Our New Chairs

I've had several people question about the new chairs we purchased for the motorhome. They are nothing special, a pair of La-z-Boy recliner/rockers. We removed the couch that was on the drivers side of the coach thinking that we would place the chairs there. Well, when you look at the picture that I've put up on Picasa, you will see that we've done differently. We had originally placed them side by side and decided that we didn't like it so after moving them around a few times, we are now trying another positioning. I think this one will work great for us. Dean likes his chair facing the TV. He said he was tired of having to turn his head 90 degrees to watch TV while sitting on the couch (he really did this very little as he was usually stretched out on the couch). I've moved my recliner a couple of different ways and I think that I'll like it the way it is in the pictures. We figure that this is our home and we can have it like we want it. When we have company over my chair will be turned facing toward the other couch. I really like this setup as it makes it feel more like a living room and a separate kitchen/dining area.

Other than the chairs, I don't have anything else new to report right now. We are just biding time until Dean can get started at the dentist next month.

When/if something comes up that I think worthy of posting, I'll be back letting ya'll know, so see you later......

A Girls Day Out

Suze and I decided that Saturday would be a girls day out with Morgan. We picked her up around 10 am at her Daddy's and headed for Birmingham, AL and the Galleria Mall. The drive up went fast as we were talking "girl" talk, catching up etc.

Once we arrived at the mall, we went to Bath and Body Works since they were having a fairly good sale and Suze had a coupon : ) I bought some body spray that I liked and Morgan got some body lotion. Suze got a couple of things, don't remember what! Anyway, we then decided we were all hungry and went to Ruby Tuesdays for lunch. This gave up time to look at the mall map and decide on a course of action.

This mall has a Macy's which used to be a big thing but isn't anymore, but since there isn't one in Montgomery, I wanted to take Morgan there to look at dresses. She has a school dance coming up in Feb. and I thought she may find a dress to wear. I am slowly finding out that a 11 year old today are a different breed from a 11 year old of my time - LOL! Being a typical grandmother, I head toward the frilly dresses - wrong!!! I was soon showed a scrunched up nose when I asked her if she liked the really cute dress. OK, show me what you like, I said. She did without hesitation. Mind now, these dresses are cute, just not the first thing that I would have picked, obviously. After selecting about 6 dresses to try on, off we go to the dressing room. Well, I thought ahead and figured I'd have fun today taking pictures of the dresses as she tried them on. She came out with the first one and I said pose and there she stood, straight as a stick! No, no I said, pose like a model. She's to funny as she began with some silly poses. Well, I did get some cute pictures and have posted them at Picasa for your enjoyment. After she finally picked the one that she wanted - whoopee, it was on sale, she tells me that she can't wear it to the dance because of the dress code - can't ware dresses with straps - the shoulder has to be covered!!! Of course the dress was already bought - LOL. So off we go in search for a bolero type jacket. Nothing in her department so we went to juniors. Yep, there they are from $30 to $60 each. WOW - there is less material in this little jacket than the dress and the cheapest one is just under what I spent for the dress. After searching the rack, we found one that was made with the same material as the $60 one but it was ONLY $30. She went to the dressing room to try it on with the dress and it did look very good so, yep, she got it! Now she's all set for the dance in February.

After Macy's, I'm broke and ready to leave, but there were a couple other stores on the list and off we went to them. One was Brookstones which is like a Sharper Image. Really neat stuff there but pricey. Morgan found a exerciser that she wanted - you sit on it like you would on a horse and the speeds were trot, gallop and race. She really got a kick out of it and said she was going to ask for it as a combined birthday/Christmas present - it was only (her words) $299.00!!! I said no, Suze said no, and when we got home her Daddy said no. Guess she will have to work on her Mom or her other grandparents. There is a picture of her on it at Picasa.

We finally left the mall around 5 pm tired but happy. The ride home was fun as Morgan and I played Hangman - I won - LOL!

We are going to plan another girls day out and come up with something different than shopping. Anyone have a good idea? Put it in the comments if you do.

Till next post - have a good one....

Some Sad News

Our great-grandson, Zander Brown who turned three on January 1st died at home yesterday late afternoon.

Many of you are aware that he has been in a coma since a freak accident back in November. After the decision to take him off of life support, he returned home for several weeks under the care of his mother and hospice. He never regained consciousness.

It is hard to lose a family member, but when it's one so young it's even harder. I regret that because of distance and family issues, we never really got to know him well. None the less, it leaves a hole in our hearts.

The comfort comes from knowing that there is another little angel in heaven, playing at the feet of Jesus.

Thank you to all that had been praying for him. It was very much appreciated.

When God calls little children to dwell with him above,

We mortals sometimes question the wisdom of His love.

For no heartache compares with the death of one small child,

Who does so much to make our world seem wonderful and mild.

Perhaps God tires of calling the aged to his fold,

So He picks a rosebud, before it can grow old.

"Author Unknown"

Zander is in the picture below, sitting on his grandmothers lap. He had just come back from swimming in the lake. This was taken at a family reunion this past June. He was a cute, rambuncious little boy who loved exploring everything. He will be missed by all.

Baby It's Cold Outside!

This morning the temperature was 45 when I got up. This will probably be the warmest morning of the upcoming week. Yep, you heard right, the warmest! The weatherman is predicting low temps will be below freezing every night for at least the next six nights - burrr. Now I'm wondering why we didn't head for S. Texas and get Dean's dental work done down there.

There isn't a lot to catch up on here. Just doing the normal 'when your home' stuff. Yesterday we went to David's to get him to find out what is wrong with my new computer. I can't get into my favorite game's on Pogo. Yes, I'm a game junkie - could have worse habits - LOL! Well, he got it working at his place but when we got back home it gave me the same error message again - grrr. I have Vista and I know that's the problem cause I can access my games on Dean's computer and he goes through the same router that I do except he is running Windows XP.

Anyway we took David out to lunch for all his hard work. We went to a new restaurant here in Montgomery called Mimi's Cafe. On our way there, his friend, Shannon called and I said to invite her as well. We had a wonderful lunch! Dean had his once every six months dose of liver and onions, he was happy ; ). David had the Parmesan Chicken and said it was delicious and Shannon and I both ordered the Chicken Pot Pie. It was very good but so hot we couldn't hardly eat it. The guys were done and both of us were still only have way through our meal. If I get it again, I'll ask for a dish and dump it out of the baking dish so it can cool off faster. As we finished, Suze called and she was in the same shopping area where the restaurant is located so she joined us for a few minutes. Dean and I took off with Suze to do some shopping and David and Shannon went there separate ways. A very enjoyable afternoon! Here again, the only thing that would have made it better is if Morgan could have been with us. Sure do miss her when she's not around.

Dean and I have been talking about doing some Alabama sightseeing since we are going to be here for several months. We have several places in mind to visit, so hopefully in the future, I'll have something more than just this mundane stuff to report.

You guys that are in S. Florida or S. Texas or someplace warm, think about us this coming week when we will be freezing our tushes off! I'll sure be thinking about ya'll and wishing we were there!

Later......

Life Is About Change - Right?

Our plans were changed again, this time by a dentist.

Yesterday Dean had his appointment with the dentist to get options to get a replacement for his missing front tooth. Well, it seems like it will be more time consuming than first thought. The first process was having x-rays done. The next step will be having a deep cleaning, appointment will be sometime in Feb. Then, because the x-rays showed some bone loss on a couple of back teeth, the dentist recommended having them extracted to prevent further problems down the road. The front tooth that is missing was a crown and the last time it broke off, it actually broke a piece of the tooth in the gum as well, so that will also be removed. Then he will be fitted with a partial, to replace the extracted teeth and the missing front tooth. All this dental work is expected to take anywhere from six to eight weeks after we get started. As of now, we are waiting to hear back for the appointment to start the cleaning.

We have no dental insurance, but fortunately, with Dean being retired military, we can take out a dental plan that will become effective the beginning of February. It covers at least 60% up to 100% of the work he will need done. The exception is the partial and that isn't covered until you have the plan for 12 months. Hopefully taking this out will help with our out of pocket expense with that exception.

On the up side, this will give us more time to spend with our granddaughter : )

The RV Park we are staying at is a nice park, so another up side. Just not a lot of activity within the park. That's OK since we are not here much anyway.

Stay tuned for updates - with us you never know what's happening - changes occur daily!

Busy Week Ahead

The holidays are over and it's now time to get to work - ugh, I hate that word. It's not really in my vocabulary anymore and just pops up every once and awhile.

This week will be a busy one. Dean has a dentist appointment on Tuesday to determine his options for getting his front tooth replaced. He had problems for several years with one of the crowns (I think that is correct) on his one front tooth and last year it broke again and the dentist said it had actually broke off a piece of the tooth in the gum. Anyway, last year he said he would just go without that tooth. One year was enough, at least for me and he has agreed it's time to get something done. Fortunately, he has had no pain or discomfort. Depending on what decision is made, we may just wait and get the work done in Mexico after we get to S. Texas. If any of you who read this blog have any comments on this, please post. We are interested in your experience with dentists in Mexico.

We also have some legal work that we will get accomplished while here since we can get it done for free at Maxwell AFB. New wills and living wills. No real changes to the wills, just a little updating to insure that my granddaughter is remembered.

I'm also setting up a CD for Morgan. My Dad left her some $$ that has been sitting in his savings account and I want to get it moved from there. Let me add just in case this should be misinterpreted. As executor of my father estate, I fulfilled his written and spoken wishes to me. This was one of his spoken wishes, prior to his death. Unfortunately, I cannot put the CD in her name because of the divorce between her parents. Don't want it being cashed in early! So, I will put it in my name with her as the beneficiary. Dang, divorce sure does affect more than just the husband, wife and kids, huh? She will know that it's there and will be her's one day. Should I live till her 18th birthday, the CD will then be transferred to her name.

On Wednesday we are going to lunch with Paul and Jean (AFChap). We've been parked one spot down from them since getting here Dec. 16th and have talked a couple of times, but both of us have been busy with our families over the holidays. We decided early on that getting together would have to happen after the new year came in.

Dean will be working at getting our new HDTV installed in the bedroom. The 22" tube one that we removed sure left a big hole and the 22" HD doesn't take up much room. He is going to get it mounted so that we don't have to worry about it falling out as we drive down the highway. I would like to eventually get the cabinet re-done with the TV mounted on the outside of a door. There is a big space where the old TV was that would make a great linen cabinet!

I'm going in search of a hairdresser. I had a perm while we were in Fairhope back in November, but the haircut wasn't done very good and the perm hasn't held up well. Time for some work to be done on my head - outside not in - LOL.

Then there is a trip to the commissary, cleaning the inside of the motorhome, looking at getting the carpets cleaned, finding a way to strap down our new recliners for travel and on and on... it just never ends, there is always something to do. Oh yes, I forgot to mention that we traded out one of the sofa's for two new La-z-Boy recliners. We love them!

Hope you all have a great first full week of the new year. It you are on the road, stay safe and if your parked, I hope it's warm where you are. I will post again when I know more about when we will be departing Montgomery.