It's been a very long time since I have posted....

Hi Friends & Family, As many of you know from 8/3/2014 until now times have been a little tough family wise. My mom was diagnosed with Alzheimer's and I needed to place her in a ALF (assisted living facility) in the Memory Care Center. She did fine there until she fell three times in a row and broke her left thumb. She was hospitalized after it was determined at the same time as her falls that she has pneumonia. After five days in the hospital the doctors felt her best hope for getting her back to the ALF would be rehab in a nursing home/rehab facility. She went in 2/27/15 with the hopes of coming out in about three weeks. This, unfortunately, did not work out for her. She declined and now is going to live fulltime in the nursing home. I had so hoped that we could avoid this for years to come but it is what is best for her safety to be there. For me and my family 8/3/14 will be a date I will NEVER forget. It is when my son was diagnosed with necrotizing fasciitis of his left buttock. What was thought to be an ingrown hair was much, much more. After being admitted to one hospital in Ft. Lauderdale for a week and three surgeries, he was then transferred to a hospital in Coral Gables for three more surgeries and inpatient hyperbaric chamber treatments. He then had one more surgery to give him a colostomy. After seven weeks in a hospital bed between the two hospitals he was then transferred to a nursing home in North Miami for four weeks. I still drove him daily to get his outpatient hyperbaric treatments and he received physical therapy and wound care in the nursing home. Before he was discharged from the hospital he had developed a DVT (deep vein thrombosis) of his left lower calf. He was then placed on blood thinners for six months. He was discharged home where I did his wound care for another 6 weeks. He was admitted to the Coral Gables hospital again to begin some reconstruction surgeries. That resulted in more hyperbaric treatments until the end of January 2015. Finally he was able to go home again and follow up extensively with all his physicians. (Or which there were many at that point) He just finished surgery #8 at the Coral Gables hospital last week. This was to reverse his colostomy (finally) and he did well from that procedure. He is home now and I am with him until the doctors say he can drive. Once he can drive I can finally and permanently head back home to Georgia. I have missed my husband, Jeff, who has been a rock for me. He had handled everything on his own while I have been gone. I have only been able to go home a few times for a few days to a week at a time during these past nine months. I have asked a lot of him and I miss him terribly but he is the best! My son is getting back on his feet. Mom mother is stable in her new home. I can't wait to get back home and do some RV'ing again. Take care everyone, Jody

Lots of Happenings in this household in the last few months....

I know I have not posted recently but a lot of things have been happening in my personal life with my mother and my son. I have lots to post, and lots of catching up to do here, but family comes first and I hope to get back to this very soon. I haven't had any camping adventures, but I have traveled and we have a new family member! Get back to every one ASAP. Jo

Follow up to post below...........

Hope this picture of Evelyn and I shows up! And the picture of my son, my brother and I ..........

My trip to South Florida, March 2014

My son and I went to a car show in Pompano and his dad was attending so we stopped by to say Hello. Also went to visit my friends, Evelyn & Gary, and she and I went to Smokey Bones for some BBQ. My brother came by my mother-in-laws house and he, Larry and I snapped a 'quirky' picture together. (I have NO idea if this blog post will work. I have been having problems this year each time I post). Sorry............. Jody

My son visits - Feb. 2014

My son came up for a visit, mid-February, for a few days as it was his birthday. He and Jeff went out ATV riding at Big Nasty ATV park (where I broke my hand in 2012) and they had a great time. Also above is a picture of my son, myself and my mom (who lives with me). And the last picture is of my son, is dog Enzo and myself when he was leaving. I will be heading to South Florida the end of March to visit with family there...and I can't wait! See ya'll, Jody

Snow at my house - Jan. 29, 2014

The weather man finally got it right - we might get a smidgen or snow. So we did and it was more than I expected. In all the years we were going up to Georgia and in the three years I have lived here this is the FIRST time I saw snow at our property. Even the pool had snow all around it and my hen house got it share of the snow also. We have a light in there though to keep them warm and to extend their egg laying throughout the winter. It was really pretty awesome but I am ready for the summer now so we can get back in the pool! Take care, & see ya'll down the road, Jody

LETS TRY THIS AGAIN..........

Hi Everyone, Hopefully this post WILL go through this time. We thoroughly enjoyed General Coffee State Park (below). The sites are large pull through sites and it is very wooded. Several hiking trails. A great working farm with farm animals. A large lake for fishing or canoeing. There is a nice, clean bath house and there is a washer and dryer. There are two sections in this campground and all sites are pull throughs. I can't say enough about the ranger station and their staff. They were lifesavers as our truck broke down the first night there and we ended up staying an extra night as the dealership could not even look at our truck till Monday. Though they did fix it that day. Anyway, I hope some day you get to visit this nice park. See ya'll,

Gen. Coffee St. Pk, Nichols, GA, Dec. 2013

A funny thing happened on the way to this blog post - nothing worked.......... I couldn't post this for a week. The pics are in the wrong order. My post is totally messed up and no matter what I did (deleting it ten times) still didn't help. 1/2 of the pictures would not post and some of the ones you see - aren't even the ones I wanted. Anyway, Enjoy. This was a great park. I will 'try' to post more about it at a later date! Thanks ya'll..........

Ocmulgee National Monument, Macon, GA, Dec. 2013

Jeff and I went up to Douglassville, GA to check out a slide-in Lance camper & to visit his cousins, Linda and Mike who live in Powder Springs. On our way home we decided to stop in at the Ocmulgee National Monument. This is on our way home to Soperton.

We toured the visitors center which is also an archaeology museum. 

There are artifacts displayed here from the time when the Muscogee Indians lived in the area.

The museum preserves the traces of South Eastern Native American culture, including major earthworks which were built over 1,000 years ago.

We enter through these wooden door frames, and travel until we reach the center of the space.

These are called earth fire lodges with the fireplaces. These are used for important meetings and different ceremonial activities.

We later hike to other mounds that are on the premises but these are small than the one above.

We were there probably a total of three hours. There are other trails to hike if you wish too and they vary in range from a couple of miles to 12 miles along the river.

We really enjoyed it.

See ya all later !

Lunch & Hat Party - December 2013

My mother-in-law and I decided to invite all of my husbands aunts who live locally in Soperton to come over for a lunch and a hat party.  I gathered up some hats, and some decorations and a few glue guns and away we went. First though we had a great lunch!  (Okay, the silly sign was MY idea)

But, the lunch was awesome............

And after that we sent the ladies outside so we could clear the table and set up for the decorating.

With glue guns and decorations at hand - it began - and Laura and I had to choose a winner amongst these awesome ladies.

As you can from the pictures below it was a fierce competition:

Sula -

Diane -

Priscilla - 

Laura - 

Me -

And the winner is - Martha -

I think everyone had a great time. I know Laura and I did !

See ya all later...........

Thanksgiving - November 2013

November was a great month for our family.

I was lucky to have my brother, Jamie, come from South Florida for a visit
and also, my mother-in-law, Laura, also from South Florida came for a visit also.

The turkey and all the fixings were great as well as I got a belated birthday cake from Laura.
She makes my favorite which is

Coconut !

Also, I made fudge for my brother (his favorite) and below is a pic of it cooking........

Later on Laura had a recipe for some outrageous drink:  rum, pineapple juice, cherries & the juice and caramel.........it was awesome!

We had such a good time.

My brother got a little 'cold' though when one of the nights out in our RV, it was 21 degrees and he ran out of propane - oops -

Anyway, I hope that your Holiday was as good as ours and we are looking forward to Christmas !

Happy future Holiday!

See ya later on,

Good Sam Rally, Atlanta Motor Speedway, Oct. 17-20, 2013

Jeff and I were FINALLY able to get out and do some camping. We went to the Good Sam Rally in Hampton, Georgia for 3 nights. It was all dry camping and the weather was mostly cooperative.

You are sorta jammed in there but there were over 3000 RV's there. Pretty awesome!

We looked at a lot of campers. We walked through a lot of vendor booths. Of course we spent some money.

The weekend wasn't without problems though - the water heater went out, and the cover for the stove/oven vent on the outside flew off. The plastic latch for the closet door broke and last but NOT least when we arrived home to dump the tanks, the valve/handle was missing off the outside.

All is not lost though - we have ordered all the parts - and we are awaiting UPS to deliver!

We were treated to the Beach Boys in concert on Friday night. They were really great.........

Then the next night were treated to Vince Gill - he is such a great singer and guitar player !

We had such a great time that I am SURE that if the Good Sam Rally ever comes near us again that we will definitely go.

See ya all later !