Soup's Done!

Tonight I am having friends over for a belated Christmas and I have fixed Chicken Enchilada Soup. It's uuummmm good! I had to try it so I would know to call Debbie and say pick up Kentucky Fried on the way over. LOL Since it is good, I'll share the recipe.

Find the recipe on the website. I added mexican corn and hot peppers to it. It's very good even if I say so myself. Actually Ann, my assistant, has won our agency's cookoff 2 years with this recipe so I decided I'd give it a try.

It's been a good day.

Later...

Decluttering

My friend, Becky, sent this article to me and I wanted to share with everyone who reads my blog and also, I wanted a safe place to put this link so I could refer back to it. Decluttering and stuff is what the article is about. It makes so much sense. I love the feeling it gives when I get one area finished and move to another. aha!

One Real Estate Agent down and 2 to go!

Bobby Hite came to the house yesterday. He was just about as unprepared as anyone can be. I knew more about the neighborhood, comps, construction in my area than he. One down. He won't be considered. Couldn't/wouldn't even discuss a marketing plan but sure wanted me to know his commission was 6%, 3% his no matter when it sold and 3% to selling agent, duh! I told him it sounded like he wasn't too confident he would be the listing agent and selling agent. Oh well, this is just part of it.

Two to go. Terry DeSelmes from Remax Elite and recommended by Dave Ramsay and Babs White recommended by my financial guy, Chad Richards. I have told them both that I am interviewing agents and won't be ready to list until the last of Feb. Hey that will be here before too long, next week is the 1st of Feb. I'll keep you posted.

Real Estate abounds

Several months ago I contacted my old realtor whom I have used 3 or 4 times in selling/buying different properties. Karen Hoff advised me to wait until after the first of the year and contact her again. I did about a month ago and wanted her to come by and talk to me face to face. She didn't/hasn't.

Today I contacted another realtor, Bobby Hite, in Nashville and he is coming over on Wednesday at 4:15 to take a look see and talk to me. I have seen Bobby Hite's name all over south Nashville since 1978 so I figure he should know about the neighborhood. I want to see what resources he uses, his fees and what he generally thinks about putting my condo on the market right now. At least he was responsive.

My friend Margie and her DH, Roger are going through the real estate thing. Hope things work out for them this week. They are sure wanting to hit the road and get out of the cold and damp. Hey, they sounds like me too. I can wait a while though.

I was able to get somethings moved out of my living room while Theda was here this past weekend so the condo should look bigger w/out as much stuff in there. Roger picked up the small refrigerator I gave him and that cleared up some space.

Randy, Debbie, Melissa and Glenn are coming over Saturday for a soup evening. I have a new recipe for enchilada soup and am going to use them as Guinea pigs. If the testors say it's good, I'll share it with you. Having them over is a impetus to get the house cleaned good. Two fold purpose, good friend/clean house. Why do we do that? If it's just me, I'll procrastinate until it becomes such a chore whereas if I would keep it up, it would be a breeze.

Taylor asked if I could come down to GA for her birthday so she can have a slumber party. Sure no problem...what do little girls do at slumber parties? I'm sure they are a lot different than boys. All I had to do for Jonathan was stay out of the way. She is turning 13 so I'm sure I'll have to think of some "cool" things for her & friends to do. If you have any ideas, pass them along to me.

Later...

TGIF

I survived my emotional meltdown last weekend. I've moved on to other things.

There is an antique toy and doll road show in town this weekend. I'm gonna take matchbox cars, tyco trains and a racing car over to see what they will give me for them. Jonathan said he didn't want them so I might as well try to get a few pennies for them. Theda is also bringing some things over to see what she can get for her stuff. She & her family save EVERYTHING so she has a lot more from her childhood. I'll let you know the outcome.

I was reading one of my electronic newsletters from KOA and they had this cute Recipe in there. I'll have to try it. No mess to clean up. Great for sitting around the campfire.

Got to share another Sedona story. When I first got her, the vet gave her a welcome package and in that package was a little stuffed dog. I affectionately refer to it as yellow dog. Sedona loved that dog and last weekend, yellow dog bit the dust, her nose fell off. I promptly put it in the trash and didn't think any more about it.

Apparently Sedona saw me put it in the trash. She sure thought about it. She would sit at the trash can and cry. She made the awfulest sound and she would pace and come to me and bark (which she does not do much of) and then she would pace some more. I do believe she was in mourning for yellow dog.

I called the vet this week and explained my dilemna. Could I buy another yellow dog? She said sure come on by. I went to Paws & Claws yesterday and Sandi was at the front desk. I started to explain about Sedona and she said they had discussed Sedona when I got off the phone and she was not going to charge me. She brought out a handful of soft toys and there was no yellow dog. I said oh, no, and held up fingers showing about a 2" size of dog I was talking about. Sandi said oh, you want little bitty. So she goes to the back and brings out...yep you guessed it, yellow dog. I could have cried. See that was 2 1/2 years ago so it's surprising they still carry the same toys. I could not wait to get home and show Sedona what I had found.

Yep, sure enough, she was so excited. Sedona played until she couldn't play anymore last night. She loves yellow dog. She even brought yellow dog to bed last night. Good gosh, what we do for our pets, aka, babies. One satisfied little girl in my house. It will be interesting if it will last another 2.5 years.

Later...

Thanks for the comments

I am so grateful that I have so many good friends. It's like a tree with branches, all different but serve a very strong purpose. Thanks to everyone for your comments.

Today, I'm gonna take it easy, after all it's a holiday! If I end up doing anything I'll go work on my bathroom pantry. That should be rather benign, only decision I'll end up making is; what do I do with the Epsom salts I have had in there for 6 years??? Let me tell you there is no attachment to those salts and if I need more some day, I'll just go buy some.

When will it be over??? I know that the inauguration is tomorrow but my gosh, how much celebrating can we do? Okay, Obama is in, it's historical but give us a break! enough is enough! Glad I'll be at work tomorrow so I don't have to hear it all day. Maybe I'll go to a movie tomorrow night, Hotel for Dogs is sounding pretty good. I'll let you all know how it goes.

Later...

Emotional Melt Down

OMG, this is the most difficult things I have had to do. As you know, I'm going through my "stuff" to get ready for the big move. I'm trying to do this methodically room-by-room. I have my office finished with the exception of those last minute items that comes down to what the heck will I need these for, lots of paperclips (they seem to multiply), lots of notepads, whole lot of pens/pencils, scissors (how in the heck did I get so many scissors?) and just junk. Okay, I have just answered my own question, just junk.

Next, my guest bedroom, Roy's room. I began in the closet where I keep a lot of my cruise clothes, heavy coats and seasonal clothes. Clothes are not hard to do, done. On top of the closet was the stuff I brought home from my Mama's house that I just knew at the time she passed (6 years ago) that I needed all those cloth napkins, table cloths, bedding and various other special things. They were special to me 'cause I knew they were special to her. That's when the emotional melt down occurred. Turns out that if I hadn't used them in 6 years, maybe they weren't that special to me. What do you think?

Time to stop. I came downstairs and called Theda. I was in tears and we talked. Maybe it's not finding all Mama's stuff as it is the entire process I'm having a meltdown about. It's only 5 months away until I change my entire life. Theda helped me to refocus on my method and said it was probably okay to not "have" to do one entire room, I can move to another room even though I have started it. I know, I know, it wasn't necessary for me to have someone give me permission to do that, but I couldn't get my head around it in the state I was in. Thanks, Theda.

I've tried not to allow my identity to be about my work but is it? Who will I be when I leave work and embark on this new lifestyle? I think as I was going through some of my files that thought crept in somewhere and it got me to thinking, have I done enough to prepare myself for this? Does everyone have these doubts? What does it say in that I have these questions?

I'll be okay when I sleep on it! I've just been immersed in sorting etc for too long this weekend. A break might help.

Later...

$210 for 20 minutes, not bad

Got up early this morning and headed out to Cashville in Nashville. I had been gathering up my old rings, broken necklaces, silver and bracelets for a while now. I decided to take them to see how much I could get for them. Well, I had $210 worth and I won't miss them at all. They had been laying in the bottom of my jewelry box taking up space, I couldn't wear them, so there!

I took some of my silver serving pieces and found that most were silver-plated and Cashville won't take those. I had two candelabras and while they were sterling, he would only give me $10 for those. I decided I could get more tax write off as a donation than $10 so I kept those.

This is just a baby step toward clearing out the "stuff."

I didn't go to the RV show this weekend. Margie went yesterday and told me there were no vendors to speak of and I'm not interested in RV's so I knew it would be a waste of time, money and energy to go. Hey, it's free HBO this weekend anyway. It's cold and feels good to stay home.

Later...

Hump Day

Got a new toy today. It's a blue tooth mouse. When I got my Dell computer I had it built for blue tooth. Now I am using one item that is blue tooth. Next I'll get a nice pair of headphones/earphones. Later down the road.

Dentist appointment was today. I had been having a few problems with my upper left quadrant of my mouth. Dr Winfree had put a crown/bridge less than two years ago and each time I have gone in to the hygienist I've told Christie that something is just not right. Well today she uncovered the issue. My crown is cracked and has a hole in it. Go, guess what, back through the process. When that tooth was taken out the oral surgeon said I had a hole in my sinus cavity and if it didn't close up he would have to put a couple of stitches in it to close it up. The dentist didn't think that it had completely closed (2 yrs?) and I may have to go back to the oral surgeon. Oh, that just sounds like so much fun but I really have to get all this fixed before I hit the road.

Margie, gave me her parrot table cloth hooks. Yippee, thanks Margie!! I have looked everywhere for those and couldn't find any so she graciously gifted them to me.

My oh my, I'm getting so much stuff done. I just about have all my office completed. One thing I am pleased with myself is that when I put something in the garage sale box, it's gets a price on it. Yep, good for me.

I had someone come by last night to look at my work bench I posted on Craigslist. He didn't take it but said he would be in touch, yeah right! I've heard that before.

Got an email from someone on Craigslist who really liked my bar art I have put on there for sale. Really, really liked it, but didn't have any money and wondered if I would give it to her! I kid you not!! Hey girl, I don't think so. People have the nerve.

I have gone through my silver & gold and am going to make a run to the gold place and see if they will give me anything for my goods. I'll keep you posted on that. Hey what could it hurt, I'm never gonna use that stuff and it won't sell well at a yard sale.

Later...

Out with the Old

It's not a New Year's resolution, but it is a path to getting my act together and getting rid of "stuff." Man, when I think of full time RVing and I look around my condo and think how in heck am I gonna downsize enough to live in a 400 +/- square foot space?

This weekend I had a great breakfast w/a fellow RVer, Margie, and my friend, Becky. On my way to Cracker Barrell, I stopped and picked up some storage containers to begin my clean up. The breakfast was quite enjoyable and then after breakfast, Margie and I went to look at some MHs for she and her DH and then went to Camping World. Nice outing. I had to get estimates for new tires ($2377 for 6) for Somewhere so I sat in a nice rocker/recliner. Margie came over and we talked some more about plans while rocking in CW, what a natural place to do that.

See, Margie's DH has decided he wants to sell the house and go full time. She has the cutest B+, it's name is Ms"B"Haven and she goes all over the place in her. Now they are going to have a huge lifestyle change. They are both retired so it will be a matter of selling, giving, storing their goods. Anyway, it was fun looking at new class A MHs with her. Gosh, it would be nice to have a Tiffin Phaeton if they made one about 36' long. The one we looked at was beautiful!

Anyway, I digress. When I got home I began the task of sorting. Read on the forum, http://www.womenrv.com/, to take it one room at a time so that sounded good to me and that is what I did. I began in the office. Ooooh, maybe not a good choice as it's pretty overwhelming but that's where I began. Two-fold, it had to be done and I needed to get things ready for taxes. Made sense to me.

Did a little in the kitchen, WHAT TO DO WITH EVERYTHING?? I have piles to throw away, give away (charity), sell (priced it already), and keep. All that stuff that we just can't live without?? If that's true, what's a girl to do????? Anyway, it's all coming together. Another piece of advice from the forum, if in doubt, take it w/you and if you don't use it, get rid of it then. Gosh, those ladies on the forum make a whole lot of sense sometime. See they have been there, doing it!

I'm feeling good about my progress. The realization is that 2009 is here. I have been talking about making this a reality in 2009 but is always seemed so far off and I'm sure people are getting tired of hearing about it, but 2009 is here and it's time to get it going on.

Contacted my realtor, Karen Hoff, last week. Told her I would be ready by late Feb to put my condo on the market and what I wanted to get for it. She is checking everything out and will get back to me.

Contacted insurance companies about full timing insurance for Somewhere and for the Grey Goose. Tried about five companies and will choose the best out of the five. Began working up a budget based on my TN Consolidated Retirement benefit alone. I can do it, will have to be thrifty though. Hopefully, I won't have to touch my other slowly disappearing money and TIME will work for me so I'll have more when I do need to dip into it.

It's just beginning, much more to do so I'll keep you posted on my progress.

Later...

2009 Celebrated

One huge lesson I have learned about blogging is: if one is going to blog, one doesn't need to go somewhere, have a great time, come back, work for a week and then try to recapture the wonder vacation after Christmas and during New Years...But I shall try.

Well, 6 nights were spent at Stone Mountain Ga CG. First, my ds and dgd and I spent 12/26-1/2 at the cg and the park. It was sooooo much fun. On 12/31 they opened Snow Mtn which was a lot of snow and you could slide down in inner tubes and build snow men/women and throw snow balls. My what a fun time and what a wet time.

Here's my report from the cg. Check in was a breeze and staff was very friendly. Nice parking while checking in. The first site we were in was site 360. It was not level and the water pressure was not very good. Entering the sites the roads were in bad shape. You could tell tree roots had grown into/under the asphalt making very large "natural speed bumps" which are not friendly to RVs. The sites were part paved/part gravel. There was not a level place to put the picnic table unless it was right up next to the MH. Not a user friendly place. We stayed here 4 nights.

Last two nights were spent in site 330 which was terrific. Great view of the lake and of Stone Mountain. Very level and good water pressure. Concrete picnic table and good fire pit. The reason we had to move was I decided later to stay during the New Year and our spot was reserved and 330 was the only place left. They would not let the other people take 330 and us stay at 360 and as it turned out, it worked out better for us. Here are some views from the inside looking out onto the lake and Stone Mountain from Site 330. Cost was $38 per night for full hook-ups. I got the package which included 2 nights, 4 bundles of wood, smores pack for 4 and admission to the park on line for $110. I got two of those packages for four nights and then got two nights at $38 plus tax. Garbage pick up daily and the bath houses were very clean and well maintained. I would return to this park again.

Now for the fun part. Daily we either went into the park or went into town. The park was fun as the pictures will show, there was a parade, much like Disney World, but a much smaller scale. They had a Snow Angel and the park had a train and even had the Polar Express 4D. What is 4D you may ask? You get all the 3D action with glasses and all and when they have snow, it actually snows. When they pour hot chocolate, you actually smell the hot chocolate; and when they slide across the frozen lake, you get sprayed with water. For someone not knowing what to expect, it was just awesome! What a treat! Taylor and I had to go again, Jonathan was not impressed enough to do it again. Oh, guess it's a guy thing! It was just so much fun to be with my family and be able to enjoy all the things Stone Mountain had to offer. At night they had a laser show on the side of the mountain. With my new Olympus camera, I tried to capture a movie, hope this comes through. This had to be one of the best holidays ever!
It's about 2 minutes

but fun to watch and listen to.

Back at Somewhere we would have a terrific fire and induldge in those wonderful chocolaty treats of smores!

Around the campfire, we exchanged stories and Taylor asked us triva questions by candlelight. These trivia questions were given to us a presents for the road by Becky and we made good use of them while driving and around the campfire. Guess it's part of keeping the brain young! Was that what you had in mind, Becky?

Taylor fell in love with my hammock and I fell in love with her Wii. OMG, how much fun we (I) had. I bowled, played tennis and golf and the next morning almost couldn't get out of bed. Oh and that last picture above, well, that's me celebrating a little too much. Must have gotten a strike in bowling. LOL

Sedona loved having so much attention. She got played with and walked and just naturally spoiled. LOL

One night, Taylor cooked supper for us. I had told her to pick a night and a menu and she could serve us dinner. Well she did and man was it good. Spaghetti, bread and sugar cookies, um, um good. It was her first time cooking with gas and she did a terrific job. My goodness how they grow up so fast.

Snow Mountain Pictures:

Here we are on our way up the mountain. Thank goodness they had a sidewalk that moved us and we didn't have to walk up!

Taylor is getting ready to go down. I'm in the track next to her and just had to get her photo!

Jonathan is going to be the next to go. As a matter of fact we ended up going down about the same time. All you could do was hold on for dear life. It was sure fun.

Here is the shot while waiting in line to do this "thing."

Have I told you how much I love my little house on wheels, Somewhere, and how I really didn't want to come back to Nashville? I just wanted to keep driving south. When it was time to leave, it was time to winterize again since I had access to water, dump and all that I needed. Went smooth and it was good Jonathan was there to help out. Driving in and around Atlanta in Somewhere went well! It was a lot smoothier than I had anticipated. Gee I must be getting pretty good at this driving. Made it back to Nashville in about 5.5 hours including stopping for about an hour at the Flying J in Resca, GA. Came by the house to unload and then headed up to Clarksville to her parking place. I had a couple of days to recover from the trip and to reflect on 2009. What's to come????

This had to be the one of the best holidays I have had, ever!

Later...

Buffett & friends at Christmas

Here I am in Somewhere standing next to the Christmas tree. It's pretty cool! Didn't know what all the excitement was about this Christmas thing was but I got to wear a cool "horns" on my head and there were lots of company coming in and out and picking me up so I think it's pretty neat thing. Then I got to meet my new friend whom I will introduce to you as JB. He was a gift from gf, Cindy. He has a pink flamingo, Christmas Palm tree, wears shorts and flip flops and a straw hat. He just needs a parrot and he will really be best friends. Hey what am I saying, he does have a parrot. Duh!
Had to show you this decoration Carolyn hung up in Somewhere. She even added her lights from last year.

This trip was alright but it didn't compare to that big ship. I'm sure Carolyn will report on her trip to Stone Mountain GA later on. From the sounds of everything in Somewhere, she, Jonathan and Taylor had a really good time. I just couldn't figure out why they didn't take me sledding down the snow! I think I heard her say something about getting me wet. Guess I should appreciate that, right?

Later...