Saturday, June 6; Sunday June 7 & Monday June 8 - Playing Catch Up

Saturday, June 6; Sunday June 7 & Monday June 8, 2020 - Playing Catch Up

Saturday, June 6, 2020

It seems whenever we visit family in Wichita we get very little done in the RV - I'm not complaining - they are our priority since we don't see them often.  So when we returned to Oswego, we needed to catch up.

Beautiful wood carving at the RV Park where we stayed

Saturday, June 6 - We left Wichita at 10:15 and by the time we stopped once for a break, and then pulled into Hillside RV Park in Oswego and was parked it was 1:41 or so.  Of course the next 30 minutes or so was getting the slides open, turning on the air, putting things in their place, etc.  It was already getting warm outside and it was pretty warm inside already.  I know we talked about going somewhere to eat, but we ended up eating a sandwich and chips instead.  We still had almost a whole loaf of bread that we bought when Emerson came to visit.... so she could enjoy a PB&J sandwich...and of course, we used it too.  

A few pictures on our way home - as we passed through the Flint Hills!

Joyce, I forgot to take a picture on our way to Wichita - I remembered on the way back!

After lunch we took a ride to let the RV cool down.  

Oswego's pool was BUSY!!!  

 We drove to Chetopa and around town.

As we drove through the East Riverside Park, this shot was looking to the northwest.

If you can enlarge this - you can see the far side of Riverside Park where we usually park and enjoy our ice cream when we are in Chetopa.

After we had been gone long enough for it to have cooled down some, I spent time putting things away.  Later we went to the garage to get my car and check on the trees my friend gave me.  The trees looked fantastic - they are thriving!  I left and went to the grocery store to get a few things we needed and then headed back to the RV Park.  While we were in Wichita I bought a package of 4 premade hamburger patties at Dillon's.  Tonight Dean grilled those.  I added cheese and we are slowly finishing the chips we bought for lunch a day or so ago as well.

Dean stayed at the garage for awhile after I left.  He came back in time to eat, OF COURSE! We were both tired.  After dinner, we watched TV most of the evening and rested.


Sunday, June 7, 2020

My sisters and I have been wanting to go visit our Aunt Wilma (my mom's sister).  Crystal talked to her granddaughter Tracy and she said this Sunday would be great.  Since the first Sunday is mine to host, I told my sisters I'd make the dessert.  I was up at 5:30 and after turning the coffee pot on, I immediately started the a cake making process.  I had laid most of the ingredients out the night before just to speed it up.  I decided to make oatmeal cake - one of my very favorites.  My mom always made it and I think she probably got it from my Grandma Stapleton (her mom), so I thought everyone would enjoy having it.  

The idea was great but I learned something new about convection ovens - heavy, dense cakes do not do well, at least in mine.   All four corners of the cake were hard, the middle did not set up and I was SICK!  Now what?  Cindy and I visited about it.  I finally decided I would cut and remove all of the pieces around the sides, see how many there would be, and if there is enough I'll take the best part of the cake and pray for the best.  Fortunately only the corners were a problem.  The rest of the cake wasn't bad.  However, I will not make it again in the convection oven.  I've made it numerous times in our oven here in the RV, but it's just too hot to turn it on right now.

After the cake was done, I showered then got ready for church.  Today was our first day back in church since March.  It was great to be back and surprisingly we had a really great turnout.  I think we all missed it.  Jim had a great sermon and even though we still did our social distancing (every other pew was roped off), it felt great to be with our church family.

I drove back to Bentley.  Dean and I had a light lunch.  At 12:45 I left to pick up my sisters, then we drove the 12-15 miles to my Aunt's house.  Aunt Wilma's oldest daughter and her daughter Tracy, live with her.  In addition my Aunt's youngest daughter Patty joined us.  We had so much fun, and laughed about many different things.  I just love this family so much.  We need to do this more often.  

By the time we left and I dropped everyone back at home it was near 4:00 p.m.  I warmed up the other two hamburgers Dean cooked last night for dinner.  I was too tired to cook.  I was going to do laundry, but I decided it could wait until tomorrow. 

The A/C has been working hard to keep up since the temperatures have soared the past week or two.  Of course the humidity is really high as well, which doesn't help, and we do not have much tree cover at all - certainly none that is high enough to cover any part of the RV roof.  Between 1:30-4:30 it can get pretty warm. 

After cleaning up supper dishes, and getting all of our "stuff" put away from working on the vents, etc. for the A/C, we were both worn out.  


Monday, June 8

I was up at 4:15 this morning - wide awake and could not go back to sleep.  I imagine that was because I knew I had a fasting blood test this morning at 8.  Now that I've finally been able to convert myself from sugar/creamer in my coffee to black, I really enjoyed those cups this morning - since it was all I could have.

I read everyone's blog posts this morning and thoroughly enjoyed each and everyone.  I told Dean he could go eat breakfast at Lacy's if he wanted since we were out of milk to make a shake.  I've got to go to the grocery store!

I have a stack of things that need to be taken care of this week and I sorted through those to make sure I had things in order, so I can work on those later today and tomorrow.  

I arrived early at the Cherokee Health Center so I could go to the pharmacy and order a prescription, with the hope it would be ready by the time I was ready to leave, or at least after I ran some errands, and could come back to get it before I left Vinita, OK.  I never thought about not being able to walk to the pharmacy inside, so I had to wait until I had my lab work done, then drive around to the pharmacy window to order the script.  I tried calling from inside while waiting to be called for my labs, but it wouldn't go through.  It might just have been because I was inside the building.  The young lady in the lab was great - just a prick and it was done in less than a minute.  I went to the pharmacy window afterwards and ordered my script.  If they don't have it done today I told them I would pick it up Friday when I come back to see the physician.  I asked her to be sure they DO NOT MAIL IT.  I need it on Sunday!  I wasn't able to get it, but hopefully it will be ready for me on Friday.  That works just fine!

On my way back I stopped at my cousin's to visit with her a bit.  She gave me an old suitcase that she thought came from her Mom's house (my Great Aunt).  It's kind of beat up and dirty, but I plan to clean it up, and maybe use it on a stand for a table by a chair with a decoration of some kind in it someday.  I like old things - and especially if it belonged to a family member.  I enjoyed visiting with Martha.

I had stopped at Walmart in Vinita to pick up some almond milk and coffee.  After putting them away I started getting some things done inside.  I left without making the bed - only because the bed linens needed to be changed.  I put them in to wash, then did the dishes.  I washed two more loads of clothes throughout the day.

Dean's son, Matt and his family are going to be here in July.  They want to go back to Branson the last three days of their visit.  I told them we would take our RV to Treasure Lake, a membership park that we belong to, and they can rent a cabin there.  This morning and into the afternoon I worked on that, talking and texting Megan while trying to work out details.  We finally got an RV rented (all of the cabins were reserved) and they will pull it in to the lot next to us if Dean and I can be there by 10 the morning of July 9.  We will be in Lamar, MO at Brett's, an hour closer than the drive from Oswego, so I don't think that will be a problem.  It will be great being right beside them.  Next was figuring out what we can do in Branson, due to the pandemic.  Apparently Silver Dollar City and White Water require everyone over the age of 3 to wear a mask (except for WW which does not require it if you are on a water ride).  With 90-100 temperatures I'm not sure how you would ever get young children to keep a mask on - so we will most likely not be visiting either place this year.  Frotunately, there are many other things to do in and around the area.  Treasure Lake has a REALLY nice large pool that we can take the kids to, so I think it will be just fine.  They have minature golf, basketball, tennis, etc., plus a movie room with popcorn and activities for kids, so I'm sure we will stay busy over the two full days we will spend there together.  Megan told me no matter what she wanted to make sure we made it to Cakes and Creams!  It's one of my favorite places and has been for 40+ years!  She was very disappointed we didn't make it there last year.  We will make it happen this year - even if we have to leave the guys at the RV!  Lol!

Once we had that taken care of I called to cancel our reservation at the RV Park we planned to stay at in Grand Island, NY.  With Matt coming here, we are not going to make the drive out there this year.  If things were different we might, but we aren't sure what we could do and where, so we'll just visit our four state area this year.

For dinner I Iaid out some chicken breasts wrapped in bacon that I had frozen a week or so ago.  Dean grilled them outside, while I made Herb rice to go with it.  We really love this rice.  I haven't made it in quite awhile, along with buttered peas.  It was just delicious.  The chicken was PERFECT!  What a great meal.  It was another busy day, and we were both tired.  He played golf this morning, then mowed the lot this afternoon.  He came home with a big are with several scratches on his leg.  It looked pretty nasty, so I made him put some antiseptic on it and we covered it for the night.  My eyes were heavy most of the evening.  I was really glad when it was time to go to bed.