HOMELESS IN OREGON

Well friends, I am about to reveal our plan to shock our kids (3 grown sons and their families).  We have talked about moving to Oregon for years and I frankly got tired of talking about it.  We finally decided to "just do it!"  We sold our house (closed on it May 20), had 2 sales to get rid of things, packed the rest, placed it into storage to retrieve when we find a house and left as planned on May 22.  It all took about a month, except for one garage sale that we had earlier, and it included a quick trip to Florida, to see Abby graduate from kindergarten.

For some strange reason (being ornery, maybe?) we decided not to tell our kids that we had sold the house until we arrived in Oregon.  We wanted to tell our oldest son and family when we were all together, so we had to wait a few days because our DIL was busy helping a friend of hers, but last night we shocked the daylights out of them when we told them that we had sold the house and were not going back to Texas!  Our DS kept saying, "What?", "What?" with his mouth hanging open.  Our 2 grandchildren  jumped up and down (at least one of them did), we all hugged, and DS couldn't believe it - as we had been talking about it for years and even had looked at houses on other trips.

Saturday was GS's high school graduation and Thursday night we went to an awards ceremony where it was announced that he is the class salutatorian!  His GPA was 3.89.  He got a stole (?) for being in the National Honor Society and 2 rope/tassel things to wear with his cap and gown.  He also got a medal for being the salutatorian and several certificates for excelling in different things.  We are very proud of him, to say the least!  I'm making potato salad for the celebration barbecue after the ceremony.

Here is what we will be living in while we look for a house:

Our 29 foot 5th wheel, except we are parked in DS's driveway (not in Gallup, NM as in the picture) and have unhooked it from the truck.  I'll take a picture after I rearrange it somewhat so I can set my Featherweight on a different table and leave it there so that anytime I want to sew it will be ready.  Between looking for a house, etc.  I've been working on my log cabin quilt in between other things and almost have enough blocks for a queen size quilt.  The blocks measure 5 1/4" unfinished with 1/2" finished logs made with all reproduction fabrics from stash.  This has been my travel project for a few years.  I decided to make it when I met with Beth in the Chicago area either 3 or 4 years ago and I saw this quilt in a quilt shop that she took me to.

OK, here are a couple pictures of how I arranged the sewing area.  As you enter the door of the 5th wheel, the table is right in front of you with my Janome sewing machine on it.  I decided that since I had it with me, I might as well use it.  I've been doing a little quilting on my basket quilt.  There are some boxes beyond the table containing some of our household goods.

This view shows it a little better.  Do you see the American flag to the left?  Love gave that to me.  Now, I can leave my sewing machine set up and not have to move it every time we eat.  We usually eat breakfast and lunch in the camper and then eat supper with our son's family.

Here's a picture of their house, which was built around 1882.  You can't see our camper parked in the drive way because it's behind the house.

We've been looking at houses and may have found one to buy, but will wait until we know for sure.  We can't believe we are actually here to stay!!!