With the loss of our two Bichons, Abby in January of 2012 and Ivy January of 2013, our lives have seemed a little empty.  If you read my post on how frustrated I got from searching for our new forever dog I’m happy to update that we have adopted a sweet little 10lb female Bichon mix that is about 2 ½ yrs old or as best the rescue place can guess.  Lily, or Lil as we call her, came from a puppy mill rescue of around 200 dogs in June from outside of Fargo, North Dakota.  The information that we found was that all the dogs were small breed dogs and were in terrible condition.  Five or six dogs were crammed into a kennel and were very matted and dirty. …

I am really frustrated.  I have been searching for a new dog since our Ivy died in January.  As we gone through states and communities I’ve checked local pounds, humane societies, and rescues.  Most of the pounds and humane societies have larger dogs or the small ones go so fast you don’t have a chance.  I discovered if we want to adopt a pit-bull or pit-bull mix we wouldn’t have any trouble but for many different reasons that is not going to happen.  My first choice when I do a search is a Bichon.  With having Bichons for 16 years we know the breed and love their personalities. Here is my frustration.  I have filled out so many adoption applications and have been turned down.  There are many different excuses…

 Our new grandson, Alexander Joseph, came into our lives on July 29th weighing in at 8 lbs 9 oz and 21.5 inches long.  Mom and baby are doing great!  He is a beautiful little guy with very black hair.  Our granddaughter Cate spent a few days with us while mom was in the hospital and as always we had a lot of fun.  We were able to take Cate to the hospital so her mom and dad could introduce her to her new baby brother and she took to being a big sister so easily.  I think she is going to be a big help to her parents.  We always count our blessings and this is one more blessing we are thankful for.

We travel about 10,000 miles a year and some of those travelled miles are on busy highways.  But it just takes one little side road on a city street to get that first bump in our truck.  An enjoyable evening at Amanda and Ron’s house in Richfield, MN ended with $3,000 worth of damage to the side of the truck.  As we were finishing our dinner we heard a loud crash which brought our attention to the street.  A young man travelling west on the street where our truck was parked crossed the center line and hit a car travelling east.  The east travelling car got pushed into the driver’s side of our truck.  Neither of the other two cars was drivable after the accident so we know they hit…

Bump on the head is gone and along with that the weeklong headache.   We stayed in Ohio for 2 ½ weeks.  When we left Ohio Zach and Lauren’s kitchen looked really nice.  They had a little work left but the cabinets were up and that is what we were there to help with.  The rest was up to them.  Since we left they have been sending pictures and have installed the dishwasher, stove, and microwave.  They just need the countertop and trim and it will be done.  It was a long process for them but I think they would agree it turned out beautiful.  They also learned some lessons on the way like you can’t always use the recommendation of a friend for a contractor, but that is another whole…

Joe and I will soon be celebrating our second anniversary of retirement and our full-time RV lifestyle.  What a fabulous 2 years it has been.  We have seen so much beauty in our country and met so many wonderful and interesting people.  But just this last weekend we realized how a campground becomes our neighborhood or community and the wonderful people that surround us every day and we don’t even realize it. We are still in Winton Woods County Park campground in Cincinnati, OH and the 200 plus sites fill up every weekend with families and their dogs.  Joe and I kept Zach’s Great Dane with us as his house is torn apart with the kitchen remodel.  In the middle of the day on Saturday we decided to take Hope…

On our way from Wisconsin to Ohio we were lucky enough to stay in three nice state parks in three different states.  Our first and my favorite was at Two Rivers, WI on the shores of Lake Michigan, Point Beach State Forest. Each of these three state parks had biking trails so we did a lot of biking but Point Beach by far was the most challenging for Joe and I.  There were 6 miles of hard packed gravel trails going through thick forests winding up and down very hilly terrain.  This trail took us into the town of Two Rivers and if we would have followed a paved path along the shores of Lake Michigan for another 6 miles we could have ridden to the next town.  Joe and…

We arrived back at Dakotah Meadows in Prior Lake, MN on April 18th just in time to take our granddaughter, Cate, for five nights while her parents had a bit of a vacation before the new baby arrives.  We hadn’t seen Cate since Christmas which made her taller and wiser.  I know I often say how Joe and I are so blessed and she is definitely one of our true blessings.  Life was filled with Cate for five days and did we have fun and slept very well every night.  One of the first days we had about 6 inches of snow (welcome back snow we called it).  We dressed all up in our warm clothes to make a snowman.  Joe and I haven’t made a snowman in years.  One…

After having such a great family time at Easter with Joe’s family we headed a little south to Cincinnati to Winton Woods, a Hamilton County Park.  We have stayed at Winton Woods for the past 7 years when we visit our son Zach and his wife Lauren.  Great place to stay but as in all great things it seems to change over time.  Each time we go back, we normally stay twice a year for two weeks, we find things just a little bit disappointing.  The last two times we have found the campground not as well taken care of.  Mostly it seems that there is just more garbage lying on the grounds and in the fire pits.  On our site we had to pick out large pieces of broken…

As full-timers we cannot always be with family when we want.  We decided to fly back to MN at Christmas to be with our kids and new that it would be spring before we would see them again.  We talk to them regularly on the cell, facetime our granddaughter Cate almost every week, text message a lot but it just isn’t the same as seeing their faces in person or putting your arms around them.  I’m told by other full-timers who have been doing it for many more years than Joe and I that it gets easier.  I hope they are right or I’ll just be buying more airline tickets.  So travelling towards family is traveling home no matter where that is. We made our way to Charlotte, NC to…