To Explain...

I had to laugh at the comments on my last post - I truly had not intended to do a 1 word post but it seemed fitting at the time.

To explain...Stretch got his driver's license on Friday evening. I would not allow him to drive to the high school for the basketball game he had to attend. However he drove himself around on Sunday - he had two Gospel Choir concerts that day to be at and it made it so much easier to allow him to drive himself to meet the bus - and then drive himself home. At the same time...it is scary to have my boy on the roads "alone" on snow-covered roads. B is having a much easier time with it - and wants him to drive more so that I and Squirrel get home after school at a much more reasonable hour then when we have to wait on Stretch. I think the compromise will be to allow him to drive to where I park my school bus and then ride from there. In the evenings he will be able to get a shuttle bus ride back to near the car to drive home from there. That way the roads he will be on are less curvy and he won't be driving as far - comfort for this mommy's heart - yet the rest of us will still get home at a more reasonable time most days.

The old house is pretty much empty. I still need to get down there and finish cleaning it - and we need to move the chickens up here. Hopefully by the end of this week that will happen. Unpacking is happening - slowly. There are still too many boxes around here that need sorted through and stuff put away. However it is coming along.

B is still not back at his old job. He has been able to work in his shop for the last week and a half - beginning to get work in there. I rather suspect that that will continue for some time.

I'd better run - must change back into work clothes and head to the grocery. We are out of milk and I have a long shopping list to purchase. I won't be home again until after afternoon route.

Driving

Update Again

We have slow internet access now - it's satellite so better than dial-up but certainly slower than what we had at the old house. Maybe I will eventually upgrade to something faster but for now we will adjust to what we have - and be thankful for it.

Boxes are still many - furniture is not all in it's place but slowly unpacking is happening. It was nice to get several boxes of books unpacked and on shelves. I even put a couple in the "garage sale" pile which is steadily growing. Once the computer is in it's permanent place I will be able to get my scrapbooking stuff unpacked and hopefully re-organized. I will have less space for it but did choose to downsize some of my books so it should hopefully work out ok. I still have all my old journals from back when I was a kid and young adult - to now. Those - though maybe they should be - will not be downsized.

Dogs are moved - as of last night. Splash is still tied up but so far Sally has not wandered too far. She comes running whenever we come outside - it's rather nice to not have her confined to the back yard. Chickens and school bus are still at the old house. Chickens will move north - bus will move but probably not north.

B still does not have any permanent full-time job options. His shop is cleaned out and he's got a couple of projects lined up to work on beginning tomorrow. We will see.

Guess that's enough of an update for now - while I'm trying to take things a bit easier this afternoon I'm still attempting to empty some boxes and do some laundry. (I desperately need to develope some sort of "Sabbath rest" but so far it's not happened).

Quick Note

Quick note - we have a second 2 hour delay this morning. There's a half inch or so of snow on the ground covering over a good layer of ice. Yesterday morning it was freezing rain...winter appears to have arrived with a bang.

Still don't have internet access at the new house - have decided what we are going to go with - I just need to stop long enough to get it ordered and scheduled to be installed. At that point we will finally move the computer there and I hope we will be down to sweeping out this place. B wants to do be done here - as do I. However if so much stuff didn't revolve around computer access (including in some cases, boys' homework) I'm sure he would prefer not to have computer access.

Stretch has been home from school sick this week. He's got acute bronchitis...I probably could have sent him today but I've seen too many kids on my bus route sick - out for a couple of days, back for 1 then out again for the rest of the week. Since this is a short week anyway I figure he's better off at home - he's settling in - helping get some things unpacked and just resting.

I'd better scoot - bus is running and it's almost time to get moving.

Still here...

Still here....still swamped...still moving. No DSL service at new house...am frantically trying to make internet access arrangements...no decisions yet.

Moving - Sort-of

Well just a quick note - we are now moving boxes and some furniture in. There are still a few little things being finished up but the major stuff is all done. My hope is to be able to move beds either Friday or Saturday. In the meantime...I'm continuing to try to take care of two places at once - and keep up with boys' activities. I'll write more once things are more settled. Need to go call the phone company to get them to place order so phone service can be set up. Also have dishes and laundry to care for this evening yet.

Staying "home"

I'm staying home mostly today - went out to pay on the storage locker but other than that plan to pretty much stay home between routes. Of course, I didn't get home from bus route this morning until after 9:00 am. We had a driver meeting with the elementary principal after the route - didn't start until after morning announcements. Then I had to come home and attempt to get in contact with some parents on my route. We will see how things work out. So far I've caught up on folding laundry, started dishwasher and started more laundry. I plan to take a nap as soon as I'm done with this entry...and my much needed on-line visit with my sister. I hope to get kitchen tidied up, hand dishes done and lots of laundry done. Then it would be nice if I got my seating chart posted on the bus and some more boxes packed. Am still exhausted but not in as much physical pain/stiffness as I was yesterday.

The weather has been beautiful the last few days - sunny and unseasonably warm. It's supposed to change starting tonight and tomorrow - with the possibility of rain and snow showers on Saturday. I'm really hoping and praying that during the day - even if it's cold - is not overly wet so that we can start moving. Kitchen counters are in, sinks are in and hooked up, other bathroom fixtures are in...master bedroom has been cleaned with windows done. Goal for today is to finish getting tools, etc out and then tomorrow we will clean again. The basement and one bathroom really need cleaning work but again that can't be done until construction mess is done. If we can get the necessities moved then the rest can be done slightly more slowly. I know B wants it all done as soon as possible...I just don't know.

Better go - my nap is calling me.

Oops

Boy is my face red this afternoon! I've felt all week like I've been chasing my tail - just constantly on the go. Monday I was at M*n*rds in "the city" picking up stuff to finish the house. Tuesday I was at a different M*n*rds in another town an hour or so and 2 counties north of here. Both days I was up at the house after that until after 1:00pm - not getting home to this house until close to 2:00 and therefore not having any time to rest and catch a quick nap. (I voted yesterday on the way home as well). Then both evenings I've been out doing more running either with the boys or just trying to get stuff done at home. So I was pretty tired. This morning I turned in a bus conduct report on a student then went up to the house to start cleaning. I was out again until well after 1:30. I got home and had a quick cup of coffee hoping that would wake me up - it didn't so I figured I would take a 10 min. rest on the couch. I set my alarm to go off at what I thought said 2:15 and closed my eyes - fell sound asleep until my cell phone rang at 2:45 - when I was supposed to be at the middle school picking up my first group of students of the afternoon. Thankfully the phone call was the transportation department calling to find out where I was - they were able to get that group of students onto one of the other buses and I was able to make it to the elementary school on time. My route went well overall but I think I need to start making sure I'm getting enough rest.

Brief Note

Well I'm just finishing up second cup of coffee this morning. The sun is shining though it's still quite cold outside. Today I feel rather exhausted but need to leave soon to go up to the house. We are getting closer to a move-in date...Trim work is being installed, electrical hook-ups are being finished. I'm hoping that when I get there today the hot water heater will be working and that soon we will have restrooms completed. That will leave the kitchen to be finished - and the master closet. The closet is not such an urgent thing - we could move in without it being done - the lining is in and we are just waiting for hanging racks and shelves. I hope to take some more pictures today in addition to getting bathroom shelves covered, fridge and freezer cleaned. I'm not working on cleaning windows yet as there is still too much construction dust.

B has been spending his time working on the house - once that is done he will focus on finding a job. He's still struggling with discouragement but is doing better.

Laid Off

B got laid off this morning. We don't know for how long - if it's temporary or what. All we know is that for now he's out of a job. Emotions and thoughts run wild at the moment - it's been a long challenging day.

I know that God has a plan and that He has promised to provide for us. Right now that's all I know.

A Few Wedding Pictures

O.k...I am finally going to post some long-awaited wedding pictures. I've been staying away from blogging because I couldn't decide what to post and I was feeling guilty about not getting the wedding pictures up. I'm not going to include many as I'm not hugely keen on having family completely identifiable on the web. However these should give those of you who've been waiting at least an idea of how things looked that day.

I think - though it's rather hard to see in these pictures - that what stands out to me most when I look at them - is how absolutely happy I look. Glowing is probably the best term for it. I normally hate having my picture taken but this day I could not stop grinning. Some of it I know is that this time I did things in God's order - marriage first. There's no guilt in my heart. Some of it is that I've been blessed with a second chance at love - loving and being loved. I know that marriage is still a lot of work but it's not something I expected to ever be blessed with again. My attendants were all in "wildflower" colors - the dresses turned out gorgeous - and each girl looked fantastic in the color they wore. The guys were good "foils" in jeans and white dress shirts - and all have worn those outfits again (repeatedly). I love the way the colors looked together - and my bouquet turned out fantastic as well - also basically wildflowers.

Everything was fairly simple - the reception felt a bit "rushed" to us - I know I was overwhelmed by the number of people around and the activity. But we all had a fairly good time I think. I did go barefoot pretty much the entire day - except a couple times while walking outside. Being as I really don't know how to dance - dancing was fun.

Bus Training and Other Ramblings

I'm just finishing up my much needed second cup of coffee and a snack. We had bus driver training this morning - SWAT team training. Basically we ran through what might possibly happen if we ever had a bus h*j*cked and how the team would come in and begin to sort things out. There are so many possible variables in such a situation that it's pretty much impossible to plan for every possibility. However I think most of us drivers came away with a much better idea of what to expect in such a situation - and we managed to have a lot of fun doing it. Picture - if you can - a conventional yellow school bus filled with 20 - 30 laughing, talking, carrying-on middle-aged adults crammed into seats intended to hold small children - Suddenly there's a very loud noise outside the bus and a team of uniformed "armed" men come busting onto the bus shouting orders. That was enough of an adrenaline charge for me - I hope and pray I never have to experience something like that in real life with children under my care - with a real "bad guy". But it was good training - and far more interesting than some we've sat through.

The sun is mostly shining outside - it's a crisp cool fall morning - leaves are falling everywhere. I am thankful to be able to take things a bit easy this morning - I need to run to B's work to pick up some paperwork but think I'm going to put that off until after school. Instead I'm going to get the kitchen cleaned and hopefully some packing and baking done.

Thankfully I've found my disk for my card-reader so that soon I can download pictures again. I'm excited about that as downloading from the memory card is so much easier for me then taking it to the camera store to have them put the pictures on a disk that I later have to download after all.

Not getting my flu shot this week- between the current treatment for poison ivy and the cold I've been fighting I will be waiting about 10 days. I'm kind of glad because I didn't want to add that on top of everything else.

Enough rambling for now - coffee is finished - it's time to get some work done.

Monday Ramblings

Well....I'm not sure I have time to write this and get it posted before it's time to get ready to go back on the bus. On the one hand I feel like I've accomplished a bit today - dining room table is cleared off, laundry is folded while more is cycling through the machines, kitchen counter is tidied and wiped down, chicken soup from last week is divided into bags and frozen, meat is out thawing for supper and family room is tidied. Before afternoon route time I will hopefully be able to switch laundry loads out one more time as well as fix my hair just a bit.

The weekend was very very busy - Squirrel had his conference meet on Saturday morning. He is the 7th runner on his team so got to run "varsity" - he did very well - ran the distance of 1.9 miles in 13:58. Having said that - running varsity means there is less runners and therefore he came in almost last. However he was pleased with his time and that's most important. I was able to watch him run before I headed off to B's dad's for the auction that was held this weekend. Stretch went with Dipstick and B first thing in the morning to be there before everything started. Squirrel was dropped off around 2:30 pm. None of us made it home until well after 7:00 pm Saturday night. I think the auction went well overall - it was certainly a learning experience for me as I'd never been before. I truthfully don't understand how those auctioneers can talk so fast - it was amazing.

B bought me a large copper kettle in a stand - not for making carmel corn as it can't handle getting that hot. My current challenge is to decide exactly how I want to use this pot. I have always loved copper - plan to decorate part of the new kitchen with copper jello molds and cookie cutters. (We found some on our honeymoon at a very nice price so they are stashed away waiting to get settled). B's suggestion was to polish it up, put something neat inside it - for display and top it all with a piece of glass. It's in too nice a shape for use as a planter...we will see. Most things went reasonably ok at the auction - the tractors brought more than expected, the truck brought considerably less. B was able to get several items that he wanted and could use in his shop. At least one of them was something he'd helped build many years ago. I hope and pray that enough was sold to keep his mom and dad financially stable for the rest of their lives.

As far as the house is coming...the kitchen is now tiled and cabinets likely should be going in this week. The master bedroom is completely painted and has floor down - as does part of the "great room". The cherrywood is up on the wall in the dining area - it looks really cool. Flooring is down in both the "hall" bathroom and the mudroom and both those rooms are painted. We have agreed on a stain color to finish the wood trim throughout. I think we still have another trip to the home improvement store but not sure when that will happen.

Tonight Stretch has a choir concert at the high school. Squirrel has his very last crosss country meet this afternoon. Dipstick has boy scouts but not sure if he will be going or not. I am still fighting cold symptoms and allergies (mold count is up around here). Crops are coming in...it's unseasonably warm here - the trees are all shades of brilliant oranges and reds. No pictures organized to post - no time at the moment.

Well I am definitely down with a cold or something - running fever, the whole 9 yards. I'm driving my bus today but otherwise am staying home puttering around. I've filled a couple of boxes with books, sorted some out, taken a nap and done some laundry. I'm about to put a chicken in the crock pot for home-made chicken noodle soup. It's my favorite comfort food for when I'm fighting an illness. What's yours?

Monday

It's Monday...been awhile since I've taken time to write here. Nothing much is happening - just daily life mainly. I'm a bit "coldy" at the moment - thought it was allergies yesterday but have decided it's likely a cold trying to come on. I'm drinking fluids and taking vitamin C and trying to sleep when I can. I came home from my morning route this morning and took a nap immediately. However since I got up I have been puttering around the house - doing laundry, packing, tackling clearing off my craft desk. The craft desk can be seen again - while there is still stuff on it it's no longer a "Fibber McGhee" attack waiting to happen. The pile on the floor is still there - I may get to that before afternoon route time. The challenge is that I've packed up part of the craft room but not all of it - therefore what's not packed is no longer really organized. I feel like I'm accomplishing though and that's needed.

I talked to my girlfriend who took our wedding pictures over the weekend. She said at least some if not all of them will be in the mail today. Hopefully by the end of this week I will be able to see how they all turned out. I'm both excited and a little nervous about that. She's an excellent photographer - I'm most definitely NOT an excellent subject.

We did not have a Saturday meet this past week. That was lovely to be honest. We spent the day up at the house - cleaning and painting. Floors are not in yet but Squirrel's room has one coat of paint. Both the "little" bathroom - outside Squirrel's room and the mudroom mostly have one coat of paint on them. The family room (more of a "great room" I think) is painted and the kitchen has 1 coat - except where cupboards will hide unpainted areas. Those are being left primed. The master bedroom has 2 coats on most of it - then we ran out of paint. Lights are up in most rooms - not the "little bathroom" and not completely in the master bedroom and closet. This week kitchen cabinets should go in - as should flooring in most areas that are painted. We still must make at least one more trip to the home improvement store to get door handles and kitchen knobs. I have no good idea how long the finishing will take - we don't have trim yet to my knowledge - but am really thinking that we will be done by the end of this month. Though moving is difficult and there will still be lots of sorting and packing to do I am eagerly anticipating being able to get in and get settled. I still have lots of wood to stain and seal - have to decide on color for that yet. I am still taking pictures as we go but have not been able to find my disk so I can download them to the computer.

B is off this week - planning on spending most of the week helping his dad get things finished up for the upcoming auction this Saturday. (Squirrel has a meet so I will miss part of the day - it will be emotional for B's family as the auction is happening because his dad is terminally ill). I do plan to go up there a couple of time to take pictures of preparations and some of the antiques. To me - while it's heartbreaking on the one hand it's also fascinating to see and be able to learn about the antique tractors and stuff. I'm really hoping though that we can get at least one breakfast date in as well.

There are parent/teacher conferences to attend, cross country meets and other activities. It will be another busy week but should be interesting.

Poison Rashes, Cross Country Meet and House Update

I just started my second round of steroids to fight poison ivy (actually the first time it was poison oak) - but it was just 2 weeks ago. B is likely to make me buy my fruit rather than going out picking elderberries and wild grapes. But I find it rather satisfying to gather the fruit myself and make juice for jelly out of it. I'm not so fond of the poison rashes though. We will try again to find some homeopathic remedies.

The boys have another cross country meet tonight - this one is at the high school and is joint again. I'm interested to see how a joint meet will work at the high school. Hopefully the temperature will be cool enough for good running. The meet this past Saturday ended up being really hot - and long. I did not drive the bus - felt like that would be too much in combination with siding the house (not that I was doing that much siding but I wanted to be there for at least part of the day). I locked my car keys in the ignition of the car - that was a trip to say the least. I realized immediately that I had done it but had no spare key and had to end up having someone break into the car for me.

The house is looking good - we've got siding on it now - pretty much all the way around. The drywall is pretty much finished inside and priming it for paint has begun. The kitchen still needs done but it's started. We are to the point of starting to see the end of the project - I have yet to choose things like sinks and flooring for the mudroom and kitchen. But progress is definitely being made. I'm still picking paint colors - keep changing my mind slightly. That will likely continue until I actually have the paint purchased.

The bus route is still going pretty good. Yesterday was a bit of an exciting afternoon - I had one of my top emergency hatches come flying off the bus - I caught a low-hanging telephone wire with the open hatch. I was still fairly full - the kids did great. I was thankful for mostly supportive parents and no injuries.

"For Sale by Owner"

Busy day today - I've had a "for sale by owner" sign out in the yard for about a week now - need to go down and take a picture of it (just because I take pictures of most things at some point). Anyway...we've had a couple of calls on the house asking for information and price. But yesterday the call was from a couple who had called for information wanting to schedule a time to come look at it - they are coming this evening about 5:30. B will be home - he thinks he knows the couple and wants to see them again. I'm thankful he will be here as I'm really nervous about showing the house - don't feel at all that it's ready to show or sell. There are boxes, packages and stuff everywhere - I realize that if this is the couple B thinks it is they will realize we are newly-weds and moving and make allowances. And having said that...we've spent a couple of evenings working outside trimming bushes, pulling weeds and generally cleaning up - it does look better outside. Inside needs bathrooms cleaned, kitchen cleaned and lots of picking up done - there's not more than that that I can do in one day. I am thankful for having had my family here - they did help a lot.

I am really looking forward to getting settled into our new place. I will definitely miss our fruit trees and my yard and location. However being settled in one larger, better laid out place will be a good thing - B will be able to come home and work in his shop in the evenings, we'll be able to eat together - at a reasonable hour more frequently and overall life will be able to become "normal".

Must go for now - will try to update more later...Life is busy but good.

Hoops

Breathe in slowly through the nose, out through the mouth. Breathe in, breathe out...slow and easy. Continue until ones thoughts calm down, ones blood pressure drops and one can consider the hoops one must jump through to change names and info on driver's license, work paperwork, etc more calmly. I made my 3rd trip to the Bureau of Motor Vehicles (BMV) in a week today - up until this point I had been somewhat calm about it. Today...not so much. I have to go back yet again as I still didn't have everything I need to change my name to married name and my address to new address - yesterday they would have used the marriage license to change the address as well as the name - now that I've been to the SS office to get that changed. Today...I have to have some official mail with the new mailing address on it in addition to the marriage license and paper from the SS office. Now that I've spent the last hour attempting to calm down - I realize I've dealt with 3 different employees in the BMV who have all told me something different. I have called my bank who I've dealt with since we moved here - they will change name and address based on marriage license. Then on Tuesday I can get copies of bank statement with new information on it, take that along with marriage license and SS paper back to BMV - along with new hubby B - and hopefully accomplish what has currently been not possible. Thankfully my workplace is not demanding it be done immediately which helps.

I told the girl I talked to at the bank what was going on - told her this kind of stuff was something I expected to have to deal with overseas - I remember Dad having to take care of getting stuff updated or paperwork and planning on it taking most of the day. He knew that even banking could take a long time with one having to visit multiple offices/people to accomplish one thing. I remember tagging along with him and being thankful that I had a book to read as we would go stand in one line or another to eventually get everything stamped appropriately. Here in the US I do NOT expect to have to deal with multiple trips to the same place to try to accomplish changing one driver's license. I was talking to Suz yesterday - she commented that if a business was run as inefficently as the government is run said business would go under in very short order. I have to agree.

On a different note...I'm currently unable to download pictures to the computer from my camera to post. Somehow in the wedding rush and computer getting updated my card reader software has disappeared - both what was installed and the disk to reinstall it. The good news is that the pictures that were already downloaded are fine - I just need to get them backed up to disc. Hopefully soon I will get wedding pictures that I can post...we will see.

Squirrel has had 2 cross country meets - the first one was home and the second was quite aways away. I didn't attend the second one - I know he was disappointed about that and his time. However he is still doing quite well for a beginner - just needs to stick it out and keep working at it. Tomorrow I will drive bus for a joint meet with both boys.

Sept11...That date is one that will forever stay in memory. Most of us can remember where we were and what we were doing when we first heard about the terrorist attacks on the US. I know I do...I was on my way to the hospital to spend the day with my husband Mike who was fighting brain cancer and going through rehab so he could hopefully learn to come home and be "self-sufficient". That day no rehab was accomplished - he took those attacks against his country as extremely personal attacks because the planes used were owned by "his" company. He was angry, frustrated and depressed. I know beyond shadow of a doubt that had he been 5-10 years younger and healthy he would have been first in line to enlist to go fight back. Suz, who's since become one of my best friends, on the other hand had just had her world jarred by being told her husband Tim had a very aggressive brain cancer.

My heart aches today for all those who lost that day...who still lose as a result of that day.

Monday Musings

Busy busy couple of weeks...and I really should be doing peaches already this morning. I have tomatoes waiting also - from Suz. I'm waiting on a call back from the doctor's office this morning - got into some poison oak the end of last week while I was picking elderberries. The good news (!) is that it's poison oak - not poison ivy - so my "preventative" from the spring apparently works on at least poison ivy. That's somewhat encouraging. However the fact that the poison oak is up around my eyes and into my hairline makes things challenging - not something I want to mess around with. So we will see what the doctor says. And thankfully it's not something that spreads to other people so I can still drive bus and continue on with semi-normal life.

Today was a rather wild morning on the bus - checking on some bus conduct reports I turned in last week, having one of my "challenge" kids punching the side of the bus for no apparent reason while another little one was in puddles of tears...Thankfully most of this happened at the elementary school so I could get some back-up. Most of it was nothing that was a real discipline issue though.

The wedding went off fairly well I think. We had a nice time away - though it was short. We deliberately didn't plan on any kind of schedule - did some sightseeing, some sleeping and just enjoyed the time away together.

The house is coming along - the drywallers are supposed to be there starting today. Insulation is in...I'm told it will change appearance drastically as the drywall goes up. From there I've got to get paint colors finalized and get ready to get things painted. I'm not sure when flooring will go in but it would likely be easier to paint first. We'll see.

This past Saturday Stretch had his first cross country meet of the season. He did really well I think - finished with a time of 20:25 for the 5K. I didn't drive the bus this past week - am scheduled to drive for the next two Saturdays when both boys have meets at the same places. It should be interesting.

I'm going to post this and will come back later to add pictures.