Ready to go

It's late Sunday night and all is quiet here. We are mostly packed and ready to continue our trip. We got the RV back out of ANOTHER shop yesterday so we are running a couple of days late on our plans. This trip to the shop was almost $4,000 so the RV has been really gone thru this time. At least I hope all the seals, sensors, gaskets, air bags, brakes, and air conditioner systems are all finished for the rest of this trip! And far beyond :) Oh, and the fridge didn't get kept on, so I had a freezer with old stinky meat and mold in the fridge to deal with when we got it back - YUK YUK YUK. And it is stinky. I've got charcoal, vanilla, and air fresheners all in it and I am hoping that it will help enough that we can still use it. I knew I should've gone down and checked it out myself. Keith said the light was still on - but it was the wrong light!! Live and learn - that is why we are NOVICE's.

It has been a busy couple of weeks. I haven't felt as well as I would have liked for the last week so we didn't get to do much of anything. I would've never believed that we wouldn't even make it to a Padre game. And they have done so well this year!! We did make it up to Channel 1 to see Janet, Debbie, Judy and the rest of the gang on Friday, but we didn't stay long there either. I was supposed to go see Liz for lunch and never made it to do that either. Today is Debbie's birthday and everyone got together for a party but I couldn't make it. Had to clean out the fridge in the RV. We've been here long enough that I should've been able to spend lots of time with everyone - it just didn't work out that way and I really regret it. All these great friends and I didn't hardly get to spend any time with them at all. I did find out that all are doing really well. Chuck is now in Louisiana working with an insurance company to help get those people help - and I'm sure he is working hard - it has to be a miserable place to be right now.

S'te and I power washed the house during the week and they realized just how bad the paint was, so they decided it was time to get going on that. Especially since Rod may be deployed when his new orders come thru and he may not be here to help. On Friday S'te and I got the upstairs all scraped and primered while Papa entertained the 4 babies. And on Saturday Rod, S'te, Tyrique, and LaDaria got busy and did the entire rest of it. It has been a big job, but the prep is all done. It sure looks huge being all primered in white. They have picked out a beige color to paint. I don't know just how they are going to accomplish this since we plan to be leaving in the morning. Mr. Tim has offered to come help, but S'te hasn't called him yet - so we will see about that part.

We bought the little boys new "suits" at WalMart and they loved them. They had them on first thing this morning for church. I got pictures of everyone except for Rod and S'te - they should've said something - I can't be expected to keep track!! One of their little kittens was hit by a car late this evening - so that service was performed for the kids to come to terms of how short life can be. They have also watched a lot of what has been happening in the South with the poor people copletely wiped out with the hurricanes. Hopefully the next few months will be kinder to everyone. I know it is God's will - but it sure is hard to accept sometimes. As old as I am - I don't understand.

My knee is feeling better and I look forward to seeing my Dad, which should be our next stop, and then on to the Grand Canyon and then on to Ozzie's in Oklahoma. From there we will see how things go and how we feel as to the rest of our trip. We would like to be able to go back up by April's and Mom Beatty's - but if things don't go better with my health and hurts, we may have to head straight back to Florida so that I can see our Doctor. My knee comes and goes as far as what I can do with it - so as long as I still have good days - we are good to go.

We got the judgement in our favor on the condo renter and she should be vacating it withing the next week or so - then our plans are to just put it on the market. This rental stuff from far away just didn't work. It costs to much to keep a place up when the renter decides that she has paid enough rent and refuses to leave without going thru the whole system arguing that she shouldn't be evicted and she shouldn't have to pay rent either. Go figure ! !

I've put pictures of the kids and the house on Flickr - so by my guest and look at them.

More later,
Diane