Yet another crazy busy day!!!

The Kids had us running yet again! We had a slow beginning, but then by 1 p.m. we were on the go. We actually had to split up in order to "get " everything done. Cullen and kenny left at 1:30 p.m. to pick up Simones escort (for the Jr. Miss contest)... MY mom picked up Simone and me...by 1:45 p.m. to head out to the Jr. Miss practice run. We met up with Cullen and Kenny with Simones escort at the Commons. We had to be at the stage area and Kenny and Cullen had to be at the horse arean. Thank goodness that we were close. Simone walked over to grab her escort and bring him to the stage area. We could hear the P.A. system from the horse show and wondered how little Kenny was doing at his thing while we were at ours. Cullen said he could hear us every now and then too and wondered the same.

One of my pet peeves is splitting up...I like to stay together as a family during these types of events...but we did it any how.

Kenny did well at the horse show. He won several ribbons and won the reserve champion again. this is the second time this year he won the reserve champion. We are really proud of him. He was excited too...he won a cash prize of $5. he said he was going to buy 5 icecreams with it.

Simone went through the "practice" run on the jr. miss contest and did really well. She practiced her geisha fan dance in front ove everyone and was super too.

Simone and i got to catch the last few minutes of Kenny on the horses...he was happy to see us.

We were starved by 6:00 p.m. and so we went to grab some take out chinese and went home and crashed and ate it...

Now, we just finished "doing" simones hair....... Kenny is in bed and now I am going to sit on my butt and watch a bit of t.v. and just veg out. I cant wait to show you all some pics of Simone in the contest, she is so beautiful, not to mention taleted. The contest is on Thursday night, so I will be posting some pics on Friday! I cant wait!

new pup

This is dipstick the new puppy in the house. she is a hand full.

RV The Movie...with Robin Williams!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, we had a family "movie night" last night. It started out pretty normal, we made tacos and brownies... and picked out the movie. We decided on RV!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was a blast! We laughed and laughed. It was funny and real and everything inbetween. We related more with the "fulltiming RV family that homeschooled" than with Robin Williams family, but in the end it all turned out great! What can i say except "two thumbs up". We definetely would recomment this movie to everyone, including families! It made a great "movie night" here in our house!!!

New book for our travels

I ordered a new book, for our travels. It is called Watch It Made in the U.S.A: A Visitor's Guide to the Companies That Make Your Favorite Products by Karen Axelrod; Bruce Brumberg. I have tried to post a pic of it, once again, with no success!!
I am thrilled with the book. It is a guide to Factories and such that offer tours of their facilities. They have it in sections, by states, and then a list of the places, along with directions to the factory that they are "informing" you about. The other information included background on the company, what they offer during the tour, how long the tour will take, if they have a gift shop, and if there is a cost for the tour. It is a super book and we hope to put it to good use too when we travel. There are several tours that the family will enjoy, a few the boys would like and some that girls would like and some just the adults would like, so it is a book for everyone!!! Cant wait to put it to practical use!!

Posting photos problem!!

I have been trying for 3 days now to post some photos...Without success!!! I am not really sure what the problem is, because I have posted all of the other photos on this site with no problems, till now of course. I wanted to put some photos of the puppies and such and some of the kids but am not sure what is going on, so I am writing my disgust here instead!!!

so there you have it!!!!

We still have puppies!!!!!!!!

Well, we still have puppies to "sell". We had a beautiful litter of dachshund puppies, born on July 3. There were five in the litter and they are all girls. Can you believe that??? It was quite wonderful actually, girls are better to sell than the boys. We ended up with 3 black and tans (just like their daddy) and 1 red (a lot like her momma) and one that was a darker red with some black highlights (that was sort of inbetween them). We have decided to keep the red one, she is adorable. We have named her dipstick...which doesn't sound very nice, but actually, it is because she is totally red with the exeption of her tail, which looks like it has been half dipped in something dark, like oil on a dipstick and that is why she is named dipstick.
We took all five pups to the vet on Friday and had their first puppy shots and wormed them. They all did very well for their first vet visit. We sold one and she was picked up on Friday evening. The one that sold was the dark red one. I do believe that I could have sold her 3 times already, lol! A lot of people have wanted the red ones.

Let it Rain!

Well, we finally got a bit of rain today...maybe a 1/4 inch or so...but it has been so dry that even this bit of rain was very welcome! It still made it up to the 90's today but that was a lot better than over 100 degrees. The rain gave us an oppertunity to "see" just what the awning on the RV can do. It was very nice. I would make a nice are to be outside in a light shower or drizzle when "out on the road". It would not be safe for storms and such, because of the winds and all can cause the awning to "swing" around.

We did find a bit of a problem with the awning, of course. It does seem to collect a bit of water in it while rolled up. Not really sure how that is happening as of yet. I figure it could be 1. it is no longer "water sealed well" or 2 it has a hole in it that we dont really notice. We are going to have the part up at the RV, re-inforced with a special "tape" type of material and I think we will re-waterproof it too, just to be on the safe side. This isn't any "big" issue, but we would like the awing to last as long as possible and it will not last long with water collecting in it while rolled up. If anyone has any other suggestions on this, please let us know.

We are just happy to have has the rain!!

Horse show with the kids! pics too

The kids had a horse show this past Sunday and it was great!! It was super hot, but the kids did a great job. Simone got 3 first places and 1 second and was grand champion in her age div. Kenny got to many ribbons to count and was reserve grand chamion in his age div. The left pic is of Kenny and the right one is of Simone.

Some parts have arrived for the RV

We ordered the REESE POD Towpower #74377 Electric Brake System unit for the Durango. It arrived on Saturday, yea ha!! I actually found it on ebay and saved a bunch of money. I am really pleased so far with it. It was completely new and in the package too. It was the one we wanted. Now we just have to get it installed. We are going to have it installed by our mechanic. I am pretty sure Cullen can do it, but the electronic on a car can be a bit tricky and so we decided to just leave it to the pro's. We love out mechanic and trust him too!!! It wasn't a hard decision. So, we can cross another item off our list!

Cullen has both T.V's installed in the RV now, and the dvd and vhs. He connected them to his "new" stereo system and now we can listen to the T.V. in the overhead stereo system too.

Even though we are getting a few things done on our list, it seems that for every one we complete, we add two more items...yikes!!!

This heat is horrible!!!

This heat has been so horrible. It has been making it so hard to work on or even in the camper. We really haven't even tried today and today was actually cooler than the past week or so, with a whopping 98 and a heat index of 102!!!! It's another scorcher!!!!!!!!!!!

The weather has been "off" in many areas of the country, as I understand it. We are in Missouri and suffering this "heat wave". But I have friends in Arizona that have said that it has only been in the 90's there, actually some of the coolest weather the have seen for late July/early August!!! I mean, what is up with that???

We desperately need rain, the lawns, fields and gardens are just drying up like crazy. Most everyone I know gardens and this year has been terrible because of the heat and the lack of rain.

How has the weather been in your area, compared to last year and other years??? Let us know! We would love to hear from you all.

We must have a new radio!

Our pull behind camper has a radio, which is actually a regular car type radio, that is wired into each room throughout the camper. It functions quite well, but is just an older one with only a cassette player in it. Simone and I were quite happy with it. Cullen and Kenny on the other hand were not. They decided to go a bit more "modern" with our radio. They went and purchased a new one, it has a cd player (of course) but it also accepts several different sound cards and such from mp3 players. It also has the easy remove front to prevent thefts and such. It took the boys all day to rewire the thing in, but it is all done now. And to think, that wasn't even on my list!!!

I did order the Pod electric brake unit for the trailer brakes, Go me!!! Actually trying to get some of the items on the list done.

The actual construction has finished too. We actually have all of the paneling back up, the leaks fixed, curtains all up, bunkbeds all constructed, privacy curtains made and installed around Simones bed, shelf up by Simones bed for her books, floor fixed in back bedroom, foldable table moved and attached to the supposts, insulation covers made and up on all of the doors and vents in the ceiling, holding tanks cleaned out, front window protector scrubbed and cleaned, new door knobs and lock on outside doors, shelving installed in Simones closet, bars installed on cabinets where items may "fall" out, and extra secure latches on cabinets installed.

We have also removed all of the old curtains, and made new ones, recovered all of the seat cushions, added extra suppost for the full size bed, installed a tv, dvd, ps2 in the bedroom, organized the bathroom, hung up pictures, and decorated!

Not to mention that we have checked every outside running light, replaced umpteen bulbs, rewired some of them, cleaned all of them, caulked them back in, fixed the clock, updated the battery and fixed the holding tank indicator lights...

So far we are doing good! We will still be working on our list. It is more like "home" every day.

Time Flies!!

I can't believe it is already August already! We only have 153 days 'till out trip begins. Hopefull that will be enough time and we can actually get everything done.
shopping list of items to get done

1. get new trailer tires
2. reback barrings (learn how to do that ourself) dad is going to teach us that one!!
3. get new tires for the durango
4. get tune up on durango
5. have electric brakes (trailer brakes installed on durango)
6. have sway bar, installed and new ball mounted
7. finish packing trailer
8. finish inside of trailer
9. get new mattress for Simone
10. Plan menus for trip
11. buy new altas
12. take camper for a few "test runs" to work out any kinks.
13. organize fishing gear
14. organize cast iron cookwear
15 what have I forgot????
so much to do so little time!
oh yes
16. install smoke alarm in camper

I think I can, I think I can, I think I can...
I think I need a camping fairy!!