December Daze...

Where does the time go?  Being "stationary", it seems like time flies faster than when we are "on the road"!  Last blog, we just got back from Hawaii, and now, here we are at the end of December already!  What have we been doing?

After we painted the wall, and hung some of the art, it was time to "update" our couch.  It just didn't fit in with our new look!  I wanted it to be a plain (off) white.  I've gotten into Pinterest lately, so turned to it, and found a number of blogs on how to reupholster using cotton drop cloths.  Sounded easy enough.  So, two drop cloths, a bunch of Velcro, seam binding, and two weeks later...a "new couch"!   I have a love of 1950's tablecloths, and have collected a number of them to use in sewing projects.  I used several for the arm rests and pillows (reversible), and will again on seat cushions for my dining chairs when I tackle that project (soon).  It's not perfect, but we like it, and it beats spending hundreds of dollars on a new couch!  ;-) 

Thanksgiving brought my older sister Bette out to visit us for a week.  What a treat that was to have her here, even if only for a short time.  We invited another couple to join us for our very small feast and had a lovely Thanksgiving for our first one in our new tiny home.  I was so busy being the hostess, I forgot to take pictures!  But the day was lovely and we all had a great time!

 She and I went flower and plant shopping and had a ball!  She loves plants as much as I do, so I was saving that trip for when she was here.  I have a ton of pots & containers that needed filling, so, off we went to the store to gather up soil and various goodies to fill them.  Oh what fun we had!  Ran out of money before we ran out of ideas...

The week went by way to fast, the sun was shining brightly and each day I took her out and showed her our great park and tried to entice her to move here from rainy, cloudy, cold Washington...hee hee..

December brought the chance to sell some of our stuff!  Twice a year Happy Trails has a Yard Sale!  So...we drug out all our goodies and did our best to sell, sell, sell!  Well, I think the Goodwill did better than we did!  We did manage to sell some (about $100 worth) but not as much as I sure would have liked, but, what we didn't, we mostly hauled off.  My friend Delores has introduced me to "Swip Swap" and others, it's an online selling app that I've been pretty successful with.  I only use it for the larger pieces, as it's not worth it for me to to take pictures and then meet up with someone for items less than $25 (in my opinion).  I've sold about half my items this way...sure wish the other half would go, as I need the space!!  ;-)   It's fun though and you get to meet some nice folks too.  I've also held on to the cloths I'm selling as we have a big clothing sale in January and I'll give that a try next.  What the heck?  Right?

Did I tell you I joined the Theater Group here?  Well, we've started getting ready for the 2019 production.  The theme for it is "Starry, Starry, Night".  I'm in 4 spots.  At our holiday party, our costume designer was talking with each of us, then was asking around if anyone knew how to sew?  Of course my hand went up...next thing I know, I'm helping with reversible satin, 2 color vests!  Oh boy!  As my daughter laughingly reminded me, I have a tendency to "jump right in" and then the next thing I know is I'm in charge!  Oops!
Told her, "Oh no, not this time, I don't know enough about this stuff to ever be in charge, no thank you!"

We've still been working on projects.  The latest is my craft chest.  I inherited my Mother's amour.  She had it for many years, and I've had it for about 50 years.  It was a nice cedar one, but it's been kicked around from house to house and suffered a lot of heat and cold and abuse, and showed it.  It needed a lot of repair work.  Jack always was ready to get rid of it, but it's the only thing I have of hers.  I asked him to fix it, and to put shelves inside and thus, turn it into a craft chest for me.  He did a great job.  I then sanded the whole thing and then painted the outside and voila!  New craft chest!   I was then able to unload two very large boxes into the chest.  Now I can see, and get to all my wonderful crafts easily and joyfully!  Yea!  The only thing left is I want to decoupage a design on the front.  I just haven't found the right one yet. 

Being "alone" this year, it hasn't felt much like Christmas to me, but we did do one thing that was very special.  Our friends told us about a Christmas show called the Celebration of Christmas done at a church in Phoenix.  It has flying angels, live animals, singing, great costumes, etc.  I had shared that I had always wanted to go to the one in Garden Grove CA at the Crystal Cathedral and never made it (and now it's gone).  So, they organized a small group of us, and got tickets and we all went there and then afterwards all went to dinner.  What a great night and wonderful show!  The theme is, people are stuck at the airport on Christmas Eve, with all the flights cancelled due to weather...and various stories with various couples...ending of course with the story of Christmas.  Just beautiful.

We finally did put up a couple of decorations outside.  That's it for this year though, we will do more next year.  2019 will be a better year, for us and for everyone!  Cheers!

Marie

Fun, Family & Festivities

Every November we head to Tacoma for the month to spend with my family and to get our yearly "human & RV check-ups".  My two sisters and their families live there and our RV is registered there, so it's our "home base" so to speak.

We came early this year (in October) because my middle sister was recently diagnosed with leukemia and I wanted to spend as much time with her as possible.

We certainly had our variety of weather during the six weeks we were there!  Soon after our arrival, it snowed!  That's the first time I've seen it do that while we've visited, especially in October!  It came down all day long in big, fluffy flakes.  It had me really worried because I thought if it was snowing now, then what was the end of November, when we were scheduled to leave, going to be like?  Would we make it through the pass OK?  My worries were wasted, because just a few days later, the sun came out and we had warm, lovely weather that melted not only the snow away, but warmed everything up beautifully!  No sooner did I get used to the sunshine, then the rains came...and came...and came.  Cold, drizzling, gray days..."typical Washington weather".

What did brighten our stay, was a visit by our Canadian friends!  Sherrie & Ken drove down from Calgary for a few days.  They had never been to Tacoma, so we had a chance to share a wee bit of our favorite spots with them.  Top of the list, was Gig Harbor.  Luck was on our side, and the day we had, the sun came out in full force, making a great day along the harbor.  Lunch at Tides Tavern for fresh fish and clam chowder topped it off nicely.  All the trees were still showing off their autumn colors too, so that made a nice impression for our guests!

One of the things we do while "home" (besides all the doctor & RV appointments) is play Wahoo.  A good friend of the family brought a board that his father made, over to my oldest sister's a couple of years ago, and we play it all the time.  Last year, when Jack and I were at the campground in Surprise, he made several more boards (one for us, and a couple to share with family).  It's addicting!  Last year, at Thanksgiving, all the teens went in the back room and played video games.  This year I took one of the marble boards (knowing that one of the teens liked it) and suggested that they give it a try.  It was such a hit, they all played, taking turns, staying in the room with all of us, throughout the whole night...not a video game touched!  Ha!  Score one for "old school" fun!
cards and a marble board game called

Thanksgiving is always the highlight of our stay.  This year was going to be even better because the day before was my middle sister's 81st birthday - and her making it this far, was a double celebration for all of us!  To have all of my nieces, nephews, wives, husbands, their kids, friends, my two sisters and tons of incredible food all in a beautiful warm home for hours and to listen to fun conversation and laughter is pure heaven to me.  The only thing that would have been better would to have had my own children there as well.  We did the next best thing, and "face-timed" them on the phone.  Such a fun thing the new electronics are.  My twin sons and their families were together in New York enjoying full bellies, being three hours earlier.  They were celebrating as well, having a successful hunt the few days prior.  Unfortunately my daughter and grandson were nursing bad colds, so "celebration plans" were not on the agenda at that end.  I did see later that they were enjoying "pie" though...and that being her favorite part of Thanksgiving anyway, I'm thinking she got what she wanted after all! 

We found that we had a "hitch-hiker" that came with us...I think from Oregon on our way north, then had the run of the place while we were tucked in at my sister's for the six weeks.  We discovered the little guy when we checked in on the rig one day and saw his "droppings".  Ugh.  I had Jack go get a couple mouse traps and set them.  It looks as if it was only one, and we caught him, as I've not seen any signs since...but for only one little guy, he sure did leave a mess!  It's reminded me of the movie "Home Alone"!  While we were away, he certainly had the run of the place, and made the most of it!! Wow!  Now I have my work cut out cleaning out every-single-drawer-and-cupboard!  Ugh

We spent a couple more days visiting with my two sisters, eating wonderful leftovers, then it was time to leave and head south.  I don't blog while I'm in Tacoma...for two reasons, one the WiFi connection at my oldest sister's is almost non-existent, and two, I try and spend as much time "with" family as possible, knowing I can catch up on other stuff once I leave.

As I write this, we are "on the road" heading south as fast as we can to get to warmer weather!  Sunshine here we come!!  I've bundled up with Uggs, sweatshirts, coats, etc as much as I care to!  I'm ready to shed this heavy stuff and dig out my shorts again! 

...on the road, Marie

Brrrr....

Brrrr....time to hit the road again and travel south!

Every year we spend the month of November in Tacoma Washington with part of my family.  The reason is two-fold.  You see, we got our most perfect coach by a "guardian angel" situation that just happen to take place in the month of November, so when it came time to register it, and knowing we were going to sell everything and move out of state, we had two choices:  we had family in California and in Washington.  With the cost of registration and taxes etc. it was a simple decision, Washington!  So, every November we make the trek to Washington, update our tags, see our doctors, visit family, enjoy Thanksgiving...and freeze our tushes off!  Then we hug everyone goodbye and promptly leave before the ice settles in!

Here it is December and we've only made it as far as Portland...but we always have to make a stop here for a couple of days!  After all...Powell's Bookstore is in Portland!  If you are any kind of a reader, you simply must stop at Powell's...there's just nothing like it anywhere!  We've been to bookstores all over the country, and none match this one.  A full city block square and four stories high, and 63,000 square feet!  Plus, a staff that really, really knows their stuff.  We love it (as if you can't tell...).  Then, of course there is always the little "reward" after going up and down all those stairs all day at Powell's, to Voodoo Donuts before we leave...

So, books in hand, we will head down the Coast Hwy 101 in search for the elusive sun in hopes that as each mile south the temperature rises bit by bit, because as the saying goes "you can take us out of California, but you can't take the California out of us"...or something like that, anyway....or..."once a sun-bunny, always a sun-bunny"?  Either way, all I know is that anything less than 70 degrees and it's to dang cold for me!  Brrrrrr

...on the road heading south,  Marie

Thanksgivng Blessings...

We usually spend the month of November in Washington.  Both our toad and our rig are licensed there, and most of my family lives there.  So, once a year, we, and our vehicles all go there for "annual check-ups" and visits.  Now, November isn't the warmest of times, but, alas, that was when "everything" fell into place three years ago!

Three years ago, last December, we sold our house in record time (two weeks!), found the "perfect" RV (clear across the US) and loaded up what we didn't sell into a tiny storage unit and headed north.  Washington seemed like the perfect "home base" since we knew we would be on the road full time, and my sister was willing to be our mail person.  So, we drove up there, registered ourselves, got doctors, new licenses, etc. and celebrated!  Now, once a year, we brave the rain & cold and visit family and get rewarded with a wonderful Thanksgiving Feast for our efforts!

We started out thinking our adventure would be just for one year.  Jack was new to "camping".  Born and raised a "city boy", his idea of "camping" was "no room service" at a hotel.  I, on the other hand, love it.  This whole thing had been my idea all along, he was just "coming along for the ride...or the drive, actually, since he does the driving.  Now, this being our third full year, with no end in sight, he's the one who is still really loving it!  Probably even more than I, if truth be told!

Every year has been very different from the one before...just like life itself.  We are blessed with good health and this year I was reminded how much that matters as for the last four months I've suffered with limited use of my right arm due to some bone spurs in my shoulder.  I was thrilled that the doctor in Tacoma was able to tell me what all the pain was about and that a simple out-patient surgery will fix the problem once and for all.  I will have to come back in a few months to have it done, but that's minor, and we can go on with our journey from there, no further problems.

I also feel blessed that I have a family that allows us to travel the way we do and understands and loves us.  We don't get to see them as often as we would like.  Our children and grandchildren are spread all across the US and it's tough getting around to all of them very often and still see all the nooks and crannies of the various states, but we try as best we can, but of course, its never enough, and we miss them more than we like.

We are also blessed by the people we meet along the way.  Some are just in passing, but some we've managed to stay friends with, and that's extra special.  People like us who really get this crazy life-style of ours, who love this wonder lust.  This year, several of our friends who haven't been able to RV in a long time due to family issues, now can, are now planning on trips to either join up with us, or travel along with us.  We've always traveled alone, so we are looking forward to doing some "companion traveling" in 2015!

Doing what you love, being loved, and being healthy and happy...that's truly a blessing, ones I wish for everyone!

On the road again,  Marie