Bye-Bye to our Home of 33 Years

Note: 

The adventure continues...

It's hard to believe that it's been 7 years since our last blog post!

For a number of different reasons, several folks have encouraged me to restart,  so, please bear with me as I try to remember how to do this and learn all that has improved in blogging in the past 7 years.  

With the start of 2021 we say goodbye to our home of 33 years.  

Thanks to Lois Jacobson for making the sale process so quick and easy.  The weekend after we put the house on the market, here's the listing,  we had 2 offers and another buyer in the wings.   We don't close officially until next Friday, January 8th,  but that's pretty darn quick turnaround considering we didn't put the house on the market until Thanksgiving weekend.

What took a long time is deciding we were ready to sell. We started talking about getting rid of our 'sticks n bricks' back in 2007 as we became empty-nesters and started spending most of our time in our motorhome.  I would be surprised if in the last 10 years I've spent even a quarter of my nights sleeping at the house so it was increasingly feeling a waste of a nice home. 

But, for me, it was particularly hard to give up the house that Ken designed for me from scratch. .  Based on the homes we loved most in North Carolina, he designed it literally with pencil and graph paper.  (If interested you can see his design here in pencil, from May, 1988.)

We toyed with selling around 2014 but we really hadn't touched the house in years and the kitchen, in particular, was far too 1980's for the price range.  And, to be honest, Ken was ready to sell but my heart wasn't in it. 

Then, I can remember a day 5 years ago, after finishing the main floor remodel, that Ken said,  "I'm not moving, I'm here for good. As far as I'm concerned you'll have to bury me in the backyard".  That was after he put heart and soul in to designing and doing a good part of the work on a full main floor remodel.  PS.  We are NOT the folks to ever flip houses--we both get too caught up in making it just the way we want it which is not geared toward resale!

However, 3 years ago, after driving by the 'for sale' sign for a decade, Ken's dream property, 40 acres of untouched woods, at the Carlinville city limit,  suddenly dropped in to our price range. He was making an offer the next day. That was the start of Curve in the Creek.  But, that's for a different blog except to say that it started us down the path of finally committing to sell the Quincy house.

Ken told me that a car trailer would pay for itself simply be eliminating our need for a moving truck.  So this is how we moved, about 6 times between Quincy and Carlinville.  Ken was very good at playing jenga with the loading and our GMC Acadia with tow package handled the loads just fine. I did feel a bit like the Beverly Hillbillies though. 

Last Load Ready for 2 hour trip to Carlinville

We did about 80% of the move ourselves but thanks so much to our neighbor, John Edwards, who was always showing up to help with the heavy stuff.  Nephew John Gallaher and his son, Robert, also came over to help the last day of heavy lifting.  Kyle and Jenni helped throughout as well,  especially when it came to all the sorting and what to keep, what to give away.  Jenni hauled some big loads of non-furniture items to the Crossing Thrift Store. They also always met us with the trailer on the Carlinville side to unload it in to the barn. We knew we weren't planning to have another house this size and maybe not at all so lots of things went to the Crossing.  I'm thinking someone was able to furnish another whole house by the time we were finished!

Last Load Waiting Thrift Store Truck

Someone reminded me recently,  you may have to leave behind the house but the memories you take with you.  In our 60's, for Ken and me, that's true except for the part where our memories are increasingly unreliable.  For that reason, I've compiled a home tour here that we and the kids and grands can come back to  when there's a desire reminisce. 

That's a tour of the house but maybe,  more importantly,  are memories of some favorite family moments at the house, always filled with family and friends.   I've started that album here. Warning, it's a large album!)  It covers mostly activities since 2007 since we haven't digitized most of the earlier photos yet. (That's 4 tubs in the barn now!) 

Friday this house will start making memories for a new local family, with 3 little ones.  Our wish for them is that it is the place of ever growing family warmth and happy times that it was for us. 

This blog will be a place we can come back to when we want to remember. 

Ok, that major move's behind us now so stay tuned for where we are headed!

Hugs, 

C

Saying Good-bye to our Second Family-But Just for a Little While

(Acworth, GA) On Sunday, Ken’s godson, Kenny, hosted a final barbeque to see us off.  We had been in NWGA, Northwest Georgia, since September, so it was the longest time we’ve got to spend with the Ellsworths since they moved to Georgia before the boys were born.  As I’ve said in past post, the timing was meant to be since Dave’s battle with cancer ended in February and we were able to be there during this difficult time.

Our second family here…Kenny’s beautiful lady, Erin, Kenny, Donna and Brian.

Ken and Kenny had finished both bathrooms in Kenny’s new home.  Both now have new tile with nice baseboards with quarter-round, new stools, vanities, faucets, medicine cabinet

It was a beautiful day so Ken found a place to relax on Kenny’s back porch.  These chairs are some of the strangest I’ve ever seen!

Kenny had plenty of help on the back deck where he was grilling the chicken breasts.  He’s introduced us to a new Montreal seasoning that we really like on grilled meats.  Donna’s sister, Diane, joined us along with Diane’s son, Jason and his family.

Everyone had contributions to the meal and, as usual, we had a wonderful feast with this crew.

Kenny is an engineer and has a plasma table at his work where he can design some very intricate patterns in metal.  Here’s an example of his work that really impressed us.

As it turned out, as a ‘thank you’ for Ken’s help with his bathrooms, Kenny made one as a gift for us.  We’ll be able to put this out at our RV sites.  Ok, so Brian did a great job of photo-bombing my first shot!

We are really going to miss our second family but they usually made a trek to Quincy around time of the country fair so we’ll hope to be with them again the end of July.  Ken and I are also thinking the April and October would be great times for spending time a the nearly Corp of Engineers park, McKinney Campground. 

Hugs, C

On the Road Again!!

(McKinney Campground, COE, Acworth, GA)  It’s been literally years since our last post. That’s because August 1, 2011, I chose to take on some SAP project management consulting assignments.  itelligence, the German-based, SAP-specific consulting company that I chose, had been a great partner for many years when I’d worked as an SAP Director at Gardner Denver.  It was a good decision and the consulting company was very accomodating, placing us in assignments where Ken and I could continue our ‘RV Dream’ while I worked.  We were in the motorhome 80% of the time, driving back home to Illinois periodically for family visits.
My favorite work assignment was in Jacksonville, FL, not just because of the awesome winter weather but because of the awesome client.  We were able to implement SAP in 26 weeks at a medical device distributor. 
It was lucky we were in Jacksonville because Ken had to have his fifth surgery for his Crohn’s disease and my work was only minutes from the Jacksonville Mayo Clinic where there are some well-known specialists in the field.  As it turned out, the surgery did not go as well as we’d hoped.  Ken had to have all but approximately 5 feet of his small intestine removed (you normally have about 22 feet).  This means he really cannot have surgery again since anything less than 5 feet means you can’t absorb nutrition.  Since he’s required surgery on a fairly regular cycle of every 7-10 years, we are hopeful that the next years show some breakthroughs in treatments for this disease since current non-surgical options have serious side effects and low remission success rates.  When we heard this Ken and I were glad that I’d chosen to take a 3 month leave from consulting while he recuperated giving us some time to decide what next in our adventure.
One addition to the family during our time in Jacksonville, was Ken’s new jeep, a ‘rock lobster’ colored Jeep JK  Moab Edition. This is definitely Ken’s new toy.  I’m amazed at how much money you can continue to spend on a brand new vehicle!  In the picture below it has just received it’s latest additions, bigger wheels and a 1.5 inch Rock Krawler max travel lift.

Our two sons’ and their wives had their own very special way of filling our time.    We had two new grandchildren born 3 weeks apart.

Oldest grandson, Jameson, surrounded by babies now!

Precious granddaughter, Stella.

Our always bright and bubbly, Henry.

In conversation  near the end of my Jacksonville project, the VP of Sales made me aware of a pending new project in Rome,  GA, .  Once again, it felt the universe was sending us a message.  We have ‘framily’ near Rome in Acworth.  Dave and Donna Ellsworth were our best friends from when Ken and I first met in 1979, were best man and matron of honor when we married, and named their first son Ken, with my Ken as his godfather.  A few years ago Dave was diagnosed with a combination of brain and lung cancer and despite some time in remission the ugly C was back.   It made perfect sense that I volunteer for the Rome project.
When we arrived in Georgia Dave was still up and about and able to go out with us to dinner and join us for some outings. Unfortunately in late November he had to go in to the hospital and was not to return home, passing away in February.

Memories: Dave and Donna, Kenny and Brian came to watch Trevor play Jacksonville State

We were glad we were able to be here.  In particular, Ken got to spend a lot of time with his godson, Kenny, as they worked on remodeling the bathrooms in the new home that Kenny had recently purchased.  Below is the new vanity. mirror, tile and toilet they did in the master bath.

We also were only a few hours from the annual FMCA  Rally in Perry, GA, so I scheduled vacation for that week in March.  This turned out to be one more piece of synchronicity.  It was one of our the best rallies ever mostly because of the two great couples we met there.   Don and Laurie  had a beautiful HR Navigator motorhome that parked right next to us.  They, in turn, ran in to Don and JoAnne,  when looking for someplace to eat on Sunday before the rally started.  It was like we’d all been friends for years, just a really nice comfortable fit. Don and Laurie run their own business in Orlando so while they aren’t likely to be hitting the road full-time, they do frequent Good Sam and FMCA Rallies. So,  between that and our expectation to be back in Florida again in our travels, we’ll be sure to see them down the road.  Don and JoAnne had just made the decision to retire and full-time.  He is a urologist who was actually doing some presentations at the rally on men’s health.   JoAnne is a bit apprehensive about giving up her ‘sticks n bricks’ to hit the road. While they have been RVers, travelling the country with their 4 children over these past decades, it will be a big change for them to hit the road full-time.  They have a beautiful Tourmaster motorhome but it will be a definite adjustment not to be going back to their large family home.  They are such lovely people to be around that I’m sure once they are on the road and get to know the wonderful full-time RVer ‘village’, they’ll be hooked.

Dinner at Swanson’s in Perry: Don and Laurie Burns in the front, Don and JoAnne Fuerst across from Ken and me

As for us and full-timing….well, after all these years of indecision we have our house on the market. Actually, it’s been on the market for several months but it’s difficult to sell a golf-course house when there’s snow on the ground! 

You can find the listing here.  Ken’s sister is our realtor and our nephew housesits for us so we are in good hands to be on the road while waiting for the sale.  
I’ll fill in some more of the pieces of the past couple of year’s in later blogs but wanted to at least see if I could still remember how to post!
Hugs,
C

Illinois to Georgia and back for Jenni’s First Long RV Trip!

Hello there, this is Jenni!  For those of you that don’t know me I am Ken and Cindy’s daughter–in-law and am married to their oldest son, Kyle. You are going to hear things from my point of view this time……you are in for a treat…..ENJOY!

Oh, first of all, I really am 5 foot 2 inches…………….NOT 4 feet!  I am quite ok with being short; it comes with the territory, but I had to set that record straight!  Gotta hang on to what height I do have!

This was my first long RV trip!  I have stayed and traveled in the RV before but no longer than a weekend so this was a BIG first for me………….no relation to the height thing, haha!  We were headed to Kennesaw, Georgia for Kenny Ellsworth and Jenna Reid’s wedding.  Kenny is Ken’s godson and Kenny’s parents are also really close friends to Ken and Cindy.  Since Kyle and I have been together I have had the privilege of getting to know the Ellsworths and Jenna very well.   So needless to say, I was just as excited as everyone else that they were engaged and we would be traveling to their wedding!

We left on Tuesday, June 5, as soon as Kyle got back from work.  Ken and I had spent the afternoon loading the RV and making sure everything was ready to go by the time Kyle got back so we could just head right out of Carlinville.   Cindy would be flying into Atlanta to meet us on Thursday, leaving me with the two boys.  Oh my, what an experience that was! 

The plan was to spend our first night at Ferne Clyffe State Park in Goreville, Illinois.  We arrived that evening in time for Kyle and I to take a hike on one of the trails.  I am sure it was a really cool trail, but unfortunately night over took us and we were more worried about the animal sounds we were hearing and watching our steps than trying to see anything else.    Luckily in the morning Ken took us to another trail and we were able to see the beautiful greenery of Ferne Clyffe!

From Ferne Clyffe State Park we continued our journey to Chattanooga, Tennessee.  The second day was our longest day of driving on our way down with 6 hours total of driving.  I was the designated navigator while Kyle road in the back and got lots of precious reading time in…….I was really jealous of that! 

At the end of our second day (first all-day-of-travel) we decided to stay the night at Holiday Trav-L Park .  It was a different experience for me, being so close to other campers.  I am used to the more secluded campsites that Ken and Cindy choose, but it was really nice and even the red fire ants welcomed Kyle to Tennessee!  Poor guy had little red bites all over his ankles.

The next morning, Thursday,  we headed out on our last leg of the trip to Victoria Campground in Woodstock, Georgia.  The campground was really impressive and really beautiful!  Very wooded and part of the campground overlooked Allatoona Lake.  Our campsite did not overlook the lake but it was close enough that we could easily walk to it. 

      

Thursday was spent relaxing in the RV since we were all really tired.  I took full advantage of the boys napping and got some of MY precious reading time in.  I am reading the 50 Shades trilogy and was on the second book at the time.  It is an interesting read to say the least and I was excited to have a chance to kick back to read.  Ken awoke and decided this was a photo opportunity.

                                                                                          

 

We were joined by Cindy that night, and the next morning we headed into downtown Atlanta to see the Georgia Aquarium.  We stopped first at a diner across the street from the aquarium for lunch, Johnny Rockets.  It was a really cool retro diner that took you back to the 50s and 60s.  Their food was delicious, their shakes were yummy, the music really set the scene, and the diner itself (staff dress included) really completed the time warp!

I have only been to 2 other aquariums in my life and this Aquarium put them to shame!  Being the largest aquarium in the world will do that for you though.  It was absolutely amazing!  My favorite part was the “Dolphin Tales.” I have never seen dolphins perform and I loved it.  In fact I enjoyed it so much, that I wasn’t sure if Kyle enjoyed watching me act like a little kid more than watching the show himself.  If you ever get the chance to see this, do!  Unfortunately they didn’t allow any photography in the showroom so we don’t have pictures of this………..guess you will have to take my word on this!

We also saw a variety of fish from different rivers and oceans world wide, big fish, small fish, eels, sea horses, and frogs!  They even swam over our heads in parts, it was too cool!

That night we made it back just in time to change and watch the beautiful bride-to- be Jenna run through the ceremony rehearsal, with her dad by her side. 

On Saturday, the wedding day, Kyle and I took advantage of some alone time and toured the Smith Gilbert Gardens in downtown Kennesaw.  This is our second week long vacation since we have been married and since we toured a garden on our honeymoon we decided this would be a perfect way to spend the afternoon before the wedding. 

One of our favorite parts was the rose garden where there were probably close to 40 kinds of roses of different colors and breeds.  It was beautiful and we couldn’t  resist taking pictures in this beautiful area. 

           

We even found an alphabet garden.  Each letter had a plant with it that began with that letter………….so I snagged some photos that stood for each of our names, including our last name!

Finally, the wedding!  The ceremony took place at the First United Lutheran Church in Kennesaw.   Kenny’s first glance at Jenna as she walks down the aisle.  Being a bride once, I know what a special moment this was between Kenny and Jenna.  Kenny’s smile says it all!

The minister did something that not everyone does, a blessing over the couple.   It was a very peaceful moment especially when you see the bride and groom together with heads down in reverence.  We were also able to catch a photo of  the presentation of the couple for the first time as Mr. and Mrs. Kenny Ellsworth and, of course, their first kiss as husband and wife.  

                                      

Kenny and Jenna with the rest of the Ellsworth family, his parents Dave and Donna and his brother, Brian.

The reception was held at the Pine Tree Country Club, also in Kennesaw.  Everything was beautiful and the party turned out to be a really good time……especially all the dancing and getting to spend some time with the newly weds before they left on their honeymoon!

                        

Sunday was another lazy day for us all.  You have to recuperate like that after such an awesome time the night before!  Plus it was raining so the only thing that could get us out of the RV was food.  We wanted to try this JD’s BBQ that we had passed by many times that weekend.  It turned out to be pretty yummy!

                                                     

We spent the rest of the evening playing the game, Carcassonne.  Kyle had been on a winning streak that we were intent on killing!  Cindy won one of the games and then Kyle took back over, ARGH!  The next morning, Monday, was really early,  and I decided that since Kyle isn’t the sweetest morning person, that I would be the one to ride with Ken and Cindy to the airport in Atlanta at 4:40 AM.  Cindy left me alone once again with the boys, and they didn’t wait too long before they got their shenanigans started again! 

Ken, who also got up that early, was awesome and drove us from Georgia all the way to Metropolis, Illinois!  Kyle and I were not the troopers we should have been but neither of us could keep our eyes open, so we took our turns sleeping on the couch.   We ate at Cindy’s favorite Mexican restaurant that night, El Tequila.  Too bad, Cindy wasn’t there with us though! 

That night the boys played more Carcassonne where I believe Ken kicked Kyle’s butt in both games while I worked on writing this blog.  I also wasn’t feeling that great, especially the next morning (the beginnings of a sinus infection are not fun and usually knock me down pretty well the first few days), but I was a trooper the next morning and rode with the boys into Metropolis downtown to pose with SUPERMAN!

 

                 

                                  

While Ken packed up the RV, Kyle and I walked through the Fort Massac Museum and grounds around the museum.  The fort overlooked the Ohio River and switched hands between the Spanish, French, British, and Americans over about  time before ending up in the American’s hands.  There was a replica built of the fort, that unfortunately was closed, but was still really cool to look at.  In the middle of what looked like the grounds for the original fort stood a statue of George Rogers Clark.   George Rogers Clark took  Fort Massac from the British in 1778.

                                                                      

We left Metropolis that morning and arrived in Carlinville around 4.  Ken worked on loading the jeep to take home to Quincy for the night.  He had a few things to do there before picking up the RV Wednesday to drive back up to Joliet for the weekend where he will pick Cindy up and visit Trevor and Leah……….and of course Jameson!  I worked on unloading our belongings from the RV and making a mess of our house that I had no intention of touching till the next day.  Kyle took off right away to pick up our puppy, Staley from the kennel.  We all said our goodbyes and I was sure to thank Ken for all he and Cindy did for us over our trip! 

My first long RV trip was a success and I had a lot of fun!  Thank you again, Ken and Cindy, for a wonderful trip! 

I hope you all enjoyed a new writer of the blog and I hope that I will get to do this again!

Jenni