Out of pocket

Just so you know, we're leaving for Indiana tomorrow morning and may not be back for a couple of days.  I probably won't take my computer, so I'll be out of pocket for a while.

We've had a couple of good days.  Unfortunately we didn't get to ride our bikes today, but did a mile yesterday.  Today I went to see a chiropractor and got a badly needed adjustment.  Dave washed both vehicles today and even cleaned out the Cadi!  We'll be driving out East in a clean vehicle!  It'll be good to see the family!

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It was an inside day!

Boy was it ever an inside day today!  Rain, rain, and more rain.  We didn't have the heavy rain up here...just rained practically all day.  I didn't sleep last night again.  I think my muscles were all too tight from our bike ride.  I try really hard to keep up with Dave on his 21 speed, so my muscles get a workout.  Needless to say, they wouldn't relax last night so I just laid there tossing and turning until 2:00 when I finally got up.  I put together a puzzle on Jigsaw World which took me about 2 hours.  Then I was finally able to sleep until 8:00.

We ended up going out to Aldi's, TJ Maxx, and to Bed Bath & Beyond.  Came home and had lunch.  I read for a while and took about a 45 minute nap while Dave puttered.  Tonight we've been watching some show about the animals in Russia.  It's very interesting!

I'm reading another classic now.  I'm reading James Michener's "Hawaii".  On the Kindle it is extremely long.  It says there are over 20,000 pages!  I'm about 20% done with it.  It's very interesting.  I'm surprised I haven't read it before now.

Here are some pictures from our bike rides at Big Woods Lake:

Love the "no hunting" sign where she's crossing!

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Hot again

This morning after breakfast, we went for another bike ride.  This time we did 2 miles!  Since I don't have any gears on my trike, my legs felt like rubber when we got through.  The last 100 yards or so is all uphill, so it was all I could do to make it back to the truck.  I had Dave turn the A/C on full blast so I could cool down after our ride.  Then when we got home, I took a cool shower and then I felt pretty good!

The rest of the day was just spent doing laundry and dishes and then fixing sweet corn and BLTs for supper!  Yum!  Since we can't get the Cubs' game, we're watching the Sox play!

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Back home!

We made it to Ottumwa and back this weekend.  It was a fun time, but it'll be nice to sleep in our own bed tonight.  We got to spend some time with Craig & Sue and even my brother.  Ann was at church, so we didn't get to see her.  Then we even spent some time with some of our church friends.  Today, of course, was church at FPC in O-town.  It was great being back.  David's sermon was about Nehemiah and as usual, it was wonderful and thought provoking.  Then it's always great getting all of the hugs from our church family, most of whom didn't know that we were coming down.

I wish I hadn't been driving today.  Had I been in the passenger seat, I would have been taking pictures of the countryside!  I believe that the crops and the world is as beautiful as it can possibly be today!  The corn fields are so tall and fully tasseled and uniform all the way through most of the fields.  The bean fields are a deep, deep green and the majority of them are weedless.  The farmers had mowed their waterways so that the contrast of all of the greens was spectacular and easy to see.  Plus, the fields on the way up here are so hilly that the terraced crops are spectacular to see!  I guess you can take the girl out of the country, but you can't take the country out of the girl!

I wanted to show you the new paint in the master bathroom...and the last of the yellow walls.  I have to get a picture now of the finished product, but I haven't done that yet!

 I just love it!

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Rain, rain

It really rained here this morning - thunder, lightning, wind - the whole nine yards!  Now that we're in a condo, we don't have a rain gauge so we don't know how much it rained!  Suffice it to say, though, it poured!  The RAGBRAI riders had to be soaked unless they waited until afternoon to leave.  Actually the storm followed the path they were going by the way it looked on radar.  Trees down in O-town even!

Dave got the bathroom done today - boy is it ever clean and pretty!  It changed the looks of that room completely!  We love it.  Next week he'll work on the guest bathroom and then he's done painting for a while!

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Beautiful day!

This was about as perfect as a day could get!  Low 80s and low humidity and nice breeze.  We ate out on the balcony for lunch and after that we just left the door open and turned off the air!  I understand it's supposed to be really hot again tomorrow, so I'll close the place up tonight and turn the a/c back on.  But for today, we got to enjoy God's air!

Dave got up very ambitious this morning - he decided to paint the big bathroom!  He got it taped and one coat on before noon.  Tomorrow he'll do the 2nd coat and pull the tape!  It is so pretty and NO LONGER YELLOW!  Hurray!!  Can't wait to see it clear done...what a change!

We're going to O-town this weekend for church so he'll wait and paint the little bathroom and laundry area next week.  Then we've got to head for Indiana probably the next weekend.  Then Allison plays ball most of the Saturdays in August, so it looks like we're in for some "On the Road Again" time!

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Fun day!

Company always comes in 3s at our house!  Today Ann and her sister, Ellen, stopped by on their way home from Mayo's.  We had a light lunch all ready - chicken salad, potato salad, cold slaw, and ice cream for dessert.  Dave ate lunch with them while I waited for our 3rd guest to arrive.  About 90 minutes after Ann & Ellen left, Karen came by.  She hadn't eaten lunch, so she and I had the same light lunch!  It was a fun day!  Tonight we just had popcorn for supper.

Tomorrow is another day - I wonder what it will bring?  I've been working on changing our address various places.  Some of them are sure easy, but others are as bad as Fort Knox to try to get your address updated.  Grrrr!

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Nice day!

Fun!!  We did our bike ride today.  We took the bikes out to Black Hawk park...I think.  It's about a mile around the lake.  That was enough for the first day out.  At least it was mostly flat - just a couple of inclines, including one right at the end near where the truck was parked.

When we finished, we tried a different restaurant - the 63 Diner.  It was nothing like what we were hoping...it was nothing like the Diner in Pleasant Hill.  Much more expensive and the menu was more steaks and entrees than lunch-type things.  So we both had a bowl of chili and headed home.  On the way home, we drove down Main St in Cedar Falls.  As we drove down it, I remembered that Sami Allison works at Scratch Cupcake so we stopped in to see her.  Of course, she wasn't there but we bought a couple of cupcakes anyway - Dave got a chocolate toffee one and I got a key lime one - can we say delicious?!!  Oh my!!

We're watching the Cubs in the 10th inning!

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Monday

When Dave woke me this morning, he said he wanted to go to the grocery store first.  Then when he got back home, we would load up the bikes and go explore a park nearby.  I said I'd be ready.  About 30 minutes later he called to tell me that it was pretty dark and he thought it was going to rain.  Lordy, did it rain!  It just poured for a few minutes - got pretty black out, but it didn't last long.  Regardless, we postponed our bike ride.  Maybe tomorrow.

Dave worked down in his little storage unit and I worked on paperwork.  I got all caught up with our bank accounts.  I still have several things to change our address with and then I have to file.  Yuck!

It was sure lovely out this evening.  We fixed a roast and some potatoes and ate outside.  Beautiful night!

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Nice day!

We sure had we  a nice day today!  Good church service with a good message!  Then this evening Jami and the kids came for supper.  We cooked burgers and brats on the grill, plus salad, and my famous potatoes!  Then to celebrate National Ice Cream Day, we had ice cream for dessert!  It was fun to see the kids - even if it was just for a few hours.

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Hot, hot, hot!

It was another hot and humid day up here.  At least there was a nice breeze blowing, though.  Dave got our flagpole up out on the balcony, so our flag was waving in the breeze.  We had more company today.  Karie called a couple of days ago to ask if she could stop by today on her way to Minnesota.  We said we'd love to see her.  Then just as she arrived, Juliene and Dan called to say they were on their way up 21 north of Dysart!  So all five of us went to the Newton Paradise Cafe downtown for lunch - after a tour of our condo, of course!!  We've had 6 visitors in 2 days and the grandkids plus Jami are supposed to be here tomorrow!  Good thing we cleaned the house, huh?!

This evening, we popped popcorn and watched the Cubs game - Cubs win!!

I sure hope I sleep tonight.  I didn't fall asleep until after 5:30 this morning - just as Dave was getting up!  So I slept until 9:30 and got 4 hours of sleep.  That's not quite enough.  I tried to take a nap this afternoon, but I only got about 10 minutes total.

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Hot day!

My car said it was 92 at one point today and that was relatively early - around 2:00!  I'm sure it got hotter even later.  The humidity is keeping my hair curly, too.

We had visitors today - Chris, Sudi & Howard all came up.  We were so glad to see them all.  Too bad Chris had her dog with her...she could have had a wonderful, leisurely lunch with us.  We had a good time catching up over Mexican food!

This afternoon we didn't do much and tonight we're sitting here watching the Cubs at Atlanta.

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DONE!!

We are done!  Or at least we're livable now!!  Sudi & Howard and Chris are coming by tomorrow, so we had a goal and we made it.  Today we even took some time out to go find a couple of area rugs for both the living room and the family room.  I think the place looks really nice.  I'll try to get some pix tomorrow after S, H, & C. are here.

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Woohoo!!

Even though I didn't get up very early, we got LOTS done today.  We got all of the pictures hung.  The living room is cleaned up and ready for company.  I was able to put away 5 totes worth of stuff in my craft room AND alphabetize all of my record albums.  They are now put away and out of sight!!  I also got a bunch of scrapbook pages and pictures scanned into the computer, and got my stamping table ready to go!

Dave worked all day too, but at 4:15 he went out to Bryan's to help him.  So I've had the evening to myself - that's why I got so much done!!

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Nothing new!

Today was another beautiful day - hot but much lower humidity than yesterday.  We were even able to eat outside this evening.  The only thing bad about eating outside now is that the Japanese picnic beatles have arrived and they are a nuisance.  Hadn't had a one until today.  It was still nice, though.

We just did more of the same today.  The only change in our routine is we went out for lunch - to Wendy's to try their Strawberry Fields salads.  They are very good!  Since we just had a salad for lunch, we stopped at 4 Queens Dairy Bar for an ice cream cone.  That was delicious.  They have black raspberry every day - yum!  Bryan told us it compared to Grahams and it did!

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Hot one today!

It was sure hot outside today.  First of all, I slept for a whole 9 hours last night.  After I got up and had breakfast, Dave and I ran some errands.  Just going from the stores to the car made our glasses fog up!  I guess it wasn't as hot as it was humid.  I have no clue how hot the heat index was.  I was glad that we were able to be in the a/c this afternoon.  We got lots done - Dave worked in one room and I worked in another.

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Day of rest.

This was pretty much a day of rest - anyway as far as the condo was concerned.  We didn't do a thing here other than make cold slaw to take to Bryan's for supper.

We went to 1st Presbyterian Church this morning and enjoyed it very much.  The preacher is a very young woman who did a wonderful sermon using Proverbs 1:1-7 as her text.  The congregation was a lot like ours in O-town - not young.  The outside of the church reminded us of Ottumwa.  I think we'd feel right at home there.  We're still going to try out the Cedar Valley Presbyterian Church though and Bryan wants us to come to his church too.

This evening we went to Bryan's for supper - Famous Dave's BBQ chicken, cornbread muffins, and firecracker green beans prepared by the kids, our cold slaw, and black raspberry crisp with Blue Bunny homemade ice cream on it.  Yummy!  Poor Aidan didn't feel well - he's got ear infection in both ears.  So he was a little cranky, but no real tears...just dry cries.  Poor little guy.

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Yay!!

The storage shed is empty!!  Everything is here in the condo!  It's such a good feeling to have it all in here.  We have worked so hard.  After Bryan & Dave got everything up here, we took Bryan out to lunch to the Screamin' Eagle  - great place to eat!  Dave found me another box - aarrrrgggh!  I thought I was done emptying boxes!!  It's a box of things that came out of my desk, so it won't be hard to empty.

Tomorrow we're going to church at First Presbyterian Church in Waterloo.  We're looking forward to it.  Hope it's a great experience!

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Woohoo!

I can see the floor in all of the rooms!  Woohoo!  I have opened and dealt with every box except 6 - that is all that is left!  Two of those six are cds/dvds so they'll go in the TV stand when it gets here tomorrow.  Another two of the six are full of tax papers, so they'll go into storage downstairs and the other two - I guess I don't know for sure what is in them...they say stereo equipment...but I think it's the tuner and recorder, etc. for the tv.  Dave gets to deal with them!

Dave got the grill put together today and cooked burgers and brats for us.  My burger was delicious!  The flies were bad, though.  We sure enjoy our balcony.  We eat almost all of our meals out there!  It's almost like being in Florida only it's not screened in.

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Doing well.

We got lots done today.  We brought some of the furniture into the craft room/office, which allowed me to get lots of stuff put away!  I was also able to empty out the last kitchen box!!  Yay!  Unfortunately Dave added about 6 more boxes to my craft room.

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Ugh!

We are tired!!  Dave is asleep in his chair and I'm about to fall asleep.  We've gotten most of the boxes and most of the furniture out of the storage shed.  Just a few pieces of furniture left.  Bryan was here long enough to help his dad bring up a couple of loads and drink a beer with him and then he went home.  I unloaded about 20 boxes today...all for the craft room.  I was starting to be overwhelmed and then I got a handle on all of the boxes.  Now I'm just tired and my back hurts!  Tomorrow's another day, however.  I hope I don't see another cardboard box for a long, long time after this!!

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Load #2

Load #2 was delivered today.  So now the condo is a mess again.  I unpacked 5 boxes for the kitchen - still have at least one more to do.  The kitchen is full.  The cabinets aren't very deep, so I have to store my big skillet in the oven.  :(  I guess that will work.  I don't have any place for my big tupperware bowls, though.  I'll figure out something.  I'll be glad when some of the furniture arrives - especially for my craft/family room.  Then I can put some of that stuff away now that the boxes are here.

We were able to sit outside for both lunch and supper - it was a beautiful day here.  Low 70s and no humidity!  Got to love that kind of weather!

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Monday, Monday

What a productive day we had today.  I think I have all of the boxes emptied.  I hung up all of our clothes and put away a bunch of stuff.  Meanwhile, Dave & Bryan got the hallway (including all 5 of those doors) and the living room painted!  Yay - we're done painting for a while.  I wish they had gotten the bathrooms painted, but it wasn't to be at this time.  Those 2 guys are exhausted from painting!  After all, they painted 5 rooms and the hallways in 3 partial days!  Good job, guys.

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Happenin' place!

Wow.  When I woke up around 8:00, Dave was ready to start moving things out of the master bedroom.  He wanted to get it painted today.  So by noon, he pretty much had it done!  Then Bryan came over and he determined the bedroom needed 2 coats of paint, so they did that!  Hooray!  Our bedroom is ready for furniture!  It took them until almost 5:00 to tape off the hallway.  There are 5 regular doors and a closet in the hallway...lots of taping.  They did get some paint on the hallway, but the majority will be done tomorrow.  We also decided to leave the guest bedroom as is...it's sort of a mossy green and looks fine - so now they're down to the hallway, the living room, and 2 bathrooms (which will be pains in the tush!)

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Happy 4th

Happy Independence Day!  It was a perfect day - little humidity, nice temperature, and no wind to speak of.  We went to Bryan's for a late lunch - about 2:15 or so.  We had burgers & brats, potato salad, sweet corn, tomatoes, fresh fruit, and even black raspberry pie and homemade ice cream.  Aidan was so tired, but he was afraid he'd miss out on something so he wouldn't close his little eyes!  He finally crashed about 4:00.

This evening, we decided to walk over to the golf course and watch the fireworks at the Golf Club next door.  There were fireworks all around us!  Beautiful show put on by the Club!  Unfortunately it didn't start until 10 and also unfortunately, I didn't take my camera!  Oh, well!

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Productivity!

The guys worked really hard today!  Bryan got here about 9:00 and he and his dad started painting.  They painted the family room (1 coat), the dining room and kitchen (each 2 coats).  Great job, guys.  Meanwhile, I took the car and went shopping in Cedar Falls.  I got back in time to say hello to our first visitors!  Mary F and her two granddaughters (Mary goes to FPC) stopped by on their way to get lunch.  After she left, I went to Popeyes and bought chicken for us for lunch.  I like their chicken!

I was really happy with the things that got done today.  Now on Monday they'll paint the master bedroom and maybe the living room, too.  Then all we'd have is the two bathrooms and the little laundry closet.

Tomorrow we're taking most of the day off and going over to Bryan's for a late lunch.

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Live from 'loo!

We finally got our internet and tv up and going this morning.  So now we're  connected to the world again!  We got lots done today - all of the boxes are empty (from the first load)...we've still got 3 more loads to go.  The guys are going to start painting tomorrow, though, so we won't be getting another load for a few days.

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