Oh how time flies!  I can’t believe we’ve been to Ohio and back and now are on our way south.  We always think we have so much time to do this or that or see friends/family and soon the time has passed and we haven’t done what we wanted to.  It just reminds us not to put things off. Ohio was great as always.  This time was a little different because our nephew got married to his beautiful bride on Sept 14th.  They had a perfect day at a perfect location.  The day couldn’t have been better. We spent about two weeks with Zach and Lauren doing some fun things and Joe and Zach got a new storm door hung on the front of his house.  The kitchen is done…

We are presently on our way to California and have stopped for a few nights at a state park in Utah on a reservoir.  It is in the foot hills of the mountains and we are presently the only ones in the campground sitting on a bluff overlooking a lake.   This morning when we got up it was very windy with winds at 30 to 40 mph so there were white caps on the lake.  As we were taking Lily for her morning walk we noticed a canoe on the lake with two people in it.  We thought they were crazy because of the wind.  We noticed they were struggling a little so we watched for a little but it was so windy we went inside and started breakfast.  As…

As I look back at the summer months we spent in Minnesota I wonder where they went.  We didn’t get to spend enough time with friends and didn’t even get to see some of our old friends.  Hopefully we can catch up with a few of them in October when we are back in MN for a few weeks. Family time was great with the addition of our new grandson, Alex.  He is growing like a weed as most new babies do.  His mom can’t wait until he sleeps through the night.  We have had a few opportunities to watch him while mom and dad got out of the house but haven’t had him overnight yet.  We need to do that before we head south.  Granddaughter, Cate, has spent a…

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…