Girl Time

Last night Krista and CoRielle dropped by the RV.  Stacia went home early with Krista. They sent me this photo. Can you believe such a big, full tree for $20? Stacia had a blast decorating. 

Michael and CoRielle talked through the upcoming wedding ceremony.

This morning Arielle introduced Stacia to the world of janitors as they cleaned a local church. They also did a few wedding errands. While they were out, Krista made buckeyes and then she and Stacia went to their church's cookie exchange.

Michael and I had a wonderful lunch with his sister. We stopped by her house to pick up Mom G's car. Michael and the boys are running down to CA to pick up a few things for Mom and be sure the house  (and a neighbor's house we watch) are ready for the weeks we'll be up here.

Stacia and I drove around and looked at Christmas lights. 

Lots of friends have been surprised I've never seen a Gilmore Girls episode. Stacia and I are spending our quiet nights while the boys are gone watching Gilmore Girls. ::wink::

Bearded Gherkin

Beards are a serious matter in this family. The elder Gherkin males have grown them....which led to Nolan growing a "wow" beard at a young age. He ALWAYS passes for much older than his age. Alex is 14. He has been alternating between clean shaven - Duck Dynasty...

Today, Alex said he was going to go shave his beard....and I had a sudden realization.

  

"Alex, do you know how to trim your beard?" 

"Um, Nooo." 

"Would you like to trim it, rather than shave it all the way off." 

Yes, he would. 

Michael showed him the finer points and turned him loose. He's newly shorn and will be spiffy for the wedding. 

For more #WYFF (Where's Your Feet Friday) entries click the tab above. 

Errands in a 38 ft Motor Home

Michael's  fifth and final appointment of the week at the Eugene VA Clinic. We really like his care team and this clinic. We were asked again if we'd acted on recommendation - we will, we will.

Michael is trying to do a few repairs.  We knew the drain in the bathroom was showing some rust. It is also leaking a bit. He bought a drain and it had an overflow and won't work. He's been looking all over town to find the drain that WILL work. We also needed to fill our propane tank - and it's attached to the motor home.  Appointments were over at 0900. We were relieved to have more time in Eugene, where we have a better chance of finding the parts we need. Off we went to 1. fill the tank and 2. check out a couple of RV parks as we can only stay here 14 days.

Doesn't everyone take along their Christmas tree in the kitchen sink when they run errands????

 We filled the propane tank, weighed the motor home now that we have everything in it, stopped and talked to the owners at a local RV park, I called several others while Michael ran into RV Supply, we also went to Camping World - neither place had the drain we need. He did get a new water filter for the kitchen sink. We were hoping it would increase the water pressure. It didn't, but the water tastes wonderful.

The kids made dinner.

They settled in to stream a Netflix flick. The new TV is wonderful. While they did this Michael and I hung the remaining photos et al. YES - I'm a military spouse at heart - you move; you organize and you hang the photos quickly. Day 5 and we're all settled, pictures hung....now we can work on the modifications and repairs.

Loving the living area

We found the kids relaxing when we finished..... 

Played Farkle - I won in my sleep again. Alex won the second game. 

We're ending the day with books....and plans for tomorrow, the first day without any appointments at the VA clinic.

Whacky Wednesday

It turned out to be an odd day.

Michael's physical therapist forgot her i.d.  We showed up at 0830 and she was late. She had another gal "stretch" Michael. Oh.my.pretzel.loving.soul!  I've never watched such a thing. She had him twisted in the oddest ways - and was pushing with all her weight against him.  Sandy showed up a half an hour late and both of them continued  - tossing ideas here and there for new exercises. They noted Michael's muscle tone is starting to slip - and that gave all increased vigor. They pushed him to the limit and in 45 minutes his balance was suffering and his tremors were manifesting. The new lady said, "That's good, that's how you want him to be at the end of a session."  It was 15 min BEFORE the end of the session - and Sandy hadn't pushed this hard before - but it was a good session.

Michael's next session was with the "speech therapist." Hillary's first question had to do with recommendations she had made  before our cruise. We had decided not to follow through - she pushed hard to make her point and we got to move a bit more out of denial and into the reality of what Michael needs to be fighting.  Eventually, she moved on to the exercises to strengthen his muscles for swallowing and speaking. ::wink::

We came back to our campground. I've decided to be a bit more careful in blogging and not share where we are parked until we leave.   All that to say, if you're local, please don't mention the campground we're at online. There was a man at our campground who attempted to assault THREE different women, throughout the day....and was apprehended and HELD until the police could show up by  our hero Campground host. We were clueless until we saw 5 police cars, guns, clothes strewn everywhere as we drove out of the campground.

We searched for a notary.

We realized we  have OPTIONS for dinner and everyone wanted Panda Express. Nolan's "fortune" cracked us up.

Gpa Paul had challenged the kids. "The next time we play Farkle, I'm going to win!" We headed over for ONE game of Farkle. Nolan won.

Back at the motor home we hung pictures - or stuck pictures to the wall. Command Velcro strips are AMAZING.

Am I the only one surprised to find this is the last day of November?

A Momentous Meeting

Day two of the week of the doctors. ::snort:: BreAnne called and asked if Nolan and Stacia could come with her to the dentist and play with Bella. Bella knows them as they spent the time on our cruise at BreZaak's. Michael went to his appointments. Alex and I stayed at the motor home and continued stowing things away. 

This enabled him to have the first Japanese lesson.....Michael came home. Bre and the kids arrived home. Nolan had his lesson and Michael, Bre, Bella and I went for lunch. 

Oh, my heart....so much cuteness

Bre and Bella are fun lunch dates

Mom G has been staying at Michael's sister's since we left on our cruise. We miss her. We'd not seen her as we have been crazy clearing and cleaning the trailer and moving into the motor home - then the appointments began. Our plan had been to get the trailer and van to a consignment lot before we left on the Thursday to go back to CA.

I checked with her and she said she'd be home all day for the next few days. We thought it would be the perfect opportunity for Bella to meet her Great Grandmother!

BreAnne, Bella and Great Grandma Mary Jean 

As we visited, Mom G asked how Michael's appointments were going. I noted they always want to schedule more.  She mentioned doing something on Saturday and I reminded her we were set to go home after Michael's appointment on Thursday. She said, "We can stay as long as you need us too." I asked about the possibility of staying until after the wedding and that seemed good to her. Rebecca agreed, so we are not going home on Thursday. That's a relief as it's taking longer to get the trailer/van taken care of than we thought (our titles are MIA and we have to send for them from Alaska...) and we are tired. Staying here this extra week will allow the kids to get a solid week of school in, us to "live" in the motor home for a bit of time before it moves again, give Michael time to get some repairs done, bake cookies for the wedding, AND allow us to be here to help CoRielle with anything that comes up. 

Monday Moving Madness

THIS was an odd way to start the day. In the moving, the bamboo tongs must have been set straddling the toaster. They split and fell into the slots. I made toast this a.m. and couldn't figure out why it smelled odd.....

Michael had his first doctor appointment of the week this morning; he'll have five this week.  While he had his appointment the kids and I set about cleaning the trailer and making sure we had cleared everything.

Of course, with every load we bring to the motor home we create CHAOS and have to figure out where to put it all. This evening Michael installed a door handle with a lock on the bathroom door, we kept putting things away.....

Krista stopped over for dinner. In the fun of visiting, putting things up, and replacing the door handle....I forgot to add a couple of key ingredients to the chili....but visiting was great anyway!

Name That RV

Yes, we name our cars and RVs. It's a fun family idiosyncrasy.  Thus, the 31 foot trailer was The Caboose.  Here are some names we are tossing around. Care to add to the list?  Michael is currently calling her, "Bessie." I haven't a clue. I'm calling her "the Monster," for obvious reasons.  Feel free to add your contributions to the list! 

Isn't she a beaut? 

Fred & Ginger (RV and Towable)

Nanu - lovesick moose

The Mother Ship

The Refuge - 避難 hinanjo or is it pinanjo

Dream Boat 2 - DB2 - Mom and Dad G's Class C (which we inherited when they were done with it ) was "Dreamboat"

The Pickle Jar - PJ

Voyager

Castlelette

The Vagabond

The Explorer

The Courageous  -勇敢な Yuka-na May be confusing with Yuuki

The Wardrobe

Casa minúsculo

うち Uchi - My home

The Engine/caboose (RV and Towable)