Jobless in Illinois

Returning from 4th of July weekend, I started my last week of work in St Cloud.  This was a great assignment, and even after 20 years of being an SLP, I continued to learn from my fellow SLP's and improve my skills.  Everyone was wonderful, and patient with me and I appreciated that.  My favorite part of this job was the busy pace.  It made the day go by so fast.  My last day was July 10th and we were leaving our campground the next morning not knowing where my next assignment would be.  Jobs get pretty scarce in MN/WI/IA in the summer as a lot of the SLP's working in the schools pick up extra work in the hospitals and nursing homes during their time off.  So, that makes it difficult for us traveling SLP's to get a job up here.

While waiting to secure a job, we decided to go to my hometown in Monmouth, IL.  My sister Angela was there in her camper visiting her kids, and my other sister, Elena lives there with her husband, Jim.  We stayed at Citizen's Lake Campground where Angela was staying.  The campground has new hosts (thank goodness) and they were absolutely wonderful.  The first night there, we had tenderloin sandwiches at PAPA's.  On Sunday, we had a cookout and pool party at Elena and Jim's place.  Some of Elena's kids and grandkids were there, Angela, Carissa (Andy's wife), and Marcus were there, and my brother Bob's daughter, Julie and two of her kids.  We had a great time.  On Monday, Kirk, Angela, and me golfed at the Country Club.  It was so hot and humid that we were the only crazy ones on the course.  Kirk and Angela even golfed an extra nine after we finished 18 holes.  I'm crazy, but not that crazy.

While in Monmouth, I finally got a job in Ottumwa, Iowa.  I start July 20th.  So we decided to spend the rest of the week in Monmouth.  One night we had a cookout at the campground with family.  Another night Penny Mackey, and Vicki Hager came out to visit after having dinner with Angela.   I do have to mention some of the crazy seasonals at the campground.  I will call them the Hootie Hoo boys.  They would always yell out "bootie hoo" when people would walk by.  Nice, crazy guys.

Our last night at the campground we (us, Elena and Jim, Anglea) all went to the Italian Village for the best pizza around.  I worked at the IV all through high school.  This was the hang out for all the kids. Most of my brothers and sisters worked here also.  Now my nephew owns the place.  Keeping it a family affair.  It started raining pretty hard as we left the IV and drove back to the campground.  As we pulled into the campground we realized there weren't any vehicles around.  We looked over at the city pool which is next to the campground and there were all the vehicles.  The city pool is the place for the campers to seek shelter during a storm.  Our camp host, Mary Jane has the key to the shelter.  Kirk and I swung around to Angela's camper and picked her up and drove over to the shelter.  Apparently, there was a tornado warning.  Long story short,  we were all safe.  The tornado hit farm houses about a mile from the campground, and a small town, Cameron, about 7 miles from Monmouth.  Our power was out till around midnight or so.

We got up the next morning to a beautiful day, said our good-bys to everyone and took off to Albia, IA where we will stay while I work in Ottumwa.

 Elena and me...kinda look the same.

 Awesome pool party at Jim and Elena's

 Campfire at our site at Citizens Lake

 Okay, who's jealous!

 Our view from the City pool shelter during the tornado warning.  You can see our RV behind that truck in the background.

 Tornado outside of Monmouth on way to Cameron.

 Eerie clouds before the storm!  Cool though.

 Hit by the tornado about a mile from the campground where we were staying.

Carissa (Andy's wife), Angela, and Marcus cooling off.

Fourth of July 2015

Kirk and I spent 4th of July weekend at the Marsh.  Ben and Nicki had their camper all set up for us in their yard.  Staying in the camper was a good idea as everyone knows how early Kirk goes to bed (and he was still not feeling well).  I didn't get pictures, but Kristy and Robyn had brought birthday cakes for Nicki and my birthdays.  My birthday was this past February ( I was in Yuma, AZ) and Nicki's would be the next week.  I do love those girls.  We had all planned to go kayaking/canoeing on saturday (kids and adults), however, with Kirk not feeling so great, we volunteered to take the grandkids to the Pittsville parade while the adult kids went kayaking on the Kickapoo river near Ontario, WI.   I think this was a good decision all around.   Did I say that we all enjoyed the Transformers 4 movie on Netflix.  I'm not usually into that sort of movie, but it was actually really good. After the movie we returned to Pittsville for the fireworks.  They were absolutely awesome.   When we returned to St Cloud, I talked Kirk into going to Express Care for another look at what was wrong with him.  He just wasn't getting any better and we were well into a month of this crap.  He had a sinus and ear infection.  He was given a different antibiotic than previous, and nasal spray.  He had one dose of each that evening, and by morning was a different person.  

 In the truck on way to the parade.

 Isaac's favorite part of the parade....MONSTER TRUCK!

 Ride home from kayaking

Our traditional family selfie!  Perfect ending to perfect weekend.

Chicago Weekend

Prior to signing a contract for a new assignment, I'm always asking my kids if there are any days that they feel I should have off ( I do ask Kirk too).  That way I can include those days in my contract and  know I will have that time off when it comes due.  So, they obliged and told me to be sure I had Monday, June 22 off along with the weekend.  Guess what I forgot to do?  I was able to get one of the PRN girls to work for me (thank you Brenna) and have a 3 day weekend to Chicago with the kids and grandkids.  So on 6/19 after I got off work, Kirk drove me to Kristy's place in the Cities.  He was sick as a dog with allergies, cough etc and I was just getting over a sinus thing.  We were a mess. I was on the mend though, and wanted to do the weekend with the kids.   Kristy, Robyn, Ady, and I left early the next morning for our road trip to Chicago where we would meet Ben, Nicki, Bella, and Isaac.  We stayed at the Marriott Hotel downtown within walking distance from most of the places we wanted to go.

 Legoland!

 Grandkids pole climbing (trying); (below) view from our room on the 23rd floor

(below) Ben either sleeping or enjoying Chicago style pizza

We met Ben and his family at Legoland, where they had taken Bella and Isaac.  We happened to get there as they were finishing up.  We picked up a few things before going to the hotel.  For dinner that evening we ate awesome Chicago style pizza at Lou Malnati's.  That was an interesting taxi ride.  It was a rainy night, but not too bad.  We had an almost 2 hour wait and still had to sit at 2 separate tables.  The food was well worth it though.

 Isaac, Ady, and Bella looking out at Chicago from our hotel.

 (above) Isaac in his element; (below) Ben and Bella hard at work putting nails in blocks.

 (below) Nick helping Isaac use a tool

 (below) Kristy and Isaac getting ready to drive the fire truck

 (below) Mexican food at Navy Pier.  Pitch of margaritas about gone :(

 (above) Ady and me on the ferris wheel. (below) Ben, Bella, Kristy, Isaac, and Nicki on ferris wheel car below ours.

 (above) Robyn and Ady on ferris wheel; (below) Bella's laugh is priceless

 (above)  right upper corner Ben and Ady on the ride that made Ben decide he was done with rides for the day.

 Isaac finally got his trolly ride.  Bella enjoyed it too.

(below) fun at the hotel.

The next day Ben went for a massage (his Father's Day gift from Nicki) while we walked to Navy Pier.  We were told by Kristy that it was only a few blocks.  Well, her few blocks turned out to be a good mile or so.  After getting turned around several times, we finally made it to the Children's Museum exhausted.  All the kids had a great time though.  I think the adults did also.  After eating a Mexican meal along with a pitcher of Margaritas :) we ventured over to the amusement park side of Navy Pier.  I went on the ginormous ferris wheel with everyone, but that was all for me.  I watched the kids go on their rides, and Ben and Ady take a more adult ride that goes around in circles.  Ben had vertigo for awhile afterwards.  Robyn and I took the kids back to the hotel while Kristy, Ben, and Nicki attended the Damien Rice concert.  I was told they took the Pedicab back from the concert to the hotel, not knowing the short 2 block ride would cost them $50.  It's all about the experience, right?
We all left for home on Monday later than we wanted as there was a nasty storm that we had to wait out.  Our drive home was great.  Mean while at home, Kirk was not getting any better, and finally went to the CVS walk in clinic.  They gave him antibiotics, inhaler, and cough syrup.  He got a little better, but not much.  More about that later.

Memorial Day weekend 2015

On May 22-25 we celebrated Memorial Day weekend at Stoney Creek Campground and RV Resort in  Osseo, WI.  I was fortunate to have a 3-day weekend because of the holiday.  Kirk took the RV early on Friday to Osseo while I was at work to avoid the Minneapolis holiday traffic.  I drove there after I got off work.  We met Ben and Nicki, Isaac and Bella; Kristy, Robyn, and Ady; and Nicki's Dad and step-mom, Jeff and Laurie.  This was a great campground/resort.  Lots of activities for the kids, even though we only had one day that it didn't rain.  No worries.  The family was together, and we had a blast.   Only negative thing that happened was that our dog, Chuy, fell backwards off the retaining wall and would not walk on his back leg all weekend.  We did take him to the vet when we returned to St Cloud on Monday.  It wasn't broken, but  it was a bad sprain, which took about 3+ weeks to heal.

On Sunday, we celebrated Isaac's 4th birthday with the Transformers theme.   We were able to rent a small room in the Bingo hall (as it was raining outside).  Nicki's mom and step-dad, sister Dani, and her 2 girls, Sophie and Avery all came up for the party.   On Sunday night we all went to Norski's Nook restaurant in Osseo for supper.  It was okay, but, probably would not go back.

On Monday, Memorial Day, we all packed up and went our separate ways.  Kirk and my 12th anniversary fell on Memorial Day this year.  We enjoyed our ride back to St Cloud.

Isaac's birthday group selfie!

 Our site at Stoney Creek.  Ben's camper is just to the left.

 Bella and Isaac taking the motorhome for a drive.

 Isaac enjoyed the bouncy pillow thingy

 Bella helping Isaac blow out the candles

 Isaac is so cool!

 

Awesome Transformers Birthday cake made by Nicki!

 Taking the train ride around the Resort.

One minute she was awake, the next minute she was.......

More of St Cloud MN 2015

While in St Cloud, Kirk found a good deal at the Territory Golf Club just down the road from us, that allows him to play all the golf he wants for $20 including cart before 1300 on weekdays.  One of the seasonals, Jim, at the campground is also a golfer, so him and Kirk hooked up many times to golf together. They became pretty good buds.  They are going to miss each other.  Territory also has a pretty good restaurant with excellent prime rib Saturdays.

 People size guitar inside Rollie's and below is stage where many"used to be" big name bands play.

Our favorite place to go out though, was a fun honky tonk called Rollie's Rednecks and Longnecks.  They had the best pizza that we found in the area (of course, we didn't try them all).  We enjoyed going there, especially on Friday evening when Rollie and a buddy would sing from 5-7.  They sang a lot of old country and some new.  Great voices.  During the time he was singing, that guy could throw back shots of Jagermeister like no one I've seen and act like they didn't even phase him.  I highly recommend this place if you are ever in the area.  One other thing I had never heard of was the meat raffle.  Apparently this is very well known in the north.  Kirk and I actually won one of the meat raffles.  

 Below is our site at St Cloud and above is the view across the street.

May and June were both unseasonably cool and rainy.  We had a few nice days in there though.  The park workers (and there were many) would hold Taco tuesday every other Tuesday at the office.  We joined then a couple of times and had a good time.

On Mother's Day, Kirk and I went to the Cities to be with the girls.  The girls and I attended the Peter Pan play at the Children's Theatre.  Kirk joined us to eat lunch at Burger Jones (fun place), then we went back to Kristy's place.  Kristy and I made some roller blends with our essential oils. 

 Our side and back yard on our site in St Cloud.  

On 5/16 the city tornado siren went off around 2100, and all the campers and our animals had to seek shelter at the laundry room/bathroom.  This was our first time in our five years on the road that we've ever had to take shelter because of weather (not that we haven't seen some scary weather in those 5 years).  The tornado missed us.  Just lots of rain, AGAIN!

We took a our first motorcycle ride up here to Mille Lacs lake on 6/2.  This was about a 200 mile round trip ride.  Nice day, but was very windy.   We stopped for lunch at a little cafe in Isle.  This was recommended to us by a local.  Well,  let's just say that you can order whatever you want on the menu as long as it's a reuben sandwich.  The lady was out of the first thing I ordered, so I gave her another choice.  After waiting about 20 minutes (they weren't busy), she finally brings out our sandwiches.  She then asks if I like reuben's, and then sits it in front of me.  We were so shocked (and hungry) that Kirk and I just looked at each other and laughed.  We were worn out when we got home.

Did I mention that there was a Costco in Baxter and Maple Grove, MN?  Each were about an hour from St Cloud.  Of course, we visited both of them.  Our favorite was in Baxter though, as it was a new one and never very busy (Costco's tend to be crowded).

 Kirk, Damon, Heather, and Kylie above.  Below, Mavis and me in a selfie.

Kirk and I took a weekend trip to Gladbrook 6/13.  We stopped at a little hole in the wall in Beaman, IA and split a yummy tenderloin sandwich.  We stayed in the guest room of the apartment building where Kirk's mom lives.  They let you stay there for free if you are family or friend of one of the residents.  Very nice.  Queen size bed, dressers, bathroom with shower, and you have access to their kitchen if needed.  Mavis' apartment was just down the hall, so very convenient.  We all met Kirk's daughter, Heather, her boyfriend, Charlie, and kids Damon, and Kylie for supper at the BBQ place in Marshalltown.  We had boarded Chuy in St Cloud at Granite City Pet Hospital, which was okay, but rather expensive.  We did find out we could have our dog in the guest room, so he will go with us next time.    I also had my first bout of laryngitis for the first time in 1.5 years (since taking essential oils).  I used to get laryngitis about 3 times a year.  This one only last a day of totally having no voice, and several days of a hoarse voice.