Mama Faced Her Fear

Mama has had a big box of pictures for over 26 years. The thought of organizing it stressed her out. Miss Lori at What Remains Now has been talking about putting her pictures in a scrapbook and it just makes Mama feel faint thinking about it. Mama would love to do a scrapbook of our HUGE adventure, but, you guessed it, it stresses her out thinking about it.  Well, Mama finally had to face her fear with the pictures.  She had been planning on putting her pictures in storage, but was worried how they would do. She knew she had to take them out of that box.

The dreaded box of pictures.

Albums full of pictures.

 Mama started looking for a container to put the pictures in. She read that it needed to be acid free.  She found a container on Amazon that looked perfect. She ordered it. It arrived today.

This container holds 1,200 pictures.

It has 12 compartments that hold 100 photos each!

Mama started sorting the photos. She came up with pets, vacations, wedding, family, very old photos and her and Dad. 

Scout was nervous during the photo sorting.  She whined a lot.

Three and a half hours later and Mama is done!

Photos sorted and organized!

Cool, don't you think!

This really would be a great way to organize your photos if you did scrapbooking. 

Mama's next stressful task is going through all her tax records and figuring out what she needs to take with her.  YIKES!

Tomorrow is a special day for us.  We are going to meet two greyhounds that many of you know through their blog.  One of them is my half sister.  We look nothing alike. I look like our Dad and she doesn't. BOL

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Thinks Photographs Smell Strange

We Have Another BIG Announcement

The folks made a BIG decision while we were living on the road, but just announced it to the family today.  We are going to sell our house. The house became a burden for us while we were traveling. There was the constant worry that it was okay. The Grandfolks checked in on it, but that is a lot to ask of them. We hired my skin cousin to cut the grass, but our lawnmower broke the first time he used it, so then the Grandfolks had to bring theirs over for him to use each time.  A storm caused some damage to a tree, so that had to be handled.  I think it was on that day that Mama told Dad she thought they should sell. Dad said he had been thinking the same thing.  We are spending about $3,000 in taxes and insurance and it seems silly to have an empty house. We don't want to rent it out because that would be more work and worry for us while we are on the road.

What will we do next winter?  Well, if Dad is sent someplace cold, we will take the motor home to a warm location and spend the winter there. If we have to be away from Dad, we would like to be someplace warm. Houston's average temps in the winter are in the 60's and that is fine with us.

As soon as we got home, Mama spoke with the realtor we used to sell the other the house and buy this one.  She told him that there was a 10% chance it would go on the market in November, but most likely it would be February. Well, all of that changed this week.  The house will go on the market the week of Thanksgiving!  As you know, Mama has been purging and painting like crazy.  She has three weeks to have all our personal items gone and she is making good progress. We are selling our house furnished and if the buyers don't want it furnished, our agent will handle getting rid of the furniture. We worked with him for over a year previously and have full trust in him. We will not be coming back and he says that is not a problem. He has handled sales like this before. Dad will be very busy when he gets home. He will have two weeks to put up trim, doors, sell his truck, ATV and a few other items. It will be crazy, but once we reach Houston, we will rest.

Today, Mama had a Jeep full of items to deliver to Goodwill, the consignment shop and Aunt Pam. She gave Aunt Pam her favorite Thanksgiving platter as well as Christmas dishes, cookie plates and things like that. Mama said she was happy to keep those things in the family.

Mama is keeping only a few items that will need to go in storage. She really didn't want to put anything in storage, but since Dad said he had a few items he didn't want to get rid of, she chose a few things to keep.  She is keeping Christmas ornaments that belonged to her grandparents  (They are big silver balls that are heavy), her Dad's mantel clock, a China cabinet that Dad's Grandparents gave his Mom and a few of  Dad's Grandmother's things.  Mama is also keeping her Kitchen Aid mixer and sewing machine.  Dad said she could keep whatever fits in the China cabinet, so she has a few ceramic pieces that she has had for many years.  Mama is taking her wedding album with her.  She hasn't decided if she wants to keep her high school yearbooks.  Mama debated on a few other items, but she put them out on the counter for a few days and decided she didn't need them. 

Scout says that all this purging makes her nervous.  I think it is fun!  I think just about everything is fun though.

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Will Have A Texas Address Soon

Oh, Boy!

We found out some very exciting news tonight!

 It appears that our HUGE adventure is going to start up again!

 Are you listening to me?

 Yep, we just got word that after Thanksgiving, we will be headed out again!

 He is being sent to Houston for three months!  The folks talked about it and decided that even though they wanted to save money by us staying here through the winter months, that it was more important that we were all together. 

I guess things could still change, but for now, we are preparing for Houston. We will be in a different part of town this time, so we will be at a different RV park. There is a lot to do to get ready such as doctor visits, vet visits, home repairs and other things that we will tell you about later. Mama had two days to rest and now she has to get back to work!  She is already drooling thinking about her favorite restaurants in Houston.  BOL!

Scout,
The Greyhound Who Broke The Big News This Time

Painting And Purging Continues

Our title today doesn't sound good, does it?  LOL   Sunday, Mama started painting the trim for the bedrooms.  She had it almost completed, but then the Grand Folks brought more over.  Mama is taking a break for a few days from her painting.  Her back is a little sore from all the lifting and bending over.

Yesterday, she took more things to Goodwill.  Today, she took more things to the consignment shop.  She has another appointment for later in the week with the consignment shop and that may be it for a while.

She ordered a few books for our next adventure from Amazon and they arrived yesterday.  She loves Amazon because you can buy used books that are in great condition.  She has a Kindle, but she wanted a real copy of the travel books.  The first book is the National Geographic Guide to National Parks of the United States.  It seems to have a lot of useful information.  The second book is Watch It Made In The U.S.A.  This book is a guide to to the best factory tours and company museums.  This would have come in handy on our last HUGE adventure.  Mama is very happy with both of the books.

Scout and I have just been hanging out watching Mama box things up. We have had a few good runs in the yard.  Mama says we are being very good for her.  I spend as much time as possible on the deck watching over my kingdom.

The fall colors are really pretty here.  Here are a few from our yard. There are prettier colors elsewhere, but we don't always have our camera with us.  Maybe we will take a ride later this week and get better photos.

 

 

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Is Staying On His Toes So He Doesn't Get Purged!  BOL

Meet & Greet 10/13

We have been sleeping late the past few days. When we were in Illinois and Indiana we had to get up at 4 a.m. because Dad had to ride the train. Yesterday, we woke up at 6 a.m. with Mama screaming "IT'S TRASH DAY!  WE CAN'T BE LATE!" She had a lot of trash to put out since we are becoming minimalist. There are just some things that Goodwill doesn't want.  What?  We can't even remember what she put out there, but she had six bags full of trash. She was a little nervous when the trash man came and he sat there for a while. We think he was making sure that we were on his list of stops again. Another company stopped first, but then they realized we weren't on their list.  Anyway, our trash guy took all our trash and Mama was happy.

Mama then took some things to the consignment store.  She is trying to sell her crystal and Dad's beer steins.  They were surprised that our glassware was indeed real crystal.  She has an appointment to take in other items next week.  They prefer appointments and since we are out of their "district", she can bring in 25 items at a time.  Mama doesn't think she will get much for her items, but it is easier than trying to sell them on Ebay.  She really hates just donating those items. We don't think minimalist have crystal and beer steins. LOL 

After Mama got home, she surprised us by taking us to the park.  She wanted us to practice on our ramp.  I do fine with the ramp, but Scout is not so sure about it. We walked around the park and had a lot of fun sniffing.

Today, we woke up at 7 a.m.   Mama informed us that we were going to a meet and greet. We got to see our friends from  Greyhound Companions of Missouri.  Mama was a little nervous because Dad said "You are going to take both of them?"  She hadn't really thought it would be a problem since she walked us all over while we traveled.   We did fine except for my whining while we drove there. I was too tired to whine on the way home. I whine when I am excited, so deal with it!

Want to see some exciting photos from the meet and greet?  Are you sure you are ready?

Scout with her tongue stuck to the floor.

Me

Scout

 Mama should have taken photos of the other dogs. She is bad. 

After we got home, we took a nap.  Meet and greets are exhausting!

Me relaxing by my door.

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Is Exhausted From Meeting And Greeting