Sunday Shopping

Mr C and I were up early this morning... actually, HE was up early and I slept in until 7:0), when he woke me to see if I was going to go buy groceries with him. We usually buy groceries early on MONDAY morning, because there is virtually no-one shopping at the SuperCenter at 7:00 am on a Monday.
Since we were so out of everything, we pretty much had to go today.

I made a cup of tea for the road, and off we went, list in hand.
Then we got home... and started a brand new list.
It always seems to happen that we forget an item or two. Today, before we had been home an hour, we had a list as long as the one we had left with. So we may be repeating the shopping trip in the morning. *sigh*

I really have avoided mentioning how things went on our house hunting trip. Basically, nothing was really practical and in our price range. The internet is a wonderful tool for wasting ones time... a picture or five on the internet can make a place look like it is worth looking into... until you get to it and see in person that the best hope that house has of selling at all is as a cleared lot after a kerosene bath and a match. Really, some of the places were THAT bad.

My secondary position interview went well, but they won't be starting to work until later in September. Whether with or without me is still to be determined at our end.

I found a nice roast beast at the grocery store- one of the prettiest I have seen in awhile. It is in the slow cooker, smelling up the house with wondrously savory scents of beef, onions and garlic.
The weather here is warm... mid 90's. Can't complain when I see my family in Texas is still whacking 100+ every day.

I was sent a telephone photo of Grandson Gavin on his first day of school. Grands Connor and Alana had their first day pictures noted as well. Everyone is just getting so grown up. Even Tyrel is starting the very basics of schooling at home. I remember Chris and Bill starting at Gavin and Ty's ages... more than 25 years ago! Gabs has a birthday coming up in a couple of weeks; Sept. 11th, same as my brother Robert.

Mr C continues to look at houses online. Nothing new has leaped out at us.
Guess that's about all my rambles for now! Thanks for reading.

Pictures from the hike to Rockbridge

Orange flowers



The Rock bridge, side view



standing below the rock bridge

looking up at the rock bridge



signpost: (ignore the sideways!) We forgot the required rocket packs and cane for the hike



Hiking to the Rockbridge... or, "Gee, mom can sure run!"

Our last day in Ohio, we went to a sight we hadn't hiked to before, the rock bridge... located aptly enough, in Rockbridge. It was supposed to be 3/4 of a mile from the parking area to the bridge, taking the shorter of two loops.
The intrepid hiker twins forged ahead, leaving Mr C and I huffing along behind. I am amazed at how quickly one loses tone and endurance when walking is cut back from almost daily, to once a week or so. A few of the points in the trail were... steep. (huff hufff huff). Mr C soon got ahead of me as I stopped to catch my breath take pictures of interesting flora along the path. The path wended its way along the side of a pasture through fifteen foot high ragweed, which was just bursting into full bloom, and then into deep, shady woods. It was uphill every step of the way, in both directions.
Really.
So Mr C calls back to me, "Watch out, there is a hornets nest here by the trail! YEOW I just got stung by a hornet!"
So I stopped. I was fifteen or twenty yards from the nest. The hornets in Ohio build big paper nests, like deformed basketballs. This one was cantaloup sized, and not two feet off the trail.
Tom moved on ahead.
I stood very still several minutes, then detoured around the trail, giving the hornets nest a very wide berth. Hornets don't much seem to care whether you are trying to avoid them. They don't even care that you have stayed far from their nest... at least as far as one can get on a steep rocky hillside in the woods. They came after me for even daring to be within sight of their nest!
I will never be able to tease Chris about his fear of wasps again.... I screamed like a little girl and RAN, feeling them tangling in my hair as I swatted wildly around my head, running full tilt, pell mell down the steep trail towards the already stung Mr C. (Shhhh, I didn't say down the trail... It was up the trail... uphill all the way, both directions!)
I mentioned heavy woods and steep hillsides already didn't I? You know, these trees are supported by these pesky things referred to as roots. The path is choked with roots. The roots are all that keep the dirt from washing down the steep paths into the creek at the bottom.
The roots also make it really difficult to stay upright when running shrieking through the forest swatting at ones head, pursued by hornets. Especially when you hit the mud on the trail next to the footbridge.
 I did a lovely trip slip flip slide right into the mud at the end of the bridge.  I was flat on my back in the muck. Tom stomped the hornet that I slapped from my hair.  The rest of the (flock? crew? pursuers?) gave up and went back to guarding the trail.

Took me a minute to get up.
I was covered in mucky mud from shoulders to toes... looking every bit like I may of slid into second base on a close call in a rainstorm.

We hiked on to the rock bridge, where Dan and Sam waited. They hadn't seen the hornets nest at all. I got several pictures of the bridge... a natural expanse of rock spanning a creek, forming a rock bridge that people are actually allowed to USE.

We took the longer loop back from the bridge, and warned other hikers we encountered that they might prefer the longer route to the bridge... even if it was even more uphill all the way than the shorter route.

I am fine, no broken bones or other injuries, other than sore muscles from my muddy impact. Too bad the twins missed seeing the sprint... I bet they have never seen Mom run!

I was going to post pictures of the rock bridge, but it blends so perfectly with the sides of the gully it spans, you cannot tell by the pictures that there is even a bridge there.

Howdy Y'all

I am at the library near my MIL's house, just for computer access.

I have tracked down all the houses in our price range for now, and have another five on the list to do drive by's on, as well as two set up for this afternoon and tomorrow that are "for sale by owner"s. (There is currently only ONE place left in the running on the list of all the places we had to see... a very small trailer house with a couple of magnificent garages.... one set up to be a "game room" or overflow sleeping for extra guests. If we have to take this place, the boys will get that as their bedroom. The property, now that is great.)
Why yes, we were planning to be on the road home Sunday... my bad. I got a response to an email I sent to my potential new employer, asking if I were interested in interviewing for a DIFFERENT position. It will be with an entirely different person than the previous interview... so I will be doing that on Monday morning... THEN we head for home. (Still gotta let my boss know that. Tom has cleared it with his.)

In the "yes, I am Bill's Mother" department... I have developed a UTI while here... and hoping to have that knocked out with some OTC medication., as well as fallen (TWICE) and jammed my wrist. It is much better... but sheesh!

I hope everyone is well. Keep us in your prayers for God to show us just where he wants us!
Thanks for reading!
 ~Tammy~

Nothing new....

So far, as of the time I am typing this... we are taking a load of stuff next week to Ohio. This is of course, subject to change... and has changed at least three times in the past week. Good thing I have had a lot of practice at waiting to see what comes out in the wash.
Why yes, it does drive me crazy. Can't you tell?

Today, my step mom is having her eyes operated on... simple cataract removal. My Mom and step dad have gone to East Texas to help out my Dad and step mom for the week. I am glad that both of my sets of parents get along so well.

(Public) School will be starting around here soon. Not that "we" took a summer break this year. I have tried to keep the boys going all summer... but we have probably averaged two to three days a week so far. Better than quitting completely.

Daniel is learning all he can about hiking the Appalachian Trail. Sam says he will hike it with Daniel. "Their" (read: Dan's) goal is to do this in the next three to five years. I'd love to do something like that. But I would start with my own dream first- hiking to the bottom of the Grand Canyon and back out.

I think I am about as packed as I can get inside the house, and still live here. I need to pack the outside stuff... empty the potting soils and box up my planters, gnomes and bird bath.
As you can tell by my happily boring post... nothing much is going on with us as we wait to hear from this job. I hope to report soon that we have actually looked at houses and chosen one to make an offer on... rather than just scoped them out online.
That's all for now, thanks for reading!
~Tammy~

Here I am

I noticed yesterday that it has been at least a week since I posted. We have been through at least two "waffles" on the move, it is now back to the same thing I posted last week.
Tom is changing the brakes on my car. They were not as bad as I had thought. Still, better to get the parts while I can do so at a discount!

I went through my closet yesterday and put a bunch of  clothes into my give away pile. Some I put on eBay. (There is no way Tom is going to get down to a size 34 waist for some of the dress pants he has had forever.) Guess I ought to list my old Eagle uniforms... or see if anyone still at Eagle can wear them.
I hadn't seen the floor or back of the tiny closet in my room since we moved in!

We had chicken fried steaks for supper last night. SO good. I don't make them very often, as it is a very high calorie meal.

Nothing else new going on!
 Have a blessed day!

So...

Mr C is going to see about taking a few vacation days either next week, or the following week. We will see about looking at a few houses in Ohio... I have a list of a good dozen to consider at the moment.
We are optimistically hoping the delay in the job offer is waiting for the US Government to decide what the heck THEY are doing. (If the govt isn't paying SS checks and military... no one will be buying computers. Their current employees can handle the current workload until then. At least that  is our idea!)
So, still... no real news.
Have a blessed afternoon!
~Tammy~

Arrrgh.

Sent an email to the folks who I'm waiting to hear from about the job. This is their reply :"I think you would definitely make a good fit for the IC department, but at this time we are on hold for hiring anyone else for IC until we see over the next few weeks if we need more people. I will try to keep you informed. "

So am I hired or not?

Apparently NOT at this point. But I'm not NOT hired....

Updatings for mid-week

My mom and SF Ralph are here. They brought us more boxes and brought Connor and Alana some scooters that had been given to them. We had an awesome roast beast for supper.

Tuesday I did NOT make it to the library. I was lucky to be home from work by noon. So I put off library for my typically easy Wednesday.
On arriving at work Wednesday, I was gratified at how little freight there was. This gratefulness turned to frustration when ALL the computers were down. Tech support couldn't tell me where to find some master controllers I needed to get at. So I called the boss... who didn't answer. After searching... aha! I found the controllers and called tech support back. For all the good it did... I needed a third bit of equipment found. So I tried Boss again. He called back shortly... and assured me he was on his way and would be "right there". In his Boss-speak, this meant he was planning to be there at his regular time, stop calling. He arrived (at his regular time) and the solution to my computer woes was an easy fix. Shut off and re-start each computer.

And he could not of told me this over the phone? Sparing me an hour and a half of trying to think like a geek? GRRR. So then I got started on freight. The store was open when I was putting away the out front merchandise. Within half an hour of one another, I was sought out by two women to figure out what they needed for their cars. Both said they were just more comfortable talking to women about cars. (Guess they think the guys will laugh when the reply to "What kind of car do you drive?" is "Blue".) So I had some counter time.

It was nearly eleven when I finally got finished. Then, my annual job evaluation was overdue. So Tim and I spent another half hour on the Tammy "atta-girls". He put me in for a raise... but said that may not happen. He asked what I have heard on the potential new job. Nothing. (I had learned the day before he was totally kidding about them having called him... not just about telling them I was a bad employee. They hadn't even called.) The woman said a week or two before they decided... it has been just over a week now.

So anyway... having a nice visit! Hoping my "oil day" today will go smoothly!

Just another Monday...

I woke up at 6:00 am... having "slept in", for me. Sunday I was so wiped out tired and never did get a nap... I was in bed by 8:00 pm. I don't think I even ate supper.

I went for a walk before it got hot. (Got 2 miles added to my running total!)  Came home and started cleaning house. With all the accrued boxes, and the visit of the grandkids, our cleaning schedule was a bit off. We moved furniture, vacuumed, swept and mopped. Laundry was started... and before 10:00 am... there wasn't much left to do. Bathrooms got cleaned, more laundry finished. A regular boring day. For supper, we had our favorite roast beef dip sandwiches. (I could of sworn they were on the recipe blog, but I see they are not! Guess I will have to add them!) I LOVE these super easy sandwiches.

While cleaning out desk drawers, I came across "points" issued by my bank... the one I use for my online activities. I had been tossing these "points" into a drawer. I figured that with me probably closing this account soon, I ought to look into redeeming these points. It was both harder, and easier, than I had imagined. I had thought I would take the accued points coupons to the bank, be led to their room of prizes, and make my selections. Not so. I had to set up an online account, list codes from the coupons, and then shop. My selections were mailed to me. I got an electric knife, and a battery powered radio. "For free!" I had an electric knife for years, that I utterly wore out. I really missed it. I can hardly wait to try out this new one. The radio is OK... especially for a free radio.

Still no word from my (potential) new employers. Mr C and I have compiled a list of nine or ten houses to check out when/ if I am called up for the tests. I will have to have a couple days to prepare for the trip, and during those days, we hope to rent a moving van  and pile in a load of stuff, to be stored in Ohio until we actually move. I will call a real estate agent and have them line up the houses for us to look at. (Really, I had always hoped to buy rather than rent. But if we have to rent just to get there... that is OK too.)
Tomorrow is our usual library day. Whether or not we make it will depend on the amount of freight I get in the morning... and how well I sleep tonight. Some days, I can only muster enough energy for a nap!

I ordered some pictures from Shutterfly this evening. I had a coupon for 50 free prints. Their expected delivery date is August 3rd.
WHAT?!... how can it take them clear until AUGUST to get the pictures here? (And August 3rd being our 27th anniversary... which is later this summer.) LATER this summer right... right? My gosh... it is the end of July! Already!
It has sure snuck up on me.

Guess I don't have any anniversary plans for this year! As if I ever do. Still, 27 years seems like a long time to me. God has been working patience in my heart.

Thanks for reading! Have a blessed day!

Weekend again...

I just got back from taking Connor and Alana home. I tried a nap... but for all the drowzies that have had hold of me all morning, I couldn't get to sleep. So the guys are all napping. Dan and Sam took Connor "Wood Sparrow" hunting last night. This is another word for "Snipe hunting". For those of you not raised in the south, A Snipe (or Wood Sparrow) is a non-existent bird that comes out at night searching beneath rocks and brush for insects. To hunt them, you sit quietly in the dark beneath a tree or bush, and have a sack or bucket ready. When you hear the Snipe (or wood sparrow) coming, turning over rocks... you prepare to catch him in the sack or bucket. The persons leading the hunt either sneak off and see how long their victim will wait alone in the dark, or hide and jump out and scare the person giving up on the hunt.

Dan and Sam thought it the most horrible thing ever done to them (several years ago), and cried for hours. Connor came rushing in last night, heart pounding and sweat dripping, declaring he had been pranked and would have nightmares forever over this. He calmed down quickly, and sat next to me, contemplating the meanness of Uncles in general and these two in particular.  I'm sure that he will be as delighted to lead a snipe hunt when his chance comes, as the twins were last night.

I was probably too old to be taken Snipe hunting when teen friends of mine and my sister Lalani learned we had never been. First of all, my step Mom was keen and excited for us to be going out after dark with these boys. TOTALLY out of character for her. Second, it just seemed these boys were up to something, and I was suspicious. I really don't know if I am more suspicious, or more gullible, by nature. But by nurture... I am suspicious!
So these boys took Lalani into a field about a quarter mile from our house. We were set under bushes and instructed to await the snipes. The guys said they would hunt over in the next field, and left us. The minute they were gone, Lalani and I got together. She was also suspicious. So we found a different spot to hide and watch. After a good while, we heard the boys coming back. They called to us, but we refused to answer. They began yelling, and still, we didn't answer. So they went and got my parents and their parents.. and a search party was taken to the field. As my friend's Dad walked past, calling out for Lalani and I, I stood up out of the dark and said "Yes? we are right here." The poor man about fell over. Of course, we really got screamed at by my step mother... worrying everyone like that. It was fine and dandy if WE were the ones to be scared, but not so fine to scare them.
*****************
I didn't hear anything about my prospective job this week, except that they did call my boss at O'Reilly and speak to him.
We got the contract to rent the house mentioned in my last post... and decided we are NOT going to sign it. It had all the liabilities of owning our own home, and none of the benefits. We can find a place to buy for less than the rent they decided to ask for that house... and maybe they can find someone less suspicious and more gullible to sign their contract. So house-hunting is back on the to-do list when I do get a call to come back to Ohio.Since they had said it could be two weeks before they called me, I am not yet concerned that I didn't get the job.

Tomorrow is Tyrel's birthday. He will be a whopping FOUR years old. He is so cute, opinionated, and accented. To meet him is to know he is a West Texas cowboy. He wears his hay-at, bay-elt, and boots. He says "aigs" and "laigs"... the cutest drawl you ever heard. (Right?) (Right? is Ty's catchword... everything he says is followed by "right?")

Supper tonight is leftovers. We have the choice of spaghetti, or tuna surprise. If I can stave off sleep until it cools down somewhat, I have to get out and walk. My "miles" for this month are pitiful... I may have 10 miles instead of 50 racked for the month.

Be blessed, and Thanks for reading!

Updates and rambles...

I have been back from my ever-so-quick trip to Ohio for a couple of days now. I am currently seated at the uncluttered and cool library, as dan and sam do their volunteering. Connor and Alana are checking out all the fun stuff there is to do here.

I had a good interview, I think. it was their psychological screening interview. So I was told they will make a decision in a week or two as to whether or not I am hired. IF I am hired... I get to make another trip up to Ohio for their drug screening and physical, and they will do a background check. Pass all of those hurdles, and I am hired!

While there, I did look at the house that is between Tom's brother Bob's house, and their Mom's house. It IS for rent, and we could "do" with it. Not sure just how much rent they are asking, but it ought to be less than we are currrently paying. It will be available in a few weeks, as they are painting and putting in new windows, as well as some minor repairs and clean-up.

It looks as if things are falling right into place. I still hesitate to get my hopes up... things have "fallen into place" any number of times in the past. Meanwhile, we have got a lot of packing accomplished.

Connor and Alana are visiting us for a few days. Perhaps I can take them on a quick trip up next time I go, although I don't want to mention it to them now, as I don't know what will be happening myself. I always hated to be looking forward to things like that as a child and then have them fall through. Then again... these two were "are we theeeere yet"-ting me just on the trip to the library... it is about 20 minutes to here from my house... not the 14 hours it takes to drive to Ohio.  Am I that brave of a Granny?

My own mom may be coming up to visit this next week... I am sure looking forward to that! And Ty'ger Jones will be FOUR in just a few more days. He is such a big guy.

Hope you have a blessed and happy day. My time at the library is finishing up. Thanks for reading.

Decisions...

I have to work tomorrow, then I am driving to Ohio. Daniel is riding along to keep me company. I got a pay-as-you-go cell phone. (Which I haven't activated yet, I will do that in a few minutes. I forgot all about it until now!) If we get to choose a phone number, I will see about using Sam's favorite number!

I will rest up on Sunday and Monday (Except for the couple of hours set aside for interviewing/travel), then we will drive back on Tuesday. That is a quick trip, LOL!

Dan and I have several audio books to listen to on our drive. In fact, I could probably make the trip three or four times and not listen to all of the books. (It seems we both had the same idea at the library and got audio books independently of one another.) We got our snacks laid in, and drinks cooling. and I plan to stop for lunch and supper when we get hungry... not just push on and starve. There are some nice rest areas along the way if I need to take a break and rest... and I am not shy about doing so!

I have driven "by myself" to Ohio several times before now. The first time was with five kids, the second was when Ben was a new driver. Becky and I made the drive when Ty was a wee baby. So I was never really "by myself" and I won't be this time either. If it makes you feel better, you can call or text my cell all day long! (I will be calling family with the cell so I can get them programmed into it!)

I fully intended to gas the car up today, as well as get some cash to take with me... but the ATM was down. All plans just shifted into procrastination mode. I came home and grabbed a snack, checked my stuff on the 'net... and procrastinated more.

But I best get out of that mode and get busy.
Have a blessed day!