The New House - BEFORE Pic

May 1-10  2014....This month didn't start out so great. There must be something about the 1^st that me knee's don't like!

1^st – the weather was beautiful so we decided to take a short bike ride in the afternoon. We only made it from D/F house to the skate park (maybe a ½ mile) when I was looking back at something...well when turning back around I saw that I was on the edge of the concrete drop off. I tried to correct and the bike through me to the concrete (should have kept going on the grass but there was a big tree there and the skate park wall). I twisted and landed on my 'left' knee and elbow/arm. My first thought when I was laying there was why couldn't it be the right knee that already hurt. I quickly realized that I was not going to be able to put any weight on that leg. Mike ended up riding one bike back to the house and getting the Tracker. He drove up on the bike trail and got me and the bike in the car. We went to see Dr. Legan and then to get xrays of the knee and elbow.

2^nd – Had an appointment with Orthopedic Dr. Luckett. Found out that the left knee has a lateral tibial fracture. Elbow has soft tissue effusion but only showed the break from the last bike accident in 2008! Yes this is my 3^rd bike accident (2006, 2008, 2014). They also xrayed my right knee and found that it is bone on bone! From there I went to have a CT scan on the right knee. Then to Clarks to rent a 'walker' as I can't put any weight on the knee for 6 weeks.
3^rd – 4^th … it was a long weekend – very difficult getting around and both knees hurt a lot. The right now takes all the weight and pressure. Doug/Fran brought Hebblemen's big trailer up on Sunday to load up some of our stuff.
5^th – Follow up Dr. appointment with Ortho. Found that the fracture view from the CT showed the same as the xray....no surgery at this time! The doc tried to aspirate the left knee but the could only get a small amount of blood out due to the clotting....boy that is painful. He gave me a 'synvisc' (chicken comb) injection in the right knee. 
From there we all went up to the storage unit and Mike, Doug and Fran loaded up the trailer. They were able to get 2/3 of our 'stuff' loaded – I watched and pointed!
After all that it was time for lunch at Luz's Mexican.  Then stops at ProBuild to check out siding/windows and Sam's and the OP. It was a very long day!
6^th –  We talked to the contractor regarding the house bid.  Doug/Fran took off with the loaded trailer. I stayed put in my chair most of the day.
7^th – 10^th...We did some errands, which is not an easy task considering Mike has to cart around my 'transport chair' to get me to and from the car. I did have Doug/Fran bring up a pair of crutches that Steve/Denita had. They actually work better than the walker but my arm hurts when I use them. Hopefully that will get better with time. It's going to be a very long 6 weeks! If it rains, Doug/Fran intend on coming up again with their trailer to finish loading out stuff! We will take the motorhome and cars to Turner on Wed.

 Happy Easter 2014

 Tyler ready for the Prom

The tile job @ Doug & Fran's

April 14 - 30 2014

14^th – It was an 82 mile drive to Lytle Creek/Mountain Lakes RV Resort. We were at this park for one night in 2005 but we didn't remember much about it. It was kinda hard to find a site that we could fit in and that didn't have tree blocking the satellite but we found a corner site (7 ) which was near the pool and one of the lakes. It is a very large park and quite nice. We decided to shorten our stay by 6 days and head home on the 22^nd.
15^th - We drove into Fontana & Rancho Cucamungo, making a last stop at Costco & Trader Joes. We also went to a very good movie, 'Draft Day'.
16^th – hung out at the park and went to the pool.
17^th – We got our mail from Fran and the bank. Dixie worked in the morning and we drove back into Fontana for groceries in the afternoon.
18^th – Dixie worked all day on Medical Accounting business and Mike on other computer stuff. Made salad's for our dinner with Buster/Sandy and Easter with Marge.
19^th – We went back to Fontana to another movie, this time “Heaven is for Real'. Excellent movie and an even better book! From there we headed to Buster Sandy's where we enjoyed a wonderful dinner with them, Josh, Careece, Jorden, Abby and Sean. That evening we drove to Marge's in Riverside and overnight with her.
20^th – HAPPY EASTER 2014. We started it off attending Hope Lutheran Church in Riverside with Marge, Shelly, Lexie (Aly) and Ryan. We had a nice brunch there afterwords. Danny joined us for dinner at Marge's. We had a wonderful afternoon eating and visiting!
21^st - We decided to leave a day early due to weather – wind on Tue. and rain/snow. We got on the road around 845a. We ended up staying at the Walmart in Washington, UT just out of St. George (360miles). It was a good Walmart to stay at! We walked over to Home Depot and checked out a few house items.
22^nd – Happy Birthday to sister, Denita! We woke up earlier (5am) so we got up around 6a and were on the road at 710a. Our intent was to just go 60 miles to Parowan and sit out the predicted wind. Once we were on the road we found that the wind wasn't bad and that the forecast had changed some. We ended up driving to a Passport park (Wasache View Estates) in Ogden (Farr West City actually). We made a stop at Ikea for a quick lunch and looked around there. We arrived at the park around 230p. Today’s drive was 342miles. The wind started blowing quite bit late afternoon and it rained all night long.
23^rd – We woke up to snow in the mountains! We fueled up and were on the road at 8am.    
Dixie drove today for an hour to give Mike a break – haven't done that in a while! It was a pretty drive today with the snow in all the mountains. There was quite a bit of snow around Monida pass, thankfully none on the roads. We detoured off I15 in Dillon and went to Twin Bridges and Whitehall – wanted to bypass Butte and the mountains! We decided to drive to the Helena Walmart today and overnight there (432 miles)....yes we were only 90 miles from Great Falls but we wanted to make a Lowes stop & didn't want to get into Great Falls late in the evening. We had dinner at Bert & Ernies after are shopping.
24^th – Happy Birthday in Heaven Mom! We left Helena just after 8am and arrived in Great Falls at 10am. We unloaded the items we needed for the next 3 weeks in Great Falls and took the motorhome to storage.

25^th - 28^th – We rode out to Hogeland with Doug/Fran. We made a stop at the bank in Havre to sign out loan papers. We checked out the remodeling projects at Doug/Fran's and Denita & Steve's. We even helped Doug/Fran tile and grout their bathtub area. A first experience for us. Turned out beautiful!

On Sat. and Sun. we went to Turner to check out the house! All looks good. We found that we will need a new bath vanity top as it is cracked and the plumbing is not hooked up. We did decide to have new windows and siding put in. We will contact Doug's contractor, Bob the Builder! It rained over the weekend so it was a bit soggy checking things out.
We had to check out Tyler in his Tux as the prom was on Sat. evening! He looked awesome! We drove our car back on Monday. Doug/Fran drove back, pulling their motorcycle trailer.
29^th – 30^th...We helped Doug/Fran load up some of their furniture to take back to the farm. We checked out some items at Home Depot, furniture stores, etc. We made several phone calls, setting up service at the new house. Generally staying busy. Closing date is on for May 15^th at 10am!

 Lexi & Izzy, cofounder of Surfers Healing

Mike at Coronado Island Beach

April 1 -13 2014...Desert Pools RV

April 1-13...

1st - The wind is still blowing! We have had to put down the satellite dish every evening due to the wind. The shows that did record were intermittent due to the loss of signal. We walked a bit and did laundry in the morning. We went to the movie 'Noah' in the afternoon. Dixie's knee started hurting late morning and was hardly able to walk on it by evening. The pain is in the back of the right knee (already has had 2 surgeries on that knee & a fall on the kneecap in 2008).

2^nd – wind is still blowing and is cooler today. Knee still hurts a lot so we will spend the day inside.

3^rd – Glyn and Henrietta were over for happy hour/snacks. Doug/Fran told us that Ethel Doyle's house in Turner is for sale. I explained to Mike where it was at and we were a bit curious about it.

4^th - We asked Doug/Fran to take a picture of the outside of the Doyle house when there were in Turner.

5^th – We had lunch in Desert Hot Springs and did some grocery shopping. We went to Gyn/Henriettas for HH/Snacks.

6^th – Dixie talked to Mark Rasmussen at length getting the scoop on the house. The house had been flooded about 5 years ago and Mark & Sonny Obrecht did the repair work. He said they put in a new kitchen and all the flooring was replaced. He told us the floor plan of the house. He also gave us Carol Malloy's (daughter/executor of estate) phone number in CA.

7^th – We celebrated our 24^th wedding anniversary. We went to the movie, Capt. America at Cathedral City. Very action packed but lots of violence. Afterwords we went to dinner at an Italian Restaurant next door to the theater called Trilussa. Dixie had researched it and found good reviews. We had a wonderful dinner – Mike the Chicken Marcella and Dixie Chicken in Vodka Red Cream sauce over pasta. The bread and olive dip was wonderful. Included with the meal was biscotti and amaretto!

That evening we were able to call Carol and talk to her about the house. We found out that she already had an offer for the house and it looked like it would be selling for more than her asking price. She also thought there was going to be another offer. She wanted to get it sold this week....yiks. She gave us the name and number of the realtor in Malta. Carol also sent several photos of the house – inside and out! It looks nice. Needs some paint on the outside and some in the inside. Bathroom needs updating but the kitchen is very nice.

8^th – we had Doug/Fran get the key for the house and take a look. They gave us the thumbs up. We called the realtor, Carly Bishop at Missouri River Realty and by the end of the day we had the buy/sell agreement completed and sent back to her. We offered a $1000 over the mentioned sales price.

Dixie had a massage at Happy Feet on Dinah Shore/Bob Hope. It was awesome! We lunched at Subway and did some shopping at Costco.

9^th – we found out that if we really wanted to Doyle house we needed to up our offer. Called the realtor once again and countered with a bump of another $3000.

We had a very good breakfast with G/H at the All Star Burger place just down the road from the park.

10^th – Our house offer was accepted. I've come full circle – moving to Turner 39 years after I graduated from there! Can't believe we bought a house site unseen and did it in a weeks time! Called Independence Bank to see about a loan. We gathered info & completed the loan application online.

11^th – We made contact with Karene Faber at the bank regarding what kind of loan we can get for our purchase. We scanned all the docs she needed and emailed them to her.

We headed to Aunt Marge's in Riverside at 10am. We took her to lunch at Backsteet Restaurant, a neat outdoor deli place....very good! We went back to Marge's and had cake that Dixie made and visited. Had a great day! We got back home around 530p.

12^th – We drove to Danny's around 945a and drove with him & Lexi to San Diego. Lexi surfed in the Surfer's Healing program. It was held on Coronado Island. The person that took her out was Izzy Paskowitz, the person that co-founded the company with his wife. Lexi made it up on the board a couple of times and really enjoyed it. It was her 6^th year of participating but the first time in San Diego. She loves the water. It is a wonderful program that is specifically for Autistic children. Every child gets to go out with a surf board and an instructor and are out for approximately 30 minutes. We stopped in Temecula for lunch at In & Out on the way down and at Utopizza for dinner on the way back. The wind blew horribly in Desert Hot Springs. As we were driving back into the valley it was just brown with sand blowing. The drive from Danny's to our MH was awful. It was like driving in a bad snowstorm. We even had to bring in one of the slides once we got home.

13^th – Mike watched the Master's. Dixie caught up on computer stuff. Dixie cut Henrietta's hair and we went to their site for HH. We made one more trip to the mineral water hottub to soak Dixie's knee which still hurts!

Tomorrow we move to Mountain Lakes RV which is at 3200 ft so the weather will be cooler. The past week has been in the mid to high 90's and the frig just can't keep up. Hoping to get ride of the wind and see some cooler temps!