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.

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....