From Oklahoma to British Columbia-Day 1

I tossed and turned most of the night.  I don't know if it was because I was tired from all of the yard work and house work we did, or from the "good byes" we said before we went to bed.  But I didn't sleep well at all and then woke up early.  Scootard woke up early too and we decided what the heck; might as well get a move on and get going.  We left the house 20 minutes ahead of schedule and was greeted by some dense fog first thing.

I hadn't seen fog like that since we had left Virginia a few weeks ago, but I liked it.  It looked peaceful for some reason....:-).  Glad I wasn't the one driving, though...haha.

I took a quick glance back at our home admiring the work we had done.  The flower beds were ready for planting in the Spring when we return.  If you look closely, you will see the plastic sheeting we put down to kill out the weeds; but careful to leave enough room for the shrubs to get air and light around the roots.......

So, we started down the road and it was strange the way the light hit the fog when I took this picture......very cool...:-).

Scootard was getting more excited with every minute and we were not even out of the city yet!

the first "little" town we came to was called "Duke, Oklahoma"...I had never been there and it was just a wide spot in the road.....

and because it was Sunday, every town we came to seemed deserted.

This is Hollis, Oklahoma.....a little bit larger than Duke, but not by much....:-).

Some of the buildings we came across seemed that they had been there since the town settled in....
My grandmother would have been 9 years old when this town was founded.

Wow, what can one say about this?  Not much crime I guess....ha

and hopefully, not too many fires!

And apparently, not much "gossip" either.....that might be a good thing though....:-).

And that was about it for old Hollis, folks.......

We were headed for Texas and I was glad that we ran across some cotton fields along the way since Scootard had accidentally thrown away what he had gathered previously.   He was on his own with this one though.  I DON'T pick cotton! hahaha

Maybe he can weave some socks or something from that.....:-).

And then we were out of Oklahoma and into the next state.......

I don't believe I had ever been to Memphis, Texas.  But this was about all there was to it.

In no time flat, we were through there and on to the next town......I started singing this song I heard on a commercial......

"Blue skies.....smiling at meeeeeee, nothing but blue skies do I seeeeeeeeeee.  Doo doo, la dee da da....la dee da la la....la dee da.....:-)

or something like that...ha

We saw a rest stop and decided that it was time to have a bite to eat.......

My daughter loaded us up the night before with fruit, chips, turkey jerkey and we had some Brie cheese, and plenty of water and soda......

this was the view from our picnic place.........:-).  Cool- eh?

It made me want to spend the night there......:-).

After spending more time looking out the windows of our car and hoping that our destination was near......BINGO!

ok, cool.  Time for some snacks for the road tomorrow..... Wal-Mart came in handy as we needed to get our "stash" for the next day.

Not all of it was going to make it through to tomorrow.....

Even though we were in New Mexico, we still had a long way to go to reach our destination of Roswell. So, we traveled on; munching as we went.....:-).

We passed through this tiny little place.....blinked and it was gone....haha

and then in the distance we saw this.........

and then we saw this!  All of my days of "Sci-Fi" movies started rushing through my head....haha

THEN I SPOTED ONE!!  I KNEW IT!  hahaha

I figured I'd better scan the town to see if any more were "lurking" unaware........

on the way through town we saw some people lining the street and holding signs in support of "pro life" efforts.  Since they smiled at us, I asked if I could take their picture....:-).  I think they liked our British Columbia tags....we fit in with the aliens I guess....ha.

The more we drove around, the more it started to be obvious that the aliens were NOT trying to hide at all! they even had their own club.....hahaha.  REALLY!?

this guy was even bold enough to sit in the store front window.....chillin ....with a sun visor, ya'll!

and his buddy was getting sloshed too!  In front of everybody.....what's the world coming too??

I dear......space pod?  Space coffin??, Bedroom??......???

He must have stolen something....ha.

We went to the back of the "Alien Zone" and found out that they had their own arcade.....hooda thunkit??

this guy looked kinda lonely.......

So, Scootard decided to befriend him.  They guy didn't even say thank you!  What nerve!!

Anyway, we left and continued through town.  This is Roswell's city Hall....very nice.  Notice the "green" top...haha.  I guess they have just come to accept that these guys are here to stay.

We started back through town to get some dinner and find our hotel when we spotted the mother of all aliens.....complete with a ship!

all this alien adventure had us starving by now.  We settled on IHOP.  It was a big mistake.  I was trained in food sanitation and safety and the place "unerved me" on several levels.  We had the manager take care of things for us though......

I even tried the coffee, which to me is never good at resturants.  But I think we are spoiled from traveling with our own and using a French Press instead of auto drip.

I ordered Tilapia and finished most of what was on my plate.  I'm not a big bread eater, so that stayed with the plate.

We finished our dinner and travel toward our "home" for the night.  I'm telling you these guys are EVERYWHERE! Did you see that??  yeah, that wasn't a chicken leg!

Gas in the car is a must before we turn in for the night.  So, we stopped here.  They seem to be a popular chain in this area.....

the sun was starting to set and the sky was just gorgeous........:-).  I love beautiful sunsets.

So, we made it.  Roswell, New Mexico......home of the aliens of "Area 51" military training area that is not supposed to exist.  We were tired and glad to finally be able to get still for a while before starting again tomorrow......

I turned to take this shot of the sunset since no two are ever alike........:-).

we grabbed our things out of the car.  This will be our life for the next week or two.......

Thanked God for getting us here safely and for all the people who are praying for our safe return to Canada....and settled in for the night.

good night....:-).  See ya tomorrow!

The Agony of "Dee Feet"

As most of you know, my family has had a series of "runs" with the flu that had us reeling around here for a few days.  After a couple of relapses, I decided that a change of strategy was in order.  First step:  change medication to this..........

Encourage more rest......(those are my daughter's toes sticking out from her blanket)....:-(.

and keep more of these with some hot water, lemon and honey near by.....

and after a few more days of that.......PRESTO!  she was doing better and was grateful for the breakthrough....

And Scootard......well...he was doing better too....haha

I figured by now, I needed "therapy"!  The yard is always a good place for me to start......

I was ready to go.... Armed and Dangerous !  We even went to the store and bought a power saw with an extender to get the job done.  My trees ( Crepe Myrtles  which usually florish at 4-6 feet in my back yard had grown to about twice that during my absence since my move to Canada.  Something had to be done quick!  Having already put down bug killer and fertilizer, it was time to get started......

Scootard "McSAWMAN"......having already cut down two trees to fence level was ready to wax dangerous with his new toy......haha

 

Now, when I looked up at this thing after having hauled a few loads to our trailer, I almost decided on calling in a landscaping company to deal with the magnitude of this job.

but the further we went along, the more convinced I was that it would be much cheaper to do it all ourselves......

I was given an "outdoor" fireplace a few years ago that had never been used until this last trip back home.  We decided to make use of the wood that we had cut down and use it for fire when we light it again.  I snagged an old trash can bin that I used to use in the back alley for the trash man before they starting collecting in the front of the house.  It worked out pretty good after we got it kinda straightened out.  This is only "some" of the wood.  We ran out of space and still aren't finished yet.....
 

We were glad that we had our trailer with us.  Pulling the scooters on this thing came in handy for us.  We were equally glad that we had a very large tarp as well.  By the way, this is just one load out of what would prove to be many.   By the way, there is actually a trailer under that pile....haha.

So, here is the first side of the yard.  It was almost shocking to learn that I had neighbors!  hahaha. I probably scared the stew out of them too.......ha

It was hard to believe that something this small........two feet wide...

grew into this...............

after many trips back and forth with tree limbs, branches, aching legs and scratched up limbs (on us), we were ready to take the FIRST load to the city dump.

It was pretty easy.  You just go, tell them your account number for your water bill and they let you dump it in a designated spot for free!  yeah.  AND getting it off the trailer was a cinch since all I had to do was wait for Scootard's signal and then simply drive forward.  It all came off in one big pile.

After ........(wait for it) FOUR twenty minute trips to and from the city dump......my poor tennis shoes were coughing dust.....I was coughing dust, and it was time to quit.

My feet ached, and it was time to clean up and rest up.  It was a long few days with more trees to cut down tomorrow.  I think my toes went to sleep before I did!  But my whole "self" is grateful to God for bringing my family through that nasty sickness and allowing us to continue to live life....:-).  

to be continued........but for now....goodnight!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!

It has been one weird weekend with sick folks around me during my birthday celebration weekend.  Scootard and our daughter Tracey have been ill.  Tracey was just starting her "throws" with a virus, and I was running back and forth taking care of things.  Scootard had moments of "normalness" during his vigilant fight.  Notice his facial expression?  Yep, that's normal...haha.  Tracey on the other hand, looked like she was about to "give up the ghost".....:-(.   Sorry about my laptop in the way.

But in spite of all of the illness in the house, all was not lost since I was taking the entire weekend to celebrate one way or another.  Tracey made me a basket some time earlier in the week and had it delivered to the house for me....:-).  It was a nice addition to the edible arrangement that I had received from our oldest daughter the day before......:-).

And a closer look revealed that there was even something in the basket for "Ms Vickey" when she takes her next ride in the spring......I'm thinking of naming him "Oscar".  Any suggestions??

I opened my cards to discover that some of them were musical...I have always thought those kinds of cards were very cool. Especially when they sing things like "Celebrate Good Times" by Cool and the Gang...haha

by this time Tracey had run out of steam and was back in her room in "quarantine".....:-(.

I'll bet she was VERY HAPPY that she was an adult when she saw me approaching with this.....haha.  You know how we sometimes do this with babies, right?  yeah....

A friend of hers sent this to help brighten up her day......:-).

Some ladies from our ministry planned a birthday get together and dinner for me. One of them made me an Italian Cream Cake and drove it all the way from Texas to give to me for my birthday....:-).  I thought it looked pretty cool in front of my birthday balloons.  Pretty cool- eh?

And then I got more cards.....:-).  Scootard held them for me while I took the shot.

And gifts.....:-).  This one came from one of the ladies who came in from another city......:-).

And the gifts kept coming....:-).  This will be very useful "whenever" we start to make our way back to Canada.  But with all of the sickness in the family right now, it won't be tomorrow as planned.  I'm glad they don't expire!  At least I hope not....:-(.

And a little something to keep me warm.....:-).  They know how I often get cold.....

I even got these "toe covers" to help stave off the cold......ha.  I call them my "Hoovian socks" because they look "Scandahoovian" like something that would have come from Scootards ancestors.

  
It was a good weekend in spite of all of the illness and lack of sleep that I had.  As soon as everyone had gone, I put on my old ratted out pj's and settled in for the night.

See you all next time.

Chicken Soup For The Sick Room.....:-(

Tomorrow is my birthday.  Today, I have spent the day trying to sanitize and take care of a sick family.  The bright side is that my oldest daughter sent me an edible arrangement for for my birthday that had a lot of things I needed to help in the battle of the flu bug.

I have never had an edible arrangement nor have I ever sent one to anyone.  So, at first glance, I thought I saw ice cream on sticks like fudge sickles or something and told Scootard that we had to hurry and eat everything!  We rush the basket into the kitchen took an "ice cream cone" off of the top and discovered that it was chocolate covered pineapple....:-).  Cool...since there were four of them, that would have been a lot of ice cream in one sitting....:-(.   Funny how the picture makes it look like a cupcake..:-).

After spotting the Kale that was used as a garnish, we started to tear the arrangement apart to get to it for the soup I had to make.

I rooted through the fridge to see what else I had that I could through in the pot.  I had some fresh spinach, garlic, onion, chicken breast, cabbage, carrots and herbs. I also found some brown rice to throw in.  Now, it time to cut everything into manageable pieces.......

I had a total of 5 large chicken breast which I decided to split and cut into cubes.  Then I seasoned it with poultry seasoning and a pepper blend that I already had made up in a storage can.

My experience has been that if I add the chicken too soon, it will come out dry and tough even though it is floating in liquid.  So, I tossed all of the veggies in the pot first and brought them to a boil.

Then I decided to quick fry the chicken in some olive oil to seal in the flavor and help keep it moist while cooking.

After the carrots were done, I tossed in the chicken and let it cook until everything was tender and the chicken was thoroughly cooked........

And PRESTO!  Everyone had a bowl or two and I am hopeful that fever that my daughter has developed in the time I was in the kitchen will began to break.....:-(.