Friday, May 29, 2009

When it rains, it pours!!

Yesterday and today were extrememly busy for us. We've been talking to this woman from Ohio who is interested in buying our motorhome, and she was planning on coming to see it tonight. So, in anticipation of selling the motorhome and needing to get our 5er and truck quickly, Tom went ahead and listed my minivan on craigslist. We had 2 guys call on the minivan and both were VERY interested! The first came over last night, and the other was supposed to come tonight. Well, the guy last night was trying to get us to come down on our price a little bit, but Tom said he wouldn't do that until we let this other guy see it. Well, he left, and called us a few minutes later saying that he would give us our asking price if we would cancel the other guy. So, we did . . . my minivan is sold! While he was here, the realtor called and said there was a couple who wanted to see our house tonight, too. So the minivan is sold, the motorhome sale sounds promising, and we've had our first showing of the house. I don't think anything will come from this showing - they didn't spend much time looking through the house, and did not take an information packet. Oh well, it still made for an exciting day! Keep your fingers crossed for us on the motorhome!!

Thursday, May 28, 2009

Baby fawn

I've been keeping my eyes open for it, and both Nicolas and I have walked around in the area where it was, to see if it's still around, but we haven't seen it. I can only hope that means the mother found it and moved it! There's tons of open space around us - every house on our street is on 10 acres - so there are deer around all the time. We'll keep watching!

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Memorial Day Weekend

We had a busy, but fun, weekend. We didn't go camping . . . I stopped making Memorial Day plans a few years ago - MI weather can be so unpredictable this early in the season! Anyway, this year would have been a nice one, but we have a good backup plan. My parents and three of my sisters have seasonal campsites at a campground in northern Indiana, so we headed down there on Saturday morning. I should have taken some pictures so you could see it, but I didn't even think of it - I've been going there since I was 7, so it's practically like a 2nd home to me! I'll get pictures next time!

I spent some time sitting in the sun with my sisters on Saturday, then we all headed into Angola for pizza at one of our favorite Italian restaurants. We got back in time for 7:30 mass at the campground (REALLY convenient!). Then we all went for a walk and settled in to watch "Harper's Island". My one sister, Tina (the other that does NOT have a campsite there) and her husband went home just as the last sister (ALWAYS a late arrival!) showed up! On Sunday, I read half a book while sitting in the sun with my sister, while Tom played baseball with the boys. We all took Casey for a swim in the lake (she LOVED it!), and then it was time to cook dinner. We started a fire right after dinner, because the boys wanted hobo pies, and we weren't staying for another night. I played "chef', and everybody enjoyed the apple and blueberry pies - YUM! We headed home around 9:30pm - it was a 2 hour drive, but uneventful.

Memorial Day was spent on grass cutting (Tom), weedeating (Nicolas & Bryce), and laundry/ironing (Marci). We had hoped to get done early enough to go to see "Night at the Museum 2" at the IMAX, but it didn't work out that way. Nicolas was weedeating in the front yard and found a baby fawn curled up in the grass - right in the middle of the yard! At first we thought it was dead, but them we saw it move slightly. It was SO tiny - couldn't have been much more than 1 or 2 days old!! We weren't sure what to do, so we called our neighbor over. We thought we needed to try to feed it, so we put it in Casey's crate for safe-keeping while waiting for a return call from the DNR (our neighbor had called).
From ROAMING FREE 2010

I went inside and googled "what to do with a baby fawn". I found out that the mothers intentionally leave them alone to sleep during the day, and come back at night to feed them and move them . . . OK, we messed up! I went back outside and opened the door of the crate, but the poor thing couldn't get it's feet under it on the slippery plastic! So, Nicolas lifted it back out, and it wobbly walked off into the tree row next to our house. We hope it didn't wander too far, and it's mother will be able to find it again!!

Today (Tuesday) it was back to school and work - boy, were we all tired this morning! Nicolas has final exams this week, and I hope he does well - wish him luck!! Tonight Bryce had another baseball game, and they lost . . . oh well, can't win them all!
From ROAMING FREE 2010

Last week, Nicolas' class finished their Viking House and gave their history presentations. Here's Nicolas in front of the finished product.
From ROAMING FREE 2010

They even had a fire in it!
From ROAMING FREE 2010

That's it for today. Maybe this weekend we'll have news on the potential sale of our motorhome!!

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Weekly Update

Yes, I like to think I'm going to do daily blog entries, but the days just seem to get away from me! What's been going on this week . . . let's see . . .

Bryce had another baseball game, which they won again - yeah! Tom and I worked at the Tigers game Friday night. It's a fundraiser we do for the boys' school. We have a group of parents that go to the stadium and work a concession stand, and the school gets a percentage of the profits. We worked a Little Caesars pizza stand, which was pretty easy, but it was a really late night. There were several rain delays, and we were on the main concourse, which are the stands that stay open during rain delays! The game finally ended around midnight, and then we had to clean up, count the money and re-count all the inventory. It was after 1 am when we got out of there, and almost 2:30am by the time we got home! The kids spent the evening with Tom's parents, so we just left them there overnight.

On Saturday, we were going to go to an RV swap meet in Toledo, OH, to try to sell our motorhome, but the weather looked iffy, so we didn't go. It was pretty much a lazy day. We're still hoping to sell our motorhome directly, rather than trading it in. The dealer who has this X-Aire toy hauler we're looking at is really low-balling us on the trade value. Tonight we had a call on the motorhome from a woman in Ohio. She sounds really interested, and she's coming to look at it next weekend!! It would be wonderful if this works out - keep your fingers crossed!!

The weather this week is improving greatly . . . supposed to be 80 degrees tomorrow! Maybe winter is finally over!

Monday, May 11, 2009

Field Trip and Baseball

Today was a busy day. Nicolas' class had a field trip in the afternoon. His teacher this year is a Sister, so she had the class go to the Motherhouse (convent) to help with some cleanup on the grounds. Their first task, after prayers and a picnic lunch, was to move a bunch of wood from one area to another, and stack it so they could use it for firewood next winter. One of the kids had the idea of working as a daisy chain, and just passing the wood along the chain - it worked really well!
From ROAMING FREE 2010


After that was completed, they spent an hour or so clearing brush and dead branches from along the stream that runs through the property. One of the other Sisters started a fire so they could burn all the brush, and when the work was done the kids were treated to homemade (delicious, I might add!) chocolate chip cookies, and toasted marshmallows.
From ROAMING FREE 2010


It was an enjoyable day of service for the kids!

Tonight was also Bryce's 1st baseball game. They played a great game, and won 11-7! Bryce got walked twice and struck out once.
From ROAMING FREE 2010


Both times that he got on base though, he scored!
From ROAMING FREE 2010


The coach treated them all to pizzas after the game, and they were all very happy!

OK, back to work tomorrow, so I'm going to get to bed!

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all the Moms out there! We had a pleasant, but uneventful, weekend. Some friends had a party/bonfire on Friday - it was a wonderful evening to spend outside! On Saturday morning, Bryce had a baseball scrimmage - they got in about 4 innings before the rain arrived, but it was good practice for them. His first game is tomorrow evening, and they are ready now. After a quick lunch, we went to Walmart for some groceries, and then back home. Tom's family came over for dinner Saturday evening to celebrate our birthdays (mine on the 12th, and Tom's on the 13th), and Mother's Day. We made shish-kabobs, baked potatoes, pasta salad, salad and strawberry pie - YUM! Today, we went to my Mom's for dinner and my brother and 3 of my sisters were there. It was a nice day, and another delicious dinner.

Now we're just watching the finales of Amazing Race and Celebrity Apprentice. Tomorrow, it's back to school and work for another week. We haven't had anybody in for any showings of the house yet, but hopefully soon. We did have a couple of "drive-bys", but nothing has come of them yet. Have a good week!

Monday, May 4, 2009

We did it!

Yes, our home is now officially FOR SALE, and we have the sign in the yard to prove it! This was a really big step for us, and it was strange to come home from church yesterday to find the sign in front of the house - this makes it all VERY real for us!
From ROAMING FREE 2010


But, life goes on and we continue as homeowners . . . the yard finally dried out enough for Tom to mow (MOST of it, anyway!),
From ROAMING FREE 2010
and Nicolas was busy spraying for weeds.
From ROAMING FREE 2010
Bryce got to play for awhile (until Tom put him to work digging up rocks!)
From ROAMING FREE 2010
and he's really excited to have the FOR SALE sign in the yard - he already wants to know where the SOLD sign goes!! LOL
From ROAMING FREE 2010


Casey got her "summer cut" this week, and now she's allowed back in the house as all remnants of "skunk smell" are gone. She's a happy girl again!
From ROAMING FREE 2010


The weather is finally taking a turn for the better around here, and we're thoroughly enjoying spring, and looking forward to summer . . . we can't wait to take off in our motorhome! Speaking of which, we have somebody interested in it, but he's in Ontario and hasn''t been able to get here to look at it yet. Hopefully he will soon, as we'd REALLY like to get it sold! We're zeroing in on a Toy Hauler that we'd like to buy, but the trade-in value that the dealer is offering on our motorhome is not what we'd like. The toy hauler deal is really too good to pass up, but we're hesitant to move forward without selling the motorhome. Wish us luck with this big decision!