New Meds

Michael had to quit using the Neupro patch. It was working great, but the adhesive caused an allergic reaction after 1 1/2 of using them.  He had angry, red welts up and down his sides, arms etc.

He is taking a new med. The past few weeks Michael has been using a bit of the new med and less of the patch. Over a period of three weeks he used less patch as the med dosage increased. This week he is at full dosage of the new med and no patch.

Poor man is having a terrible time WAKING UP. Our previous  complaint was he could only sleep 3-4 hours a day. Now he drags himself in for breakfast, and looks like he is struggling to stay awake as he eats, and then he falls asleep.....if we don't have places to go; he sleeps.

Severe sleep issues are a side-effect of this med. We're hoping  it will take a week or two at the new dosage for his body to adjust. If not, we'll have to call the neurologist and keep tweaking.

PS note the motor home out the patio window. LOL

Bella at 8 months

 BreAnne had a meeting at work and asked if we could come play with Bella so she could pay attention. I felt the start of a "bug" (going on week 2 now of nastiness) and so brought Stacia to actually do the interacting with Bella. I sat across the room and gave helpful suggestions and snapped photos.  Yes, I DID sneak in some hugs and cuddles when Bella came over and reached for me.....and I used huge amounts of  hand sanitizer in that short time.

Crazy cute hat! 

Bella loved her books at home and she loved this one too. Gemma thinks this is a very good sign! 

10 Dec -  8 months old

Bella is a delight at 8 months!  Bre's friend made them these matching hats! They are the kind your hair pulls through, so Gaylene added yard hair for Bella. Our very own Cabbage Patch doll. 

When we watched Bella last week, she was determined to climb the stairs, more gates are installed. ::snort:: She's a climber.....brings back fun memories of finding Jamin on top of the fridge one morning.  

We didn't care much for the season when kids began leaving home - at all. We are LOVING this grandparent season - so I guess it evens out. What a sweetie - and number two is due the end of June!!! 

Frugal Pinata

Krista needed a pinata and she was on a budget.....her solution was creative! Pure Krista.

Buy a package of those big balloons with the rubber bands you tie to the end.

Buy a mix of cheap candy.

Gather a lot of willing helpers.

Fill the balloon about 1/2 full.

Krista reports,though it's harder than a paper pinata, these WILL break!

Kudos for frugal creativity.

Snowy Saturday

We had plans to take the van to be looked at by  a potential buyer, to attend a birthday party, to pick up our milk from Krista's....

At 0500 we began to hear freezing rain on the roof of the motor home. By 0900 we had lots of big, fat, fluffy snow flakes. 

View from my windshield

Everyone was sleeping late it and it was PERFECT for me to pull together some thoughts on Romans....and continue working ahead...Excited for our new Bible Babes online study to begin on Monday.

Eventually, all woke up. We enjoyed the down day. We are warm. We are snug. We have  full propane and water tanks and  a holding tank  that isn't full  - we didn't hook anything except electricity up as we didn't want anything to freeze.  We've seen several with frozen water and sewer hoses. EWWWWWwwwwww.....We will need a break in the cold in a day or two to get more water and drain the tanks. 😕 Anyway - all enjoyed the down day....

Reading and Mine Craft

Got our TV hooked up and figured out cable - though the surround sound is a bust

 The result of Michael's morning work was being able to watch Houston Texans play someone and Seattle Seahawks play another someone.... And Stacia made cookies.... 

Finally, I had to face the fact, as beautiful as it is, I had to walk in it to get to the shower house....and it was a cold walk. A pretty walk....but cold.

Yes, I DO wear my PJ's to walk across camp to the shower house. Don't judge. 

See the building on the far side of the photo - my goal

Warm and snug

This is a beautiful park and we've not had any crazies  this time. The host remembers us and wanted to stand in the snow and chat a bit....if this keeps up we will be forced to buy some respectable winter gear.

Mom Has Cancer...

...words one hopes to never write. There has been a few things I'm not writing about.  It is time to write about this one to ask for prayer on behalf of my Mom.

The week before the wedding Mom had a biopsy and we were sent to see her doc. We were referred to a surgeon who told us Mom had a stable, slow growing breast cancer. They expected it to respond well to chemo and planned a lumpectomy, chemo and radiation.  The surgeon requested an MRI to confirm the results of the mammogram and biopsy.

Mom opted not to tell others about the cancer until after the wedding.  That night she told our kids - and reminded us all God is a healing God. We were praying for the MRI to show healing. Yesterday, Mom, myself and Sherri (my sister in law) went to see the surgeon again to hear the results of the MRI.  The MRI revealed more cancer than first thought. Mom will have a double mastectomy and chemo. We are hoping to avoid radiation. Surgery is set for the 24th of January.

There is, of course, much I am not communicating here. My great-grandmother, grandmother and Aunt have all succumbed to breast cancer.  We've been quoting II  Timothy 1:7 and Joshua 1:9 a lot around here in this season and they hold us well in this trial as well...."God has NOT given us a spirit of fear - but of power and of love and of a sound mind."  "Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid, neither be discouraged, for the Lord your God is with you WHEREVER you go!"

 Our Parkinson's verse applies here too,  "But He said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.'" 2 Cor 12:9.

Favorite Workout Shirt

Jamin spent quite a bit of time with Nolan and Alex while he was home talking about life goals, personalities, and setting up workout plans.   He spent the most time with Alex designing a plan and prodding him to go out daily with him to run, walk and such.

Friday night means pizza and games or movies. Krista called to see what we were doing as we were on our way to Mom and Dad's with Papa Murphy's.  She joined us, with a gift for Alex.

I love Jamin being concerned enough to discuss the whole plan with Alex. And Alex being willing to take the plan to heart. And Krista keeping it fun. This is now Alex's favorite workout shirt! I love some Gherkins!

PS - the pizza and games were pretty great too.

RV Pantry Solutions

Every move involves new organizational solutions.

We have much more storage in the motor home than we did in the trailer. Unfortunately, much of it is in the storage bays/basement. This isn't a problem when it's 70 degrees outside, it's a considerable problem in icy rain and snow. One does not want to stand outside for great lengths of time searching to find, for instance,  one schoolbook.  We have extra kitchen appliances, school books, winter gear - all stored in the bays.

I also store some of the "extra" food in a big tub in the basement and under various seats with built in storage.  Weight is always an issue and I need to EAT DOWN the stuff in the basement. This week, before I made up a menu plan, we pulled all the food from under the seats and under the home out and inventoried.

In my defense, some of the things we store are specialty items not readily available at each location we visit (i.e. Nutritional Yeast, Agave Nectar, Rapadura, Wheat MT Prairie Gold...). However.....I'm not sure WHY we needed so many Ritz crackers or honey.  I'm open for meals and uses for both. I THINK some of the crackers were bought with an eye to make wedding munchies.

We'll have Chicken Divan this week....and the honey goes quickly if I bake bread and make ice cream....the problem being I've not gotten brave enough to try to bake bread in the convection oven...and it's FAR TOO COLD to stand outside with ice and salt watching an ice cream maker!!!!

Now that I know what is there, I need to REMEMBER what is stored in the various pantry locations. I made a pantry page in my Bullet Journal. I listed each item and drew a little square to show how much of each item there is. As we take out an item, the item is "x" out. We have some big storage cans of items that it is nice to have if you are boondocking far from stores....hash browns, fruit I dried...Those cans are stored under our seats. I put a "\" in the square when those items are opened and "x" when they are empty.

This system will work well for a variety of storage needs....I first used it when I needed to keep track of what was in the bottom of a 21 foot chest freezer. LOL