Saturday, April 11, 2020 - Early Early Morning; Flowers Keep Blooming; Busy Morning; Afternoon Drive; Taco Salad and Movie Night.

Saturday, April 11, 2020 - Early Early Morning; Flowers Keep Blooming; Busy Morning; Afternoon Drive; Taco Salad and Movie Night.

I woke up a little after 3:00 this morning.  At 3:30 I was still lying in bed wide awake.  I finally got up and came downstairs to read my Bible.  It soothes me.  I went ahead and turned the coffeepot on and set down to wait on it.  Look what happened!

IT's hard to believe these could change so much in just a few hours.  There were only 3 when I went to bed at 10 - 5 hours later I have 5.  There are three more blooms that I hope come out sometime today or by tomorrow morning - what a beautiful site to see this Easter morning!  New birth! 

We didn't walk yesterday since it was 8am before I finished putting the groceries away.  I took the time to wipe every product down with a disinfectant wipe, then washed each of the apples and oranges in dish soap, followed by rinsing and drying before they went in the refrigerator.  Lastly, I let the romaine lettuce and celery soak in some cold water, then rinsed them well.  I chopped the lettuce to go in the frig.  My sister gave me a tip several years ago after she started working for the school in the lunch room.  Place a paper towel in the bottom of the storage container that you keep your cut lettuce in.  It will keep it fresher and crisper.  This also works well for grapes.  I don't remember the last time I bought grapes - at least over 2 weeks ago.  We just finished the last ones up a day or so ago.  They were still firm. 

Back to not walking yesterday.  My left leg has been giving me fits when I sit down for any length of time, so yesterday while working on the blog, I stood at the kitchen counter with my Chromebook.  I didn't have near the pain as the day before.  Moving around sure made a difference.  All in all when I laid my head down my watch/exercise bracelet showed I had 14,262 steps, and we didn't even walk in the park yesterday.    

Speaking of my watch/exercise bracelet, I love it.  I had a fitbit several years ago and it barely lasted a year as the band literally fell apart.  I was disappointed when I found out the fitbit I purchased did not have a replaceable band.  I decided I would not spend that kind of money again.  I found this one on Amazon in June 2018 for $27.  It is almost two years old and it does everything the fitbit did.  I've been very happy with it.  

It is now nearly 6:30am and the birds are having a hey-day, chirping up a storm.  It's currently 50 degrees and is supposed to reach 68 by mid to late afternoon.  My plan is to do a bit of cleaning in Bentley today, then work on my pictures.  I didn't get one picture scanned yesterday so I want to make progress today!

Dean got up soon after this.  We visited for awhile before I made breakfast - pancakes and bacon.  We ran out of the vanilla protein powder for our shakes and he's not that fond of chocolate (unlike me), but he does like pancakes.  They were pretty good.  I bought the Krusteaz brand that only requires adding water.  I will definitely buy this brand again.  I've tried a few different brands and so far I think this has the best taste, and it's so easy.

Dean headed to the garage not too long afterwards.  I watched The Pioneer Woman cooking show this morning, which was a little different since her nephew filmed it due to the virus keeping her regular crew from being there.  I did the dishes, made the bed, showered and then just straightened things up a bit before I called my granddaughter Kamron.  We talked for nearly an hour and it was good to hear her voice.  Jaxson came to the phone and talked to me for maybe 1 minute.  But he told me right away he missed me and he loved me - and that was worth it all!  I miss all the grandkids so much, and of course their parents.  

Dean came back a little before noon.  We had lunch and watched Gunsmoke.  After lunch I called Misti and visited with her for 10-15 minutes.  Haleigh was working so I'll catch her later.  

It was such a beautiful day.  

One of our two water towers located behind City Hall, Police and Fire Departments.

Dean wanted to take a ride, so we headed to the east side of town, then turned south by our lot and took it as far south as the road leading to the

This dried grass/weeds were blowing in the wind - very pretty looking.

Neosho River Bridge south of town.  Just past the bridge, we turned back north a 1/2 mile or so, by several pecan groves.  

Neosho River south of Oswego

Loved this road - you could tell water gets over it when the river is out.

First of many pecan groves we saw on our drive.

We just meandered out in the country looking around.  There are so many pecan groves in this area.  I was looking on Google Maps and discovered an icon that said Cherry Creek Falls, so we drove until we reached it.  Here is a picture

We headed on east then south and back west, just meandering one way then another.  We finally passed my cousin Rick's house.  I think his daughter Rebekah was out in the yard.  I waved, but I don't think she see me.  In other times, we would have stopped to visit for a little while - but not right now.  

We decided to come back through Chetopa, so I took Dean on a road that we often used to come back to Chetopa from Grandpa and Grandma Stapleton's house.  

Low water bridge

Farmer planting crops

Field ready to be planted

Passed by the home above with many pieces of old farm equipment.

Wheat field - so beautiful

 We are almost to Chetopa - making the curve up to the highway

Riverside Park along the Neosho River ahead of us

Heading into Chetopa

I haven't been on that country road leading in to Chetopa in many, many years, but other than the houses that I used to recognize looking different than what I remembered it was the same.  It was just a wonderful drive.  

I need to call my Uncle or one of my Aunt's to see where Gpa & Gma's pecan grove was.  We used to go there and pick pecans when we were pretty young.  We used the money we made from selling them to buy Christmas presents for our parents/grandparents.  

North of Chetopa, we headed west to Trego Road, then drove North to the road that leads back east to Oswego.  What a fun tour of this area.  One we haven't been on for many years.

My sister Cindy texted me on the way home and I told her I'd call her after we returned.  We visited for awhile before I started our dinner.  Tonight I made taco salad - a nice size salad bowl of romaine lettuce.  While I didn't have everything on hand that I usually use; I added what was in the pantry - a can of rinsed kidney beans, about a handful to each bowl, a nice dose of shredded cheddar cheese, some tortilla strips, then added about 1/4 # of taco seasoned hamburger.  We topped it with our favorite dressing for taco salad - Dorothy Lynch Salad Dressing.  Normally, I would also include chunks of avocado and tomato, and black olive slices.   I have enough taco meat to make another salad, but I'll have to return to the store as we used all of the dressing.  While there I'll pick up the missing items for the second serving.

While I was talking with Cindy earlier we talked about some good movies to watch.  I had told her she needed to watch A Walk in the Woods with Robert Redford and Nick Nolte.  I'm not sure what she did, but Dean decided he wanted to watch it again.  This movie (despite the language used in parts of it) is so funny due to the situations these two find themselves in on their hike.  Following that, we watched A Feeling of Home with Robby Benson.  Cindy and I were talking about what a heart throb Benson was back in our teen years.  He's changed a lot, but the movie was a feel good movie, if you like those.

It was a good day, having the chance to get out of the house for awhile and seeing familiar sights.

I hope you are all doing well with self-isolation and finding things to keep you busy as well.  

May God Bless each and every one of you, and we wish you a very Happy Easter!!






  

Thursday, April 9, 2020 Morning Walk; Overlooked Pictures from Wednesday; Found An App to Scan Pictures- Friday, April 10, 2020 - Cold Morning (No Walk); Grocery Day; Working at the Garage; Ice Cream?

 Thursday, April 9, 2020 - Morning Walk; Overlooked Pictures from Wednesday; Found An App to Scan Pictures

Beautiful blue skies, little, to no wind - what a beautiful day for walking.

Even though it was a little cooler this morning, we set out to walk in the park.  It wasn't nearly as cool as we expected.  In fact it was a nice brisk morning but comfortable, and after the first mile, we were warming up.

A day or so ago, I mentioned the ravine between Riverside Park and the Fairgrounds/RV Park area - as you leave the park going west the road goes down, then back up on the other side of the small bridge below.  We used to include this as part of our walk.  If we keep walking on a regular basis I hope we can get back to this again.  It pretty much winded us the first time we did it, but it gets better....if you stick with it.  Lol!

We also noticed city employees were putting up two "signs"? at the south and west entrances but we are not sure what is going on them.  We'll have to check it out further!  The wood sign, with the red metal on the left is one of the signs.

Road leaving the park to the west.

 I forgot about taking these pictures on Wednesday evening.  Dean cut some brush and burned it.  The previous owners of the property had an old pool sunken into the ground.  Dean pulled it out, and has been using the pit area to burn brush in.  I happened to notice the wind came up, so we drove to the lot to make sure everything was okay.  It was fine, but better safe than sorry, right?

While there I took a couple of other pictures of the moon.  These pictures were with my phone.

Back at Bentley, we had our shakes, then I spent a good part of the day doing things here in Bentley.  Three loads of laundry, wash the dishes, make the bed, etc. etc. etc.  You know what I mean.  In between I made an extensive grocery list.  My pantry was getting pretty bare.  I plan to go to our local grocery store tomorrow morning at 6am, and I wanted to make sure I didn't forget anything.  

I finally pulled out a few packages of photos and tried out the app I downloaded from Google Play.  It's called Photomyne.  I chose the pictures I wanted to keep from each packet of pictures, then laid them out on the table.  All I had to do was hit the button to take a picture of each one - the program edits around the edges to eliminate any background from the table, when it's finished I take a picture of the next one, etc. etc.

Here are a couple I scanned in yesterday

From August 2006 - Haleigh 4, in our boat on Grand Lake.

Christmas 2005 - my sisters with our dad. - the picture was not very good, but a picture I wanted to keep.  I think my former co-worker and good friend Carol bought me the lighthouse jacket for Christmas that year.  I still wear it, only now I put it on when I get up to keep me warm on cold mornings.  

Of course I am not scanning every picture - only the ones I want to keep.  It's going faster that I imagined, however, with all of the many, many pictures I have, it will take awhile to go through all of the tubs.  Once I am done, I'll let the kids go through them, or I'll just share the pictures via Google Photos, since it's very easy to upload them to Google photos.

We had leftovers for dinner.  Dean watched TV and I was on the computer most of the evening.



Friday, April 10, 2020 - Cold Morning; Grocery Day; Working at the Garage; Ice Cream?

I was up at 5:15, started the coffeepot and was able to enjoy my first cup of coffee, before I heard Dean stirring.  I'm going to get groceries this morning and I want to be there at 6 when they open.  I had my list in hand.  I was able to get almost everything I needed.  I didn't notice until I checked out they had put tape down to prevent people coming both ways down aisles.  I forgot something in the baking aisle.  While I was looking for it, someone I knew came down the aisle and looked at me kind of funny - and I wondered why.  When I saw the tape, I realized what that funny look was for.  I'll know for next time and you can be sure I'll pay more attention if I go anywhere else.  

Dean worked at the lot again today, cutting more brush.  He's enjoying working at it and for the opportunity to be outside in the warmer weather we've had.  When it turns cold again he can work inside the garage if he chooses. When we still owned a home, he often set in the garage to watch TV.   He has a TV in the new garage too, and I'm sure he watches it when he's there.  The whole point of this:  We never know what each day will bring, but God does. When we bought this property at the end of 2018, we had no idea we would be spending so much time here in Oswego during the spring/summer of 2020.  It's a confirmation to me that it was the right decision to buy the lot with the garage on it.  I prefer being in the RV if we have nothing to do.  I can keep busy reading, blogging, cooking, etc. with no problem.  I am not a big TV watcher.  With no where to go Dean could be watching lots of TV in the RV.  I'd be tired of the TV and he'd be climbing the walls without it.  God is so Good!  He knew exactly what we would need during this time!

When Dean came home for lunch today, look what he brought me.

We have Irises.  Aren't they a gorgeous purple!!

After lunch, I decided it would be a good day for me to clean the refrigerator at the garage.

We bought it for overflow when we had the house and it was one of the things we decided to keep.  It was in storage; and it's now been setting in the garage since last summer/fall.  It was very dusty and dirty .  We had to haul water from the RV to the garage, since we don't have the water turned on yet at the lot; and no way to heat it.  We put about a gallon of hot water in a 5 gallon bucket and took it to the garage.  I sprayed a cleaner on the inside to loosen things up a bit, then wiped everything down well with the hot water and a sponge.  We went back to get another gallon of warm water, that I used to rinse everything off.  It looks really good.  Best of all, when Dean turned the refrigerator on, it worked!

Since I'm trying to keep our grocery buying to a minimum of every two weeks (or longer) I needed more space for frozen and refrigerated foods.  It will be convenient for us to store a few things at the garage.  Since Dean is there almost every day, he can bring things back if I need them.

When I walked into the garage, I had to smile - so, all this time I thought he was always down here working so hard and this is what I find:

And here I thought he was working on the yard all of the time.  I was feeling awful sorry for him!

He was laughing as he tried to get out of this picture.  

While I was at the lot, we walked all over the property talking about what trees should be left and what should be removed.  There are clumps of trees here and there.  They all need to be cleaned up.

There were two "man made ponds" in this area.  Dean dug up the interior plastic ponds, and has been cutting the bushes and brush to burn it in the holes.  He burns it in small batches and on calm days.  We will keep two trees here and take the rest of them down.  There are clumps of trees in several places that need to be thinned out.

I brought the two "vegetable" bins from the refrigerator back with me to wash them at the RV.  There was not a good way to do it in the 5 gallon bucket without making a mess.  I soon had them washed and set them aside so Dean could put them in the truck to take back in the morning.

He pulled in at 5:30pm.  We had Marie Callendar pot pies for dinner tonight.  They were pretty good and it beat fixing something since my work this afternoon took longer than I had anticipated.

After dinner, we took a short drive, to:

After enjoying our ice cream shakes (mine was cappuccino chocolate, and Dean's shake was vanilla ice cream, with pecans and caramel, since they were out of butter pecan ice cream.

We are back home and as soon as I finish this, I'm headed to bed.  I'm worn out from today - all that washing is hard on a girl.  LOL!

I'm just so thankful...for our life together, for our kids and grand-kids, my sisters and Dean's siblings, our aunts/uncles and cousins, nieces and nephews, and all of the wonderful people that we call friends.  Thank you all for being a part of our life.

Wednesday, April 8, 2020 - Morning Walk; Breakfast Out; Sister Distancing; Dinner and Dessert

Wednesday, April 8, 2020 - Morning Walk; Breakfast Out; Sister Distancing; Dinner and Dessert

We slept with the air conditioner on last night and it sure was comfortable.  There was no humidity like there is when the windows are open.  It was 5:45 when I got up.  Sometimes it's hard to wait for that first cup of coffee - and that's how I felt this morning.  I had just finished my first cup when Dean got up - just in time to pour my second cup.  Lol!  He turned on the news (using his headphones) and I was working on yesterday's blog.

At 7:15 or so, we headed to the park for our morning walk.  My phone was almost dead, so no pictures this morning.  We decided to walk our daily route backwards.  It's amazing how different things look when you reverse your steps.  It also makes it a bit more interesting.  We typically talk quite a bit on our walks and the time seems to pass quickly.

As we came back through town from the park, we passed Circle L Cafe.  Dean said we should get breakfast out today.  I said we could do that if you want, would you like for me to call an order in.  We drove on home, and I made the call - a sausage omelet, hash browns and wheat toast for Dean; and 2 eggs over medium, hash browns, bacon and wheat toast for me.  I could not eat all of the hash browns.  It all tasted great.  That's our meal out for this week.  

My friend Linda called, asking if we were home.  She told me the other night she was going to make some masks and would make some for Dean and I.  I was surprised that she was already bringing them by for us this morning.  That was so kind of her.  Thank you Linda!

Dean spent the morning washing the west side of Bentley.  He mixes a gallon container with water and a little soap, that has a sprayer attached to it to put the soap on Bentley, then uses a 5 gallon bucket to put a wet rag in to squeegee the sides to remove the soap.  It limits the water used to a very small amount and does a great job.  

After making the bed and washing the few dishes we had, my sister Cindy called.  I asked her if she wanted to come over and we could set outside a distance apart.  She said she'd let me know.

When Dean returned we had our typical lunch.  Dean usually eats some wheat thin crackers with his.  I had been eating them too but I quit because the carbs were so high.  Afterwards, he ate an apple with his PB, and I ate a couple of energy bites that I made yesterday.  

My plate.

Energy bites - For me 2 of these are very filling.

Cindy did come by for a little while and we set outside - keeping our distance from each other.  It's much nicer to visit in person than on the phone.  It made things seem a little more normal.

I finished up yesterday's blog and it is now posted.  I read the blogs that I follow, commenting on several.  Dean came home a short time later.  We visited for awhile.  He cut some more brush down at the lot today, and then burned it, so it was closer to 6 before he returned home.  We had already decided we'd have a hot dog and some chips for dinner tonight.  I wasn't very hungry and I guess he wasn't either.  I made banana (jello) pudding for our snack later.  

The temperature was in the low 80's again today and we had to run the AC until just the last hour.  It's now 77 outside and it's expected to drop to 40's overnight, with a low of 33 tomorrow night.  Spring!  You just never know how it will be.

We have a new neighbor as of late this afternoon.  I saw him out the window earlier talking to Todd but we haven't visited with him.  Most of those in the park are part of two work crews.  We've seen a few of them visiting together at their sites, but most of them we never see.  We speak if they walk by, but there are never any conversations.  Different than being in an RV Park where most people are no longer working.  

Good night all!

Tuesday, April 7 - Morning Walk; Blah Day; Evening Ride that Cheered Me Up

Tuesday, April 7 - Morning Walk; Blah Day; Evening Ride that Cheered Me Up

It was around 4:45 when my eyes opened this morning, according to my watch.  I rolled over but I knew almost immediately I would not be going back to sleep.  After turning the coffeepot on I set down to work on yesterday's blog, which I almost finished before we left for our morning walk.

The wind was blowing, making a ribbon of pink along the road from all of the redbud trees.

I love watching everything green up in the spring.  Between Riverside Park and the area where the Fairgrounds and Kamp Siesta are located is a deep ravine, which is why you see the tops of many trees lower than here in the park.

We wore light jackets today.  After once around the park we had to drop those at the car.  The sun still wasn't out but at least it wasn't that dark gray like it was yesterday, and it was warming up.   After our two miles, we headed back home, where we enjoyed our morning shakes.  Dean left for the garage about mid-morning.  I opened all of the windows and turned on the fantastic fan to help pull the air through Bentley.  

I set down to finish Monday's blog post, then spent another 30-45 minutes reading blogs I follow.

Dean came home for lunch.  Before he left he thought we should turn on the air conditioning as it was really warming up with the sun now moving to the west side of the RV.  The temperature both inside and out was now 84, so I broke down and turned on the AC.  The air conditioner in the living area is so loud that I hate to turn it on, but after it cooled things done, I was thankful for it.    

I've been in a bit of a funk today.  Maybe it's just being inside for so many days and not seeing anyone.  I miss our kids and grand-kids and my sisters.  I didn't do much of anything after I finished the blog post.  Played some games on my Chromebook, looked at Facebook, etc.  Maybe I just needed a day of doing nothing.  Lol!

I mentioned in Monday's blog we have an apple with peanut butter almost every day for lunch.  Betty asked me about it - and here it is.  After cutting the apples, we just dip it in the peanut butter - a little on each bite.  We've found the PB sticks to the skin rather than the apple itself.  I also like to eat cheese with my apple - especially cheddar.  

We had some leftover hamburger from the meatloaf I made Monday evening.  Tonight I made two hamburger patties, then Dean put them on the grill.  Once they were done I added cheese, then we enjoyed them with carrots, and macaroni & cheese. 

Dean wanted to go for a ride, and it was just what I needed.  

We drove around the perimeter of Oswego.  On the road heading south we saw these interesting cattle.

 We headed south, then back east, drove north a mile, then turned back west where the sun was really starting to put on a show - see below.  

 

I suggested we drive by the golf course as usually there are some beautiful sunsets from there.

Heading north, having just passed the golf course

We drove down a side road, before heading back south, toward town - the sun had already disappeared, but it left some pretty colors.

We drove to the park so I could get a better picture of the moon.  I wish I would have had my camera with me.

Last colors of tonight's sunset from Riverside Park.

We both enjoyed our drive tonight.  Returning home, we had the last of our brownie (gooey) pie.  I warmed it up in the microwave with a dip of ice cream to go with it.  It tastes much better warmed up!

Dean watched some TV while I used my headphones to enjoy listening to songs on U Tube - Kenny Rogers, Dolly Parton, Loretta Lynn and Tammy Wynette, then a tribute to Brooks and Dun.  It's not something I typically do, but I sure enjoyed it this evening.

I'm thankful for the warmer weather and beautiful sunsets; and for all of you that follow along!!

Monday, April 6, 2020 - Morning Walk; Dinner Prep for Tonight; Blog Catchup; More Cooking Shows; What to do With These Pictures

Monday, April 6, 2020 - Morning Walk; Dinner Prep for Tonight; Blog Catchup; More Cooking Shows; What to do With These Pictures

I cannot believe it was 6am before I woke up.  I'm not sure I would have then except some kind of noise outside woke me up.  I don't even remember what it was - when I saw the clock said 6 I just jumped out of bed.  Why?  I felt like I was late for something.

After starting the coffeepot, I worked to finish yesterday's blog post.  Once I reached a point I could stop we headed to the park for our morning walk.  

We are at the far end of the park with no one around us.  The RV to our left is vacant right now, so we have this entire area to ourselves.

I visited with my sister Cindy on the phone for awhile.  We talked about going to the park to walk after lunch.  

What a beautiful day it was!  While the clouds were still blocking the sun, the fog was gone. With nothing but a light breeze, it was a very tolerable cool morning.  The birds were singing, the trees are still blooming and we saw more people driving through the park.  

I can't take enough pictures of the colorful trees - they will be gone soon.

This bush seemed to change overnight.  So pretty.

During our walk, we saw these leaves and small twigs on the ground under two large trees.  We suspect either birds, or maybe squirrels were at each other for one reason or another to cause this.  There was only a light breeze so we know it wasn't the wind, and only under two trees.

After breakfast, I put the window shades up on almost all of the windows in the living area, and opened a window on the south side, so we could enjoy the light breeze coming in.  Such a simple thing that just brought me a joy today.  

I changed the sheets on the bed and washed the ones I took off.  Then I set down to see what options are available to scan pictures into the computer and Google photos.  I doubt anything is going to be "easy", but finding a solution that would allow me to add more than one photo at a time would sure be nice.

I found this picture while going through the pictures yesterday.  Our wedding day..26 years ago.  We look so young there.

The first tub!

My sisters and I.  This was taken in the 80's.  Wow, we had the hair, didn't we?  

After lunch, I did some research on the photo issue and found an app called Phototyme.  According to the app, it's possible to scan in more than one picture at a time, using your phone.  I'm going to give it a try tomorrow and see how it works.

I recorded a couple of cooking shows Saturday morning, so I turned those on to watch.  The Pioneer Woman and Trish's Country Kitchen.  They made me hungry!

Speaking of being hungry, dinner tonight is meatloaf, half of a baked potato, green beans and a roll.  We have a few deviled eggs left to add to the plate.  I mixed the meatloaf up and put it in the refrigerator, then made a sauce to go on top.  I'll add it before I bake it.  Dean called me a little before five, wanting to know when I thought supper would be ready.  He was in the middle of an "electrical wiring" project and wanted to finish.  Since I didn't realize it was that late, I told him to take his time...it would be an hour or more before it's ready.    

Dinner tasted so good.  We were too full to eat any dessert, but it will still be there tomorrow!  I was just finishing up the dishes when my phone rang.  It was my friend Linda.  We had a nice chat, catching up with each other.   

After putting the dishes away, I watched TV with Dean, then looked at a few things on my phone, played my favorite game "FreeCell" a few times, before I dozed off in the middle of a game, then woke up in time to go to bed.  Lol!!  My days are so tiring!!  😂😂

I'm thankful for the chance to get outside almost daily to walk.  I'm thankful it was warm enough today to open a window and let some fresh air in.  Simple things that mean so much right now.