Our Journey Through LIFE!: 2014

When it rains, it really poured!

Thankful that the storms around here always move by quickly. A sign that even hard times will again be a thing of the past. Sometimes the path has bad weather, but it too shall pass!

October

I LOVE the fall!

The weather is changing.

Crops are being harvested.

Leaves are beginning to fall.

Plus there are “Grand” baseball games to attend!

Sometimes it’s even a family thing…

This year, his team won their way into the playoffs as the wild card. And just like the Giants, they brought home the trophy! Our grandson’s first trophy and boy was he excited!

As always October brings our Annual Boo Bash…our 6th Annual be exact. It’s always a lot of fun and the work of putting it together seems trivial when during the festivities the giggles and gratitude make it all worth it! The older “Grand’s” even enjoy helping to set up and create. The girls had fun smashing Oreo's to use as dirt for our pudding cups. The boy’s seemed to enjoy the building of things. We didn’t have as big a turn out as other years, but it was still a blast.

November

Immediately after the Boo Bash, and I mean like 2 days later, we were packed up and heading to NASCAR with the new trailer.

For almost 10 years, the old lady served us well!

Our New Journey will make the next 10 just as memorable.

It was so nice to be there early. No stress in trying to park with other’s already in place. It was tight with the old trailer when we arrived later. Not that the hubby couldn’t park it right on the line, it was me. I am so thankful he knows just how to do it! It also gave us time to goof off some before the “Grand’s” arrived.

Of course we need our annual pre-race picture!

Being down on the start-finish line was awesome and the kids had a really good time.

All packed up, ready to head home!

We barely got her unpacked before our world was rocked again with some tragic news.

Yes, last year we had a similar thing happen. This one was even worse. For the next few weeks, who am I kidding, I still grieve and like now, it was and still is minute by minute. One little thought can set off a memory and the tears just flow. It is times like this I miss my mom’s, even after 13 years, it isn’t any easier.

A loss is a loss and to know what the road ahead will be like, for those closest, I can only imagine. However, I am not superwomen and I have my days. If you have been reading me since the beginning, you’ll understand how hard this stuff can be.

With that, I need to do this in 3 parts. I really thought when I began updating I would be able to get past this part. Maybe even leave it out. But then that would be leaving her out, and she is someone who shined bright and had great love to share.

Please, just pray for my family. For their loss of someone so young and that God continues to heal her 3-year-old son. No words will ever fully explain the pain so many are going through. When her celebration of life has been planned, maybe I will share more. Till then, your prayers mean the world to so many!
Tomorrow I will conclude the Holidays on Our Journey Through LIFE!

Hadn’t realized it had been 6 months since the last time I posted. This will hopefully be another change in the NEW YEAR!

Where did the time go?

More like, where did we go? Or what did we do?

Anywhere we possibly could, and anything we wanted, or didn’t, or needed to do or do!

I had wanted to write a post before we got too far into the fall and Christmas season, but that didn’t happen. We only went from busy to busier and didn’t slow down till the week of Christmas. (Yes, I typed that correctly, I had spare time the week of Christmas, and I’ll tell you all about it, later though!)

The last time I posted, it was of the wonderful trip our daughter gave us. I completely forgot to post the finished collage of pictures.

Remember I had this blank section…

I LOVE this updated version of a tradition that just kinda happened…

I’m sure you have seen these benches outside the parks. Love them! They are perfect for climbing on and photo ops. I hope they never take them away.

Little man got his picture taken as well, and a new tradition continues!

June

Our 6th Grader graduated and is onto Junior High!

Of course, we had to throw an End Of Elementary School Party to celebrate!

We combined it with a Birthday Party for his brother who turned 3!

Combining parties is a win-win!

What a wonderful day it was with everyone having a perfect time!

July

We got a new neighbor on The Funny Farm!

Her name is 4X, because she crawls over everything like a 4 wheel truck!

Grandpa loves giving forklift rides.

August

I decided to build a Gnome Garden at the entrance to the “Grand” Beach. Which included redoing the path around the tree, then moving the hopscotch and widening the beach, PHEW! Thank God I now have a young man who comes to help me with these type projects. Which is why hubby found him because I can’t keep up with it all anymore. Progression on the IBM Journey has forced us to regroup, adapt, and overcome another step of this journey. August showed us how quick one test can change everything. As if we didn’t already know it could or would! We were just content in the world we had created not worrying about the could’s or would’s, as if those are real words, but then we don’t think this world is real at times either! One appointment brought great new, while another, not so much. We’ll focus on the great part, give the not so much stuff to God, and continue working on that path God has planned for us…

By mid-month part of the path had been entirely transformed.

And the beach was widened…

And the hopscotch was raised and leveled.

Come spring it will be ready for another super sack of sand.

Then on our way home from an appointment, we found something we hadn’t really been looking for. I mean, we look at them all the time. My girl was 20 years old, in great shape with great memories, but was getting tired. So with the good news we received, we decided to check out Camping World in Avondale to see what they had. Just a lot of the same stuff we had seen, but there, off to the side was this sweet looking girl…

I loved her at first sight! Even without seeing the inside!

But she wasn’t listed for sale yet! Someone had just traded her in, and the keys weren’t available. The blinds didn’t allow us to see in the windows. The salesman would let us know what was going on with it by our return the following week.

With that in mind, we made an extra effort to be sure we had found a good deal. Searched online for information and we were liking what we saw. We also looked at a couple others, and by the time we returned the next week 2 other units were in the running. I couldn't decide on which one until I saw the inside of that one! I hadn’t heard from the salesman by the day we were back in town, but I still had one more unit I wanted to see, so before we headed out I shot him an email.

By the time we got out of our appointment, which had some PERFECT results, I had heard back from him. He had the KEY! Hmmm, God’s putting things in our path?
Have faith Don’t question!

The minute he opened her door, the second I stepped into her, took another step and sat on the sofa, I just went, “This is it!” I didn’t need to see anymore. Oh, and he thought he was going to have an easy sale from there! Oh, no! Just because I LOVED her didn’t mean I didn’t want a GREAT deal also.

After a bit of figuring back and forth, I got her for what I wanted to spend and a SOLD sign was put in the window. One thing I learned when buying an RV, you don’t just drive off with them. In our case, there were a few things that needed attention, and we had to bring them our trailer as a trade in.

In the meantime, we had a birthday to celebrate and on the way we found an RV park just minutes from our son.

After cake and presents, nothing was more fun than a family game of croquette! Ok, maybe there are somethings that could be more fun, but for today, at that moment, it was the funniest thing to be doing and enjoyed each and every laugh and giggle!

And then the following week we got our move-in date….

I wish I could write it was a dream from that moment on, but that was not the case! Even being understanding of the heat and the two monsoons that blew through, I was disappointed in how it was handled from the first. After getting a bit pushy, the owner stepped up and made everything right, just as it should have been. However, that required us having to take her back over where it took almost 2 weeks to get her back!

September

Yep, another Birthday!

She’s HERE!

It took ten days, a new AC unit installed, drawers fixed and some other electrical thingy replaced, but she’s back home!

They delivered her instead of us having to drive the 3 hours back. We also got so more new things to sweeten the deal along with cash for the gas we wasted. Though I will never take my unit to be serviced at this location, the salespeople and the store managers are fantastic. We saw them 2 months later at the NASCAR races and had some great laughs and vents. Now all I do is enjoy her. In fact, it took me a week to pack her up, and her maiden voyage was to Chula Vista, CA, with an ocean and sunset view!