Buckhorn Creek, Lake O' The Pines, Jefferson, TX
We are safely ensconced in our Hiker at North Abutment Campground, Grenada Lake, MS..We like this spot, and usually end up here on the way to and from Florida…
Sunrise from our camper…
We are all decked up for Christmas…and loving the peace and quiet here…
I promise I will post more photos later…Dennis and I are “decompressing” for this first few days..Love this place.
This last weekend we had a mini Cave-A-Palooza at our house. The Wolffs came in from Zionsville. We had planned to drive to Kaneland High School to see our granddaughter, Taylor, perform in Romeo and Juliet..Well…it started sleeting and then snowing early Saturday morning and by noon, the wind had picked up and it was snowing sideways…We left our house at 1PM to be at the school by two. Normally this takes 1/2 hour , but the weather was bad. Ter drove their Ford Expedition with her boys, Peyton and Campbell, plus Den and I. Chris, John and their boys followed us in their car..
Should have taken it as a sign when Ter turned the corner to head out of town and she slid around. that scared her, so she asked Den to drive. Long story short, white out conditions, blowing and drifting snow..AND a Com Ed trucks on other side of road, where someone had snapped off a pole earlier.. Due to that, Den tried to hug the right edge as best he could… You couldn’t even see the edge of the road, or the culvert that happened to be there..The next thing we knew, Dennis said “Hang on!”…and we ended up in the ditch. We took quite a ride..Luckily, John and Chris were behind us ( and watched us ride the snow bank, which scared the to death). All of us piled into their car (9 of us all total), and went back very gingerly to our house. Den called a tow truck from Sandwich and he and John rode back out by Ter’s care to wait for the tow..Den said the tow driver had a time pulling it out of the ditch, the roads were like glass by then…Sad to miss Tay's performance, Tim got someone to get them a video..Another gut check for us all. And the roads were so bad, Tim couldn’t come here to get Ter and the boys, so everyone crashed (did I just type that ?) here..
Other than that (YIKES!) nothing much happening. Here are some photos from our family get together…
There is a story about this photo of Peyton. When we arrived back here, after our ditch dive, Peyton announced he had spilled an entire can of Coke all over the back of the car…and all over his pants..We threw the pants into my washer…and I gave Pey my Tweetie Bird pajama pants to put on…Hey, I don’t loan our my a piece of my “ensemble” to just anyone!! And…not many 15 year old boys would allow their lunatic granny to post his photo…but he didn’t care..I LOVE this kid!..While I am bragging about him, he got an award at the cross country awards night…
Peyton was awarded the Golden Knight Medal for the Sophomore Group (voted on by his cross country peers). To quote his mom, Terrie Cave Heiser, "Peyton has come so far, and has worked so hard to improve himself in every way ,improving both his physical strengths and (most importantly to us) his strength in his character! Your hard work paid off, buddy! We Love you so much!!!"...I couldn't agree more!!! Great job Peyton!!!!
The Cave grandsons…Peyton, 15..Aiden, 7…Campbell, 11…and Maddox, 4.
Left…our daughters, Christie and Terrie…Photo on right..John Wolff, our son Kelly, Jeremy Eisenberg (our great nephew) and Tommy Bernhardt, Leanne’s hubby.
We had a great time, even though the weather ruined our chance to see Taylor in her sword fighting role of Benvolio. I am working on getting a short video if I can…The weekend before, we attended Campbell Heiser’s first middle school play. It was called” The Yearbook”, and he had a small role of a student..This is really a huge step for him. Campbell has some sensory disorders and some things bother him more than most kids…apparently NOT getting up in front of an audience…WHO KNEW??
Campbell is in the red Aero shirt..He did very well and, much to everyone’s surprise, is planning to try out for the Spring Musical!
One of his sister’s (Taylor) theater girlfriends brought him flowers after his performance.
Left to right, Sabrina Massa (who brought him the flowers), Taylor, Terrie, Peyton, Tim …and the star down front. WOOT!WOOT! CAMPBELL!!!
Well, that’s just about as much excitement as I can handle…Our lift off date for our Winter trip is now Wednesday morning…FINALLY!! I spent most of the day getting ice and snow from the driveway under the tongue of the camper so our GMC can easily hook on. At least we are pointed in the right direction..OUT of the driveway…I will keep you posted of our trip…Look out , Florida, HERE COME THE CAVE PEOPLE!!!!!!!!
As of today, MacGyver and I are on a mission to get this rig rolling early next week. Because they were predicting 3-5 inches of rain, and because we have to pull through a patch of lawn when we pull the Hiker out, we decided to “get ‘er done” before we needed an ark..
Good thing we did…We got almost 4” of rain. Our GMC is a tough truck, but ya gotta remember, she’s 12 years old …Asking her to haul this thing through the mud??? not happening.
This also makes it easier to load it up…and we have been working on that. Our tentative “lift off” date is Tuesday, Nov. 24th…However..we are expecting 5-8” of snow Saturday and temps in the teens..Crap!..We stayed this long because our granddaughter is in the Kaneland High School Play, Romeo and Juliet…She plays a guy. (Remember, there were not a lot of female roles in Shakespeare’s plays..) We are going see the “understudy performance” on Saturday afternoon, where she has the understudy role of Benvolio, friend of Romeo…
As you can see, she is not psyched about this part at all!!!!!
A short blurb about my debacle parathyroid issues..I truly thought I had the answers, going to Northwestern University Hospital…I sent all my records they requested and also my scans and images..I was disappointed in not hearing back from my doc, so I checked to make sure they got all my info…That was 10/31..On Nov. 2 I got this reply from the doc…
Holding the CD's now, trying to upload and review images
Sorry for delay but will get back to you once I am able to load everything
Thanks for following up!
…and haven’t heard one word since. Of course now it is too late to do anything before we go South, so I gave up. I have been feeling crabby and sorry for myself, and in between that, I managed to get my yearly mammogram…Shock of shocks, I was called back for another one…something suspicious was seen . All of a sudden my stupid crabby self snapped right back into a panicky, scared girl…Long story short, I went back for another “squish”, and nothing was found…To say I was overjoyed is putting it mildly. I truly believe sometimes we all need a “gut check” to remind us what is important and realize just how lucky we are…and I am one happy and lucky lady..and my “girls” are both normal and fine.Whew!
Allow me one more bragadosio..Our grandson, Peyton, is on the Kaneland High School Cross Country track team..There was an awards night and .At awards night, he was awarded the Golden Knight Medal for the Sophomore Group (voted on by his cross country peers). To quote his mom, Terrie Cave Heiser, "Peyton has come so far, and has worked so hard to improve himself in every way ,improving both his physical strengths and (most importantly to us) his strength in his character! Your hard work paid off, buddy! We Love you so much!!!"...I couldn't agree more!!! Great job Peyton!!!!
Very proud of our grandson, Peyton Heiser!!
OK, so we are hoping to leave here next week. This weekend Chris and John will be here with the Wolff Cubs to attend Taylor’s play with us…Our weather here has been windy, windy and more windy!! ..and now it will be snowy and windy!!! Sure hoping for a little sunshine and NO WIND next week for a smooth runway and nice lift off!!
I am very excited because tomorrow Den and I are going to Indy to watch the Monumental Marathon..26.6 miles..There is also a Monumental Half Marathon, 13.3 miles. This takes place Saturday, Nov. 7th. Our youngest daughter, Christie Wolff, and our oldest daughter, Terrie Heiser and husband Tim are running the full Marathon. Our son, Kelly and his wife, Cindy are running their first half marathon. Soooo, we have 5 runners from the Cave family running Saturday! Chris’s hubby, John, has run 4 (or more) marathons, including the fated Boston Marathon of 2013. Terrie and Tim’s youngest son, Campbell, is going too so John Wolff will be driving us 3 spectators,( along with his 2 boys), around Indy following our family runners.
Left, is John Wolff, our son-in-law, Boston Marathon 2013….Right is Tim, Terrie, Chris and John…before a half marathon…
Left, Kelly and Cindy at O’Hare for a run on the new to open runway this Fall…Right…well, what can I say about those “Cave sisters”???
Terrie and Tim’s other 2 kiddos couldn’t make this trip to watch Mom and Dad…Taylor is now in Madrigals and she has Madrigal Camp all weekend..and Peyton is part of the Kaneland High School Cross Country Track Team..Turns out they are going down state to compete for the championship this weekend..That’s what happens when your kids get older and more active in extra curricular activities.
After this weekend, Ter, Tim and Campbell head back home, and the Caves and Wolffs get on a plane to Ft. Lauderdale, heading for 3 nights at Key West. MacGyver and “moi” will be on duty with Aiden and Maddox Wolff until Thursday. We will come back home Friday, the 13th…YIKES!! of all the days!…Friday night, we are going to the Harter Middle School play, where our youngest Heiser, Campbell, has a role. As you can see, it’s a busy time for us. We are hoping for “lift off” for the Hiker to be about the 23rd or 24th of November..That is if “God willing and the creek don’t rise”..Speaking of that, I heard from full time friends of ours in Texas that Canyon Lake, Potter’s Creek and Crane’s Mill campgrounds are closed due to the heavy flooding..I guess I am glad we decided to go back to Florida again this year.
Potter’s Creek was our “go to “ place North of San Antonio to spend Christmas…I hate that it is closed..The Texans celebrate Christmas and New Year’s with lots of beautiful fireworks..We always had a great view over Canyon Lake..Another campground, across the lake , Crane’s Mill, is also a nice spot. We stayed there only once, as they just put electric in it.
Both above photos were taken at Crane’s Mill campground on Canyon Lake, late February, 2014…We were right on the lake…looks like Den planned a campfire too!
So, as for the saga of my parathyroid issues, I haven’t heard one word from my doc at Northwestern Hospital about what is planned. It really doesn’t matter anyway, there is no time left to have a surgery and follow up before we head South…and my priorities right now are to “ make like a baby and head out”…Unfortunately, my mood swings continue, so I may have to reign in my emotional roller coaster for the next 4 months..Hey..I did it last year, I can do it again this year, right?
Stay tuned next weekend..I shall have many photos of our amazing family…
