Mirror Mirror on the Wall and Merry Christmas Day

Who is the fairest of them all? Hmmmmmm

As soon as I got home from a babysitting trip up north, Steve was mounting the medicine cabinet mirror that our son Dan ordered for us. He works at a commercial glass place and got us a bevelled mirror cut to size.

I think Steve is the fairest of them all! 

Underneath the medicine cabinet, to one side over the sink, we also mounted some glass shelf brackets. Previously there had been a smaller glass shelf in that place, so we reused those brackets.  I found a larger glass shelf in the basement on top of the paint cabinet in my workroom.  Perfect!   (it pays to ask the sellers to leave behind anything they don't want and we decided if we wanted to keep or reuse those items)

The shelf is for our most used things that we liked to keep up over the sink.  Steve isn't too keen on it, but I think it kinda looks old fashioned.

So our gift was all new beadboard,

 trim and baseboard. 

A recycled medicine cabinet and new mirror.

Lace adhered to the window for privacy.

We added a handwoven rug from my friend Juanita that matches well.

As Steve says:

"So there ya have it"  

meaning our bathroom facelift 

Christmas Gift to each other is 

DONE! 

Incidentally, it has now been FIVE years since we bought Our Old House. The anniversary of our closing was 2 days ago, and here is an old blog post about our house purchase: We Moved Blog


Our Christmas was busy busy busy as you can imagine.  We managed to spend Christmas Eve alone at home and made steamed snow crab legs for dinner and had a peaceful evening by the fireplace.  The dogs snuggled up and we enjoyed some good reminiscing about all we have done in our 22+ years together.

On Christmas Day, we travelled down to Belgium for a family celebration with Steve's dad and siblings.  It was a lovely but very very cold day!  Steve's sister Lynn hosted and we were treated to a nice meal and we brought desserts (of which some were the Christmas cookies the grandkids decorated)

On Tuesday, I trekked up to Oconto to babysit for a few of the grandkids because their day care was closed for the holiday weekend.  It was a long long cold day. Steve and his brothers helped his dad move more garage stuff up to the house in Sister Bay, while I was with the grandtots cozy and warm!

It is so much fun to watch the older ones be so thoughtful and careful of their little sister.  And little Claire tries so hard to keep up with the big kids. She wants to be big too! Don''t grow up too fast, little one. You are the last wee grandbaby we will have and we want to keep you as small for as long as possible!

While little Claire napped, we worked on a gingerbread house from a creative kit, and had a lot of fun with stories, snuggles and giggles. 

As you know, the weather is not very nice

the subzero temps are horrible

and our wind chills have been in the 20 to 30 BELOW range. 

It's now New Years Eve, and we just had a long busy weekend up north with all of our kids and grandkids and dogs and grandpuppies!  It was a hectic crazy fun filled visit with lots of silliness, gifts, food and love!  I will do another blog post about that, because I think we are worn out.  We came home and napped and watched the last Packer game of the season ... and are staying in and safe and sound to ring in the New Year. 

Please everyone, stay safe and may your

 New Year

 be bright and beautiful! 

Ringing In The New Year

First of all an UPDATE on my stepdad... Lowell has been moved to a Hospice Care Center in Sandusky, about 45 miles north of their apartment in Ohio.  Mom is able to stay in the room with him, sleeping by his side in a large lazyboy chair.  They are getting his pain medication under control... as the patches were no longer working for him.  She will let me know more in the morning after conferring with the docs.  The place is very nice with staff focusing on comfort for end of life care with cancer patients.


We decided to head up north for our second annual New Years Celebration at my sister's tavern.  Last year she and her husband and their brotherinlaw took over ownership on New Years Eve....  and we drove up 170 miles to surprise them with coming through the door in masks and party favors... they had NO idea who we were! LOL Here is a blog post from last year:

Last Year's Holiday Blog

Link to Fuzz and Dave's Mid City Bar and Grill Facebook Page

This year, Steve and I drove up earlier in the day, and stopped at dad's cabin to snowblow...  nephew Matt had just been there and got most of it done before getting called away for a family emergency for his wife's father.  (hope your dad is doing much better Amanda!)   We drove up the rest of the way to Michigan and checked into the Bicigo Hotel (my brother Butch's house)

A little trek down town and I made this little video clip of "lapping the gap" to put on the "I Grew Up In Iron River, MI Facebook Page"   .... 

https://www.facebook.com/kareninthewoods/videos/10207939940037167/

We stopped for some good ole Riverside Pizza (it's award winning pizza and voted the best in the whole state many years in a row!)   

I can still taste this pizza by looking at the pic!

It has a flavor like none other I have ever had. Yummmmmmm

We found this fun video game with an exact likeness of Steveio,

My Brawny Lumberjack Man! 

Our grown kids with their spouses Erin and Waylen, Heather and Jesse, met us over at Bicigo's Hotel... we got our doggies settled into crates and headed out to my sister's bar.  

Wheee heeeee  it was fun!  

Here are some pics...... 

My sister gave bar tshirts to myself and both daughters...

The bar was full of old and new friends, some relatives and of course US!   My sister put out quite an array of free food, with the evening feature, King Crab Legs!   What a nice treat!!!  

Thanks for hosting a great evening...

Schmoo, Fuzz and Dave! 

  

We finished up the Old Year and greeted the New Year with

a kiss, a dance, and then I was the DD home...(Designated Driver)

After I safely delivered everyone back to Hotel Bicigo, (and we did see one police officer)

the die-hards stayed up till 4 am playing traditional cribbage around my brother's table... 

this is a yearly event.  I went to bed! 

The next morning, I had taken the dogs out for a potty break.... and as I brought them back up into our guest room, Steve noticed one of my brother's cats snuck into the room.  Instead of being SMART and shooing it out with my foot... what did I do???  Yes, I picked it up, and carried it up over the dogs in their crate.  They barked, the cat hissed, and twisted... and I either got clawed or bit, not sure which.   Four spots, one deep into a vein.. OUCH!  

I bandaged it up... and later poured peroxide in it.  No biggie, right? 

About an hour or two later, the finger started to feel numb. Hmmmmm  then it started swelling.  I put on a bag of ice and we headed on back home to Chilton.  I was driving because a certain Steveio was still under the weather with "New Years Flu"     As I drove on the three and half hours, my finger and then hand started to swell more and more.  I was feeling pain by the last 20 miles.   OUCH! 

We dropped off the dogs and we headed on over to the walkin clinic on New Years Day....  turns out all animal bites automatically become emergency room visits!  Oh well, we will meet our deductible on Jan 1 already!  ....  I do not know if it was a claw or a tooth, but the ER staff said it didn't matter, because cats carry a certain bacteria in their mouths that is also on their paws and claws from licking.  

They said almost all cat scratches and or bites result in infections!  like 90%!   Sure enough... that was me! 

The bacteria in a cat's mouth is called Bartonella, it is responsible for "Cat Scratch Disease."

They took down all the necessary information and we proceeded with treatment.  I was given antibiotics and pain killers and instructions to come back if I see red streaks up the arm. It's going to get worse before it gets better they said. ACK!   They treat all cat scratches the same as bites, because the intrusion of the bacteria is the same.  

Sure nuff... it did....   and by Saturday morning I was oozing, in pain, and the hand and arm were puffy too!   

But by Saturday afternoon, the antibiotics were kicking in and I was doing much better.... 

Here I am this morning, just 36 hours later, and it's amazing the difference! 

The swelling is gone, I can feel with the fingertip as well as the whole finger now,

and it's no longer oozing.  The arm and hand are fine too. 

Thank goodness for antibiotics!

So that is how we rung in the New Year..... 

Back at the Blog

It's a new year, and the last one went by like a blurrrrrrr.

But now things "should" slow down, and I think it's time to get back to the blog!

So much has happened in the last few months, and I think now that the holidays are officially over, I can concentrate more on the blog.  I will try to fill with RV stuff, family stuff, and fiber stuff...


Okay... RV stuff! 

We put on 6 new tires, (ouch $2,500)  2 new driving batteries (ouch $200), and the rear brake pads ($150) .... then we filled the fuel tank to the top ($350 or so) and topped off the propane tank ($100)

Do you know what that all means?  It means the motorhome is backed in the yard, facing nose out, and ready to roll!  If it all works out, we can take off for a few weeks or so this winter... most likely Florida for a shorter trip.   Two of the staff at the state park where Steve works have moved to other positions, which only leaves 3 full time staff to run the park till replacements are hired and in place. MAYBE by late Jan, or mid Feb that can happen and we can still take off on some vacation?

I could have it loaded up in about 2 hours and ready to head out if it all works out.  The water lines are all winterized, but we would use bottled water till we are south far enough to fill the fresh tank again....


So stay tuned, we might have some winter travels to blog about!


Next... family stuff.....  

Okay, did you know we were expecting?  Yup... a bouncing 9 pound baby boy!   He's a little fuzzy and not toilet trained, but we are working on that.  He's pretty danged cute though!

LOL..... about a month ago we applied and were approved for adopting a rescue shetland sheepdog via the Michigan Sheltie Rescue.  Here's the story, and of course, it's pretty sad.  It seems a horrible woman in Midland, MI hoarded a bunch of shelties, breeding them and keeping them in a mobile home that was atrocious.  38 live shelties and 2 dead decomposing ones were rescued from the hell-hole she had created.  Soon the 38 became 70+ as most of the female dogs were pregnant.  The pup we adopted was safely born in the home of a rescue foster person, to a very small young mommy dog, just 8 months old herself!  She is the "Daisy" mentioned in the articles below.

article one

article two

article three

article four

Our sweet pup had some health issues when first born, and was kept until all was right and safe and healthy... before he and his littermates were allowed to be adopted. We got him at 20 weeks old, after three different volunteer people worked to transport him over 550 miles to us!   Thank you so much to the kind people who all played a part in our getting him to our home!


We named him Finnegan (also Finney, Finster, and Finnegan Outagain Inagain)  and Duke is absolutely smitten with him!~  Duke has been so lonely since we put down Ducky in June... and this has really brightened his world.

Duke teaching Finnegan to Fetch video

Duke's health is faltering at times, and his tumor is large and growing under his armpit now.  Sometimes he breathes so hard with no exertion, so we figure it's the onset of congestive heart failure.  He goes to the vet next week with the pup, so we will learn more about him too.

Now on to more family....

We had a great Christmas, starting out with a party we hosted at our home for some of Steve's co-workers.  Then we spent a lovely Christmas eve alone, making a luscious snow crab dinner by candlelight.   Christmas day was spent with Steve's side of the family surrounded by joy and fun and laughter... but by the day after Christmas I became sick... and sicker... and had to bow out on seeing all of our grandtots at daughter Erin's house on Saturday for our side of the family celebration!  Steve went alone, while I stayed home sick with the company of only the dogs.

The kids kept me abreast of the happenings up in Oconto with video clips and photos sent text and by email.  I saw all the monkeys playing on the sleeping bags I embroidered their names on. It warmed my heart and made me feel better.  So that is a bit about fibers for my creative friends....

Steve hauled home all my presents which were wonderful, but I sure wished I could have opened them up with all the loving children and grandchildren around me.   My only solace is that I will see all five again in 2 weeks at Chelsea's 4th birthday party! 

It is also the one year anniversary of the closing on our home we purchased last year.  Here is the blog post I made of that crazy day:  

http://kareninthewoods-kareninthewoods.blogspot.com/2012/12/we-moved.html

New Years Eve came quietly and coldly, as most nights the temps have been down in the 5 to 10 degrees below zero range.  The wind chills are in the 20 to 30 below range ...ACK!   Plus, on top of it, Steve caught what I had, so now he was down and out.  We were supposed to babysit for Allegra and Mason, but with Steve so much under the weather, we had to bow out.  Daughterinlaw Heather said Dan also was having a rough day and was not going to go out anyhow, so we were off the hook for the babysitting obligation.   

And that brings up to New Years Day.  We are both not up to snuff yet, but we laid around, watching movies and the Wisconsin Badger football game (we lost) .  As I type this up, I have one dog laying at my feet, another draped over my lap and both are snoozing... hmmm for that matter, so is Steveio! 

HAPPY NEW YEAR! 

Getting Plastered For New Years

It's not what you think....

We called a local plaster company to come over on the weekend for a quick skip trowel of plaster on our ceilings.  You can see in the pic below the long ridge lines of the plaster and lathe that is 100 years old on our ceilings.  It's all intact and firm, but Steve was thinking some texture over the surface would hide the ridges.   Byron Hickman and his partner Dave came over and did some good work for us.   Reasonable and polite and easy to work with.  

Byrons Quality Painting and Drywall

10313 Spring Lake Rd

Valders, WI 54245

Phone: 920-773-3939  

They spread the new plaster in a random fashion with their trowels (knifes) and did a great job!

And once they were done, Steve inquired about the handy-dandy plow on the front of Bryon's truck.  Seems for a $20 tip, he gladly pushed back the snow piles in our yard at the end of the driveway so we would have room to put the motorhome in the back yard, and also room to maneuver a moving truck and extra parking now that the ground has frozen.  ZOOM ZOOM it was done!

It would have taken Steve a long time to do all of that with the snowblower, for sure.

We geared up on New Year's Eve day morning to get our moving truck from Uhaul.  Picking up a 24 foot truck was kinda funny with the agent giving us all kinds of driving instructions.  Finally we told him we drive a 40 ft diesel pusher that is even longer and taller than the truck, he let us off the "training lecture".  HAHA

We had only planned on hauling the large items, and had Steve's brother Pete coming to help us.  Lo and behold, as we were picking up the truck, the phone rang and it was our daughter Erin and her husband Mark.  They said they were almost to Appleton and because we were "OLD" they were coming to help us!  We didn't want to impose on our grown kids, as most of them are working on New Years Eve day.  But Erin and Mark were both off work for the day, and the two grandtots were in the daycare for the day.  So along they came.

Well, once they took hold of things, it was load load load until EVERYTHING was packed!   I was going to haul small loads of items in the car or Tracker during the week, and had not planned to take all of that stuff in one load.   In it all went, with barely a smidge to spare...

We convoyed down to the new house in Chilton, where Steve skillfully backed in the truck up our driveway.  (note, he had previously cut down branches on our big pine tree for added clearance)

Within a very short time, they had everything unloaded!  Most of the items went into the garage, as they are my refinished cabinets, countertop, center island, gas log fireplace, a couple looms etc.  Things that don't need to go in the house right away.   Here are the guys hauling 1/3 of the cabinets... carefully!

They brought inside all of the dining room furniture and that was quite a job for sure!  The hutch and buffet were quite heavy.  I am amazed at how fast they got all the pieces in the house.  Plus all the boxes, bags, and baskets.  Of course, they are all stacked up in the kitchen, waiting to be sorted through and put away yet.

(The kids were heard to mumble something about me being nuts, but I am not sure what they meant?)

Once they were all done, we treated them to a lunch over at The Seven Angels restaurant in Chilton. It was very good and we tried to show our appreciation for all they did for us.  They all sluffed it off as no big deal, but it really really was to us!   What wonderful help and effort and saved us a lot of steps.

They all headed home to rest, and we returned the Uhaul truck and took a nap ourselves!

Note--- we are sleeping on an air mattress on the floor for five days until the store delivers the other furniture we purchased on Wednesday, the 2nd.  But I will write about that in the next post.

HAPPY NEW YEAR! 

MAY 2013 BE A WONDERFUL YEAR 

FOR EACH AND EVERY ONE OF YOU! 

A New Year and Motorhome Modifications posts - ADAPTER

Happy New Year! 

Steve and I managed to stay awake till midnight, and then someone upriver of us started lighting off fireworks into the night sky.  Well, the booming and thumps woke up the dogs, who started to bark furiously.  That in turn woke up sleeping Allegra, who was upset and crying!   Once we got her calmed down, then she was WIDE AWAKE and ready to party!  We popped her into bed between us to get her back to sleep.   Reading stories, singing lullabies, saying ABC's and 123's, even turning on a boring tv show was not enough to get her to konk out again till almost 2 am!    Once asleep, she flips and flops all over the bed.  At one time Steve got feet in the face and another time I got a diaper butt in mine!   Oh, the adventures of sleeping with a toddler-----  She slept in till 7:30 which was nice for us.  

After a pannycake breakfast, we got her changed into her Clay Matthews jersey (after all it IS a Packer Game Day)   and we went over to join her little cousins at Erin and Mark's house. 

This is how we spent New Year's Day... getting in lots of hugs and cuddles!

The wee ones all got together for a Toddler Party... and enjoyed the visiting and playing together.  

We wanted to get the two stinkers delivered back to their Mommies and Daddies in Green Bay before the roads got any worse.  It was snowing, freezing, blustery winds and gusts were going to increase up to 40-50mph later in the day.   Plus, we wanted to get back in time to Oconto to watch the Packer Game at noon.   We drove them home carefully.  I glanced back at them and quickly snapped this shot over my shoulder to the back seat.  It's so cute when they impulsively clasp hands in love and companionship.  We adults need to learn from them! 

We got back home safe and sound as the winds picked up.  I wanted to watch the game out in the motorhome in the driveway.  It was quite cold so we decided to sit in the house to watch the game rather than heating up the motorhome at the last minute.  Of course, the Packers won, even with their second string players taking over most of the game, so the first string can stay healthy and uninjured for the playoffs.   Steve made up a pot of homemade chicken soup for lunch and we were cozy and comfy as the weather outside blasted us into winter.  Later for supper he even went out and grilled some burgers on the lee side of the house!  What a nut! 

Because we are going to face a long cold winter here in Wisconsin, my blog will be pretty boring to the RV readers.  I decided to post one Motorhome Modification in each post, going through my files one by one.  Hope to make it interesting. Some will be items we have changed or altered in our rig, others will be handy items we bought that make RVing easier.

Today's Motorhome Modification is starting the A category.... ADAPTER

When we are parked in our driveway, the only available electrical service is a 20amp plug from the garage.  Why bother taking out the huge black heavy 50amp cord for our motorhome when this will do?  That heavy cord is also a target for unscrupulous folks looking to swipe them for copper.   A Wisconsin RV dealer once had ALL their cords from all the rigs on their lot cut off and stolen!    The orange cord you see in the photo is still a heavy #10 wire, not a cheap thin orange utility cord.  We are able to run one electric heater or one AC unit if nothing else is on using this setup.   Good for when we are packing up to go somewhere, it's nice to have power available.    30 amp versions of this adapter are available too.  I think we got this one from Camping World.  

Poor Steve drove all the way into work this morning on icy roads at 6am, just to sit in the parking lot and wait for the bosses to come in to unlock the building.  Nobody came except the workers.  The bosses never bothered to tell the workers they were off today.  With all the disorganization of the state workers in Wisconsin right now, nobody tells anyone anything....  so the workers showed up and all had to go home again.  That is a 76 mile commute round trip and wasted gas just to come back home.

When the unions were in charge, the workers knew what days were on and what days were off, designated floaters or mandatory days off, and had printed schedules of what was expected of them.  ARRRGGGHHHHHHHH

Imagine my surprise when 2 hours after he left, he is back home again!


Today my plans are to be taking down the tree, tucking away the most precious holiday ornaments into my steamer trunk and the rest will be put into boxes for a rummage sale this spring.  As we go through the house now and prepare it for the market in April, we are going to neatly stack boxes of rummage sale and Ebay items into the garage.   We do not know if we are here in the house for just a few more months or for a whole year.  All depends on the market.  If the house sells fast, we will quick rent a storage bin for the remaining items until they can be sold.  The only things being kept will fit in my steamer trunk and sealed up and stored at Erin and Mark's house.  I found this steamer trunk on the side of the road destined for garbage pickup, and I restored it myself.  It's one of my "Precious Things" that I will be keeping.

Interesting to note, INSIDE the trunk was a set of child play dishes of Fiesta Ware, and some old paper dolls from the 40's and 50's.  I sold them all on Ebay for a tidy sum!

I have a few orders to get out from items that sold over the weekend, plus a new sock order from some RV blogger friends Al and Kelly of   http://thebayfieldbunch.com/    I think their feet are cold out in Arizona and they need some warm socks to make them happy.
             

So my day is set.  How about yours?

HAPPY NEW YEAR! And future RV travel plans taking shape

HAPPY NEW YEAR! 

MAY 2011 BE FILL WITH EVERYTHING YOU WISH FOR! 

We rang in the New Year at home, while babysitting for little Allegra so her daddy and mommy could go out.  She played and played and had a great time, and got to spend the night.  We will bring her home about noon today and finish up back at home by picking up all the toys she has scattered from one end to the other of our house!  She slept through the big Ball Drop in New York, but met us with smiles in the New Year morning.

Her little cousin Chelsea came over for a little visit too in the morning.
They wrassled around a bit and did their Cousin-ly Thing.

Now on to the New Year....

We are gearing up in our heads for a trip out west ... late Feb, all March and into April a couple weeks....

So making lists and checking them twice.  Planning and thinking and starting to stash a pile by the door of things to take.  This will be the longest we have been gone in our RV.  The last Florida Trip was only three and half weeks.  This is gonna be FUN!   Some of the things we want to see is our friends at The Slabs and Lake Havasu in CA, probably see the Pacific Ocean, and probably swing along the south rim of the Grand Canyon on the way back in April.  So if any of you RVers are reading this and live along the way... give me a shout and I will add you to our list!  Or if you have any great ideas of things to see or places to boondock, (you should know our camping style by now-- no fancy resorts -- no expensive campgrounds)

Well, time to bring this little bee-bopper back home to her parents!