She Did It!

My sister, Liz, graduated from college with an English degree!  Yay!  I am so darned proud of her!  Congratulations sis!

 After graduation, we went to Cheddar's for lunch.  We had TEN people, so we had to wait about an hour - but not to worry, our brother entertained us.  He is such a hoot!
 

We pulled off the final surprise.  Much to our dismay, Megan was on a plane from California to Oklahoma for as long as we would have been coming from SINGAPORE!  She flew Delta, and oh my gosh what a freaking nightmare!  She was bumped on her San Francisco flight, had to reschedule from San Jose, then put on a flight to LA and on to Salt Lake City, then bumped on her flight from Salt Lake City, put on a waiting list, caught a midnight flight and flown from Salt Lake City to Atlanta and the finally BACK to Tulsa.  It took nearly 30 hours - THEN her luggage did not make it!!!  The luggage round about had about a dozen pieces of luggage just sitting there in the unlit area waiting with no people, but Megan's luggage was not there either   :-(

While all of this was going on, she missed coming in the afternoon before Liz's graduation when she was first supposed to surprise Liz, then she missed coming in later to stay with us the night before in the camper to surprise Liz when we met to head to Tulsa for the graduation, she missed the graduation, the hoopla afterwards, but we finally got her to Cheddar's after the graduation to surprise her.  Good grief what a freaking nightmare for her!  We finally did surprise her though - and I have no idea how we kept that all away from her.  One bazillion phone calls between her and us, us and Cheyenne, and Shari and me... but we did it.  We gave her one last gift; her daughter!

When did she get her luggage?  Finally last night, 10 hours after she got in, Danny took her BACK to Tulsa to pick it up.  By that time there were several dozen pieces of luggage on the merry go round waiting on their owners who were probably scattered across the world.  Ask me why we don't fly Delta and if I ever will.  They did not give a flip about one part of this entire screw up - and the ONE guy working behind the counter had no interest in if she would EVER get her luggage...

Our aunt and uncle came from Alabama to her graduation on the way to Minnesota.  Ok, so it wasn't exactly on the way, but they MADE it on their way.  We LOVED having them!

All of us girls finally got together for a visit:

Jeanie (in red) grew up with us... long story but her and our family made one big family.  Believe me when I say you don't want the details, but we love each other like sisters because we are sisters in our heart.

Here is a picture with our aunt and uncle with all four of us kiddos:

I have to say I was impressed with the people that showed up for her graduation.  She had lots of friends and lots of our family that came.  I am so happy that so many people showed up to support her.  Thanks to everyone who came, made it happen or participated in the prayers for it all to pan out.  We love you all!

We have been spinning our wheels since we got here - frantically racing from doing one thing to another.  We had so many errands to tie up Liz's graduating we stayed busy doing that, cooking for a dozen people coming and going, trying to finish Christmas shopping, then the fiasco with Megan, but we did a few fun things like decorate Liz and Dad's Christmas tree:

And enjoy the country side:

So it has been a great visit and we accomplished everything we needed to.  Whoot!  So glad Liz can move on with her life now.  What a great feeling it must be for her!   I don't know how she has done with along with taking care of dad.  He DEMANDS a LOT of attention and pouts if he doesn't get it.  I have no concept for the way he acts, the things he does, the way he wants catered to, or they way he treats Liz, but I am not the one dealing with him.  All I can say is I will say lots of prayers for her and her patience.  I hope she can get him to start doing for himself now that she has time to work with him more.  She has very little support here and it has to be very tough on her AND dad.  All of this to say I am super proud of you sis!  You did it and he survived!  Lol... Love you!

Off to finish our last day of shopping and get pictures taken.  Tomorrow, we move west to the boondocks - we may have internet and we may not.  Wish us luck!  I sure do miss you!

Missing You

So I guess you are waiting for the lady bug pictures, eh?  Well I only got a couple, and it was after they had dispersed through out the camper, but here you go:
 

We are still finding them one or two at a time, but thankfully not by the hundreds anymore  :-)

I am in the little town I grew up in, hanging out with my two sisters and brother. It is great having us all back together; laughing, remembering and having a good time while joking and cutting up - believe me we can do a lot of that! It is not often we are all on the same turf, and I wish our kids could be with us to see how we get along, but being together has been good for us all.

When we were young, Steve and I both lived near our families and were close to our aunts, uncles and cousins. When good or bad things happened, they happened to the family; we were all nearby to share the tears, the laughter and the closeness only an extended family could share. I guess when you are young you don't realize that if you move half a country away leaving your family behind, you also leave those moments behind. Your kids don't get to have the extended family moments, realizing the need to support family members during a family death or wedding, or other disaster.  They don't get to see the interactions of their parents and siblings, cousins and such.

I realize this every time we come home and our children and grand children have little interest in sharing these times with us; often they would rather be at home rather than with us or with the extended family.  I understand it, but it does make me sad - and it makes me realize that a decision we made so long ago has drastically changed the way our lives could have been if we had stayed near our own families and let our kids get to know everyone that loves them and would like a moment or two with them.  I am having a blast with my family, but missing the rest of my family - I wish you were here, can you tell?

Anyway, that is not where this post was going, but sometimes the mind wanders and thoughts come about that I had no intention of writing about... today is one of those days.

We found a beautiful campsite on a lake I grew up near.  We used to go there several times a week and nearly every weekend.  We are the only camper here, well, other than the host that is here, but it is quiet, dark and relaxing when we ARE there.  

This picture is taken standing outside our camper door:

And during the day:

While driving near our campsite last night, we found these little gals grazing:

 I am not a hunter to eat the meat, but I love hunting critters so I can just enjoy watching them.  God gave us so many different critters that I can never get enough of looking...

I forgot to tell you, before we left, we took punkin' to Vermillionville, a little cajun village decorated now for Christmas:

It was beautiful! 

Sis graduates on Saturday morning.  Until then we are spinning our wheels, laughing and playing...

And of course I have taken pictures just because I could...

So now that I have caught you up to date on our visit, I will hop off.  I can't get on here as often I would like to, but I keep telling myself that before long we will have a permanent home and I will be back to my old self posting again.  Until then we will be entertaining ourselves, playing games, laughing with family and visiting...


Soooo....

I am a slacker - but I am trying!  Don't give up on me!

Attack of the Lady Bugs

As we were breaking camp for our trip north, we slid our camper slide in. In doing so, we found the source of our lady bug (or Japanese beetle) problem. There were at least one million and one - maybe a BILLION and one - lady bugs above the slider. The problem with that was they were now in our camper! Three adults fought the attack of the lady bugs armed with vacuum cleaners.

When we were young, VERY young, there was this movie called The Birds - have you seen it? Imagine that, but replace the birds with a bazillion beedles. Kinda freaky; I swear I still feel those lady bugs on me.

We started that mess late this morning, and we finally thought we had enough of those critters vacuumed up that we could get on the road. We left at 5pm. As I type this we are now 4 hours into our trip and it is pitch black - and I am typing on my iPhone, because I miss you dear blog. We will stop soon and rest, that is if we don't have the battle of more lady bugs to deal with. You may get lucky and see pictures soon but not tonight. I think I may have a
lady bug in my nose.

My dear grand daughter got a big bowl full of lady bugs - it was her only request when her mom came to help us. Thanks for the help Steph, and I hope you enjoy our donation of lady bugs to our little insect lover. I am glad she did not have to be traumatized by seeing the billions we sucked up.

And with that, we're on the road again!

It's CHRISTMAS!

We are trying folks!  Living in a camper has its disadvantages... no room for a tree being one of them.  While we were out shopping for gifts we have no room for, Steve rescued a little tree, some ornaments and some lights.  We came home and decorated; now we have a Barbie sized Christmas Tree and all the trimmings!

You Singapore girls are loving this, aren't you?

We Barbie sized tree skirt:

And a Barbie size Snowman village:

We have a welcome snowman:

And we have a warm, flickering welcome light:

 I have a pile of wrapping paper :

Do you see a pattern there?

I have started a small pile of wrapped gifts:

And I am going shopping today with a friend.  Guess what?!

It's beginning to feel a bit like Christmas!  

It better be!  We are packing up and pulling out in FOUR days to go north!  Oklahoma, I am counting on you - give snow!

Santa Paws Parade

What do you do for entertainment in a small town?  You decorate a wagon float and the dog (yes, you decorate the dog, too!) and you have a parade around a block with no one watching... well, maybe a few other pet lovers that decorated their doggies as well... but it it is just for the fun of it, right?

We started with this:
 

 

Decorated with this:
 

Tossed a dog in:
 

Added a kid:

December 4th - please note the bare feet, summer look... this is not in Singapore.

Put them into the truck:
 

Plop them to stand on the street corner:
 

 Enter them in a parade:

To walk behind Santa and Mrs Claus:
 

Stroll around the bare personless bystander block:
 

And win first place!
 

Some were not impressed:
 

 But they survived.

After they were judged, the excitement was over; they totally forgot about the parade, pets and prizes - oh wait, there weren't any prizes.

And they danced:

Bribed Papa:
 

Listened to a friend play the Sax:

And ate pie:

And it was good - 

Really good - but over.  Big... ummm... little city fun.

She looked for more fun - honest!

In fact, they both did!

Spider Sniffing

What is spider sniffing you ask?

Years ago, we went to camp at an Arkansas State Park.  At the parks there, they have nature programs for everyone to enjoy and we went to a night one.  We had no idea what to expect, but we were asked to bring our flashlights.  When we showed up, we found out we were going to be trained to be spider sniffers... and we would become 'official' spider sniffers with a certificate showing we know how to find spiders in the dark.

How do you do that?? 

Go out into the pitch black night, turn your flashlight on and put the end of it on your nose (hence the sniffing part) with the light facing out. 

Look out at the grass and trees - you will see little sparkles of glitter all around - they sparkle just like diamonds. 

Now keep your eyes on the sparkle, the light up close to your nose, you walk straight to the sparkle - and don't take your eyes off of it. 

Walk very slowly until you get to your sparkle, carefully keeping the light on the exact spot you saw it. 

Get closer... much closer... so close you see... A SPIDER!  (or maybe a dot of water - if it is very dewy outside).

If you found a spider, it was the light glistening off of the spider's eye that glittered!  

Last night punkin' and I went spider sniffing.  We found LOTS of critters; one was a very BIG spider, one cricket and one something-else-we-are-not-sure-what-was... lol... and one very large cat!  The cat sparkled green eyes and he was fishing in the dark by our little lake - he was not amused at all by our spider sniffing! 

There were campers (the people kind) outside sitting by the campfires; one couple got up and went in when we found a 10th spider by their campsite - I think the lady didn't like spiders and I doubt she will ever walk outside again at night.  Another couple was interested and couldn't believe we could find spiders that way. We left them spider sniffing too!  There was a little guy that tried to bribe us out of our flashlights to play with - not to spider sniff - and there were many campers too afraid to ask what we were looking for. 

Spider sniffing is great!   You don't have to pick them up - just find them.  You, too, will be amazed at how many there are out there - or maybe you won't ever walk outside again... lol... 

As for punkin' and I?  We are spider sniffers - we love getting out there and finding critters.  Give it a shot - you might surprise yourself and you will surely impress a buddy!  Better yet, go to Arkansas and have a great time learning at their State Park nature programs - they do have some great ones!  Our kids and nieces had a great time - at least I think they did.  If not, I sure did - and I can impress the heck out of my grandkids!

One Month Update :-)

We have been back in the states for a month now.  I figured it was time for an update.  

I am doing much better than my last update;  my depression is lessening, we are adapting to living in the camper, I have caught up on all the foods I missed except milk, and I cannot get enough of that yet.  I have spent very little time with my friends, still not sure where I stand there - I know my old normal, but have yet to find my new normal with friends.  I know their lives have gone on so I don't want to intrude, but I don't want to neglect them either.  Guess I will figure that out soon as well.

Since we didn't have a house to come back to, we are still living in the camper.  Our little campground is nice, but a bit expensive.  It is over $400 a month - nearly as much as our house payment was.  I can't get over feeling that is wasted money.  We have a nice laundromat and I was telling Steve I will not know what to do when I get a normal non paying washer and dryer that I don't have to chunk money into every time I use it.  We were using a laundromat for 18 months before we went to Singapore, we used a Barbie washer and dryer the 2.5 years we were in Singapore and now we are back to the laundromat again.  It will be a different feeling when we have our own appliances again.  As I said before, we still have a Barbie stove and fridge, so I have finally realized *this* is our new normal.  Until further notice.

Walking into Wal Mart and the malls is not as difficult for me as it was when I first came back.  I finally figured out I was extremely overwhelmed with the selections! I need to start walking there again though - I am going entirely too much, and my butt shows it.  I really have to get a grip on the food and exercise again.  I will start that tomorrow... 

 

Our camper is great for camping, but for living in, we have had to make a few storage adjustments.  We have put the bar stools in storage, put iris carts (drawer carts) in their place.  We put adjustable shelves in the storage closets in the back and I have stored the Christmas gifts in storage boxes stacked by the sofa and wrapped a bit at a time in the Barbie sized living room.  I hope you girls are laughing - and I deserve it! 

Another thing we have realized is how little insulation the camper has!  YIKES!  The wind blows over and under and there is always a chill in it if it is cold outside and warm if it is hot outside.  We have had to buy a stand alone heater to help keep the chill out, and we bought a mattress warmer for the bed. That works really well once you get IN the bed, but it is made not to heat unless there is weight on it.  A lot of darned good that does - I HATE getting into a FRIGID cold bed.  I need a critter to climb on it to warm it up  ;-)

My car is a 2000 Toyota Camry.  It has always run well and still does; however it has its issues.  The fan belts are slipping (LOUD squeal), the tires need rebalanced and it needed a huge cleaning.  Normally that would not be a problem, but we live in a campground... no water hose or way to clean it myself, and we all know the inexpensive places we take them to don't do as good of a job.  I can get it done for $250, but come on!  I need the car genies in Singapore to visit, please?

Internet is still a problem.  I have mine tethered to my iPhone, but I pay for data transferred after an alloted amount.  I have no idea how data is figured and if my 5G of data will be used in one day or one month.  I am afraid of running over, and I watch my usage by checking it, but I still don't have a feel for it.  Steve, on the other hand, is having problems.  He finally went and got a MiFi, but it doesn't stay connected for him and he was on the phone with Tech Support for hours today - and it still doesn't work.  He transfers AutoCad files so he needs LOTS of data transferred.  Gotta figure this out... things we didn't know how to figure out until we were here are still not easy and temporary solutions seem to be a problem for us.

My side... I am going to one Dr who is working with me on it.  She thinks it is chronic pancreatitis, and treating me as such.  I started taking something for ulcers on my own.  One or the other seems to be helping a bit - my pain is at least coming and going now.  We shall see.  If I could remember to take my pills for the pancreatitis with every meal I might have my answer.  I remember for about 2/3rds of the meals and say "Oh damn" 2 hours after the others.  There has to be something to remind me of it, but I have yet to figure it out.  Guess I am too anxious for that bite of the foods I have missed... lol... And I am sooo tired all the time.

Finally, I know you are wondering... we have not yet heard where he will be.  Since he is working on the job in Pascagoula we are not in a rush - and obviously the company is not either.  The check keeps coming in and I keep telling myself in due time we will find out. , but until then we will just keep on campin' - living the adventure.  So that is where we are there... 

And that is my update.  What keeps me going are the notes from my friends in Singapore and encouragement from those here.  I may not answer (you can thank my internet - or lack thereof for that) but I try to read everything (even in pieces when I have a moment of internet), and every morsel of information I can get - from here and I seem to crave it from Singapore.  Funny, I think it was that way when I was there - craving information from here. 

The world keeps on twirling no matter where we are doesn't it?  I don't feel like the grass is greener on the other side; I think it is just as green here as there - just a different kind of grass and a different shade of green, you know?  

And finally, pR came in the other day and had a couple of duck friends for Number 4!!  She wanted him to have company - isn't that sweet??  So I leave you with only one picture today - ya know, I have to pay for that data.  But, I think you can agree that Number 4 seems quite content now.

My pets make me smile.  Life is good.