Silver, downsizing, simplifying and schooling

Wow, I didn't realize it had been so long since I posted. We have been so busy. T and I celebrated our Silver Wedding anniversary. 25 years! The best, worst, loveliest and hardest years. Love you, T!!

I've been hearing about a lot of people downsizing and simplifying their lives. Without setting out to do that we have come to the point in our lives where we are doing that. It was a combination of things that led to it but we find ourselves downsizing. It started because I've had a niggling to go back to school but had no idea how we could make that work. And after about 11 years of driving a minivan, I'm sick of driving a minivan and wanted a smaller SUV. We started talking about our camper and how the truck we have to pull it with uses so much gas. Was it really worth it to have a truck to pull a camper that we only used once or twice a year? Especially when that truck uses so much gas on a daily basis? So we wondered if we could get by with a pop up because we thought we might actually use it if we had the money to pull it somewhere. We looked at a few and decided we could, so the camper is sold.

T is willing to part with his truck in order to downsize our lives, live more affordably and let me have the money to go to school. Did I just mention how much I love this guy?! We are all kind of sad about selling the truck. It sounds so stinking good! And we like it. And it has so much power! Hoo! Hoo! Hoo! But, as of this weekend it will be up for sale. Sniff, sniff. And then we will be looking for a pop up because T already has a jeep to replace the truck.

We are looking forward to a new chapter in our lives. We have one daughter grown and married, one in college and a son still in grade school. We only need the van occasionally and I really am tired of driving one but I really do like it too. We are feeling pulled but ready to move forward. And I'm excited about school. I haven't made a decision on that one for sure yet but I feel like I've gotten some good information and good direction.

And now some pics! This is a blurry pic, I know, but it's so funny 'cause Misty was just chillaxin. Get it? She's in the cooler. Oh, funny story. We were going down the road the other day and all of a sudden T pulled over. I asked what he was doing and he said there was a perfectly good cooler on the side of the road and he was turning around to get it. It's a great cooler. Will be perfect with our pop up. Where ever it is.

Oh, another new thing. I'm going to have lamp parts and such at the store where I work. I made this lamp out of an old jug I had. Isn't it cute? T said we are keeping it and selling the old lamp. Ha!

We had to do a few things to get the camper ready to sell and Diesel, being all boy, had to climb up on the roof to "help" daddy.

All this stuff, which is now in the office/music room, came out of the camper. I had no idea all this stuff was in there. T said, "That ain't all goin' in a pop up." Guess we have to downsize the camper stuff too.

These pics got out of sequence but here is Diesel climbing down the ladder. He is not afraid of anything. Except cars. Thankfully he's afraid of cars.

King of the camper!

How about you? Are you downsizing, simplifying, or making changes in your life?

A few pics

J's hair is long. Too long to just let it be anymore. He only likes to spray some oil sheen on it, brush it and go but that wasn't working for his length anymore. We decided to twist it and see if it will lock up. It was pretty late when I got done twisting it but this is a pic of the finished product. Poor pic, I know.

This pic resembles his regular personality much better. This was snapped just after a wink because my phone has some serious lag time issues.

A wanted to do something Sunday eve so we all decided to go to the park in town. We played with a soccer ball in the tennis courts until the ball broke. T pulled the innards out of it and A wore it on her head.

 Then we played basketball. We played Horse. People, wait for it....I won! Never thought that would happen. I was so thrilled to beat P that I had to text everyone and P wouldn't even look at me. Ha!!! I love it. A won the next game. None of us, including her, ever expected that to happen. She got some lucky shots that none of us were lucky on. Us women were HOT that night! Woot!!

I took a pic of my first rose on my little bush by the house. I was so excited over it. But then I walked over to my mom's and saw this. Yeah, mine was not impressive at all compared to her's. Isn't it gorgeous? You should see it in person. It's so much better than a junky phone pic.

J was talking about some of the kids in his class who don't do their homework the night before, they do it in the morning and then if they don't get it done they get a 0. He said, "But de smart girls do deir homework de night before." I asked him what does that show you, going for the "it's smart to do your homework the night before" answer but he said, "Better date de smart girls." Ahhhh!!!

And one more "lost in translation", last night he was again singing, "Jeremiah was a bulldog." Gotta love it!

Life!

Ah. A moment to sit down and post a quick update. I've been working a lot this week. Will surely appreciate it on the check and fibro has sort of been not bothered by it. In other words, I'm not experiencing fibro flu. After a few weeks of some relief the hip pain is back. I've not slept well the last couple of nights. I guess the steroid shot has worn off. Sigh... but  I haven't had fibro flu this week.

We had a bump in the road with J at school this week. He just doesn't want to do the work. Who does? But a lesson we all have to learn is, we have to do the lessons. That's a tough one sometimes. He's so smart and so not motivated.

We haven't seen much of A this week as she's been at work, school or P's. P is having spring break this week so they are spending every eve together.

T got some trees that had fallen or were taken down on the side of the house cut up last night. We have had some cooler but gorgeous days.

So many thoughts in my head about future, adoption, school, income. I can't sort them all out.

We are considering locking J's hair. He says he's ready. I will give it an honest try.

Look at this guy! I haven't posted any new pics of him in a while. Love my Diesel cat!! He looks like he's saying, "Can I help you?"

And I will leave you with a little snippet of words to live by. Just because it enters your head does not mean it should come out your mouth.

Cats, colored eggs and family

This is Misty looking cute in a shoebox. Because she thinks she fits.

Call us dweebs but we colored eggs last night. The kids are 21, 19 and 14 and as long as they want to color eggs we will do it. P was here but he was asleep on the couch. Probably had nothing to do with getting up at 3.30 in the morning to go to work.

A few of the eggs cracked while I was boiling them. The "stuff" came out of this one but we colored it anyway. One of the kids said it looks like it's wearing a tutu.

We used regular dye and a roll on type dye this year. A just rolled it onto her hands and wiped it on the eggs. It was a cool effect.

J is pretending to eat one.

And showing me one of his masterpieces.

I used the roll on dye on my fingertips and essentially finger painted this egg.

We had stripes, pastels and tie dye looks.

All that after a short but sweet visit with my cousin and her family who were on their way from WI to FL. We are the perfect stopping point and always enjoy a visit from friends and family passing through.

And, a lost in translation to leave you with. They are fewer and farther in between as J masters the English language. The other night he put too much honey mustard on his plate and really rolled his chicken around in it and then he told me he was "maridating" his meat. I asked if that was anything like marinating and he said yup.

Phone trip pics

I'm in the middle of a mountain of laundry. And that doesn't even include J's because he likes to do his own laundry. He likes to do his own because then he can control when he has to put his clothes away. Whatever.

I worked yesterday so I'm glad for a day when I can stay at home and not fix my hair and not put make-up on. Tomorrow I have the long-awaited appointment with the vein doc for my varicose veins in my wrist. Please pray that I get some answers and treatment that works.

And now the phone pic dump. These are mostly from our trip. This first one is the FL landscape.

We went gator "hunting" on my uncle's boat in a channel off Lake Okeechobee.

Captain J.

Oop, there's a gator. Just call us "swamp people". "Dat'sa big gatah."

J and BB watching for gators.

Look at all the water turkeys in the tree. My uncle thinks it's funny to scare them all so all of us were doing that in no time.

Dad borrowed a bike to go look at something. Oh, J got to drive the golf cart around this park and loved it.

We went fossil hunting in the Peace river. You just scoop the dirt up and into a screen and dig through it for the fossils. We found lots of shark teeth (over 600 between the 3 of us), dugong bones and I found a part of a megalodon bone. When I showed it to dad to ask what it was he said, "ooohhh mmyyyy God." I decided right away I was keeping the OMG bone, whatever it was.

Dad's arm next to my arm. He's been down there long enough he's starting to look more like J than me.

More of the fossils. We spent 2 days in the river. Well, T, dad and I did. J went one day. He went bowling with the ladies the second day. He didn't do well until someone helped him find a ball that fit his hand well and showed him how where ever he pointed his thumb that's where the ball would go. Then he beat all the old ladies. Oh, he like shuffleboard too.

Of course we went to Linger Lodge again.

Because it's just....

...such a weird place to go.

J is always moving and it's hard to get a good pic of him.

Bird in the Linger Lodge campground.

Love this pic.

FL sunrise.

Love this one too.

J built this creamer pyramid.

And here he's showing my new suitcase. It should fit in the carry-on on Frontier.

Last sunset in FL, in the park where my parent's are.

Sunset on the way home.

My vincas are blooming.

And the azalea.

Misty is very needy and wants to be very close. Touching is better.

That's all for now.

We're baaaack.

We are back from our trip. We had a great time but we didn't get back until late yesterday and we have hit the ground running today. I will post pics soon, hopefully tomorrow.