It’s Monday!

I got up early today, Ms. Southwind was scheduled to be in at the tire shop at 8 am! I followed behind in the truck and we dropped off Ms. Southwind and was back home by 9 am!

Then it was time to get started cleaning. It’s amazing how fast things can clutter and get messy. I vacuumed the entire place, scrubbed the bathroom floor, washed the shower, vanity and toilet and did the dirty dishes. I also did 6 loads of laundry! It took me most of the day to get all this done. I have to work awhile, then rest and go back.

Later they called to ask if they could keep Ms. Southwind over night as they have been really busy today and hadn’t even gotten to her yet. I told them it was fine.

After dinner i went over to work on varnishing cabinets. Worked a few hours and then it was getting late and i was tired so headed home. It was another exhausting day but it felt good to be able to do some volunteer work again. I haven’t really done much volunteering since getting my new home. I’ve been busy working on it and it doesn’t take much to wear me out with my disability.

That is what is so good about doing volunteer work, you work at your own pace for example after i varnish a bit, i sit down and rest when my back starts telling me it needs to rest. Also you are not required to do such and such amount of time, you help out when you feel like it. If your having a bad day and don’t feel like doing anything you don’t have too. It’s not like a job where you are expected to be at work regardless weather your sick or not. You are not expected to get such and such done, you just work at what ever pace you are able to and what ever you get done to help is appreciated. If you can only work an hr that day that is fine. Being a volunteer has given me so much back in life. I don’t feel like I'm useless or there is no meaning to my life. It feels great to do something for someone else and especially feels great to know that there is still a life out there for me. It’s amazing how horrible i felt when all i could do was lay in a bed and think about how miserable i was and how much i hated my life. Now i don’t do that. Sure i have my bad days, but i also have my days that have meaning and give me self-esteem that there is still something i can do out there to help. I am thankful to God for blessing me with my good days and i ask his strength to get me through my bad days.

I have this plaque on my wall and it says ….

God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, Courage to change the things I can, and the Wisdom to know the difference … i read this sometimes several times a day and it always reminds of this verse …

Philippians 4:13 … I can do everything through him who gives me strength.

A Busy Sunday!

I got up and got dressed for church. After church we went out to eat at CiCi's pizza. They have Sunday special for all you can eat $3.99 per person. It was good and as always i ate too much.

After eating we had to do the normal Sunday Wal-mart visit. Ouch! We spent too much but we needed groceries for this week and i also purchased things to stock Ms. Southwind. Saturday is her journey back to the ranch.

We got home around 4 pm, unloaded groceries and then we started Ms. Southwind and the generator to make sure they would both start. Then we sorted what sewer hoses and water hoses we wanted to leave inside of Ms. Southwind and what we wanted to move to our new home. Ms. Southwind is going to be used a vacation home from now on.

After we got all the things done we needed to do and I have Ms. Southwind ready to roll in the morning as she is getting new front tires and an alignment.

I spent the rest of my evening updating my blog, reading email and then it was off to bed early.

Until next time ....

What job!

I got up this morning and got things around, then i had to get dressed. We decided since they were calling for nice temp’s to wash the fifth wheel today. They didn’t wash it when we purchased it, and it is dirty on the outside.

What a job washing one of these things is .. we started at 10 am and didn’t get finished until after 3 PM! We did take an half hour lunch break!

Doesn’t it look nice now? I didn’t get all the black streaks off even with the black streak remover so i’m going to have to find something else later.

We also stopped to say good bye to friends of ours who pulled out today. Burl & Karen, and Dale & Mona. Our winter is coming to an end and the volunteer numbers are starting to drop.

Duke , Dolly is hiding under the cover

Lucy

Dixie … The dogs are finally adjusting to their new home, as you can see they are relaxing.

and of course Lexi! After we finally got the fifth wheel washed, it was time to come inside get cleaned up for the pot luck. The volunteers that are left are cooking out. We had a great time and after eating too much we played trash train until 10.30 pm! It was time to come home, shower and get ready for bed.

Cleaning Day

I got up this morning and it was a bit on the chilly side. I did my morning routine of getting online and reading my mail. Then it was time to get up and get dressed and start cleaning.

I decided to bake a cake. I’ve baked cookies and brownies and now my first cake. My new oven bakes thing nicely. The old oven i had to constantly watch the thermometer because the oven wanted to get extremely hot. The new one so far has stayed right on the temp i set it for.

I fixed lunch and spent the rest of the afternoon keeping busy but i don’t remember what .. LOL

Later that night i made an overnight salad for the cook out tomorrow.

Then it was early to bed .. hope you had a great day …

Alice in Wonderland

I got up and got dressed early today. We ladies went to watch the play that the local high school kids are putting on. They were doing a rehearsal before their competition on Saturday. A couple of the girls are in the play and 2 of the boys are helping do the sound. I was asked a month ago to attend and so i asked the ladies if we could skip devotionals today and go the play and all agreed.

It was great and all the kids did an excellent job. We were all glad that we went and supported the kids. These kids are in a shelter for some reason or another. Some of the children do not have parents and others parents are barely active in their lives.

Tweedledee is Mary from the shelter .. she did a great job!

Ambrosha is played the King and she is also from the shelter. Both girls played an excellent part. Way to go girls!

The volunteers all meet at Ryan’s for lunch today. It was an appreciation lunch for all the volunteers. We had a great time and enjoyed it.

It’s been a cool day here, the temps have been in the low 60’s with wind that makes it very cool!

Finishing moving!

Monday … I spent the day cleaning my new home, did laundry and cleaned up Ms. Southwind. What an exhausting day.

Tuesday, I spent the day emptying out all the outside compartments in Ms. Southiwnd and moved all of our stuff over to our new home. Another exhausting day!

Wednesday .. I spent my day finishing unpacking the last of the boxes sitting in the living room floor. I can now officially say we are moved out of Ms. Southwind and into our new home. Wednesday afternoon i rode to Wal-mart with Kathleen. Hubby is having problems with his kidney’s again and so i needed to get him some cranberry juice. It works great to help clear up his kidney’s.

We went to church services and watch another portion of the series of Miracles in Israel. Very good and I'd recommend you watch it.

Another cold yucky day!

We woke up to temps around 33 degrees! I decided to bring my flowers inside last night. Glad i did, we had a dust of snow on our steps!

This flower has been open for over a week, it’s actually pretty. I have no clue what it is. I got it from Florida a couple years ago and just recently it has taken off and grown so much!

We didn’t go to church today, hubby isn’t feeling well and i just didn’t want to get out in this cold. As you all know the cold weather isn’t good on my back. So it was decided to stay inside our warm and comfy home.

I did be a good wife .. i baked brownies and made fried ham, eggs and toast for brunch. Dinner was fried pork chops and mac & cheese.

Later in the evening we had company, Dorothy came to check on us as well as Dale. We had a nice visit.
The rest of the evening was spent just relaxing and staying warm.

Hope you all had a great weekend … until next time …

1st Day of Spring??

Today is suppose to be the 1st day of Spring?? Hmmm ... We woke up to rain and chilly temps outside. My weather bug says 36 right now … brrrr

I plugged in the heater, there was a problem my little heater that used to heat Ms. Southwind isn’t big enough to heat this big new home! I turned on the furnace to get the chill off and finally i couldn’t take it any longer i had hubby go get the other heater out of Ms. Southwind compartment. I have 2 heaters going now and it’s finally nice and comfy in here. Ughhh i have a feeling that in severe cold temps we are gonna miss our small comfy home.

I have spent most of the day just being lazy, yet having fun playing with paint shop pro. I love to play with this stuff and i have been wanting to make some changes to my blog. Does my new look remind you or make you want to see spring? You will have to let me know what you think of the new look.

Instead of southwind adventures meaning traveling and living inside of Ms. Southwind, I’ve decided to change it to meaning where ever the south wind blows us in our travels. What do you all think? I really don’t want to create an entire new blog that would be way too much work. So for now this is what i have come up with?

If anyone has any suggestions for a name for our new home i’d love to hear them. So far we haven’t come up with much.

My weather bug says a low of 32 degrees tonight! I decided i better bring my flowers inside as i don't want to take a chance of them freezing. I'm hoping to get more beautiful flowers again.

Hope your all having a warmer weekend then we seem to be .. until next time ...

Another day of unpacking

I spent all morning on the phone with doctors and dentist. Hubby is having some problems with his teeth. My afternoon was spent unpacking the rest of the boxes that were sitting in the living room floor. I have 3 boxes left in Ms. Southwind, my sewing machine and all will be done on the inside of packing and unpacking. After i finished clearing out the boxes i decided to vacuum.

We decided to go out to eat for dinner and hubby needed a new pair of boots. His soles have fallen off his old ones. We stopped by the farm supply store and looked at tools boxes for the back of the truck .. Ouch! They are expensive but a must. We did find nice leather belts on sale for $5 each so we got hubby 2 of them! Another good plus was we got hubby’s boots on sale and about 1/2 the price we normally pay for his boots. Hubby is going to keep looking for tool boxes for the time being.

After the farm supply store it was time for dinner, we decided on Beijing again .. i can eat Chinese everyday i love the stuff!

We got home before dark and hubby isn’t feeling well so he put his pj’s on and went to bed. Hubby has been sleeping more and more the past few days and when he does this you know he isn’t feeling well. Yesterday he took 2 naps and was in bed a little after 9 pm and tonight he was in bed a little after 8 pm!

We will be heading back to Illinois around April 3rd. We will be taking Ms. Southwind, Ms. Mercury and the beast. Unless our plans change in between there.

It depends on what the dentist decides what to do if he can extract hubby’s teeth right away we will be staying in Illinois and living inside Ms. Southwind until we can return to Texas to pick up the fifth wheel. If he has too much infection then we will return to Texas and pick up the fifth wheel and return to Illinois. It seems our winter vacation is over and our summer destination is coming sooner then we had planned. We had actually planned to stay in Texas until the end of April. Oh well, hubby’s health is more important.

I hope you all have a great weekend .. were suppose to be getting another cool front moving in .. blahhh i enjoy these high 70’s temps and am not looking forward to high 50’s –low 60’s weather.

I’m praying that an early spring is in the forecast for Illinois.

Volunteers Pot Luck

What a day it’s been .. yesterday afternoon my blow dryer shot out on me and this morning i go to use my crock pot and it won’t work! Ughhh .. so a trip to Wal-mart was a must so that my sweet potatoes can be finished before the pot luck tonight. So off to Wally World i headed and while i was at it i decided to go ahead and purchase a new toaster because it’s the same age as the crock pot … 27 yrs, they were both wedding gifts. I guess i have no room to complain that they finally retired.

I got home in time to warm up some lunch for hubby and get the crock pot washed and going. I put all the potatoes and what broth it would hold in my little crock pot from our trucking days (to basically get it heated) After lunch i spent the afternoon with my friend Dorothy helping her get her pictures on her computer.

Here is trouble anytime these 2 are together. Hubby and Jeb. Jeb is the Maintenance manager and was gracious enough to join us to let us use the dinning hall. Thanks Jeb!

Kathleen provided us with some wonderful music before meal time as we were all enjoying fellowship .. thanks Kathleen and what a wonderful job you did!

The older gentleman is Kathleen father at the age of 86 is still volunteering! I forget his name and will get it later for you all. Harold is sitting next to him and it makes you wonder what they are up to?

Ron and Mary are from North Dakota and this is this very first volunteer job they are on .. What a blessing they are ..

Joanetta and Mary .. Joanetta and Mary are good friends before they arrived here.

Missing trying to see if the cooks have dropped anything droppings for her yet. She is the boss of this group. Yes she rules the roost!

Harold and Joanetta they are from South Dakota

Here are the cooks .. well time will tell once we have are served our meat

Dale and Mona a wonderful couple from Arizona, yes we wondered why they were here as well but they are from Arizona where it gets cold and snow .. makes since why they came to Texas for the winter

Ron and Dorothy a superb couple from Michigan .. i can not express in words what they mean to us. They have become our adopted parents .. We love you both and thank God for you everyday.

Vic and Nancy .. they are from Kansas .. yes after all all those years they are still in love ..what a inspiration to all of us.

Bill and Lola from Colorado .. they were here before the first of the year and had to return home but they couldn’t take being gone and now have returned for another month of volunteering.

Audrey .. has worked here for over 18 yrs! This is her week off and so she volunteered to supervise us .. Thanks .. we love you!

Don and Kathleen .. they are from Texas and a what a wonderful couple they are.

Al and Pat, they are from Waco Texas! Yes i know what your all thinking but they deny the compound was actually in Waco .. LOL They are so adorable and just celebrated their 30th anniversary and still so in love

After enjoying a wonderful meal and with our belly full it was time to put our minds to work. We all played Apples to Apples and it’s a fabulous game that was fun and of course with all these great minds you can imagine the fun we had.

I caught Rudy being embarrassed .. hmmm or is he thinking?

We had a great time and it’s been a wonderful evening and finally around 9.30 pm we said good night and head back to our home. Yes we are the youngest couple and these old folks sure can out party us still. Thanks to everyone for a fun filled wonderful evening and great fellowships.