Day After and a Quiet Saturday 12/26-27/2008

Kim and Sean left early Friday morning and got home safe and sound about 2:30. They had the cable man coming and still had lots of unpacking to do after there move to Tennessee. They love their new place and can't wait to get it all settled. Mom and I just hung out all day and watched TV and took a walk with Muffy and Raggs.
Saturday we went to WalMart and looked at a few things we have to get before we get back on the road again, including a new flat screen LCD HD TV. We have decided to get one and have Camper's World install it along with Dish Network cable so we don't have to worry about where we camp. We are kind of watching the ads in the newspaper for a good sale and we still have lots of stores to check out before we buy one. We came back and Mom went out and got her haircut and I picked up and cleaned. We had Liz, Bob, Gina and Steve over to clean up all the leftovers from Christmas Eve and we succeeded in doing so. We sat and talked till about 10:00 and everybody left. Well time to say until next time we love and miss you all. Mom & Dad


Picture List:1-Raggs saying "finally some peace and quiet".

Christmas Day 12/25/2008

MERRY CHRISTMAS



Well all in all we had a nice Christmas although it seemed strange and somewhat sad not seeing the whole family during this Christmas season. We really enjoyed having Kim and Sean here as without them we would have really been lost and bummed out being alone for the first time on Christmas in 43 years. We had a great breakfast as Mom and I made a strata which included English muffins (first one I have ever seen made form these), sausage, green onions, cranberries and of course eggs. It turned out great and we all liked it. After breakfast we opened presents, Kim and Sean took a ride around MB and Mom and I just hung around. Kim and Sean took us to Horst Gasthaus a German restaurant for dinner which we all enjoyed very much. After dinner we went back to the house and watched TV for awhile. Well time to say until next time we love you all and Merry Christmas to one and all. Mom & Dad


Picture List:1-Muffy & Raggs al set for Santa, 2-Our Christmas tree, 3-Mom, Mary Lee & Ed, 4-Mom & Ed, 5-Mom showing decorations to Mary Lee & Charlie, 6-Mary lee & Charlie, 7-Ed opening presents, 8-Ed dishing up the trifle, 9-Ragss & Dad, 10-Dad opening presents, 11-Liz and Bob and Bob's new friend, 12-Liz opening presents, 13-Kim, Sean, Mary Lee, Ed, Mom, 14,15-Starting to eat, 16,17,18-Some yummies.

MERRY CHRISTMAS 12/25/2008

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO TIM, MELISSA, CODY, LUKE, ERICA, NIKKI, ROSIE, CHRIS, CORINNA, TYLER, ALEXIS, SCOTT, CHERYL, RACHEL, CORY, ANNA BANANA, SEAN AND KIM.



WE LOVE YOU ALL AND WISH YOU MANY HAPPY HOURS WITH YOUR FAMILIES AND WE MISS YOU ALL.


LOVE

MOM & DAD


Picture List:1-Our new #1 Giant fan, 2,3-Muffy & Raggs all set for Santa, 4-Mom and her reindeer.

Christmas Eve 12/24/2008

Well here it is another year almost shot and we are getting ready for our Christmas Eve celebration with Kim & Sean and our good friends Ed, his Mom & Dad Mary Lee & Charlie, Gina & Steve and Liz and Bob. We started to get things ready early as we had a lot to do. We drove to the store first and got the rolls and a few other things first. I came back and got the "roast beast" ready to go in the oven, made cocktail sauce and Mom and I teamed up on making a strata for Christmas morning breakfast. We got all that done and set the tables and picked up, put Muffy and Raggs's ruffles and reindeer ears on, took showers and got dressed and sat down to wait for Kim & Sean. They got here about 4:00, a little later than expected as Sean kind of got stranded in Allentown Airport on Tuesday because his flight back to Knoxville through Detroit was delayed because of snow and he didn't get back to Morristown until 2:30 am, so he slept in a little bit and then they ran into some heavy traffic around Columbia, SC. We sat and caught up on things and our guests arrived about 4:30-4:45. Boy did we have food. We asked everyone to bring a little something and boy did they. WOW!!!!!!!! Liz and Bob brought a huge pasta salad, a huge fresh fruit salad with peach schnappes, 2 bottles of wine and a large rye bread dip. Gina and Steve brought her famous great sausage balls, and an apple pie with some ice cream. Ed, Mary Lee and Charlie brought a GREAT chocolate truffle that was amazing, divinity, miniature pecan pies and butterscothch cookies in the shape of a Christmas tree. We had shrimp, "roast beast", and Mom's potato salad so as you can see we had enough to feed an army. We sat and chatted and had hors d'oeuvre's and some beer and wine. We ate about 6:30 as the "roast Beast came out great and everybody seemed to enjoy the variety we had and if you went away hungry it was your own fault. After dinner we got picked up and it seemed as if everyone had brought little gifts for each other so we exchanged them. I got a pair of long oven mitts for deep frying, a bag of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, a large variety box of Beers from Around the World and Mom got a beautiful Tweety Bird sweatshirt and a gift pail with wine, cheeses, frit tea and crackers in it and a potato sack. We also got a gift card from Ed which was very nice of him to do. Mary Lee does beautiful embroidery work and when they came down to visit Ed she brought her machine and did potato sacks for everyone and also corn bags. Now your probably asking what are potato sacks? They are canvas bags that you put potatoes in....hahahaha.......well they are then you put them in the microwave for 4 minutes and it cooks the potato.....see I told you they were potato sacks. Now to corn bags......they are also canvas with corn in them and you use them to put in the microwave or freezer to make them hot or cold and you can use them for muscle aches or sore joints or whatever may hurt you. We had one that both Mom and I used on our backs when they were hurting so badly and they are GREAT. After opening gifts we had dessert and WOW again, it was fabulous. Everything that everyone had brought tasted so yummy and of course it was all non fattening. We sat around and chatted for awhile and everybody left about 10:00 and we watched TV for awhile and I went to bed as I was pooped. We would first like to thank Kim and Sean for making the drive from Tennessee to be with us on Christmas as it made seeing the rest of our family a little easier as this is the first year ever we have not seen them during the holidays. Next we would like to thank our good friends Ed, Mary Lee, Charlie, Liz, Bob, Gina and Steve for sharing Christmas Eve with us and again that also helped make it a little easier not seeing our children and grandchildren. Thank you everyone for being with us and making it a GREAT Christmas Eve. Love to you all and especially to our boys and their families. LOVE Mom & Dad


Picture List:1-Ed & Sean, 2-Ed, Sean, Mom & Kim, 3-Ed, Mom, Gina, 4-Mom & Liz with their reindeer antlers thanks to Gina, 5-Mary Lee & Charlie, 6-Liz & Bob, 7-Kim & Ed, 8-Gina, Steve and Sean, 9-Gina (Santa) coming in with presents, 10-Gina & Steve.

Doctor's Visit for Another Shot & Getting Ready for Christmas 12/22-23/2008

Monday morning bright and early we headed out to the doctor's office for Mom to get her second in a series of 3 shots for her back. All went well compared to last time as she had the shot and was actually able to walk out of the doctor's office on her own. She felt pretty good at the moment as the only thing that really hurt was the injection site. She did say the doctor wants her to start physical therapy immediately, if not sooner, for her foot drop as he is afraid the muscle in her leg is withering, not good news. He also is setting up a consultation with a surgeon to talk over her options should the PT and the 3rd shot don't work. He was talking about scraping, removing and fusing bones, something Mom doesn't even want to think about. We stopped and did a few errands at the store and were on our way back to the house to finish our Christmas baking. We finished that had lunch, watched TV for awhile, took a short walk and by that time it was dinner time and we joined Ed, Mary Lee, Charlie, Liz and Bob at Sticky Fingers to eat and had a great time and great food.
Tuesday I went and did my Christmas shopping and after I got back Mom went out and did a couple of things she had left to do. We don't really usually exchange gifts but this year we decided to just get each other a few small things as we hope to get a new HDTV and Dish Network for the RV after Christmas when the TV's all go on sale. I wrapped Mom's presents and then watched some TV, took a walk with Muffy & Raggs and had lunch. Mom got back and we did our cookie tins for this year and unfortunately there were a lot less then there usually are. We had dinner and went out to Myra and Mark's with their cookies and vissited for awhile and came back home. Well that's about it for now so we will say until tomorrow Christmas Eve we love and miss you all. Mom & Dad

Nursery Visit, Baking and More Baking....Giants Win 12/19-21/2008

Friday Mom wanted to visit the nursery at Grand Strand Hospital where she volunteers so she could wish all the nurses a Merry Christmas. I drove her up and dropped her off and she visited for about 30 minutes and saw everybody she wanted to. I know Mom really misses being able to volunteer in the nursery and it breaks her heart not to be able to because of her back. Well hopefully she will be able to get back there before we leave. After we left there we did a few errands we had to and drove back to the house. The weather has been lovely so we took a walk over to the beach with Muffy and Raggs and came back and it was time for dinner.
Saturday we had to run an errand down to Coastal Mall and pick something up so we did a cache after we had finished which was in a light post outside a vitamin shoppe. After that we stopped at Camping World to talk to them about putting a new HD TV in the motor home and also putting in Dish Network so we wouldn't have to rely on cable TV in the campgrounds we stop at. Then we drove back to the house and I baked cookies and Mom then went out and drove for the first time in ages down to WalMart to pick up a few things she wanted to get. She has just about weened herself off the percoset, which is great, and she says she is feeling better especially if she stays somewhat active. She made it back without incident and said she felt pretty good. We had hamburgs for dinner and watched TV for awhile.
Sunday was cookie frosting day so Mom and I did that which took about and hour and a half. After that Mom mixed up a batch of new cookies she has been wanting to try and she had to let them refrigerate for awhile before she could bake them. She went out for a walk over to the ocean and sat on a deck for awhile and watched the ocean seeing as the doctor has told her she shouldn't walk in the soft sand. He said that is about the worst thing you can do for a bad back. I was watching NFL football when she came back so she baked her cookies and then sacked out on the couch for awhile as she was tired. We ate dinner and I watched the Giants-Panthers game, which of course the Giants won in OT and clinched home field advantage for the playoffs. It was well past my bedtime so I turned in at about 11:30. Well time to say until next time and we love and miss you all. Mom & Dad


Picture List:1,2 Mom frosting cookies, 3,4,5-Sunrise Saturday 12/20/2008.

NFL, Caching and Baking 12/14-18/2008

Sunday Mom and I went grocery shopping in the morning and ran a few other errands. We had a very sick Raggs this morning as he was vomiting all morning so I took him to the emergency room about noon. They thought he might have a touch of pancreatitis so they gave him a shot of antibiotics and some fluid under the skin so he didn't get dehydrated, he didn't like that at all either. I brought him home and he slept most of the day next to me. Seeing as it was NFL day I watched 2 early games and then watched the Giants stink the joint out against the Cowboys. Boy that sure was a disappointment especially when I stayed up way past my bed time to watch it. Raggs seemed a little better when we went to bed and he did go out and pee.
Monday I took Raggs over to our regular vet and she checked him out and gave us some more medicine for the vomiting if we needed it. He seemed a lot better and did eat a little chicken and rice when we got home. We spent the rest of the day around the house and went to dinner at Oscar's with Ed, Mary Lee, Charlie, Liz, Bob, Steve and Gina. We had great sandwiches and home cut fries.
Tuesday Raggs was a lot better so we went out and did the last of our Christmas shopping and picked up a few things we needed at the store for the week. Before we went out I did my annual Christmas cookie making although I am saddened that I didn't have to make as many this year seeing as we aren't going up north for the holidays and won't see any of the kids who look forward to the cookies every year....very sad. We spent the rest of the afternoon wrapping and watching TV.
Wednesday we decided to go out caching as Mom felt better and was able to ride a short distance. We only did 6 caches as I didn't want Mom to overdo it. They weren't really anything special as they were just easy hides that Mom could walk to that weren't far from the car. On the way home we stopped and got subs from Jersey Mike's and they were great for lunch. We spent the rest of the day doing our logs and getting ready to bake on Thursday.
Thursday was baking day at the Faulkner's. Mom decided she wanted to bake some different varieties of cookies this year. She had found 3 recipes in one of her magazines so we started at about 9:00 and finished it up about 3:00. We had fun doing it together as Mom did some and then sat and rested her back and then did a little more. After we were done I was online and found 3 more recipes that we are going to try maybe on Monday as I have to bake my cut out cookies on Saturday or Sunday. It gives her something to do as she has wanted to get up and move a little more as her back is feeling somewhat better. She has cut down on the percoset almost entirely and only takes them if her back is really bad. It felt pretty good after caching and after the baking so we are keeping our fingers crossed. She has to go for her second of three shots on Monday too. Raggs is feeling a lot better now as he is eating, playing and ready to go in the car again.
Well that's about all for now so we will say until next time we love and miss you all and are so sorry we can't make the trip north to see everybody during Christmas but our hearts will be with you even though we aren't. Mom & Dad


Picture List:1,2-All of us at Oscars with our friend Stan, 3-Mom and Dad4-Liz and Bob, 5-Ed, Gina and Steve 6,7-Muffy and Raggs watching for Mom at Wal Mart, 8-Mary Lee visiting her son Ed at a seafood restaurant the first night after getting here, 9-Sand crabs at Heritage Shores Nature Park.

Rainy Day, Mom's Shot, and A Quiet Saturday 12/11-13/2008

Thursday was a rainy day so we didn't do to much all day. We went to the store to pick a few things up that we needed and then spent the rest of the day king of vegging out. Oh I did forget Mom took a fall in the morning when she got up out of bed. She tripped someway coming out of the bedroom and fell in the hallway and skinned her nose up and got a couple of bruises on her arm and side. She thinks it was the percoset and the other nerve medicine that she is taking as one of the side effects is making you dizzy. I told her when she gets up she has to sit on the bed for a few minutes to get her bearings from now on. During the night we had a bad rainstorm and very heavy winds that was blowing sand from the beach in our windows and under the door so I had a cleanup to do in the morning.
Friday after I cleaned up the sand I went for a walk at Heritage Shores Nature Park and then came back and got ready to take Mom to get her shot. We got to the doctor's about 2:15 and filled out all the paper work and then waited till 4:00 until he took Mom in. I waited in the car and about 5:00 they wheeled Mom out in a wheelchair to get into the car. I drove up to the door and the nurse proceded to open the door, before I had a chance to get out and try and help Mom into the car and it didn't work as Mom fell flat on the ground as she didn't have any feeling in either leg from the shots. Well I got her up and into the car someway and off we went for home, wondering how we were going to get her into the house when we got there. On the way home she told me that the doctor told her that her spine area and the discs that were bulging were quite inflamed so he had to give her double the dose of steroid and cortizone. Well we did manage as she wrapped her arms around my neck and I pulled her up and she back up the stairs into a chair I had brought out that had wheels on it and I rolled her into the house and got her on the couch. Meanwhile before we had left I noticed all the sand that the heavy winds, the night before, had left on the RV and I had started to wash it off with the hose but didn't get done so I went out and finished that just as it was getting dark. After I got that done I went out and started the RV and went down to fill it with gas.......YIPEEEEEE only $98.00 to fill it up for 62 gallons.......quite a difference from the last time when we paid $250.00 for 60 gallons. Strange thing happened in the afternoon when we drove to the doctor's we noticed gas was down to $1.50.9 a gallon at most stations along RT 17 and when we came back gas had jumped to anywhere from $1.62.9 to $1.65.9 so that is why we decided to fill up the RV as when we came back through Cherry Grove the stations there were still only $1.53.9 and sure enough when we went out Saturday morning it had jumped to $1.62.9 at those stations. Strange and we wondered why. Mom was getting some of the feeling back in her legs when I got home so she went in and changed and we ate dinner and watched TV.
Saturday when Mom got up she said she felt a lot better as far as the pain was concerned so I took her out to Ed's house so she could do the wash and help Ed and Myra decorate Ed's Christmas tree. She didn't do much decorating as she just sat and "supervised". I just dropped her off at Ed's and came back to the house as I had to finish washing the sand off the RV as I missed some spots in the dark last night and I had a few more decorations to put up around the house. Mom did do the wash and Ed brought her home about 4:00 and we had dinner and watched TV for awhile. Well thats about all for now so we will say until next time we love and miss you all. Mom & Dad


Picture List:1-Mom's nose after she fell on Thursday morning, 2,3,4,5,6,7,8-Dark skies and high surf on Friday and Saturday morning.