Plans in the making

It’s been a ruff week for us.  My being sick with allergies, losing our beloved Lucy and over the weekend hubby was sick.  Not a good thing for us.  It puts the brakes on having fun and enjoying our lifestyle.  Since we really haven’t done much all week other then lay around and do absolutely nothing we’ve been discussing what our next step will be.

We have made some new plans and the plan is to pull out of Miami on Monday March 19th.  We will be heading to a CORP on Lake Okeechobee.  We will be staying there 3 days as that is all i could reservations for.  Then we may be doing some mooch docking as we head our trek back North.

I’m praying the weather stays warm in Illinois.  We are ready to return and see our grandkids, kids, family and friends.  The past 5 days we’ve had rain showers although not enough to effect the outdoor plans.  Of course we’ve been staying indoors due to sickness. 

This week will be spent finishing up things, packing and trying to enjoy the beach one more time.  We need to do some chores before we begin our journey toward the North.

Tomorrow will be a week ago we lost our beloved baby girl.  It’s still very hard for us and we find ourselves still spilling tears and thinking of things she used to do.  I am not sure we will ever get over this loss.  The other dogs seem to be missing her as well.  They don’t have anyone to fight with for the covers, feed bowl and no one to bang the water bowl when it’s empty.  Lucy would fight them if she wanted a cover they had and she always won out and they gave in to her.  She would fight them away from the feed bowl, she didn’t like eating with them, she always got what she wanted and then they would eat after she was done.  She would bang the water bowl against the floor until you came and filled it up.  So many things we miss that she did.  She was the diva of this home.  There just really isn’t any life in this home right now, it seemed to all leave when Lucy passed away. 

Sick with Allergies

Not really much going on here with us.  We are still very sad and hurting over losing our beloved LuLu.  I have found being home during the daytime is hard for me as i keep looking forward LuLu to come and want to be held.  Hubby has his worst moments in the morning and at night as that is when LuLu wanted her daddy.   She would follow him to the bathroom, bedroom or where ever he went.  LuLu also had to sleep between us.  She had to be next to her daddy at night.  Now we do not have that barrier and we miss it.  From the time she was a 6 weeks old she has slept with us and always in between us. 

The other dogs are just mopping around and so far i have not been able to wash her pillow and cover yet.  I went to pick them up the other day and i broke down and cried.  I put them back and Duke my male dog ran over and laid on them like, don’t touch these.  Duke is grieving the most of the dogs over the loss of LuLu.  He is eating very little and lays on her cover and pillow, he fixed them just the way he wanted and that is where he lays and at times you can hear him whimpering. 

We had some decisions to make about what to do with our beloved LuLu’s body and i did not want to bury her here in Miami, FL.  I want her put to rest back home.  We had thought about having her cremated but the boys wouldn’t get to see her and say good bye so we decided to wrap her in a trash bag and put her into our freezer and carry her back home and then we will put her to rest.  It may not sound normal to some but we decided we had to do what we felt was best in our hearts.

Wednesday and Thursday i spent all day at home doing nothing other then laying around and having my crying spells.  I’ve been sick with my allergies big time, so going outside has been very limited for me.  It’s that time of the year when everything outside affects my allergies.  I’m on my medication and trying to prevent an ER room visit.  On Friday i spent the morning shopping with Bev, Peggy and Jan and then after lunch Bev and I went to a few places.  She had some returns and i needed to take back the prescription food and drink that i hadn’t opened and used for LuLu to the vet.  The vet was very good to take back the unused cans.

 

Hubby is not feeling well either, he has been having horrible hiccups, stomach cramps and severe cold chills and then cold sweats.  Not sure if it’s just stress from losing his best friend or if he is coming down with something.  It’s been pretty gloomy few days for us in our household. 

We have made some change in plans as to our next destination.  We had originally planned to leave Miami and head to the Florida Keys but neither of us are feeling well and have decided that we just don’t have the desire to go there after all.  Plus with spring break being the month of March we just don’t want to fight the crowds.  Instead we are talking about leaving here around the 19th of March and head North.  If the weather holds out we may return home in April instead of May.  We’d like to get our beloved LuLu put in her final resting place.

I have made a memorial tribute to LuLu by putting pictures that i have with me of her on my digital picture frame and have it playing and then i took her collar and wrapped it around the bottom of it.  We plan to hang her collar around our rear view mirror in the truck on our journey home.  She so loved to ride and she got so excited when she knew we were moving to a new location.  She definitely enjoyed her full time lifestyle.

The weather this week has been warm but it’s been a gloomy week with only peaks of the sun from time to time.  Thursday we had some rain off and on and this morning we had a few brief drizzle.  But finally the sun came out.  Hope your all having a great week.  I’m praying we get to feeling better soon and we can get out and enjoy our last week here in Miami, FL

Passing of our beloved LuLu

Lucy passed away peacefully this morning around 6.55 central time.  She greeted us this morning with her loving self and gave us kisses.  It was her way of saying good bye, about an half an hour later she passed away.   She is gone from our lives, but will never be forgotten.  She is celebrating a reunion with her brother Cletus.  Our hearts are breaking for our loss.  We love you LuLu  Rest in peace my precious girl.

 

I plan to do a better tribute to Lucy later but right now our hearts are breaking and i just can’t do anything but cry.  My heart is breaking for the loss of my precious little LuLu.

I forgot our 5th Full-timing Anniversary!!

Can you believe i completely forgot our 5th Anniversary living life on the road as full time RVer’s?  Shame on me.  Tonight i got to thinking what time of the year it was and it came to me that I had forgotten it.  I guess being in Sunny warm Florida i have lost all track of what time of the year it is.  It feels like summer to us. 

It may be late but it has been an amazing 5 years on the road.  I couldn’t imagine living my life any other way.  I absolute love the traveling and seeing our beautiful country and i esp love being in the warmth when it’s cold else where.

We actually spent our 5th anniversary with wonderful friends while enjoying watching the Manatee’s Apollo Beach. Guess you can understand why we forgot :))  http://fulltimervers2.blogspot.com/2012/01/apollo-beach-seeing-manatee.html

As I’ve looked back we have spent our Anniversary’s in 2008 Florida, 2009 Mississippi, 2010 Texas, 2011 Mississippi and 2012 Florida.   Seems Mississippi and Florida are our favorite winter spots.  Maybe next year we will spend it in a different state?

The past couple of days life has thrown us a few road blocks but life is still good living our lives as Full-time RVer’s.  We are still very happy living life on the road.  It’s great that we can pack up and move our home where ever we feel the urge to go.  If we are not happy with our neighbors we can just move to a new place and all our belongings go with us.  If we are traveling and tired, we can stop and rest in our own bed.  There are so many good things about this lifestyle and very few things that i do not like. 

A Sick Baby

I know i haven’t posted in several days but that is because I've been taking care of a sick baby.  Lucy our beloved is very sick.  It started when we were at Big Cypress.  We thought it was just a bug like the rest of the dogs had.  The water there was very salty and so the dogs got a bit of diarrhea and started potting more.  After we left there we put the dogs on bottled water and after a few weeks they seem to clear up.  Well .. all but Lucy.  She hasn’t acted like she felt good but nothing serious.  She has been losing weight and eating a lot less.  Which we had been trying to slim her down so we didn’t think much about it.  This past week she went down hill fast.  She basically stopped eating anything except for some ham. 

I did some calling around and finally on Friday i was able to get her into a vet.  Blood, urine and a stool sample were taken and $275 poorer we left the vet still not knowing what was wrong with our baby. All we really knew when we left the vet was that our baby had lost 13 lbs lately, she is half the size she use to be.  She still needs to lose about 5 lbs or so they tell us.

Saturday morning the vet called with the dreaded news that Lucy has diabetes and appears to be in the late stages.  Apparently she has had this for some time and we were not aware of it.

We headed back to the vet for her medication and yes another bill for the prescription food and her medications.  It's been a very expensive few days.

Lucy will be on Insulin the rest of her life and will need to be on a controlled special diet and is now on prescription food only. She was also prescribed an anti biotic.  The problem is the anti biotic they have given her is making her sick to her tummy and so now we are fighting vomiting.  Her outlook appears to be not so good and the vet here has basically told us to make her as comfortable as we can and there is no telling how long before her end is near. 

I have called my vet back home and on Monday i will be faxing him a copy of the test results and then we will discuss our options.  We may be returning home even though winter is not over.

If she get’s much worse we have several decisions to make....

1. Do we pack up and head straight home even though it’s just the beginning of March and there can still be some severe weather there?

2.  Do we pay the thousands of dollars it will take to have her admitted to the doggie hospital to get intervenes fluids and treatment which is still no guarantee she is going to make it even if we do the treatment?

3.  Do we just have her put down here (although for me this is not really an option as i want her buried back home)

We have spent most of the day with a heart filled with sadness.  It’s a gloomy day outside, it rained a bit this morning, the wind is blowing hard and gusting at times.  The temps have dropped to 65 and it’s cold.  My back is aching and we are spending every hour trying to get water and a bit of food down our baby. I’m still in my jammies, it’s been a hard day for us.

Please remember our baby in your prayers, we are very sad and just sick having to watch her suffer through this.

Taste of Miami Lakes Festival

Miami, FL

We just happened to run into this event going on.  Yep, you got it .. I just had to look around

a beautiful fountain

lots of people everywhere enjoying the festival

oh it was so hard to resist walking past this booth

This was a popular truck with the kids, esp on a warm day

 

They were setting up for live entertainment but we didn’t stick around for that

   

This was an interesting cow

I bet this place is neat at night time with the lights in the trees.

  

We enjoyed walking around and seeing all the neat booths.  Lots of food booths.

The Holy Matrimony

Miami FL

We were lazy most of the day.  It was spent just resting and relaxing from our busy lives.  Then came the night i had been looking forward to.

All month long has been church services on Sex Ploration.  Well the big day has arrived for 24 couples.  YES, 24 couples are getting married at the same time in the same church!  You had to get special tickets to attend and YES, i got my ticket! 

 

Top picture (L-R) Dixie, Peggy, Dee, Bev, me, Margie and Jim  Bottom Picture Evia and Paul

Jim and Paul were the only 2 men who attended.  The rest of the guys went out to dinner together while we ladies attended the big event.

 

While waiting for the wedding to start this little gal stole our hearts.  She wanted to be passed around the RVer’s

  

That was until she got to me.  She laid her little head against mine and just stayed there.  I just enjoyed holding her as long as she wanted me to.  I love babies and NO, it doesn’t make me want another one!!

The wedding started a bit late as one of the guys tux was an 1 1/2 late!  Poor couple.  It was worth the wait and soon here came the 24 grooms anxiously waiting for their beautiful brides to come down the isle.  We had to watch them on the big screen come down the aisle as the church is so huge and it was packed.

 

It was interesting and i’m sure i will never be at another wedding like this again.  Each groom and bride said their names and repeated the same wedding vows, and then it was time for them all to kiss their brides.  It was nice to see but i have to be honest.  I think i would of preferred my own wedding as it really wasn’t on such a personal level as there were so many other bride and groom.

 

soon it was party time and time to celebrate.

They had finger foods and lemon aide for the guest while the happy couples got their pictures taken.  Making a toast to the happy couples.

The celebration started before the couples arrived and yes even the ladies i was with got in on the celebration and had some young men join them.  NO, i did not get on the dance floor, i took pictures for black mail at a later time :))

This little guy wanted in on the action and he soon joined everyone on the dance floor.  He was so adorable. 

 

Finally the guest of honors all arrived and it was time for us to end our night.  It was neat to see a huge wedding.  I came home and put on my comfy clothes and soon called it a night to remember.