It's Almost Time

As we look forward to Tuesday and our scheduled day of departure, we continue to be busy.

The cleaning continued and I was able to follow through with the driveway craft sale.  I was excited with what I sold, but I think I was more excited about what I donated.  The story goes like this...

My very first customer of the morning was a lady that told me the story of loosing a 7 year old grandson to cancer.  She went on to tell me that she now spends her time volunteering at Cook's Children's Hospital.   She told me they have an awesome art department and needed a lot of supplies.  We continued to visit as she gathered a trunk full of things to purchase for herself and her grandchildren.  It was also during our visit, that I learned that she was the owner of a local restaurant where we have eaten many times.  Gosh, the world is small.

As she left, I told her I would think about what I could do.  And, she was off with her purchases.  About an hour later, she returned to purchase some more items for another project she thought about.  She also came back  by to bring me a cookbook that had been done as a hospital project.

By this time, Mark and I had already discussed that we would like to donate some of the left over items to the hospital.  I let her know of our decision...she was so excited.

So...yes, the craft sale was a success...I succeeded in getting the storage building cleaned out and in the process made a little money.  But, most of all, I made a new friend and...all of the left over items will be put to good use.

In addition to the items, I sent to the hospital, I was able to donate some items to both our home church and my mom's.  Only a handful of non-useable things went to the dumpster!  And...

with a trip to the half priced bookstore with several boxes...I will be finished with the cleaning of the storage building.  What a great feeling.

In the mist of all my cleaning, Mark has had a few projects of his own.  Two of them had to do with our wifi for the motor home.  We have been using a Cradle Point router with our Verizon air card for a good while.  Well, it decided it was tired of working full time.  So, we discussed our situation with the folks at the 3G Store and decided it needed to be replace.  The new one is a

MBR 900.

While talking with the rep at 3G, I told him a little bit about our lifestyle and our computer use across the country.  I shared that we have two lap tops and that the reason for the cradle point was that we shared the air card which is only 5G.  I told him it seemed to be sufficient because when we are in an RV Park that has free wifi we use it in place of our air card.  I said, I just wish that some of the parks signals were stronger.  So....he told me about a product they sell that would help boost that signal.

After discussing all the facts, we decided that we would order the

pep wave mini.  When it arrived, Mark got it all set up.  It's home will be here on the table by the front windshield.  I am anxious to see if it works as well in the RV Parks as it does here at our daughter's house.  We use her wifi from the house and it boosted that signal from 2 or 3 bars to a solid 5 bars.  My signal went from good to excellent.  So....so far...so good.

The only thing is...when we get to an RV Park, Mark will have to connect the Ethernet cord from the mini surf to his computer, find the park's wifi, and sign in.  Once that is done, it will connect automatically from either computer.  Otherwise, it's little brain is constantly searching for multiple wifi signals.  This process should only take minutes.  So, no big deal.

Needless to say, we are anxious to see how this works in the parks where the signal is weak.  I will be posting about this in the days ahead and hopefully our wifi issues have been resolved.

Now...not all of our days have been filled with cleaning and projects.

We have taken time to enjoy friends and family.  We celebrated Lauren's 10th birthday last weekend.  And, this weekend, we had an early Father's Day gathering.

The kids wanted to get Mark a big pot for us to use for shrimp boils, etc. and likewise, Mark has been wanting to do a big shrimp boil for them ever since we had the one in Rockport.  So, this holiday weekend was the perfect time for both.  Mark was excited about the 36 quart stainless steel pot and the boil turned out excellent.  Thanks Bob for teaching us how to pack everything in the pot!  Sorry, no pictures, I was too busy being the assistant to the cook.

Today, we made a  trip to Waco for a birthday party for extended family.  Happy Birthday again to Tylor who turned 3.

Tomorrow, we will be a busy day with last minute cleaning, packing, and grocery shopping as we finalize plans our Tuesday morning departure with

Caden and Kourtney.  Yogi Bear...here we come!

Yes, summertime is here...let the fun begin!