December 27th 2009

No pictures today, but thought I would tell you what we did. I went over to Jackie's this am and spent all day with her. When she and Brady moved in, they just threw things in cupboards. She wanted me to help her re-organize all her kitchen cupboards....and we did!!!
My friend Julie had hip re-placement surgery a week ago Wednesday, so wasn't ready to go out and party. I decided we would go up to their house and bring the food and cook them dinner! So John and I made them chili, cornbread, salad and pie! It was a good dinner and the conversation was even better. They too are coming to Florida the end of January.
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On a sadder note...my girlfriend Nancy lost her mother at 6:00 pm Christmas eve day......not a place anyone wants to be. However, her mom did it up right...90 years old, lived in her own home, did her own garden, canned, baked...totally was on her own.....she cracked her hip on Sept 14 and had surgery to pin it...well she developed an infection....and it is a long story, but from there developed MSRA..(I believe I have it right)..it is worse than a staff infection, and she just couldn't fight it. Our hearts go out to Nancy and her brother, but we thank God for such a wonderful life Betty was able to live.

December 26th 2009 Patty and Doug's

Doug
Denie

Sharon and Patty

Sharon

I don't know about all of you, but on Christmas day it is a barrage of phone calls from siblings and relative saying Merry Christmas. Well, on one of the conversations, Patty and Doug and I decided we should get together. They were going to Sharon and Denie's Christmas day so I told them to check with them and see if we should get together the next day (Dec 27th). They called later that night to say...."Come to our house on Saturday!" So we did!!!! We even did a small tour of Robinsdale and drove by John's house where he grew up by Sanborn Park. We got to Patty and Doug's around 1:30 and got home that night at 10:00 pm. It was a great visit.

They even planned their trip to Ft Myers to visit us in March.!!

It was a great time.

Christmas Day in Cannon Falls, Mn December 25, 2009

A Pandora box.......from 3 of the kids to me.
Yep, they went to Jared!!!!!

Brady, Ryan and Heather

Jeff and Jackie

Amber and Kyle

Christmas Day and of the 4 children, they were all here except Tony who is in Iraq. John and I only arrived last Friday and because of all the hustle and bustle..we didn't bother to get a big tree. Yep, we were a little scroogeish. (Mostly me, not John.) Edina Realty gave us a 1'1/2" live tree, so we made a little shrine for it and put the gifts around it. It was fine...a little low keyed but what the heck! We didn't get to see Sydnee because there are just too many families and not enough time. Josh is home in Bismarck for vacation, but will go back to Ft Lenardwood in the next day or so. Too hard to get to Bismarck and Mpls. We had a nice visit with everyone...Jackie wouldn't let me take her picture. Thinks she is too fat etc....I think she looks cute! I think everyone had a good time.

Christmas Eve at Grandma Rose's

Heather and Don...kicking back.
The dining table.

Brother Dave and me.

Don

Mom

Christmas Eve was at mom and Don's. Jac and Brady, Heather and Ryan, Kyle, Amber and David. brother David, John and I. We had a wonderful t-bone steak dinner. It was delicious. After dinner and great conversation, we opened presents with Grandma and Grandpa. The kids left and John and I stayed and solved all the family and world problems with mom and Don. It was a great time.

Christmas Eve at Grandma Rose

Christmas Eve Day December 24, 2009

IT SNOWED!!!!View from outside our front door.
Yes, it is piling up!

Ryan is trying to shovel!

Christmas eve day and we got snow all night! I think after all is said and done we got like 12-16 inches. I will have to watch the news to know or sure. Unfortunately, it was really heavy and wet. Not fluffy and easy to shovel.

December 16, 2009 Catching up.

The lawn all decorated at the Burroughs House in Ft Myers.

Inside the Burroughs house.

Coming up the porch of the Burroughs House.

View from accross the street

Langsfor-Kingston House

The art museum downtown.

Tuesday the 15th we went out to Captiva Island
to the Mucky Duck and took our Christmas card picture.

The Mucky Duck

Beautiful Captiva

More beach. It always reminds John and I when

we spent a whole month here when Ryan was just

3 months and Jackie was 4.

The Mucky Duck from the ocean view.

Neighbor Donna at their house for dinner.

Donna's husband , Tom.

John and Donna getting into the wine!!

I am trying to get caught up on my blogging. We were so busy getting the house organized and somewhat decorated that not much else new happened. We are slowly meeting people and learning the ropes around here. We actually got our first dinner invite by our neighbors Donna and Tom. We had a delicious dinner and spent the evening talking and learning about each others lives. We then reciprocated last weekend and had them here for dinner. After dinner we played a card game called "Phase 10". We laughed so hard, yes, I wet my pants!!! Tom was pretty funny!!!

Just the other day John and I drove out to Sanibel-Captiva for the afternoon. We ate lunch at the Mucky Duck and took our Christmas card picture on the beach in front of a Christmas tree.

The island really hasn't changed since we have been going there in 1981. They have replaced a lot of trees due to hurricane damage but basically it is the same. Kind of refreshing to know that some things don't change.

Tonight we went to downtown Ft Myers in the River District and had dinner outside and then toured the Burroughs and Langford-Kingston homes. They are two beautiful old homes that have been preserved and are part of the historical homes now. The city decorates them for the Christmas season and you can tour them both for $5.00. They were very pretty.

Historically they were friends of Mr. Edison, Mr. Ford, and Mr. Firestone.

We leave for home in two days. We are excited to see our family and friends. Will post Christmas pictures later.

Thanksgiving Day November 26, 2009

Dick, Peggy, Christine, Jerry, John and me
John carving "the bird".

The table is set.

Girls against guys playing sharades.

John acting out?????what????

Jim trying to get the guys to guess.

Thanksgiving day in Florida was beautiful but it definitely was a little cooler than it has been. We actually had a full day of rain on Wednesday and after the rain left we are now having a little cooler weather. 70's...I know you all are crying.

We had the Chafton's and the Bouchard's over for Thanksgiving dinner. The Lockwoods would have come but Susan just had to go home to Bowling Green, Ky to see her grand kids.

We had a fabulous meal...too much food, but some really good "southern" recipes!

Finished off the dinner with a pumpkin and a key lime pie.

After dinner we played a game called Phase 10. It was pretty fun! Can't remember if I won or if Christine did....I think we had one too many drinks.

All is well, but we did miss our family. Sounds like they all did just fine without us.

Drove up to Port Charlotte to a bead shop today. Ran into a bunch of the girls from RiverBend Motorcoach Resort.

We will be going home on Dec 18 and returning on Jan 6. The house is now livable and ready for company.

We have moved in! After 1 week...Nov.4, 2009

The front....yep looks the same. Didn't really want to

upload this picture.
Family room. Doesn't this furniture look familiar?

Breakfast nook looking into the living room.

Side view..didn't mean to upload this one either.

Dining room. This picture doesn't really do the room justice.

I am not the best picture taker.

John's office and den.

What a process! We originally planned to leave Minnesota on Thursday the 22nd. The day after the movers were there. So, Thursday am we get up early and go out to start up the coach and wouldn't you know, our old problem of "no air in the air bags" is back. You can't drive with the coach down...you can but you bounce all over. So we called Siewarts towing, they had helped us before with this problem, but because there were so many accidents on Hwy 52 that am they couldn't seem to get to us as quickly as we wanted. Mom called and suggested that we go down to Filmor and see if they could help because they have the same freightliner trucks that we have on the RV. They looked at it and our air bag was totally destroyed! So, they called around to get a part and wouldn't you know there weren't ANY in Minnesota but they did have one in Chicago. We had our office in Chicago pick up the part and put it on our truck to Minnesota in the am. John met the truck at 0600 Friday, brought the part back to Cannon and Filmor had the part on and we were on the road by 0745 Friday am. So, now we really have 3 long days of driving because we have to be ready for the moving truck first thing on Monday am. We drove all day and went to Paducah, Ky the first night. On the road, our back TV in the bedroom decided to pop off the wall and onto the bed and night stand. Luckily it didn't break and John got it re-mounted, but the picture is pink and green.!!!! The joys of an RV.
Saturday am we were on the road before light. Headed for Jennings, Fl. Just a side bar, but Fred Neumann an old employee and friend of ours, volunteered to drive our car down for us. He was going to stop in Joplin, MO and visit an old Viet Nam pal of his for a few days the head to Florida and spend a couple days with us. Well, on Sat. am at 1030, Fred called to say that his father in law had passed and he needed to get to Lubbock, TX to be with his wife and for the funeral. After many phone calls back and forth Fred decided to dead head to Jennings, FL to meet up with us Sunday am and then I would drive him to the Tampa airport so he could fly out to Texas. He was there at 0530 Sunday am....but very tired. (He had just had hernia surgery 3 weeks prior, so I am sure he wasn't 100%) Bottom line is we got him to Tampa, and we got the coach and 2 vehicles to Ft Myers. (John towed the one.)

Our friends from Kentucky (two different couples) both have lots in RiverBend where we stayed last year. Susan and Jim were on the way to RiverBend via Texas, but weren't going to arrived for a few days yet, so we stayed on their lot until they got there. It was nice because we could live in it for the first few days until the house was livable.

Monday Oct, 26th, our furniture came from Minnesota, so did Comcast, the Security Co etc...

We got all those boxes unpacked that day. Tuesday the 27th the furniture that we purchased came from the furniture store and also the pool co, lawn service, bug sprayer etc...

Got all that moved in and Wed. I went shopping. I mean power shopping. We got the necessities, but will be a while before I would say the house is complete. No paintings yet, bedspreads, rugs...lot of colors to pick etc.

We are fairly settled and pretty organized...ready for company!!! We even had Susan and Jim over for dinner and christened our gas grill out on the lanai.

(Forgot to tell you that the morning that Fred met us in Jennings, John was wiping down the shower stall in the RV and moved one of the doors just right and the whole thing shattered all over everywhere! We just can't seem to do anything without a lot of drama!)

Now we are going to take the RV out of RiverBend and to the shop to get those things fixed, then put it in storage until we take a trip around here.

I will try for better pictures later .

Our move to Florida Friday Oct. 23, 2009

No pictures, but thought I would give a run down on what is going on. Our movers came on Wednesday to get what we were shipping to Florida and the plan was to leave on Thursday so we could have 3-4 days to get there leisurely. Thursday am John went out to start the coach and warm everything up, and the air in the front of the coach would not come up. There are airbags in the front that deflate and then inflate when the coach is started. If they don't come up, it is a terribly rough ride and the wheels can't turn very well. Needless to say we were in a quandary. We called Sewards Garage thinking that we would either put a coupling on the coach and drive up to Freightliner in Inver Grove...or be towed up there. Freightliner said they would get us in right away. We waited and waited...finally Sewards called and said there were so many accidents on Hwy 52 that that took priority. Meanwhile, mom called and she suggested that John go down to Filmor Trucking (in our front yard) and see if they could help. They have a maintenance shop and have Freighliner trucks. So he did and they really helped us. However, the part we needed was no where to be found in Minnesota, but they did find one in the Chicago area. We had our office in Chicago pick up the part and put it on our truck to Mpls on Thursday night. John met the truck at the office at 0600 on Friday am and ran the part back down to Filmor and they put the part in in 25 min and we were on the road by 0745!!! Needless to say we now had to make better time due to the fact that we have to been in Ft Myers by Sunday because Monday am there are a lot of people going to be at the new house, including the moving truck from Cannon! We drove to Paducah, Ky Friday night, got up at 5:30 and on the road by 6:30 Saturday am.....heading for Jennings, Fl tonight, if not further.
To sidebar...a good friend of ours offered to drive our Cadillac down to Ft Myers for us. He was going to go to Joplin, Mo to visit a friend a couple days then drive into Ft Myers and stay with us a couple days. We received a phone call from him this am that his wife's dad just died in Lubbock, Tx and he needed to go there. After numerous calls and talking out the logistics, Fred decided to deadhead to Ft Myers today and get there tomorrow and fly out of Ft Myers to meet Debbie in Dallas and then catch a commuter jet into Lubbock Sunday night. We are keeping in touch via phone with Fred and will let you know how it all turns out.
There is nothing boring in our lives!!!!....and nothing is every easy.

Sharon's birthday and Jackie's baby shower on the Dawson side. Oct. 4, 2009

Quilt I finished for Sharon's 75th birthday.

Mother Jackie

L to R Jennifer, Jennie and Shonna and Amber

L to R Same as above but add in Nicole on the left.

Kalli and Sheryl

Kathy Jo, Kim and Nicole

Linda, Tiffany, Jean, Monica and Kalli

Jennie, Amber, Ashley, Heather and Rose

We had a wonderful brunch at John's sister Sharon. Sharon and Patty put on the shower and it was a lot of fun. Jackie got a lot of really nice things to start her off on the baby collection. Jackie's' cousin Nicole announced that she too is pregnant. Her and Jac got married within weeks of each other.

Sharon's birthday was Sept 21st, but her and Denie were on an awesome cruise from Denmark to Greece and didn't get home until Friday the 2nd! I had worked on this quilt on and off for a year...made it for her cabin.

All in all it was a great day.