Sunday, November 15 - Saturday, November 21, 2020 - Sisterfest; Joplin Run; Jaxson Visits'; Eye Appt; Move to Idle Hour Lake; Hospital Visit-Not Me; On The Road; Jaxson is Back

Sunday, November 15 - Saturday, November 21, 2020 - Sisterfest; Joplin Run; Jaxson Visits'; Eye Appt; Move to Idle Hour Lake; Hospital Visit-Not Me; On The Road; Jaxson is Back 

Sunday, November 15 - My sinus infection has cleared up, but today I had the leftover cough that always comes with it, so I stayed home from church this morning, and listened to the online service.  I miss the music though, but Jim had a good message.   

After a light lunch for me, I drove to Cindy's to enjoy Sisterfest with Crystal and Cindy.  Jody and her husband are in quarantine.  Neither her or her husband have Covid, but they were exposed.  Fortunately, for Jody she is able to work at home.  (Good news, they never had any symptoms, and are doing fine.)

I returned to our spot at Kamp Siesta.  Dean has been working at the lot.  He just can't stay away.  It gives him something to do and he's glad for that if he isn't playing golf, or we don't have something else to do.

After dinner, Dean wanted ice cream.  Columbus Sonic is the closest to us, about 15 miles east.  When we arrived and went to place our order, they told us their ice cream machine was down so that was a bummer.  We set there for a few minutes discussing our options.  Did we want to just go home?  No, now ice cream was on our minds....so should we go to Baxter Springs to Sonic or Galena to Dairy Queen.  Guess where we ended up?

If you guessed Dairy Queen, you would be right!  I tried their new mocha oreo blizzard.  Dean chose the pecan turtle blizzard, then we set in their parking lot to eat it.

A good day!

Taken out the back window as the sun was setting

Monday, November 16 - I realized this morning I forgot to pick our mail up Saturday, so around 10 I drove to the Post Office to get it.  I had a birthday card from my step-brother Mike.  It was postmarked October 14 (my birthday was Oct 23).  I'm not sure what kind of a trip it took but it must have been a long one to take over a month to arrive.  Lol!

Our site at Kamp Siesta, Oswego - all alone.

I made an appointment last week with my optometrist.  It was pretty late in December, but they told me if they had a cancellation they would call me.  I received a call this morning they had an opening on Wednesday at 7am.  I told them I would take it.  I've had these frames for almost three years.  Not only am I ready for a change but feel like I also need some new lenses.  Things aren't quite as sharp this past year.

I made a call to a former Mayor this morning and we had a nice visit.  I also called to get a couple of prescriptions refilled at the Cherokee Health Center in Vinita.  

Misti called me to discuss our Thanksgiving/Christmas lunch plans, wondering if we couldn't have a traditional dinner, rather than sandwiches.  I am willing to do that if she helps me.  We decided chicken and noodles, mashed potatoes, dressing (from a box), rolls, green bean casserole, mac and cheese with a few desserts would be plenty.  That's really a pretty easy meal.  We'll also have an assortment of pies and cookies that a couple of the boys and Misti will supply and I'll make a pecan pie.

Cindy picked me up after work and we headed to Joplin.  She had a few things she wanted to get at Walmart and Sam's.  I had called in an order to Walmart too and needed a couple of things from Sam's as well.  Cindy had a 30% off coupon at Kohl's.  I've been looking for some sweatshirts.  I ended up purchasing two plus a jacket.  Our last stop was at the Dollar Tree to purchase items for my saran wrap balls for the older and younger kids.  I think they look forward to these now, and it will be our 4th year.  It's fun to watch them try to unwrap that ball.

It was 5:30 when we left Joplin.  I was worn out, so I can only imagine how Cindy felt after working until 1:30.  She gets up around 4:30-5 to get ready for work.  

I was glad to get home and had no problem falling asleep tonight!

Tuesday, November 17 - I mentioned earlier that due to the short time frame for purchasing gifts I used Amazon this year....by the time we decided to have it, I had two weeks, so it made sense.  I have had all of the items sent to Cindy's house.  She lets me know when they come and today the first batch arrived.  The one good thing about ordering Christmas presents when you have it on Thanksgiving, you are not in a rush with millions of others.  I prefer to go to a store and pick things out, at least on most things, but for this year with the short time frame it had to do.

I told Marc I would pick Jaxson up after school today.  It worked out well for him and as well as for Dean and I.  I needed some pecans from Circle C, northeast of Parsons, and Dean needed to get an item at Orschlen's in Parsons.  Afterwards, we drove to Sonic to get something to drink before taking Jaxson home in Altamont.  We made a big circle this afternoon.  I ordered a root beer, and silly me I should have taken a sip before we left.  When I did take a drink, it was flat.  I believe they ran out of syrup.  Ugh.  I didn't want to turn around and go back,  so I just lost on that.  Thank goodness it was half price.

We dropped Jaxson off.  Marc had left to deliver something, but Kamron was home from school.  We visited with her for a little bit before we headed back to Oswego.

Wednesday, November 18 - I was up early this morning.  I have to be in Parsons by 7 for my eye appointment and I wanted to shower before I left.  By the time I dry my hair and straighten it I needed an extra hour to get ready.

As I left the campground in Oswego this morning.

When I arrived a young lady was outside putting up signs to call when you arrive.  They will call you when they are ready for you to come inside.  It wasn't long before I received a text to come on in.  I needed an upgrade in my lenses.  It's weird, that my right eye is improving in sight and the left one is getting worse, so both required a change.  No wonder I've noticed such a difference.  I looked at frames, but didn't order them today.  

We've been at Kamp Siesta for a week, so when I returned, Dean and I packed up Bentley and moved to Idle Hour Lake, south of Altamont.  We are the only ones camped here, backed up to the lake.  The temperatures were nice, but the wind blew like crazy!  The first time I opened the door to go inside, the door flew out of my hand and came back and hit the side of the RV, and I thought I was going to fall.  Fortunately I kept my balance, but after that, we both made sure we had a good grip on the door before going in and out.  

We really enjoyed camping here.  They have full hookups, and I needed to do laundry.  We had already made this reservation when Todd let me know he had a site.  Since it's close to Marc & Jen, I wanted to keep it so we could hopefully spend some time with the grandkids too.  We barely had things set up when the first load went in the washer.

My cousin Carthen called to let us know he would be at the lot tomorrow around noon to begin removal of the underbrush from the lot.  We are having him do a large section on the north side of the property.  Later on we'll have him do some more.  This area will require quite a bit of work raking the area and getting all of the small limbs and trees stacked to burn, and making sure there are no stumps left so he can mow this summer.

At least the temperatures are supposed to be mild this week, although rain is predicted Friday or Saturday.

Thursday, November 19 - I was up at 3:15 this morning.  I am taking my cousin Barbara to Labette Health in Parsons where she is having rotator cuff surgery.  She has to be at the hospital by 6:15.  I will be taking her and staying until she is released later today.  I drank my two cups of coffee, then got dressed, gathered up my laptop and phone (I hope to have time to work on the blog while I'm waiting), then headed to Oswego to pick her up.

Her surgery went well but her oxygen level took awhile to level out.  Apparently this has happened before and after a couple of hours it was fine.  (The next day she did get an oximeter to keep an eye on it.  Fortunately, it has been just fine since then)  After getting her settled in at home, I drove to the lot to see what Carthen has accomplished clearing the underbrush to the north of our property.  I'm so glad we did this.  It would have taken Dean months to accomplish what he did in four hours.  We still have work to do to get some stumps cut close to the ground so he can mow next summer, along with the 4 large piles of brush that need to be burned.  

Later Dean and I drove into Altamont and ate at MJ's Burger House.  I was too tired to cook after such a long day.

When we returned to the campground I took these pictures:

Friday, November 20 - Today is Marc and Jen's anniversary.  It's hard to believe they have already been married 16 years.  Wow - where does the time go?  I offered to pick Jaxson up from school today since they are taking off to spend the day together.  They love to go "junking" as they refer to it.  I asked Jaxson if he wanted to stay the night and he said SURE!  Earlier in the day I had to drive to Vinita to pick up a couple of prescriptions at the Indian Clinic.  From their I drove to Joplin.  The sweatshirts I bought at Kohl's last week were too big and I wanted to return them so I could be sure to get the same ones in a smaller size.  While I was there I stopped to visit with Larry & Verna for about an hour or so.  After changing out the sweatshirts at Kohl's, I returned to Oswego to pick up more packages that had arrived at Cindy & Elmer's (for me).  Next stop was to pick up Jaxson at school.  It was so cold today.  They wind was extremely gusty and just not fun to be outside at all.  We stopped at Marc and Jen's to pickup Jaxson's overnight bag, then headed to Idle Hour Lake.  I could hardly hold onto the door for us to get inside.  

Jaxson loves to cook.   I've been watching "Cooking with Brenda Gantt" on Facebook.  One of the recipes she made was coconut custard pie.  I love coconut and custard.  I asked him if he'd like to help me make it.  Sure!  He didn't want any, but he thought it was just fine to help with all of the work.  We had a great afternoon.

Dean returned from the garage and we had a nice evening together.

Saturday, November 21

Jaxson and I had a good morning.  Papa Dean left for the garage in Oswego.  He is continually working on the lot.  When he returned we had lunch and I took Jaxson home about 1:30.  We had a good time together playing games, and he helped make pancakes this morning.  This afternoon I did laundry.  It was a quiet afternoon.