Friday, May 2, Post-Rollcall

[JudyJB]

Taking it easy today. Last night I boiled up some chicken thighs to make broth for soup. Boned the chicken and put it into two containers in the refrig with the broth--one to freeze and one to cook up this morning. Added some very good noodles, so have another serving for tomorrow lunch or late tonight. Yum. All I do is toss in some dried celery and onion flakes and simmer until done with noodles soft.

Slowly, slowly coughing less, but this is the worst cough I can ever remember having. A big problem is when I lay down to go to bed, stuff in my chest or bronchial tubes rearranges itself and i start coughing, even though i dose myself up with everything I can. It was so nice this morning to wake up not wheezing loudly and not coughing, at least until I got out of bed.

[Bethers]

Judy, I hope you continue improving.

Shirl, I just tried to share your info and post you emailed me, but the website link to share pictures seems to be down. Hopefully it'll come back, but the forum that was tied to has been gone many years so we might have to find another, similar option that's free.

My RV repairman has been and gone. I've got a new toilet and he checked on what he did last time he was here and lubricated some things and worked on the hinge to my door that's been acting up for a few years. He's been more successful than me or a few others, so far and was just looking for extras because he has a minimum 1 hour service charge. I actually think he was here more than an hour but still just charged the hour and didn't charge me the service call this time.

I've repotted the lavender plants I purchased but need a bit more potting soil so hopefully remember it my next time out.

[BarbaraRose]

Good afternoon Judy and Beth,

Glad things are getting a little better with your cough. I have had ones like that before too. I coughed so bad several years ago that I cracked a rib or two! Ouch! I found that talking and eating coarse and/or salty things made it worse. Soft items or soups are good for soothing the throat. I have also taken L-Lysine tablets that help heal the lining of the throat.

Sandi, glad to see you back! Maybe you could find a dog walker, who can also give your older doggie her meds, while you are healing.

BJ, I learned the correct way to bend over at "camp". It is kind of like getting ready to sit in a chair with your butt leading the way, and bending your knees. I try to remember to do that but sometimes forget

Beth, sounds like you are getting resettled back at the Benson Casita for the summer. Maybe we can meet up sometime. I would love to go down and see Bisbee and also revisit Tombstone. And of course chat and get caught up!

Catherine, I downsized 3 times in Indio before selling/moving! I still have too much stuff! I plan to spend a day at my storage unit, going thru and reorganizing my bins. I want to get all my gourd art stuff on one side of the unit, and put the rest in catagories on the other side. When I go there to look for stuff, it takes me for ever to find the right bin and then all the other bins I moved, end up in a different place when I put them back. So it is a mess. Luckily, it is just a 5X10 ft storage area (5 ft deep and 10 feet across the front), so it is fairly easy to get stuff in and out.

Sheila, I remember going thru my parents things. My mom was a clothes collector. When she went into the nursing care center, we cleaned out her apartment. I accidentally got rid of a Christmas sweater of hers and she asked for it the next Christmas. She was very upset that I had given it away. I felt bad . My MN brother and his wife got to the apartment before I did and got rid of some things I really wanted to keep, like a pillow I made for her with a ton of beadwork on the front, of flowers and butterflies. It took me a long time to make that.
After my dad passed, that same brother thought I was taking too long to get thru stuff in his house and started just throwing stuff (mostly my things) in the dumpster, which I had to retrieve after I got home from work. I am much more sentimental than he is. Even stuff I didn't plan on keeping, it was fun to reminisce about those things. Brought back a lot of good memories.

Me and my friend, Kim, who lived two doors down when we were little, would make May baskets out of paper and go around in the morning on May Day, picking little flowers to put in the baskets. Then one of us would ring the other's doorbell and run. The other one would come out and chase us until we got caught!

I happen to like warm water. I don't care for ice in anything, unless it is really hot outside. I don't like plain water or sparkling water. I need some flavor so I get the Propel bottles. They add up to a lot of money each month but I have tried the flavor powders and liquids and find them too sweet. I got a small packet of UNNU Sport Hydration tablets to add to my water while outside and/or hiking. They have a strong lemon/lime flavor but I just use half a table so it isn't so strong.

So, I am glad to be back home, but I had a great and very busy trip to Sedona! I took a ton of photos that I still need to go thru yet. I will post them on here later, if I can.

On Sunday I got there just before noon. I stopped to see some petroglyphs in Camp Verde, then went to a craft fair in Oak Creek Village. Then stopped at Bell Rock for some photos. Got checked into my motel room back in Camp Verde at the Comfort Hotel. Very nice compared to the Motel 6's I usually stay at. I decided to add another night so I wouldn't head home until Thursday since there is so much to see and do in that whole area.

Monday morning I drove up to Sedona (half hour drive) and met my BFF Cathy (from Crystal River, FL) for breakfast at a little cafe in town. When ever we get together (usually around 20 years!) it is like we have never been apart! We just pick up where we left off! I think we are sister souls! We then went to take the open air bus tour. We mostly drove around and only stopped twice for about 15 minutes each. I was expecting a little more stopping. One place was a Buddhist Peace Garden which was very cool and interesting! Would liked to have spent more time there, especially since there is supposed to be a vortex there. After the tour, we drove to Cottonwood to visit the Old Town Main Street shops. We had lunch there and talked for quite awhile. Then headed back to Sedona and said our goodbye's, hoping it wouldn't be another 20 years before we see each other again.

On Tuesday, I went back to Cottonwood to Tuzigoot Ancient Dwellings on a hill overlooking a river and lush green valley. That was very interesting! From there I stopped at a Copper Museum. There was a ton of copper mined in that area back in the 1800's. After that, I drove up to Jerome, which is an old copper mining town, turned ghost town, turned artist community, perched on the side of a mountain! I shopped at the cute little gift shops. At one shop, I heard someone behind me say something to me. I turned around and it was Cathy and her husband Frank! What a surprise! Was nice to see Frank again. He is such a nice guy! So we chatted some and then said good-bye again. After that I stopped at the Haunted Hamburger for lunch. It is well-known to be haunted. Most of the buildings in town has had ghostly experiences. The Jerome Grand Hotel is supposedly the most haunted building in Arizona. The day was in the 60's, cloudy, with occasional light rain here and there. A good day to shop!

Wednesday, I stopped for a much desired donut at Sedonuts in, where else? Sedona! Then headed to Oak Creek Canyon. The drive is gorgeous with the creek on one side of the road and tall red sandstone cliffs on the other side! Lots of trees all around too. I stopped at a picnic area along the creek for awhile. I didn't realized it would be a steep hike over rocks to get down to the creek! But with my backpack, camera, and hiking pole, I made it carefully down. The creek was so pretty and relaxing! Met an older guy there who went swimming in the cold, cold, creek! After the long, hard climb back up to the car I stopped at the Slide Rock State Park. Took a long hike around there above the creek and then down along the creek over a lot of rocks! It was pretty crowded with kids and teenagers swimming in the creek or laying on the flatter rocks. Later, I stopped at an old ranch along Oak Creek where you can see the reflection of Cathedral Rock in the water. The rock glows reddish/orange at sunset but some light clouds moved in so it wasn't as colorful but still beautiful! Did a long hike there too along the creek! By the time I got back to my car, I was so sore and exhausted!

Thursday, I packed up and checked out of my room and headed for the Verde Valley Archeology Museum. Also very interesting. Then drove up to Montezuma Castle. Another area of ancient cliff dwellings. That was really interesting! I stopped in Sedona to see the Center For New Age and bought an interesting book there. All shops in Sedona are horribly expensive, but I did find one shop where I found a pair of dream catcher earrings on clearance. I then drove to the Chapel of the Holy Cross perched up on the side of a red rock cliff. I have been to that before, and since there was no parking spots available, I just took a couple photos. Further south, I stopped at Bell Rock which is in the shape of a bell and a really dark red color! The whole area on and around it is a vortex. So I hiked up part way, found a flat area off the trail to sit on and sat and meditated for about half an hour there. It was a breath-taking view from there all around me! Very surreal! After that, I headed home. Took about 3 hours with the sun setting just as I was going thru Phoenix.

So I packed in a lot of stuff in 4+ days! The weather was perfect, around 70* each day, sunny with a nice breeze (except for Tuesday). My body is protesting all the hiking and climbing I did! I am very sore and very tired! But so worth it! Luckily, whatever had me feeling so bad last week, went away and I felt really good the whole time there. It was a trip I won't soon forget!

Today I am just hanging out with the very happy kitties and getting caught up on here and resting my sore back and body!

[cnq50b]

Rats! I missed RollCall again.

Oh well, I was a bit busy. Had my son & family stay the night at my place since their current house is having a termite treatment. I've had the kids spend the night before but never had everyone. It was interesting to see what their life is like on a regular school night & morning. It got a little chaotic during the evening as Luca (2.5) started to get his second wind, but this morning was pretty ordinary. Kids ate cereal for breakfast, got dressed & my son took them all to school/preschool by 7:30. I love having those little ones with me. Both of the boys slept in my bed with me. They were really snuggly all night long & super sweet in the morning as they wake up. I was impressed how well the morning went. My life would be truly super quiet/boring without them nearby.

I'm still going thru things & boxing them up or throwing stuff out.. Decided to get rid of a few pieces of furniture rather than taking them with me. Still appreciate having a storage unit - first one I've ever had. In KS we had basements for storing things. I don't want to leave my kids the chore of clearing things out. My mom tried to do the same. She had us put our name on things we wanted - and sometimes she'd put a name on something that she wanted that person to have. After she passed away, we had an estate sale. I think we enjoyed all the time together more than anything else.

Judy, I hope your cough & congestion soon become a thing of the past. Be sure to get plenty of rest.

Barbie, sounds like you had a very full 4 days in Sedona. Looking forward to pictures!

Martha, still looks like you're getting some camping trips in. I like the idea of the Dinner Bell restaurant. Sounded so cool.
I went to a sushi place here yesterday (I'm not a fan of sushi but can handle tempera rolls) with my son, ex & ex's wife. Ex & wife were heading out on a trip to Europe - I was driving them to the airport. Anyway, this sushi place had an all-you-can-eat option. $29.99 for lunch. I would never eat enough to justify that & we didn't have a lot of time so we just ordered a few rolls. But I noticed most everyone else was doing the all you can eat option. Oh my, everything looked so good. It would definitely be worth the cost if we'd had more time - especially if you really like sushi.

Well, time to get going. Thankfully my son & family are staying with DIL's sister tonight so I'll get some sleep.

[Bethers]

Barbie, I love visiting both Bisbee and Tombstone but like to spend most of a day at each. Bisbee has a nice Saturday farmer's market so I've been planning to go on a Saturday. I have too much to do here now, hoping the work on the RV is over and I can get her cleaned and livable again this week. Now that winter crowds are over it's a good time to visit Tombstone, too. We could try both in one day, or do separate.

[snowball]

I am tired .... and didn't do that much today compared to other days...
but the room is ready for them to pull out the furniture... mostly a box for thrift store needs to be taken out and there is a box for sister in law on the dresser that I hope she will just take home and go through it there... if she doesn't want it she can send it to the thrift store...
brother and sister in law came today late I was surprised that sister in law as well however he is leaving his truck for his son to use while their's in in the shop guess that is why she needed to come... makes sense ... it's just that they have a daughter who is handicapped it's hard to get her into the house and really hard to get her to the bathroom... (she can't walk nor speak)
I have to laugh at my sister I asked if she wanted any of the decorative plates that hang on the wall she said no no room... the hang on the wall.... but today when I showed pictures of mom's hummingbird figurines she wanted all of them that is 12 without looking in another room... I wonder where she will find "room" for them... I'm glad I claimed the one I wanted and there were some I hadn't had taken pictures of one I'm still debating about it might not go either... I need to find a place for all the stuff I laid on my bed just not sure where they are going to go... I also went and took out a couple of things that my kids want so I won't have to say it's already spoken for I might take the Eagle that dd want's stash it in the room... just easier if they don't know or remember that it's there... my sister in law's group is going to be here about 10 I don't even set the alarm for that time... oh well guess I'll make it Monday I don't even think I am going to set the alarm...
Liz have you googled deer proof plants??? I've seen lots of "reel's" on FB showing these really pretty "fake" flowers she says that they look so real maybe Carol needs to look into them for her outdoor area plant them in dirt see if they get dinged for having artificial flowers out still makes me wonder at the mentality of those who make up the rules an area where you get many days of 114 degree or more in temps and they want the real thing on the patio???
Judy sounds like you are clearing up hoping it continues
Barbie sounds like a delightful trip
Beth do you remember Donna (Cricket) she has a unit in Tombstone that she visits seems like quite often if you aren't on her friendlist on FB ought to find her
Karen it sounds like you are doing the right thing for your back
I know that I've messed several I am just brain dead right not
did finish my afghan last night and have counted the side of the cloth for the Swedish weave... now to do the across then find the middle I was surprised the side count was 400 made that easy
you all have a great day
sheila