Happy Birthday, Mimi

We left for Murfreesboro, Tennessee on Friday morning!!
A beautiful day with plenty of sunshine and just a touch of what fall will be like.   Temperatures were in the low 80s and absolutely no humidity!!!  Awww, it's nice to be moving!!                      

The hills surrounding middle Tennessee

Castle on the hill

Just outside Tennessee at the Alabama welcome center

Our destination, Murfreesboro, is where the birthday lady lives. Mimi, as most of her family calls her, lives at Stones River Manor which is a beautiful assisted living facility.   Mike's brother, Pat and his wife Carollyn, live right around the corner.  We were there to celebrate Mimi's 95th birthday!!!!
                    

Mimi          

Pat, Mimi and Mike
There is nothing more fun than a birthday party for someone that has lived 95 years, oh what joy!!!!   Our party began at 11:00 with picture taking of Mimi and her two sons....Mike and Pat.   In attendance were her two sons and their families which included four grandchildren and five great grandchildren and two precious friends.                         

Our Son Stephen with Mimi

                             

The menu consisted of fruit and plenty of pizza!!  Just before everyone was too full on pizza we had the traditional birthday cake, singing and blowing out of the candles.              

In all the years I've known Mimi she has been a wonderful example of a wife, mother, mother-in-law, grandmother, great grandmother and friend!!  A fine Christian lady.   Whenever I would walk into their home there was always a warm loving feeling....kind of a secure "come in out of the world" feeling.  She and Pop always made me feel more like a daughter than a daughter-in-law.  I treasure those times and was so glad that I could be there Saturday to help her celebrate 95 wonderful years of a life well lived!!                                

Mimi's  mom lived to reach 101 so I can see we have a lot more celebrating to do!!!   Happy Birthday, Mimi!!!!                  

Our Tiny Home

Back in December we wrote a blog about our Oliver.  This post was really more on the technical side.  What is an Oliver?  Where is it produced?  etc.  This post is going to talk a little about "our tiny home."                                

Tiny homes seem to be the going thing.  You turn on HGTV and there are several shows dealing with hunting for a tiny home, designing a tiny home and even one called Tiny Home Luxury.  People seem to be wanting to minimize their lives.  Get the clutter out.  Get down to the basics.                                            

Tiny House at FDR State Park Pine Mountain, GA

Mike and I didn't set out to full-time in our Oliver....not really.  We thought about it but we just weren't sure.  Was it big enough?  Was it built for full-timing?  Would we like it as much as our Dutch Star?                

Our Motorhome parked in Texarkana

 We made the trip to Hohenwald Tennessee in October and talked with the Oliver production company and toured the factory.  It was on this tour that we answered the question of whether or not it was built for full-timing.  It was....definitely and certainly!!   It has a double hull, double pane windows and the tanks are all enclosed and heated through the ducted heat.  Now to the question, would it be big enough?                                  

Our Oliver in Conecuh National Forest

That's an interesting question.  Is anything big enough?  If I have 3 bedrooms couldn't I use 4?  If I have a single garage don't I need a double or maybe even 3, you have to have a workshop don't you?  I believe that we can use any and all space we are given and then crave more. When we came off the road in 2010 we bought a house.

Our Home

We had a few things that we kept in a storage building but not much in the way of furniture.  We filled this house up and were quickly running out of room after living in it for 7 years.   Is the Oliver big enough?  Probably not and that's the honest answer.  But what do we want from our RV?  What do we want from our lives at this point?

What do we want from our RV?  We hope to have a travel style that will allow us to park in state parks, national parks, national forest, Corp if Engineer parks and BLM land.  Notice I did not mention private parks. It's not that we don't like them or would not go there but we want nature, outdoors, photo ops, hiking trails and hopefully a little space.  We want to hook up and unhook relatively easy and to travel easily.  Our choice is smaller.  Because the Oliver is smaller we have to compensate for lack of space such as storage and living space.   Designated tubs provide storage and those are housed in the truck bed.  Whenever possible we prefer outdoor living and all RVs provide that.                                        

Our Oliver at Conecuh National Forest

If we are choosing to live minimalistic than this should be refreshing huh?  Well it took some creative thinking and adjustment time but I think we are getting there.  It hasn't always been easy or without issue.  The Oliver is a joy and delight to travel in as well as live in.                                

Our Oliver from the factor

We ordered Southern Mattresses for each side for better sleeping

Our food pantry

Inside of our pantry                                 

We have lighted cabinets for storage all around inside 

Our kitchen drawers for storage and they close by themselves 

Our microwave and a bit small refrigerator

Inside our closet with hanging space and shelves with bottom floor storage to

Closet door

Our wet bath and it very ample size                 

Kitchen cabinet with the Magma Stainless steel induction cookware

Our Clam Screen Room for our outdoor living

More outdoor living area on our patio

What do we want from our lives at this point?  That's the easy question!!  Since my cancer diagnosis and ensuing treatments we have both come to realize 1. Life is short and 2. What used to seem so important just wasn't.  We both just want to live simply and enjoy God's world.  To honor Him in all we do.  To meet awesome people and make some solid friends along the way.

We think the Oliver will meet our needs beautifully!!!  It might be tiny but it's our "home sweet home" and we love it!!

My people will dwell in a peaceful habitation, in secure dwellings, and in quiet resting places,
ISAIAH 32:18

What a Wonderful Discovery

                      

The other day we were talking with our son and he told us about a park that was on the outskirts of Auburn, so Gerri and I googled it to find where it was located.  The name of the park is Kiesel Park and we found where exactly it was located.                                                                   

So, yesterday we decided to drive out that way and look it over for a future day of exploration since it was in the mid nineties with high humidity.  When we got there we were so amazed at its beauty that we decided to get out and do a little walking on the paved trails anyway.  Well, here we are with jeans and sandals and not equipped for hiking in this hot and humid weather. Luckily we had our cameras but unlucky on the other hand, we didn’t have any water bottles with us.  So, we ventured out anyway and spent about an hour and half exploring some of the park.  Needless to say when we ran out of steam and had sweated out the water in our bodies, we decided to head to the cold, air conditioned truck…glad we parked in the shade so the truck wasn’t too hot inside.   
                     

                                                         

                        

A garden with a coy pond behind it
We spent our time here on the main grounds which included a gazebo, the Nunn-Winston Greek Revival Circa 1850 house and herb garden and other beautiful sights.  We will let the pictures speak for our day of exploring.               

Side view of the house

                              

View from the front porch of the house

We never walked the nature trail as it is about a 2.5 mile walk but we decided to come back for that trail when we had some bottled water and dressed in our shorts and hiking shoes.  We were totally amazed with the park and how manicured the grounds were.  This will be part 2 of Kiesel Park.

We're Still Here

                                 

Has it really been this long since I wrote a blog?  Gee, time sure has a way of slipping by.

                       

When I last updated, Nick was doing much better with his allergies and had not had any further nose bleeds.  He did, however, decide to have an issue with his shoulder.  He woke up one Sunday morning yelping so we took him to a local animal hospital where the doctor diagnosed his problem.  He was loaded up on meds and sent home.  We did follow up the next day with his Vet in Lagrange where we lived before full-timing.  He agreed the diagnosis was correct and wanted to give him some laser treatments and bring him off the pain medicine.  He was beginning to act weird.  So several weeks later and a few less dollars he is pretty much back to normal!!!  I guess we aren't the only ones aging in this family!!

                                              

As most of you know that read our blog, we have been fairly stationary for the past several months.   We knew we would be limited in how we could travel for awhile due to my cancer diagnosis two years ago this coming August.  We just didn't realize how limited we would be.  I knew I would have to return to my Oncologist every 3 months for the first 2 years after treatment.  What we didn't know was Mike was going to be diagnosed with cervical stenosis and pinched nerves in his shoulder/neck area....C4 & C5, C5 & C6.  He would have to go through some physical therapy on his shoulder/neck and receive a few shots hoping to ease the pain and avoid surgery.  So with my every 3 months appointment with my doctor and his trips to the Neurosurgeon, physical therapy and the pain management doctor we haven't hardly left our site at Chewacla State Park.

BUT THAT'S OK......because full-timing is a way of life.  Life happens no matter where you live.  You don't full-time to avoid life.  At the end of the day, there is no better place to relax, recuperate and heal than in God's creation.  To watch the animals and listen to the crickets serenade you to sleep is about as good as it gets.

                                  

Picture taken from inside our rv

From inside our rv

IT MUST BE WORKING.....because when I saw my Oncologist this past Thursday he released me to every 6 months instead of every 3 months.  This came as a HUGE surprise to both of us.  This is about 8 months before I complete year 2.  I can't begin to tell you how excited we both were to hear this.  It just opens up the time between visits so you can actually do things, go places!!!!  The journey is not over and I will still have scans and such but this was a big step in the recovery process.

                                               

So even though we haven't clocked the miles in...... it seems like we have all three been busy working on our health and healing!!!

The Lord is my strength and my shield;
My heart trusted in Him, and I am helped;
Therefore my heart greatly rejoices,And with my song I will praise Him.    Psalm 28:7

Update on our Furbaby

All Nick's blood work checked out good except his liver enzymes which we already knew about as he is already taking a liver supplement.  Since we were back in the area we took Nick to our family vet and he checked Nick out and though a tumor is low on the list, he feels he has a bad sinus infection along with allergies.  He gave Nick a stronger anti-biotic that he wanted him to take for 2 weeks along with his antihistamine medicine and said the next 2 weeks would be crucial.
                             

It has now been a little over 2 weeks since that visit and we returned on Tuesday to have a follow up check.... there have been No nose bleeds...Yay!   Dr. Whitlow said Nick sounded better and feels he is doing much better.  He even said we should take Nick to Seattle as their climate would be perfect for him...let's see, 2800 miles away, hmmm.  Thanks, Doc!!  
So it appears Nick will have to stay out of extreme heat and humidity since this will probably be a lifelong issue.  
                       

We drove to Pine Mountain today for Gerri to get her hair cut by her stylist.  While there, we drove through FDR State Park and saw a very nice Little House parked in the campground.  We got the phone out and took a couple of pics and wanted to share them.  It was really neat seeing one in person.  The owners were not there so we didn't get a chance to chat and possibly get a tour.   These are becoming quite popular and we've watched a view shows on HGTV on this popular trend.  

So for the past few weeks we have been hanging out at the campground watching our little fella pretty closely.   With doctor visits and fourth of July approaching we might just hunker down here before venturing out again.  Oh well, life happens!!!!