Taxes, appointments, grandkids

WELCOME to our newest followers, Jim and Rosie!  I checked out their blog, and they have been camping/RVing since the 1980s, and are planning to go full-time this year in June, bringing along their two dogs, Annie and Sammy.  They plan to stay in the Western United States, following the good weather.  This is one of those fun blogs where they are getting close to the day they take off, and are blogging about the process.  Welcome aboard, Jim and Rosie! :)

WELCOME also to  billybob200138, who doesn't show a blog or any information.  Billybob, if you have a blog, let me know so I can check it out - Katie and I welcome you along on our travels, and we're happy to have you aboard!  :)


And WELCOME to Pebbles Paper and Pressed Flowers.  This follower has no blog or information showing, either.  Well, there is actually a blog, but no posts yet, so I couldn't check it out.  Welcome aboard, Pebbles Paper and Pressed Flowers! ( It sounds like you might have a fun blog when you get started.  I, too, collected rocks, made my own paper, and pressed flowers in my previous life.  Fun things to do!  I still have a few of my little gift tags in my craft things, with pieces of home-made paper glued onto them.)

I spent one day early this week doing taxes.  I always do my own, using Turbo Tax on-line.  I didn't plan to finish, just get some of the documents organized and go through a packet of mail I've received to get started.  I do this every year.  I love doing my taxes, and I always "just get started" and end up finishing them and e-filing, and they're done!

I had no idea whether I would get a refund or be sending them money, but I hoped I'd have a refund, of course.  Then I started entering the numbers and, before I entered the deductions the program showed that I OWED quite a bit.  I was getting kind of nervous, but finally, after putting all the deductions in, I ended up owing Federal and getting a refund from the State.  I owed the Feds more than I'm getting back from the state, but not much more - it could have been much worse!  So, that was a good job done.

I had two more medical appointments on Thursday, and Saturday I picked up my new glasses at Costco, so I'm DONE with medical, dental and vision appointments for the year.

I had my grandkids this weekend.  I picked up Kennedy Friday afternoon, and late Saturday afternoon dropped her off and picked up Gavin until Sunday late afternoon.  Tom  and Trish and Graydin, my two-year-old grandson, were here around 5 this afternoon to take us all out for dinner at  a local steak house, which was great.  Then they drove me back to The Palms.  Trish drove their car back home, and Tom took the Escape I've been borrowing and drove it back to their house. 

I have lots of photos from this weekend's visits, but my camera battery finally died during dinner, so it's charging now and I'll download the photos in a day or two or three, and post the best ones in my next post.

So, I'm back to only The Palms for transportation.  It was so nice to have a car to take for most of my appointments and the shopping I needed to do. 

I have only another two days here, the time has gone by so fast.  I can't believe it's been almost 30 days already!  I'm starting to get organized to roll! 

Katie and I are going to rest tomorrow after the busy week and weekend, we're also scheduled to have the propane truck come to our site and top off the propane tank, and then Tuesday I'll empty the black and grey tanks, fill the water tank and do another load of laundry here at the park.

Then we take off on Wednesday morning.  My plan right now is to return to one of the Long Term Visitor Areas to stay until my permit expires April 15th.  After that I might start driving north again, slowly.  I want to visit my daughter and her family in Vacaville.  I have allergies that seem to kick up when I visit them later in the year, and I'm hoping April might be a good time to be there.  I'm definitely taking allergy pills while I'm there, though.

I haven't blogged in a week because I've been so busy, but I have a ton of photos I need to go through and will put the best ones in my next couple of blog posts.

I'm so happy to have all the medical stuff behind me and to have had such a great visit with my family. Poor little Katie has been by herself far more this week than usual, so - as much as she LOVES it when the grandkids are here - I'm sure she'll be happy to have things back to normal again.  Me too, since I'm still needing to rest more than usual, and we'll be able to do that easier in the desert.

More to come, with photos in the next few days!!!

From Me and Katie (who is sound asleep in bed!), have a great Sunday evening, everyone!  :)