2019: Christmas recap through spring break

Warning: this will be a long post. However, in my defense, I had a few weeks of panic when an email from Google arrived with notification that their blogs were going to be deleted. I have done a little more research, and if I'm not wrong (fingers crossed) my blog will be okay because I don't use google+. Admittedly, I was pretty upset thinking that years of family events and memories would be deleted. Not to mention the panic I felt trying to figure out how to save it all! Fingers crossed and prayers are being said that we are still going to have a digital journal of family events for a while. In the meantime, I need to figure out how to back up what is on the blog.

Because time has gotten away from me, I am going to try to summarize the major events that have taken place so far this year. Thank goodness it isn't July!!

January - Family Christmas: The extended families had numerous obligations for work, school, and family; so, we opted to not hold our annual Christmas Eve family gathering until after the holidays.  We all met at the yellow house and enjoyed brisk weather, warm fire pits, laughing children, crazy dogs, catching up, games, and relaxation.

The girls' Christmas present was a trampoline. It was a little hard
to wrap so it ended up being covered with extra cardboard boxes
and "unwrapped" on the family work day.

Because the living room in the yellow house is really small, we
decided to spend time outdoors. Scott moved Miss Lippy to
the side of the drive way and we used the parking area
for a gathering place.  He had a last minute brainstorm
and built 2 7 ft. long tables and several 2-person benches
out of the old deck boards. They are perfect!! I just need
to give them a new coat of stain and they will
last us for years.  The changes in the parking/driveway
made to accommodate the 5th wheel gave us an
abundance of parking space.

We always have to go through some doggie adjustments
when the family gathers. Tico and Maya got along fine.
The rest of the boys in the pack needed some time to
acclimate to one another. But, the grand girls always
pick up right where they left off.

This year, we decided to eliminate adult gift exchanges and focus
on the kids. They got some interesting gifts this year: money,
journals, games, Hogwarts wands,
 and 400 dum-dum suckers!

I believe if they had been given a bag of rocks and sticks, they
would have been just as happy. They seem to thrive on the fresh
air and outdoor activities when they get together at the
yellow house.

To explain the 400+ dum-dums: Leslie & Rebecca's gifts for
the girls were delayed for one reason or another. Leslie wanted them to
have something to open so she made a mad dash to Sam's club
and bought gigantic bags of suckers!

Jamie and Ryan were so excited to see THAT surprise!  Actually,
they were really good sports about the sugar overload.

Family pics wouldn't be complete without Scott's weird face.
It's a good thing Seth hasn't picked up that habit. It still shocks
me to see Seth standing next to Scott and wondering if
he will be taller than him
the next time he comes over.

We were all joking that Uncle Scott will eventually become know
as Uncle Moneybags if he continues to use
 his spare change as gifts for the girls. 

Not one to let a reason to celebrate Christmas pass,
Jamie planned crazy gift opening games for the girls.

It consisted of trying your best to wrapping gifts wearing oven mitts.
It had to be opened before your partner rolled doubles. If not,
the give and mitts were passed to the next player.

She didn't leave out the adults. They got their share of frustration
trying to unwrap extremely well wrapped gifts.

I think it was more fun taking pictures and listening to them
than it would have been had I played as well.

G... no words.  If he wasn't sneaking inside to warm up, he was sleeping by
the fire pit.  he does not like being cold, smelling like smoke, or being
outside. But, he was there and didn't complain... at least not
to me! Now, Leslie might have gotten an ear full.

My handsome guy... Can't believe he is a senior!!!

Scott set up targets for a bit of shooting competition. We just used his
pellet gun and some paper targets 

Leslie was sent to get targets and only found these.  We
had to get a little creative and give points to who
hit closest to the bull's eye on each target.

Even the grands got to try out their skills.  Once
they figured out which eye to close and how to
put the stock near their shoulders, they did ok.

It really wasn't that loud. No idea why ears needed to be covered.
Maybe she was cold??

After numerous missed shots, Scott finally got out
his fancy shooting chair and the girls started
hitting the target.

January - February Winter Birthdays:  Leslie and Rebecca had their birthday in January and Seth had his in February. I didn't realize how neglectful I've become about taking pictures until I started looking through my pictures for this update. I had to scavenge pictures from everyone's Facebook pages. Needless to say, I need to start remembering my stupid camera when we get together!  Here is what I was able to find; not much but better than nothing!

The family decided to meet in Temple to celebrate Seth's 18th birthday.
It is a 2 1/2 hour drive for Leslie's family; an hour for Ryan's family;
35 min. drive for Becca from work; 40 drive for Seth from Gatesville; and 30
min drive for us from Killeen. Schedules were crazy at this time of
the year and we were determined to NOT put off this important
milestone for Seth.

He hasn't ever been too thrilled about getting his
picture taken. But, his aunts and mom were
relentless and got a pretty good shot of him.

He was even really good natured about the Roadhouse
birthday tradition. 

How can this sweet, gentle giant be 18?!?!?

Jamie has become the official baker for birthdays. She managed
to make a personal cake for Leslie...

another one for Rebecca...

and one for the family to enjoy. We are so
lucky to have her... the cakes are always
amazing!

March - Granddaughter Sleep-over; Sophie's fund raiser; Family Camping: One of the things I noticed while we were at the Roadhouse was how much the girls miss each other. They were disappointed that we had to end birthday dinner so early and it was so hard for them to say good-bye. I decided to have their moms bring them to me for a weekend around their spring breaks. Unfortunately, their breaks weren't at the same time; they were back to back.  But, luckily it worked out. Depending on the day and hour, they had a great time, an ok time; and a not so good time. But, they managed to create lots of sweet memories. We played on the trampoline, colored, visited a local Rock and Roll Ice Cream Parlor, shopped for books at Barnes & Noble, had a visit from Aunt B, stayed up way too late, went to church, and ate a lot of junk food.

Uncle Scott and Poppy set up an outdoor table under
and awning because we had simply beautiful weather.
Too beautiful to stay inside for meals.

I love that the girls enjoy coloring. I'll admit that I'm a coloring
fan and cherish the time we spent coloring and chatting. 

The girls managed to fit on the new IKEA sleeper/sofa. But,
a couple of them have issues with gas so one of them
moved to the love seat in the middle of the night.

I managed to get a beautiful picture of the grand girls
with my feathered girls in the background.

Who can pass up a chance for a silly pic??

The trampoline was a rest spot, jumping spot, snacking spot,
and chatting spot. Still one of my smartest purchases ever!

March - Baking and Camping: During part of the Ft. Worth grands' spring break, Sophie needed to learn to make cinnamon rolls.  She was chosen to attend a leadership conference for a week. However, it will cost $1,000. Leslie wants her to earn as much of the fee as possible so she decided to sell cinnamon rolls to the school staff, Gerson's work associates, and their church family.  I drove up and spent a couple of days with them to teach her how to make them.  Sophie did an amazing job and worked so hard. Together we managed to get about half of her orders filled.  She finished up the orders once they went home after our camping trip.

Sophie learned how to use the bread machine to make her dough.
She used regular yeast for the first batch and it took forever.
Once we got the rapid rise yeast for bread machines, the
process went much more quickly.

Before long, she had two bread machines going at once
and didn't need any help at all.

Doesn't everyone need an apron this cute??
The socks really set off the outfit.
It's a shame she looks so serious.

We had originally planned to camp at Big Bend National Park. Unfortunately, the government shut down made it tough to get reservations in time. We ended up going to a local Corp of Engineers Park. It was okay, but quite a let down after planning on Big Bend.  Leslie, her girls, Scott, Ron and I went out early and got camp set up. Ryan, Jamie, and the twins joined us a couple days later. Rebecca came out and spent a day with us. It was cold but bearable and the girls had a great time.

The camp site we had backed up onto a huge, empty field.
The grands were able to play baseball, kick ball, horse shoes,
climb trees, and shoot off sky rockets. 

For some reason, the guys preferred to assume
the responsibilities of the spectator section.
However, Scott had a pretty good reason to sit around.
The brakes on Miss Lippy locked up on the way out.
He spent the first couple of days at camp working
on getting them in good working order again.

The nights and early mornings were pretty cold. However,
the afternoons warmed up beautifully. The girls were
able to remove several layers of clothing and got
plenty of exercise.

Unfortunately, there was only one hiking trail at the camp grounds.
We were only able to cover part of it because one loop was
overgrown.  

The part that was cleared was fairly easy to walk, nice and wide,
and had a few really scenic areas perfect for pictures.

Like this one...

And this one...

and this one.

Any time spent with family around a camp fire and enjoying
nature fills my heart with joy and happiness.

Unfortunately, this camp out wasn't all joy and happiness.
We experience the sorrow only pet owners understand.
Crazy Hoss, Rebecca's bulldog, died while we were at camp.
He was eleven years old and we think his old heart
just gave out after a day of running, barking, and
being loved.  We will miss the crazy, sloppy guy.

Whew! The last time I got this far behind, I swore it wouldn't happen again. Never say never! Anyway, that's the last few months in a nutshell.

RV living has been a long process... light at the end of the tunnel.

The last post I wrote about our move to full time RV living home addressed the site prep. Over the past couple of months, we have had one set back after another because of the weather.  But, I think I can safely say there is light at the end of the tunnel.  

What we have accomplished so far may not seem like much. But, like I said before, we have had horrible weather to work around. On the "done" side of the to-do list, we have:

1. The loop and RV pad both completed.

2. The additional parking and car port are in place in front of Scott's little barn.

3. The RV has been moved on site.

4. Our power drop is installed and the RV is hooked up.

5. After some trial and error, the furnace, water heater, and AC all appear to be working.

6. The fresh water tank is filled and the pump is working.

7. We have a portable honey wagon for dumping the black/gray/galley tanks. 

8. Most of our belongings are unpacked and in the RV.

9. Some remodeling (or customizing as Scott says) has started.

10. We are actually living in the RV!

Here are a few pictures and captions to give you an idea of what we've managed to get finished.

Getting the 5th wheel moved in was a challenge. It was sitting on top of a hill, at
the end of a dirt driveway with a very narrow gate. In addition, it was in Lott; which
is about an hour away on a winding country road. Luckily, Scott (who drives
big fire trucks all the time) was able to help Ron get it moved.
We had a bit of trouble getting into our gate and around the corner of the garage.
It is pretty clear we will need to widen the gate at some point. The 5th wheel got
dinged on the corner of the garage and Scott felt horrible about it.
He patched it up with a fiberglass patch kit for RV exteriors. We just need to get a
decal or something to put over it and you'll never know it happened. 

Scott rewired the garage and  put the 50 amp power outlet on the back side of it. He also put
in a 30 amp box for Miss Lippy. She will be our guest room when family
comes to visit. She is parked up next to Scott's barn right now but can easily be moved closer to
the power outlet when family visits.

Scott suggest he put a motion sensor light on the corner of the
garage so we can see if we need to walk into his
house after dark. I don't think he wanted to be awakened
in the middle of the night by his parents calling, "Help! I've fallen
and can't get up!" But really, he is quite thoughtful
and has been a Godsend!

We put some railroad cross ties along the edge of the
RV pad so the gravel won't constantly be
spreading into the back yard. We hope to go to a local mobile
home dealer and get a set of stairs to use when we
are home. The RV steps aren't bad, but getting groceries, etc. in
will be easier with better stairs. 

We put solar lights in the cross ties and along the back of the garage.
We also put down a path of paving stones to keep
the yard from getting a path; and,
to avoid tracking in mud when it rains.

Next, I'll try to explain what I have done inside. I still have a lot I would like to do, but need to make some decisions about the furniture first. I like the concept of the L shaped couch that converts to a bed. However, the bed is actually an air mattress and would have to be inflated each night and then deflated before the slide can come in. Crazy concept in reality. We figure we will look for a comfy recliner for Ron and I'll use the one that is already in the RV. Then, all we'll really need is an air mattress to put on the floor if any of the family travels with us. We wouldn't even have to deflate it when we travel because it could be placed on top of our mattress. 

I'm still torn about the ugly window treatment in the living area.  I would love to just put up curtains. However, the existing treatment does protect the edges of the blinds. I bought some fabric to recover the part that has the Granny brocade and I think I'll be happy with that. I'm just dragging my feet about tearing them all down. 

This is a picture of the kitchen before I started pulling off wallpaper
border and took down the window cornices.

There was a horrid wallpaper border all the way around the living
and kitchen area.  It wasn't hard to remove. I just got a little
carried away in a couple of places and pulled off
the wallpaper behind it. I have to figure out how to
fix that. There was a little of the sticky residue in a few places but
Goo-gone works wonders. 

Dining area before we removed 2 chairs and
turned the table and light fixture in the other direction.

The previous owner had covered the seats on 2 of the 4 chairs.
She had also painted the table top. I
like the color but I'm not sure I'll leave it that way.
I also found some cute farm scene fabric to recover the seats. We took
2 of the chairs to Goodwill. I hope we don't regret it. 

I've started covering the cornices in the sink area with duck
cloth. It was about the most neutral pattern I could find
since there is just so much going on with the furniture!

This is the stove area after the new back splash was up. Super easy to
do! I just hope it doesn't look too much like a 50's diner.

Scott laughed when he saw how much glass ware I had sitting out.
I kindly explained that as long as we are sitting still, it is our home and
I want the things that make me happy sitting out. When we travel, I'll
pack the glassware up and store it in the sewing room.

The previous owner loves purple. She had a beautiful comforter on the bed;
but, I wanted to use Mom's quilt. She didn't want it back; and, no one
in the family wanted it so I donated it. 

Luckily, she had already removed the RV cornices in the bedroom
and put up curtain rods. All I had to do was sew up some new ones
with fabric that matches the quilt.

I couldn't part with my National Guard clock so it sits in
the bedroom. I just had to turn off the chimes. All of this will
have to be stored when we travel. For now, it makes me happy
to have a few special photographs sitting out.

I recovered the head board to match the valances and pillow cases.
But, I haven't attached it to the wall yet. I'm leaning
towards removing it all together. I may paint the
wall in the slide out a bright, happy color instead.

Things we still need to do:

1. Get water run to the back of the garage so we can hook up directly. (On the

positive side of this, we are getting some boon docking practice.)

2. Buy more support blocks to get the RV completely level.

3. Ensure the water leak around the bedroom slide is indeed because of not being completely level. If not, get it fixed.

(During recent rain storms, we found a damp spot on the floor on the downhill side of 

the bedroom slide. Until we figure out exactly where the water is getting in, we pull in the slide when it rains and haven't had any other damps spots.) 

4. Continue to remodel the interior so it feels more like home.

5. Set up some sort of tool storage in the basement of the RV.

6. Organize the office area inside the RV.

7. Replace the uncomfortable RV furniture.

8. Downsize to a smaller storage rental.

9. ... and numerous other things I can't think of right now.

While all of this has been going on, Ron and I are getting our annual preventive health care out of the way.  We figure we won't travel during the winter months because neither of us like snow. Besides, winter is filled with holidays that we want to spend with family. So between mammograms, dental and eye appointments, colonoscopies, check-ups, etc. we have been really busy. Sometimes it seems like time is dragging and we'll never hit the road. However, I feel we will be more successful if we take care of every little thing before hand.  

As we continue to settle in, remodel, and figure out this new lifestyle, I'll provide further updates. 

Thanks for letting me share this crazy journey with you!

Maggie Turns Twelve!

Our oldest granddaughter, Maggie Lyn, turned 12 years old today.  For a tiny, little premature baby, she has grown into a tall and willowy, brainy beauty.  True to her loving nature, she opted to  celebrated her birthday with family at a Madeline Hatter themed sleep-over/swim party at a local La Quinta Inn and Suites.

Aunt Jamie made Maggie's Madeline Hatter cake. It had a chocolate layer and a strawberry layer. Mags loved the strawberry!

The number of candles created quite a flame once they were all lit! 

Uncle Scott sent his traditional bag of money; one dollar for every year.

Opening presents with the cousins watching closely...

family looking on...

enjoying Chipotle for lunch...

wearing silly hats...

jumping on beds, having balloon fights...

swimming...

silly cousins wearing goggles...

goofy sister, and a Beluga ring toss game.

The party day was followed by several important milestones. During Primary, the young women of her ward went into sharing time and kidnapped Maggie. She is now officially in the teenage girls' group instead of the children's primary. Her middle school choir had their Christmas performance at the performing arts center in Saginaw. And, Maggie was able to attend her first Young Women's meeting. Lucky for her it was a progressive Christmas Dinner. She had a wonderful birthday week.
We love you, Maggie, and are so thankful to have you in our family!

Getting the Property Ready for the RV

      Now that the house in Temple is sold, Ron and I need to focus on getting our pad in for our new home on wheels. Scott has graciously taken in his “homeless” parents while we get the drive and pad for the RV built. Built really doesn’t seem like the right word because there is more tearing down taking place than building up.
      At this point in time, we have hired someone to do the work; however, the weather hasn’t been cooperating. The guy was out last week and started the parking area in front of Scott’s barn but had to stop after an hour. The ground was just too wet. Then on Saturday, the family all came over to help cut and burn trees to save us some time and money. We all ended up muddy messes! However, the granddaughters had a blast climbing trees, making mud pies, and building with random pieces of junk.
      We are hopeful the work can resume tomorrow. We’ve had 4 days without rain and the ground seems to be drying up on the surface. Unfortunately, it may be another story about 6 inches down.
I figured I better get some before pictures loaded onto the blog . . . Just in case!

Ron and Scott decided we needed and additional parking area.
They are going to have the dirt guy put in a gravel pad
that's large enough for 3 cars to park here. They also want to
set the car port over in this area. It was at the end of the current drive.

This was the muddy mess the dirt guy made on his first attempt. But,
he did manage to get that brute of a boulder out that the
kids fought with on our Saturday workday.

Scott rigged up a hoist to pull the stakes out of the car port. He sure is
a lot like my Dad. I guess he learned his lesson well when Grandpa was
teaching him about tools and building. This thing worked great!
Some of the stakes were about 2 feet long. Luckily, they came out easily.

When the family was here, we use Egyptian engineering to
move the carport into the front yard. Using the aluminum tubing,
we rolled the carport down the drive and into the yard.
Even the grands helped by grabbing the tubes and moving them to the front. The guys
drove the riding mowers up onto the frame; just in case we get some
strong wind before we can anchor it in the new location.

There used to be a really nice deck here. Scott built it when we put
up the above ground pool. He intends to put another pool
up on the west end of the property but will build a new
deck.

I helped him tear down the deck and put the boards that are in good shape
down on the west end. He is going to repurpose them as a loafing shed
for the mowers, tools, chicken feed, and coop bedding.

I had to add a picture of my girls.
Such pretty birds! But, man is their run a muddy mess!

This is the area where we will park the RVs. It is already
nice and level because it is where the pool used to be. The loop of the
drive will be in the grassy area beyond the 2 trees.

This end of the driveway will most certainly come out. The
new drive will go back into the cedars. The dirt guy has
some sort of attachment to cut the cedar down.
He'll then move them to the west end where the burn area is.

This is our burn area on the west side of the property.
Eventually, Scott wants to put in a fire pit, grilling
area, tables with benches and swings.
The pool will be here as well. I think I'm going to
get the grands a trampoline for Christmas and put
it down here somewhere.

Scott tried his hand at making rusting benches out of
the trees they cut down. They are perfect for the grands to roast
hot dogs and make Smore's.

Hopefully, the next post on the blog will have some "during" pictures. I'm not looking forward to the mud and mess of construction. I'm also not looking forward to keeping the two crazy dogs cooped up while the guy is working. But, hopefully, he will be ready for gravel to be brought in by Wednesday. Fingers crossed!!

A Literary Blast from the Past

While cleaning out papers, I ran across a short story that was written by my daughters and nieces. Evidently, the girls got together one day, typed up a story, and printed it on a dot matrix printer. (Man! Hasn't technology improved!?!?) The girls each signed the story once it was printed, some at the end of specific paragraphs, leading me to believe that they were the author of the paragraph that they signed. Some of the paragraphs don't have a specific author, so maybe the girls will remember who wrote what. What's even stranger is, I signed it! I guess I was in on the writing session... who knows! Although Alisha didn't sign the paper, I can't imagine her not being in on this so I'm giving her credit as well.

Because I'm not adept at using Ron's scanner, I took a pic of the original and have re-typed it below. I tried to stay true to their original grammar, punctuation, and spelling; but, today's computers make it hard to misspell words. Enjoy!

The Family Reunion

In the summer of 1993, the family of Bob and Shirley Porter gathered together for a family reunion. Their four children had families of their own, living all over the world because of job assignments. It was the first time in over five years that all of the children and grandchildren had been in one place together. (author unknown)
Little did they know that this summer would be known as the Summer of the Great Swamp Monster.  The monster had big long eyes sticking out of its head hanging on long anteneas and its face was all pinched in except for its mouth which stuck out real far so it could eat little kids next door. (Amanda Porter)
The Porter kids were known to be little brats so when the swamp monster heard about the family gathering next door, he figured it would be a great place to eat all the bratty little kids. (Sarah Porter)
After the kids had eaten dinner, the swamp monster thought it would be a great time to eat them because they would be fat a juicy. The kids would be going into the pool and their parents wouldn't be watching them. (Sarah Porter)
All of the kids were in the pool and one of them thought she heard something so she went to tell her favorite cousin.  "I think someone is looking over the fence at us." Her cousin loked but didn't see a thing. She said it was a wild imagination. (author unknown)
Suddenly the monster dived into the pool and caught the cousins by their swim suits and then began to rip out their hair because it would give the monster indigestion. (Jessica Porter)
Soon the parents came out and the swamp monster didn't have time to eat them all so he threw them into his own yard. (author unknown)
Then the children were all screaming, the parents were all crying, and the swamp monster was trying to escape with the children. Then the hero's arrived. (either Rebecca or Leslie Searls)
First to the rescue was Sheena the Bold with her golden hair flowing in the wind. Next cam Kiki the Quick with his swift, strong body. Following Kiki was O.W. the Wonder Cat; everyone wonders what he's good at. Finally, the four schnauzers arrived, singing and howling at the top of their voices with their voice coach, Sugar the Sweet trailing behind.  Jack the Nimble Two by Four, Tara the Troubling Bella, Molly the Motherly Mutt, and Missy the Messy. (Gwen Searls, although I don't remember this! And who the heck is Missy??)
The swamp monster was overcome by all of the overpowering love and devotion shown by the animal heroes so he dropped the cousins and ran for the hills never to be seen again. (either Rebecca or Leslie Searls)

I was going to add a picture of the girls, taken at the age this was written; unfortunately,  I've already given most of my photos to my kids. Maybe at some time in the future, I can get either Rebecca or Leslie to loan me some. In the mean time, I took the liberty of getting screen shot pics from their Facebook pages. Here are the authors of the short story, The Family Reunion. Beautiful inside and out.

Amanda Porter Elmer

Sarah Porter Harward

Alisha Porter

Jessica Porter Lehman

Rebecca Searls Castello

Leslie Searls Gutierrez