CATCH UP ------ BIG TIME

I know it's been awhile, but I was having problems with the blog working on my I-pad. We got it figured out today.

We are at the Ledges in our new summer home. We have a Forest River Cedar Creek Cottage. I'm sure you've figured out what that is. :-). It is a travel trailer called a cottage. We love it. It is 40 ft. long with 8 foot ceilings. It has 3 slides, 1 in the bedroom and 2 in the living area. One slide is about 40 inches wide. It really opens up the area. There is a lot of storage in the kitchen/galley area and it even has an island. We have a 42 inch flat screen TV.

The Ledges has been busy. Most weekends we are full. Last week after the storm went through, we found a tree that had been caught by the wind and lifted a bit out of the ground. It snapped a root in half and split the tree up about 4 ft. on both sides of the tree. I called the park manager and told him about the tree and he came over and checked it out and said it had to come down. After looking the tree over Andy decided to have a tree service take the tree down. It was fun to watch. They had it down in about 10 minutes.

We are in a sever thunder storm watch and it just started to rain. It can rain, but I don't want the wind. It's getting dark. I think it's time to take a break.

PRODUCE FIELDS

We went for a ride today to check out the produce fields. We saw one field with plants 10 to 12 inches tall. Don't know what they are yet. Saw another field with mounded rows covered in white plastic. The rows are wide enough it has 2 rows of plants. We're not sure but the plants might be strawberries. There was another field that just kept going and and going and going. The field was covered with plants about 8 to 10 inches tall with a wooden stake beside the plant. The stake was at least 3 feet tall. Tomatoes. The next field was similar, but the stake was half as tall, so we think peppers. There are other fields we think are potatoes or sweet potatoes. There were workers in some of the fields, but were to far away to tell what they were doing.

FLOWERS

The flowers in our yard are so pretty and colorful right now. We've had pansies blooming all winter in all colors. The azaleas are bright pink and so pretty. There are so many on the bushes, they almost weigh them down. The roses are in full bloom. There are bright pink and a light pink ones. We also have yellow irises, red bottle brush, yellow and orange lantanas, and the day lilies will be blooming in the next week. The lilies will be blooming just before we leave for Iowa. Thank heaven for John, the lawn service guy. If it wasn't for him we wouldn't know what the flowers and bushes are. John has mowed the yard twice, and he also trims the bushes and cuts the dead flowers off the bushes. YEA for John and his daughter Brittney.

GARDENS

One of our neighbors has a garden on the empty lot next to his house. I'm told he and his wife are in their 80s. They have had things in the garden all winter. I don't know what he has planted except for onions. Those I can tell. I guess he shares with the neighbors. One of the other neighbors came over a couple of days ago and said he had just picked some onions and wondered if we wanted any. We took one and it is the size of my fist.

PRODUCE

We went to Valdosta today to run a couple of errands. On the way home we drove by some of the produce fields to check them out. Some are starting to turn green with plants coming up. We don't know what they are yet. Vern biked by a field this morning and he said it looked like they were planting potatoes or sweet potatoes. Hopefully by the time we leave we'll be able to tell what some of the plants are.



The trees and bushes in our yard are starting to bloom. We have 2 honeysuckle, a palm tree, and a plum tree. There is ornamental grasses, mini daffodils, and a lot of azaleas, pink and red ones. There are a few things we don't know what there are.



The last 2 recliners came this week and the end tables. We spent about an hour and a half putting them together, but it was worth it. I really like them. Friday afternoon we had a service guy here installing a security system. We decided since we are going to be gone for about 4 months this summer it would be a good idea. Now it's trying to remember to disarm it before we open the door. So far so good. A lot of our neighbors have security systems and we've seen signs in other neighborhoods with signs in their yards.



The other day I watched a golfer come into the yard to get his golf ball. At least it didn't hit the house. The neighbors house was hit a few days ago. He came out and yelled at the guy, but we decided he knew the guy and was giving him a bad time. The workers are out on the course around 6:30 a.m. mowing. It is still dark, but they all have headlights on their mowers. They keep the course looking nice.

UNPACKING

The pod arrived right on time and we had an hour to unload it. It took us 40 to 45 minutes to unload an 8x8x7 pod. Boy, did we get our exorcise that afternoon. I needed a break when we were done. I have all the dishes unpacked and put away. I moved things from one spot to another a few times, but for now it is all done. I had so much fun unpacking my Longaberger baskets and seeing which ones I had. Some I have found places for and some are sitting in corners until I decide where they're going. The bad thing in all of this is that Vern couldn't help me.



I got fed up with the furniture store where we were getting our living room furniture. They kept moving the delivery date back. I got so mad I called and canceled our order. I then went with our second choice and had the furniture here the same day we went in to order it. We were lucky. The set we wanted they had gotten in a couple days before as a floor model and let us have it. We got a love seat and a recliner. We ordered 2 more reclines, one of them will go in the room upstairs. (Vern's room)



The yard service was here last week and mowed and took a leaf blower to all the leaves on the ground. They also trimmed the bushes and weeded the flower beds. They did a great job. They are a father and daughter team and do 3 or 4 other yards in the area.

SLEEP

We have been in the house since Tuesday. The first piece of furniture to be delivered was our bed. You never know how you're going to sleep in a different bed, but we have been sleeping like babies. Maybe it's because we're so tired form working so hard. :-) Most of our furniture is here except for the living room stuff. It sounds like it won't be here until mid March. Thank heaven for camping chairs. The first three days were didn't have a TV, so I got a lot of things unpacked. The TV is here now and all hooked up to the dish, so I can watch TV or listen to music while I'm unpacking. Makes it easier. I'm all done except for unpacking my craft room. I need to get a shelving unit then I can finish it up. I want it all done before the pod gets here. It will be here on Wednesday, March 2nd. Vern won't be able to help me much with those boxes, because it's mostly dishes and my baskets. It will be nice having my Longaberger dishes and baskets. The hard part will be where to put them. :-)

HOUSE

Tuesday morning we met with the painter and went over the estimate and the colors I has picked. The painters started at 9:00 a.m. Thursday morning and finished about 2:30 p.m. on Friday. (a crew of five, and one of them was 81 years old) I made it easy for them, just 3 colors. I really like the colors. You never know for sure what they will look like. We got the sample size paint and put it on the wall, but a 5 inch square looks different than a whole wall. The painters did a great job.



We started moving some things in on Thursday and took 4 car loads over today. Vern has everything out of the motor home basement and I will have almost everything out of the motor home on Sunday. The only thing left will be clothes and a few dishes.



We went Friday and ordered most of the furniture from 3 different stores. Most of it will be delivered on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Our bed will be delivered on Tuesday, so our first night in the house will be Tuesday.



One of the neighbors stopped by and introduced himself and told us a little about some of the other neighbors. He said he was on the way to the recycle center and would take our garbage if we had any. Here you can have a garbage service with curb side pickup, or pay a yearly fee and take your garbage and recycle things to a recycle center. That is what we are going to do. We have always recycled until we sold the house, so we'll be able to start it again. More about the house in a few days.

BIG CHANGES

Monday was the day of big changes for us. Some of you figured out what the changes were. Our big news is that we bought a house on the Francis Lake golf course here in Lake Park, GA. It has 3 bedrooms and 2 baths. It is a story and a half and has a bonus room upstairs, or it could be a 4 bedroom. I told Vern it could be his man cave. :-) One of the bedrooms is going to be my craft/sewing room. YEA!!!!! I've spent the last couple of weeks picking out paint colors and furniture. It has been fun and a bit stressful. I've changed my mind a couple of times on paint colors, but today we met with the painter and gave him the colors, so I can't change my mind again. Picking out furniture has been a lot of fun. Vern keeps saying whatever I want. He has giving me his in put a couple of times. Some of the furniture has been ordered and will be here in a couple of weeks, the rest I'll order this week and will be here in about a week. We plan on being in the house by the first of March. The painter plans on being done next week. I can't wait!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This has been a very long month waiting for the closing day. Today we went to the bank and got our accounts set up. In the last 2 days we have signed our names more than I can count. Our new address is --

5331 Tall Oaks Drive

Lake Park, Ga 31636

We've already had some mail. Now comes the fun of notifying everyone of the change of address. Oh, we also sold the motor home.

SHOPPING

I've been dragging Vern around shopping. Well window shopping. I've found a lot of things that I like, but will have to wait awhile before I can buy anything. That gives me time to decide for sure which things I want. So many decisions. :-) We have driven by this one store called Country Cobbler many times and wondered what it was. I said it was a shoe store. We decided to check it out to see what it was. I was right a shoe store, an expense shoe store.



We've been driving around Lake Park and found some housing areas we didn't know were there. We've also found more lakes and ponds. We've also found a couple new restaurants, but haven't checked them out yet. Let you know when we do.



Our big change is getting closer. It's just not getting here fast enough.

PETS

We were in Valdosta at the mall last week and saw something a little unusual. As we were parking the car a guy got into his pickup across form us. I could see something move in the back seat of the truck. At first I thought it was a dog, but all at once it was setting on the back of the drivers seat. It was a parrot! Not a small parrot, but one that was over a foot tall. I've seen dogs and cats in cars, but that was a first for a parrot.



Changes coming to Georgia. We have been busy the last couple of weeks with a couple of projects. Some of the them keep me busier than Vern. More on the projects later. If you have a chance check out this web site. www.5331talloakdrive.com/?look=mls

CHECK UP

Wanted to let you know how my check up with the Dr. went today. The irritation is better, but I can still see the white spot on my eye. I have to use the drops for 2 more weeks and see Dr. Peterman in 3 weeks.

We were in Valdosta last week and as we were leaving we heard sirens. A police car had traffic stopped, but we couldn't see any accident. About that time we saw some school buses leaving the high school. It was just a few buses, I counted 33. We could see why they stopped traffic for them. It would have taken forever to get them all out of the parking lot. The buses looked like they would hold 40 to 50 students. Just a few kids.

DOCTOR

In the 4 years we have been wandering we haven't had to see a doctor except in Iowa for our regular checkups. Well it changed today. The last couple of days my one eye has been a little irritated. Each day it seemed to get a little worse and being in the sun made it worse. Last night I was looking at my eye in the mirror and saw a cloudy film over the top third of my eye with a white spot in the center. (the good eye) It looked similar to when I would get inflammation of the cornea. When I got up this morning I told Vern we were going in have to find a doctor. He looked at me and wondered what was wrong. I told him and he grab the computer and went to our insurance web site and started a search for a doctor. It is scary to go to a new doctor when you have problems with your eyes and they don't know your history. The search came up with 27 names. Oh boy which one to pick. Vern read through all the info we had and picked a group of 5 doctors that was associated with a hospital. They also said they would take new patients. I called about 8:45 and got an appointment for 10:00. When we got there I had forms to fill out and then we waited and waited. When we finally were called back they told us the doctor had done surgeries on Wednesday and was seeing the patients for checkups today and was running a little behind. I was just glad he was working me in. We were impressed with Dr. Peterman and I would see him again. He looked at my right eye and said I had an infection in my eye and put me on an antibiotic and a muscle relaxant. He also checked out my left eye. After a couple of seconds he started listing off all the problems I had in that eye. While Dr. Peterman was making notes and writing out my prescriptions Vern was telling him about a problem he had and Dr. Peterman told him to hop into the chair and he would have a look. I have never heard of a doctor doing that before. He saw two of us and only charged us for one. Vern said he would definitely see Dr. Peterman again.

NO SNOW

The snowstorm that hit Georgia stayed north of us and we didn't get a single flake. We did get some cold temps. This morning it was 28* and windy. I go to the Y at 6:30 a.m. to work out for awhile. I was getting ready to walk out the door and Vern looked out and said there was frost on the windows of the edge, so I had to scrape windows before I could leave. Not my kind of weather. The last couple of days we were to have highs in the 50* and it didn't even get out of the 30s. It is better than single digits. :-)

FALLING LEAVES

It is so strange to have leaves falling from the trees in January. They started falling last week. Over the weekend we had some wind and it sounded like it was raining with all the leaves falling on the motor home. The ground is covered with leaves.



We didn't do anything new year's eve. I still wasn't feeling that great yet and was in bed by 10:30. Vern was in bed before that. The bad thing was someone was setting off fireworks. They did allot between 9 and 10 and then stopped. At midnight they started in again. I didn't need an alarm to let me know it was midnight.



I started back to the Y this morning. I was going every morning until we went to Iowa and when we got back I was sick, so didn't go. I use weights, weight machines, and walk on a treadmill. My trainer is there every morning to help if I need it. I go early in the morning and most of the time I'm the only one there, just the way I like it.