Safe & Sound

We made it and we made it safely!  Since it rained on us for quite a while both days. we were glad to be safe.  Yesterday we made it to Brentwood, TN, just on the south side of Nashville.  Nashville was a breeze getting through last night - yay!  We've had terrible traffic tie-ups in that city before so yesterday's ease was wonderful.  We even made it to Corky's for some BBQ and some live music!

We left Brentwood at 5:00 this morning and got in here about 6:40 tonight...just in time to have pizza at the Ranch's annual Halloween party.  It was so good to see everyone.  We went as weary travelers!!  We came home a bit ago and are just enjoying sitting in our home NOT MOVING in a car!!  Dave brought in only essentials - we'll unload everything else tomorrow.  I love the paint.  but these plywood floors leave a lot to be desired!

We're so glad to be here!

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Wednesday

I think we're pretty much ready to take off.  The car is mostly packed so we'll finish up in the morning and get going.  We're not in a hurry and not going to push to get there in 2 days this time.  We're tired now, so we'll take a leisurely trip down.  I'm anxious to get there because I can hardly wait to see the place now that it's painted.

I may not be able to post for a couple of days, so don't expect much.

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Tuesday

God is good!  Just thought I'd tell you all that!  We just got home from Waverly and Waterloo, and Minnesota.  Had a great trip.  We sure enjoyed seeing Bryan, Erin, and baby Aidan!  Hope to get some pix on here tomorrow.  We also got to see Linda and Al.  I had a senior moment yesterday.  I had clothes on hangers to take on the trip - long pants (because it's cold up there) and a jacket.  Last night about 10:00, I realized that I didn't have my clothes with me - they were still back in O-town on the back of the kitchen chair where I put them!  I'm sure glad I had clean undies with me!!  So today, in 39 degree temps, I wore shorts and a sweatshirt that I borrowed from my great nephew!!   Pretty funny looks I got along the way today!  Let's just say I'm ready to be back in the sunny South!

On our way home tonight, we came within a few feet of hitting a deer.  I saw her and yelled, Dave saw her and slammed on the brakes.  It's a good thing, too, because we were awfully close to her!  I'll bet she about had a coronary, too!

Don't forget to thank God for all your blessings tonight!

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Sunday

Dave's home!!!  I'm so glad!  Thank you, Lord, for keeping him safe in his travels.  Now we're planning to go north for a couple of days and hopefully leave here on Thursday for points south.  Right now I'm too tired to think about any of this.  We're hoping to stay with Linda and Al tomorrow night and also see Aidan sometime.  Bob called today from up that direction and said that gas was $2.75 at Pilot on 21 up by I-80.  I'm hoping it's still that tomorrow when we go by there.  That would be a nice treat!

Now I've got to get busy and get things organized to go.  I don't think it will take me long, but I need to download some files, get our tax papers together, etc.

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It's Saturday

I was beginning to wonder if Saturday would ever get here.  I'm getting tired of being alone - can you tell?  I'm even reading Les Miserables!  I thought the title was appropriate!  I did have a good day, though.  I mowed the leaves AGAIN!  There were at least twice as many today as there were 2 days ago and our trees are still packed with leaves.  Where are all of these leaves coming from????  It was a great day to mow - I even had to shed my jacket.  So I was in shorts and a t-shirt mowing on October 25th!!  Not bad for Iowa on this date!  The house stayed at 70 all day - I didn't have to turn the furnace up at all today!  We're supposed to have a couple more 70 degree days and then the temps are to drop.

Dave gets home early in the morning - Lord willing and the creek don't rise!  His flight gets into DSM at 8:30 so he's hoping to be at church for fellowship time.  Can't wait to see him!

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Friday

I looked out my window this morning and it was snowing!!  Leaves, that is.  Honestly, they were falling so quickly that it looked like snow.  Guess what I get to do tomorrow!  I guess I'll be mowing leaves again.  Unfortunately our leaves aren't even 50% on the ground, so there'll be more mowing in our future.  At least it's supposed to be sunny and 72 or so tomorrow.  It'll be nice to be on the mower with those conditions!

This mornings card club got cancelled because of the fog.  I didn't think it looked bad, but we've got ladies who come from Fairfield and from Oskaloosa and they wouldn't have wanted to drive in the fog.  So I got ready for my afternoon of playing 7s from Hell.  I made 4 poppers of popcorn and got out some apples for snacks.  Sheryl and I won today.  I think everyone's catching onto the game very well.  They should be able to play once I'm in Florida.

Tonight I've been working on cleaning up more pictures.

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Thursday

I got a lot of my to-do list done today!  I paid bills, got most everything on my desk dealt with, and got ready for tomorrow!  I even got my autumn tree pictures loaded on the computer and I remembered to take the trash out!  I didn't get my bank accounts reconciled, but that usually doesn't take me long, so I can do it in between events tomorrow!

As for fall trees, here's just one of the pictures I took in Fairfield.;  I should have had my camera with me today here in O-town because they are beautiful here - the cemetery is extremely beautiful today!

Maybe I'll take my camera with me tomorrow!  I put some others on Facebook for your enjoyment!

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Wednesday

It was another beautiful fall day today.  I went outside this morning, looked at all the leaves on the lawn, and decided I'd better mulch some of them before it rained and there were thousands more leaves on the ground!  When I finished the lawn looked pretty good.  I'm almost positive that I'll need to mulch again later in the week, though, because the leaves are falling quickly now.  Also, our neighbors' leaves seem to all be coming into our yard.  What's up with that?

I've been waiting up watching the baseball game, but I think I'm going to go to bed before it's over.  Hopefully Kansas City has a big enough lead to win game 2!  I'm really not an American League fan, but I've been hoping KC wins just because of the proximity to us.

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Beautiful Day

All day today, I kept singing, "This is the day, this is the day, this is the day that the Lord has made..."  It was about 65 and sunny and the trees are beautiful - at least a bunch of them are.  Others are still green, but the oranges and yellows and maroons are spectacular!  I went to Fairfield today to meet up with Al (I needed to pick up some Tupperware from Vicki before leaving for Florida!)  While I was there, I shot some pictures, but I didn't get them uploaded yet.  Maybe tomorrow!

I got several things done today - I got Brighthouse taken care of as well as Pest Bear!  Tomorrow I've got to mow leaves if it doesn't rain too much.  The wind today did a number on our leaves.  I told Dave there weren't enough to mow, but by 5:00 or so, there seemed to be double what there had been earlier!

Tonight I had a sorority meeting - there were only 12 of us there.  It was short and sweet, though.  Bev gave a very interesting program about breast cancer.

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Monday

Great BRT this morning!  We actually made it through a whole chapter today!  I love the 3rd chapter of James.  I think if we could all live by this chapter's lessons, the world would be a better place!

I called Mediacom today and they actually got someone here this afternoon.  He told me he was getting different readings on our modem, so he replaced it.  Lo and behold, I haven't had one disconnect this evening!  I hardly know what to do!!

Dave was able to find the laminate for our house today, but he didn't find any rolls of luxury vinyl.  He made a bunch of phone calls this afternoon, though, and found one place that had 20+ rolls of it and great rates.  So he's going there tomorrow.  Unfortunately neither Suzy nor Roberta will be with him.  I hope he picks out something I like!

Sudi, I hope you all have a fun time - be sure to tell everyone hello from me!!  Tonight after DWTS I have been going through pictures on my laptop.  I literally take thousands of pix (and so does Dave) and I don't always have time when I download them to my computer to go through and delete the so-so pix.  That's what I've been doing tonight.  What wonderful memories we've made in the last few years!

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Sunday

I got a little bored this evening.  I finished a book and then ate my lunch.  After lunch I turned on the race.  I remembered why I don't like to watch those races where they draft all the time.  Plus #2 won and I don't like him much!  He did sort of apologize for his antics last week, but he's apologized before and then came right back out and did something stupid the next race.  He must be a slow learner!  It wasn't a good day for the Hendricks' team...3 of the 4 drivers are out of the Chase.  Jeff is still in, but he's number 8 out of 8.  He's got to get a win next week to get back in the thick of things.

Dave says I'm going to love the paint in our home at The Ranch.  He and his family are going shopping tomorrow for the flooring.  I'll be anxious to see what they pick out! Mainly I want something that looks good with the paint and doesn't show dirt!

I've got a  big to-do list for this week.  First thing tomorrow, I'm calling Mediacom again.  There is just no excuse for this!!

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Thanksgiving Day

Wait a minute...what's wrong with you, Peg?  It's not Thanksgiving.  Thanksgiving is in November and this is only October!  I guess it doesn't matter what the calendar says, we had our family Thanksgiving tonight.  We were missing Kaylee & Clayton, Al, and Rhonda's family.  Little Blaise was funny tonight.  He was doing belly laughs until he got the hiccups and then he got a little miffed!  He just kept rolling over and over and he loves to watch TV!  He just turned 5 months old this past week!  We had turkey and ham and all the trimmings except pumpkin pie.  I/We cooked the ham and made apple salad.  I forgot to put the marshmallows in my salad, so we put them on top and that worked just fine!

I'm listening to my Cyclones play, but Dave is sound asleep in his chair.  We're tied, but Texas is threatening again.  This is a really high scoring game 38-38 with 3+ minutes left.  Where's the defense?

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Friday

This was a good day.  It was a little cold, so it couldn't be called a great day - ha!  It only got up to 54 so I kept wishing I was some place warmer!  I know I'll be there soon, I'm just getting anxious!  I worked on the November newsletter for The Ranch today.  I am about done with it.  I just need to find out about the monthly breakfast and then I can send it to get printed.  Everything starts in November - bowling starts on the 4th, shuffleboard on the 5th, the first pancake breakfast on the 15th.  It made me realize how much fun we have with our Ranch friends.

I was also able to get my studio cleaned up and my cards put away.  I still am looking for all of my Christmas cards.  Dave thinks I may have sent them to Florida already, but I don't remember doing that.  If I don't find them here, they've got to be there.  There are over 50 of them, so I hope I didn't hide them really well!

Dave went to Q's house to hang her curtains for her.  Three of the 4 curtains we bought had major flaws in them, so he had to return them for others.  Hope she likes them.  Again, thank you to our church family!

This evening we went to the Heartland Humane Society's fall supper - pulled pork sandwiches, cole slaw, baked beans and homemade desserts.  Very good food and a good cause!  Then we dropped by Bob & Ann's.  Tomorrow is our family's Thanksgiving dinner so I'll have a busy day getting my salad made and cooking the ham.  Should be fun!

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Heavenly

I loved today - the sun was shining and it got up to around 60, so I got my shorts out again.  I didn't do much today.  I had a massage and then a 2 hour nap.  I also got caught up on my games and did the laundry.  Plus, you can almost see my desk again!!

I'm glad Sudi & Howard made it to Florida safely.  Dave will be going again next week and then he'll come home and get me.  We'll be there before you know it, but not soon enough for me!

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Two Little Boys

All of the rain we've had for the last few days has made me depressed, but the arrival of our newest grandson is a bright spot among the raindrops!  Let me introduce you to Aidan William Cornelius Frushour....big name for a little guy.  He was 20" long and weighed 7 lbs 4 oz.  Aidan was born on Monday, Oct 13th at 12:28 PM.  He is just precious!  

As you can see, Grandpa and Grandma both think he's pretty special!

While we were in the Waterloo area, we went to Linda & Al's for pizza and to spend the night.  So, we got to see Blaise, too.  He looks pretty big after seeing Aidan!  Blaise is 5 months old today and weighs about 19 lbs!  He was having fun with his grandma and great, great aunt Peg!!

We are glad to be home for a few days.  We'll decide what we are doing about Florida soon!  After these last 3 days of cold, windy, rainy days, I hope we get to go soon.

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Mostly great weekend!

What a fun weekend!!  We picked up our new vehicle on Friday morning and took off for Ames.  It had 5 miles on it when we picked it up.  It now has considerably more than that.  We're discovering more and more things as we get familiar with it - some of which are pretty cool!  It's keyless, so all we have to do is have the fob in our pocket - everything works that way.  Even the lights go to bright and dim without you initiating it and I can talk and tell the radio what station to play!

Friday night we had our little reunion in honor of Kevin Hart.  The guys who came back had a great time reminiscing, laughing, and we even had a few serious moments with our toasts to Kevin.  Coach Bruce even showed up, which made it even more fun!  He's pretty sharp for being 83 years old.  He would remind guys about things they did (or didn't do)!  Some of those guys I hadn't seen since 1975 or 76.   Dave took lots of pictures and just let me mingle, so I had a blast!  Then Saturday we went to the Gridiron tent and the game.  Most of us sat in the same section, so I got to experience the awe and wonder through the guys' eyes.  It was a packed stadium and the sun was shining brightly so it was beautiful.  All of that cardinal and gold made for beautiful sights!  Linda and Al joined us too, so it was like old times!  After the game, we tailgated in the parking lot until about 8:00 and then headed home.  Even that late there were still lines of traffic on I-35!  Fun, fun weekend!

We went to church this morning and when we got home there was a message waiting for us that Cindy & Joel wanted to stop by on their way back to Ames.  They'd been in Mt Pleasant all weekend, so that was the icing on the cake!  We love being with them.  They stayed only a couple of hours, but we gabbed as fast as we could so we didn't miss anything!

Tomorrow morning we head off to Waterloo because Erin goes in for a C-section around noon.  So hopefully everything will go all right and we'll get to meet our new grandson tomorrow afternoon.  We can hardly wait!  We'll probably spend the night up there and maybe even get to see Kyle, Cassie and Blaise.

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Thursday

Dave and I got our papers in order today because tomorrow we're picking up our new vehicle and heading to Ames.  I've got to pack yet, but that won't be a problem.  I was hoping we would get to see Cindy and Joel, but that's not going to work.  Cindy works tomorrow and only has a half hour for lunch.  Darn.

We'll be coming home on Saturday after the ball game and then on Monday we'll be going to Waterloo for the new baby's birth.  We're excited to meet him!

Sounds like a very busy few days.  Add to that packing the car for the trip South and we'll need a vacation soon!

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Beautiful fall day!

This was an absolutely beautiful fall day.  I packed up my stamping stuff for Florida and made sure that everything was ready for tonight's stamp class.  Then we went to Fairfield to have lunch with our friends, Sudi & Howard.  We went to a place called Doc's Inn - pretty good food.  It's always good to get with Sudi & HB!  Next time we see them will be on the beach!

On the way home from Fairfield, we got a call that our new vehicle had arrived at Vaughn's.  Unfortunately our salesman has tomorrow off and we couldn't get it tonight because of my stamp class.  We'll be picking it up on Friday.  We've waited this long for it, what's another couple of days?  I guess it's inaugural voyage will be to Ames!

Tonight's class was a little frustrating.  We had 12 people in class...we ended up $1 short and this was the messiest class we've ever done.  Several stamp pads may be ruined because of not cleaning the stamps before inking them, therefore we may have purple ink on a blue stamp pad.  We also ended up short on paper at one station.  It's enough to make you pull your hair out...these are adult women!  Oh, well.  Hopefully the sun will come out tomorrow!

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Fun day

Dave went to What Cheer to pick up a used clothes washer for a lady in our church who has been washing all of their clothes by hand!  When Dave told the guy who it was for, he gave it to Dave and also gave him some curtains and blankets for the family.  This is fun - doing things for those who don't have!  This family is from Cameroon and have been going to our church for a couple of years.  They have two little ones who are just darling, and now his sister is here too.  Glad we can help them!

After Dave got home from picking up the washer and installing it, we ate a quick lunch and went to Cantril for popcorn!  We love the ladyfinger popcorn we get there - it's so tender and hull-less.  So we got two big bags of it - we'll take it with us when we leave.

I just finished a great book today, by Lisa Gardner, Touch & Go.  If you like whodunits, this is a very good one.  I told Dave that he just had to read it - he'll love it, too.  I've read a bunch of her books!

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Pretty but chilly

It was sure a pretty day today - beautiful, sunny day.  I had to get a sweatshirt out today, though!  It was a bit chilly this morning and much better this afternoon when the wind died down.

Today was a typical Monday - BRT in the morning, followed by whatever this afternoon.  Dave took most all of the stuff that we were going to sell in our garage sale to Goodwill.  Yay!  

I didn't sleep well last night, so I took a nap this afternoon.  I think I'll get me some Tylenol PM - I know several people who take it and swear by it.  

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Super Sunday

It was a beautiful day today...a great one to be alive and to worship our Creator.  Church was good as usual and 201 class was great.  It was about tithing and fellowship.  Gave us lots to think about.  Next Sunday we go back to 101 in depth.  It was good seeing everyone today!

After Sunday School, I came home to Dave mowing the yard.  He then had to go to church this afternoon to pick up in the ditches along our portion of highway (highway cleanup).  It was a good day for it - not too hot and not too cold.  I ran some errands and then came home to do the laundry and get our pills ready for the next month.  Does that make us sound old??

I got done with all of my "chores" about the time Dave got home from highway cleanup, followed by a visit to the grocery store.  Guess what he's doing now?  Yep, he's sound asleep in his chair.  It's no wonder he gets up at 5:30 or so every morning!

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Home again

Dave is home again - yay!!  He got home about 1:15 - earlier than I thought he'd be here, but I'm sure glad!  We both took naps as soon as he got here - neither of us sleeps well when one of us has been away.  In fact, Dave has taken 2 naps and now he's asleep in his chair and has been for a long time.  When he falls asleep in his chair, he usually leaves some dumb COPs show on the tv.  That means I'm stuck listening to these wonderful murder cases that they're solving.  Yuck!

I sure hope it's warmer tomorrow!  I finally had to turn up the furnace this morning.  When I went to bed last night, I had it set on 62.  When I got up, it was 63 in the house!  Needless to say it got turned up!  Our friends used to keep their house on 58 all the time - I don't think I could do that.

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Furnace is on

I wouldn't let Dave turn on the furnace until after October 1st.   I used to say November 1st, but I'm getting soft in my old age!  It's down to 69 in our house tonight and the furnace is set on 62.  Shall we make a bet whether or not it kicks on?  I'm pretty sure that the house will continue to drop in temperature, so I'm guessing it'll come on in the night.  Yuck.  I want to go south.

We had 24 people at our PEO meeting today and we had a wonderful program.  Molly Nauman portrays Isabelle Hoffman from one of the prominent families in O-town.  She did a wonderful job telling us about Isabelle and her family's love for Ottumwa.  Then this afternoon I had three ladies over to play cards.  An otherwise icky, cold, damp day became a lot of fun.  This evening I have not done a thing.

Hopefully Dave is coming home tomorrow.  We've been apart 10 days and now 3 days in the last 3 weeks.  That's the most we've been apart in 24 years!

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A day for the ducks!

Yes, it was WET today!  It just rained and rained, and when it wasn't raining, it was dark and gloomy.  I've had to use my inhaler twice today and I hardly ever have to use it!  I didn't want to leave the house today, but Bob & I went to Washington late this afternoon to watch Allison play volleyball.  I drove because Ann met us there.  Driving in the rain isn't fun at all.  My ankle had a crink in it - I'm not used to driving without using cruise control.  I could feel my car fishtailing in some of the tracks on the road as it was.

Allison's team made way too many mistakes tonight.  They lost the first game 22-20, then came back to win the second game 20-22, and then lost the 3rd game 15-6 or so.  I don't really know what the score of the 3rd game was, I just know they lost it.  It was still fun to watch her!

She's #13.  Their opponent tonight was Ottumwa and I knew several of those girls so that was fun getting to see them play!

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Wednesday

A drizzly day is a day where I want to stay home, curled up with a good book.  I didn't get to do that today, however.  I had a mammogram at 8:45 this morning at ORHC.  We enter the hospital check-in area at the ER entrance and there are never any parking places close.  They have at least 20 spaces reserved for rehab patients and everyone else just had to make do.  I don't mind walking, but I didn't like getting wet this morning.  That was a cold rain!  I guess fall is here!!

I had a massage at 1:00 and I got in as soon as I arrived there.  Gerrii gives such good massages!  Sometimes we get to talking and the time goes by so fast - like today!  But I sure know she worked on me - all of my muscles were tight and now they are really, really sore.  I guess I'll be using BioFreeze tonight!

More later...