Betsy of Christmas Past

In honor of our Christmas this year - here are a couple snapshots of Christmas past. We hope you enjoy these vintage memories of "little" Betsy. We are still in Michigan for the holidays and have not any snow as of yet...but we're hopeful!





Betsy and her little sister, Emily, making Christmas cookies back in their hay-day. Anyone want a taste test?










Little Miss Betsy and her brand new Tinker Toys that Santa brought Christmas 1979.











Betsy and her little "monkey" sister bursting at the seams to get at those presents under the Christmas Tree.

Getting Settled...

We are getting unpacked, arranged & settled...with the help of Betsy's Dad (Rod-the-Bod), we are able to get the moving truck unloaded in just over a day. Rod was an animal on the hand-truck! We have about 3/4 of the boxes unpacked and in the trash - a new fridge, a new couch and leather chair - and some artwork on the walls. It's coming together slowly but surely! Hope you enjoy these few pictures - seems to have a limit on pictures so we'll post some more later this week.




The view from the front of our house.














The 1st room (sitting room) - a work in progress...














The dining room - very close to being done!














The stairwell - took some acrobatics from Rod and Stan to get the large picture hung in the stairwell foyer. The picture is the largest one we have and was given to us by our friend Jody - she is a great graphic artist!










Rod had many many cuts and scrapes including a gash in his head from a fight he lost with the chandelier in the dining room.

A New Journey Begins...

After nearly 3 full days of traveling, we finally made it to Las Vegas! Our last day of travel took us through Arizona and on into Nevada - up and over the Hoover Dam - and into North Las Vegas where we did a walk through of the house. And amazingly enough, the house was a bit bigger and a little nicer than we had remembered from our trip about 3 weeks ago.

Since we didn't sign the paperwork (Closing) until 6pm on Monday - we didn't get the keys to the house until Wednesday about 2pm. We've unloaded both the cars and got confirmation the truck with all our goodies will be dropped off Friday between 9am-5pm (nice window eh?)...but at least they haven't lost the trailer!

Last night we bought a trio of stainless steel appliances for the kitchen including a refrigerator, above range microwave and dishwasher. We'll get the refrigerator this upcoming Sunday but won't get the other ones until after the 1st of the year when we get back in town from our Michigan Christmas.

We need to thank Rick and Jen for helping us drive out - it was a HUGE help having a second driver in each car. It made the trip so much easier!

We hope you enjoy our pictures - please feel free to comment and keep us up-to-date with your lives as well.




Welcome to Nevada!








The first thing put in or at the house was a wedding gift. A rock showing when the "Remlings" were established...thanks to Dave and Courtney.

















Betsy officially getting the keys to our new house from the Realtor (Demetrio).












The entry way and formal living room (soon to be the "bar" room). We have a custom tile foyer which is pretty cool.












The living room - a niche just big enough for our TV. Now we have to go shopping for a couch and chair since we sold our other ones.















The kitchen looking into the living room.

Day 3: The Journey Continues...

Day 3 started out a little later than expected...only by about 30 minutes or so. After a breakfast of cereal, biscuits and cinnamon buns at the Holiday Inn Express in Shawnne, OK we headed west. We did stop and tour the memorial dedicated to those killed in the bombing of the Federal Building in Oklahoma City. The memorial was quite amazing and well worth a visit to Oklahoma City - we didn't get to tour the museum since it opens at 1:00 PM on Sunday and we didn't want to wait around in 19 degree weather for a couple hours.

We made our way through the pan-handle of Texas going through Amarillo. Texas was a short but eventful trip including a stop at DQ (dairy queen) and warnings for speeding by friendly patrol officers...

New Mexico was a great state introducing 75mph speed limit areas and endless desert views. We stopped for a late lunch to try and find some authentic mexican food; however, the restaurant we were hoping to eat was closed on Sunday (who knew?!?) - and then we found an original Route 66 Diner which closed at 2PM - so we ended up at a Denny's but it was an original Denny's diner and we had the place to ourselves.

We made our way to the edge of Arizona where we could see stunning views of red rock cliffs even in the dark. We are definately looking forward to the views tomorrow and hope to get into Las Vegas by noon - to do a walk through of the house and close at 2. More to come...

The chair statues representing every person (a total of 168) that was killed in the bombing.

There was a lot of personal items left on the fence of the memorial for the victims. There were security badges, children's toys and shoes to name plates.








Ole, Ole, Ole! We arrived in New Mexico! Where is some Tex Mex?









It was a nice time arrival in Arizona but we made it nonetheless.

Day 2: Tennessee, Arkansas & Oklahoma...

Life on the road - what fun! We left bright and early at the crack of dawn (which is 7:30 AM for those of you wondering when that is) - after a great nights sleep at the Best Western in Crossville, TN. So after a breakfast of complimentary biscuits & gravy, eggs, donuts and juices we hit the road. 700 plus miles, Jumbo BBQ sandwiches, 3 gas stops, wild dogs and cats, 1 nuclear cooling silo and lots of chit chat on the walkee-talkees, we arrived in Oklahoma. We had hoped to make it to Oklahoma City but fell just about 30 miles short where we ate at a Chilli's and are now staying in a Holiday Inn express (and yes, we do expect to be smarter tomorrow!).

The weather has gotten a good bit colder as we make our way West. We started seeing snow in Oklahoma today and when we got into Shawnee there's a good 5 inches on the ground and lots of ice...it's about 28 degress now at 10:30 at night so hopefully the sun comes up and melts everything real early.

We hope to hit the road in the morning around 7:30 again, and spend a couple minutes at the memorial dedicated to those killed in the Oklahoma City bombing in the early 90's before darting across the pan-handle of Texas, across the state of New Mexico and hopefully half way through Arizona before another "pit stop".

One thing we have learned is that is sucks driving West when the sun is setting in front of you. For one, it's hard to drive when your eyes are being burned out of your head and two, did I mention the eyes being burned from the head..? Stay tuned...

Welcome to Tennessee!

Nothing says "Lovin" like a jumbo Tennessee BBQ Pork sandwich with a large Sweet Tea! Amen for the south...

Welcome to Arkansas! This has definately been the coolest welcome sign so far.

Nuclear evidence...Betsy admitted that her pee glowed in the dark when we stopped at the Rest Area just a mile from the nuclear reactor... we all took her word for it...wouldn't you?

Courtney's amazing Dog Chow Sweet Treats were a life-saver for those snack time breaks in Arkansas. Here Stan is pouring some for Jen in her "crack" as requested...say please!

Welcome to Oklahoma! A cold and wintry welcome this was...

Jen and Rick found an actual Seminole Tee-Pee that the native indians used when they had picnic lunches. It was amazing the great condition it was in...

It begins....day one of the drive to Las Vegas...

We have to give a special thanks to Dwayne, Stooley, Courtney and Dave for helping us pack up the moving truck this past Tuesday. If we didn't have your help we would probably still be moving boxes. The truck was picked up on Thursday afternoon. That left us with cleaning the house and packing the cars. We were hoping to start our drive at around 10AM on Friday, but we didn't get on the road until 1pm.

Rick and Jen showed up at our house at around 11am, and we were still in the process of finishing packing the cars and putting finishing touches on the house. Thank you to Rick's cousin Collette for taking all the stuff we couldn't fit in our cars!














We decided to take the more southern route to Las Vegas from Virginia. We hit I-66 west, to I-81 south, to I-40 west. We will be taking I-40 just about the rest of the way. As of 1AM on Saturday morning we are about 2 hours from Nashville, and tomorrow we are shooting for Oklahoma City as our stopping point.





Since it is so late we need to get some rest for the long drive tomorrow.....