"The Housewife Tour 2013" - the week (or should I say year to date) in review

Here it is, January 23 and I haven't been doing great on my blog entries.  The days seem to be flying by and I don't feel like I'm getting much done (maybe because they are big projects?).  So, time to catch up on what's been going on.  Entries for the 8th & 9th were typed in on those days.

Tuesday, January 8
The Housewife Tour is going well.  Yesterday was regular errand day - groceries, laundry - things we usually do on the weekend. 

Today started the cleaning.  I figured the best way to start the whole cleaning process - with something I HATE to do - clean the bathroom.  Specifically, the shower.  YUCK!!!

Anyway, now that that horrible task is done, I feel good and ready to do the rest of the house. LOL!

Wednesday, January 9
I've decided to change this up and just do a weekly entry since I doubt this is going to be interested until I actually do a project!

Today has been dreary, but we got in two good walks (my main goal every day!).  I did some (more) organizing in the scrapbooking room and the guest bedroom.  I still had my boxes from work that I unpacked and pulled stuff out of them to put in the scrapbooking room.

Wednesday, January 23
OK - now for the backtracking on our adventures and my projects.

Let's start with the projects.  I think I have finally finished organizing the guest bedroom.  I had so many boxes of photos (framed & unframed), boxes that never got unpacked (from 10 years ago when we moved into our house).  I moved photos and scrapbooking items into the scrapbooking room for organizing (that's coming up next on my to do list).  I have a bunch of stuff to sell/donate.

While I was doing that, I was also converting cassette tapes to MP3 files.  What comes after that - getting them all into Itunes.  And of course, I end of having some user issues.  First I can't download Itunes 11 to our desktop (where hubby does all his syncing).  I had to delete the software and start from scratch.  Then user issue of opening the files to the wrong folder.  GREAT!  DOUBLE TRACKS!  Needless to say, so far, everything is working out ok on the desktop.  We'll see what happens once hubby gets on and syncs his iphone.

The picture of the remaining tape collection. 
The majority of these weren't converted yet when I started the project.

The one thing that I did do that I've been promising to do was convert my mom's PTL Club tapes to CD for my niece.  She was 3 months old when my mom died and now that she is born again,  She is interested in the music.

Wow - what memories those tapes brought back.  My mom used to play them ALL OF THE TIME.  So much so, 2 of the 4 tapes I had were really warped.

Another project - a budget.  I made an excel budget, but really wanted to start using Quicken more.  THAT was a pain.  Mostly because I couldn't figure out what I wanted to show on the report and what I didn't want on the report.  I created a report that shows our budgeted number and what we have spent so far for the month.  Hopefully, I saved it right so I can track the numbers easier!

Now for the Adventures.

On Friday, January 11 I went to lunch with 2 of my former bosses!  We had it planned before the work doors closed on the 31st.  Even though it had only been two weeks since I've seen them both, it seemed a lot longer.

We did something new - When I was growing up, I used to always go to the local RV dealer's open house with my dad.  I used to enjoy checking out the RVs.  We never owned one or went camping.  The closest was "playing" in our neighbor's RV when it was sitting in their driveway.  Every year (I'm not sure how many years this event has been going on) there is an RV show at the Dulles Expo Center.  I've told Dan for several years that I wanted to go.  Well, we finally went (January 12)!  I think Dan enjoyed it too.  One of our bucket list items is to get an RV and drive across country and Dan said that this helped him get an idea of what was out there and what we will eventually want in the RV (We'll probably rent one first to try RVing out).

Here are the ones that caught our eyes:
Winnebago 2013 Vista 26HE
Rockwood MiniLite

That same weekend (Sunday, January 13), the weather was in the 50s and Dan wanted to go geocaching.  We went to Lake Fairfax in Reston to find 7 geocaches hid by the National Wildlife Federation.

The trails were a little muddy because of the rain 2 days before, but not bad.  We ended up walking close to 5 miles and found all of the 7 (there are 8 on this trail passport, but Dan had already found one).  We did meet up with 2 other geocachers and found one of the caches together.  We had already spend probably 5 minutes (because it said do not cross the bridge but didn't say what side of the bridge) and it was on the other side of the bridge!  Lesson - don't always follow the hint!


This was at the one geocache that took us awhile to find.
Somehow, Esa became a water dog and was really getting her paws wet!

Mama & Baby Girl waiting for Daddy-o to return. 
Zed was there too, just not in this picture.

The biggest thing - HOCKEY IS BACK!  Last night we went to the opening night home game.  It was so nice to see hockey back in action even though the Caps lost.

Hubby just headed out to the yearly cottage winter visit to to go play in the snow.  HAVE FUN - I had enough of the snow and cold growing up.  So the next couple of days, I'm a single parent.  But I will have a visitor on Friday - my nephew!

That gets you up to date.  Let's see if I can do my entries in a more timely fashion from now on....