Countdown to On-The-Road-Again

My lead photo is the spring flower arrangement my sons had delivered to me for my birthday.

Beautiful!! Thanks, Kyle and Trev!!

Kyle and Jenni were here last weekend and it turned out to be a rather hectic visit because they found out that they had to move their wedding date. Jenni's brother, Josh, is going to be deployed to Afghanistan the last week of October so there is no way he would be at a November wedding. Her brother, JP, is currently in Afghanistan, but will be home by mid-summer. Amazingly, they got in to gear and by Monday they had everything switched to an October 9th wedding date. There is a new reception hall, hotel, caterer, etc., but I think it will all be at least as nice, if not nicer with the new arrangments. There's also a greater likelihood of nice weather. Jenni has updated the info on the wedding which can be accessed from the link on our left sidebar.

Jenni did convince Kyle to start going through pictures to find some that the can use for slideshow at the wedding.

I think they were both a bit overwhelmed seeing we had 4 of these blue tubs full of family photos. After one box, Jenni was pretty sure they already had more than enough pictures! We have few if any videos but we sure have plenty of photos.

Our grandpuppy, Staley, did not seem to be terribly concerned about all the weekend commotion, having found the sunny spot and warm tile by the back patio! She'd had a tough week. She'd paid an overnight visit to the vet to be spayed. Surprisingly she had no stitches as they now use some sort of glue. So at least she didn't come for her visit with one of those silly funnel collars. However, 'Aunt Sox' was not at all keen on the idea of welcoming another spayed female, especially a now much bigger one, in to her domicile. Poor Staley dealt with a lot of snide little snapping and growling from the old girl when all the pup wanted was to get her to play. I think that's why Staley reconciled herself to pretty much finding a spot and chilling out.

The signs of spring were all around. Including the huge flocks of birds that made stops in the trees in our backyard on their way north.

Oh, and thanks to those who continue to check in on Kyle and I on our weight loss challenge. As of last weekend, Kyle has lost 30 lbs so far and I have lost 17 lbs. It's really a dead heat between us right now and with the wedding date moving 4 weeks closer we are now pushed to get to goal even faster. 9 weeks down, 30 weeks to go.

Ken has completed the ceramic tile in the master bath shower, floor and two adjoining closets. There's still lots to be done but we need to start switching gears and prep for our roadtrip. I've inherited his carpenter knee pads since I'm spending a lot of time now scrubbing down the tile to clean away and remnants of the grout and film it leaves.


As we begin to switch gears to planning for our lengthy roadtrip, one thing has panned out better than I'd anticipated. It looks like our 'sticks n bricks' home will be more busy while we are on the road than when we've been home. Trevor dropped some unneeded classes in order to focus on his CPA and so only needs to be in Charleston now one night a week. That means he'll be housesitting and studying here while we are gone. In addition, Ken has his good friend, Bo, who is excellent at remodeling and, in particular, woodworking, coming in during these weeks to keep things moving on the upstairs remodeling. If that's not enough, Ken also has a nephew coming by to do some outside painting. I'm glad this is working out because I was concerned about leaving the house for 8 weeks.

Tonight Ken and I venture out to the local Anglican Church for their Fish Fry. This will be our second time attending. No, we aren't Anglican, although I have already learned I should not say we are Catholic since Anglicans also consider themselves Catholic. We are Roman Catholic by birth with ties to Unity Church as well. However, my very good friend, Cheryl, whose mother was a war bride from England, is Anglican and invites us. Its the first time I've gone to BYOB church fish fries!! Actually, I was kind of surprised we were invited back since last time I ended up in a lengthy 'discussion' with the Bishop on the origins of the Synoptic Gospels. I seem to be wired much more for seeking, curiosity and skepticism than for traditional faith but apparently he enjoyed the interchange and suggested Cheryl invite us again. I think this time I'll try to stick a bit more to enjoying the meal and less to arguing religion with a bishop!!

Time to be off for our evening.

Hugs,

C