Sept 20, 2011 Jubilee, Fall begins

Been awhile since I updated, so here goes :) 

Went to a Labor Day picnic at my cousin Tim's house - lots of fun :) 

Went to Farmers & Thresherman's Jubilee in New Centerville, a festival that has been going on for many years.  Last time I went was probably 30 something years ago - it was very nice...here are a couple pictures of big old time tractors - coal & wood fired!

Remember, just click on the picture and it will get bigger for better detail!

We've gone looking at fall mum's, and bought two beautiful baskets for the front of the house - we met some friends at a restaurant called 'Traditions' and had a great fish dinner, we've been to Chinese food TWICE in the past two weeks, David got his flu shot last week at the VA clinic in Johnstown - we've eaten lots of good fresh corn, much fresh produce, and now the weather has turned chilly and rainy, so last night was a pot of Chili and a pan of cornbread - yum!

This morning I made a corn shock (Thanks for the stalks Len N Shirley), and here are some pics of the house...oh and Cinder went to the groomer yesterday and got a fall bandana and ribbon in her hair!

Sept 5, 2011 Labor Day picnic

Have not posted much - it is hard to find stuff to write about when we aren't doing much, and Dad is doing wonderfully well right now - no pain and that is a good thing!

Cousin Tim had a Labor Day picnic yesterday and I made baked beans, and the cream cheese with chipotle raspberry sauce - there was so much food there it was incredible!  Ham BBQ, Sloppy Joe's, Kielbassa & saurkraut, hot dogs, meatloaf, stuffed peppers, potato salad, scalloped potatoes, rigatoni casserole, asian slaw, vegetable salads, and the desserts...cherry delight, gob cake, peanut butter pie, strawberry cheesecake, fruit salad, cherry pie, zuchini cake, texas sheet cake...holy moley, anybody that went away hungry was just crazy! 

No pics of the food (David had the camera) but here are a couple of the people, with special emphasis on a couple pics of Dad...and the little ones :)

If the weather cooperates we will be going to the Farmers & Threshermans Jubilee in New Centerville this week - and Mountain Craft Days on Friday in Somerset.  Hopefully we'll remember to take some pictures!

I hope everyone has a great holiday - although it is pouring down rain here at the moment.  Thanks for reading the blog...and leaving comments!

August 12, 2011

Just a quick post to update those of you that may want to know what is going on in my life right now.

Last night at Dad's request we had sausage, fried potatoes, cherry cobbler...he had a good day and was quite content.

Hospice came this morning and checked his coumiden levels, and they seem to be ok.  Still waiting for the Doc to call and tell us how many to take tonight :( 

Big news of the day - we got the MH parked alongside the house - and David did it in just one back-up!  Woohoo!  Yippee - now we get to start the 'unloading' process.  I've emptied the freezer in the MH into the freezer in the garage, and tomorrow I'll do the fridge part - then we will defrost and turn that off.  I want to do some laundry too - been 10 days since I did any of that! 

Jane dropped off some fresh tomatoes, cukes, green peppers and zuchini for us...anybody have any good zuchini recipes???  I've got LOTS!  I fried 4 skillet fulls on Wed night - and we ate every drop!  I will be making some zuchini bread tomorrow - have a recipe that calls for pineapple - it is very yummy!

We're going to Boyer's Orchards in a bit to get some fresh peaches and nectarines - we want to go and do as much as we can while dad can still go and enjoy :)  I'll try to take some pictures!

August 10, 2011 Berlin PA

So - Hospice came in this morning, and they are on board.  Dad can eat most anything he wants at this time - it will progress where he won't be able to eat, but until that happens, it is ice cream every night :) 

This morning he had scrambled eggs and donuts :)  For dinner we are having country style ribs in Gold Sauce, baked new red potatoes, fried zuchini, and apple crisp (thannks Donna)! 

Lots of phone calls today - cancelling different appts for dad, making a vet appt for Cinder (check up and wellness), Comcast for internet, electrician to get a 30 amp plug in outside the house so we can plug in the MH.  SO very busy - oh yeah, doing laundry too! 

Thanks for all your prayers and thoughts - we appreciate it so much!

Aug 5, 2011 PA

I received a phone call on Wed morning from Dad, asking me to come home.  He said he was in severe pain and he wouldn't go to ER until I got there - needless to say, I hit the road and drove like a maniac, arriving in Berlin at 2:30pm.  I had Dad at Somerset hospital by 3:15 pm. 

He has been having stomach pain off and on for many years, so for the first time they did a contrast cat scan of his stomach.  Doc came in right away and said that he has a softball sized tumor above his pancreas.  They transferred him to Good Samaritan Hospital in Johnstown, where we continue to go through tests, pokes and prods.

Dad has a living will, DNR and I am his POA - he refuses to let them do surgery, so our options are limited, and I don't know yet what they will be.  The oncologist has said that if we do pallative measures only, he will have months, but not a year.  And with Dad's mindset, I expect it will be very few months.

I may not post to this blog very often while this is going on - I don't know how much time/energy I will have as I travel through this journey called cancer.

If you are the praying type, please pray that God takes Dad quickly so that he doesn't suffer.  Thank you.

July 26 through 31, 2011 Shipshewana, Mishawaka, Van Wert, Cortland

Playing catch up on the blog! 

On the 26th we went for the front end alignment, and turns out that the front tires were shot, so two new front tires - $720...and they were unable to do the alignment - they called some experts and were going to call and let us know what they said.  Apparently our tires are set too far back and the machine won't line them up :( 

So, back to Elkhart campground, walked Cinder and went to visit the RV Hall of Fame.  I must tell you that I was NOT impressed.  It was OK, and I suppose we got our $12 worth, but we walked the exhibits, watched the movie, read all the 'reading' stuff and were done within 90 minutes.  Somehow we expected more :(

Wednesday the 27th, we went to Shipshewana to the larges Amish fleamarket in the US.  Once again, we were kind of disappointed.  The flea market is amazing, and we did get some things we 'couldn't live without', but very very little true 'amish' things.  We were able to get a doz just picked corn for $3...yahoo, and a basket of peaches for $3, and vine ripe tomatoes for .89 a pound...OMG they are so sweet and juicy that you can just eat them by themselves like an apple!  We've had several dinners of tomato sandwiches and corn...yum!  After we walked around at the flea market for several hours, it was time for lunch.  Per our friend Kay we went to the Blue Gate Restaurant and had the 'family style' meal - our meats were chicken and meatloaf,  served with dressing, mashed potatoes, gravy, grean beans, homemade bread with apple butter, beverage and choice of pie - I had butterscotch and David has lemon merengue...

Thursday morning we got up and drove back to Mishawaka for the front end alignment where they used a special setting and didn't do the back tires.  We finally left about 12:30, and drove to Van Wert OH where we stayed at the county fairgrounds.  Because it is an Escapee's spot, we paid $12.50 per night - for full hookups.  We stayed there for 2 days, and there was not much going on, it was just too hot to do anything! 

We got up Sat morning and headed up the road - to Cortland OH, where we are staying at a Moose lodge, with 30 amp electric and water, dump station for the sum of $5 per night - I think we will be here a week.  Can't beat the price - and the folks here are very nice, the lodge cooks 3 meals a day for very reasonable prices - we each had cheeseburger, fries and soda for the sum of $7 total for both of us - what a deal! 

Last night we drove about 20 miles to a place called Pasta Oven, and had wonderful spaghetti & meatballs (me) and Chillitini (chili with onions & cheese over spaghetti noodles) and a plate of 'garlic balls'.  It is bread dough, knotted and deep fried, then drizzled with garlic butter with chunks of garlic - OMG is all I can say :)

July 25, 2011 Newmar Tour & Bontragers

This morning was a hurry up morning, because we went to the 10 am tour at the Newmar motorhome plant.  All I can say is WOW.  Pictures were not allowed, but we got to see MH's built from the chassis up - and those folks really know their business.  If you ever get to the area, please do stop and take the tour - it is quite worth the trip, and it's free!  However, we really liked the King Aire, which was priced at 750,000...yep, 3/4 of a million dollars.

After the tour we headed to Bontragers, which is just about 15 miles north in Michigan...we've been shopping for dinette cushions and what we've been able to find are about $350 to $400 for the set.  I found a brand new set that actually looks great for $120.  Yahoo! 

We have not gone for our swim yet this evening, don't know if we will...we are pretty tired from all the shopping.  Tomorrow we have to be at the garage about 15 miles away for our front end alignment - which means we will be setting the alarm clock for 6 am :( 

I'll tell ya all about it when I update tomorrow night!