Addition to the family...

Soooooooo excited. Our niece and her husband and two children are welcoming another little one into the family.

My math says 2+2=5.

Annnnnnnd we are having another girl. 

Oh the excitement. January 2019 we will welcome Baby M. There was a gender reveal at the farm last night. It was our first such type of gathering and all very exciting!

This isn't the best picture but it's all I have since we were video calling with the NE family so they could be in on the reveal.

JAX in Loveland

Wow, what.a.store; they have EVERYTHING and I do mean everything.  It was incredible. JAX Mercantile is a great store! Make sure to stop in if you are ever in Loveland, CO. Just a sampling of their holdings...

• Shoes
• Paint Brushes
• Climbing Rope
• Coffee
• Backpacks
• Air Filters
• Polish Pottery
• Fishing Lures
• Tents
• Nails
• Toilet Paper
• Knives
• Clothes
• Socks
• Coffee Mugs
• Silverware
• Military Surplus
• Blankets
• Dish Soap
• Kayaks
• Guns
• Water Jugs
•  Arrows
• Paint
• Laundry Detergent
• Dog Food
• Pots & Pans
• Home Decor
• Command Strips
• Clothes Pins
• Flash Lights

I could go on and on, this store was just full of whatever you could imagine. We could have spent hours there. However, we had just happened to stop in last night after dinner to kill some time before we figured out where we would park for the night. We settled in at KOHLs, a first for us, and for the most part it was good. They turned out the parking lot lights and store signs at 11:00 P.M. so that was nice, road noise was a bit loud but we managed.

Outside of JAX Mercantile

So here we are this morning sitting at the MB dealer for the long awaited for A Service, Loving the amenities, especially the wifi! Took a bit to get in for an appointment especially since we weren't exactly sure when/where to schedule but it all worked and we will be rolling east before the end of the day. Looks like we might even get to squeeze the daughter for a few hours on our way.

#JAXmercantileROCKS
#MBLovelandCO

Snapshot of life as it is...

It's just been a myriad of goings on and comings in our world and without a doubt we are staying busy. It's been running the gamut on activities...from more plumbing, weed removal and tree trimming, lawn mowing, getting poison ivy, oh yes, that's been awesome, NOT! To enjoying eating yummy cake, to fun family dinners in and out, cleaning for a soon to be new homeowner, hanging out with the Littles, more fresh veggies, football games, steri-stiches (oh yes, yes indeed), sanding and staining our BBQ table as well as going to the races again and having .50 corndogs at Sonic. Yes, yes, it's been good in our world, very, very good!

 Yummy good foods!!!

 The NOT SO FUN poison ivy I am battling...

Boogity, Boogity

Seriously, it's not all that terribly exciting or extremely difficult, it's just life for us right now. We are certainly enjoying being with the family and just doing life along side them.

I will say without a doubt some days are better than others depending on what we do and who we are trying to please, LOL, it's not always easy trying to do for someone else, their vision is not always clear and our skills are NOT professional. We just have the willing, somewhat capable bodies to do what they cannot. Let me state that again...we aren't professionals...sometimes we are hilarious to watch I suspect but we are having a good time so that's what counts and we are sleeping well at night!

And just an FYI Internet access is still a challenge,sometimes it's so maddening, most of the time it's down right scarce and very slow, hence the low posting activity, sorry! I want to try to post more directly from my phone but it's just not that easy (at least for me).

#poisonivysucks
#LucasOilSpeedwayWheatland
#Sonic

Sorta MIA :(

I know, I know I have been MIA. It's not like I am sitting around doing nothing! Seriously, we've really been busy...and it's not even the travel kind of busy, it's been real work busy! So the trouble is that I have have not had availability of internet. Therefore, I am a little behind and it's not looking like that will change anytime too soon, sorry!That's the way it goes when you are where there is no convenient internet or small town America or as I like to say, IN THE STICKS!


However, you can rest assured that life IS rolling along as we spend some time in MO with family. Lots to do and right now we have plenty of time to do it. Seems as though as our parents have aged they have fallen a wee bit behind on some routine home maintenance. Then there are also those jobs that just never got done or they can no longer do. That's where we come in, we are ready, willing and able. We have been knocking out lists on both ends not to mention for a soon to be homeowner niece. We have had some plumbing fun, okay a lot of plumbing fun...with a kitchen faucet, two outside spigots, pipe and toilet repairs, that's a lot of plumbing and I don't think we are done yet! Then there is yard work with much tree trimming at two homes along with a few chiggers, (okay more than a few for some) hauling off unneeded/unwanted things, burning brush piles and trash, patching and painting walls and siding as well as deck washing and sealing; not to mention fence mending, wiring and door building along with general move it here, move it there and let's not forget wall washing.
 

 PLENTY of supervision on our jobs keeps us out of trouble and on track!!!

Full, fun days. Still to come tractor wiring, more yard work, stair building, more hauling off of unwanted items as well as loads of visiting. It's all dandy here! 

We've even made a trip to the City where we had cheesecake on the way home cause after all it was National Cheesecake Day! Then while passing through another (Golden) City we stopped for pie at Cooky's. Not to mention the home grown veggies, yes, sooooo good, the tomatoes have been delish, so have the zucchini, peppers, onions, cucumbers, green beans; it's been a feast. The tomatoes sure make our BLTs!

Yummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!!!!

We will just NOT talk about the way my clothes fit right now, cause it's NOT pretty and something better give soon or it's gonna be ugly...geesh!

Oh and while we aren't exactly boondocking we don't have full hooks ups and aren't in a campground either so it's a bit disjointed but we are making it work and making the best of it with the resources we have! Best part, it's working!

#Missouri
#BoondockingSortOf
#Cooky's

Day 13 - Connecting to the WWW

Having internet is important to us. Not necessary so to speak but very nice. Most places we have stayed have had free wifi but not all. And even when there is wifi it's not always a great signal. And when they don't have wifi at all we use our contract phone to make a mobile hotspot. It works out pretty good for us and by not having to have one of those wireless cards we save money.

When there is not internet there is usually the option to seek out other sources. Most of the time you can track down some internet, though there is usually some cost associated with it, even if it says free wifi. IF you go to Starbuck's, Panera, McDonald's, Hardee's or any other business like that you will most likely purchase something and then that makes it NOT FREE. Other places that we have been able to get truly FREE wifi is the library, community center, AT&T store. I will also tell you that we have sat in the parking lot of some of the establishments listed above and just quickly used the internet from our vehicle with our laptops. It works for a quick check in. Since we do have data on the contract phone usually we can make it with only that when there is no free wifi . But there are times when you need to get connected and accomplish a few things more then the phone is capable of so we find a way to get it done and move on!

 Extender on it's visor perch doing it's thing

Close up of the extender thingy

To help receive a better signal we have invested in an wifi network extender. It was on sale at Best Buy and we had gotten a gift card from one of the phone purchases that we made so the out of pocket to us was less then 20 bucks. Prior to making this purchase MiRV made the attempt to fashion homemade boosters which didn't quite deliver and we also purchased and returned two others before deciding this one would probably work best for us. Most days he's happy with it!

Check out the 31 day challenge right here!