I made it!

Hello my Friends! I just wanted you to know that I did make it to Omaha late on Tuesday. It was an unexpected driving experience, although I didn’t have any actual problems.  I had snow over all four major mountain passes with heavy fog where I could only see two car lengths or so in front of me. I had planned to spend the night in Rapid City, South Dakota the first night, but ended up driving further because there was a winter storm warning issued for Rapid City on Tuesday all day. When I woke up Tuesday morning there was a little bit of snow on the ground with little round snow pellets falling. I left there about 4:30 AM Spokane time and got out of the snow fairly quickly, but then it rained on me almost all of the remainder of the drive to Omaha. It stopped just before I got here.

My sister, Melanie, was here 10 minutes later and helped me unload the car. I have absolutely no idea what I would have done without her. No one can believe how much I managed to pack into my small car. It was like a clown car. Boxes and bags just kept coming out of it! 😂  She carried three times as much into the house as I did. I can’t begin to tell you how grateful I was for her.  I’m hoping once things settle down a little bit we’ll be able to spend a lot of time together.

On Wednesday I spent much of the morning with home health visiting mom and the entire afternoon at the cardiologist with her in the afternoon. I didn’t come over to our house until almost 7:00 in the evening. Today was pretty much a repeat with two more home health visits this morning and early afternoon before I was finally able to go set up a bank account and then pick Piper up after school.  She went grocery shopping with me because I had absolutely no food in the house. She was a huge help, and I’m not kidding. I had a list and she knew where everything was on that was on my list. If she didn’t know exactly where it was, she knew the general vicinity. Pretty good for a second grader. She’s been helping me clean too!

Oh, I didn’t tell you how dirty the house was when we got here. Before Melanie and I could even do anything, we had to sweep the floors several times and then use a dust mop. I’ve since swept three more times. I don’t know what is all over these hardwoods but I don’t like it! They feel gritty on my feet! I’m hoping to find time tomorrow to scrub them all down, but I really think we’re going to get carpeting.  Dennis really wants carpeting. The insides of all of the cabinets were filthy, so before I could unpack anything I had to wash all of the closets, bathrooms and kitchen down from top to bottom.  That’s what I’ve been doing after I come home at night. I got here Tuesday late afternoon and I was so exhausted that once we unpacked the car and I got the bed made, I was in bed by about 10:00. But last night and tonight I’ve been cleaning until much later. It was about 11:00 last night when I stopped and I believe it’s after 11:30 now. I finally have our bathroom and bedroom completely cleaned and the kitchen is about half done.

The dryer doesn’t work either.  I found that out after washing two loads of area rugs! I’ve checked the circuit breakers and the outlet and I don’t know what else to check. Hopefully Dennis will be able to figure it out when he comes in May. The toilets run continuously unless I shut the water off after each flush! Now that is convenient. (sarcasm). The microwave has cracks on the front of it and doesn’t seem to work very well either, but you know what? I still think we got a really good deal on this house. The yard is beautiful and the neighborhood is super quiet. That’s one thing I’ve always loved about this neighborhood. I’ve had the windows open every night and it’s perfectly quiet and still.

We knew there would be some things that needed to be done when we moved in, we just didn’t count on it being appliances! I’m sorry I don’t have any pictures for you today because I haven’t even thought about taking any. I’ll try to do better. The cable company is supposed to be here at 8:00 am tomorrow to install Internet so Dennis can work from home when he comes for vacation in May for two weeks. After that I hope I’ll be able to start commenting on all of your blogs again. I’m sorry I’ve been so quiet this week.  I haven’t even had time to read any of your posts. I truly apologize. I think my life is going to undergo a huge change from the boring life we led in Spokane. Ha!

I’ll try to do better with my next post. I just wanted to let you all know that I made it safely it’s just been very, very, very busy.

Blessings and love to you all,

Betsy

Happy Easter

Easter Blessings from our home to yours.

Betsy

Forgive Them

On Good Friday Jesus said.....

He died for you and for me and for all people who are to come. I pray that you will accept this precious gift.

He is the reason we celebrate this weekend.  Jesus Christ-LORD of all

Blessings and love, 

Betsy

Four + Days And Counting

Time here is getting short. I have four full days and what’s left of today here in Spokane. There is a lot to be done and a lot of people to say goodbye to, so I’m not sure if I will get another post done before I leave. I will try my hardest to keep up with comments on your blogs, but if I miss a few days, please forgive me.

I thought would give you an update on the state of my vaccination journey since people always seem to be fairly interested in how it goes for everyone else. As you all know, I got my second Pfizer shot on Monday at 10:00 AM. I didn’t notice anything until the evening when my arm started getting a bit sore. By the time I went to bed I was having to pick up that arm with my other hand just to move it! Ouch! During the night I had body aches, fever, chills, headache and a very sore arm. By the time I got out of bed Tuesday morning at 6:30, I was much better and by noon I was  pretty much back to normal.  Larry and Nita got their vaccinations one hour after I did and had almost exactly the same side effects that I did. They were both fine by yesterday afternoon too!  Today, I would never know I had been vaccinated. I’m completely fine. I have to admit it was a pretty miserable 12 hours or so, but what is 12 hours if it protects you from getting Covid and protects other people at the same time? I would do it again 1000 times if I had to.  I am so grateful to the Lord for providing the intelligence to the people who developed these vaccines. What would we do without these brilliant minds? Thank you Lord.🙏

In other news, our local Basketball team, Gonzaga has moved on to the Final Four in March Madness! We went over to Larry and Nita’s house last night to watch the game with them and have pizza. They are undefeated so far this year. If they make it to, and win the championship, it will be the first undefeated team since 1976! There is one more game to play on Saturday afternoon and then I believe the championship game is on Monday. It is so exciting! Spokane really gets behind the Gonzaga Bulldogs every year. It’s all anyone is talking about. People have been so sad because no one has been able to attend any games this year. The girls team made it to the Sweet 16 this year too. Both teams are exceptional.

I have a few small projects to show you.  I started making a baby hat just a few minutes ago.

I also started a pair of socks a few days ago but haven’t worked on them since I cast them on. I was just doing a plain vanilla sock, but after seeing Vera‘s post at “The Threaded Lane” this morning, I think I’m going to rip them back to the cuff and do the same pattern she is. It’s a Knit 6, Purl 2 around and I think it would look great with this yarn.

And just to cheer you all up to on this fine spring day, I thought I would share a picture of Miss Piper at the Henry Doorley Zoo a couple of weeks ago. Omaha has one of the finest zoos in the world and I can’t wait to visit again. It has been many years since we were there. They have what’s called a grandparents pass and I believe we will be purchasing that fairly soon.  As you can see, she took one of her babies along and is a wonderful little mother. The baby is covered up with one of the little blankets that I made for her. She loves her babies, and of course she’s wearing her College World Series hat. Until just a few years ago, the College World Series was held every year right across the street from the zoo at Rosenblatt Stadium.  It has now moved a few miles north of here to the downtown area of Omaha.  I remember volunteering to work the concessions at the CWS for several years when I was in high school along with our church youth group. It was so much fun.

I also finished the second “Which Way Filet” baby blanket and they have been packed away in storage. I guess you could call them the “seed blankets” for the charity knitting I plan to do in Omaha. 💜💕💜

I hope you are all having a wonderful Wednesday. We have brilliant blue skies and it’s supposed to get into the 50s today. Hallelujah! I took our vaccination cards to Staples this morning and they laminated them for free. This way we don’t have to worry about anything happening to them. I really don’t know what we are supposed to do with them, so I guess we will keep them with our passports.

Blessings and love, 

Betsy

Second Vaccination Done!

It’s Monday and I got my second Pfizer vaccination about five hours ago! I am so happy. I’m hoping it goes as well as Dennis’s did and I don’t have any side effects. With the first one I just had a little bit of a headache and a sore arm for a day, so I’m hoping for a repeat. 

We have a busy week coming up. Everyone in our small group Bible study except one person has now been vaccinated. They have asked if we can have a potluck together on Thursday night, since it will be my last week here. Then, on  Saturday, we’re going out to dinner with Neal and Jenny. It will be my first time in a restaurant since last summer. I’m told the Pfizer vaccine is fully effective after seven days and the Moderna is fully effective after 14 days so I should be good. Our restaurants are still open at only 50% capacity.  Then, on Sunday we are having Easter dinner with Alicia and Jeremy and the boys. This is the busiest my social life has been in over a year! Monday morning, if all goes as planned, bright and early, I will leave on my 24 hour drive to Nebraska. It was snowing hard in Montana this morning and I’m hoping it’s not like that next week.

I have a lot to still accomplish this week so I’m really hoping I can keep plugging along and the vaccine doesn’t affect me in any big way.

Along with Larry and Nita we watched Gonzaga play Creighton yesterday in the March Madness basketball. It was hard to know who to cheer on! Gonzaga is our Spokane team and Creighton is the Omaha team! I solved that dilemma by just cheering for both teams whenever they scored. :-) Nita did not like that because they are huge Gonzaga fans. 😂 Gonzaga won and is going on to the elite eight. They have been there before and we’re hoping for a big win this year.

I did finish one baby blanket this weekend and I started another. I love this color.

Matchey, matchey. 💜  I bought two one pound skeins of yarn so there will be easily be enough for two blankets out of these two skeins.

I forgot to take photos of the lapghans that I delivered to the veterans home this morning on my way to the vaccine clinic. Yesterday I dropped off a big bag of baby hats and blankets to the hospital. I also packed all of the mittens that I’ve made so far into a drawer in one of our dressers that is in storage. Little by little we’re winding up our life here in Spokane. Dennis is having a meeting today to let all of the people who work for him know of our plans. He will continue to work from home after the move and will fly back to Spokane when he needs to for meetings.  He will still be here for a few months.

Next, I have the last of the photos of the new house for you to see. The first two are of our bedroom. Look at the beautiful solid maple set that they left for us. Mandy says that it’s very high-quality furniture. The dresser that you see the edge of on the right has a big mirror attached to it.

A bit of a different view. They even left the TV on the wall for us.  It’s not a big room, but it will work fine for us. We do have our own mattresses that we are bringing next month, but they told us this was a brand new mattress and only slept on a couple of times by their mom.  It seems strange to think of sleeping on someone else’s bed, but I guess it’s no different than staying in a hotel is it?  I want to get new blinds and curtains for these windows because we like it really dark when we sleep.

Here is Miss Piper showing off the family room. They left another TV on the wall here but we’re going to take this one down. It’s in an odd spot and we don’t have to want to have to crane our necks up so high. Jim, who passed away several years ago was an avid Harley Davidson collector. Every year they would go to the Sturgis motorcycle rally. They would pull their motorcycle in a trailer behind the truck and then ride it around South Dakota. The ceiling fan in the photo below is a Harley Davidson ceiling fan. That will definitely be replaced. They used this room as a rec room. They had a bar in the corner and Harley Davidson memorabilia all over the room. Carpeting down here is in very good shape with just one stain in the corner. Our nephew Russ, who is a carpet layer is going to replace that little patch for us with some carpeting that was left behind. He says we won’t even be able to see the patch. We are so grateful for everyone who has been helping us so much with the house. I don’t know how we would have done any of this without them.

This is the other end of the same room. This is what I hope to make it into my crafting and yarn storage area. The door goes out to the backyard.  You will notice that they had ceiling fans all over the house. I think they are very necessary in the Midwest where the summers can be very hot and humid.

Remember what I told you about Harley Davidson? Obviously the door on the shed will get a paint job too! They do have the yard nicely landscaped. I’m thinking of trying some container gardening in that mulched spot in the corner.  We have been told that it is red rubber mulch! I have never heard of such a thing.

 And one more view of the backyard.   There is a little retaining wall with some rocks in the shade next to it. The yards are not very big here and that’s fine with me. We haven’t seen chain-link fences like this since we left Nebraska. The yards here in Spokane are mostly surrounded with 6 foot tall privacy fences. For some reason the chain-link seems much more neighborly to me. 😍

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend. We had a severe wind storm last night with gusts of over 70 mph. It’s still blowing today but not nearly as strong. The RV did very well. It did shake a bit at the strongest gusts, but Dennis has it resting on several extra jacks to stabilize it.

I’m praying that you all stay strong and healthy. I hope that everyone is able to get the vaccine very soon.

Blessings and love, 

Betsy

Still Packing

It’s Friday! Not much has changed since I last posted. The pile on the sofa has changed a bit. Some things have been added to the car and others have taken their place on the sofa. I’m still hoping it will all fit!

I did start a baby blanket yesterday morning and I’ve been picking it up off and on to add a few rows and give me a chance to sit down. I made a couple of cabled baby hats that I have already given to Nita. I’m sorry I forgot to take a picture of them first.  She is keeping them all at her house and on Monday I will make one final delivery to the hospital here. I think there are seven baby blankets and 47 hats in the bag to be donated.

I have a few more pictures of the house for you. The first two will be Dennis’s office as he will be working from home at least for awhile.  They left the desk and lamp in this photo.  We are hoping the desk will be big enough for the two big monitors he needs.

They also left this bookcase and the Hoover vacuum cleaner! In the closet downstairs there is also a carpet cleaner!

This will be our guest room, or as it will be called, “Piper‘s room.”  We are planning on lots of overnight stays here at Papa and Grandma‘s house. 👏💜👏  Just a reminder that everything you’re seeing in all of these photos was left for us. Weren’t they generous?

I like the little details like the scallops over the closet doors. We are planning to take the vertical blinds down from the living room windows and put blinds like these up on those windows too.

That’s about it. It’s been a fairly quiet week. Dennis had his Second vaccine on Monday afternoon with absolutely no side effects at all. His arm wasn’t even very sore. I hope I have the same experience when I get mine on Monday morning.  

Yesterday I had Sophie all day long while Larry and Nita took a short road trip. They dropped her off about 8:30 in the morning and picked her up about 4:30. It was so nice to have a dog here again. I’m certainly going to miss her. She’s such a little sweetheart.  Nita is worried about what she’s going to do when they can start cruising again as I have always been the one to keep Sophie for them. I told them they would just have to cruise out of Florida and stop in Nebraska on the way and drop Sophie off! It is really going to be hard to leave them behind. I’m trying not to think too much of what we’re leaving behind and focus on what we’re going to. You can’t live somewhere for almost 30 years and not leave part of your heart behind when you move.

The painter was supposed to call me this morning but I haven’t heard anything from him yet. All of the painting was supposed to be done by the time I arrived and the time is getting short.  

I hope you are all doing well and are looking forward to the weekend.

Blessings and love, 

Betsy

Good Morning!

Happy Monday morning to everyone! It’s pouring down rain here this morning and I’m loving the sound of it on the roof of the RV. I had planned to take a long walk this morning, but I don’t think that’s going to happen unless the rain stops. It started out as snow/rain yesterday afternoon and has continued nonstop, but now it’s just rain. It’s a very cozy sound. I have the fireplace on and I’ll do some knitting on mittens this afternoon.

Dennis got our patio furniture out of storage on Saturday. Obviously I won’t be around to enjoy it very long but maybe he will sit outside in the evenings and read. You can’t really see how hard the rain is falling  and I’m not about to go outside to get a better picture! Ha!😂

I did finish this pair of socks and I think I mistakenly said before that they were the “Petty Harbour” pattern. That’s wrong! They are the “Vanilla Latte Socks”, which I believe is also a free pattern on ravelry. I’m sorry I can’t put them on the blockers to show you the pattern better, but as you’ll see in the picture below, I have a lot of things packed up and I have no idea where I put the blockers! These are made with Knit Picks stroll tweed and I loved using this yarn. I have used it many times before and I never get tired of how soft it feels and how well it wears. These will also go into the gift box.

I knitted 1 and 1/2 pair of mittens yesterday evening.

And oh, what a mess I have. There is a dilemma. My car already has one entire layer from the back of the drivers seat to the tailgate. This will be the next layer! Ha! I make it sound like a cake. I have a lot of things not in boxes because I’m hoping to be able to tuck them into nooks and crannies. Dennis also wants me to take the computer printer with me. I plan to only stay in a hotel one night along the way so I can avoid germs as much as possible. Even that one night makes me nervous because I’m afraid someone will break into the car with all of these boxes in it. They don’t know that most of them are yarn and not expensive treasures! Already in the car is bedding, some kitchen things, and three totes of yarn! Hopefully Dennis will bring the rest of my yarn when he comes in May. First things first you know!  I don’t want to wait until September to get my yarn.

Honestly? I never want to move again. We have owned five different houses including this new one and enough is enough. The older I get the harder it all seems. Here are a few more photos of the house.

Look at this teal bathroom! Wow! They left all of these things on the walls too. I believe she used to sell home interiors and it shows. I am told the sinks and tub and toilet are all in beautiful condition, with no chips. I’m torn between completely replacing everything and leaving it as is. We do have to add a shower to this tub, as the only shower is the one in the master bedroom. That won’t work when the kids come to visit. Look how nice they left it for us. They even have soap at each sink in both bathrooms and in the kitchen. They left me all the cleaning supplies too!

This is the bathroom off the master bedroom. You can sure tell this was built almost 60 years ago when master bathrooms were just becoming popular. In new houses they are much, much, much bigger than this.  This part of the bathroom is identical to the one in my mother-in-law‘s house next-door. The doorknobs are even the same.

This is the master shower! It’s half the size of the one in our RV! It’s also the only shower in the house right now. But they left this place immaculately clean and we have absolutely no complaints. We got such a good deal on this house. If it had hit the open market I’m sure we would have had to pay twice as much for it if we had even been able to buy it. We are so grateful to the Lord for providing this beautiful place for us to live.  

Now I do find the magazine holder on the wall pretty hilarious. 😍 Mandy has already taken the shelf and the rack off of the wall in preparation for the painter.

Mom is doing very well at home. She still is not allowed to do the stairs by herself and has to use a walker for the time being. Someone goes over and spends most of the day with her every day and makes her meals for her. I think everyone is getting anxious for me to arrive. Mom is so excited. I told Mandy last night that Mom said she can’t wait until I get there and we can start working on the house together, unpacking things. Mandy just laughed and said there was no way grandma would be able to get all the way over to our house at this point even though it’s just next-door. She is still very, very weak. I would appreciate continued prayers for her. Every day she sounds more and more like herself though.

It is really hard to wrap up almost 30 years of living somewhere and moving halfway across the country. When we moved here we didn’t have nearly the medical things going on that we have now. I’m trying to get doctors lined up before we go so records can be transferred. I don’t think that will be very successful, although I do think I have found a cardiologist. I will be going to the same office mom does so that will make appointments much easier. I’m sure we will have different doctors, as I need an electrophysician and she has a regular cardiologist.

I’m taking care of mail and bank accounts and utility companies, but we still will have things here because Dennis is not leaving for a while. Sometimes it gets very overwhelming to me.  

I am so, so, so excited though. We will be back with family and especially Mandy and Piper. It’s going to break my heart to leave Neal and Jenny, Larry and Nita, and Lori and Paul especially. I can’t even talk about it with them without crying. They have become our family here, since we have had none. Our plan is to come back next summer for a month or two to visit. I truly hope God allows that for us. We love the people here in Spokane and Spokane itself.

I hope you are all having a wonderful Monday. Take care of yourselves and be safe. Dennis is getting his second Pfizer vaccine today. I’m praying for no side effects for him. Mine is next Monday! Herd immunity, here we come!

Blessings and much love,

Betsy

One More Day

Happy Tuesday my friends.  It is another beautiful day here in Spokane. I took some Japanese items for donation to the Mukogawa Institute where there are a lot of Japanese students. On the way back over the river I stopped to snap this photo. This is the reason it’s hard to leave the Northwest. It is stunning. You can see the clock tower there in the upper right portion of the photo and what used to be a big tent in Riverfront Park for the world expo in 1974. Lots of different events are still held under that structure. Then, there is the pedestrian bridge crossing the river. It is beautiful.

The veterinarians office called me this morning and Chloe’s memory box and ashes were there. I haven’t been able to get myself to look in the bag yet. I still can’t wrap my mind around the fact that she’s not here with us anymore.

I finished the last of the three bunnies that I’m going to make right now. Yesterday when I took this photo it was very cloudy. The colors aren’t showing up very well but there is a purple bunny that I gave to Nita this morning. Purple is her favorite color. The pink one is for Piper. The brown bunny is for Lori. I think they are adorable! I will eventually make myself a purple one also.

I finished all six of my dresses Saturday evening and was able to clean up that mess. I just started a pair of socks this afternoon but I’ve only accomplished a few rows so far.

I spent the morning running errands and trying to fix Nita‘s cell phone for her. Intermixed amid all of this were calls from our realtor, who even though we closed on the house several weeks ago, is still working on things for us. She was in the house this morning with a painter getting bids for us on painting all of the walls and ceilings. At one point she called me and said they found a gas leak behind the dryer! She even contacted a company to come out and repair it. I’m not sure they will make it there today, it will probably be tomorrow. She and Mandy found another small leak in the water heater before we ever closed on the house and the gas company repaired that. It’s crazy. I hope nothing else is found.

The carpeting in the living room, dining room and hallway was torn out yesterday by our nephew. He is a professional carpet layer and if we decide we want carpeting he will install it for us. Apparently there are beautiful hardwood floors throughout the entire upstairs. The dining room has a little bit of damage on the floor or something must have been spilled onto the carpet. The realtor knows someone who should be able to repair that for us also if we decide to forgo the carpeting and keep the hardwoods.

The next two photos are of the kitchen. We will be getting rid of the table and chairs. As you can see it has double wall ovens and a new dishwasher. I have never cared for this style of cabinetry, but it seems to be in very good condition from what I can tell so I will have to learn to love them won’t I?

The stove top is a countertop electric stove top which is very different from my Jenn-air gas stove at the old house. This entire kitchen is completely different from my old kitchen and will definitely take some getting used to but, I have learned to be happy wherever I’m living. As long as I’m with Dennis it will be fine. They’ve left us the coffee maker and a can opener and I’m told that tall cabinet by the refrigerator is also full of appliances. God does provide doesn’t He?  After giving away almost everything we own, He has provided everything we need to get started in this house.

Mom came home from the hospital yesterday and bless Mandy and Jessie’s hearts, they are trying to find ways to have someone with her every day for awhile. I ordered the medical guardian bracelet and necklace for her so if she ever finds herself in the same situation she was in before, she can just push the button to call for help and won’t have to sit on the floor all night. Hopefully that will never happen and we’ll be right next-door to help.

Dennis is scheduled to get his second Pfizer vaccine shot next Monday and then I will get mine the week after that. I listed our small camper for sale on Facebook marketplace because it didn’t make sense to keep both. Some wonderful people came to look at it last night and are supposed to come back tonight to pick it up. That will take a great deal off of our minds. There is so much to be done before I leave in a few weeks. Please keep us and all of the decisions we are making in your prayers.

I hope you are all doing well and have not had too many issues with the snow storm that came through this week end. Wishing you all a wonderful Tuesday. 

Blessings and hugs, Betsy

Thank you

Thank you for your wonderful comments about Chloe‘s passing. It sure isn’t getting any easier as the days go by. She was a wonderful dog and will never be forgotten. We have had several friends bring flowers over and lots of phone calls. Anybody who ever met her thought she was the sweetest dog. Seriously. I couldn’t even begin to tell you the number of people that have told me in the past few days that she was the calmest, sweetest, most well-behaved and gentle dog they had ever met.  It is all true. I think Dennis is taking it even harder than I am.  I was fine when he was at work, but when he was home she was definitely his dog.

The flowers below are from Neal and Jenny. She sure loved Jenny too. A few more pair of mittens I made over the weekend.

 Please excuse the mess in the next two pictures. I’m trying to get my summer dresses made before I leave. This is the bunny that I made yesterday to give to Lori.  It is a super simple crochet pattern. Oh, and that is the sewing machine I bought on Amazon a couple of weeks ago. It works very well for the low price I paid for it.

This is the reality of living in an RV. When you have a project going on, everything has to be shifted around. The ironing board is set up just to the right of this photo. You see a pile of material on the left that will eventually become dresses.  They are already all cut out and ready to sew. There are two dresses that are almost complete, along with a bag of yarn for mittens and the sewing machine case.

I don’t have much news. Dennis‘s mom is still in the hospital in Omaha. Once I get my second vaccine on the 29th and I wait the required days for side effects, I will be leaving and driving to Omaha. Dennis will stay here and come later. Mandy and Jessie have done an amazing job handling everything with the hospital and arranging a rehab facility for a few weeks for Mom, but it’s not fair to them to leave them in that situation any longer than necessary.  I don’t see myself coming back to Spokane until we come for a visit, hopefully next year.

I know this is short, but I really wanted to write to tell everyone thank you so much. You are all blessings to me. This week has definitely been a trial and full of stress, but we know that God is with us and is watching over us and every decision we make. Thanks for being there for us my friends.

Blessings and love,

Betsy

Goodbye

Goodbye our sweet Chloe girl. Our hearts are broken and I don’t think I’m ever going to stop crying. Chloe had a stroke during the night and we had to let her go this morning. I think Dennis is taking it harder than I am. She was seriously the best dog I’ve ever met. We had her seven months before we ever heard her bark. I never heard her growl or be mean toward anyone. We were always known by everyone as “Chloe‘s parents.” My heart hurts. As a rescue dog, I think she knew how big and mean the world could be and she was always grateful for everything we did for her. She showed it by loving us right back with everything she had in her.

Hug your fur babies a little closer and give them big kisses for me. You never know what’s going to happen.

Blessings and hugs,

Betsy

A New Home

Our new home!  

Mom‘s home is the one with the brick on the left and ours is on the right. Nice and close!

Here are just a few photos of the living room and dining room. Everything you see in the pictures I’ll be sharing with you over the next few posts, are the things that the previous owner left for us. Mandy took these photos today. She is over choosing some paint colors and she opened all the windows to get some fresh air inside. As I’ve said before, you are seeing exactly what I have seen of the house. It is all new to me! Having never walked through, it will be an adventure when we arrive.

I have been told that all of the windows in the house are the kind that tilt in so you can clean the outside of the windows from inside of the house. I really like that idea. The blue material leaning against the sofa on the right contains the leaves for the dining room table.

The beautiful hutch that they left!  Can you believe they gave all of this furniture and everything on the walls to us?  They also left a carpet cleaner and vacuum cleaner.

I will share more photos with you over the next few posts. 

I have made some mittens over the past week.

Few more pair!

It has been a week. We closed on the house on Tuesday and I spent a few days arranging utilities and meter readings and all of that fun stuff from a distance. I honestly don’t know what we would do without Mandy. She has been there for us every step of the way. A locksmith changed all of the locks on Thursday.

Mom got her second Moderna shot on Friday morning. I spoke with her that evening and so did Dennis’s brother. She was fine, with just a little sore arm. Dennis tried to call her at his usual time early Saturday morning and she didn’t answer the phone. Very unusual. He waited a few minutes and tried again. Several other family members tried to reach her and she didn’t answer the phone. We were starting to worry because that is so unlike her. He called Mandy who ran to her Grandma’s house just as fast as she could get there, which is about a half hour drive. She couldn’t get in because the locks were changed not long ago and Grandma is always there, so she didn’t need to have a key! She called Dennis and he stayed on the phone with her and told her to call the fire department. Long story short, they couldn’t get in through any windows or doors so they ended up kicking the door down. They found her on the floor where she had been all night. She was not able to walk. Her blood sugar very high and so is her blood pressure. When the EMT had Mandy come in the room he asked mom who she was and she couldn’t say her name.  Needless say, she was taken to the hospital where she remains today. Mandy stayed with her until last night which was wonderful. As a nurse she was able to answer all of their questions and understand everything that the doctors were saying. Mom would have never remembered any of it. Mandy also did most of her care yesterday from what I understand. Only one family member can be there per day. It has to be the same family member each day. Our niece Jessie is there today with her. She still cannot walk alone and her blood sugar is still quite high. She will be there at least another day or two. She is also running a fever of 102. No one knows if any of it has to do with the vaccine or the result of an infection she has. Honestly? I do not know what we would have done if Mandy didn’t live there. She was the one person that knew exactly what to do for mom and how to take care of her.

This has all just solidified in our minds the fact that we are making the right decision in going home and moving next-door. Instead of waiting until September, I am planning to go back the first week of May and just stay there. I am getting my first Pfizer vaccine injection tomorrow and I imagine the second one will be in three weeks. If I have to I can leave after that, but I’m hoping to be able to wait and go with Dennis the first part of May. The problem is, everyone else back there has commitments and can’t be with Grandma everyday. They either work full-time or go to school.

I hope all is well with all of you. I’ll check in again later.

Blessings and love,

Betsy