Cleaning Everywhere

Everyone pitched in today to get the former workshop emptied and ready to rent.  Brandey and the kids finished cleaning the office,

while Jr, Sr, and I finished emptying and cleaning the rest of the shop.  Father and son dismantled the last of the shelving and cabinets.

I picked up the last pile of sawdust (which didn't all fit into the box).

A final sweep and clean with a leaf blower, and the building is ready for the renter tomorrow.

A good part of the day Duane and I spent renting a "snake" drain cleaner and once again trying to get the toilet in the 5th wheel unclogged (see yesterday's blog).  Duane managed to pull out three nasty blobs of some kind of cloth (wipes? washcloths?) but the clog won again today.  Duane hasn't given up yet.  He still has tomorrow morning.

One more work day.

Louise and Duane 

Grunts

Our jobs today to help our Trenton, TX kids move from their gym to their "new" house were dusty and dirty.  

We continued cleaning out the woodworking shop which will be leased out.  We moved the wood that Jr wants to keep from that rack on the right and the pole in the middle onto a flatbed trailer.  I swept up and picked up three huge piles of sawdust.

What goes on must come off.  Father and son unloaded the wood into a storage unit temporarily.

Until the family moves into their house they are staying in half of the gym which they turned into a living room, kitchen, office/playroom, and closet.  They sleep in this 5th wheel behind the building.  Our job today was to unplug the trailer toilet.  We worked for over an hour but were unable to open the drain.  We did find that the seal leaked a bit.  Ugh.   Our next step is to rent a snake tomorrow and cross our fingers.

Only three days left.

Louise and Duane

Wet Again

After a week and an half of dry weather, heavy thunderstorms soaked us again, with the worst downpours in the afternoon.  

We decided to visit with the grandkids at the gym and arrived at the end of a new summer program for kids.  

Coy 

Ava and Alyssa were finishing their pushups.

Emma was working on sit-ups.

When everyone was done with floor exercises, they tried climbing the rope to touch the beam.

The girls (the twins are almost 10) climbed right up

even 5 year old Alyssa.

Coy (4) needed Momma's helping hand and almost made it.

After visiting with kids for a while we drove to the new house and helped (son) Jr. install canister lights.  

Everyone from their church--King's Trail Cowboy Church in Whitewright was invited to visit and right their favorite scripture verses on the exposed boards.  One of the twins wrote "The load is my seperd."  Hmmm. Good thought.

Home to shut the blinds and ignore the rain.

Louise and Duane

Mixed Day

This morning we gave up pickleball to take our twin granddaughters out for their birthday, which will occur three weeks after we leave.

We all had fun over  our lunch at Burger King, but saved room for 

popcorn  at the movie theater where we all thought  A Dog's Life was a very good movie.  

Back at the gym we had our picks of sweet stuff left over from the Memorial Day carry-in yesterday (see Memorial Day blog).

Finally full, we drove to the new house to inspect the insulation and clean everything out--tools, boxes of trash, odd boards--so that the dry wall can be hung tomorrow.

Tomorrow we work--if it doesn't rain.

Louise and Duane

Memorial Day

For my first post op bike ride we enjoyed a short six mile ride  between our rv park in Leonard, TX to the kid's gym in Trenton.  

Everywhere flags were flying to commemorate Memorial Day. 

At Revival Fitness 

the annual Murph (see Day Off, Sorta blog) was just finishing up.

The last of 40 or so participants were coming off the track  

to join family and friends in the food lines

and find a place to sit, eat, and visit.

The balloon arc which we helped make yesterday provided a popular place to take photos.

Son Duane Jr. decided that his extra third mile rated a tasty cupcake.

We watched the activities while we enjoyed lunch, then headed home.

No pickleball or work tomorrow!

Louise and Duane

Day Off, Sorta

Our jobs here in Trenton, TX today were simple:  babysit for Coy age 4 and Alyssa age 5 while the rest of the family went shopping for supplies for the annual Memorial Day gym workout called  Murph, a memorial tribute to Michael Patrick "Murph" Murphy, a US Navy SEAL who was awarded the US military's highest decoration, the Medal of Honor, for his actions during the War in Afghanistan, where he died in action in 2005.  He was the first member of the US Navy to receive the award since the Vietnam War.

A workout named in his honor is often performed at CrossFit affiliates across the globe on Memorial Day.  (The kids' gym is not a CrossFit affiliate, but is run the same way.)  The workout is named "Murph" and consists of a 1 mile run, 100 pull-ups, 200 push-ups, 300 air squats, and a final 1 mile run.  Participants are encouraged to wear a 20 lb body vest.  This workout was one of Murphy's favorites.  He called it "Body Armor" but is was later renamed "Murph" in his honor.

Tomorrow's participants will be accompanied by their families.  There will be dogs and burgers on the grill.

While the family shopped Duane and I played Go Fish and watched mindless little kid cartoons with Coy and Alyssa.  When the shoppers returned we started decorating the gym.  Everyone blew up ballons which Brandey and I tied onto fishing line.  

They're hanging on the wall in the building.  When we left the family was still putting up pennants and flags.  

No work again tomorrow.

Louise and Duane

Something And Nothing

Duane did a lot of work today helping (son) Duane Jr finish the job Sr. and I started on March 20th--cleaning out the workshop at the gym (see After, After, Before, After blog). 

I spent the day at home on the couch eating chicken soup and deciding that my stomach cramps, nausea, etc. of last night were the result of something I ate yesterday.  At day's end all is well.  The shop is cleaned and I am back to normal.

No work tomorrow.

Louise and Duane

Day 4

Day 4 of our 14 day visit with son Duane Jr's family found us amusing the grandkids in the morning.  Gramps played cars with Coy

while I played Mousetrap with the girls.

In the afternoon we all went to their future home.  Sr and Jr loaded trash into the dump trailer and mowed and used the weed eater.

The children and I cleaned a layer of dirt and debris from the concrete floor of  the dog pen (pictured above),

picking out bits of glass and metal before dumping the dirt in the horse pasture.

Brandey worked inside the house scraping up the last of the old linoleum (see Work/Play blog).   

Wonder what's on the agenda for tomorrow.

Louise and Duane

Work For Duane

No work on the house flip today.  After lunch  Duane had two jobs at the kids's gym:  replace the flush parts in two toilet tanks and mow grass.  My job was to play with the grandkids who are now officially out of school for the summer.  

In the morning, however, we both played pickleball in this tiny Sherman, TX gym. The lower right window is the office, and to the far left are two restrooms.

The rest of the building houses three pickleball courts.

No pickleball until next Tues. 😢

Louise and Duane

No Work Today

Our job today to help the kids with their house flip was to finish scraping linoleum from the laundry room and to dump a trailer load of trash.  We did our trash chore but couldn't work on the house.  The roofers arrived a day early and were using the area with the linoleum.  We left them to it and did our laundry instead.

Meantime  I finished my scrubbie project that started with eight colors of netting which I cut into strips 

and rolled into balls,

then crocheted into the finished project--homemade gifts for the family in their favorite colors.  These things are very useful around the house and in the garage.  They can scrub off sticky stuff without damaging finishes on pots, sinks or cars or cooking grills.  When they get dirty they can be washed by hand, or thrown into the dishwasher or laundry.

Tomorrow--pickleball, then back to work.

Louise and Duane

Work/Play

Day two of our visit to son Duane Jr and family started with two hours of pickleball for us.  After lunch we worked hard helping the family renovate their "new" house.  

Our job for today was to finish removing the old linoleum and adhesive.  We followed Brandey's method of soaking the floor, then using a scraper to loosen and remove the goop.  Duane did the grunt work.  I picked up the wet gooey mess and put it in trash bags.  

The finished product.  

In the evening we attended a lip sync program at the twins' school.  

.  Here Emma and Ava with two of their friends lip synced a song called Chains.  Note one girl is in jail in the background.

There were several brave souls who took part in this program, the first one for the school.  Two of the favorites were these lunch ladies syncing an Adam Sandler routine.

Since we are in Texas, after the program we had to go to DQ.  (I think there is some sort of state law about that.)

Very tired, 

Louise and Duane

New Games

Goodbye son Jeremy and family, hello son Duane Jr and family.  To start our two week stay in this area of Texas, we played away the afternoon with grandkids Emma, Ava, Alyssa, and Coy.  

Gamemaster Grandpa started things off with pillow fight,

and moved on to sock fight.

We rested with a board game,

and ended with a game roping dummy lineup.  Everyone piles on, then scootches backward.  When the person in back falls off he/she moves to the front and the line keeps moving.

Tomorrow we start helping to finish the house renovations.

Weather permitting.

Louise and Duane