http://www.blogger.com/html?blogID=4316350785635987648 Cave Dwellings: November 2016
Cave Dwellings

Buckhorn Creek, Lake O' The Pines, Jefferson, TX

Friday, November 25, 2016

Giving Thanks

We have been busy here at the Cave Casa with family stuff…We went to Zionsville,IN to babysit the Wolff Cubs so their parents could go to Jamaica for 5 days.  Aiden is now 8 and Maddox is 5..No more diapers to change or lost pacifiers to look under a crib for…AND…no more cribs, either!!! Both kids are in school now, too. The school bus picks them up on the corner in front of their house at 8:24AM..NOT 8:23…NOT 8:25….AT 8:24!!!! And they get dropped off at the same spot at 3:45PM…exactly!!!  We arrived Friday afternoon . Chris and John had a 5AM flight on Saturday,  and they arrived back home on Wednesday evening at 9:30PM..The most time we spent with the boys was the weekend because they were in school Mon, Tues. and Wed.…


The boys had a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle that Papa got roped into helping with. Well, not really “roped in”..Dennis is obsessed with these puzzles!  We have been known to take as many as 6 of them in our Hiker when camping..We even had a special cloth to put the puzzle on while assembling it.. That way,  you could fold it up and put it away, and still use our RV table to eat on..Now THAT is ridiculous!! .It took 2 boys and one Papa 2 days to finish it..The boys are pretty darn good at puzzles on their own too!


They finished this one in no time…working together…This isn’t always the case!!!
Satuday we walked to the park in Zionsville.  The weather was fabulous..60 degrees and sunny…and these kids were lovin’ it!



This park is on the Eagle River and is really pretty…There are 3 different playgrounds, a tennis court, and a couple ball parks there too!

These are great kids…cute too..but I might be just a tad prejudice…..Ya think????  They did some posing for Mimi (me)…

Actually, the photo above is more the “norm”…Saturday night the boys and “moi” put together an award winning stuffed crust pizza!!

We used string cheese to roll into the outer crust…WALLA!!  That pizza was seriously awesome!!
 We had a great time with the boys and their Mom and Dad got some much needed relaxation in Jamaica..”NO PROBLEM, MON!”

After we got back home, we had another great family day with the Heisers…Our youngest Heiser grandson is following in the thespian footsteps of his big sister and loves to be “on stage”.  We attended his middle school play, “The Secret Case of Sherlock Holmes” on the following Sunday matinee.  Campbell (nicknamed “Soupy” by his friends) is in 7th grade and the play involves 6th, 7th and 8th grade students. The setting was a mental hospital where most of the patients thought they were someone famous.  One patient thought she was the Queen of England, one guys thought he was George Washington..and so on…Campbell’s character was named Henry Lee, but he thought he was Count Dracula…OMG..Campbell was the littlest, skinniest Dracula I have ever had to pleasure to encounter…Here are a few pics taken on stage..


He may have been small, but when he opened his mouth, his Dracula voice was a booming one!!And check out that slicked back “do”!!


He apparently forgot his coffin and used the floor…He cracked me up!!!

Curtain Call!!! (Look at his skinny little legs!)..

After the play we had to get photos of the Count with all of us, naturally!!

Taylor, his big Sis, and Peyton, his big bro were sooooo proud of Campbell..This is a big deal for him…He use to be very afraid to be noticed and has some sensory issues..For Campbell to begin stepping out of his “comfort zone” and up on the big stage is a huuuuuuge deal!!!


Grama and Papa were extremely proud of our grandson!!!


Group photo!!!!!

Soooo,now that I have bored you with more family stuff, I need to say that Dennis and I are no longer upset at the fact that we won’t be going anywhere this Winter..The fact is, we are so blessed to have our health and family, we are actually getting ready for the holidays with anticipation at being here…NOT, however, the shoveling part of being here..but it is what it is! I even had to go buy a new Christmas tree, since we haven’t been home for quite a few Christmases, our old tree went to Wolff Den about 6 years ago!!
This is our new and improved, slim and “trimmed” Christmas Tree.


I hope everyone had a very wonderful , peaceful  and safe Thanksgiving Day, filled with love and hugs and lots of good food!!!
“Blessed are those that can give without remembering and receive without forgetting”…
                                                                                      ~ unknown 



Monday, November 7, 2016

Such is life…

A bit of a disappointment today..Dennis had his second colonoscopy in 3 months and the Doc was not able to complete the removal of this nasty polyp..We need to go back one more time in February for a 3rd and final colonoscopy. The reason it couldn’t be completely removed yet is because they did so much cauterization at the site, the Doc didn’t want to perforate his colon. This creepy polyp is like a cling on, and the spot where it is located is a very thinning part of his upper colon..Sooooo, it’s going to be a very looooong Winter.

Having said that,I totally understand that health trumps vaccations, and in the grand scheme of things, we are both healthy , happy and able to “tolerate” another Northern Illinois Winter..and yes, I am spoiled…and I do know we are blessed in comparison to others..Enough of my rant…Here are just a few reminders of one of our last Winters home…Feb 2, 2011..

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Not sure why I look so darn happy…You can see the snow blowing across the road out behind me in the distance…

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These were taken 4 days and about 6 more inches later …My trusty Owl got blown off the gas grill on our deck and Dennis heard  him “WHOOOOOING” under the snow…Who???

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A little worse for the wear, he will survive to guard our deck 5 more years..and is still standing guard on our deck grill…I hope he hangs in for yet another year!

So……It  looks like I might have to segue from beach and blue skies, running around in shorts and flip flops to ski caps, boots, mittens and mukluks for my blogs..Hey, I will try to find humor in almost anything..and Old Man Winter isn’t going to get me down….(I might have to wade through the snow drifts to have cocktail hour by our fireplace in the Hiker a time or two,though…)

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boohoo….

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