April 26: New Apartment

We're still working out where stuff goes in this apartment. Neither one of us can believe that all this "stuff" came out of our camper.


We've had to purchase curtains. A "scarf" for the living room window and regular drapes for the bedroom and therefore a new bed spread. The new bedroom curtains are "busy" and the old bedspread was "busy" and neither were good together. I also am going to need a bed skirt.





I have a new desk with hutch for my computer which is now on wireless. We purchased a 6' table for my scrap booking and a 4' table for Larry's ham radio. Still haven't hung any pictures. Waiting until I get any more that I have from the basement boxes collected to see what I still need to purchase.

We did purchase another piece of furniture. I call it a tower. It was mostly to hold our little TV in the bedroom (note the black tower in the corner of the bedroom picture). We had never had a TV in the bedroom until we got the camper. Now we're kinda spoiled. We like to go to bed about 10:30 pm and watch Leno usually thru his first guest. Now that he's going to be on at 9:00 pm and we're not much into Conan, and we'll both be working, not sure we even need one in the bedroom. But by golly we have the piece of furniture for it.

I've put in about 6 resumes - most on-line. I like sitting here in my scrubby clothes and applying for jobs. One, however, did require me to get dressed and out the door at a reasonable hour and fill out an application in their office. I'll have to get used to that,the getting up early and dressed part.

Larry has walked into a couple of auto parts stores to apply as a delivery driver. One took his application; the other said he had to apply on line. We've done that for him at a couple of other auto parts stores. He's going to go look into the car dealership's this week to see if they need someone to put in the paper floor mats when you take your care in for service.

Grandfather Clock - what Grandfather Clock. Oh yeah - the one shown in the living room picture. We happened across a Grandmother Clock at Penney's that we both sorta liked and it just snowballed from there. We went to a clock shop and found this one - it sorta dominates the room - but Larry really likes it. I like it too - it's just soooo big. The gong and chimes are quiet - fortunately, and it has an automatic night shut off feature for the gongs and chimes.

All in all, I think the worst of the move is behind us and now we're just trying to settle in to apartment living - something new for both of us. There are still stacks of stuff sitting here and there that I'm not sure yet what to do with, but they will eventually find a drawer or shelf. And we still have boxes of more stuff in the basement to be dealt with.

The trailer is out at Flint Hills RV on consignment and the truck is currently listed on Craig's List and will be in Auto Trader by tomorrow night. Our children are all still employed for which we are both grateful. Maybe they will support us if the time ever comes to that - heaven forbid.

I know it's been awhile, but we've been moving. I haven't had time to sit at the camper and upload my blog - I apologize for those of you who have been waiting patiently for an update.

Our good friends from Prince Edward Island, Tom and Rita, whom we spent the winter with in Texas, stopped by Wichita on their way home. We took them to some of the touristy things here in Wichita. Your trip to this town isn't complete until you've been to the Keeper of The Plains sculpture. We went to Nu-Way for another Wichita local dining place, played some cards that night and had ice cream. The next night we went to Strouds for some pan fried chicken. Larry got his fill of gizzards along with his dark meat chicken. The rest of us had chicken fried steaks. That night we found a Braums for some of their delicious ice cream. Tonight, we went to the local Lion's Pancake and Sausage feed. Came back to the apartment and had some more ice cream. Man I love it when we have company. Tom and Rita are leaving in the morning for home. We wish them well and safe travels.


Tom was nice enough to take a picture of Larry and me with our new '06 PT Cruiser. We traded in the Crossfire for this little beauty. I'm squinting into the sun - that's not my normal expression.





Here are photos of the apartment with the new furniture. You should have heard those young men grunting as they hauled the sofa and loveseat into the apartment. Setting up this apartment is like starting all over again. We need stuff from wall hangings to soap dishes. I have quite a list.



Left is the living room from the dining room. Right is the dining room from the living room.








This is the walk thru kitchen. You can see the front door open in the hall way.








This is our huge bedroom. We've neither one had a bedroom this big. This picture shows about 2/3's of the room. My back is almost against the window. The mirror isn't mounted yet which is why it's at an odd angle sitting on the dresser. Please note the current trash can hanging on the door knob to the bathroom.





This is our view out the balcony. Buster enjoys being out there too. He did walk thru the railing and out onto the rain guttering today. Larry got a hold of him before he slipped off. We'll be watching him a little closer from now on.



Gypsy has found a view in the spare bedroom to view the birds in the pine tree just outside the apartment. I raise the blinds every morning so she can look out. Buster can't jump that high anymore.





Though all of this moving, packing and hauling, Larry and I have been able to keep our backs reasonably healthy. In fact, last night was the first night I haven't taken a Motrin in several months.

We have cleaned out the camper. Everything is here in boxes. Tomorrow we go back to the camper and clean it. Our plan is to have it to the R.V. lot for consignment by Monday. The truck is suppose to go into a repair shop Tuesday for the dents in the top of the bed from when the 5th wheel fell on it. Larry has also purchased an '03 Chevy S-10, a repo from a local bank. So we'll still have two cars to get us around. My plan is to be job hunting by next week.

April 8: Update on the storage move

It's been friggin' cold here. It got down to 21 deg. yesterday morning. Larry was into shorts today. Typical Kansas weather. I still think we should have stayed in Texas another couple of weeks before heading for Louisiana.

But we're here so we're getting stuff done.

We have hauled many boxes to the basement storage area of the apartment. We had both grandsons one day and just one the next day. Today, Larry and I hauled everything from the storage area under the trailer in several boxes and totes. We're down to just what we really need to live with. I'll try to get a photo of the apartments for the next update.

I have seen a pair of white swans on the lake and I've been told that there are 5 swans total. Apparently, they have tried to keep the babies on the island in the middle of the lake so the turtles won't eat them, but something got them out on the island. The lady I was visiting with thought maybe foxes; I suggested maybe owls or hawks. Not sure what a fox would be doing out on an island and if one would survive very long on baby swans.

Larry felt that I needed a big TV to watch the final NCAA basketball game. We now have a 40" LCD sitting on the floor of the trailer. A little over kill for this size living room but I'm sure it will be better in the apartment.

We've had one call on the trailer. We put an ad in the paper this last weekend and it will again be listed this coming weekend. As soon as we get it cleaned out, Larry will be hauling it out to Flint Hills RV for consignment. He seemed to think that a triple slide will do well.

Larry has gotten several doctor appointments out of the way. He's applied with the Goddard school bus system but our apartment is about 40 miles round trip from Goddard. He'll be looking for work closer to home but always has the bus job to fall back on. They called him about completing his paperwork so I think they want him.

There were a couple of jobs available in the paper that I was interested in but will wait until we have completed our move first.

Nothing planned for the next two days. Will probably try to clean some of the camper but I know it will be much easier when everything is out. We are taking Austin (our Grandson) to the salon Friday afternoon for a hair cut--FINALLY!! Probably won't get it as short as I want but it will be better. Maybe I can get a before and after picture. He really is pretty. AND, he's getting his braces very soon - he seems excited about that.

Probably won't have much more to say until we've moved in and screwed up our backs more and worn out our muscles. Fortunately, we do have the grandsons and maybe a son-in-law for the weekend. I'll try to take pictures of move-in day, especially since I know I won't be in any of them.

April 3: Finding a new home

We haven't been just sitting around for two days. Wednesday and Thursday we drove around looking at apartments listed in an apartment guide book. Plus we were searching for duplexes or town houses that might be available. By yesterday afternoon, we had wondered north to the Amidon and 21st Street area and decided to look at the Twin Lake Apartments. These apartments have been here since I was a kid - never once thought I'd live there. But we stopped by and liked what little we saw because they were closing down. We told them we'd come back today to look at apartments.

Again, because we liked what we saw, we decided to go ahead and get furniture. We drove to Cherry Orchard - too expensive; then went to Furniture Row. They were reasonable so we purchased a bed room set (bed and dresser w/mirror), a dinning table with 4 chairs and a sofa with matching recliner. We tried to go cheap but furniture isn't cheap. Plus we know that this will be our last furniture buy. Now we need accessories like coffee table, end table, desk and a couple of lamps.

Went back to the apartment today and looked at 4 different floor plans - only one on the first level. The one we ended up applying for has a balcony and a view of the lake except maybe when the trees leaf out. There are 5 heated pools at this facility - not sure in the summer if that's a necessity but I'll be using them anyway. They also have active clubs. Again, not sure we'll get too involved but it's nice that they're there if we want to.

They will accept our cats but it's costing a $200 non-refundable deposit. Coming home to a pile of yellow puke in the middle of our carpet, I can see why it isn't refundable.

Here's the web site to these apartments:
http://www.weigandomega.com/residential.php?action=view&ID=17
You'll have to copy and paste to get it to work.

April Fool's Day

We're back in Wichita, camping at Blasi Campground on the west side of town. But here's the fun we had getting here.



I took this picture just before we left Wayne's so I didn't get it on the blog on the day they had all that fun re-wiring the TV.







We decided to pull out of Texas on Friday, March 27th, and head for Oklahoma even though they were predicting some really bad weather for the day. Apparently the bad weather formed behind us as we traveled north but we did run into some good rain.



We set up at Afton Landing, a small Corp of Engineer park just west of Wagoner, OK. The next day as we were visiting with Larry's brother Dean and his wife Lethia, the snow hit. Tulsa got 6" but Wagoner only got an inch or two. By bed time it was mostly melted off. Me thinks we came north way too soon.




Dean & Lethia have two pot bellied pigs, 7 Guinna's (that are quite vocal), three Bantams, and several other assorted beautiful chickens. They also have 2 large dogs and 4 cats. The Bantam hen laid eggs and a Bantam Silkie hen sat them. When we got there she was raising one of them that Larry is holding. They are so small. The breed is BB Red.








That afternoon we went to visit Don in a care home in Muskogee. First time we've seen him up in a wheel chair and out of a hospital in a couple of years. He looked really good.







March 29th, Sunday, we again spent the day with Dean & Lethia and went to visit Don again. His wife, Kathy, was already there and we got in a good visit with everyone. The weather was so pretty that we went out to the courtyard to visit.

Monday, March 30th, we drove up to Salina, OK which is east of Pryor and visited with Jim & Judy Wilson whom we had met while wintering in Corpus Christi. On the way up, we stopped at Chouteau at the Amish bakery. Apparently tour buses stop here too. Anyway, we bought about $40 worth of goodies. We bought raisin/oatmeal, iced sugar and snicker doodle cookies, no bake cookies, banana nut bread, apple butter, beef jerky, gummy bears and two dry mixes for corn noodle chowder soup and bacon cheddar soup. I'm sure this is all stuff we needed. Could have bought more - like maybe several different cheeses but we weren't going to be close to refrigeration for awhile so we passed on that.

They have a beautiful home with a view of Lake Hudson. We enjoyed sitting on their deck. Judy BBQ'd some chicken along with several great side dishes and some left over smoked brisket and smoked ribs. We had a great meal and visit.

A severe storm was rolling thru Oklahoma that night so we headed back around 9:00 pm (also, the campground closes and locks the gate at 10:00). We got home just in time to sit thru the storm. No hail, just rain and wind. Larry wanted to camp under trees for protection, but after we got parked we realized that the trees are still dormant with no leaves. Not much protection but possibly there was some wind break. I think the storm was pretty mild as it passed over. It was a little more intense south of us toward McAlister. Me thinks we came north way too soon.



We pulled into camp and were setting up when Trina came by to visit. She'd been further west of town at the gun range practicing for gun qualifications. We then went out to eat and she actually paid for our dinner. What a surprise that was.

After dinner, we drove to Rebecca's and she was cooking dinner. They're all doing well and Nathen (14) was even filling out a job application. I told Austin (12) that he needed a hair cut - that he looked like a really pretty girl. He said "Well at least I'm pretty!" I told him that was not a goal he needed to be striving for.

Larry got up this morning and went over to the camp ground's laundry and washed a jeans load because after 1 1/2 years of this, we both only have one pair of jeans that we can get into and they were dirty. Actually, Larry has had to purchase another cheap pair that is a size larger than he started out in. He has now left to visit the dealerships about how to do consignments for our trailer.

Late this afternoon, we went apartment/home looking. That was depressing. What we can afford looks like an apartment. What we liked was a little expensive for our situation right now. We really think we'd like a duplex or town house. Only one neighbor and a little yard to play with.

Tonight I did our taxes. That was also depressing. Merrill Lynch was unable to deduct taxes when we were first taking money out of our accounts to put into a cash account to live on. So we owe money again this year. Hopefully next year will be better.

I'll try to keep the blog going for awhile because we have lots of friends and some family that are way out there - from the state of Washington to Prince Edward Island and south thru Oklahoma and into Texas - who will want to know how we're holding up. We will try to stop the eating out so much, however, the cruisers have already let us know that they're going to a local Mexican restaurant Saturday. Some things will never change. We do plan on joining the local Y to get more exercise and, who knows, maybe loose some weight so we can get back into our clothes.