WHEW!!!!!

Well, “the party’s over”, so to speak.  We had a target date of March 28th to be home.  We left Clear Springs CG in Texarkana Wed, March 26th at 7AM and pulled into Lake Wappapello, MO about 2PM. To say it was cold is not entirely true…IT WAS DARN COLD AND DARN WINDY!!  We left there the next morning with the intentions of driving to Ramsey Lake in Central Illinois, but the wind was out of the South and pushing us Northward..Once through St. Louis we decided to go all the way to Sandwich..This turned out to be a really good idea because later that day some severe weather cropped up right where we had passed…We arrived home at 2PM..(South wind was a GOOD thing!)

When we pulled into the drive, Den pulled the GMC right up into a snow drift leading to the camper pad…This made it much easier to unload, being closer to our back door. I HATE unloading the camper..I have absolutely NO sense of humor doing it and every year I think we take more stuff we don’t need! We left the Hiker in the drive for 3 full days to allow the rest of that snow drift to melt and finally pulled the Hiker over to the camper pad early Sunday AM (after a heavy frost so the ground was more solid).

It is a bittersweet thing, this being home stuff. I missed some things for sure…I missed family, of course. I missed long hot showers, my dishwasher, garbage pickup, a real size oven, “room to roam” about the house.. and my Native American decor.  Also, our niece has had some MAJOR health issues that began in January. We heard about it, but she insisted we did NOT come home, that she was getting the treatments she needed and there wasn’t a thing we could do. In her exact words, “ I better not see your asses back here in Illinois till April 1st!”…So, .. Kiddo, we waited almost until April 1st, but here we are..And the most important thing I am really glad for is that we are back for her!!

We have a few new additions to our family toO.. Our nephew and his wife just got a new Chocolate Lab puppy…..

This is Cadbury (like the chocolate candy) …and if you look close he has dog slobber on him. This is because he has an older brother…

…obviously NOT a real brother, but another dog at the house.. This is Paddy, a Bull Mastiff…and he DOES slobber. Den says Paddy looks like he swallowed a tennis shoe most of the time…(You get the picture..laces hanging out of each side of his mouth  that drip!)

Cadbury has LOTS of new friends..cats, dogs and horses at his new home.. Oh, and here is the best part of the story…They surprised our niece (his sister) with Cadbury’s sister…

Meet Molly Angel..7 weeks old and already a model..She has a wonderful new home with our niece and her hubby. (they had to put their 12 year old Lab down this last February).

  

Oh, Oh,….No, Dennis…Molly already has a home…..

Their will be no dog loved more than by our niece and her hubby…couldn’t come at a better time!!

Also….Our son, Kelly, and his wife, Cindy, got TWO new dogs while we were gallivanting all over Texas this Winter.  You may remember that they had adopted a rescue dog last fall, a German Shepard  named Guinness.   Alas,  as it turned out, Guinness was not a dog to be around kids, and they had to return him. They decided to get 2 puppies the same age to raise together…

Here we have Finley, a Silky Terrier, on the left…and Murphy, a Weimaraner, on the right.  We haven’t met these 2 adorable coverdogs, but we hope to tomorrow,

As you can see, it has been a very Canine Crew kind of homecoming…We are finally getting everything settled in the house Terrie brought our 3 Heiser grandkids  here today for a visit.…This weekend Den and I are going to Zionsville, IN for our youngest grandchild, Maddox, 3rd birthday..Rest assured I will post pics of the birthday boy and his brother, Aiden.. We haven’t seen them since last November…WHEW! I am sure getting my kid/dog  fix this week!! LOVE IT!!

“I have found that when you are deeply troubled, there are things you get from the silent devoted companionship of a dog that you can get from no other source.”   ~ Doris Day