Happy Birthday to me

Yep, made the big 65 today. We went into San Antonio City and enjoyed the day shopping. When we arrived home my son presented me with my Texas Cake! The flower on top was sent by my son who is back in Pa.




When we lit the flower candle....it OPENED & Played Happy Birthday!




Thanks guys, I've never seen anything like this!

We needed a taste of Philly

We are just so busy all the time..it's wonderful! BUT..there is always a but..we both got a little hungry for the things they don't sell in Texas. No real bakery shops as far as I can tell so I whipped up some Philly Sticky Buns...and we wolfed them down!

Your home should be your castle.....

no matter how small it is. We decided our home needed to support the things we like to do. After all, it's just the 2 of us and if we want it cluttered, then so be it!

The only real furniture we brought with us is my dining room table and small china closet. I don't have a sewing room so where do I work and where can we eat? Today we did some second hand store shopping and found a huge 9 foot table. It needs to be sealed with varnish but other than that, it will be a great place to work when I need the extra space. Of course, we can also remove a few of the extensions when I don't need them. The dining room table is now where we'll eat- with no clutter!

Tonight we sat side by side to eat dinner. I think anyone sitting at the end would have to fight for food! The last time I saw a table this size was in an Amish kitchen in Lancaster, Pa.

Take time to smell the roses

Well, they aren't roses, but they are the first flowers to bloom in my new garden! No furniture except a new sofa but we did plant a flower garden, put up a sun tent and bought a barbecue and lots of good things to eat!

I'm also trying to get ready for a mini retreat in Houston in August. I wanted a wall hanging for the gals to sign so I'd have a memory to hang up. Pretty hard working on half of a table that we did bring with us, but I got the top done today.





I guess you can see I have the Texas Fever!

No one ever mentioned the Texas sky

This is just a quick post, we are so busy unpacking and shopping for furniture. Yesterday on the way to the store I took photo's of the Texas Sky. Maybe because the building's are all one story or maybe it's just so blue, I love looking at it and trying to see the images the clouds make.

This is just around the corner from the house...SHOPPING...everyone of these buildings are stores...I'm in heaven!

The photo's look dark because of the trucks tinted windows, but the sun was shining bright!

Ready, Set....GO

Here is where we started, a 26 foot truck to pack up excluding furniture. Sounded like plenty of room considering we down sized by 50%. We were taking only the things that meant something to us..HA! I think we just love too many things because the truck was too small!

Unfortunately on day one of the packing my RA decided to flare up taking out my feet and ankles. I did what I could do, some of it with the power chair. But poor Dave had most of the work all alone. First disaster was the stove that we thought we would take along just in case. It took a trip off the side of the ramp so that was one thing we didn't have to pack!

It was dark when we stopped with half a house to still load and some items still in the garage. We were exhausted! Thursday it rained which slowed us up and again by night fall we just couldn't finish. Instead of leaving early Friday morning, we left at half past 3 in the afternoon. Since the electric was shut off we had no choice but to leave, dirty, tired and hungry by this time.

Ohio was only 30 some miles away. Seeing Pennsylvania in the rear view mirror meant we were on the way...good feeling. We spent the night only 50 miles away from home but the shower and food made the short trip well worth it. By now we knew we would be riding out some of the worse storms in the morning.

Day 2 proved to be a monster. Remember, I stopped driving 5 years ago. I was nervous about this trip, never knowing when my diseases would keep me down and hold up the journey. Rain in the amounts that Ohio held for us was not something I was enjoying. Dave kept telling me not to worry since he treated the windows with Rain X. True, I could see through the sheets of water and all the cars and trucks pulled off the road under bridges, but Mr. Rain X was not driving the pick up truck for me and I really struggled with it flying at 65 miles an hour towing a trailer.

I don't think it could have rained any harder by the time we reached Cincinnati. It was so dark it looked like midnight with wind blowing and swirling around the truck. We didn't quite make Bowling Green before I HAD to stop for the night. I don't think I would have made it through another large city in the pouring rain.

By morning it was still cloudy and soon began to rain again. Tennessee was much of the same until 100 miles from Memphis when the sun finally came out! We stopped early when the rain began again, both needing a rest from it.

Day 3 it rained off and on right into Texarkana when finally we saw bright sun! We had intended staying here for the night but by this time had lost many hours with the truck breaking down everytime we stopped.

Up until now we had depended on the Garman to get us home but Texarkana was under road construction and this is where we got a rude awakening that it's only a little machine and does not adopt to construction. When it told us to exit, the exit was no longer there, taking us under the over pass 3 times in heavy traffic. Now we could have stopped and called Sherry who would have put us in the right direction but it was also at this point that I realized the orange folder I had all the contact info in was no longer on the front seat of the pick up. Dave jumped off the interstate and onto a back road that went for miles before leading us back to the interstate.

Shortly before entering Dallas it began to rain! Oh NO, and Dallas was also under road construction. It was a nightmare getting through Dallas! Huge is all I can say! We didn't quite make it to Waco before stopping for the night.

We woke to bright sun and 95 degrees...we were almost home and we had smiles on our faces!

Day 4 & 5 were the hardest, unloading the truck into the house and garage. We soon saw that we needed to down size again it we ever intended to buy furniture! We have a full pick up truck to take to Goodwill. A week has passed and even with working everyday on boxes and totes it won't look much different until we have furniture with drawers and storage.

Everyday Dave & I look at each other and say, "It doesn't matter, we are here"!

Deep in the heart of Texas!

I don't know how we did it, but one fellow and his worn out Mom arrived in Texas on June 8th! The trip started out with dropping the stove off the side of the moving truck ramp and leaving behind items we were just to tired to load, but all that is in the past now!

I gave up driving 5 years ago, so getting behind the wheel and pulling a trailer seemed impossible, but I did it and have learned I'm not done yet! We started out at 3 PM on June 3rd and hit every storm Ohio had to offer by days end on the 4th. Kentucky and Tennesse offered the same heavy storms and didn't stop until 50 miles outside of Memphis.

Finally sun! But...it wasn't over yet. We entered Texas only to find every city is building Super roads, confusing the Garman who sent us off the interstate when it couldn't find the "no longer exists exit ramp" and over the same under pass 3 times before we gave up in the middle of evening traffic. We found ourself on a Texas road that seemed to go for miles without any life before the Garman finally programmed itself and found the interstate again.

Did I mention the new moving Truck shut down at every gas or food stop and took an hour or two to cool down before it would start up again...from Ohio to San Antonio. We lost almost a full day just waiting for the truck to start up.

We also had to deal with the dog who refused to get out of the pickup truck. He just wanted to go home and hated his first ride in an elevator first night in a hotel. He finally stopped running for the back seat of the pickup when we finally started bringing in items that smelled like home to him.

After arriving at noon on the 8th, having no key to enter the house and having no idea where I put the cell phone number of the property manager, we sat outside the house in 95 degree heat. Every inch of my body hurt but the sunshine and heat felt wonderful!

We parked the moving truck and headed for a Denny's to gather our plan back together. After cooling down and getting some much needed food we did find the phone number. Seeing a sign across from the Denny's for a sale on mattresses we headed across the highway and bought two beds so we would at least have a place to lay down for the night.

At 1:30 PM we finally opened the door to HOME! (more later)