovered they have changed their policy and they will only mail prescriptions to the main address on file. Since I don't want to have these sent to our mailing address in Texas - it would take me too long to get them since I want to start them right away - I'll have to come back to pick them up. Not what I expected, but it is what it is.
After dropping the prescriptions off, we returned to Oswego. Dean went to the garage soon after we got home, and I did some laundry while straightening up.
Thursday, November 21, 2019
I had a hair appointment at 8:00am. I've started parting my hair in the middle instead of to one side. The bangs I am now growing out are in need of a trim since one side is longer than the other. Soon Marla had my hair looking presentable again. I headed home to do my morning chores before taking off to spend a few hours with my friends Peggy and Linda. We try to get together at least 2 or 3 times a year, having lunch together and visiting.
Today we are headed to Joplin. Peggy picked me up after stopping to get Linda. We had no specific place in mind to eat. When Peggy asked if anyone had ideas I asked if they had ever been to the Pie Safe. Neither of them had. When I had lunch with my friend Carolyn last week she was telling me how her and her sisters had been wanting to go but hadn't been able to get the three of them together yet. While we were eating, her sister sent her a picture and said guess where I am and sent pictures of The Pie Safe. Carolyn showed me the pictures from inside The Pie Safe. It was beautiful and her sister said it was very quiet. Quiet - oh, how I love a restaurant that the noise level is low enough to have a decent conversation. Based on Carolyn's sister's review, we decided to try it out.
What a great selection, so thank you Carolyn for bringing it up when we visited. Everyone loved the quiche, fruit salad and mini blackberry pies - yes, we all ordered the exact same thing, along with a caramel butter tea. Yes, I will definitely come back here. It truly was a wonderful experience in a beautiful, calm setting. We were there for at least 1.5 hours visiting. The only negative to us was the pies were cold; not that they were not delicious. However, if they had been warmed slightly they would have been even better. I'll remember to ask for that when I return.
There was no where we really wanted to go, so after lunch we drove back to Oswego. Peggy wanted to drive to our lot so they could both see it. Dean has done so much to clean it up and it looks better every time I visit too. We just heard from our contractor Broc that he will have the new siding, doors and windows done by the end of the year. We are excited for that.
Then we drove through town looking at the houses, including the one Linda and her husband recently purchased. They will be moving in December. They have sold their house and farm, and have decided to move to town. She is excited about getting several things done to personalize it for them.
Peggy dropped Linda off at her "old" home and then took me back to Bentley. What a wonderful day with two special people.
I spent a couple of hours working on blog posts as I am so far behind. I'm trying hard to get it caught up. Later I made us a sausage pizza in our cast iron skillet. It was so good!
Misti stopped by later to visit. I told her we were going to Vinita tomorrow evening with Aunt Cindy and Elmer, to eat dinner at Clanton's. She told me they had the best chocolate pie she's ever had. I've never had their pie, since I'm usually way too full after eating there to even think about more food, but maybe I should try it!
It was a great day with friends and family.
Friday, November 22, 2019
Today Jaxson's school had their annual Thanksgiving lunch. Parents and Grandparents are invited to attend and I signed up for it. I met my son Marc at the school at 11:00. They have divided the serving times up. Students with last names beginning with A-L will be served starting at 11:15. While we were visiting in the hallway, Jaxson ran up to Marc and grabbed him around the legs. I love seeing our kids with their mamas and daddies, and the love they have for each other. We slowly made our way through the line for an absolutely amazing lunch by the cooks here at Service Valley Charter Academy (SVCA). SVCA is part of the Oswego School System, and is located a few miles north of Oswego. We were served turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes with noodles and gravy, jello, green beans and homemade rolls. In the lunchroom they also had pumpkin sheet cake with icing that the older students served to us at our tables. The meal was delicious! Marc, Jaxson and I had a nice visit during our meal. My niece Nikki was attending as a School Board Member at a nearby table. She walked over to talk to us for awhile. Jaxson was able to go home after the meal, so he and Marc headed back - once we were able to get out of the parking lot. It's a very small parking area for the number of people who showed up today. There were cars every where, parked down either side of the gravel roads because the parking lot was full to capacity.
Back at home I worked on another blog post most of the afternoon. I'm trying hard to get caught up. We've been so busy the past few weeks at the end of the day when I try to work on the blog, it just puts me to sleep.
We are going to Cindy and Elmer's to play cards this evening. Since I need to pick up my prescription in Vinita, we are going to have dinner at Clanton's Cafe afterwards. We love this restaurant. It is an original Route 66 icon. Many, many celebrities have eaten here over the years. You will see pictures of various people on the walls including Guy Fieri who touted the calf fries that Clanton's is known for. On their menu, Ronnie Dunn, of Brooks and Dunn says their chicken and dressing is the best he's ever had.
Cindy and I both decided to eat healthy and ordered a southwestern grilled chicken salad, and the guys chose the chicken friend steak. Our meals were delicious, as usual. I asked about their pies and since they had chocolate cream pie tonight, I bought one to bring back to Misti, since it's one of her favorites.
Back at Cindy and Elmer's, us girls skunked the guys the first two games and we felt sorry for them, because we let them win the last one. Lol!
We have a big day today tomorrow so we headed home before 9, stopping at Misti's long enough to drop off her pie.
Saturday, November 23, 2019
This has been a busy week so far and today will be no different. We were up early to leave Oswego by 7am. We are headed to Wichita for the day to spend time with Jarred and Heath's families. We made a stop in Parsons to get gas, and one more at Severy. Early mornings usually mean lots of bathroom stops. Severy is a good half way point, but the line to the restrooms were long this morning and it held us up about 15-20 minutes. We didn't expect to make it before 10:30, but surprisingly with the newly opened and extended part of 400 near Andover we sailed through that area that typically holds us up with several stop lights. It was only 10:10 when we arrived at Jarred's. Emerson met us at the door with big hugs. We had a nice time visiting with Jarred, Andrea and Emerson until noon. Emerson is attending a birthday party at 1, so we needed to give them some time to eat and get ready.
After leaving their house, we stopped at Jason's Deli for lunch where we enjoyed a great sandwich, iced tea and a small dish of ice cream before we headed to the Northeast YMCA. Heath's youngest son Roman has two basketball games at 1 and 2 today. Being able to take in 2 games versus 1 makes it worthwhile. We sure enjoyed watching him play.
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| #35, with his hands behind his back. |
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| This shot by Roman scored two points for his team as it swished in the basket. |
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| Roman waiting to throw the ball in. |
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| Visiting with friends while waiting for their time to play again. |
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| They were after him - not sure which team, if any ended up with the ball. |
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| Roman seems to be listening intently to what his coach is saying. |
After the game, we returned to the car. When Dean started it, the check engine light came on. Oh, no!! We drove to Heath's which was only a few miles. Heath and Casey also have a Prius, and they have a code reader. It indicated several different things it might be, mostly to do with sensors. As Dean started the car, when we left, the light came on again and even though it appeared to be operating just fine we were concerned about it. We didn't have any choice but to drive home which prevented us from spending more time at Heath's as we had originally planned. We didn't want to get home too late in case we had problems on the way back. I prayed about it and asked God to get us home safely and we would not encounter any problems with the car. We made it to Parsons a little after 6, where we stopped to eat at Chinese Chef. At least we knew if it didn't start Marc was here, and we could always have someone get us back to Oswego.
After our dinner, the car started right up and we arrived home with no problems, but the light remained on the entire time. We'll give Toyota a call on Monday and see if we can get it in to see what the problem is. Hopefully, it is something minor.
We were both exhausted and after watching TV for a short time we headed to bed.
Sunday, November 24, 2019
We both slept very well last night and felt much rested this morning after our busy, busy week.
Dean left early to go to Brett's to help him work on the little "cabin" they are making for Dacy to use when she is staying with them. After he left, I straightened everything up, took my shower and then waited for Cindy to pick me up for church.
Oh, and our exciting news for the day is that we have a new great nephew, Hoyt Allen Nading. He was born this morning at 5:38, weighed 7# 5oz. and was 20 3/4" long. I think he looks like his daddy Wade. Congratulations to Wade, Devin, and his big sister Peyton.
Cindy picked me up at 10:15. After church, (by the way, Jim had a great sermon this morning about being grateful for everything that happens in our life, not only the good but also the bad); we headed to Fairland where we are going to visit with Cindy's best friend Paula, and Paula's and my very dear friend Susie Nodine's mom, Kay. You might remember I mentioned we attended Kay's birthday party back in September. At that time I had an idea to have Marc make something for Kay, and today is when we are going to surprise her with it.
On the way we made a quick detour through Miami, OK to grab something to eat at Taco Bell. We made it to Kay's a little before one. I was trying to hide a 3' sign behind me as we walked to the door, keeping Cindy a little bit to my left side to try and help me out. Once we were inside, I told Kay that when we were here in September Paula had said something about her mom's she shed. I heard it and asked Paula if she had a sign or if anyone had planned to do a sign for her "she shed". When I learned there were no plans to do so, I called my son Marc and asked if he could make her one.
Kay was really surprised with the sign and she loved the Chiefs emblem he added to the sign.
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| Kay and Her Chiefs She-Shed sign |
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| Kay and I |
We had a great visit with Kay and Paula. I sure miss Susie and I wish she could have been here with us too, but she was in spirit.
Cindy dropped me off when we returned to Oswego. Dean wasn't back yet, so I worked on the blog for awhile but I just couldn't stay focused. I kept nodding off, so I turned on the TV to watch the cooking channel and I think that was the final straw. I woke up about 15-20 minutes later.
I decided to make pork chops with gravy in the Instapot for dinner so I started prepping for that, but it was 6 before I finally began the process. I made mashed potatoes and steamed broccoli to go with it. Dean returned home shortly before everything was ready. We enjoy having the table extended its full length so we have enough room to set down for a meal like this. I cleaned up and did the dishes while partly watching a Hallmark movie. I felt really tired this evening. When we finally went to bed I'm not sure I lasted more than five minutes.
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