Anxious

It won't be long now and all of our stuff will be out of MN storage and home, here in Yuma. For quite a few weeks our new home is going to look like a warehouse. There will be totes all over the place to go through and things to find a place for here. I know that some things will be donated due to lack of room and really no need for them anymore.

Living here in AZ is way different than in MN. It's more laid back here and less of the keep up with the Jones's. Things that are needed in MN are no longer needed in Yuma. No need for snow shovels, or lawnmowers for one thing. A broom and a torch for weeds works much better. Although we don't have any of that in storage anyway. The pace around here is much slower, more relaxed and less expensive as well. It's a very simple life. They could put more effort in their upkeep of the roads to say the least. I have 5 totes of Christmas decorations that I will no longer have a need for too. All I want to keep is our little tree, the ornaments, and one white electric church that I can leave up year round Anyone want about 11 village houses and all the extras?

We eat or at least I cook differently here too. Seasonal foods are different due to the difference in weather. So some kitchen items will be donated as well. That will break my heart since I still love to cook. But like I said we eat differently. Baking is only done in the winter months because of the summer heat and a/c. Actually I'm not even sure of what all is in storage anymore, until I wish I had something. Some sewing and quilting things that I wasn't sure what to do with may go to a good friend who still quilts quite a bit. But again I'm not sure what it is that I haven't already given her and what is left. hehehe

There are many things that I've missed having during the past few years but have restrained from purchasing, hoping that someday I'll have it again. Well that day is closer to becoming a reality and I'm super excited. It will be nice to have my pictures of family around me again too. Sadly we don't have a lot of wall space but where there is a will there's a way. hehehe

Mark is really excited to have his motorcycle here. Summer is really too hot to do much riding especially if you want to dressed appropriately. And in the winter there are so many snowbirds around that it's not much fun dodging the poor drivers. So I'm not sure how long I'll keep my bike or sell it. But I'm somewhat excited to have it here and ride if even for  a little bit each year. Mark on the other hand just plain loves to ride.

Today and tomorrow we have to get our old place cleaned up and totally cleaned out. Ray moves in on Wednesday so it needs to be ready for him. God has given us two really nice days to get the work done so we need to give thanks and get to work. Time now to get busy........

Another project completed.

After many times of walking past the same toilets  in two different stores, we finally found one that was at least close to a more comfortable height for me. Unless you special order there are VERY FEW that are over 16.5 inches and that just isn't quite right. But we had to settle for that and then find the thickest toilet seat to bring it to at least 17 inches high. I feel so badly for the handicapped that can't make that height work for them. If you special order and it doesn't work for you, you have to pay a restocking fee and postage. And how in the world do you know if it is the right application or bathroom fit without trying to get on and off of the thing. Grrrrr. Anyway the new toilet is in and it looks way better than the old one and works better too.

Next project was to install an outside light by the front patio door. The old one was just hanging there and as ugly as sin. The new one is motion sensitive and also has the dusk to dawn option. And it's very pretty.

Our new place is years newer that our last place but it still has some things that need to be replaced.  Either to fit our needs or it is  just plain worn out to be safe. I hope we don't have anything else to replace for a long time now.

Tomorrow we will put up a sunscreen on the porch. It faces the west and in the summer that makes the sun extremely intense. I hope that task goes smoothly. At least there will be no mess on the inside. LOL

Happy Easter

What a beautiful morning, Christ has risen and I am blessed by His grace. Our 9 o'clock Easter service was really hopping this morning. The music  was so uplifting and joyous that we all were singing loud praises. Pastor Tom delivered a wonderful message and had many in smiles and thoughts of our heavenly home. I know I walked away feeling blessed beyond measure. There were three baptism's today in the courtyard, where coffee and cinnamon rolls were offered as others watched the commitment of their faith. How wonderful to be baptized the same day we celebrate the day Christ rose from the dead.

Our Easter dinner consisted of New York Strip on the grill with sauteed mushrooms, toast and fresh strawberries for dessert. Everything turned out great. After dinner Mark took his customary nap before he had to leave for work while I sat and reflected on the morning and then did the few dishes. hehehe

Afternoon led me to Walmart to take care of my ever growing list. I had to just stop writing things down and ignore some items or I would need a truck to bring the stuff home. Because of the holiday, and lack of snowbirds,  the store was delightfully not busy. My poor little SmartCar was loaded with wares on the way home. It took some work to get it all in the house, unpacked and put away. But we should be good for another week or so. I hope.

Tomorrow we need to go and get a new toilet for our main bathroom. It was rocking badly so Mark was concerned that some damage could've been done, and not to just tighten the bolts but also replace the stool. Who knows how long it was rocking and rolling. We don't want to have floor issues under the stool. According to Lowes website they have a toilet that is 17 1/2 inches high. Just what this long legged old lady needs to get on and off with relative ease. Now I'm praying that they really do in fact have one in the store.  Mark has off most of the week so I'm sure he will have other projects to do and take a day or two off and just enjoy our new home.

                                        Happy Easter from Yuma, AZ!!

This and that

It was a beautiful morning again, nice and cool with a gentle breeze. We opened up the windows that aren’t covered to get some nice cool fresh air inside. Then we covered the window in Marks bathroom and the window on the back door with the insulated stuff. It gets like a sauna in there so this should help. 

After that Mark wanted to go out for breakfast so off we went. On the way we stopped at the consignment place and found out that the buyers backed out from buying our RV. :( So Mark had a talk to the salesperson, I sat in the car.

The Good Friday service last night was so wonderfully touching. I cried through the last half of the service. The message was so well delivered that it really was like we were with Jesus while he prayed and  at the foot of the cross. The music that Pastor Tom played and sang was the icing on the cake so to speak. The words were very touching so the tears continued to flow making it difficult to sing. 

Tomorrow we will go to an Easter service and then will have steak on the grill for lunch. Mark goes to work at 2 until 10 tomorrow. He heard that last year it was very quiet so he hopes that it is again this year. I’ll get my cleaning done after he leaves for work. I just work better when no one is around.

Monday we need to get a new toilet for my bathroom. It isn’t sitting right and Mark is afraid of the floor getting ruined. He did tighten it but who knows how long it wobbled. The bathroom is really small so replacing the floor would not be a fun job. He didn’t like doing it in the trailer he had. And that was a big room. The toilet is really too short for me so we will get one that is taller for people like me that have issues. We are also going to look into a pull down sunscreen for the west side of the porch. The sun really is a scorcher and that will help. We had one on our other place as well. Some day Mark is going to try his hand at making a sunscreens for our west windows too. They work well to minimize the dirt and sun. It also protects the screens from the damaging sun. So they serve several purposes. I know he can do it, and since WM is cutting everyones hours, he has the time. He is really a Jack of all trades and not afraid to try anything. Now if the heat would not get too bad for working outside.

Windows and RV

A beautiful sunny, 67º morning. The sounds outside are telling me that the Foothills are already busy busy, and the birds and singing praises for the nice morning. 

HOT this afternoon so I hope to hurry to the laundry room this morning and get the sheets on the lines before the heat rolls in. I have no plans to do much of anything other than cook meals. I've no idea what I'm making for any meal today either. I'm hoping that something comes to mind sooner than later.

Tonight at 7 we will go to church for the Good Friday service. At least I'm hoping that we make it. We were so moved last year and look forward to it again tonight. 

The only thing I did yesterday was dust mop the floors. Today I have nothing planned for the day other than laundry. But you never know about us. hehehe

Well, we did find somethings to do that really needed to be done. We covered the windows with window insulation in preparation for summer. Just like we did in MN for the winter. Only this time we want the cool air in and the hot air to stay out.  

On the way to get the window stuff for the big window we were hungry so stopped for lunch. We drive right by the place that has our RV on consignment. We noticed a sign on it so we stopped to see what was up. Someone has put money down which we were very happy to see. The salesman called us after we got home and wanted us to pay for the a new hitch on the camper and wanted us to take $2000 less for the RV too yet. No way, either was happening. They are making good money on it and can well afford to cover that cost. Mark told them we want the hitch back since it is worth way more than the hitch they want on. We can sell it and get some if not all of our money back. Now to wait and see if the camper is really sold. The people got the loan it’s the salesman that is dicking with us. Mark  knows the game.  

Softener

Yesterday Mark got the softener out of our old place and installed it here. We are still using our RV softener. And very thankful it’s still working for us. The hot water heater still had hard water in it when I took my shower last night, but this afternoon when I did the dishes, the water was all soft!!! No more greasy hair and scaly skin. Ugh, hard water is so awful. Now thanks to Marks hard work and diligence we have soft water!!!!

For days Mark has also worked hard on organizing all the stuff from the shed at the old place to the shed here. He calls it his playhouse I call it his smoke shed.  😞He did a good job of getting everything in and organized so well, in such a small space. Everything is so neat and tidy looking.

Day off

Yesterday neither of us got much of anything done and it felt good to take a day off. We have been busting our butts for the last three weeks. Wow, has it been that long already?

In the afternoon I went to our bank here in Yuma and opened another savings account. I need to keep our lot rent fund separate from anything else so that it doesn't accidently get spent. Now it's just a matter of transferring from our bank in MN to our bank in Yuma. It's a slow process due to automatic withdrawals and deposits involved. But by next month it should all be done.  I'm still waiting for Mark to get his one thing done so I can move forward with the rest.

Today is the only cool cloudy day of the week. By Friday we could hit 100º, so I hope that Mark can get the softener down from the old place and installed here, today. The hard water is really doing a sad number on my hair and skin. Not to mention all the hard water stains on everything else.

Mark had a doctors appointment yesterday and was told he could go off of all the diabetes medications. His A1C was excellent. Hopefully he will still be careful with what and how much he eats so he can stay off of the meds. 

The shower door is gone.

After Mark went to work I headed down to do the laundry. Sheets and everything went on the lines. It was windy when I started hanging things on the lines and half way through the job the went lessened.  It took 3 machines to get everything washed today. But the king size sheets take up a machine on their own. It's so nice not having all the snowbirds here. 😃

When I got home I began the tear down of the awful shower doors. I hate shower doors. They make a bathroom look grungy, hard to get into the shower and I feel like I’m taking a shower in a shoe box. Getting the caulking and gunk off was the hardest part. And boy was it gross under the bottom rail. Nothing like having something gross and dirty right by you when you are showering to get clean. I didn’t have the right tools to get the job done, but as a women we can figure out how to do things without them. I remember that for years all I had was a table knife, wooden shoe/clogs, and a pliers. I got a lot of things done with just them. Dad gave me an old hammer of his when he heard how I put the new seats on my kitchen chairs. hehehe My niece Amy gave me a purple tool box one year for Christmas and if I need any type of tool I'll use what is in there. If I have to make do without a certain tool, I can go that too. But I had better have any kitchen tool I need at hand. LOL 😉

By the time I was all done with the job, I hurt all over and my hands were having trouble holding on to anything. Why do I always push myself to finish things?  A few hours later I had enough umpff to take a shower. It was nice being able to get in and out without almost tripping or falling. And it was a lot cleaner too. The whole bathroom looks and feels cleaner. 

Palm Sunday and it’s off to church and then I’m thinking I should rest the rest of the day. Well that is after I get the ironing done. One of these days I need to get some serious cleaning done and not just a lick and a promise.

Two down

It took a lot of work but the new microwave is in and working great. It took us too long to get it in because the ceiling vent was being very uncooperative and kept moving lower when we wanted it up and up when it needed to be lower. After it was finally installed we found a panel that was loose and would've eased our issues with the vent connection. Figures doesn't it? 

The big cabinet got moved yesterday. Talk about heavy, man it sure was. Built a new back for it with plywood, which really improved its stability!

The cabinet is about 3/4ths full already.....lol And we are still in need of another cabinet for stuff that we still have in MN that we plan on keeping

Got up early this morning with the heat pump on my mind. The thermostat which I believed was bad, was showing a high pressure code. So this morning I did some more research and testing and came to the same conclusion as I had before. I replaced the thermostat and it now works according to plan! Yeah a win for us! I'll take a $30 vs $300 dollar bill any day!!!!!!! So now when we turn the a/c or furnace on it should shut off when it reaches the set temperature.

Next project is to get rid of the stupid shower doors!!!! They are too low and make it too difficult for me to get in and out of the small tub/shower area.

To old to do another move.

It seems that every time a person moves it not just all the packing, sorting, cleaning and unpacking. It's also upgrading the things that don't quite meet your needs or the need to replace items because after you move in they break down. All of which is the case here.

Yesterday Mark worked his tail off making the shed fulfill his needs. It was full of unwanted pieces of worthless wood and a floor that you could've fallen through.  So the floor needed to be fixed to support the items that need to go in there.  We also loaded up and moved all the items left at the little place and quite a bit from the shed. All this on an extremely windy, 99º day. By the time Mark came in for the day or rather the evening, he stated that this is the last time we move. I was in total agreement. We are just getting to old to go through all this again. But the upgrade of our home is so very nice to have.

As I said it was a hot and windy day. And we found out that the thermostat does indeed NOT work right. It has a hard time knowing what the room temperature is by evening. The dumb thing said it was 82º for the longest time when in fact the temp inside had gone to 78º. I had to manually turn off the thermostat and turn it on again.  So today it's one more expense, to purchase a new thermostat. At least the next several days it won't be so hot that we will need the a/c running. But it's still one more thing that Mark has to get done before he goes to work on Saturday. Of the two added projects, the thermostat should be an easier job than putting in a new over the range microwave. 😧 Putting in the microwave is a two man job and I don't qualify as the second man. I can't hold anything of that weight for long.

Today is laundry day and I have a few errands to run. So one more sip of my coffee and then I better get my duff in gear.

Sunday isn't Sunday without church

Today we made it to church after missing twice. We didn't need to hurry home after church since Mark had off from work. That meant we got to go out for a leisurely lunch as well. As in days past that also meant some shopping. We took back a ceiling fan that we purchased because we accidently got the wrong color. Lowes made the return painless and help was available to find the fan we wanted.

In the afternoon Mark felt we needed a bigger tv since we had a bigger space than we have had in 4 years. So off to WM to buy a new 42 inch Vizio, D series with wireless. Our old one was a 32 inch and wasn't able to do cable and satellite.  It could only do satellite. After he set it all up I had a bit of a learning curve, which is not my strong point. But I caught on with relative ease. It has an amazing picture and sound. Since Direct TV is doing battle with the local stations I've been unable to watch my CBS shows. I had to take out CBS All Access. But the new TV will work on the cable offered in the park, as well as the satellite, so I now dropped  CBS AA.

We finally got the desk here so now I have an area in the family room ( AZ room), that is much more organized and functional. I just hope I haven't lost or misplaced any important papers in the process. I'll find out shortly since taxes will be due in a week or so.

 Yesterday it got quite warm, 93º, so we had the a/c running and found out that it does a very good job of cooling down the house. The unit is quite a bit bigger than the one at our old place. But this park model is much bigger too.

More  moving to be done today and hopefully the last of the stuff in our old place will be cleared out and I can begin the cleaning process for the new owner.

Today Mark put in the bedroom ceiling fan. So now we have a usable light in there. Since the bed is right under the fan it was quite a balancing act for Mark. At times I wasn't sure he was going to fall or just tip over. OMG, what an ordeal. But never fail Mark got the job done. And only as Mark can do, there was a mess when he finished. But then I am kind of anal about cleaning as I go. The new fan looks nice and works well. As always, Mark did a great job. When we opened the box of the fan for the living room we found that we had grabbed the wrong color. So next week back to Lowes we will go and exchange it for the one we wanted. At least we have a couple lamps in the living room for light.

After Mark went to work I did some cleaning, no surprise there. The wood floors show the dirt so easily. Not like carpet that hides it in the fibers, day after day after day. So I vacuumed, dust mopped and scrubbed all the floors.  I'm thinking that will be a daily task. But they do look so nice when clean. It's not like we ever get company here, but we do take pride in our homes.

The bathroom curtain came today so I got that hung. Not quite the color I had hoped it would be but it will at least match the towels, but not quite match the rugs. Hey, for only $6, who am I to complain? Every curtain in this place but the AZ room was white. There is no "color" in any room. All the walls are what is called Arizona beige. So I need a lot of accent colors so brighten up and make things pop a bit. This afternoon I put foil in the bedroom windows to block out the south and west sun. It's just temporary. Later we will put in insulated foil on those windows and a few others to keep the summer sun and heat of Yuma out!

The living room, bedroom, bathrooms and kitchen are pretty much in order. The Arizona room or family room that we decided to call it, needs help!!!!! Until the desk gets here everything is piled onto the craft table so it looks a mess.  Next week we will bring over the desk and freezer. We have two very nice dressers in storage that will go in the family room and be used for storage. Storage in a park model is not  very plentiful. But this model has way more than our little one had. I'll be very happy when all rooms are in order and I can get back to a more normal routine. I know Mark will be very happy to have his shed all set up as well. He seems to like his own area for his computer, where I don't get in his way or he in mine. It was challenging using the kitchen table to do anything and everything in our other place.

Once the inside of the old place is emptied, I can do the cleaning in there, turn off the power, lock the doors and say "good-bye sweet little trailer, you served us well".

Next week Mark has off and he has his week planned of things he would like to get done. That means extra cleaning for me. hehehe But I'll be happy when he can just sit back and enjoy our new home too.

No one ever said that moving was fun. And when you do it all by yourself, it really stinks.  And after we get our things from MN to here, more packing and organizing will need to be done. As well as tossing and donating. Some tossing may need to be done before we haul it all to Yuma.  Our park model is only so big.  And the walls are not made of elastic so they don't stretch to fit!

Life in Yuma according to Mark.

Busy week or so. My part time job had me working 6 nights in a row, now 3 days off and then back to work for 2 more nights before I get a week with only one night of work. Do not know who or what makes up the schedule but it is obviously a work in progress.

I will take the time off, as we have purchased a "New to Us" 07 Park Model from an older couple and are in the process of moving in and making some needed repairs.

Installed a new kitchen sink faucet and Reverse Osmosis Water System in the under sink cabinet. Of course none of the fittings matched so we had to get a little creative but it all worked out.

As both 3D Communications and AT&T were here yesterday reinstalling access to internet and Sat. TV. Last night I installed an access point that covers both the house, porch and the storage shed out back. And then got all our toys connected!

Now I need to install two new ceiling fans w/light kits, the security cameras, Google Home Controlled indoor and outdoor accent lighting, raise the storage shed up above the slab, replace the sheds floor, redirect storm water so it does not flow in the direction it did.

Any Volunteers?

P/S I think I am going to take a nap!

Home sweet home

Little by little our new place is feeling like home. But I'll be glad when we have everything here, and the stuff from MN too. I'm so anxious to have my pictures up and my special things back in my possession that are still in storage.

I feel like a broken record, we moved more things today, we packed more things today and so on. But it's a slow process when it's just the two or one of us doing it all. Thankfully a neighbor was still in the park and helped move our bed and my chair. But with luck we can still get help with the small chest freezer, cabinet, and my desk. The rest we/I can pack and move. Mark still has his shed to work on. Last week he worked 6 days in a row but next week he has very few and should be able to sort through and move his stuff.

I'm so thankful for the extra days we have for moving out of our old place. That is a real blessing. Unloading our things from MN will be a task without any help. 😟 Two big dressers will be too much for the two of us or just one person. Although I think we still have a dolly that may help lessen the load.

This morning we are heading to my dentist in Mexico in hopes of him fitting my partial so it's not so painful. In August I will go back to have the implant finished and another one started. That is if the stupid ass, Trump doesn't close the port of entry. God help us all.