Simple life, doing everyday things. (Almost back to "normal")

 March and April 2021

Things have been pretty low key around the home front lately. I have been busy with home projects, cleaning and organizing as well as working on my Casita Travel trailer. I did have a few day trips and some time away, but pretty much life has been simple. On one day, I put down a new floor in the bath room. We still have a ton of work to do in here. I'm not sure why we are dragging on getting this done. Neither hubby or I have any idea what we are doing when it comes to remodeling. I have confidence that one day it will be finished. It took nearly 10 years to paint the bathroom upstairs, but I got that done these last few weeks. Only 10 years or so. 

While the cold weather continued, I found walking in the nearly abandoned mall of Great Northern a fulfilling way to get my body moving and not freeze. I also found my very first rock of 2021. 

Walking and a healthy lunch. Like most of my healthy living projects (really anything that has to do with taking better care of me), do not last to long and I am eating not so good for me foods. 

But...I did try and keep up the walking. On this day Riley (our pup) and I took a slippery walk at one of the local state park. The trip didn't last to long as the trails were so icy I was sure to break a hip.

Later I met up with Tammy and we all walked Onondaga Lake park. There was NO ice and I found another rock. 

I think I have already introduced Mark's horse, Kisses from Above, but we took another trip out to see him with my mother in law on Mark's deceased fathers Birthday weekend. Danny would have loved our day in honor of his life. 

We enjoyed the horses, had a not so winning time at the Casino and enjoyed the most delish Italian dinner. 

The meatballs were insanely good!

Another walking trip landed me a new rock. I really need to keep up the walking. Its such a treat to find these lovelies along the path. They make me smile.

I always try and get a Shamrock Shake around St. Patrick's day. Renee and I stopped for one after some shopping and pedicures. 

My son has been helping me address the interior of my little Casita. I re-installed the painted cabinet doors and added the "not all who wander are lost" decal, while he fixed the damaged oven vent. My mom made me these cute little curtains. 

I am in love. 

HOWEVER...........all at home projects on the Casita have taken an abrupt STOP..

My husband took a day off from work and we brought my Casita travel trailer into the shop to assess her safety. We had a big trip to South Dakota planned with her being our bedroom during the trip. We took her in to an RV place (I will not mention the name) for a scheduled appointment. She was never seen. 1/1/2 weeks later, they still hadn't got her into the bay for an assessment of any needs. At the time of this writing she is still in a shop. It has now been over 3 weeks. The second shop I brought her too seemed very enthuastic about taking care of her. I have not heard a word from the company even after calling. I'm a little nervous. SOOOO, since there has been no clear word on the general safety and running of the girl, and I have not been able to finish what I had planned to address. We have decided to CA all our plans for South Dakota in May. This means I will need to call and CA all of my camping reservations. I am super sad, but we have decided to go to Las Vegas instead. (More on that later)

Cross fingers that no news is good news and she will be home to us soon so I can plan at least some camping locally.

As the world is becoming vaccinated, I too had to get on the ACTION and had my 1st dose of the Pfizer vaccine. We had time before my vaccination so Mark and I stopped at this highly recommend doughnut shop in downtown Syracuse after a morning of loosing at the Yellow Brick Rd Casino. 

I have heard about these doughnuts for the last couple of years and I had not yet tried one. We got a Maple Bacon one and a peanut butter one. I was not impressed. Sorry! They are  more of a cake then a doughnut. They just were not as good as all the hype.

Before long I was in line for my 1st shot. The process was pretty flawless, however it did take a long time to get through it. BUT...#1 is done. 

And LOOK at this, there was free coffee and doughnuts as well as a gift card waiting for me at the very end. (Apparently this is not the norm, and I did not get so lucky the second time.)

Another walk and I found yet another rock. (Its a little faded, but cute)

I have been spending several of my days with some of my oldest know friends Brenda and Carol. The three of us have been keeping ourselves sane during the cold days and the home bounding that we have been suffering since the pandemic. We have also made it to the movies. I know, the actual theater. 

I don't recall any that we have seen, but it was nice to go to an actual theater again. 

Our first few warm days pulled me away from the house and easy walks around the neighborhood with Riley to Onondaga Lake Parks east end. 

It was a beautiful spring day.

I didn't find any hidden rocks, but I dropped a few off to spread the love. 

That same day, Renee and I went to the local zoo. I haven't been to the zoo in a very long time, so this was exciting. We needed to get tickets online as they have a maximum amount of sales per day to keep numbers down, and most of the indoor areas were closed to assist in social distancing. It was still a pleasant escape from the daily, and we could not have had a better day. New to the zoo, or maybe just me was this beautiful jaguar. The lions had always been housed in this enclosure. I don't know what happened to the lions, so I'm sad but this kitty was beautiful just the same. 

Timone (from Lion King) seemed to be studying the movement beyond the glass. 

Although not very active these guys were pretty. 

and I loved the penguins.

The Wolves were enjoying the sunshine. 

and the elephants were content to take in the warm air. 

The birds had birdy smiles on their beaks as they caught a little sunshine. 

More work on the bathroom. At least were making progress no matter how slow. We re-installed new baseboards. We still have the beadboard to install, and some touch up, BUT we are getting closer.....

My daughter has decided to return to school and I was able to go to an open house as her guest. She is looking into a degree that will assist her in learning and working in the field of American Sign Language. I actually had a wonderful time spending the day at the Onondaga Community College campus. We were welcomed with information about the school and we played a phone game. We didn't win. We then did a school tour and we ran into the school Mascot, Blaze. (I do not know what Blaze is)

(I found this oddly placed painting of the Mona Lisa funny, so I took a picture) She was hanging in a short hallway among the college modern colors and art pieces. 

The college even gave us lunch. I was super impressed with the whole thing and I learned about the support the college has to offer. I think it would be a nice fit for my youngest child as well. 

April brought on annual events such as Easter and my Oldest son's Birthday. I know the kids are too old for an egg search, but I still enjoy giving them an Easter surprise. 

Alexis got the Unicorn basket full of girly things. 

Gavin got this Warheads basket with candy and games. 

And Nick got this Baby Yoda basket, with Axe products which he informed me was only for teenaged boys and he was no longer interested in these products. My clearly not a teenaged boy husband has been using them ever since. 

Nick turned 28 this year. My April Fools baby is getting so old. This means I am getting so old as well. We celebrated his Birthday with cake and family as well as Stefanie, Renee and Conner. 

Below is him informing me that the AXE body wash is for a teenager. 

His Birthday present is a trip away with his mother. (WOW) he asked to take a road trip with me for his Birthday (He also got some money). He really wanted to drive to the State of Washington, but has instead willing to visit with my college room mate at the Cape. We leave this weekend. 

I also got to spend some time with a friend I have not seen in a while. Christine. She is Brenda's sister and I went to High School with her. We had a nice night having pizza, wine and a movie while catching up. 

My friend Stefanie asked about doing a mini road trip and we were undecided on where to go even up to the minute of leaving. We finally decided to drive west and see where this lead us. We ended up in the Finger Lakes area of NY. First stop was this beautiful view of Seneca Lake in Geneva.

We enjoyed the sunshine and posed by the playground. 

A few more shots by the lake.

It was decided as we drove to go to the Jello museum. YES, that is correct, there is a Jello museum in Leroy, NY. According to the website it is open and only COVID restrictions included no more the 12 people at a time. Off we went. 

Well guess what. It is closed on Tuesdays and Thursdays and our Rd trip day was a Thursday. BUMMER. And there really is not much more to do in Leroy, NY. So we headed back towards home.

We were getting hungry and we had seen a ton of cute little diners along our route (20), so we began looking for a place to eat. We found a place called Tom Wahl's. It was AMAZING!!!!

This had to be one of the best tasting burgers I have ever eaten. A cute little 50's style diner with homemade pickles and root beer. I had both. I will most certainly be eating there again. It was so yummy. After lunch we headed to the Waterloo Outlets. We were both in search of a new coach purse. After several minutes of searching I found the one I needed to have. I love it. They also had Disney coach bags that were adorable. Having had a wonderful adventure, we headed home with plans for more adventures in the future. 

I got my final Covid vaccine! I am officially vaccinate. Two of my son's also got their first vaccination. I still plan to be cautious, but I am relieved that with the vaccination there will be hope for a more 'normal" life. 

This past weekend we had an unusual warm day. Mark and I did some much needed weeding and digging in the yard as well as drain the pool cover. Below are the ducks that have been visiting the "pond" I have had in my back yard. Pre-drain. 

Before draining....

It took nearly 9 hours to get all of the water off the cover, even with the new pump. For years we have simply siphoned with a garden hose. It has taken weeks and we never fully got all the water off which ended with leaves being dumped back into the pool and my husband about to kill himself as he would tug and pull the cover out, water and all. We had no problems this year. And I do believe we will have the pool open before Memorial Day!!!

One more thing that I have found to motivate me to move my body is geocaching. I found this app on my phone that will assist you to finding these hidden secret spots all over the world. I am not clear on what might be in each of them, but I understand that people leave little gifts and sign a journal reporting you were there. I tried my first one on the app. Here was the results. There wasn't anything in the little pill bottle but a roll of paper. I didn't have a pen to say hello. I think this is super fun and plan to keep searching for these fun finds. The kids and I did this many years ago with a device we rented from the library. We never really had that great of luck finding them. As this was my first one off the app. it wasn't to difficult. I can't wait to look for some more. This one was a block away from my house. 

Love it. 

And that is all for my simple life. Hoping for some more travel adventures soon.