Wondering With The Wrights

November 28, 2019

It has been two months since our last blog - wow how time flies.  I had shared in our last blog we were staying in IL longer that originally planned to help my mom through some non-life threatening but troublesome issues she was going through.

One of Jerry's projects during our extra time was cleaning the motorhome roof.
We love the shade of the trees we park under in Illinois but as you can see they do a number on the roof!!

Great job Jerry - looks almost new!!

Vincent enjoying his pumpkin cookie from his GG (great grandma)

I was spending so much time with mom we decided Jerry should go ahead and take the motorhome and go to Texas and work our next mission project before the weather changed.  

We waited one day to long!!  Our little table was frozen to the wheel

And the steps were a sheet of ice the morning Jerry pulled out - November 1st.
Jerry had to use a board to chip the black mat lose to take with him.

So Jerry drove almost 1,000 miles to Lindale, Texas and worked a mission project.  Some good friends were also on the project, Wayne and Gail Fieler, so they provided transportation for him as Teddy, the car and I moved in with my son so I could continue helping mom

It has been a long time since Steve and I lived together but he was most accommodating and we all settled in and really enjoyed our time with him.

Several afternoons Teddy and I got to pick Vincent up from daycare early and we spent many enjoyable hours together.





Some of that time was spent visiting my mom.  These two just totally enjoy each other and Vincent loves riding on her walker and she loves showing him off to all of their friends.  Here they are both saying cheese 

When Vincent wasn't around Teddy would take over his bed

During our two extra weeks in IL the weather only got worse!!  Cold, snow, ice and wind!!

After those additional two weeks mom was pretty stable so we decided I should head to Texas, meet up with Jerry and then travel to Benson, AZ where we like to spend our winters.  Then if mom needs me I will fly back.

Teddy and I took two days to drive to Lindale and as you can see Teddy was very happy in the hotel.

Teddy practically flew into Jerry's arms when we arrived :-)

We spent the weekend in Texas visiting with our friends and then headed to Texas arriving a week ago.

And today we had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner with 167 of the people here at the RV park -
many of which have become dear friends over the last few winters.

WANDERING WITH THE WRIGHTS

September 28, 2019

We have had a change in plans so wanted to bring you all up to date.  We had planned on leaving yesterday morning and heading to Missouri for a Mission Project.

In the last week or so my mom has been having some struggles (God's timing is wonderful that we were still here).  She turned 96 in August.  Nothing life threatening but more like chronic annoyances.  She currently lives in Independent Living and loves her condo.  In an attempt to let her stay where she is we will be making arrangements next week to have people come in to assist her with various tasks.  So we have decided to stay and help get those implemented and stick around to make sure they are truly working to her benefit.  My brother and sister-in-law who live close by and do a wonderful job watching out for her when we are gone have a vacation planned the last two weeks of October and we want them to go and not change their plans although they have graciously offered to do so.  So that puts us staying here in Illinois until the beginning of November - and that is assuming these changes we are making for mom work - if they don't we will have more decisions to make.

We are fine with staying.  We are surrounded by family and friends.  We will have more time with our 2 1/2 year old grandson Vincent who is just getting to know us really well (He adores his Grandpa) and we will now be here for our oldest grandsons 16th birthday. 

This is why people who live in their RV's full-time always say their plans are made in Jell-O.  We make plans but they are loosely set.  A wonderful advantage of having your home on wheels.

So this is what we have been up to since the last blog.

Celebrated Jerry's Birthday with wonderful friends - Gary & Sue Bouton

Had a wonderful lunch with (L to R) my cousin Lauri, our 2nd cousin Helen, me and my mom

Enjoyed several pizza nights with dear friends Peter, Becky & Chris Wright and our oldest and youngest grandson's

Love these two SO much!

Spent a fun evening with Clayton Main 

That included fireworks

Helped sandbag at our church which has to battle the Des Plaines River every few years

The water kept rising but never entered the church - Praise God

Our church also helped to save the DQ next door.  Some things are just worth working hard to save!!

By staying in IL longer Teddy will be able to have more playdates with his BFF - Doki

And Robert, Jerry's oldest, can have more stare downs - they both seem to enjoy it - Go Figure

Any of you who know Jerry know his love of airplanes.  Jerry, my son Stephen & Vincent at the local airshow -
not sure Vincent was very interested

Teddy looking so sad looking out the window while Jerry was in California for his 50th class reunion

Added this just because I love the picture and this little man

Our two grandsons only see each other when we are in IL so this is them saying good-bye when they thought we were leaving.  Be Still My Heart

So the next 5 weeks will find us helping my mom, Jerry doing more volunteering at Love, INC., us both doing things we had planned on doing around the motorhome that some how never got done.  And most importantly more friend and family time.

Prayers for my mom and her adjusting to this new way of living would be greatly appreciated.

Hugs and Blessings, Carol & Jerry

WANDERING WITH THE WRIGHTS

August 25, 2019

Jerry and I left the middle of July for 2 weeks and took a small trailer full of things we have had in storage out to Benson, AZ.

 It was a long - hot trip but to make it more fun and to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary we came back to IL via Utah and visited both Bryce Canyon National Park and Arches National Park.  They were both amazing! 

Breathtaking Beautiful

Pictures really don't do the beauty justice

And it stays up there how?

Had a wonderful dinner here for our 25th

25 Years ago we didn't have gray hair!

Got home in time to celebrate my mom's 96th Birthday

My mom and my two brothers

Spent an entire day at the zoo with Vincent

Grandpa showing Vincent the bear - not sure who had more fun him or us

How we all felt after a long day at the zoo

 We have been able to spend some quality time with family and friends which is the reason we come back to Illinois every summer.

Not sure when we are leaving - either late September or mid October - which means more quality time with friends and family - we will also be celebrating Jerry's birthday before the month is over.

Hope this finds you all well and having a wonderful summer!

WANDERING WITH THE WRIGHTS

July 2, 2019

I am way behind on the blog so we need to travel back in time to late April when we pulled into The Billy Graham Center, called The Cove, in Asheville, NC.

The 4 rev's parked and ready to vulunteer at The Cove for three weeks

This is inside one of the two Inn's were people attending the many seminars offered can stay.  Ruth Graham picked out all the furnishings.  Her goal was to make it comfortable and homey and she definitely succeeded.

This is a replica of the last supper all done in crosses

Beautiful cross in the dining hall all made from twigs found on the property

Even though we worked hard there was down time - we had fabulous weather while we were there

The four couples that served together - we all got along so well & truly enjoyed each others company

This is where all the beautiful flowers were delivered that we helped plant

Before

After

Before

After - Wish we could have seen them about a month later when they were all filled in

We spent a few days helping out in the laundry

All of the machines were named - the iron was  Nebuchadnezzar

Abendnego

We also put together binders that held the speakers notes for the participants

The men did a lot of power washing

Cleaned up and repainted signs

And spent most of their time repainting the inside of the radio station

The staff attends devotions every morning and we were invited to join them.  

All of the staff leaders did an awesome job but the highlight was when Will Graham (Billy Grahams grandson & Franklin Grahams son) led devotions on Friday's.

He was so down to earth and friendly

It wasn't all work while we were there.  We took an interesting bus tour of Asheville -The Omni Grove Hotel built in 1913
One we could never afford to stay in but it was great fun walking around and checking it out

beautiful falls in the back of the hotel

This used to be a psychiatric hospitals in this area

This was the administration building - wouldn't mind living there

We also drove 2 hours east to Charlotte to visit the Billy Graham Library 

They moved the home Billy Graham grew up in a short distance to be on the property with the library

The entrance to the Library - Billy Graham was raised on a farm

And as much as we enjoyed the library and we did the highlight was meeting up with dear friends from our hometown of Gurnee, IL.  Bob & Mary Lynn Dubler retired years ago to Charlotte and we so enjoyed having lunch and catching up with them.

We then traveled down into South Carolina and visited dear friends - and didn't take any pictures of them!!!  Can't believe it.

While visiting Nancy & Jeff Jeffries we took a wonderful boat tour of the Jocassee Valley

We saw many beautiful waterfalls

The light green fern shown here only grows near this lake and in Vericruz

Teddy loves walking by the water - not so wild about going in though

Love it when our home is by the water

Teddy relaxing as we travel down the road

 We then headed even further south to Charleston, SC and visited my late husband's sister and her husband.  We had a wonderful visit with Sue & Jim and can't believe I didn't take pictures

We decided it would be getting warm enough for us to head north toward Illinois.  On the way we stopped at my late husband's cousin's house - she had a mini family reunion - it was so great to see everyone.
Judy still lives on their farm so we were able to park right on the property. 

We really enjoyed staying on the farm 

We are now back in Illinois where we retired from and where I lived most of my life. 

We have had lots of wonderful family time since arriving about a month ago

 

Vincent showing Grandpa various animals

The first time he spent the night with us - hope there are many more 

My mom is doing extremely well - she will be 96 next month

Teddy has a new friend named Doki - he comes by every evening about 5:30 for  play time

My gift from Vincent his first time over this summer

Vincent - getting so big

My cousin Lauri and her husband Shaun hosted a family reunion - was beyond wonderful visiting with so many of m cousins and their children

Our oldest grandson Calvin and his dad Chris

Our 2nd oldest grandson who was visiting from Michigan with Bianca

Our reason for coming back to Illinois is to see family and friends.  We have been so blessed the last month to see so many of the people we love and hope to have a lot more visits before we leave in September

Until the next blog - stay healthy, enjoy the summer and hug the ones you love and tell them what they mean to you

Blessings, Carol & Jerry