Glad you got to check in. It has been an exhausting weekend for me and I'm heading off to bed, but thought I'd stop in and see if there was any word from you.
Sorry your camping destination wasn't so great. Hope that's not the case on the one I recommended. ha Haven't been there in years, but it used to be nice. I remember it had a pool. I may try to take a drive over there and check it out, but it's gonna be another busy week between dental appts for all the kids, DH b-day, getting one child ready for camp next week and friends coming to visit! =)ha
Hope you are enjoying yourselves. I love the scenery in Colorado mountains. We go thru there on our trips back home. It's my favorite route.
Well, I can hardly keep my eyes open so I'd better get to bed. Check in again when you can! ~Anj

Hi Anj, Happy Birthday to your DH. Are you baking his favorite dessert? Hope the kids dental appointments go well, no new problems.

Don't worry about checking out that park. I'm sure it will be fine. Even this one has turned out okay, quiet and uncrowded. DH is going in to downtown for meetings today, and then will come get me this evening to go out to dinner with the group. Traveling with our dogs is hard on our carpet, so I bought a little Bissell cleaning machine that I plan to try out this morning. Usually I just wait until we get home and use my bigger one, but thought this might be a better idea and easier to do more often.

Last night we decided to go to the movies. Saw "Wanted", we enjoyed it. DH is so good at finding his way around, but it sure is nice having GPS now too. I am loving the fresh clean air here, and the skies are so blue. Our area at home is in a valley, and the smog sort of settles in there allot of the time.

I'm hoping to get my little dab of chores done this morning, then want to break out my painting things and dabble with them a bit this afternoon. I only brought a few small things along to paint on. I saw two nice sized TS as we were driving in, and cracked DH up when I told him I want to stop and check them out before we leave! He just thinks I am so crazy--most of the gals are looking to buy designer purses and I want to check out the TS. LOL Told him he just doesn't realize how lucky he is! ;o)

Better get moving. I'll catch you later.

Luvs

You sound like me. Whenever we go on vacation, I'm online looking to see where the TS's are. ha They really don't realize how lucky they are that we are so thrifty. ha If I can ever get DH to go with me, he usually ends up buying something. ha
I'm off to get DH's b-day present and take DD shopping for camp. You have a fun day painting. I was hoping I'd get some painting done before, but now I'm really looking forward to the 19th for our ladies Craft Super Saturday. I'll be able to paint uninterrupted from 8am to 3pm! I've gotta get to sawing. ha I've got a couple of more Uncle Sams and a lady liberty I want to get cut out to paint that day, a basket and that big snowman head I got from the TS. I bought a bigger piece of wood Sat so I may try to cut out a big Gaye Shoell leprechaun or one of her Halloween designs to paint too. Can you tell I'm excited? ha I hate not having time to paint! Enjoy your time today! C-ya! ~Anj

Back again with sore knees! LOL That little green carpet cleaning machine is going to be returned. I can do it easier with an old towel and my Folex, then just use my big machine at the end of our trips when we get home.

The machine had to be filled three times just to do my small living area floor and it didn't even suck up enough dirty water to fill it a third of the way. Tells me that it is leaving too much moisture in the carpet! And I had to keep going over and over the area while being on my knees--might as well be doing it with a rag--it would be faster and no cleaning up afterwards! Oh well, you never know until you try it.

Wow! Your craft super saturday sounds like lots of fun. I'll want to hear lots more about it. You sound like me, if there is a pattern I want to do, I don't care what season it is--for one thing I know that if I wait till the holiday, it probably won't get done! LOL

Do you know about the website for locating TS? I'm on DH's computer right now so can't check my bookmarks, but I think it is www.thriftshopper.com. I'll double check for sure later. You can just enter in a zip code and a mile radius and it lists them all for you.

We got a nice shower here and now the sun is out again. A groundhog or something similar came up from the little creek behind us and my older dog was going crazy wanting to get at it! He is so funny, was going in circles and jumping up to look out the window at it! Usually he will just sit at the screen door watching for cats. Crazy dog wouldn't know what to do if he ever got close to either one! LOL Watching for them keeps him entertained at least.

Well, think I'll have a soft drink and then it will be time to start getting cleaned up to go to dinner tonight. I'll try to stop by again tomorrow.

Luvs

Well, you know what they say about the best laid plans??? ha My day hasn't gone as expected. DD's youth leader asked if she could take her to lunch so I held off on the shopping until she got back. Got a bunch of the house cleaned, but almost as soon as she got back her friend came over to hang out so that's blown. I told her we'll just get up early tomorrow morning and do it.

Sounds like you've spent most of the day cleaning too. I hate it when you get inferior products. They promise so much and do so little. My kitchen carpets need cleaning so bad. I told DH I need him to go rent a Rug Doctor for me so I can clean them. He thinks I let it get bad so he'll change it out to tile. ha That's what I want, but one project at a time. The kids are messy and with carpet it's almost impossible to keep it looking good. It's old anyway and needs to be replaced.

But guess what??? I have a vanity and sink in the bathroom! And we bought the medicine cabinet and he just has to get that installed. Then all we'll need is a new fan/light, the showerhead and faucet installed (there is just a pipe sticking out right now) and the trim put back in and it will be done! So we are a little closer to completion and at least it's usable. The kids say it looks like a fancy hotel bathroom. ha I guess that's a good compliment. =)

I think I do have the TS locator bookmarked. I remember somone on GJ mentioning it a while ago and I think I bookmarked it then. Another thing I need to get organized. Have tons of bookmarks and they are hodgepodged. ha
Well, I just sat down to have a late lunch. Need to get back to work. There is always a lot to do after a holiday. ~Anj

Oh, I forgot to tell you about the Craft Super Saturday. You know they put me back on our church ladies committee? Well, they decided to do an all day craft day for the ladies. We have several crafts set up (they had already picked what they were going to do before I got in on things). They are doing tiles with vinyl lettering with 6 sayings to choose from, a ruffled apron, sandblasting pyrex dishes with your last name, a matted photo board done with ribbon and scrapbook paper (really cute), some big chunky cutout wood pieces that spell FAMILY that they are papering with scrapbook papers, and they are going to try to get 6 quilts done for the Humanitarian Center for a service project. You can bring your own crafts to work on too. We are having a light luncheon and someone will be doing a book review during the lunch. So it will be a fun day for all the ladies at church to socialize and get to know each other better and have a little fun away from the hubbies and kids. ha So that's it. I think it will be a fun day and I'm excited to get a lot done. Probably won't get as much as I expect to with all the gabbing in between, but it's gonna be a good day. ~Anj