Here I are!

I have been living in Ohio for the last 10 or 12 days. I began my new job, up near Columbus. They warned me it was a "start-up" business. I was in early at American Eagle's start up when they moved from Lawton to NW Arkansas. I was there when Eagle moved 1/2 mile up the road to bigger digs.
We dealt with aircraft parts... we moved to a new location without stopping the maintenance.
But this is chaos on a whole new level.
The warehouse is eight hundred thousand square feet. Just writing 800,000 SF doesn't do justice to the size.
The first day: I did paperwork, paperwork, paperwork, paperwork, watched safety films, paperwork, paperwork, safety films, and more paperwork.
Day 2: The "receivers" are removed from the group of shippers. I am told I am a shipper, first shift, 6:00 am -2:30 pm. (For the duration of training, plan to work 8:00-4:30). The receivers are given a training overview. The shippers are left in the conference room, and told someone will be with us shortly. No one ever was with us.... til nearly 2 hours later someone finds us and sends us for a long lunch. This screwed up the automated time system that rejects long lunches and assesses as "late" back from lunch, which causes us to accrue a "half a point"... more than 2 points in the first 90 days = termination. (They fixed our times as we were told to take the long lunch).
Day 3, I learn I am NOT a shipper... I am a receiver. They have no first shift shippers. Most of the 40 people hired thus far are set to janitorial work. I have pushed a broom now for 4 solid days. Only one day was I required to stay until 4:30.
(There is no product coming in nor going out, and none of the systems are set up. These are technical systems, so we cannot "help" build conveyor belts or set up computer systems.
Monday, we are supposed to have enough warehouse systems in place and have the necessary hardware on hand, that I will actually start to learn about my new job. They are supposed to "go live" Oct. 3rd. Meanwhile, I have logged some 25+ miles behind a broom. Thank you Lord, it is Friday.

Mr C informs me that American Eagle is closing the Boston Maintenance facility. So all transfers by people not working from Boston, may be put on hold for awhile. We are still waiting to see about this.

My Mom's cousin Ruth is in ICU. A very sudden bout of pancreasitis has hospitalised her, leading quickly to the shutdown of kidneys and liver. Please say a prayer for her healing! Mom has gone to Arkansas to help out in Ruth's cake shop for awhile.

I am staying at my MIL's house. We have experienced an invasion of "trade mice"... the rather cute brown rodents with big eyes and rounded ears. However... they have been relentlessly trapped. We hope we have now discovered and blocked their entrance. The basement bathroom has developed a leak. This is where I live... so I am trying not to use much water before we can get it looked at. And I sure miss internet! With looking for houses online, I have little time to update my blog. Hoping we can find a place soon and that Tom CAN get his transfer in a timely manner.

Be blessed, Thanks for reading!

nine eleven

I have been reading the 9/11 tributes and memories that fellow bloggers and Facebook posters have posted.

I was teaching Spanish to my kids, along with my DH. We were barely into the first school year after our 4 year hiatus. I got a call from my step-mother, Kathie, to turn on the TV.
"What channel?" I asked.
"It doesn't matter! " she says.
So we turned in just after the first aircraft had hit, but before the second.
I feared... for my sons who were IN the Military, for our nation.
We watched all that day. By the next, we had to turn it off. The emotional toll was too much for us. We drove to our place of solace, the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge.
**********************
This came to me today....
 So much of a person's greatness stems from great trials and tribulations. I thought of John Walsh... what would he be today, had his son not been kidnapped and murdered? It turned him into an advocate and spokesperson for justice.
None of us knows the path of destiny, the great calling that stands before us, until we go through the trials of fire. Until an event acts as a catalyst, many of us will not realize our call to greatness.
It isn't necessarily a national catastrophe that acts as the catalyst that brings us into our calling, into our maturity.
 One of my internet friends is facing the death of her five year old son. His death is inevitable. She is with him every day, as his condition slowly ekes his life from him, and she is helpless to stop it. She gains new strength to face his loss with every passing day. Meanwhile, she has adopted two mentally handicapped girls from the Ukraine, where they would would have been shunted from the orphanage to an adult psychiatric hospital to live out their days, when they reached 4 years old. May God bless the Parker family for bravely stepping in and DOING what they can do to help another soul in this earth. I know that I could no walk her walk at this moment, it would destroy me. Yet this was not a walk of her own choosing... events around her shaped this walk.

I am starting tomorrow on a new path. I hope it is free from tragedy and peril. But if it is not, may God's grace give me the strength to endure the path set before me.

The Next Big Adventure

Tomorrow I leave for Ohio. I start a new job next Monday. For awhile, I will be leaving behind Tom and the boys. I won't be without family and frinds there, though. And I will still have (limited use of) the internet to try and keep up with all my family and friends.

So email me, leave a comment, text, write something on my facebook wall... I will try to respond when I can.
 Be blessed!

What a day.

Our Dog Drover was just hit and killed as he tried to chase off the mail carrier. Tom and the boys were trying to call him back, but the truck clipped him. It was pretty well instantaneous, he didn't suffer. But the guys are are understandably upset. Even the carrier cried. He kept apologising... but it was NOT his fault. we have tried and tried to break Drover of chasing the mail carrier. Jaffa keeps trying to get out and find Drover... who is laying peacefully in the sun as the twins deepen a hole for him to rest in.

I gave word to my boss this morning that Saturday will be my last day with O'Reilly. He didn't scream at me... which I am truly thankful for. He didn't send me home, either. As it was, I only got in two hours, since the warehouse and truck drivers had last night off. I had no incoming freight.

The morning started out with my battery in the car being dead. Tom jumped me off, and I tested the battery at work, and had to replace it. After work, it was on to the Revenue office... where I was in and out with tags for both vehicles in under 15 minutes. I was Wow'ed.

The boys and I made it to the library and home again by a few minutes past noon. The mail carrier was running late... we thought we had missed him and were just discussing it, when he pulled up and the dogs kicked up a ruckus and took off after him. Ending badly.

Tom and I have had our waffles over this job offer and moving. I will be the "advance scout", heading up to Ohio this coming Monday. I have pre-employment paperwork to accomplish, as well as a background screening and such to go through before starting on the 19th. I gave "irrevocable" notice to my boss at O'Reilly's this morning. So this has really been a day of multiple endings.

My computer time in Ohio will be very limited... I will have access only at the library (unless and/or  until I can get a laptop and aircard). I am sure many days the library may be closed by the time I can even get near it. Bear with me if my blogging becomes totally sporadic!

Thanks for reading.
~Tammy~

Another week in wonder-land

Early this morning, a band of rain headed north from tropical storm Lee collided with a band of rain headed SE... so far, we haven't seen any fruit of theis collision. It is poised just above and below us. The temperatures though.... (can I say "aaaahhhhh!"?) is supposed to be a high of 83! (Yesterday was 100*).

OK, since I wrote the above paragraph, I have had to go to the store, and also had a nap. (Writing a paragraph is sooo exhausting... just ask my kids when assigned an essay!) The temperature is about 67*, windy, and we have had a few sprinkles.

A decision was made regarding the Ohio job/ move. (Subject, as always, to change!) However, I can't speak of it online until after Tuesday. Feel free to call me in the meanwhile, if you like. Tuesday may be a busy day... I am supposed to work 8 hours (9 counting lunch) and then have to go to the tag agency. Seems the car tag expirations for both the cars sneaked up on us. I anticipate the usual beaurocratic lines, red tape, and slowdowns. It usually takes no longer than two hours to get tags... but being the first day open after a holiday and at the 'first' of the month, lines will long. Especially in the afternoon.

I finally went in to see the doc on Friday. The pesky UTI that has been annoying me since our last trip to Ohio was finally to the point I was not ready to suffer through another weekend. I called from work, figuring to take the first availble appointment, get the antibiotics, and be back on the job in about an hour.

The clinic was able to get me an immediate appointment- I had 30 minutes to get the 15 miles from work to Siloam. I dropped what I was doing and scooted out the door, telling the boss to call it my lunch break (at 8:15 in the morning). Sheesh... nothing is ever that easy is it? At 11:00 am I was still at the clinic. They found no UTI.
The very young internist (who looked so much like my son Benjamin, I couldn't help but stare!) was concerned it was appendixitis, or kidney stones. Or another flare of the 15% chance of problems with the right ovary. (When I had the hysterectomy 5 years ago, the doc left in the right ovary, stating I had an 85% chance of never having a problem with it. Every few months, it flares up with cysts and puts me to bed several days. This pain was NOT like that.) So a sonogram was scheduled. I was sent back to work, and told to return at 2:45... but to eat nothing, and drink 8 eight ounce glasses of water starting an hour before the sonogram.
I had had nothing to eat all day. I drank a cup of hot tea with less than a teaspoon of sugar, at 5:00am. By the time I got back to the clinic... I was starving, and beyond the peepee dance. They were running late. My 2:45 test didn't start until 3:15.
They found NOTHING. No kidney stones, no inflamed appendix, no flared up cyst on the ovary. I was prescribed an anti-inflammatory, and ibuprofen.  It was nearly five by the time I got to pick up the presciptions, and 5:30 before I got home.
Today, I am feeling quite a bit better. And I know that my cholesterol is good, as are my liver enzymes (which were high last time they were tested) and my blood sugar was slightly elevated. (107).

The owner of the house we rent was here when I arrived, replacing the stove. He found us a good used stove. He said we may need to call the property manager to come out and adjust it after he finished installing it. Seems the burners have settings ranging from extra high to flame thrower. Its lowest flame is twice as high as the highest flame we could get from the old stove. I am thoroughly afraid of trying the oven.... it may only go as low as "incinerate".

I want to say a big "get well soon" to my step Mom, Kathie. She had to have emergency gall bladder surgery Friday.
Have a blessed day, and thanks for reading.