Quartzsite is expensive!

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The budget is blown!  We jumped out and did it.  We got a new vehicle. 

Our poor old Malibu has been following our motor home around for at least 60,000 miles and has another 158,000 on it’s own for a total of nearly a quarter million miles.  Can you believe it? 

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The other day I was looking in the local paper and found this already to tow Chevrolet Colorado pickup for sale and it turned out to be reasonably priced and only had 25,000 miles on it.  It’s a 2007.  We’re really looking forward to the upgrade.

Christmas Day at Stacey’s

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Christmas morning got off to a slow start.  The grandkids were up before 7 but commanded to stay upstairs till 9 when great grandma arrived.  Finally the time came and everyone converged in the living room to discover that the cookies and milk had been indeed eaten by Santa and Santa had left some neat gifts.

Christmas at Staceys 2011
Click on photo for larger version

Aaron got a huge hockey equipment bag.  It fits all his gear plus his dad’s coaching gear.  Aaron can fit inside and we threatened to make him sleep in there.

Brittany got a new dance equipment bag but was pretty reluctant to give up her old battered bag.  Too much sentiment.  Just like her mom!

Dozens more gifts for everyone, all photographed for posterity.  Dolls and car sets and blankets and puzzles.  All so carefully wrapped and so viciously ripped open. 

Waffles for breakfast!  Onward to fixing the turkey dinner for mid afternoon feast!

Christmas Eve at Ronda’s

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Saturday afternoon we picked up kitten’s mom Betty and trekked the 100 miles to Forsyth to celebrate Christmas Eve with The Fam.

christmas at rondas 2011
Click on photo for larger version.

We had a delicious dinner and afterward opened presents.  It was a huge fun time.  Michael’s joy at getting his XBOX was such a huge kick to watch.  Watching a grown boy hug a box for an hour was amazing. 

Kitten got a wonderful blanket with all the grand kids names on it.  This brought some tears.  After all the paper was ripped off, the boxes opened and the oohhhs and awwwws done the kids started to dance to the Xbox game/video thingy.  What a hoot. 

A great evening and back on the road to Billings. 

No place for an ice business.

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We bought a bag of ice cubes in Arizona to put into the ice chest.  When we got here it still was at least 1/3 ice cubes.  I threw it out onto the flower pot on the front steps to melt.  4 days later, there are still cubes in there.  This doesn’t happen in Arizona!

Mom visits Home!

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This week we got an agreement with mom’s new assisted living facility. They know the paperwork isn’t done but were willing to let us move in some of mom’s stuff. We started with this bed, nightstand, dresser room and have now moved a pair of sewing tables and other such stuff.  When we get it arranged we’ll post some “after” photos.

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We decided to get mom involved with the arrangements and since the sun was shining so pretty we brought her to the room.  After a few changes she approved and is looking forward to being back in Mission. 

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Of course we stopped at the house so she could decide on what else to move to the room and when she got near her recliner it just sucked her right in.  We spent a couple of hours watching TV and just relaxing.  Mom loved the time at home. 

What key is it anyway??

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Mom told us Dewey had broken off the trunk key in her car. No big deal the car and the keys are old. We asked Dewey and he said yeah, the trunk key just snapped when he turned it. OK.

So I took it up to Gordon’s shop, indoors where it’s warm and Gordon and I proceeded to take out the back seat and reach a pole in and unlatch the trunk from the inside. We removed the latch mechanism and drilled out a rivet holding the lock cylinder. We tried for over an hour to see if we could get the key stub out of the mechanism. Of course our efforts resulted in the accidental destruction of the lock so we continued tearing the cylinder apart just for spite. When we got it all apart we found no key stub. We searched the floor, maybe we jiggled it out? Nope. Nowhere to be found.

About this time Dewey shows up. Now he tells us the key broke off in the door! Now wouldn’t you say that the key in the door is called the door key, not the trunk key? I’ll be through ranting and screaming in a while. Maybe a day or two. We ordered two new lock cylinders, should be in today.

Mother Nature Decorates.

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Mother Nature sure can decorate the outdoors.  The Mission Valley has had fog and freezing weather for several weeks and the bushes and trees are flocked with a beautiful coating of ice. 

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These two would just be bare bushes without the beautiful coating of ice.  Click on them for larger views.

We arrived in St. Ignatius and have been getting nothing done.  We took mom to the Senior Center Tuesday dinner and Bingo.  We didn’t win a thing at Bingo but the lunch was good.

We showed mom her new room at Mill Pond and she liked it. She and Cathy are busy with decorating ideas.  Once we get the approvals done we will begin the moving in.

Yesterday we stopped over to the local RV place and paid a month’s storage on our home.  Today we’re organizing to leave early tomorrow morning for Montana.  We always go there about this time of year for Christmas with the grand kids and to see the kids and moms.  It’ll be a 1300 mile one way drive this year but we’ve done longer.    The weather looks good so we’ll keep you posted as things go on.

Miscellaneous Stuff for Posting.

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Just sitting here cleaning up the photo files.  Aren’t you lucky I’m sharing with you!

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This was one of the many motor homes decorated for Christmas in Casa Grande. 

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We saw this one in a casino parking lot in Az.  It says “Atomic” on the side.  Those are saw blades on the trunk lid, wrenches and bolts everywhere.  Gads.

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Saw this sign in Surprise Az.  You didn’t know donkey farmers had sales did you?  Might be…  Nope no more speculation from me.

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Cinnamon in her have to mode and in her preferred mode.  Smile

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Weather pushes us around a lot!  We’ve moved a lot of times to avoid some weather or other.  This time it was a cold snap coming down from you folks up North.  The over night temps in Benson were predicted at mid 20’s and Casa was low 30s.  Now there is not a lot of difference to your skin or your propane bill but on of those constants is right in the middle there.  The freezing point of water at 32 is a biggie.  If the temp is below I have to take some precautions, if it’s above I just sleep better.  No worries. 

Just a note about those predictions.  It was predicted at 35 last night and it made 25.  I could stay up North for these temps.  Of course it got to 59 today here and only to 20 back home so I guess…..