POST VACATION - Getting Settled in and Waiting for SPRING

We have been home now for two weeks...whew!  We spent the first two days unloading and of course winterizing the rig.  It is all snug and tucked away in the back yard on it's parking pad... waiting for SPRING!  The temps here have been hovering around 10 degrees or down to about zero at night.  And yes, we have still been getting *S*N*O*W*....

Some days it has been getting above 32 so we get a bit of melting

but then surprise surprise, we look out again and see this....

After we got back, we had to run our Lincoln Continental over to Manitowoc to get the transmission rebuilt.  We were originally quoted $3000 at almost every place we called to see about repairing it...  but once Al's Transmission started to work on it, they said it was only going to be $1,800 to 2,200.  Plus while he had the car apart, there were two sets of parts that needed replacing (a pair of suspension brackets and also 2 broken connectors for the sensors for the air ride devices).  He only charged us for the parts, and no additional labor to put them in.  So the final bill was only $2,400.  Still an "ouch" but not as bad as we thought it would be. 

The car works very well, but he would like us to bring it back after 1,500 miles to check on it and make sure all is good.  It has a 3 year warranty with the rebuilding job, so we will bring it back to get it checked out sometime soon.  

I know it seems like a lot for repairing a 2001 vehicle, but it's a nice car, in good shape, and the Blue Book value is worth a lot more than Steve paid for it last year when he bought it for me.  So we are still "ahead of the game" and I got my car back!   (this is a pic from when we bought it last year) 

Our first weekend back was busy, because we had a special little party to go to.  It was our grandson Mason's 2nd birthday!  Oh boy what a big kid he is getting to be.... 

 and we had such a good time at the party with ALL five of the grandtots in attendance! 

The little guy got a pile of wonderful presents, and a NEW BIKE!  

Of course, being away from all these little people for a whole month was hard on us, 

so we got in as many hugs and squeezes and cuddles as we could!

Now that we are back, the kids are making reservations on dates on our calendar to have us babysit for various events or weekends or playdates.  It feels good to be able to take them for visits now that we are home again.

In my last blog, I mentioned that we brought back something for the grown kids but I couldn't post about it yet because they hadn't gotten them.  See, while in Florida, I was searching for something unique and interesting to bring back as souvenirs for our grown children and spouses.  I saw some handmade birdhouses by a shop in Williston, but Auntie Lois said that Uncle Sam has been making some birdhouses and would LOVE an order from me to work on before we went back to Wisconsin.

He worked his fingers to the bone, getting each one done before it was time for us to leave.  He was out in his garage night and day, each time we saw him working as we drove by to mom's around the corner.  With a wave of his hand, he finally said come on in and take a look.  They were done!  The varnish was still drying on the last one as we loaded them up into the Tracker to get hauled back to Wisconsin.  Each one is different and creative and made by their 75+ year old Great Uncle Poop!

Steve decided each couple had to "draw straws" to determine who got which birdhouse....

Each girl is smiling, so they each got what they wanted! 

Thank you Uncle Poop for your creative folksy work on such wonderful birdhouses. 

(we made him sign and date each one on the bottom too) 

Well, it's getting late here and I think I am going to head up to bed.  I have a couple blogs yet that I need to write.... so the next few days I will get them done:

Linda Baldwin's Studio in Tennesse

Finney Reunites with his Mommy

Fabric Stash Enhancement

Working on Some Rugs in my Loom Room

and hopefully, we will have some posts about 

SPRING????