What a busy couple of weeks!

Its been a while since I have written a blog. Its been a crazy few weeks. We thought we had a new cancer diagnosis in the family. Thank God the biopsies have been negative for cancer cells. My brother is 51. He has been short of breath for a while now. A long while, like years. He couldn't mow the lawn without being out of breath and totally exhausted, everything became an effort. He was told it was depression, anxiety and a side effect from medications to treat all of that. Well here we are today thankful for an emergency room physician at Mercy Hospital in Joplin Mo. My brother awoke one Sunday morning with severe chest pain radiating to the left arm. My sister -in-law took him to the emergency room for an evaluation on his heart. Heart issues in this house are a touchy subject and taken very serious. My sister-in-law almost died of a heart attack a few years ago. She was in the hospital for several months. How she didn't die was strictly the grace of God. Anyway, The ER physician found nothing wrong with his heart and lab work was fine. Before they sent him home, this physician decided to check the heart with a CT scan. He wanted to make sure there was nothing wrong at all with his heart. The CT scan showed his heart was strong and healthy but..... he had a 10 centimeter tumor on his trachea. For those of you who know, it was a station L4 mediastinal  mass. 10 centimeters is almost 4 inches. It was huge. We were  devastated to hear this news. He was admitted for observation on telemetry. The pulmologist did 3 biopsies and they all come back negative. Thank God!!! What a miracle!!! Now, we have a consult with a cardio-thoracic surgeon this week to schedule the surgery to have it removed. It is constricting his airway!!! Maybe just maybe his exertion and shortness of breath was caused from a tumor constricting his airway? Why yes, I believe so. I am thrilled it is not cancer, they will still double check the tumor and make sure. There is still always a chance. But as of right now, its not cancer.

During the last couple of weeks we adopted a dog from a local animal rescue. He is one of 22 Chihuahua's rescued from a hoarding situation. He was very timid and shy when we got him. But we were persistent and showed him love and affection. Now he is our little pain in the butt, hyper, happy to be free from doggy jail little doggy man to keep my elder chihuahua company. Meet Verti AKA...Vertus Maximus, Vertimus Prime the autodog and Verdigus River... Poor thing, but he lovingly answers to all of them. as long as he gets a treat.... he doesn't care what you call him.

He was in a kennel since September of 2016. He is just happy to have a family and we are happy to have him home. He has a lot to learn as far as manners and potty training, but we will get there.

I am going to say goodnight and I will see you all in a few days!

Melissa

XOXOXOX

Our first experience with a motor home purchase! You cant make this stuff up!!! Part 2

Well here is part 2 as promised...So I left off in part 1 at we finally got home. We did!!! What an exciting achievement this was!!!! Oh now is was time to really go through this thing. Top to bottom, front to back. Shouldn't we have done this a week ago?  well maybe, but we didn't. So anyway, We immediately rip the front  bunk down to the tin. It was water damaged and had to be done. Oh how much fun I had doing this. Re-framing, picking out new paneling lights installing new insulation and new plywood for the bed. The works.

Now picture this if you will... The bunk is almost 2 1/2 feet tall. It was not made to sit in, not even someone who is 5'5 like me. Now lets look at my husband how is 6'2 and about 235lbs. That poor man was twisted like a pretzel ant times and sometime folded like a little taco. I laughed until I cried. I t was July in the mid-west and we were in an un-insulated tin can... Oh dear god in heaven it was hot. My poor husband crammed up in this bunk like a shirt thrown on the tip shelf of a closet. Poor guy was... well crumpled, hot and in a very loving way, grumpy. Now our only education was YouTube. Hell, if all of those first timers and no knowledge people could totally gut a camper and make it a glamper, we so could I. We took a little break from the renovation and decided to check and clean the black and gray water tank, stove heater, generator and the rest of the gadgets we were so lucky to have. Well, where do I start? Lets go with the fresh water tank and water pump. We filled the tank and there were no leaks!!! win! Whoo-hoo!. Sad to say but we high fived each other. Something worked. Whew. Now lets move on tho the grey tank. flushed it out and cleaned it. nice and fresh! We are on a roll. 2 tanks and no leaks. We are on fire!!!. Moving on to the black water tank...STOP!!! WHAT IN THE HELL???  Ok, here is the you cant make this up part, someone, I have no idea...who or why capped off the black water tank. Do not use the toilet!!!! Oh dear, why on earth would a human being do that? So many questions flowed through my mind. Why? Who? is it empty??? What is in there? why? After the initial shock wore off, we pressed on. Lets light the stove. Oh dear god no..... evacuate the camper and turn off the propane. They removed the refrigerator because it didn't work anymore, we did know that much, believe it or not, we did not know they didn't cap it off.  We just decided to walk away at that point for months. Licking our wounds. I begged my husband to cut our loses and sell it for scrap. I could finally have my driveway back. Nope, it has become a quest he wasn't giving up on.  We decided to take it to the shop after months of not touching it. Let them give it a good tune up and rebuild the carb, just routine maintenance stuff. Well,  that would be too easy. It smoked horribly on the way to the shop. This is new and different.... We dropped it off and left it. One week later, after they looked the camper over with a fine tooth comb... the estimate we got was 4,200.00 minimum. I almost passed out. Now, again after the initial shock... there really wasn't that much wrong with it. Carb rebuilt, oil change, tune up, lights out, stuff like that. 75% of the estimate at $100.00 an hour ran the bill up to a ridiculous amount. But the engine and transmission were perfect. The smoke was an exhaust seal. So, it is still in the shop, we are getting the major stuff done and doing the rest our self. I have purchased many campers in the past, 5th wheel, pop ups and  never ever had a problem. This my friends... was a lesson I learned the hard way. So , what did we learn?

1) Never, ever assume you will not be taken. EVER. Take your time and check everything, test them look at them. listen to them. Check out the fridge, stove, gauges, air anything and everything. Its your money, do it!

2) Get a better education then YouTube. It has great videos and I am addicted but for this kind of thing... you need hands on.

3) Join a local Facebook group and RV club.

And remember, Live, Laugh, Re-Purpose.

Melissa
XOXOXOX

Our first experience with a motor home purchase! You cant make this stuff up!!! Part 1

So this is my first blog about RVs.. Some times, you purchase a used RV and everything goes great. You jump in, take it home, load it with all of your necessities and then some and hit the road... Other times, it doesn't go as planned. Not even close...this was one of those times....

My husband and I decided we were going to buy an RV in May around the middle of the month. We wanted the true american dream, go camping in the mountains and see the good ol USA!!!. That was 8 months ago, the motor home is in the shop after sitting for 7 months. It has never been camped in. Not by our family at least. The bad thing is, we have to renew the tags in 4 months already. And.....It has never been used. So let me tell you the story of how we got here.

  My husband and I decided we were going to buy our first RV, We were so excited! We looked everywhere and nothing in our price range. Now let me tell you our price range was no more then $2500.00. Now here in the Midwest, that's a reasonable price for an older fixer upper class C motor home. We were armed with money and YouTube! So, we set out on craigslist and bought the app $2.99 just so it would alert us immediately of any new posting. We waited...

On June 23, 2016, We found our new (old) RV. It was a 1979 Dodge Honey Sportsman. It was only 3 hours away! We had this. This baby was ours!!! The search was over. The next morning we got up early and drove 3 hours to Holton, Kansas. Road trip!!! I love road trips! We finally make it to Holton and find our baby. She was a beauty. She had a lot of work that needed to be done. We were ok with tearing out walls and re-framing them, we had YouTube!!! No Problem! There was water damage, we knew that when we bought it. Was the engine and transmission strong?  Yes, they told us. We test drove it and she ran like a beauty. We were so excited. We were going to bring her home and tear out a few walls, make her new again and hit the road. Well.... that didn't happen.

We signed the papers, paid the money and took off for home. My husband drove and I followed in a Prius. Yes, a Prius!!! I happen to love my Prius but hey....its not for everyone. Anyhow, I kid you not, 5 miles out of town, one of the drivers side dully's blew out. We were able to drive it back to Horton to a tire shop. it was the only place within 50 miles that had the tire size we needed. It was a Miracle!!! When we get to the shop, the tire man walks past the front drivers side tire and says damn, what is that? He reaches out and touches the front tire hub and says ow, you have locked up brakes! The calipers were shot. I said, we have what? I couldn't believe what I was hearing. The soonest they could get to the brakes were in the morning and were 3 hours away from home. So we decided to stay in a hotel. Believe it or not, there were only 2 with rooms. We chose a small historic hotel. It was called Hotel Josephine. We loved it!!! Holton, Kansas was full of super wonderful people. We loved them all. So, here we are the next day waking up in a hotel room waiting for the call that our camper had breaks and we could go home. We explored the tiny town of Holton Kansas until almost noon. That consisted of loitering in the local Walmart again. We went the night before for clothes to get home in, laundry soap, and personal hygiene products.  The call finally came in, it was done.  We got to the shop as fast as we could, picked up the kid and headed out to Missouri. I talked to my husband frequently on Facetime to see how it was doing. So far so good. Drove a little rough but we figured it might so we just carried on. About an hour into the trip, my husband detours off to a Walmart parking lot in Ottowa Kansas, 2 hours from home and there it was, broke down. After a few hours of calling every shop and tow company I could find, our only option was to leave it parked at Walmart. My husband talked to the manager and she agreed to let us leave it there. Thank God for her right??? Just as we were getting ready to leave, I found one last shop I had not called. How did I miss this? I called and he was able to tow it to his shop and work on it there. Bless you tow guy, we were so happy! The best part was when I called to get insurance on it the day before, The agent added road side assistance and that paid for our towing. So, if you buy or own an RV, get roadside assistance. The hook up fee in some areas is up to $100.00 for an RV. On our policy its only $5.00 a month extra. Do yourself a favor and get it! So we finally made it home with my camper in Kansas 2 hours away. I was so disgusted. But, it was what it was.

One week later, we get the call the camper was done and ready to go. We drove 2 hours on Saturday and it rained the entire time. That was ok, we had wipers, well at least the Prius did. Yep you guessed it!. When we got to the shop and picked up the camper we were delayed another hour or so to fix the wipers. Ok....on the road finally..... We got it home, no further issues, or so we thought...

I am going to end here because there is so much more to this you wont even believe it. I will finish in the next day or two.  Please click the links below and leave a comment or follow my Facebook. I would appreciate it so much!!. Thank you! Please like and share my public figure page https://www.facebook.com/pg/Melissa-Kingsbury-113988622461219/likes/?ref=page_internal

Melissa
XOXOXO

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You can't make this up. I have had enough!!!

Another day, another blog... the last few days have been hell for our community. Where do I start? Well I got off work yesterday...3/1/17 at 4:30 PM and on the way home, I am heading toward the south side of town just pass the county line. There are a few hotels, motels and restaurants. As I get closer to a particular hotel I noticed there must have been 30 police cars, several news agencies, fire and EMS. I was on face time with my husband as I am everyday. We are chatting about what I am seeing.Traffic stops so I flip my phone around to show him whats going on. He is in law enforcement and I figured he could tell me. Nope, he was already home and relaxing on the couch with my dog.  Traffic was still at almost a stand still as you can imagine. Everyone had to stop and look at all of the pretty lights. My husband tells me he is getting a call from a buddy of his and gets off the phone. While waiting for my husband to call back I decide to look up whats going on on Facebook. Guess what? I figured out what was going on before my husband did. Yep, Facebook has up to the minute news information.  Around 4:00 PM a deputy sheriff was shot while serving a warrant at a local hotel. The initial report was a city police officer but the correction came out and I instantly knew one way or the other, I knew him. It didn't take long before the phone lines start blowing up and the gossip had begun. The only thing we knew for sure was a brother in blue had been shot and there was a standoff at the hotel with the suspect. I will post a link with the full story for you to read. This blogg is not intended to tell every detail of a police shooting but it just happens to be the first of a chain of horrible events recently. The deputy is expected to make a full recovery and we pray for our friend and brother that every thing works out and he experiences a full recovery. Get well soon!!! Thank you for your service to our community!!! Next, the most horrible event thus far.... there was a high school student volunteering at the elementary school, he was in the gym, there was an accident. The young man was taken to the hospital and he passed away at the young age of 18. How in the hell does this happen? Why does this happen? I cant even begin to imagine the horrible pain his parents are feeling right now. The students at the elementary school, the high school..... I am at a loss for words. My heart aches for this family. I just can't even imagine.... Please keep them in your prayers!!! I will be posting benefit information as soon as it becomes available. RIP my friend. Our community has seen its fair share of tragedy just as any other. The solidarity we show between local communities is tight nit, I am proud to be a part of it. I am proud to have served my community as law enforcement and a nurse. Families and communities go through good times and bad. But we always make it through better and stronger  There are good, kindhearted people all across the this great nation and the world. We experienced this first hand when people from all over the world came to help rebuild after the tornado. We owe each and everyone of them a lot more then we can ever repay. Thank you all for your thoughts, prayers, donations and time. We will never forget and we will never forget you. I came across this article of a major explosion that happened 50 years ago. I am posting the link for this article below. I think this is very well written and very interesting.Just another incident in our community. http://www.carthagepress.com/article/20130716/NEWS/130719234 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Joplin_tornado https://www.newstalkkzrg.com/2017/03/01/jasco-deputy-shot-while-serving-search-warrant/ http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/mar/2/district-joplin-student-dies-in-accident-at-school/ Donations can be made to Deputy Murray through the Jasper County Sheriffs Office 417-358-8177 At this time there is no fund for the high schooler who passed away. This just happened today and I expect the information will be out tomorrow sometime. www.showmecustomdesigns.com www.liveloverepurpose.com In closing for the night please remember to, Live - like its your last day Love - Like you never have Re-Purpose - your life. Change it for the better. See you all, Melissa XOXOXO