Royal Watcher

Am I a sap for loving the Royal Wedding? When the date was set months ago I asked for the day off so I could watch it live. The closer we got to the day, the more my co-workers ribbed me about it. The teasing was all good natured and I even egged some of it on. I must have got to them because on Thursday several of them were doing internet searches on the Royals, etc... So yesterday morning I got up at 2:30am and parked myself in front of the television to take it all in. At about 7am one of my co-workers texted me to ask me what I thought about the hair, dress, etc... She was watching it too! Regardless of what anyone thinks I had to watch. I watched in 1981 when Diana married Charles, and I watched all the coverage of Diana's death and funeral. I think I've read just about every book written about Diana and her boys. There was nothing anyone could say to me that would keep me from watching this wedding!

Happy Easter!

Easter blessings to all! Although I can't be with the grand kids today, I did get to talk to Emily, Patrick, and their parents earlier today. They were planning on taking a little day trip to a park for an egg hunt and a little picnic. It sounded like a perfect Easter day to me. They got the box of goodies that we sent last Friday, the kids were very happy with their gifts. Brad sent us pictures of them tearing into the box. I was glad that it got to them before Easter so they could have their gifts. I hope everyone that reads this has a great Easter and can take a minute to thank God for all things good in our lives!

The weather here in the Ozarks would not be good for any egg hunt. It has stormed off and on since last Wednesday. We've had several bad storms here with lots of rain, hail, thunder, and lightning. To date we've gotten around 8 inches of rain and it's still raining. At least it's a slow steady rain (right now) instead of storms. It was really storming last night, our electricity kept blinking off and on, finally at 9pm I just went to bed. Doyle and I took both cars into town earlier for gas and we have a nice little "stream" to go through on our county road. The rain and storms are suppose to continue through Wednesday. It wouldn't hurt my feelings if this system moved through the area a little sooner than they expect it to.

Tomorrow starts another work week and the end of another month. Hard to believe that May is upon us. We have onions and potatoes coming up in the garden. It will soon be time to get the tomatoes, peppers, and beans in. I'm actually going to try and freeze some tomato sauce this year. Normally we share our produce with Brad and Chely, but we won't be doing that this year. With groceries getting so expensive I need to take advantage of everything that we can produce ourselves. In the past we have let a lot go to waste, I'm vowing not to let that happen this year. I'll let ya know how that turns out!!!

Life Changes

This post is really the third in my "the kids moved" series. A lot of things changed in our lives when they did. Doyle and I are "true" empty-nesters now, except that we did inherit Brad's basset hound, Tag. He is a pretty good dog, (he does like to take off and run around the neighborhood every now and then when Doyle lets him loose) and loves to take walks with us. I've been doing my spring cleaning and it's amazing how much stuff we had here for the grand kids. I've sent two big boxes to Utah already and I'm still finding odds and ends that I think they need. The biggest change (and the worst) is our weekends. We were so used to having the kids come over if not every weekend, every other weekend. I have to keep myself busy on the weekends or I could get really down. At least with spring and summer on the way we will have the garden and yard to take up those weekends. Also I've been spending more time in my craft/scrap booking room since I got back from Utah. Since the kids moved Doyle and I both think that Skype is the best thing since sliced bread--it's now our favorite activity!! At least with Skype we can see the kids and grand kids and get our "fix". Yes, life has definitely changed for us but this has also made us appreciate each other more and to understand that "life" should be enjoyed because you never know when your life will be turned up side down.

An Epic Journey--Part II

Okay, so we have made it to Utah and now it's time to unload the Uhaul. Luckily, Chely's sister and her husband were there to help. Brad and Kurt took care of the heavy things and Jenny, Chely and I carried in the other stuff. I don't think I helped that much, I mostly stayed in the apartment and kept the kids out of the way. The truck unloaded pretty fast, and we had all the big furniture in it's proper rooms before we went to sleep that night. The next few days were spent getting everything organized and put away. On Sunday, Chely and I went shopping and I got several house-warming gifts for them. We found curtains for the bedrooms, baskets for Emily's books and scrapbook goodies. I also got them a much needed bookcase. The days just went too fast, and before I knew it, it was Monday night and my flight was the next morning. My one regret about the whole trip is that I really didn't get to see much of the area. We mainly stayed right around Draper, I never even made it to see the big Mormon temple in Salt Lake. I did see the one in Draper (it was big in it's own right, but nothing compared to the one in Salt Lake or so Brad told me) on Monday night when we took a little sight-seeing tour. When Doyle and I go back for a visit, we'll be able to do all the tourist things. This trip was really about getting them out there and getting them settled. Tuesday morning we woke up to lots of snow and slick roads. Chely drove me to the airport and it was NOT a fun trip. The roads were terrible, it was so early the highway trucks hadn't done much work on the roads yet. My flight was at 7am and we pulled up to the front door of the airport at 6:35. Luckily, I had gotten my boarding pass on Monday so I could go straight to security. When I got to security, the line was very backed up, but it moved really fast. I didn't get a body scan, or a full body pat down, just had to walk through the metal detector. I made it to my gate to be about the last one on the plane. Then we ended up sitting on the tarmac for quite awhile waiting to be de-iced. This was only my fifth time to fly and my first by myself so I was kinda nervous about the whole day. The flight was a smooth one and before I knew it we were landing in Denver. Because of our late take off from Salt Lake my layover time was cut to about an hour 20 min (from two hours). I found myself a seat in the terminal and waited for my flight to Branson. I met a woman from Springfield and we had a nice visit and I also made a call to Doyle. When our flight was called and we boarded I was once again a little nervous, this plane was so narrow compared to all the other planes I've flown on. But it got me to Branson and besides being a little bumpy on the decent, it was a smooth ride. It was so good to see Doyle waiting for me and to get that first hug from him. I didn't realize that I missed him so much until he hugged me! It was a cool, rainy day but we made the best of it and went to the Branson Landing and had lunch at Joe's Crab Shack before we started the drive home. I think I was so relived to be home that I slept most of the drive to Mountain View. Once I got home I had to get unpacked and get myself psyched to go back to work on Wednesday thru Saturday. It was probably a good thing that I had to work the next four days, that way I really didn't have time to think about the kids being gone. I'm thankful that I was able to help the kids move and I look forward to when Doyle and I go to Utah for a visit--I'm constantly checking prices and just need to get Doyle to commit to when we'll be going!