Lazy day

Hi,

Let me give you an update on Ritha, and I will give her the message you sent Jennifer. She has been getting lots of prayers.

She called today and sounded the best I have heard her since the accident. Her and Larry were going out for dinner. Until today she hasn't even felt like getting out. It was nice to hear her voice back to normal. 

I have been looking on Craiglist for some patio furniture. I am trying to put together our back porch. I found a beautiful table and chairs or at least it was in the picture. We headed out to look at it in Fayetteville and they called me to say it sold. Then we found a wicker rocker in Raleigh. Beautiful and looks great on the porch. I am now trying to find a seetee, couple more chairs and table. It is driving me crazy. I am not very good a decorating but I will do the best I can. Gary wasn't crazy about wicker until we bought the chair now that is all he wants.

Today we just hung around the house. Gary mowed the lawn and met some folks at the building to  get a price on sealing the parking lot. I did laundry and keep checking for wicker furniture.

Yesterday I went to work. Only stayed 2 and ahalf hours. Tomorrow I am going to a meeting in Raleigh. The Post Master General will speak. How exciting! yea right. 

I am working on a project and think that will be the end when I finish. This will take a while probably some time next year.

So off to bed so I will be ready for tomorrow.

good night.

Not over yet

Things didn't go as planned. I wanted to get a picture of the kids and my sister before I ended the blog. I managed to get one of my sister but not the kids.

A couple days after we returned Ritha (sister) got her hand caught in a machine at work. She hurt it pretty bad. The took her by ambulance to the local hospital then moved her to Duke in Durham about an hour and a half away. She lost the top of her left hand, and yes she is left handed. They have worked on it and have her in a cast. During this time we spent a lot of time at the hospital with her. I fixed her dinner one night and she spent a few hours with us here yesterday. There has been talk that she will be out of work for 3 months but I don't think we will know for sure for another 3 weeks after they take off the cast. Then they should be able to do a skin graph. 

As for my healthy cooking. I pulled a cookbook out I had ordered. Discovered I need a beginner's class. That book is over my head. Has ingredients I have never heard of before. I did make a killer vegetarian lasagna yesterday! My own recipe using basic ingredients. 

As for my pictures, I have one of Ritha in her cast. Last Sunday we went to Timmy's and Kim's for dinner. Glenn, Lisa and the kids were there. I was prepared and took my camera. Left it in the car and planned to get it out sometime after we ate. Just so happened that we had a package there, my fountain we bought on the trip and had shipped to Timmy's place.It was in a large box weighting about 85 lbs. Gary took the car home to get the truck and the camera was in the car so didn't get the picture.

 While we were there I gave the kids the mirrors Nancy and Jr had made them, they were surprised and loved them. Yes I made them wait a week after we got home before I gave it to them.

Our home is still work in progress. I had been looking for an antique makeup vanity for the bedroom. On our trip we hit several antique stores. After we got home we went to Cameron NC a antique town and found just what I was looking for. The man said he believed it was build in the 40's. I think 50's, but it doesn't matter I really like it.

We have hung a few pictures and scones on the wall. Gary hung some shelves in the laundry room and a  casing  around the bathroom door.

I am looking for some outdoor furniture. I want good, strong, stylish, like new furniture at a low price. Haven't been able to find that yet. We went today to the Raleigh Fairground. They have a huge flee market. No luck. 

So I will keep this thing going for a while. I have heard that some are still checking and enjoy reading. They feel that this is a great communication tool. So we will see how it goes.

Oh! I forgot to mention that I am going back to work part time of course on Monday. There is a project I can work on. I haven't decided how many hours per week or how long I will keep doing this. We will see how it goes. 

See you in a couple of days

We are home!

Wow, this is hard to believe. We have completed our trip and are sitting in our own home. I will say it was a great sight to see when we walked in the house. I told Gary I forgot how nice our home looked. We were able to get a good night sleep on our new mattress that arrived the day before we left.  My last post was in DC and the next morning on Sunday we headed back home. We arrived early afternoon then  Kim and Tim came by to visit. Glenn and Lisa were on their back from Alabama. We then went over to Kim and Tim's to pick up our boxer from them. I expected her to go crazy when she saw us. Jumping around running back in forth between me and Gary. What we got was "oh look who is home". She was happy to see us but not what we expected.

I haven't talked with Ethan and Payton yet. I don't think they were expecting us back so soon. They have become very close with Bailey.

So now what? 

Friday we plan to have everyone over and take a photo to add to the blog. Then I will try to save it and if possible make a book. Some of the pictures I will try to enlarge and hang in the house. 

We have been asked what was our favorite place and what we liked the most. We can say Colorado was our favorite state. It is very beautiful. Visiting our family took the top of the list of what we enjoyed the most. We drove 15300 miles and never saw an accident. Never felt unsafe and never ran in to bad people. We talked with many a stranger. We discovered  we live in a beautiful, friendly country. We felt at home everywhere we went. 

Will this be the end of my blog? After Friday it will be the end of the trip blog but I am going to take up healthy cooking and we are working on completing our home so I may blog about that. Not sure yet. So thanks for going along with us on our trip, and for the comments and e-mails.

Karen and Gary.

Good bye New York/Good bye Washington

I wasn't able to post yesterday due to poor signal. 

We were not able to enjoy New York as we planned. We woke up to a steady rain with no end in sight. Since we would need to walk about 2 blocks to catch the bus to take us to Manhattan and once there the tour bus we bought tickets for didn't have a top and even if we just wanted to take in a show we needed to stand in line at 3:00 in the rain. So we packed our bags and headed out. We drove about an hour from Washington DC before we got a room. This morning we went into town and headed for the Smithsonian. We visited 7 of them. Our legs and feet were killing us. As Gary said " we did it all on a hot dog and ice cream bar". We found them very  interesting and could have spent another day looking around and still not seen all of it. There was  one with an a lot of Navy stuff. Gary was able to show me what he did when he was in the Navy.  They had a miniature aircraft carrier with all the details.We spent a lot of time reminiscing and it was nice to see close up what he did. 

I wanted to go to Arlington National Cemetery and see the changing of the guards. We were both so tired but decided to head out there anyway. We had not listed to the news all day and knew Senator Kennedy's funeral was today but had forgotten about it.  When we crossed the Memorial Bridge and headed down the street filled with people and the police directed us off an exit I knew we were just ahead of the funeral procession. And we were the last car they let through. So we parked on the grass and headed back to wait for him. First a few SUV's came flying by then we had to wait about a half hour for the  procession. They came by very slow and waved to us through the car windows. The only one we recognized  was John Kerry. So that made for an interesting day.

I guess it goes without saying but we were not able to go into the cemetery.

A side note for my brothers and sisters:

Joyce Hillbig called me yesterday to let me know Milford ( Lofton's brother)was not doing well and his time was short. She called back today to let me know he passed away this morning. She wanted us to know. The funeral will not be until next Saturday she didn't go into detail why. She will e-mail the information and I will forwarded it on to everyone.. 

Rosie (Milfords wife) is doing well along with Joyce and her father. 

New York City

We made it.. We are staying in Carlstadt NJ and taking the bus to NY. It is about a 17 minute ride.  We went over today about 2:00 and bought tickets for the tour bus. We can ride for 48 hours and get on and off as much as we want and get a tour guide along the way. We went to the empire state building and Rockefeller Center.

The place is still crazy as can be. As soon as we stepped of the bus the commotion started. We heard the sirens and 10 to 12 police came flying by. When we were leaving the Empire State Building there was a man in the revolving door and other men trying to keep him there. The glass was broken. Not sure what happened but everyone on the inside and out was watching. 

We had dinner at a restaurant with a Forrest Gump theme. We left at 9 pm and there was a long line waiting to get in. You could tell the town wasn't ready to close up anytime soon. 

The bus terminal is extremely  large but we managed to find our way back.

We will take in a play tomorrow. They will start selling tickets at 3:00  for the 8:00 show. We are thinking about Hair or Momma Mia. If we want to be on the Today show we need to be at the Rockefeller Center around 6 am. The bus starts at 6 so we may need to take a taxi. It is late now so if they are taping on Saturday we will try to make it to that one. I am going to the web site after I finish here.

 

On our way to New York...I think

We stayed in Corning NY last night and left for New Jersey. We refuses to drive in NY so we need to stay as close as we can. 

Not long after we left this morning. we saw a sign for Seneca Lake and I remember there was an Amish Country Store I had seen in a brochure.  So we made a detour. We ended up going a bit out of the way, maybe an hour but we did find the store. It was not as big as advertised. On the brochure it had a picture of the barn and said "Nostalgia, history ,old fashion shopping, you'll find it all on this 220 acre working dairy farm". So we expected the store to be in the large barn but it was in the house. Still a lot to look at and we ended up with a very nice and unusual clock along with some jam, maple syrup and scented mats. 

 That said we are not where we expected to be tonight. We are not even sure we are heading in the right direction because we are in Pennsylvania in the Pocono Mountains. But that is the way the car told us to go...

So tomorrow if all goes well we will be in or near New York City. We are going to try to get on the Good Morning Show or the Today Show. I have also requested tickets to Rachel Ray Show. 

Lisa  (Glenn's wife) lost her grandmother yesterday. They were very close and the news has been hard on her. Please keep her in your thoughts and prayers through this time. 

Love you all!

Additional Pictures

Pictures that go with blog below. 

Plan to be in New York New York tomorrow. (Wednesday)

Norma,Big Mike, Not so big Mike and Chat(friend of family) 







Jessie,Colleen,Steve

Michigan and Niagara Falls

Top-John and Violet (mom&dad)-Kathy,John,Violet,Gary,Carolyn(parents&sisters)
Next-Gary,Mike,Sandy,Jennifer(Son, daughter,and their aunt)


Sunday we hated to leave Carolyn's but it was time to move on. Mom and Dad had the class reunion to attend and we would love to hear how that turned out. If you get a chance tell us all about it.

We headed to "Aunt Sandy's" That is where we meet Jennifer, Mike (daughter and son)and their aunt. We went to Ann Arbor for lunch. All decided we wanted to go somewhere we had never been before and went into an Latin place right in front of where we parked. It was a small  nice place. We all ordered something different from breakfast to who knows what. All I know is my lunch looked like two oversized shrimp but was a pastry stuffed with hamburger. Jennifer ordered a burrito the size of a small dog. Not sure what the others had. As ordered; the food, company and conversation was wonderful. From there we headed back to Sandy's for more visiting. It was wonderful seeing everyone again.

We then headed to Mike's and Norma's (my brother and sister-in-law). Mike didn't get off work until 11:00 pm so Gary, Norma and I watched a good movie and just layed around. Looks like their home may have tuned into an animal rescue. They have their two dogs and 2 peach face love birds that are part of the family. They are also nursing a squirrel that has not even opened its eyes  yet and is feeding from a bottle. The rabbit is also still on the bottle. I understand they will go back into the wild once they are ready. 

Monday we left Mikes for Steve and Colleens. (another brother and sister-in-law.) We visited at their home where Colleen showed us some items she won first and second place ribbons at a fair. She takes photos that look wonderful but my favorites are the rocks she paints as animals. there is one as an elephant and I hope to own it one day (hehe). She always has been talented and is just getting better. Steve is getting pretty involved in the politics with this health care stuff. He seems to be more up on what is going on than anyone else we have talked to. 

We all went to lunch at Cracker Barrel with their grandson Jessie. Again great company and conversation.

We left Steve's to head to Niagara Falls. We made it to London Ont,. before we stopped for a room. We saw the largest meteor fall from the sky! It was a large glowing ball with a long tail behind it. I thought it hit the earth! The news said last night and tonight there would be meteor showers. 

This morning we made it to Niagara Falls. Tons of people. It is really built up on the Canada side. We walked the walk by the falls then went into the Heresy store and headed out. We were there a few hours. The falls are still as beautiful as ever.

We are now about 3 hours from New York, NY. The drive through upper NY was beautiful. We had been told it was nice up here and that is true.  A mountainous drive. 

So we are in the room eating pizza and trying to catch up this blog. I will try not to go so long without posting. So much is happening everyday and I don't want to leave anything out.

 

Pot luck at Carolyn and Keith

Sheba,Randall (Carolyn's and Keith's dogs- "ridge backs")


Jason,Kim (nephew & girlfriend)

                                                                                                                   
Front row left to right: Samantha Whittaker(niece) Carolyn Whittaker(sister)Sybil Lidster(aunt)Pearl Simons (aunt) Violet McFadder(mom) Kathy Miller (sister) Dale Lidster(uncle)

Second row left to right: Margot Daugherty(cousin)Ella Henning(cousin)Norma Rimbold(cousin)Cora Lauff(aunt)Viola Lidster(aunt)Jennifer Cuik (daughter)Marcy Banks(aunt)Jean Hess (cousin)Floyd Lidster(uncle) Karen McFadden(wonderful loving wife)

Last row: Eugene Lidster(cousin) Anne Lidster (cousin) Jeanine Panter (niece) Glenn Panter (nephew) Keith Whittaker(brother-in-law) John McFadden(dad) Darren Cuik (son-in-law) Gary ( wonderful loving husband and star of the show)

We had the best day yesterday. All of Gary's family came over here to Carolyn's for a pot luck. His parents are in from Florida, so we were able to visit them twice on this vacation. Keith (Carolyn's husband) started a bomb fire in the back yard so we all hung out there. We were looking for some so-mores but didn't have what was needed for it or at least we didn't think we did. Samantha (Carolyn's granddaughter) improvised with oreo cookies and peanut butter. 

We had great food and conversation. Today Gary's mother has a class reunion to go to with his dad. Sisters Kathy and Carolyn are going shopping while they are there. We are going to meet son Mike for lunch and maybe his Aunt Sandy. I need to contact my family to set up times to visit them. I haven't done that yet.