Day 5 will have to wait.

I’m off to Canada in the morning to say my final goodbyes to my dear sweet 92 year old Daddy. We don’t expect he will last much longer so I want to see him and love him one last time.

DAY 4

Yeah! We’re here at the family reunion and ready to play, But first we need to move the motor home to a better place than where we just landed the night before. Soooo… I start it up and it squeals and smells funny so up goes the hood again and we check the oil. Down three quarts. What the heck???? Totally weird. And… Roy thinks the alternator is bad and that is allot of the problem .

So out it comes and we borrow our nephews car to go into the city to have it tested. I drive and we’re just going along having a nice time getting reacquainted and then he reminded me that this is where he got his ticket a year ago so I start to slow down but too late! Yup, I got a ticket.

53 in a 35. Of course the policeman waited till it went from 40 to 35 before he clocked me so he could add 5 more mph onto my ticket. I was probably 50 feet into the 35. AURRRGH $165.00. So I took my medicine like a real woman and off we went. A few miles down the road I just busted up. This was all becoming too funny. (Welcome home from Iraq honey and welcome to my normal!)

Well we had the alternator tested and of course it was bad so $85.00 later we headed back. I think I forgot to mention in my other post that at Scipio the oil cost me $6.99 a quart! Can you believe it? So I bought a 5 quart container in town for $7.99.

We made it back, put in the new alternator and it started up like a charm and things are really looking up. Wahoo, lets play with these guys….

Just a few minor things to come for the next few days…..

DAY 3

Josh had a 6:30 AM flight to Peru. He is studying physical anthropology and goes down there every year to dig up skulls and skeletons and stuff. Since Roy was still on Iraq time, he was awake and took him to the airport while I sort of slept, (They always say that the 3rd day after an accident or surgery is the worse and boy are they right!)

Now it is time to head off to Cedar City for a big family reunion.  So we finished loading up the motor home and hooked on the trailer with the 4X4 and scooter and toys. It was 11:00 AM. Roy was too sleepy to drive and I was fine driving because fortunately it didn’t hurt to sit, so off we went.

We figured it was about a 6 hour drive because we only go about 60 MPH in old Bessie here.  Everything was fine and dandy and I made it through Salt Lake and Provo and all the traffic and then…..

Believe it or not ,  THE BACK DRIVER’S SIDE WHEELS CAME OFF!!!  and I watched one of them roll right past me and down the freeway and then over to the side where there was a guy working in a trackhoe. Now there was nothing  for miles on the side of the freeway but of course my tire had to hit and damage the only thing there was.  (Boy did I ever wake up that guy) The other tire just  stopped in the outside lane so poor Roy had to run back and retrieve it out of traffic.  I just sort of pulled over to the side of the road and said a giant prayer  of thanks that we were okay.

Now I know we tightened those puppies up really tight. I have no idea why they came loose. Here is my resident grease monkey tightening them so I have proof… We have a book all about the specifications and we torqued them down good and tight.

Anyway, before we knew it we had the Highway Patrol and Incident Management there to help us. Roy was really impressed at how efficient they were and he now wants a cordless pneumatic drill.

(So do I!)

They put our spare tire on and we gathered up my wheels and I apologized to the trackhoe driver for the millionth time and we limped into Springville where we spent several hours trying to find a new rim and new studs and other things to the tune of $286.48.

Of course they never could find us a new rim because older motor homes have an odd size. So we just used the one off the spare tire.  Here’s what I did to it…

 

So by now it is 6:30 PM and we had only gone 100 miles but our adventure is not over yet.  We carried on and made it to Scipio.  (It’s in the middle of nowhere and if you blink you miss it.) We stopped because the engine was making a very funny noise. Roy checked the oil and it was dry!  We added 6 quarts!!!!!! I had checked the levels the day before and it was full. Very weird because it has never used oil like this before. 

Then it wouldn’t start but I got out and gave it a really good talking to and hit the starter with a wrench and it actually started.  So off we went again.

Somewhere around 10:00 PM it started to run funny again so we pulled off in the middle of nowhere and added two more quarts of oil. We finally pulled into Cedar City at 11:00 PM.  Twelve hours to go 300 miles.  But of course the troubles aren’t over yet, Day 4 brings more…….

 

DAY 2

Ever hear the expression “I feel like I’ve been hit by a truck”? Well I felt like I’d been run over by a motor home. The Dr. in the emergency room would not give me any pain pills. She said that my arthritis medicine would be enough. HAH!!! I wanted to run over her with my motor home to see how she would handle the pain.

In her defense though, I can understand her thinking. I was in greasy dirty clothes and looked a wreak. My neighbor, who was in the accident as well, looked even worse. (They love to work on cars and are covered in grease and oil constantly). My son Josh came in with me. Now Josh is the sweetest most caring person on the planet and I love him dearly, but this sweet child of mine has decided to get tatoos all over himself and he looks rather scary at times. So I am sitting in the emergency room with this odd bunch and I’m sure the Dr. thought I had done this on purpose just to get drugs.

Anyhow, I took 4 Tylenol and hobbled to the car and drove to the airport to pick up my husband who had just spent 4 days trying to get home from Iraq. Can you imagine my dread of the big bear hug I knew was coming? He knew nothing yet. OUCH!

At least this time he came home looking like this…………

Not this……

Last time he came home it was Halloween and he thought he was pretty funny and I though he was pretty creepy!

So all in all it was a wonderful reunion even though it hurt. A great day compared to what had happened the day before and what was about to happen the next day. Stay tuned for day 3…..

I NEED A VACATION FROM MY VACATION

DAY 1

I was having so much fun. Then….

The day before my hubby got home from Iraq, I decided to do one last thing to my Motor home. My neighbor boy is my local mechanic and all I was supposed to do was hold a part while he unbolted it.  We have been working on it for a month and were always so careful to block the tires and jack it just right but we were in a hurry and forgot.

We’re okay but it really put a damper on things. My ribs still hurt but were not broken.  My back got pretty beat up and I have some wonderful bruises.

This was only the beginning of the fun times.  Remember my mantra… “If it’s worth doing, it’s worth over doing.”  Well,  there’s more to come.

WHAT KID WANTS A CHORE CHART FOR HER BIRTHDAY?

MINE!

My Bekah had a birthday this week and that is what she wanted. So this is what I made her. (sorry the pictures aren’t any better)

I cut out a board and painted it brown.

 

 

I printed the chores down the side and the days of the week across the top on a piece of scrapbook paper..

 

 

I glued a piece of  tin to the board and added the vinyl letters and notes.

 

 

Then I printed out a sheet of the letters of her kids names and cut them out with my Silhouette.

Then I glued them onto round magnets so they can be moved around.

And there you have it. A chore chart for a birthday.

OUR COUNTRY IS WELL PROTECTED

My son went off for his two weeks of guard. I thought you might enjoy a few pics of the lighter side of things.

This one cracked me up because my other son just found out he needs glasses and I was teasing him about wearing big nerdy ones and this picture popped up on Facebook.

 

Even the food is well protected.

Isn’t he handsome?

There’s something about a man in uniform. Well almost. The footwear is a little casual.

Hmmmm, serious.

Ahhhh, friends!

Yes, we are well protected!

I THOUGHT I COULD… I THOUGHT I COULD…

WAHOOO! We made it. Up and over those big mountains and down into Bear Lake and then back up again and home. Even though it rained we had a wonderful time.

Our dear friends the Waites joined us.

Beatrice had a good time,

Uncle Josh and Franklin had a good time. Can you see them?

I was way back at camp and I could hear Franklin singing away way down by the lake.  So cute!

Here they are way zoomed in.

 

The clouds rolled in..

They got darker and darker…

And it rained!

Here is Liz getting ready to do her half marathon bright and early in the morning. (Notice the dead deer carcass beside her!)

Then it rained and rained

But she kept on going..

And finished!!! What a trouper.

I’m soooo proud of her!

IT AIN’T PRETTY BUT……

 

 

I’m off to Bear Lake to camp in the rain while my silly beautiful daughters run in a marathon. 

WAHOOOOO!!!!

GOOD OLD USA!

Okay, I finally got around to making these. I’ve been very distracted with my garden and fixing up my motor home for it’s first outing hopefully this weekend.

So here they are.

They are $20.00

THAT’S MY GIRL

I was visiting my Emma’s yesterday and she took me to her basement to show me what she was making.  She had several of these boards all painted. Isn’t it cute. She gave me this one.

It’s a 2 x 6 that she painted. She said she wanted to get some kind of stars to put on the blue. Well I suggested just cutting out vinyl ones with my Silhouette. So I went home and cut her out a bunch of stars.

Of course I couldn’t just stop there. Nooo, I had to “OVERDO IT”  so here is what else I did.

Yup, it’s good and overdone.

MY GRANDKIDS ARE FISH!!!

I got the fishpond up and running.

You know for my fish. 

 

Silly Grams! Fishponds are for kids!!!

Yup, they must be fish.