Just sand.....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

slowly....

Progress is being made.  Bedroom, closets, and almost the bathroom!!! 

Closet DONE!! Cedar lined.

Bedroom is painted and new furniture is in....needs pictures etc back!! 

Linen closet DONE!!!  Cedar lined. 

Old tub/shower is gone...... 

 

New walkin shower is almost done!!   

Fwd: still work in progress......

 

waiting..........

Remodel

Progess you can see.  Linen closet....

Addition to the closet and new doorway needing door.  Moving the door will be last.....

New door to the master bath...

New door to the closet.....

Next step......texture to the walls.....

View to the closet with the walls textured....

View to the bath.....

Remodel

Was the door to the bedroom from the bath....

New door to the bedroom.....

View through the new door to the bath.....

New linen closet (makes a shorter hallway!)

Progress

From bedroom....

Old wall from dressing area.....

Door to bath and linen closet.....

Old linen closet from hall way.

Walls in the process of moving....linen closet will move forward.  Door to the bath from the master bedroom will move to a side wall.  New wall will enlarge the closet.  Guess that does it for old and new sheet rock.

Retirement Lunch.....

 

Winter day

 

 

 

Not that many more days.....

 

 

 

I'm thinking just a little plaster and paint.........

and it will be just as good as new!

New Years Letter

If you did not recieve our letter....sorry we missed you.  But here is a copy.  Helps to keep the year in persective.  The good and the bad.  

Dear Family and Friends, 31 December 2010

Officially, 2010 started out really badly! Cold was not the best word to describe the bone chilling weather we had the first two weeks. When it did warm up… Everything else went down the toilet with a big flush. On the 25th of January, two major occurrences happened at the same time. My Aunt Mary went to the hospital with pneumonia and fought to the very end. She was a wonderful person with a great sense of humor. But at the age of 93, she lost the good fight. She will be greatly missed by all who knew her. At the time of her passing, I was in the ER at Ft Wood with Tom. He had complained of his right shoulder hurting on and off for a week or more. Sunday it was worse than before but did go away. Monday he went to work as normal and just didn’t feel good. He had one of the techs to run an EKG. It was not normal…off to the ER where a repeat EKG was normal. Blood work from the TMC…not normal but just outside of normal range. From the ER he was sent to the cardiologist. Long day and short story…two major blockages, one minor and three stints later…A very lucky man walked out of the hospital the next morning!! He had no personal or family history of heart problems. All his labs for cholesterol, etc were normal before and after. An echo cardiogram showed that he had no heart damage at all. All is normal but for the medicine that he now has to take despite all his labs still being normal. A so-called ‘widow maker’ was avoided. He and Shelby take their pills in the morning and in the evening…And Shelby and Kat do not forget what time it is!! (It is cat food time!!) Now we have to move on to the rest of our life!!! It did make us stop and think a lot about what we want to do. It made Tom’s retirement more of a priority. He put his papers in to retire the end of May but the stock market dropped 1,000 points the next day…so perhaps that was a sign not to go right then. He postponed it for some months. There are a lot of places we want to go and things we want to do. We will be waking up each morning and using each day to the best.

We did a little traveling this year, but several trips were very quick. Shelby is beginning to show his age and Kat is 18yrs old. They are most comfortable with everyone at home where we belong. And Shelby loves his dad at home all day.

In February, we took a trip back to Lake Tahoe/Reno area for a medical seminar. February is beautiful….and even though it is cold, it doesn’t seem as bitter as it is in Missouri. Every morning the roads where clear ~ no matter how hard it snowed. It doesn’t matter what the season, this is one of our favorite places.

The month of April found me off to Kansas City to meet our China Girls (Sarah and Annie) and Lisa. We met and stayed in Country Cub Plaza and spent a couple of days shopping and seeing. It was great to see the girls and how much they have grown from the toddlers we first knew to the great young ladies they are today. I miss seeing them and plan to get to Omaha more often.

August found us going back to Reno, this time for ‘Hot August Nights’ and 2000 of the greatest cars! The cars came in every shape, size, and color. This year we took Mike and Michelle with us…kids stayed at home. They got to see the beauty of Lake Tahoe and all those wonderful cars. They found out why we love the area and keep coming back. Tom’s long time friend, Bruce came for a couple of days. We also go to see family from California. Jess and his wife, Linda came over for a couple of days. Nephew Jesus and Dena, niece Sara and Joe (minus all the kids) got to come for four days. It was a great way to have a short family reunion. Those that did not get to come were missed. We will have to do something next time to get all the family together. We spent a few days in Truckee and made our regular trek to Virginia City, Lake Tahoe and Donner Pass. It seemed like a short time but …. Fun was had by all!!

September we made a very quick trip to the state of Washington to the retirement ceremony of our good friend, Gwen. We had a great time. We got to tramp around Centralia. We were in and out of their numerous antique/flea market shops and will have to go back. We would like to see more of the area.

September, October, and November found us driving to high school football games, volleyball games and wrestling matches. Mathew is a senior this year and played center on offense and middle linebacker on defense. He was selected ‘All District’ and ‘All Conference’ linebacker this season. He went to state at 160lbs for wrestling last year and we hope he does the same this year. He was state raked at the beginning of the season. We got to a couple of Melissa’s volleyball games and will see more this year. It was great to be able to see them both play. We are very proud of them.

We went to an auction in October, got off track (lost) and ended up in Hermann, Mo at the same time as Oktoberfest! We had been there years ago and had planned on going back. We walked around town, had a great lunch, and listened to an ‘UmPa Band’. We are definitely going to go back when there are a lot less college kids and spend more time in the area. There are too many wineries to see in just a couple of days.

November and hunting season! The weather was much better than last year but not as good on the luck side. Seems the deer really do catch the train for Cleveland. Everyone in the state had less luck this year, not just the hunters at the farm. But at least there is some meat in the freezer for the year… we might be eating out of the pantry and the freezer when Tom retires. The choices might be slim, but we won’t starve.

We had a White Christmas with the first snow of the winter. The family was all at the farm for a great time. We drove from home and Travis from Kansas City. We love it when the kids and grandkids are all in one place and we are able to laugh about old times and create new memories. Good food and laughter belong at our table.

The grandkids are doing well. Mathew is looking at different places to go to college. He would love to play football and wrestle. He wants to be an athletic trainer and is looking at colleges and universities with that as an end goal. Melissa is working at being valedictorian. One more year...and we’ll see. (We are not wishing this new year goes as fast as any of the last few.) Mike and Michelle are both working on their own degrees. They are learning that it is harder to go at nights, weekends and online but they are keeping at it. Travis has moved to Kansas City because of the greater opportunity to work. He coached football again this year and started a program of tutoring for the players. The passing rate went from 17% to over 80%. He is a success at everything he works hard at. Tom finalized his retirement for the last day of January 2011 and we have spent time working on all the stuff that has to be done.

That brings us to the last day of the year…warm, humid weather with an incoming cold front in the Ozarks is never a good thing. This weather brought a tornado to Ft Leonard Wood. There was a lot of damage to structures and homes. Thankfully, here there were no casualties and few injuries because of the ‘Exodus’ of the training troops, and permanent party families going home for the holidays.

An eventful year has passed. We look forward to the 1st of February and full retirement that will let us travel and enjoy the next chapter in our great adventure. No more room….Love to all, Tom and Laura