House Damage From July

I'm so far behind updating this blog of mine!

On July 26, 2007, a storm blew through and we had extensive damage to our home. A huge, towering white pine came to rest on top of our home with parts of it through the roof and in the living room. I thank the good Lord that we were not in that room at the time. We were in the kitchen eating dinner. Here are some photos.

The entire roof needs to replaced not to mention all the damage inside. We've decided to put a second story addition since we have to replace the roof. Photos of that process will be forthcoming.

It has been 3 months since this happened and the remodeling began only about 3 weeks ago. The contractor has been terrific and the project is on the move! I'm excited about it.

Until next time...

Latest Un-Circle Journal Pages

I finished the latest Un-Circle Journal Swap I was in. Here are the pages I did for the swap. It'll be a long post. Just warning you!


Dannelle's Pages


Kathy R.'s Pages

Kelly's Pages

Kristine's Pages

Amy's Pages

Kathy A's Pages

Kathy H's Pages

Tamara's Pages



Kim T's Pages

Until next time...

Day Ten Vacation - Sunday, April 8, 2007

We drove through Madison (at night, again) and finally got onto Highway 51. We got to the Dells area and Gary finally pulled the RV over at a rest area around 1:30 a.m. We slept for about 4 hours or so and then we were on to Mosinee so I could pick up the Tahoe. After dropping us off in Mosinee, Gary stopped at King's Campers on his way home to see what RV's they had on the lot. He's ready to trade this one in, but we knew that when left Arizona. He did find one, so I'll keep up to date on that later!

We (Erin and I) arrived in Minocqua about 8:45 a.m. Stopped to pick up some things at the grocery store, called Rose to let her know we'd be coming by to pick up Cedar and Dutchess and grabbed some breakfast at McDonald's. Cedar and Dutchess were soooooo happy to see us as we were to see them. It felt good to get home except for one big thing. THERE WAS FRESH SNOW ON THE GROUND!!!! Yuck! Happy Easter!

So, until next time...

Day Nine Vacation - Saturday, April 7, 2007

We awoke in the WalMart parking lot at about 3:00a.m. or should I say Gary woke me up in the WalMart parking lot at 3:00a.m. and wanted to get on the road again. I was very worried about him driving again after only sleeping a couple of hours. Another concern was that everything had a lovely, thick coating of ice on it. We drove north to Denver.

In Denver, the roads were really bad with freezing rain. We saw dozens of accidents through Denver. We passed Mile High Stadium, though, and that was pretty cool to see. Got to go to Starbucks for a morning coffee so it wasn't all bad!! As we began to travel east the weather improved immensely.

We drove through all of Colorado into Nebraska. Don't really have anything to say about the sights in Nebraska as there really weren't any! Needless to say, I didn't take any photos in Nebraska. It was really windy and Gary really struggled with the RV.

We drove through all of Nebraska into Iowa. Don't really have anything to say about Iowa except, again there wasn't much to look at and again, no photos here. It is beginning to look a lot more like home, though. We drove northeast to Dubuque and across the Mississippi River into Wisconsin. Woo Hoo!!! Too bad this was at night as it probably would have been beautiful to see. I was getting really upset with Gary through Iowa because he just refused to stop and get some sleep. He was a man on a mission! What mission that was exactly I don't know, but you know guys with that macho driving thing. You know, "I made that trip in 29 hours! Aren't you impressed?"

Until next time...

The Rest of the Un-Circle Journal Pages...

OK, I've posted the last 6 Un-Circle Journal pages here. If you don't want to see yours don't peek! I've got Kathy R., Connie, Dawn, Kathie B., Melissa and Trudi's all posted here.

Here's Kathy R.'s "Mom":

Here's Connie's "Growing Boys":

Here is Dawn's "Vacation":

Here's Kathie B.'s "Ethan from A to Z". I had X and W.

Here's Melissa's "Our Black Lab, Chocolate":

Here's Trudi's "Garden Walk":

Un-Circle Journals All Complete!!

Woo, hoo!!! I've finished my Un-Circle Journal pages! What a great feeling! I've posted 6 of them here. If you don't want to see yours, don't peek! I've got Kristine, Dannelle, Kim R., Jaimie, Kathy H. and Tamara's posted here. I'll post the rest in another post.

Here's Kristine's "Love Quotes":

Here is Dannelle's "Baby Shower":

Here is Kim R.'s "Tropical Vacations (Mazatlan, Mexico):

Here is Jaimie's "Baby Girl/Toddler":

Here is Kathy H.'s "Disney Autographs":

Here is Tamara's "My Grandkids".

Day Eight Vacation - Friday, April 6, 2007

We woke up this morning not really knowing if we were going to start heading home today or not. Erin and I wanted to do some shopping first in Williams. I wanted to find some turquoise jewelry made by the local Indians, so she and I walked into town to do just that. There weren't a whole lot of stores in Williams. Mostly hotels, really. But we did find one really nice jewelry store. All the jewelry in it was handcrafted by local artists, so it was exactly what I was looking for. I purchased a matching neclace and ring and also another ring. Erin found a ring that she liked, too. At another store, I purchased a Navajo wedding vase handcrafted by a local artist. We had a good time shopping and found some real treasures that we can cherish and remember our trip by.

When we returned to our site, we all decided to start heading home. After some lunch, we left about 2:30 p.m. We drove and drove and drove. We drove across Arizona and New Mexico. New Mexico is beautiful! I couldn't believe how big Albuquerque, New Mexico is! We drove through Albuquerque at night and all the lights were magnificent! We drove all the way to the border of New Mexico and Colorado. When we drove through the Raton Pass, which is at the New Mexico/Colorado border, it was pretty scary. It was night time, the elevation was just climbing and climbing and then to top it off (no pun intended) when we reached the top it was snowing along with freezing rain. When we got over the pass there were signs warning trucks of the grade going downhill fast. I was pretty much white-knuckling the seat all the way. Gary finally agreed to stop for the night in a WalMart parking lot.

So, until next time...