New member to the family!

This is Gabriella Grace Gilchrist my niece, Melissa's new baby born 4/25/09. She weighed 7# 11 oz and was 21 in. long. Both Mom and baby are doing great. We're spending a wet week in Mpls. getting to know our new family member. My brother, sister-in-law, Richard and I along with our 2 dogs are staying in our RV in Savage, MN just down the road from where my parents lived before moving to FL. Man, has this area changed, I hardly recognized the area. We've pretty much stayed off the freeways and used the city streets to get to the hospital cause there's so much construction. Melissa, Brian and their family live in Richfield, the suburb I grew up in, just a few blocks away from my high school. Richfield has changed a lot also since I left 42 yrs ago, guess that's why they say you can't ever go back. Today it's been raining hard all day, maybe April showers will bring May flowers.

It's raining I'm sure at our house in Neb. so the kitchen building project will be on hold anyway so we might as well be here spending time with Melissa and the family.

House news

I got to use my own computer while in Mpls. so I could add a picture of the kitchen part of the house we're going to have rebuilt. I told you all about the termites and the damage they've done, nasty little bugs! Our carpenter has talked sense into us and we've decided to rebuild the whole kitchen section of the house. My brothere is happy also cause he was a little worried about a few things in that section of the house. The carpenters will add 2 ft. all across the back side of the house and I've decided to not replace the wall between the kitchen and utility room so it can all be kitchen. This will give me room to build an island that will give me the much needed work space and more storage. The roof line will be raised so we'll have a full size wall on that end of the house instead of the shed roof that's there now. That will make the room much lighter and seem much larger. I'm real happy with the new design ideas we've come up with.

Today Richard, my brother, Greg, and I started work on the bathroom and took the kitchen cabinets apart so we can save them. We probably will only get the bathroom done this visit because of the new building project. When we get back in the fall the kitchen will be ready to go.

I also got the RV ready for another trip. My sister-in-law, Joy, had a great idea. We're all ready to head to Mpls. as soon as my brother's daughter has her baby so instead of staying in an expensive motel we're all going to stay in the RV with our 2 dogs. We'll be able to stay longer cause the trip won't be as expensive as it would have been. The weather has become very springish so we'll all be very comfortable and there are several RV parks that are open all year in the Mpls. area if you can believe that.

Tomorrow we start putting down the new floor in the bathroom and then Sun. we've got to go to Sioux City, Iowa for the rest of the supplies we need so we can stay busy next week.

Here are pictures of the termite damage we know about so far. It doesn't look good. Depending on how much damage they've done may determine how long this rehab project will take now.

Still trying to get out of TX.

We were supposed to leave TX last Wed. then on Sun. and then today but.... the weather isn't cooperating. First it was snow and now it was extreme wind. Tomorrow is supposed to be clear of everything so we should be able to finally get out of here.

We're wanting to get to our house in NE cause we found out a couple days ago we've got termites. When our carpenter was starting to install the new kitchen door he found them eating the sill under the door. Today or tomorrow the exterminator is supposed to arrive to tell us how serious the problem is. Butte had 12 in. of snow on Sat. night so travel has been affected as well. Hopefully the snow will melt some before we get there so we can unpack the RV without carrying boxes through 12 in. of snow.

Making the most of being stuck in TX.

We had planned on heading to Neb. April 1st. but, the weather didn't cooperate. This is the winter that might never end it seems. We are going to see how the weather looks this weekend and may be able to leave on Sun. In the meantime we are trying to enjoy the TX around us. Yesterday we walked a couple of the city parks Georgetown has developed along the San Gabriel River. It was a beautiful day. Today we were going to head to one of the State Parks for a hike but the wind is so strong we just stayed home. If it's nicer tomorrow we'll head into the Hill Country to see wild flowers and take a hike at one of the parks.

We just got some bad news about our little house, the carpenter has found termites have infested the sill the house sits on. He's going to see how bad the problem is and my brother is going to look for a company to deal with them. If it's a really big problem it may delay our getting the place ready to live in since we have limited funds. Thank goodness we've still got our RV so we have an alternative to living there until we can afford to get everything fixed. If need be we'll just continue finding jobs down south in the winter and and up north in the summer and make the money needed to get the job done.