Family Truckster - Arizona bound!

Hey everyone, we finally went and picked up our trailer so we can start organizing the essential and non essential items for our move. Everyone is wondering if we are putting our house up on the market. We have decided that we are going to try and rent it out at this point. We are going to rent a storage space here in town & put the non essential stuff there. We will come back in the early spring to pick up the rest. We feel we'll have a better understanding of where in the Phoenix, Arizona area we want to be in in respect to our job locations. The time is coming at us fast. Lots to do yet, but we have a pretty good jump on it. DH has never pulled a trailer of this size before, but with two attempts he was able to back it right up the driveway. DW and our friend Frenchy were very impressed. Our neighbor Michael and our other neighbor Elizabeth both stated how impressed they were for DH to never have pulled this trailer before to navigate so easily. Great job!

Arizona bound!

Well it's official, We are moving to Arizona. DW has accepted a job transfer & DH has turned in his time with his local company. DH has some irons in the fire with some "networking" amongst his friends and co-workers. We will post later how things turn out for him.
This last Saturday, we had our annual 4th of July party and this year was a difficult one due to us leaving but it was a great turn out & fun for all was had. A friend of ours had a water slide for sale & we thought this would be a perfect time to buy it. He dropped it off for us to blow up & try it. It was awesome! Our friends Dave & Karen stopped by and said we should use it. However, we decided that it would probably be a little dangerous with people consuming alcoholic beverages and launching off a slide! We have decided that we aren't going to buy it. It would be just another one of "MANY" things we would have to try and move.
We were able to snap a photo of Dave & Karen sitting at the top of it.

These two are so cute! Usually Dave has a pink shirt on. We were disappointed he didn't have one on for this photo opportunity. Oh well!
Our friends lounged around conversing with one another and had a GREAT time. Our friend Dave, "Deputy Dave", had the chance to hold our newest member of the family, Carson, who attended the party as well.
I think he looks very natural with the little guy. If anyone who reads this has a single gal friend who is looking for the man of their dreams, look no further. Deputy Dave is a catch of a lifetime!
We had friends and family here as well knowing that this will be the last 4th of July party we will be hosting in Minnesota. It was great to chat & laugh about many topics under the sun. Did we mention the temp was 95 degrees? That didn't stop our fun and activities though.
We will surely miss our family and our friends who have been true to us through many difficult & wonderful times. We will miss all of you!!!!!! But note that this change in our lives will also allow our friends to broaden their horizons to visit us and to experience things many haven't had the opportunity to experience. We look forward to ALL of you paying us a visit.

DW & DH went to Wal-Mart earlier in the day for a few things and DH ran across a T-shirt that was pretty funny. It says "tell ur gf 2 stop texting me". DH thought this would be a funny shirt to put on for the party because Karen texts DH on his cell phone. Well he wore it & Dave & Karen about laughed themselves into a frenzy. It was a pretty cool moment. Here is a picture of DH & our friend Karen doing what they do best: texting away.

Again we want to thank all of you guys for attending & know we will miss all of you VERY, VERY much. We are planning on keeping the blog alive by sharing our moving photos & our adventure to Arizona.

San Antonio River Walk - San Antonio, TX.

I thought I'd share a recent experience I had while traveling to San Antonio, Tx. A co-worker of mine mentioned a fun little spot to visit on the Riverwalk that serves great food & the employees heckle you about anything & everything. I'm a little shy when it comes to people making comments about my looks, my hair, or anything that might make me put my guard up higher than it is. With some hesitation, I thought "Pull up your skirt Sally & enjoy what life has to offer". I drove to the Riverwalk & searched for the infamous "HECKLE" lunch spot from hell called Dick's Last Resort! I'm very proud of myself getting over a hurdle I might otherwise have passed up. It was a BLAST! I wish DW was with me to enjoy my adventure. Fortunately for her, she had been to Dick's several years earlier. I shared my experience with her & we laughed hysterically. I won't go into the whole experience, but would like to share the first two minutes. One of the waiters watched as I approached the back entrance to Dick's & before I could even sit down, the waiter asks "Are you here for lunch?" I replied "yes". He replies "I can understand why with a mug like yours. What ya drinken?" I replied "I'll take a coke." The waiter replied "real men drink beer, especially on a Friday afternoon. What a Sally!" I chuckled. As I sat waiting for my coke, another man approached & a waiter asked him "You here for lunch?" The man replied "yes". The waiter replied "have a seat with this guy and make a friend". Now shy me had a lunch date I had not planned on. As we introduced ourselves to each other, my original waiter came out and asked our current waiter "what's up with these two?" He replied, "I'm not sure, but I think they just exchanged phone numbers!" My new friend & I laughed hysterically. From that point on, it was none stop hysteria! I enjoyed my lunch & laughs & thought I would love to bring a big group of friends here & let the wait staff have their way with us! I will definitely make this a vacation spot in the future. Below are some photos I took of Dick's Last Resort. Enjoy!

Holiday Inn - San Marcos, TX.

I was recently in San Marcos, TX for my job. I thought I'd post some photos of the room I stayed in. If anyone is planning on traveling here, beware of the Holiday Inn Hotel. I wouldn't normally post something that reflects negativity, but I think this is worth a look. Below are some photos of the room. Enjoy! People say traveling has it's rewards, I would have to disagree! (STRONGLY I MIGHT ADD)

This is a quick note I left behind for the cleaning staff. if you look closely you can actually see by their logo the toe nails left behind. Nummy!!

Nothing like a professional Dry-wall patch! (I think WORKBENCH INC needs to come to the rescue!)


The red stain & possibly some sort of bedroom activity stain left behind makes you want to leave your shoes on. Disgusting!


Not bragging here that our home bathroom is much better, but I have to tell you, wanting to come home to a clean bathroom alone will tell you traveling is NOT all it's cracked up to be.


The dirty ventilation and cracks in the ceiling make you feel all comfy as you snuggle into your plush penthouse suite.


Did I mention the light switch that almost took my life? I went to turn on the light between the two double beds & when I twisted the switch, something arced and gave me a shock of a lifetime. You will all be pleased to know that with the amount of traveling I have done, I didn't freak out and stayed in my plush penthouse for the evening, wishing I was home with my lovely wife. Traveling has it's benefits, but after 8 years, I haven't really figured out what they are. Happy motoring! God speed...........

1980's Fashion Show

It's finally the end of the weekend. We had a garage sale Sat & Sun and we are tuckered out. It was very successful & we were able to get rid of a bunch of our belongings. The night before the garage sale Karen and Dave stopped by to check out the progress. Karen was like a little girl in a candy store trying on all the old clothing we were trying to get rid of. We had some great laughs at the fashion show we put on. LOL! Our friends Dale & Sheri stopped by as well & Dale even got into the show flexing his muscles in the fluorescent Peanuts shirt. : )



******WARNING****** The following photo shows Karen at her finest. Isn't she the cutest Farm Girl you've ever seen?! It's amazing how much old clothes can actually bring out the beauty in one's soul. ENJOY! He-He


"Does this dress make my butt look big?"

Oh how we love our friends! They are the best anyone could ask for! Thanks for the laughs guys! We can't wait 'til we have fun like this again.

Keep on trucken...............

Well, It's been 4 months now trying to find a truck to haul our recently purchased car trailer & we've finally found one that fit's what were looking for. It's a 2001 Chevrolet 3500 Dually. It has 31,000 actual miles and is spotless. It has the 8.1 litre gas engine. Lot's of people have hee-hawed saying we should have bought a diesel, I agree if we were going to haul the trailer loaded full every other day or so. We think it will work just fine for what we'll use it for. We drove to Fort Dodge, IA. to test drive it & it only took 15 minutes for us to decidethat yes this is the truck we have been waiting for. It truly runs & drives beautifully. We'll post a picture of the trailer it will be towing soon. We want to hook the truck up & take a picture of the trailer & truck together.

Concrete Project

Well, here we are in the midst of summer. Our days seem like they are running twice as fast as they were a week ago. In anticipation of our big move adventure, we have so many projects we need to finish. One of the major projects we needed to finish was some concrete work next to the single attached garage. It was originally filled with 18" x 18" red colored paver stones. Over the years of being in place they eventually settled. After the last major storm that blew through, we had noticed some water on the floor in the garage. DH & DW discussed what & how we should handle this. We both decided that we had to investigate. After removing a few of the paver stones, we noticed that a trail of water had carved a river-sized trough under the stones running to the lowest point and eventually seeping into the block and draining into the garage. We decided it was time to remove all the paver stones and fill the whole area full of concrete eliminating any chance of this happening again. We hired our friends from Workbench INC in Owatonna, MN to tackle the job. Once again, we were delighted at how great it turned out. (See our blog of the bathroom remodel.) These guys are so good at what they do, we wish they were going with us! Below are the pictures of the events that unfolded.



After the paver stones were removed.



The dirt needed to be removed to allow the fill stone to be shoveled into place.



The fill stone has been delivered. YAY!


The fill stone has been put in place.


The concrete shows up.



Pouring and moving the concrete begins.



Just about filled with concrete.


Working the concrete to it's finished curing state. The finished product turned out better than we could have expected. The guys at Workbench INC have successfully helped us with another project that they went above and beyond, making sure it was finished to the utmost perfection. DH & DW recommend this company to take care of ANY projects big or small that you may have. Guess it's on to the next project. : ) Workbench INC to the rescue!