Standiford Family Web Log

We did go to the picnic last night. It is a huge picnic. They had carnival rides, a silent auction, a regular auction, bands, food, etc. We found chicken kabobs and grilled corn that we were able to eat and still stay on out diets. We were there for a couple of hours and then came home. Today, Beth painted the rest of the frame for the door in the spare bedroom and I just finised getting it nailed into place. It looks pretty good. It is not 100% level but no one will be able to tell my looking at it and I don’t think anyone will lay a level on it to tell. It looks pretty good. I have to finish nailing it in place and then put the second half of the frame on and nail that in place. Then the only thing left is to put the new baseboard back on. Beth bought some new curtains for it today so we are close to having it done. I guess then we will go back to working on the dining room. That wraps up another work weekend. Next weekend it is back to the campground.

Well, it took me a while but here I am catching up from vacation. Thursday we spent some time putting decals on the truck. We had ordered them last year from Heartland so they match the camper. We got four of them put on the truck and then Beth looked on the internet to fnd out how you are supposed to do it and found out we did it wrong. Turns out you are supposed to take the backing off and spray the decal with a soap and water solution. Also spray the area of the truck where the decal goes. This allows you to move it around and also makes it easier to get the bubbles out. Oh well, it looks pretty good. I’ll send a link to some pictures. We have one more on each side to put on and then I will take a picture of the truck and camper both.

I don’t remember what we did on Friday but I do know we went over to another camper for a campfire. Saturday afternoon they had a band called the Creole Jazz Band. www.creolejazz.com. They were really good. If you go out to the web site and click on the musicians link and then click on the picturs you can see their background. Some of these guys have played with some well known people. At 7:00 pm on Saturday they had a group called Smash Band. They played at the new bandstand in the resort. I was concerned because with a name like Smash Band I figured they would be a rock band but they played a wide variety of music. www.smashband.com. They played for 3 hours until 10:00 pm when the fireworks started. The fireworks were really good. They lasted for 35 minutes. They had a lot of ground effects fireworks. Kinda like roman candles only they shot off faster then roman candles and went back and forth. Hard to describe in words.

Sunday we went to another concert by a guy named Carl Rose. He played the fiddle and guitar and sang. He also had a woman guitar player with him and her daughter also played the fiddle and sang. They did a mixture of gospel music and patriotic music. Sunday night we had a fire again and said goodbye because we planned on coming home earlier then normal since we had been gone for two weeks. The trip home was uneventful. And then, of course, the dreaded Tuesday when we had to go back to work after two weeks of vacation. It really did not go too bad though and now we are staying home this weekend to try to catch on work around the house. I mowed the grass and trimmed this morning and also cut some stuff growing along the fence. It was warm but not so hot that I had to quite every five minutes. Beth spent much of the morning cleaning stuff that she got from the farm when she was there on Memorial Day weekend. Then, I unpacked the prehung door that we got for the spare bedroom and took it into the garaged. Beth is painting it. As soon as it dries I will take the frame out for paint and then get it installed. I think we are going over to a picnic that a church is having close to us. It is a three day affair with carnavel rides, etc. Some camping friends of our go to this church.  Anyway, I guess that about catches us up. I’ll try to get some pictures posted soon.

I got behind in posting but will catch up tomorrow night – I hope. Just wanted to let you know that we are home and it is back to work tomorrow.

We slept late on Tuesday morning even though we had gone to bed early. We took are computers and new iphones and went down to ‘The Gathering Place’ at the resort and worked on getting the new phones set up with all the applications. When we finally had enough of that we drove into WallyWorld at Owensville and did some grocery shopping. We mostly just relaxed. We watched a few episodes of M*A*S*H on DVD and then went to bed. This morning the guys showed up to fix the landing jack on the camper. The shaft was twisted off. They had to go get parts but it is fixed now. Part of it will be covered by warranty but their service charge and mileage charge will not be covered. Oh well, lesson learned. Beth went down to the pool for water aerobics while I waited for the guys to come back to put the parts in. When she got back we ate lunch and watched another episode of M*A*S*H. I decided to come up and update the blog while she takes a nap. Some of our friends are talking about going on the hayride tonight so we might also if they are not full. More later.

We got up at 5:00 am on Monday morning and were ready to leave at 6:30 am. Took a little longer to hook up then we thought it would. Guess we are still rookies. Had rain off and on until we hit Indy and then it stopped and we had clouds until we hit the Illinois border and it cleared up. Stopped in O’Fallon and picked up our new iPhones and then headed to the campground. Got to the campground around 4 – 4:30 pm. I was so tired that I asked them to set up the camper. When he went to crank down the front jacks the one on the drivers side did not come down. He turned the shaft with a crescent wrench so we could get it off the truck. Got it leveled and everything ok. Looks like there is a shaft connecting the two that sheared. Guess it got retracted too far and sheared. We called the dealer and they gave us the name of a person in the area that can work on it. He is going to come out Wednesday morning. We have to pay him and then take the old parts and the bill to the dealer and they will reimburse us for it.  We went to bed very early since we got up so early and we were both very tired. Not only did we go to bed early but we slept late also.

What a great day. Jamie and Kelsey slept in the camper with us last night while Kelly, Jordan and Austin slept in the tent. After breakfast they went in the pool for a while. About noon, Beth’s bro and sil and their three kids came out for a visit. They stayed about an hour and then left to move more stuff from the farm to their new house. Kelly, Jordan and the kids left about 3:00. It was hard to say good-bye since we are leaving for MO tomorrow morning and won’t see them again for a while. We had invited some friends and family out for a cookout and they started showing up just before Kelly left. We had quite a few people in the camper because it started to rain. We did have a backup plan since they have a pavillion here and we could have used it if we needed to. We had Scott and Colleen, Carl and Sue, Ron and Thelma, Tom and Linda and Ashley, and Cindy. A few of these people we had not seen since we moved to MO. Had a good time even if we did have to sit in the camper most of the time. We finished off the evening by getting ready for the trip back to MO. We drained the holding tanks and put the hose away. Moved the license plate on the truck back to the front. Put the flags away. Cleaned the grill. Also did some work inside the camper to get ready. The less time we take in the morning the sooner we can get on the road. Long trip. I’m signing off for now to go to bed. More when we get to MO.

Got up this morning and went to the Reunion. Met some old friends and some new friends. Had some re-enactors come in and talk about what it was like 125 – 150 years ago. Then came back to the camper with Kelly and the kids. They went swiming for a while. I watched Austin sleep and then he woke up and watched me nap for a while. Going back to the reunion in a few minutes for a catered dinner. Beth just tried to fix a slice of toast and flames shot out the plug on the toaster. This was the toaster that Mom and Dad had in their camper. I don’t know if it is shot or if it is just the cord. I’ll take a look at it next week when we are at the campground and have a few spare moments. It has been a great toaster. Makes better toast then any other we have ever had. Kelly and the kids are going to pitch a tent out here tonight.

Slept late this morning and then went and had lunch with Kelly and kids at Fish of Stroh. Then went and picked up matress for Kelsey. When we left there we drove over to Preble to register for the reunion but no one was there. We called one of the organizers and they said that when no one showed up by 5:00 pm they packed it up and went back to their motels but were meeting at the Back 40 for dinner. So, we drove to the Decatur Cemetery and visited a few graves. There were flowers on many of the Standiford graves. We then went over to the Back 40 and ate with the group. After dinner we drove over to a cousin’s house (Janet Torson) and sat around a campfire until almost 10:30. The evening really went quickly. Couldn’t believe it wsa 10:30 already. Drove back to camper and getting ready for bed but thought I would update the blog a bit before turning in.