Living on a budget....

We have been working hard to curb our spending as while we try to cut pounds so yesterday when I was at K-Mart picking up a few things (including our Rx for Ecuador), I managed to NOT buy these adorable resin statues. They were even ON SALE and I resisted. But I did snap a photo.

Last night I showed Stu the picture and he asked why I didn't get them. He said he could picture them on sitting on the porch of our future cabin. So guess what, he bought them today!! They're 12-15" tall and quite detailed, right down to the upturned toe biker boots. LOL!

This time next week, we'll be in Ecuador!

This time next week we'll be settled in our hotel room in Guayaquil...after over 16 hours of travel time. Our flight arrives at 10:30 pm so I suspect we'll still be keyed up and chattering. LOL!

[morguefile.com]

This weekend we took Sadie to stay with a friend who has an older female mixed breed dog and a huge fenced in yard. Introductions were made and they got along well. Phew! Now we don't have to kennel her for a month. We weren't looking forward to that.

All our doctor visits are done and we have written copies of all our prescriptions. We'll use them as backup in case something were to happen to our pills while there.

It was a gorgeous spring day today, perfect temperatures, lots of sunshine and the smell of flowers in the air. We were both wishing the motorcycles were unloaded...we'd be riding. But too much still to do.

Today hubby did a video inventory of our rig and all our belongings. A good friend of ours had his rig broken into while it was parked at a repair facility. We sure hope that doesn't happen to us but I feel better with a little help documenting our belongings.

Several new online friends from Cuenca have asked us to pick up little things to bring with us for them: baking soda, generic Tums, candy bars, raisins. You know, the fun things in life. We have room and are glad to do it. Means we'll meet more folks, too!

Friday we take our RV to the repair shop and move to a hotel in Annapolis for Friday and Saturday nights. Sunday we take the metro train to a hotel that has shuttle service to/from both the metro and the airport. On Monday our adventure begins! WHOO-HOO!!!

Counting down the days....

It's hard to believe that time is passing so quickly. Before we know it, our Ecuador adventure will have started! Our To Do list is growing shorter with only a little bit of shopping left to do....and most of that is for small things folks living there have asked us to pick up for them.

Yup, we're gonna be mules of a sort. So far we have been asked to bring:

• Baking soda (hard to buy there)
• Lunchbox size raisins
• Dark Chocolate Milky Way bars
• Generic Tums (big bottle)
• McCormick Taco Seasoning

We already know that Benadryl and Claritin (even the generic versions) are hard to come by so we're taking a full bottle of each for ourselves. Same with antibiotic ointment and my Pepcid AC.

Today Sadie is going to her foster mom's with all her goodies. If all goes well, she'll stay. If not, she'll come home and we'll have to book the local kennel we use. We really don't want to put her in a kennel for a month so we'll ask family to take her out for a day or two to play with her sister pups. Unfortunately, they all have multiple dogs so adding one more (they all work full-time) is too much of a burden.

We have family dinners planned for Sunday and Monday, Tuesday we hope to meet up with a good friend who is only off then and Wednesday is packing day. Thursday we drop off the rig at the body shop and we'll check into a hotel.

Thursday is also our 4th anniversary and we're going to a nice Japanese steak house with our Thursday night dinner crew. Friday and Saturday we'll do any last minute shopping (if there is still room in our bags) and Sunday we'll move to the hotel that has a shuttle to the airport as well as to the metro rail system.

All our checkups have gone well, including Stu's one year on his knees, except my cholesterol is back up. I stopped taking statins after many years due to side effects. When we get back from our trip, which will have LOTS of healthy eating and walking, I'll get tested one more time and then make the decision on trying another Rx. Unfortunately for me, it is hereditary and I suspect that I will be on meds. Sigh...

When we come back we'll spend one night in the same hotel, shuttle to the metro where family will pick us up and we'll go get our truck. Then we'll pick up KaZy from the body shop and head on over to Stu's daughter's in Delaware for two weeks before heading to our property in TN.

Busy, busy, busy!